Ronald Koeman urges Southampton to show ambition as contract talks loom• Dutchman to sit down with Southampton chairman next week
• Ronald Koeman wanted by Everton to succeed Roberto Martínez
Ronald Koeman has said he needs to be convinced of Southampton’s ambition after it emerged that the Dutchman is Everton’s preferred choice to succeed Roberto Martínez. The 53-year-old will open talks with Southampton’s executive director, Les Reed, and chairman, Ralph Krueger, next week to determine his long-term future with his current contract due to expire next summer.
Everton have indicated that they will not make any formal approach for Koeman until after Sunday’s final round of Premier League fixtures but Southampton are keen to tie him to a longer contract after the manner in which their former manager Mauricio Pochettino departed for Tottenham Hotspur with just over 12 months to run on his contract.
Speaking on Friday before his side’s match against Crystal Palace at St Mary’s on Sunday, Koeman cited his three-year spell at Feyenoord, in which he worked on 12-month rolling contracts, as a reason to remain calm about concerns over his failure to extend his stay on the south coast. At the Eredivisie club Koeman signed a new contract each January until 2014, when the former Ajax and Barcelona defender confirmed he would leave to pursue other ambitions. Three months later Koeman signed a three-year contract with Southampton.
“I can understand the club worrying about the future, about players and signings, and that they like to know if the manager would like to stay for more years – I understand that,” he said.
“I am the same until the last day of my contract and I am not a different manager than when I have a three-year contract. I think it is a good moment to sit together next week and then we will see what happens.”
Koeman added: “Of course everybody knows what we would like to do. We would like to grow and to improve. Of course we would like to fight to win titles or fight for European football on a regular basis.
“It is important to know what we can do to be stronger because in my opinion that’s ambition. If you don’t have that ambition you start to be sloppy and that is not what I like to be.
“It is possible [to sign a contract next week] but that is always depending on the conversation.”
Southampton can eclipse the 60-point barrier they reached last season if they beat Palace. They could yet finish as low as eighth or as high as fifth, and possibly above Manchester United. Koeman confirmed plans for pre-season are almost complete but they will not be finalised until it is clear whether they have qualified for the Europa League or not.
Should Koeman hear what he wants to hear from the club’s hierarchy next week, Southampton could secure another crucial piece of business, after Fraser Forster and James Ward-Prowse committed their long-term to future to the club on Friday.
The Italy striker Graziano Pellè, who has a year remaining on his current contract, is understood not to have been offered a new deal yet.
Koeman believes Southampton are braced for another summer in which key players such as Victor Wanyama and Sadio Mane are likely to attract admiring glances themselves. The Dutchman is aware of the difficulties of rebuffing interest from a club in the Champions League but is not expecting many changes.
Koeman himself though has always maintained that unhappy players are no use at the club amid on-going transfer speculation but insists his happiness is not the biggest factor in whether he extends his stay at the club.
“If you are a happy man then you can give your best,” he added.
“That for me is not the question about my future, the question is how we can improve, how we can be stronger than we are. Those are the questions and that is what we need to talk about. Today it is sunny, tomorrow it is rainy. Everything can happen very fast.”
Guardian
