Koeman shown door at Everton
This was supposed to be the season when Ronald Koeman guided Everton into the ‘‘big six’’ but after nine games and with the club 18th in the Premier League the Dutchman is heading out of the exit door.
After substantial investment in new recruits during the offseason, Everton’s expectations were raised but the performances have been so poor that Koeman may well have departed even if the goal was simply to repeat last season’s seventh place.
The Merseyside club were beaten 5-2 at home by Arsenal on Monday, following a 2-1 home loss at Goodison Park to Lyon in the Europa League.
Those defeats might have been tolerated had they not followed the disappointment of a 1-0 home loss to Burnley and a September which included 3-0 losses to Tottenham Hotspur and Atalanta and a 4-0 drubbing at Manchester United.
For the truth is that far from progressing this season, Everton have taken a dramatic step backwards. Cristiano Ronaldo has caught up with Lionel Messi to become a five-time winner of Fifa’s best player award.
The Real Madrid forward was crowned player of the year yesterday at the Fifa Best ceremony at the London Palladium theatre attended by runner-up Messi and third-placed Neymar.
As well as Spanish league and Spanish Super Cup success, Ronaldo scored twice in the Champions League final against Juventus to win the elite competition for the third time in four seasons. Ronaldo’s coach at Madrid, Zinedine Zidane, was crowned coach of the year.
The women’s award honoured the Netherlands’ success at the European
Koeman joined after in 2016 after guiding Southampton to seventh and sixth place in his two years at St Mary’s.
Before coming to England, Koeman finished in the top three in the Dutch league in all
Championship in August. Lieke Martens, who scored in the final win over Denmark, won the player’s award and Sarina Wiegman collected the coaching accolade.
The Puskas Award for best goal went to Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud for a scorpion-style kick for Arsenal in a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.
three of
Feyenoord.
He had previously won the Eredivisie with Ajax and PSV Eindhoven
That pedigree, combined with a willingness to blood
his seasons with young players, made Koeman an excellent choice for Everton as they looked to progress as a club while bringing through a talented generation from their development squad.
But the latest transfer dealings, in which the club spent 149 million pounds ($197 million) but also sold top scorer Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for 75 million, undid the solid start the Dutchman had made in his first season.
The club did not spend any of their money on directly replacing Lukaku with a proven spearhead likely to bag 20 goals a season - instead spreading it around as they brought in nine new players.
The mistakes in the market were all too evident against Arsenal, the lineup overloaded with attacking midfielders in Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nikola Vlasic and Wayne Rooney and only Idrissa Gueye, sent off in the second half, capable of defensive midfield work.
Everton face the tough task of finding someone who can sort out the squad, discard unwanted players and fill the obvious gaps - all while ensuring they climb away from the relegation zone.