AN ACT OF MERSEY
Koeman axe put the manager, the fans, the players and the board out of their misery... the club simply wasn’t working
IF THERE was a single moment that sealed Ronald Koeman’s Everton fate, it came towards the end of their humiliating thrashing by Arsenal on Sunday.
Despite the Gunners adding insult to injury with two goals in stoppage time, there was no cacophony of boos from the disgusted Goodison faithful.
Only the silence was deafening.
The ground had emptied, long before the final whistle. Literally and metaphorically, the fans had turned their back on Koeman. They had simply given up on him and his team.
Chairman Bill Kenwright and owner Farhad Moshiri watched on in horror as the fans streamed out, and it was then they realised they couldn’t subject their manager – who is widely recognised as a decent man – to much more humiliation.
The sense of anger towards the former Barcelona star was summed up by the sight of a few upset fans, as they streamed away from the ground, throwing coins into the compound where the manager and players park their cars.
That is why Kenwright and Moshiri chose to take the decision, however painful, to end the Dutchman’s reign after just one year, four months and nine days.
The main reason for his demise is simple. Koeman bought the wrong players in the summer. He then failed to organise a system to accommodate the 10 players he brought in. By the end, he could not even think clearly enough to select a viable midfield against Arsenal.
Koeman thanked the board and met with the players to thank them for their efforts too – which goes against the notion that he had completely lost the dressing room. And sources close to the Dutchman have been suggesting that, if there was a problem, it was with director of football Steve Walsh.
In truth, Walsh must take some of the blame for the poor recruitment in the summer. Koeman was promised Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud as the replacement for Romelu Lukaku but Blues failed to get the Frenchman. Koeman clearly blamed Walsh for that failure, and there were mistakes in other areas too. Only one centre-back signed despite an obvious need for more – and the man who was brought in, Michael Keane, has endured a torrid time so far this term.
There is no left-back cover for Leighton Baines either, which is poor planning when the former England defender is nearing his 33rd birthday.
Gareth Barry was allowed to leave and was replaced not by a player of similar style but by three No.10s. No wonder the Everton midfield did not look fit for purpose on Sunday.
Bar the impressive Jordan Pickford in goal, none of the 10 summer signings can be remotely deemed a success. Indeed some have been abject, particularly Dutchman Davy Klaassen, who cost £25million, £45m signing Gylfi Sigurdsson, and the supposed Spanish sensation Sandro Ramirez. It did not help that Koeman’s relationship with the Everton fans was non-existent, summed up last Christmas by a swiftlydeleted tweet which saw the manager post a picture of his Christmas tree bedecked all in red. Kevin Ratcliffe (left), Everton’s most successful captain, summed up the mood of the supporters when he said of a manager who arrived at Goodison telling everyone that one day he wanted to manage Barcelona: “My biggest problem was that he called us Everton, he never said ‘us’.” Kenwright and Moshiri spoke personally to Koeman yesterday morning, and the former Southampton boss was said to have taken the decision with dignity and good grace. Everton are not a sacking club and Kenwright has a long history of patience with his managers. It is a policy that has served the Merseyside club well as they have punched well above their weight for close on two decades. How ironic, then, that the very season a manager gets huge funds to splash in the transfer market, is the season Everton felt they had to become a sacking club.