Everton have flexed their new financial muscle to get Koeman... now they must show big-club ambition
Koeman’s arrival is eagerly awaited by Everton fans ecstatic with his appointment.
It should be in the next few days and, of course, he will be well settled by the time he has to prepare his new team for a pre-season match that will double up as a testimonial for Rooney and as the Old Trafford garlanding of Jose Mourinho.
Ten days before the start of the Premier League season, Everton will fulfil a fixture that will be everything about the brilliant son who deserted them and the box-office coach who will now manage him … and NOTHING about a grand old team, a grand old club.
Rooney’s testimonial match against Everton on August 3 will raise millions for wonderful causes, which – let’s be clear – is absolutely brilliant.
Good on him, a good man. Good on Everton, a good club. The charities to benefit are close to his heart and Everton’s heart. Fantastic.
But the stark irony of the match should be a dagger to Evertonian hearts. The landscape of English football had already changed before Rooney’s defection down the M62. Yet it was still a symbolic moment.
The moment when Everton – one of the most decorated, proudest, storied football institutions – meekly accepted its position as a club to have its tummy tickled by commercial powerhouses, accepted its position as a warm- up routine for the English game’s headline acts.
Just as they will be for Rooney’s big day. You can’t knock such an admirable, heart-warming, fund-raising initiative but, put it this way, had Mourinho been in charge of Everton, do you think he would have sanctioned the fixture? Would Koeman? Maybe not. Because his appointment should be the start of Everton remembering what sort of football club it is.
And that’s not one which knows its place in the servant quarters of Old Trafford or the Etihad or anywhere else.
With new money man Farhad Moshiri, Everton have flexed their financial muscles in Southampton’s face.
Well, it’s OK picking on the lovely, old Saints. Now stand up to the mega-rich sinners. As it happens, I believe that over £40million apiece for Romelu Lukaku,
NEW Olympic sports for 2020? Could be karate, skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and baseball. Next up for 2024? Tiddlywinks, nearest the kerb with the coin and power-drinking. John Stones and Ross Barkley would be hand-snapping money.
But Koeman is a better judge than me and he has to have the assurances he keeps who he wants. Never mind his spending budget, he – and whoever follows him – has to have assurances that he can keep players before buying.
He has to have assurances that Everton’s commercial operation will drag itself into the 21st century.
He has to have assurances that a new stadium is not just a wistful thought.
He has to have assurances that the wad- waving acquisition of a new manager is not just a showy, crowd-pleasing, expensive gimmick.
He has to have assurances that, in 12 years’ time, Everton will not be playing testimonial games for brilliant players who owe a lot to the club, might well love the club … but were allowed to scarper off to a wealthy suitor.
He has to have assurances that another Wayne Rooney will not be allowed to leave.
He has to have assurances that Everton want to be big-time again.