RON: I OWE KENWRIGHT FOR GYLFI DEAL

RONALD KOEMAN feared he would never get the recordbreaking Gylfi Sigurdsson deal over the line – and thanked chairman Bill Kenwright for saving him from despair. The Everton boss paid a clubrecord £42million for the Iceland star (above) last week – and will thrust the midfielder straight into the thick of the action at Manchester City tonight. Yet there was a time when it seemed the transfer would never get done, with the player himself revealing that an agreement kept getting close, only for Swansea to pull the plug and increase the asking price. Koeman (left) said: “When I heard from Bill Kenwright, he was always so calm. He told me, ‘I will do the deal but we need to be patient’. And of course I understand it’s business. “It’s a big transfer. You don’t do these transfers in two days. Sometimes it takes longer than you like. ’It’s close, it’s close, it’s still close…’ Of course, it would have been better to have it earlier. “But finally we have the agreement and everybody is happy about that – look through the rest of the teams. Everybody’s still looking to sign new players.” Sigurdsson is the biggest signing in Everton history, but he won’t be fazed by the price tag.

“It’s not my decision,” he said with a smile. And Koeman won’t be slow to put Sigurdsson in his squad, as he indicated the 27-year-old could be on the bench at the Etihad.

However, the Dutchman doesn’t expect miracles from his new signing... and he joked it would be a miracle if his team could prevent Pep Guardiola’s cavaliers scoring.

Koeman said: “If we get a clean sheet on Monday, I don’t know if it will be a miracle. Maybe.

“But we do know we are strong defensively, our defensive organisation is strong.”

That fact is underlined by four straight clean sheets, and Koeman added: “The key to getting a good result is what we do when we have the ball and that’s what our preparation will be about.

“I am a good friend of Pep and I know the way he likes to play. It’s the most difficult way. It’s really a pleasure to see his teams playing football, with a high defence and a lot of offensive players in the team.

“But the Premier League is strong and physical, plus if you play with a high defence there is space behind. When we played City at home we punished them for that.”