Calm Rafa is keeping Toon out of trouble
IT hardly came as a surprise when the axe fell on Ronald Koeman.
Everton have been awful all season – and, as I said a few weeks ago, they are going to be in a serious relegation battle unless things start to pick up. To spend £150million on 11 players and not bring in a goal-scorer to try and fill the void left by Romelu Lukaku’s departure was always going to leave them in trouble.
What worried me about the Toffees is they have not even had a gameplan all season. They have been slow and laboured – and the players did not seem to know what Koeman wanted from them.
Koeman was not solely responsible for recruitment but his team selection this season was crucial to his sacking.
Ademola Lookman and Tom Davies were important to Everton’s strong finish to last season, yet both were dropped to make way for some of the new signings.
Most of those new boys were No 10s as well – I mean, how many attacking-midfielders does one team actually need?
In terms of where Everton go next, it will be interesting to see.
Sean Dyche, who has done an excellent job at Burnley, appears to be the early favourite with most bookies – but the Toffees might need to act quickly.
There could be a very crowded marketplace of clubs wanting new managers soon enough.
Claude Puel has taken over at Leicester – that surprises me to an extent, but then again nothing surprises me in modern-day football – but West Ham, Swansea, Crystal Palace and Stoke could all soon be looking for new managers.
Slaven Bilic, Paul Clement, Roy Hodgson and Mark Hughes are all just a few poor results away from their respective chairmen pressing the panic button.
Clubs simply cannot afford to be relegated now – sackings pick up in November and December if a club is struggling near the bottom. Ronald Koeman’s team selection led to his sacking