Koeman: 'If Everton weren't ambitious, I wouldn't be here'

Basically Koeman has heard Lukaku loud and clear but is politely telling him to stop being impatient and deal with it.

"I will speak with the player I will speak with the board and we will see what happens."

I wonder if, despite his comments about Rom, he is not pleased with this all being said.

I think Koeman's a bit disappointed actually. Playing all this out publicly and causing such a shift of focus doesn't seem to sit well with him.

On Koeman being disappointed by the public nature of Lukaku's statements, well, you have to lead by example. Perhaps Koeman should not himself have been so public about Lukaku and Barkley, or about Everton having no chance of winning the league. Lessons to be learned?

Rom is a hugely talented young man who is lucky to be playing football at this point in time. He is making the most of his career, or trying to as he sees it, and we should respect him for that.

Ronald too is saying the right things because he has a plan and Rom does figure highly in it. If not, then over to Plan B with minimum fuss. So what is all the fuss about anyway?

As usual the biased, frankly shit media who already have Rom and Ross as well on the way out of the door, and second rate club Everton, who just so happen to live next door to the Magnificent Reds, well that that's their own fault isn't it.

I read the BBC footy page just now and after all the negative hyped up Rom reports there was nothing... I REPEAT NOTHING... about Ross being recalled into the England squad. News of Jermain Defoe's recall, Nathan Redmond and uncle Tom Cobly and others, but nothing about Ross' inclusion.

Why the BBC treat Everton as a complete non-event of a club is so strange it is downright scandalous. It is supposed to be a bastion of neutral, factual, quality reporting, but when Everton are on the agenda, it's a different story.

I am so furious at their red-eyed perspective which puts a positive spin on their reports, but for us it's a negative spin or nothing at all. Last on match of the day when we and West Brom were the 2 highest placed clubs in action? Say no more...

Back on topic ... If Everton and Rom do manage to sneak back into the top six overnight it will become a top 5 elite again. I even think if we were to get into the top 4 then the European Cup entry rules would change to admit the top 3 only. This might seem like I'm becoming paranoid, but I lead a very reasoned and rational life except when I see economic, social or physical bullying, it makes my blood boil! (Rant over.)

If he had made these comments on September 1st, 2017 in a context of disappointing transfer activity, fully understandable. Rom should just concentrate on his football because unless we get 80 mill for him, he is not being sold.

I also wouldn't mind Ross being sold to the highest bidder, he's only had a good 10 games or so for us this season and people treat him like he's Paul Scholes. A midfield of Gueye, Schneiderlin and a world class playmaker in front of them would be far more appealing, and Ross's stock will never be as high as it is right now..

Ray, spot on. Not only could the EFC board decide that Lukaku is going nowhere for the next two years, they should go all out to ensure Barkley signs a new contract.

Also Ray I agree, Barkley signing a new deal is far more important.

Didn't Man Utd sell Ronaldo, Spurs sell Bale, and dearly beloved neighbours sell Suarez, Saurez or whatever – "The Ratman"?

Mr Lukaku needs to recall recent history as well as '1980s ancient history' especially in respect of his erstwhile team-mate John Stones. This was a lad in a similar situation to himself. A player lauded as 'one of the best', someone who needed to be at a bigger club in order to reach his full potential. A player who needed to play at a level Everton could not reach. So he went to a club that could theoretically match his needs and ambition and what happened? What happened is that every weakness in Stones' game that Evertonians identified during his sojourn here has been ruthlessly exposed. Just a few weeks ago, Alan Shearer, one of the pundits who practically implored Stones to move to a BIG CLUB as part of his progress towards becoming England Captain was caustic in his comments about him after a 4-0 defeat at Goodison. And nothing has improved for the lad.

Mr Lukaku needs to remember that at present the Everton team method and system is to help him score goals and consequently he scores most of them. He will not find that elsewhere. In the four years he has been at the club he has only scored 3 goals against top six teams and while I would not lay the whole blame for that at his door it is something he does need to remember.

He worries too about a lack of trophies, but if he had been as good as he believes he is he would probably have had a Cup Winners medal last year. He missed a penalty and a couple of virtually open goals. If Everton had signed all those wonderful players you think we should have Rom, and they had been playing in that semi-final, what do you think they would have thought of you? Maybe the same as many think of John Stones now eh?

Rom is obviously disappointed with our failure to land higher profile targets in the last two windows. Unlike us, he is inside the club, and must be privy to more inside info than the fans.

I would suggest that the club have made promises which they have failed to keep and he has grown weary of it. However his manager, Koeman went public in January over the speed of the Schneiderlin deal, so perhaps this is the way to get our esteemed board to act.

Us lot.
Moshiri.
Koeman & Koeman.
Lukaku.

We will ALWAYS be the ones who endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But we must always be the ones who cry "Goodison, for Harry, Howard and St Domingo!". And let them, who did not, consider themselves not chosen.

Enter Derycke of Mowntefylde "And IF you can do that when all around mock and laugh, what is more, You will forever be a Toffee !"

Yep, never going to earn a living as an English Lit teacher.

This then sends out the message to the elite of Europe come and get me and our club gains £90 million to carry on building as the manager says he requires over the next two years.

Go to it Rom prove your worth but be careful that your next move really does meet your ambitions.

A rant by me maybe but an outburst like the one Rom made had the potential to do real harm to our club in its efforts to progress and I have seen progress to date.

I believe I am a realistic Evertonian but my blood boils when feather bedded employee's make public what should be kept in house just for their own ends. Maybe time to make amends Rom La.

" Didn't Manure sell Ronaldo, Spurs sell Bale, and dearly beloved neighbours sell Suarez"

Of course they did. But did they sell them willingly? Of course they didn't.

it think we got a good look at Koemans idea of ambition a couple of weeks ago at WHL.

Talk is cheap. A new manager with a more adventurous approach may produce genuine ambition

Things have been happening at "The Grand Old Lady" for decades at a pace akin to continental drift.

The true crime, is that we noble Evertonians we merry few, have tolerated and even applauded this.

How far back have we allowed OURSELVES to fall ?

Here's a cracking example. And I swallowed this, I'll plead guilty.
Kenwright described Goodison as scraping though it's safety requirements by a whisker, ever closer to failure each season. I felt sorry for Goodison, because, I ADORE the place. I missed his slippery lie. It was because HE WAS FAILING US !

Meanwhile, he pops over to Anfield and delivers an eloquent obituary regarding football fans deaths. Then returned to a ground mocked as "Woodison", by the self same club.

It's NOT the mockery that is offensive.

It's lying to your own that is the real crime.

Do we think that boyhood blues, Rush, McMahon, Owen would have paid tribute 25 years on to the HUNDREDS of fans that could have been lost if the Bullens went up in flames like Valley Parade ?

The thread is about ambition . . keep up

You cut a frustrated bloke mate, and I share many of your frustrations, but I think you are mistaken with the media's definition of the 'Big 6'.

My view is that the ONLY club in England that has a permanent place in the elite in the eyes of both the printed and visual media is Manchester United. No other club. All others are there on suffrage and based on results.

So, if we were able to finish 6th this season, at the expense of Manchester United in all probability, it would most likely become called the Big 7, all of a sudden. If Man Utd finished 10th, it would be the Big 10. You can see this bias in almost everything written and said about that club.

For instance, whenever Man Utd draw a game, they are ALWAYS 'held' no matter the course of the game. It's NEVER Man United doing the holding.

A case in hand is their last game in Rostov. That was a game they were very pleased to get away from with a 1-1 draw. It could have gone either way, but they were HELD.

As I say, I think uniquely, they are the only English club to whom this treatment applies, no matter what. Why? Answers on a post card.

Monaco have a ground that has a capacity below 20,000. Half of what we currently have and a third of what we would like to have. Most of their players are home grown and would walk into our current side whereas most of ours would get nowhere near theirs. They are a threat to any club left in the Champions League including Real and Barca.

In this country we appear to see the buying and selling of players as a status symbol of just where out club is in the pecking order. Sell a player and you're moving down in the pecking order. Buy a player and you are moving up. If a young player actually makes it to the first team every three or four years we call it a conveyor belt.

Maybe it's about time we stopped wasting money relentlessly trying to buy our way to success. Manu spent £89 million on Pogba and all they have to show for it is a league cup worth about £2,000,000 in prize money.

We really have to start producing our own players. Whatever Monaco are doing maybe we should try copying it because it really appears to be working for them. A team of quick, strong, skillful players all comfortable on the ball and fantastic attacking football.

I know if we don't do something to change the current situation then this pattern will continue ad infinitum. Buy a good young player. develop him for three or four years and just as he gets into his prime years sell him to a richer club. Start again.

Erm, yeah.

Now all those proclaiming Rom as the Messiah, unreplaceable feel free to tell me how many goals has he scored against the top 4 in those 4 seasons, how many goals has he scored that has won us close games without other Everton players scoring in the game as well.

Might be surprised it is not that many.

Difference with Ferguson was he did it in the big games.

Naismith and Cahill did it in the big games.

A goal in the Anfield Derby or Against Utd in the coming weeks and I may just change my views.

He cannot seriously try and put the genie back in the bottle after publically advising Lukaku to leave Everton to further his career.

There's no point trying to make any sense of this.. It's simply greedy men playing grubby little games. Maybe we'll get some decent football, some day.

Until then, we'll be the victims in this charade.

My bet is that at least half that best team we ever had wouldn't ever get a game today.

Personally I would love to believe that, but Football is so full of disloyal hypocrites.

On the eve of St Pat's, I recall the opening stanza of an old music hall song performed by the legendary tin whistle player of Liverpool's second greatest boy band. Stanley Ambrose of Cream of the Barley. It won't provide solace, but for me it does epitomise our situation.

"Once I was happy but now I'm forlorn
Like an old coat that is tattered and torn;
Left on this world to fret and to mourn"

Now that was clearly unambitious especially the appointment of that clown.

We are clearly much improved this season especially this year and Rom needs to shut up and let his feet do the talking for him.

Sign a 19-22 year old striker from a top side who can't get a game and we will always make a profit come sales time or at worst get our money back, there is no value signing 28 years+ for £40m. Be the English At' Madrid churning through strikers each season, they eventually bridged the gap.

But it just goes to show how far Martinez dented our expectations !

It's not Rom & Ross we should be concerned about staying or leaving – it's Ronald, players come and go, contract or not, but to find a great manager hey now that's really something to keep.

I can see Ronald being head-hunted for all the major managerial jobs soon. So pleased to have him for as long as it lasts. A great bit of business by Bill and Farhad to get him here in the first place.

Koeman is straight talking... tells it like it is... he's going through a tough time at the moment off the pitch with two outstanding contracts that need to be sorted one way or another.

Calm, pointed and factual. Seen the expression below a few times on TW. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I'm not sure Koeman has proven himself (yet) to be a top manager winning league titles in Holland with one of the top three clubs is more or less on a par with winning the SPL. He did well at Southampton but he did have Pochettino's legacy to build on and he is doing OK here; no more than that at this stage.

His record elsewhere isn't great at all. If he stays and can guide Everton into the top four over a period of three years and win a cup along the way then I would joining in with the plaudits. It's still early days yet.

Its pretty glib to say he wouldn't be here if Everton weren't ambitious. But I think Rom is saying its not ambitious enough for him, again possibly putting Ronnie side parting out of line.

Will Irwin give Rom a good kicking after the Hull game and mysteriously be unfit for international duty? Time will tell.

Rom only has 2 contracts left at the top level that's a very different position to be in than koeman.

Phil, as you know I was opposed to Martinez appointment in the first place but have always respected what Moyes inherited and where he took us.

IMO HE was seriously let down by Kenwright and cronies and should have left 2 or 3 years before he did.

I suppose some folks might think the whole thing a set-up, a kind of publicity stunt. But they'd have to be mad, or cynical, wouldn't they?

He wants out, he always has and always will, he has never appreciated us and its blatantly obvious we've been onto him from the get go! And more to the point he is making me despise him more and more by the day!

He's a proper gobshite! Get rid ASAP.

Only 8 points behind 4th so shut ya mouth and score the goals. If at the end of the season you have done your job you can do what the fook you like.

There's no player at Everton with a higher profile than Koeman. Lukaku and his agent cannot fuck with him, he won't stand for it.

In fairness to Rom, I don't think he said anything too bad. But if there's any more of this talk he won't play for us again. He either toes the line and leaves in the summer, or he signs a new deal and stays beyond the summer. In either case, he has to tow the line and show that he is worthy of playing in the Champions League.

But Ronald is a disciplinarian at heart and I would bet my mortgage that he wants to rip the shit out of him because thats' how he is. But he hasn't totally and utterly bollocked him because he wants him to stay because there's no one to fill his boots.

I honestly hope the prick spouts off again and the Dutch one proper tears him a new ringpiece! What a dick!

One might argue a club like Monaco, can afford to treat the system differently. But they have had to. A few years ago they went the same route, with plenty of Arab money in their pockets but FFP stopped them, a 20,000 capacity stadium crippled their income.

They have prospered mostly because losing a good player is not a big deal. Theres not enough competition in France to make them vulnerable.

They probably have their pick of players from the region as only PSG, Lyon and Marseille are a real draw.

Is it possible to do this in the UK? Take the NW for example with 4/5 very large clubs plus dozens for those who don't cut it.

I think it would be very hard to stay buoyant in the EPL with this model, Crewe thrived on it for ages to a lower level granted but even now the well has run dry.

Commercialism won't let it evolve.

"Everton striker Romelu Lukaku can still fulfil his dream of playing in the Champions League if he signs a new contract at Goodison Park, says three-time Arsenal Premier League winner Ray Parlour. (Talksport)"

Parlour actually says the situation is crazy and Rom should sign the contract because we could get 4th as early as next year.

It seems that ex-Arsenal players are the ones least anti-Everton among the sky darlings?

I know not many people here have high regard for Paul Merson, but I love what he said about Stones last year, which I posted a link here.

And I can't forget what they did to the dark side on the last day of the season, (is it 1988?) when they were 3 points behind and 4 goals down on goal difference, and they beat the shite out of the shite, with Michael Thomas scoring the second goal in their 2-0 win over the shite in 80+ minutes.

Well done Koeman you couldn't have put it better! We're all here to win trophies and titles not just Romelu "I think I'm better than what I am" Lukaku!

I'm not concerned if/when Rom goes as long as Koeman and Barkley stay. I'm pretty sure he could use the money we get from his sale plus the money Moshiri has already promised to good use and improve the squad further!

Doesn't seem to the situation now. We now seem to be engaging the media at every opportunity. Moshiri seems to do it, Koeman has done it repeatedly, and Lukaku does it. The management are supposed to lead by example, and it seems Lukaku acts consistently with them, involving the media unnecessarily on the face of it.

And this type of action, compared with actual football action, seems to generate the most threads and posts on TW. Looks to me like Everton have joined the media circus big time, but perhaps this is the name of the game when you're in or aiming for elite status.

Perhaps I overdid the bitterness there a bit, but the frustration is there nonetheless. In fact, looking at it objectively, football is in the process of being spoiled by the mercenaries of all persuasions, same with many other aspects of life.

To contradict myself here, I think Rom is a decent young chap. Cleverer than most, and realistic to know that any game could be his last and that he only has a relatively short window to set himself and his family up for life. I, and most of us would probably behave in a similar, self-serving manner.

I hope he stays and really becomes an Everton great, but realistically he will move on and that could work well for the Club in the long run, who knows.

To revert back to my previous 'frustration', I still cannot get my head around the continuous bias against Everton that I personally feel every time I turn on to Match of the Day or the BBC footy website, or other news media. I have raised this before and been shouted down as 'paranoid' but I don't believe that is so.

Just reading Lawro's predictions sums it up. I know he is a fanatical Liverpool supporter and so do his Employers; a national if not international reporting institution who set the standards for open, honest, objective and unbiased reporting. So how is it that, week after week after bloody week, he and other Liverpool cronies are actively encouraged to aggressively market them on a regular basis? What's the agenda? Where's the interest? It beats me if I can work it out!

There wouldn't be too many individuals that could get our friend Ken (#26) angry but Lukaku has managed that dubious achievement.

I've had enough of him - he has never been one of us, never wanted to be one of us, and never will be one of us. And that is why he is not good enough to play for Everton Football Club and never will be.

Goodbye.

We have a new generation of great young fans coming through that have never experienced us winning a trophy. But they will soon.

Listening to his interview I think Everton has "gotten" Koeman.

I think he is wound up to.

And Romelu, to score goals (knowing look to journo) needs the team.

We will be great again, and we will do it without motor mouth. Keep the faith.

No matter how much money we spend can you really see us becoming a top Champions League team. He just doesn't want to be making it there but he looks at strikers like Cavani and thinks he can do better than him.

I'd say if he had been with Leicester last year he would definitely wanted to move on to a huge club and not just be happy to play in the Champions League with them.

So in my eyes, he doesn't want to spend the next 4 or 5 years with a club like us who are trying to make it back to the top 4 but instead he wants to be at a more established European club who are regularly winning things.

Koeman handled it well as it was just a media show by Rom's agent to highlight how he has improved and now he is ready for a big club. I will be surprised if he is with us next season.

As he points out Moshiri hasn't come here to tread water he has brought in a Manager who wants Success as much if not more than Lukaku and the new ground is more than a dream. People don't throw vast amounts of money just to sit there once a week watching mid-table mediocrity he wants to watch a winning team at the top of their game.

And surely at 23 Lukaku should give the club a chance to show it means business instead of announcing his annual "I want a bigger club" rubbish. Only one team can win the Premier League; only one team can win the European Champions League. So he will be extremely lucky if he picks the right one when his current club is striving to do what he wants to do somewhere else.

Just get rid, get the money – use it intelligently, without Coronation Bill's involvement & move on forward with a team we can consistently call our side!!

COYB

Erm, have you been watching? He is doing his job. Quite well, it seems. Level top scorer in the Premier league with one more assist than cad Kane. With the exception of Kane all the top 6 scorers seem rather lippy to me. It might be what makes them very good strikers.

I happen to think that his superb goal scoring record gives him a little leeway to speak out. Sometimes I don't like it. This time I do. Very much. For how long have many on here been crying out for someone – anyone – to speak up. It has happened. I hope it happens again. Divisive my ass. The gaffer seems somewhat non-phased if not down right motivated.

Some of the comments about Lukaku on here are flatly embarrassing. Nor does he have a fat mouth.

Being wonderfully pragmatic doesn't make him a wonderful manager. If he gets us into the top 4 within three years and manages good finishes in the other two years at least 7th followed by an improvement in the second season, and secures a trophy that would make him a good manager.

Outside of his time in the Netherlands his record isn't that great. He is a pragmatist and he will do what's best for him, ask Southampton fans! So it's a bit rich for him to be getting miffed with Rom when he says he wants to go, when he has actually given us four years. I don't want either to go but they are just employees – they don't have the same attachment to the club as we do.

"Keep your mouth shut.
Keep your mouth shut,
Keep your mouth shut, Romelu
Do your talking with your scoring
And keep your mouth shut, Romelu"

Whether Lukaku is considered arrogant, or to have a big gob, or to be a gobshite, or to be boring some Evertonians, is of no interest to me. I'm interested in what he does on the pitch, which is rather good, given that his main job is to score goals.

Focusing on anything else is just letting yourself be pulled, by the media, into the realms of soap opera. It's for drama queens.

Sooner this gobshite Lukaku leaves our club the better.

And ban that tit Carragher from Finch Farm in future eh.

Somebody at EFC had better make a proper statement that puts a stop to all of this nonsense, because the media aren't taking Everton seriously and in many ways they are deliberately undermining us at every turn.

I hope we put six or seven past the Tigers tomorrow, but I have this horrible feeling it will be a bad day at the office – I hope I'm completely wrong.

Yes, It really should have. But I fear it is very much a clash between what he wants to say, and how he translates into English. I get puzzled at times, and I'm not Dutch! But once I see his "English" answers, I try to translate them into Norwegian (just to check the difference..).

Some things have come off wrong in the media, but mostly I think Koeman is bang-on with a lot of his comments. But I think Koeman sort-of prefers to be seen as harsh with his comments, no matter how he actually talks to the players involved.

I hope they are doing more than sorting the stadium move. A shiny new stadium will be nice but a trophy winning team would be a lot better please.