Koeman the latest to try to rewrite history

23/09/2022 34comments  |  Jump to last

After Rafael Benitez continued his efforts to mend his image following a near-disastrous spell as Everton manager earlier this week, it was Ronald Koeman’s turn to try and paper over his poor performance as the Blues’ boss with comments made during an interview with Sky Sports.

The Dutchman was hired by then major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, to much fanfare in 2016, an appointment bolstered by the hiring of Steve Walsh who had been lauded for building the side behind Leicester City’s miraculous Premier League title triumph the season before.

The duo would spend huge sums on a number of players as part of a three-year plan to get the Toffees into the Champions League, including a club-record £45m on Gylfi Sigurdsson, but neither man would see the project through before being dismissed from their positions.

Koeman led Everton to a seventh-place finish in his only full season at Goodison Park, not sixth as he claimed today, but was sacked in the October of his second campaign amid worsening results that culminated in a 5-2 humiliation at the hands of Arsenal.

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"Everton is different because Everton tried. I [had] one and a half seasons at Everton. The first season we did well and ended sixth in the Premier League — maybe the best record in the last 15 years.” Koeman explained, betraying either convenient amnesia or a lack of awareness that Roberto Martinez had guided the club to fifth place just three years earlier.

"It's difficult though because Everton had the money. But it's always difficult because if you try to sign good players or star players — if they can choose between Tottenham, City, Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal normally they will choose that kind of club and not Everton.

"Changing managers is not always the reason that it will be better. They [have been] struggling in the last few years, fighting against relegation, and let's hope that they come back up in the table."

 

Reader Comments (34)

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Will Mabon
1 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:13:14
Either this article was missed or no-one thought it worthy of comment. I only just noticed it.

Koeman already did one of these some time ago and I can't remember much of what he said then. Irrelevant now.

Nick Page
2 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:14:17
Ha - I caught this too today, Lyndon.

I flicked over at lunchtime and saw the ruddy-faced Dutchman yakking on about Southampton and thought "Oh aye, he'll be on Everton next."

And then he made that "best in 15 years" comment and I did a double-take. Lol.

However, the club did him no favours selling Lukaku and buying a load of shite No 10s but still doesn't excuse his complete lack of interest in Everton who were paying his wages.

The lying blert.

Kieran Kinsella
3 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:20:32
"But it's always difficult because if you try to sign good players or star players — if they can choose between Tottenham, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal normally they will choose that kind of club and not Everton."

Fair enough, but that doesn't mean you have to go and spend the same amount of money you could have spent on Kevin De Bruyne or Gylfi Sigurdsson. The idea is that you pay a player based on his value, not just say "I want a £50 million player but I will settle for a £15 million as long as his club still charge me £50 million."

Beyond that obviously you've got the Christmas tree, the use of "The Everton," and the fact the team got drastically worse over his tenure. But hey, poor old Ron, for a measley £9 million, he had to endure 9 months at Everton.

David West
4 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:39:12
I didn't really rate him at Southampton. Done fuck all for us, him & Walsh blerted so much money on under-par players, it's a mystery how he can even show his face, nevermind get jobs in football.

It doesn't suprise me he didn't know where we finished, was probably checking his phone for the Barca call well more than the Premier League table.

"Hollywood" manager??? More Bollywood to me.

Keep this type of imposter away from our club in future.

Tony Abrahams
5 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:46:44
Another high-profile manager who came to Everton, and offered no discernible system.
Will Mabon
6 Posted 23/09/2022 at 19:52:43
David, me neither.

He was the worst of all that followed Martinez in my opinion. A horrible chapter. Starting to feel like it didn't happen, which is good.

David West
7 Posted 23/09/2022 at 20:12:36
Will,

We are only just getting over the mess him and Walsh created.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the FA and Uefa coaching courses there is a textbook titled "The Koeman experiment at Everton" and they have a day focusing on the perfect way to get a coach sacked and ruin a football club.

Chapter 1. Buy shit players for way more than anyone else would pay.
Chapter 2. Don't talk to them players or train them.
Chapter 3. Buy more shit players for the same positions as the previous shit players (see Chapter 1)
Chapter 4. Put all the shit players in the same team.
Chapter 5. Take the money & run.

Paul Birmingham
8 Posted 23/09/2022 at 20:17:09
Koeman was a fraud for Everton, he really couldn't be arsed and took good money and was more interested in his golf.

Him and Walsh assembled a set of misfit players, and in my view, the club is just starting to rebuild and put them dark days behind us.

Hope eternal for Everton, and now there's genuine hope and belief and Everton are playing for the shirt.

A long way to go, but the squad is going in the right direction.

Dale Self
9 Posted 23/09/2022 at 20:22:10
I'm thinking with all the idiots weighing in on their Everton time (excepting Richarlison, he acquitted himself if you read through), we must be on the upswing. Why else would they even bother to comment – much less all at the same time?

Ian Bennett
10 Posted 23/09/2022 at 20:24:43
We should never have hired him in the beginning.

He did well in the Dutch league, but his time at Valencia and Benfica hardly warranted a big-money job.

Big name player, big ego, but the manager substance was lacking – and we then paid top dollar. First big mistake by Moshiri.

Will Mabon
11 Posted 23/09/2022 at 21:08:50
David:

Chapter 6. Finish by four o'clock each day, stating in an interview that "If you need to do long hours you are doing the job wrong". Now that's commitment.

As to golf (Paul):

Chapter 7. Miss one afternoon most weeks to play golf.

Biggest mistake was hiring him without checking his background, which laid a lot of it bare with just minutes on the internet.

Now I'm reminding myself about him...

Tony Hill
12 Posted 23/09/2022 at 21:30:51
Simpletons point the finger at Benitez. This is the man who did the real damage at the critical time.
Tony Hill
13 Posted 23/09/2022 at 21:45:25
Sorry, let me correct mine above. Simpletons point the finger at Benitez and Allardyce….

Get it right.

Tony Hill
14 Posted 23/09/2022 at 22:21:52
Gosh, silence. I supported Koeman’s appointment because he looked great. He was fucking lethal.

Not quite the fish in the barrel that the cognoscenti on here like to shoot, though.

Larry O'Hara
15 Posted 23/09/2022 at 22:27:20
Dale (9), I agree: why have all these cockroaches (except Richarlisson) crawled out of the woodwork now? Accentuate the positive: Frank seems to be doing a good job, give him time.
Jerome Shields
16 Posted 23/09/2022 at 22:41:53
Koeman was a complete fraud and cost Everton millions even managing to get Everton to subsidise his wages after he left. Before he joined Everton, the template of his fraud filled Spanish newspapers. The only saving grace is Barcelona didn't read Spanish newspapers and they could understand Spanish.

As at Valencia and Everton, he came out with the same nonsense pretty well verbatim at Barcelona. He actually wretched Barcelona, as well. Koeman could talk all day long regarding the high press, but he did not have a clue how to get a team to implement it.

Bill Gienapp
17 Posted 23/09/2022 at 23:39:29
The bit about players preferring Top 6 sides wasn't completely off the mark – Sissoko spurned us at the 11th hour for Spurs, and we seemed to have a deal lined up for Lucas Perez, only to see Arsenal swoop in (though I think we were clearly better off without either).

The real issue is that Koeman implemented a flawed strategy of overpaying for established, "reliable" Premier League talent like Ashley Williams, Morgan Schneiderlin, Gylfi Sigurdsson, etc (who, ironically, proved not to be all that reliable) as a supposed means of gate-crashing the Champion's League, without ever asking what the actual ceiling of such a squad realistically was (hint: it wasn't Top 4).

I didn't even really care that Koeman saw us as a stepping stone, because it still could have been a mutually beneficial relationship... but the fact he failed and then ended up getting the Barcelona job anyway was pretty galling.

Alan J Thompson
18 Posted 24/09/2022 at 03:36:03
And he failed with Holland because they would only let him use Dutch players.

But, on the bright side, his golf handicap was never lower and his bank balance never higher.

Kieran Kinsella
19 Posted 24/09/2022 at 04:18:33
Alan,

He actually did a good job with Holland. Not sure how as they had a fairly weak squad but they did well under him.

The thing that pisses me off about Koeman is that, as a teenager, he was my favourite player. He kinda looks like me, I played centre-back and had a knack for scoring from free kicks as well as a grasp on the dark arts.

But at Everton, he was detached, arrogant and seemed to have no plan… so to say I was disillusioned would be an understatement.

Iakovos Iasonidis
20 Posted 24/09/2022 at 13:49:30
What a prick! He was the worst since Moyes, even worse than Allardyce and his transfer business alongside Walsh still haunts us big time!

I understand why Moshiri hired him back then but I wish it never happened!

Kevin Molloy
21 Posted 24/09/2022 at 14:18:55
I don't think it's fair to compare the two. One guy brought in a £100 million, the other spent double that. One guy has won everything, the other fuck all.

The thoughtlessness with which this prick spent our precious funds makes my blood boil to this day. I remember reading an interview he gave with a Dutch newspaper in the middle of his spree who were saying 'What the fuck?' and his response was 'This is England' like as in 'everything is crazy, nobody gives a fuck'.

After a decade of careful husbandry, Moyes must have been looking at it all open-mouthed.

Danny O’Neill
22 Posted 24/09/2022 at 14:35:02
I've said many (many) times, my hopes for Koeman were blinkered by my look back of him as the player I admired.

The alarm bells started when it seemed that he had to be convinced to come to Everton. A reluctant volunteer.

Another failed and expensive experiment. This one probably the most.

Duncan Lennard
23 Posted 24/09/2022 at 17:42:18
Closest he got to a high press was leafing through the Sunday Times in the penthouse suite.
Barry Rathbone
24 Posted 24/09/2022 at 19:57:54
The man is totally unaware – he thought staying on holiday instead of turning up here wasn't a problem – the notion it suggested a lack of commitment didn't occur.

He is a classic good player, poor manager with a streak of dull idleness about him. The balloon-headed chump.

Peter Carpenter
25 Posted 24/09/2022 at 21:02:16
At least he got to play all those north-west golf courses that were missing from his list.
Alex Parr
26 Posted 25/09/2022 at 01:26:02
I hate the Koeman legacy. More so than Allardyce, even Benitez probably. At least Benitez only pissed away a few million.

Koeman and that clown Walsh wasted millions upon millions. I can't say for Walsh as he was behind the scenes, but Koeman appeared so arrogant, so nonchalant about the future of the club, it sickens me that we ever even gave him the chance. He did not deserve it, on reputation, skill, management… anything.

By far one of the most vile and unpleasant individuals ever directly involved with the club and I hope his career trajectory now aligns with his ability and he hits the dirt, hard.

And he can take his fucking rotten red Christmas tree and shove it up his ring.

Alex Parr
27 Posted 25/09/2022 at 01:26:50
However, I did support him not giving Niasse a locker at the time and still believe that this was one of the very few decisions he got right. Pair of jokers.
Christine Foster
28 Posted 25/09/2022 at 06:13:35
Tony Hill, I have run out of fingers to use when pointing at who is to blame... without doubt Koeman for me was the biggest mistake and oversaw the most long-lasting damage to the club.

Who exactly bought who during his time is open to conjecture; money went to the heads of Messers Kenwright, Koeman and Walsh, never mind if Moshiri got involved as well... After so many years of austerity, it was like watching a kid who found a £20 note going into a sweet shop.

His management of Barkley was disgraceful, he was more interested in his golf than the club..

Danny O’Neill
29 Posted 25/09/2022 at 06:31:18
It feels like you got something off your chest there, Alex!!!

I can't agree with you over Allardyce. I still resent us ever having appointed him. I know many won't agree and I accept (agree) that Koeman wasn't the person, but I could have got us to finish 8th that season.

Typical of what is hopefully going to be known as the first Moshiri era, we hit the Nuclear button. In hindsight, that season says it all. Scattergun transfers characterised by interference from the top down. Koeman, Unsworth and Allardyce. Was Bill writing a sinister-themed Pantomime with multiple villains?

Anyway, hopefully we're through the storm(s) and on calm waters, about to hit the shores of opportunity and success.

Andy McNabb
30 Posted 25/09/2022 at 08:02:20
Tony Hill 100% correct, although I never saw the appeal in the first place.

A few months before he put up his tree, the problems we are wrestling with now really began to manifest themselves. Ever since, we have been dealing with the consequences of the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

David Bromwell
31 Posted 25/09/2022 at 08:29:44
As I remember, the first thing Koeman did was to appoint his brother as assistant manager and then he went on holiday. He was a complete disaster, along with many notable others.

I sincerely hope Frank and Co are here for the long term as they appear to have integrity.

Francis van Lierop
32 Posted 26/09/2022 at 13:09:03
A terrible disappointment.

For someone so arrogant, one could almost write a book about his failings. Not only at our club.

James Lauwervine
33 Posted 26/09/2022 at 16:25:48
The lowest of the many low points in our recent history. The worst manager we have ever had IMO, or at least that I've experienced.

If only it were possible for all Evertonians to have collective Men-in-Black style memory removal so he never enters our thoughts again and then the man himself be discreetly fired into space and eternal silence.

David Currie
34 Posted 26/09/2022 at 19:48:02
I hated Koeman and, along with Walker, they were the two laziest managers we have had, only here for the big money. Both of them lacked that work ethic to make the club better.

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