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How lack of a plan caused Koeman’s reign to unravel
Ronald Koeman was overseeing the final preparations for Everton’s game with Arsenal on Saturday when he resorted to repeatedly barking out one instruction during training at Finch Farm.
“Long balls, long balls,” came the Dutchman’s command, prompting quizzical looks from members of his first-team squad as a practice game ensued.
Everton had spent all summer acquiring No 10s at no little expense – Gylfi Sigurdsson, Davy Klaassen and Wayne Rooney to go with Ross Barkley and others - and here was the manager instructing his team to bypass all of them and play direct to the striker they failed to recruit.
The most damning indictment of the club’s flawed transfer policy had inadvertently been delivered by Koeman himself.
It was a scene which merely accentuated the belief he had lost his way, that there was no longer a coherent plan, and there was little in yesterday’s ramshackle defeat to Arsene Wenger’s side to dispute that. Everton were fortunate to concede only five but by lunchtime today Koeman’s luck had run out. He has another sacking on his CV.
The speed with which his reign has unravelled is a surprise, Everton mustering two victories in their past 13 matches in all competitions, but is rooted in that flawed spending strategy over the summer months when optimism was rife and before a forward remained out of reach. At the time, the manager even dreamed of mounting a challenge for the Champions League.
Koeman could be aloof and belligerent – there was little empathy, or contact, with Everton’s academy in recent times despite the club’s production line producing players for him – but last season they were seen as qualities.
The rules and regulations he imposed upon his arrival from Southampton in the summer of 2016 - such as bringing forward training by an hour from 10am to 9am, ensuring the school run was out and hard work in, and decreeing that the players could only eat lunch when they received his blessing - were taken as welcome departures from the Roberto Martinez era. Everton’s players preferred Koeman’s straight-talking.
Yet there has been less of that this season as a downward spiral has taken hold, one which deposited Everton in the relegation zone by the time Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez were putting a layer of gloss on Arsenal’s runaway 5-2 success in front of empty Goodison Park stands.
Where last season Koeman would go out of his way to explain why he substituted players, particularly younger one making their way in the game, so this term he has been more uncommunicative.
Perhaps it was down to pressure even if he outwardly gave the impression he was impervious to the stresses of the modern game. Sunday night had been spent in the company of his wife, Bartina, Pep Guardiola and friends in Manchester in Italian restaurant San Carlo.
The roles of master and pupil were reversed from their days at Barcelona, but if he gleaned any tips from the Manchester City manager, then he would not have time to use them.
Koeman, who based himself in Alderley Edge in Cheshire rather than immersing himself in the city, arrived at training on Monday morning having confided in friends he still had the backing of major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, and chairman, Bill Kenwright. After taking the morning session, he would discover he was wrong about that.
However, the gravest errors of judgement have been in the transfer market, although director of football, Steve Walsh, must share responsibility by helping spend £140 million only to leave Everton without a replacement for Romelu Lukaku, last season’s leading scorer.
Everton’s strength used to be their transfer dealings, when David Moyes and Kenwright would have to beg and borrow for funds, but more money has resulted in more problems.
From the very first games in pre-season it became clear Koeman’s team had no proven goal threat and that has compounded problems elsewhere with the absence of a focal point putting pressure on the rest to show their capabilities. Morgan Schneiderlin and Idrissa Gana Gueye have been found wanting, but the problems run deeper.
Davy Klaassen and Michael Keane (combined cost £55 million) have shrunk in the spotlight and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s contribution has been negligible, suggesting he was over-priced at £40 million.
Jordan Pickford, who singlehandedly prevented Arsenal running up a cricket score, is at least proving value for money at a potential £30 million fee, while without Wayne Rooney’s goals Everton would be deeper in the mire.
Moshiri will consider it ridiculous that having sanctioned the biggest spending spree in the club’s history, regardless of the £75 million recouped for Lukaku, his ambition should come under scrutiny again just seven weeks after the transfer window closed.
Having stated at the club’s general meeting last January that the club had “a window to establish ourselves,” Moshiri must now hope he is wrong.
As it stands, there seems little prospect of finding a lasting solution to their striking inadequacies in January unless Koeman’s successor can oversee an unlikely transformation.
He will be bequeathed a horribly imbalanced squad, although not without personnel. When everyone is fit Everton could select an entirely different XI to the one which started against Arsenal – Stekelenburg - Coleman, Holgate, Funes Mori, Martina - Bolasie, McCarthy, Besic, Barkley - Mirallas, Niasse – and still have Davies, Lennon, Klaassen and Robles left over.
The looming fixture list is also more accommodating than the schedule which pitted Koeman against Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hostpur, Manchester United and Arsenal in the opening weeks of this campaign.
Yet Everton’s confidence is so brittle right now that the sequence of Leicester City, Watford, Crystal Palace, Southampton, West Ham United and Huddersfield Town comes with no guarantees.
Koeman will be a footnote by then. Part of the number plate on his Bentley carries the lettering “BAR,” which was taken as a nod and wink to his first love: Barcelona.
When he left Southampton for Merseyside, the chatter was that he would use Everton as a stepping stone to enhance his claims for his dream job. He has passed through quickly enough, but the bright lights of the Nou Camp are further away than ever.
