For those still giving Koeman time, where is the line? At what point does it become unacceptable? When should action be taken?
Genuine question.
It's been noted recently in the media that he hasn't endeared himself to the supporters or club generally. This has been from the beginning. The whole '3 year project' thing had me nervous at the start. He hasn't shown any passion for the club, nor his team. A few fiery rants would show he gives a shiny one, but that never comes across, ever, no pride displayed either.
If he showed a bit more 'concern' it would buy him some grace with supporters, but he hasn't, so it won't happen. I think he knows it isn't going to happen hence the complete meh approach that's winding a lot of us up.
Salient and reasonable questions, Juan, which could be answered either way depending on your viewpoint. I suspect only the board or an independent reviewer could answer them objectively.
In relation to endearing himself to us, I think I’m right in assuming this relates to his initial hesitancy to join us and in his treatment of Ross Barkley.
Regarding the former, it was always going to be a pontoon style of negotiation between ourselves and Southampton who made no bones about wanting to keep him. And why not with his reputation and association with great clubs both as player and manager? Isn’t this why we wanted him in the first place? In his own interest, he was enjoying relative success at Southampton, in a pretty safe post as far as Premiership managers or coaches go in this cut-throat day and age of professional football, and without much of the pressure inextricably linked with such a prestigious role. If he was going to be prised away and endure the inevitable risk, he had to make sure it was worth it: time to do his job (3 years’ contract is currently the norm), money available to rebuild (couple of hundred million initially, although a drop in the ocean by today’s footballing currency) and just rewards for doing so (the minutiae of covering himself if it all went wrong no doubt formed a veritable portion of any negotiation, and we can now see why). In hindsight, this wasn’t unreasonable behaviour, IMHO; it seems nobody does anything for nothing in this modern world of ours.
With regard to the latter, any rumours of a spat between he and Ross are irrelevant in my opinion. It was pretty obvious that from Ross’s point of view, he’d outgrown us and was seeking pastures new for greater gain, whomever was at the helm; really, who can blame him in these mercenary days of players and greedy agents, especially when his ego thinks he should be entering stage right at some bigger venue. And perhaps he should, although the naivety displayed in some of his play is telling to most, although Ross himself has yet to discover this overt flaw in his playing style. In short, Ross had considered himself out of the door before the ink had even dried on the Koeman contract, and there’s no doubt at all that Koeman would have had the nod dropped about this one. There’s no point factoring in a resource to any strategy if it’s not an option - a pretty obvious fundamental.
Passion’s a difficult one and depends not only on an individual’s personality but also their culture. In fairness and perhaps in my limited experience, this is not a Dutch characteristic.They seem a fairly laid back bunch on the whole, satired best I believe by Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield with their two Dutch Bohemian type cop characters, so here, I reckon we can throw old Koeman a bit of slack.
Compare and contrast this with Nobby Klopp* over the Park who has the stuff in spades. Yes, even I find his enthusiasm attractive at times and would like to see more if it here at Everton. But in the long term, if quiet and unassuming pays dividends, does it really matter? On that note, it was difficult to ignore Klopp’s unusual lack of animation during yesterday’s game with Spurs, in which they were beaten by three goals, leaving them adrift of their coveted top four place in ninth position.
Incidentally, why does BBC news report them merely being beaten by Spurs while we were ‘Overrun’ by Arsenal when we were both beaten by the same goal margin. I see it’s not just S*y that treats us with contempt!
Finally, I believe he does care about our current predicament, even if some of us would prefer to think of it as merely just for his own selfish interest. The red eyes, broken diction and general down at heel demeanour are not the traits of somebody who doesn’t give one. If it’s crocodile tears, then he’s a great actor and should perhaps speak to Bill about a change of career. But I, for one, bought it. His post match interview made for uncomfortable viewing.
*Many at the RS have questioned the wisdom of offering Klopp a six year extension only twelve months into his three year contract.
