Ronald Koeman claims Everton’s ambition was the factor that persuaded him to take what many see as a sideways managerial move, and says everyone at the club is ready to “take the next step”.
What that step might be is less clear. Bill Kenwright says no targets have yet been mentioned but would be surprised if Champions League football does not feature in his new manager’s plan for the next few years. Koeman himself admitted cracking the top four would not be easy.
“The top four is difficult because you have the big six in the Premier League,” the former Southampton manager said on his first day on Merseyside. “But Everton fans expect more than the last couple of years and the owners would like to see more. I think it is realistic to do better and fight for European football. I said the same at Southampton, they could do more, and I think Everton can too. It is easier to take that next step and grow when you are at a big club.”
It is debatable whether Everton count as a bigger club than Southampton in anything other than historical terms. They finished five places and 16 points behind the south-coast side last season, and though they have titles and European adventures on the honours board they have not won a trophy since the 1995 FA Cup and have never really come to terms with the Premier League era. Although Kenwright talks in glowing terms of new investor Farhad Moshiri’s vision for the future, the plain fact is that Koeman has just arrived at the fourth biggest club in the north-west as the fourth most illustrious new manager in the same area.
Can he envisage that picture altering over the next couple of years? “That’s difficult – you are talking about Man City, Man United and Liverpool,” he said. “I think if we can keep the good players and maybe make signings, we can improve and go forward. If we are going for a top player and fighting against the really big clubs in the Premier League, then we will probably lose because all the clubs already in the Champions League have a big advantage. But for sure we will have a strong team next season. If I didn’t see ambition at Everton I wouldn’t have come here.”
Everton are thought to have doubled Koeman’s wages to around £6m a year, after Moshiri and Kenwright agreed he was the ideal candidate. “He was the first name on the lips of both of us, very much the first choice of the board and from everything I have heard a popular choice among Evertonians,” Kenwright said. “Farhad and I were just as impressed when we first met him. He was asking most of the questions, and I liked that. This is a statement of intent, a big signing for us.”
Inevitably there have been accusations of disloyalty and greed from supporters of the club Koeman left behind, though the manager claims he would have seen out his three-year contract at Southampton had the club let him. “I was willing to do my last season of contract but they said it was not possible,” he explained. “They said they needed to know the future and proposed a new contract, and that made it more difficult because we could not agree and I knew by then of Everton’s interest.
“I had a good contract at Southampton, the managers in the Premier League are very well paid, but in football you need ambition. A new project can offer you a new challenge. I could stop tomorrow if it was just about money. When you already have a nice car there is no need to buy another one, but when I spoke to Everton the plan, the project, the history of the club was interesting.”
The priority for Koeman now, made more difficult by Euro 2016 lasting so long, is to meet all his players and establish who, if any, are set on leaving. Southampton did remarkably well under his management after selling several important players at the end of each season, and describing Everton as ambitious is presumably an indication he does not expect the same thing to happen again. Romelu Lukaku has most frequently expressed a desire to move onwards and upwards, and Koeman is keen to have talks with the Belgian at the earliest opportunity.
“It is not always possible, but the best plan is always to keep hold of your best players,” Koeman said. “Lukaku is one of the best strikers around and I would like to keep him, the same with other young players such as John Stones and Ross Barkley. I was not happy when we lost Morgan Schneiderlin, Nat Clyne and other players of that quality at Southampton. I will do everything to keep Lukaku at Everton. He’s a goalscorer, a strong No9 and one of the best in his position. He is still only 23 years old and I think he can improve. He needs to play every week and I think that’s the best way to be a really top player. I see enough possibilities for him to stay.”
