Everton are in talks with Southampton over an approach to make Ronald Koeman their next manager, with the Dutchman now waiting to be granted permission to discuss terms over a potential move to Goodison Park.
As revealed by the Guardian last month, the former Holland international defender was earmarked as the first choice to succeed Roberto Martínez by Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s new major shareholder. The initial suggestions were that Koeman, who joined Southampton from Feyenoord in 2014, was not interested in moving to Merseyside despite having only one year of his contract at St Mary’s remaining.
However, with Moshiri believed to be willing to provide the new manager with significant transfer funds, the 53-year-old is now understood to be tempted by the chance to move north.
Koeman’s agent, Rob Jansen, confirmed to the Guardian on Friday night that Everton have made contact with Southampton to ask for permission to speak to him but that no decision has been made on whether to give that permission. It is expected Southampton would be due compensation for the year left on Koeman’s contract, believed to be worth around £3m.
After guiding Southampton to sixth place thanks to a 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace on the final day of the season Koeman hinted that he would require signs that the club was showing ambition before committing himself to extending his deal.
“It is important to know what we can do to be stronger because in my opinion that’s ambition,” he said. “If you don’t have that ambition, you start to be sloppy and that is not what I like to be. It is possible [to sign a contract next week] but that is always depending on the conversation.”
Saints’ chairman, Ralph Krueger, had previously indicated that he would not stand in Koeman’s way if the former Barcelona player wanted to leave.
Should he decide to succeed Martínez at Goodison Park, there is every chance he will be expected to work alongside a director of football. That appears likely to be Sevilla’s Monchi, who confirmed on Friday that he intends to leave the Europa League winners this summer.
“For about a month I noticed that something wasn’t right in my head,” he told SFC Radio. “I figured it was time to stop and make a change. My doubts then returned but late on Sunday I made the decision [to leave]. Still, what I can say is that I won’t pay my release clause. I won’t leave Sevilla through the backdoor.”
