Sayonara Southampton: Ronald Koeman Has Agreed Terms With Everton, So Says His Agent

Chris Wright

5th, June 2016

6 Comments

koeman-everton-southampton

Ronald Koeman is now within the width of a gnat’s goolies of becoming the new Everton manager, at least according to his agent.

Koeman’s Mr 10%, Rob Jansen, is reported to have told Dutch website Voetbal International that “we have reached an agreement with Everton” and that “now it is up to the clubs” to agree on a compensation package for Koeman, who still has a year to run on his contract at St Mary’s.

Such is the lure of being reunited with Arouna Kone, whom Koeman managed during his time in charge at PSV.

Anyway, many are seeing this is something of a sideways move for Koeman, especially with Southampton on the up and Everton very much stagnating over the past season or two.

However, there must be something enticing in there to lure the Dutchman up to Goodison and Pies think we’ve a hunch what it might be.

koeman-everton-kit

Bright Oranje new away kit, eh? What a coincidence.

Posted in Everton, Managers, Southampton

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6 Comments

  1. Holland 1945 says:

    Pienaar has never played for PSV…

    Anyway, love how Everton are considered equal (or worse) to a team that were in the lower leagues until recently. The short termism in football is awful.

    If Everton didn’t just get a new billionaire owners finally allowing us to have the financial muscle we’ve had to watch other clubs flaunt for 15 years as we looked to the loan system and bargain buys, I’d agree given our league results that it was a sideways step. But anyone can see we have a good squad that was mismanaged. Koeman will immediately have a lot to work with and instead of having to sell his best players, can now buy more expensive targets. It’s an exciting time to be a blue.

    • Chris Wright says:

      @Holland 1945: Yep, turns out I totally made that up! Amended.

    • Bob says:

      Not really short termism when Southampton have been top flight for about 40 years with a 7 year absence.

      • Holland 1945 says:

        @Bob, I meant short-termism to think Southampton are even equal in footing to Everton, because they’ve finished above us for the last 2 seasons. Southampton are in every way smaller than Everton; be it time in the top flight, trophies, revenue, fanbase, stadium — you name it. They’ve spent much longer outside the top flight than inside of it, whereas no team has spent longer than Everton in the first division.

        I’m ranting a bit now, but I’ve just been taken aback by the reaction from Southampton fans and the general public. Somehow Everton being viewed as equal to or less than a team who’ve never won the top flight and can boast only an FA Cup and a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy… it just perplexes me, that’s all!

        • Bob says:

          You sound like your neighbours! Who’s bigger, City or Liverpool? In the end who cares? City win things, Liverpool don’t.

          I don’t think any Southampton fans think they are a ‘big club’. In fact I think most are sick of the discussion. Most would accept Everton are ‘bigger’, albeit only a bit. It’s not like anyone cares though. What most people have been pointing out is that Saints may not have the extra 5k seats in their stadium, the cups in their cabinet, but they do have outstanding scouting, facilities, youth, are on the up, have a better team, have a better chance of winning something, are in Europe etc.

          The thing that gets me as a Saints fan is that I thought Everton did things, on the whole, the right way… until now. I liked the club. Now they have moved towards the Levy/Wenger/Liverpool way of acting – leaking to the press, unsettling other teams intentionally, turning heads with money, flouting the rules. They seem to have sold some of their class to Moshiri. It’s just depressing that more and more teams are going this way.

          • Holland 1945 says:

            “albeit it only a bit” — haha! Name your yardstick, and Everton beat Southampton. Trophies, history, fanbase, squad valuation, not selling all their players… whatever you want. Who’s the bigger club may be a petulant argument but I fail to see why it’s an argument being had — there is only one winner.

            Also, I don’t agree that we’re acting in a bad way. When Moyes was taken we had him admitting he’d been approached months before without the knowledge of Everton (thus illegally). When Chelsea tried to poach our players we had Chelsea players in the press coming out and saying how great Stones would be at Chelsea etc etc. Everton still haven’t said a word — what has been leaked? Even now everyone has been saying it’s been done for ages and Everton still haven’t said a peep or announced anything and won’t until it’s all 100% done.

            But even if we are the big bad villains people are painting us to be, I’ve spent years supporting Everton while we get patted on the back for being “plucky” and a “Gentleman’s club”, but really where does that get us or anyone? 11th place for two seasons and a reaffirming from neutrals that that is where we belong, contrary to history. Oddly Southampton finishing 6th is a big deal and makes them a force yet us finishing in the top 8 for 9 out of 11 consecutive seasons means nothing?

            And I keep hearing about the Southampton academy. I could get into that further — i.e. what key first teamers are from your academy and why does it matter that you produced Bale, because much like us producing Rooney, you couldn’t hold onto him. Koeman recently said he found the Southampton academy to be lacking after attending an U21 match. Funnily enough the Everton youngsters finished above the Saints in the U21 league (3rd vs 6th) and the U18 league (2nd in the North Division vs 11th in the South Division).

            We have as many enviable youngsters as any team in the league. Which is why the media keep trying to sell them for us, but contrary to popular belief, we are not a selling club. We rebuffed huge bids for Stones, we’re rumoured to have done the same for Ross. We turned United away when they came for Baines. We’ve only sold Fellaini (for more than his release clause), Arteta (while past his best) and Lescott (for scandalous money) in the past decade. Southampton lost twice as many key players in 1/5 of the time.

            This has been a big arse rant and I apologise; being a blue makes you angry sometimes. I’ve had a dig or two at Southampton because the amount of Saints fans doing the same has driven me up the wall. Fact is, football is ugly. I like the way Southampton have done things and it’s reminiscent of us when Moyes took over. But, Leicester aside, it doesn’t seem to get anyone anywhere. To be a force in modern football you need money and you need to not be a selling club. I’m sure the next Saints manager will do a great job as clearly the club excel at appointing managers. Hopefully you don’t get so many players poached and I hope Koeman and Everton don’t make that any worse for you (the way Moyes told Baines etc he needed to leave “for the good of his career” still irks me). It’s bad enough just losing the manager. At the end of the day though, football is not a game of sentiment or even sportsmanship anymore. It’s a ruthless and unfair business. After years of watching Everton be a club that “does things the right way” and are patted on the head for doing so, I don’t really care what neutrals think of us. Ultimately neutrals (quite naturally) hate successful teams like United and they like plucky little teams like Swansea and Watford, but I know which team I’d rather be a fan of!

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