Just like that, he was gone.
Everton have parted ways with Ronald Koeman after just 16 months, in a move that many called for but few believed would actually happen.
I for one was convinced that Koeman would, in much the same vein as his predecessor Roberto Martinez, be left in situ for as long as it took before the Goodison faithful made his position untenable; but much to my surprise, decisive action was taken in the days following a 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal which, truth be told, would have been overlooked as simply a bad day at the office under previous post-’90s regimes. For those of us that harbour misgivings over the continued presence of Bill Kenwright and Robert Elstone - not to mention the latter’s inexplicable receiving of a directorship - there has been an air of suspicion surrounding the true nature of the club’s hierarchy in the wake of Farhad Moshiri’s arrival, leading many to question exactly who it is that really calls the shots at Fortress Woodison. It now appears that those questions have been answered.
With a second manager in two years being handed his marching orders, there seems little doubt that Moshiri is the power behind the dugout. Whereas Kenwright’s success in keeping the club afloat in the lean years prior to the exorbitantly lucrative television deals of the Roaring Tens was built on cutting David Moyes an infinite amount of slack, our new Iranian overlord appears to take a dim view of the ‘knife to a gunfight’ mentality that has undermined numerous squads’ ability to rise above their perceived station. Following a debut season that was virtually a shot for shot remake of a classic Moyes campaign - out of the cups early doors, and going on a run of league form with nothing to play for and sneaking a ‘best of the rest’ finish - one could have been forgiven for thinking that treading water remained very much the Everton M.O. However, the sanctioning of another sizeable compensation package for an underperforming manager suggests that for the first time in a generation, there are consequences for failure.
Koeman has pointed to various mitigating circumstances throughout a run in which performances have been as poor as results, and to be fair to him, some of his points are valid. Steve Walsh should, in his role as director of football, have been able to deliver the replacement for Romelu Lukaku and partner for Michael Keane that the manager went on record as saying that he asked for; but even if you absolve Koeman of any transfer-related blame, the idea that the team occupies a false league position due to an unfairly difficult opening set of fixtures only serves to highlight why he wouldn’t have been worth persisting with beyond the summer, regardless of whether or not he could have stopped the latest rot. In a nutshell, he simply could not win away from home, and aside from a pair of spectacular outings against Arsenal and Manchester City last season, he never really looked like beating any of the better sides at home, either. These are not the hallmarks of teams that qualify for the Champions League or win domestic cups.
When Moshiri went to great expense to prise Koeman and Walsh away from their respective previous employers, it was expected that between the former’s renown as one of the truly great players of the modern era, and the latter’s burgeoning reputation as a successful talent spotter, there would be a marked increase in the quality of footballer getting pictured with that fella who picked up the unfortunate nickname ‘Contract Nonce’. Unfortunately, that simply hasn’t been the case, and now the club is saddled with a glut of like-minded plodders whose fees and/or wages are likely to prove massively prohibitive to any potential buyers; and even if Walsh carries the can for failing to deliver what was promised, the onus was on Koeman to get off his fat arse and take a more active role in a recruitment drive that everyone could see had ground to a halt by the end of July.
Ultimately, it was this apparent unwillingness to go the extra mile that has done for Koeman. He knew in January that Wayne Rooney would be returning to the club, presumably with his blessing, and so what were his reasons for insisting that Gylfi Sigurdsson - who had already rejected a move to Everton in summer 2016 - be acquired at all costs? He knew that Kevin Mirallas, Aaron Lennon and Ademola Lookman didn’t feature prominently in his plans, yet made no mention of wanting to bring in any wide options that he might have actually used. He knew that Tom Davies had been a season-changing revelation for him last year, but still sanctioned a big money move for Davy Klaassen, while neglecting to address the fact that a combination of age and chronic injury had left the team bereft of competent full-backs. He approached the summer like a school child who hoped against hope that, somehow, September would just never come; but then it did.
As was the case when Martinez got the Persian Mameluke in May 2016, Under-23s manager and former long-serving player David Unsworth has been placed in temporary control of first team affairs, beginning with a League Cup tie away at Chelsea, which at time of writing has yet to be played. All manner of names from across the football spectrum have been mooted as potential replacements by various news sources - from British jobs for British managers candidates Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce, to more fanciful ‘head coach’ types such as Carlo Ancelotti and Thomas Tuchel - but with the club seemingly in no rush to make a permanent appointment, it seems likely that old Rhino will still be in charge for Sunday’s trip to also manager-less Leicester City.
If there are genuine designs on promoting Unsworth, then I suppose now is the time. Hopefully he’ll at least illicit a reaction from the players in the short-term; and also get himself a suit while he’s at it, the scruffy get.
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