Can Ronald Koeman Bring Everton Back To Life?

As far as opening statements go, Everton’s new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri has delivered an emphatic one in acquiring Ronald Koeman as manager from Southampton on a three-year deal. Moshiri’s March unveiling generated a mix of excitement and scepticism as almost two decades of boardroom missteps and failure to advance beyond occasional European football and mere top-flight existence had supporters fearing the status quo might never alter.

Promising additional funds for transfers and the retention of key players, the Iranian-born billionaire spoke of energising the club, stating a desire to give Everton “whatever I have.” Words would not be enough though, especially for a fanbase worn down by years of hollow rhetoric. In this regard, finding a suitable replacement for Roberto Martinez was Moshiri’s first test as the figurehead of the club, a chance to prove the extent of his ambition.

After a thorough and drawn-out process, Moshiri has delivered a statement restoring anticipation and expectation among supporters. From the reported £5 million compensation paid to buy out the final year of his contract to the hefty annual salary and significant transfer funds promised this summer, Moshiri’s financial power has been the driving force behind the pursuit of Koeman, the man who has been the No. 1 choice since the moment Martinez exited.

With this progressive move conveying Moshiri’s aims far clearer than any nicely worded press release, this is the first step toward removing the well-worn image casting Everton as the nice guys of the Premier League, the team everybody respects but nobody fears.

Whenever Everton struggled, the majority of postmortems arrived from concerned supporters — some were content to offer a pat on the head for a team with limited resources, a club that should seemingly be happy with punching above their perceived weight. Truth be told, Everton were as much to blame as they embraced this tag. Originally serving a purpose, fostering a siege mentality in the first half of the decade as David Moyes dragged a club heading for relegation toward European contention, this insular outlook became a way of life to the extent it rubbed out all aspiration. Moyes’ ability to work on a comparatively meagre budget spared the blushes of a club hierarchy regularly showing none of the purpose exhibited in these early days of the Moshiri era.

Moyes would unearth gems and then watch wealthier clubs prise them away. When the so-called big clubs said jump, Everton seemed to relish asking how high. Irrelevant, no longer realistic challengers at the top table, this was a grand old team, as the song goes, but not a serious contender.

That is why supporters are hoping this Moshiri and Koeman double act can restore belief that has faded across countless seasons short on tangible success. Domestic mediocrity and increasingly wretched home form culminated in the fewest home points in the club’s history during last season.

Tasked with reversing this slide down the table is the man who led Southampton to seventh and sixth place finishes despite having to contend with his best players leaving at regular junctures. While there were doubts about his predecessors Moyes and Martinez, nobody can question Koeman’s credentials. A proven winner who reached the top of the game as a player, the new Everton boss has won silverware around Europe as a manager and has a standing within the game. His name means something.

With this protracted deal finally at an end, the real work begins for Koeman, Moshiri and Everton ahead of the opening-day visit of Tottenham. Even with the promise of the biggest transfer kitty in the club’s history, there is substantial work needed on the training ground and the pitch to whip a promising but flawed squad into shape.

Set pieces at both ends of the pitch need drastic attention, as does the fitness and mentality of a brittle bunch of players, while more than 100 league goals conceded across the last two seasons leaves little doubt as to the area requiring most attention this summer. However, there is hope in Koeman’s ability to balance attack and defence. Whereas only the bottom five teams conceded more goals than Everton last season, Koeman oversaw a Southampton defence bettered by just the top three and Manchester United in terms of goals against. With his well-organised Southampton side matching Everton on 59 goals scored, Koeman successfully matched a strong attack with a stern defence — three seasons under Martinez had many supporters believing such a thing impossible.

This balanced approach can help address Everton’s well-documented capacity for squandering leads and lacking the game management required at this level. In his 113 league games in charge, Martinez’s Everton dropped 49 points from winning positions, including a league-high 19 in his second season. After losing no points when ahead in the first 13 matches of last season, there were 18 dropped in Martinez’s final 24 league games as manager as his team crumbled.

Various problems and an expected high turnover of players mean a quick fix is unlikely for the sizeable but potentially riveting task ahead, but it appears Everton may at last have the ideal personnel, both in the dugout and the boardroom, to begin fulfilling the ambitions of their long-suffering supporters.