Everton news: How Ronald Koeman lost his job after miserable start to the season

AMID all the excitement and expectation generated by Everton’s unprecedented summer spending spree, there remained one major concern: Who was going to score the goals?

koemanGETTY

Ronald Koeman spent £140m in the summer but was unable to replace Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku’s departure had been anticipated for several months, ever since he declared that he would not sign a new contract, while making clear his ambitions to play Champions League football.

And it was Everton’s failure to land a tried and tested replacement for a striker who had scored 87 goals for them in four seasons that ultimately cost Ronald Koeman his job just nine games into the Premier League season.

When Lukaku left for Manchester United in early July in a £90million deal, there was still two months to buy a striker before the transfer window closed.

But what emerged was that Everton – whether Koeman or sporting director Steve Walsh or both were to blame remains unclear – were guilty of putting all their eggs into one basket, namely Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud.

When a deal failed to materialise because the France star was reluctant to leave the Emirates, even though he was not a regular starter, there was not a back-up plan and the alarm bells started to ring.

Quite how a club can spend £140m and yet still not fill their priority position is not only bewildering but bordering on negligent.

There was no way raw Spaniard Sandro Ramirez, 22, could fill the breach and it was also far too heavy a burden for promising home-grown forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, 20, England’s Under-20 World Cup hero.

Koeman had No10s aplenty – Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen, not to mention Ross Barkley, who had been banished by the hard-line Dutchman for failing to sign a new deal even before the injury which has ruled him out of the first half of the season.

It left the squad looking unbalanced and Koeman has struggled all season to find his best starting XI, a successful formation and establish a proper identity for his team.

In an embarrassing act of desperation to solve the goals shortage, Koeman turned to misfit Oumar Niasse, who he had dispatched to Hull on loan when he arrived last season and did not even include in his Europa League squad, deeming him simply not good enough.

Ironically, two late strikes from Niasse saw Everton come from behind to beat Bournemouth to suggest their fortunes might improve, but they have managed only seven goals in nine Premier League games and that has placed too much pressure on a defence that has leaked 18, despite the heroics of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

Two wins from their last 13 in all competitions has resulted in confidence draining away, as Koeman constantly shuffled his pack in an abortive bid to find a winning blend.

When the hapless Ashley Williams was replaced by Tom Davies a half-time of the debacle to Arsenal, it was the ninth time in 17 games this season in all competitions that he had made a change at the break.

That does not indicate a manager who is sure of his players and tactics and transmits instability to the squad who could not be blamed for wondering if their manager was losing the plot.

Certainly, the early fixture list was not kind to Koeman. He faced the two Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal in those first nine games. Everton took a point against a City team who played for an hour with only 10 men but they surrendered meekly in the others.

RomGETTY

Romelu Lukaku notched 87 goals for Eveton before joining Manchester United in the summer

But they also lost to Burnley at home, needed a last-gap Rooney penalty to salvage a draw at Brighton and were hardly convincing in the two narrow wins against Stoke and Bournemouth. One point from three Europa League group games deepened the Goodison gloom and did not help Koeman’s cause.

It was the manner of the performances rather than the results, plus the hostility building among the disenchanted fans, that most concerned chairman Bill Kenwright and the club’s majority shareholder and benefactor Farhad Moshiri.

Sunday’s debacle was the final straw. And there was an air of inevitably when Kenwright and chief executive Robert Elstone arrived at the club’s Finch Farm training headquarters at lunchtime yesterday to fire the bullet.

Ex-England international Michael Ball, who played under Koeman at PSV Eindhoven, said: "Ronald is great when things are going well.

"When results go bad he doesn't seem to know how to improve and lift players."

It completed a remarkable fall from grace for Koeman, who has become the third Premeir League managerial casualty of the season – and the second Dutchman, after Frank de Boer’s ill-fated spell at Crystal Palace.

Expectations were high after the former Barcelona and Holland legend guided Everton to seventh place at the end of his first campaign in charge, especially when the club conducted good early transfer window business by signing Pickford and Michael Keane, as well as securing Rooney’s sentimental return to his spiritual home.

Everton have never been a club that press the panic button but in the end there were too many issues dogging Koeman.

His demise though can be traced back to the fundemental problem of not replacing Lukaku.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?