Maybe, he obviously knows he's not wanted but to not even give him a locker with the U23's whilst he is there, is not the behaviour I expect from our club.
- Status
Maybe, he obviously knows he's not wanted but to not even give him a locker with the U23's whilst he is there, is not the behaviour I expect from our club.
He's here for the money mate and that's why he's determined to stay in this league, don't buy all this wishy washy crap. If he really wanted to get his career going again he'd have agreed to leave in the summer when a few foreign clubs came in for him but in that article he's admitted to knocking those offers back, therefore my sympathy is limited.
Fair play to the bloke for behaving professionally and not causing a big fall-out but at the end of the day he has to accept that it's never going to happen for him here. Koeman was straight with him early on and that's all you can for, it's not like he's been lied too or anyone has refused to communicate with him. He simply doesn't like what he was told (that he's not wanted and never will be) and is refusing to accept reality.
Saying you don't treat an employee the way he's being treated, what do you mean? It's not like he's being deprived of basic workers' rights like a lunch break FFS. I'm sure that it's not in his contract that he's entitled to have a number or a locker. The club are not humiliating him, they want this whole sorry saga over with and forgotten about as quickly as possible. He's humiliating himself by dragging it out.
Last edited:
The Cowboy
Player Valuation: £60m
On a human level its a sad tale, but he should've realised he's not wanted and moved on. Take the cash and shut up, or mouth off once you've moved on. You don't get it both ways, Oumar.interview in the guardian today:
Oumar Niasse was told by Ronald Koeman that he was not wanted at Everton after one 45-minute appearance in pre-season. The Senegal striker was stripped of his shirt number and he was ordered to train with the club’s under-23 squad. But it is a finer detail that shines a light on just how far the 26-year-old has fallen since what was a dream £13.5m transfer from Lokomotiv Moscow last February.
“I’m in the dressing-room with the under-23s but I don’t have a locker,” Niasse says. “The other players have where they put their stuff but I don’t. I come with my bag and I just have a place that I know. I put my bag down, I train and after, I put everything in my car and go home.”
There are many questions for Niasse as he sits down to talk at his house in the Manchester suburb of Worsley but there is one that practically screams at him. How has it come to this?
When Niasse was signed by Koeman’s predecessor, Roberto Martínez, he had torn up the first half of the Russian league season. He became the third-most expensive signing in Everton’s history – behind Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini – although he would be bumped down to fourth when the club took Yannick Bolasie over the summer.
The move has turned into a personal nightmare and the headline statistic is that Niasse has appeared for just 152 minutes across seven matches. There were initial fitness concerns. He had last played for Lokomotiv on 10 December, before the Russian winter break, while he had also undergone a wrist operation. His match fitness would deteriorate further as Martínez continued to overlook him – his first start did not come until 30 April in the home win over Bournemouth. It has been a vicious cycle.
But the overriding impression was that Martínez realised he had signed a dud. There has been ridicule. Before this interview, an Everton-supporting friend suggests that the photo-shoot ought to feature a cow-field and a banjo, so that Niasse could test the veracity of the old saying.
It reflects a perception of the player and things have got worse under Koeman. It is hard to ignore the feeling that the lack of a locker for Niasse is an attempt to humiliate him, or punish him, for his decision to stay on after the 1 September transfer deadline.
“It’s sad, it’s really sad,” Niasse says. “And, to be honest, I think that I don’t deserve this. But what I can do is just keep my head and fight to change things. I’m not going to make a drama over this. I just deal with it. I know that it’s just one period.”
Niasse is a fighter and he makes it perfectly clear that he intends to fire an upturn in his fortunes; to show his true levels to supporters in England – be that at Everton or another Premier League club, when the transfer window reopens in January. He wants it to be at Everton and he clings to the notion that he could yet force Koeman into a rethink of his opinion. Niasse’s self-belief is unshakeable.
But what shines through is his humility and the complete lack of malice, particularly towards Koeman. Niasse played in the second half of Koeman’s first game in charge – the 1-0 friendly win over FK Jablonec on 16 July – and he thought that it did not go too badly. Forty-eight hours later, he was called into the manager’s office.
“Koeman said: ‘You have to leave,’” Niasse says. “I couldn’t understand how that decision could have been made after 45 minutes but I just said: ‘OK, thank you.’ It’s his decision. He’s the manager. What can I do? I called my agent and he said that he would look into the opportunities for me. To be honest, I didn’t ask Koeman to explain his reasons. I just thought, even if I asked why, I would never understand. After just 45 minutes, you cannot say to me: ‘You are no good.’”
Niasse has since had one further conversation with Koeman, which was when he learned of his demotion to the under-23s. “He changed everything,” Niasse says. “He took my shirt number and he told me I wasn’t allowed to be in the dressing room for the first team; that I wasn’t going to train with them. I had to go with the second team.
“I said: ‘OK, no problem.’ When you say you don’t need a player, you don’t have to see him. I’ve just kept working in training. Even if I’m training with the under-23s, I give them the respect.”
There are several occasions when Niasse attempts to explain away what has been a remarkable sequence of events as simply being “football” – as if the sport’s capacity to defy logic ought to be explanation enough.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Oumar Niasse celebrates scoring for Lokomotiv Moscow in a Europa League match against Besiktas. His form in 2015 for the Russian club was what first attracted Roberto Martínez to the Senegal striker. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Everton had scouted Niasse at Lokomotiv; they watched him many times and he was no impulse buy. Other leading clubs in England and mainland Europe wanted him too but, after Everton had paid the money, they came to feel that he was not for them. Moreover, through the words and deeds of Martínez and Koeman, they have made it plain to Niasse’s potential suitors that they see little value in him. How is that £13.5m asset looking now? Football, eh?
The saga says much about the modern Premier League, with its power plays and financial imperatives, and it reinforces the image of England’s top division as the place to be; a ticket to be seized and not relinquished. Niasse believes that he has been harshly treated but he has a good contract until 2020 and he is not blind to the bigger picture. A football career must be plotted with the utmost care.
It is also interesting to consider Koeman’s position. He has made a judgment call, in good faith, on Niasse and it is one that, at the very least, represents a serious setback to the player’s career. He has backed him into a corner and yet the manager has been unable to make him blink.
“It is all up to the player whether he doesn’t leave, I can’t understand it but that is normal,” Koeman said on 22 September. “Football players like to play football, that’s how I see it, and I explained to Niasse why he was not in my plans for the season.” Koeman is not in the best position to get too huffy about the situation.
Niasse wants to play football but not just anywhere. He wants it to be at a club of his choice and he wants it to be in the Premier League. He had offers over the summer from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Turkey but there was never a decision for him to make over a Premier League move, despite interest from Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City.
“It’s not only about having opportunities and then, you’re going to leave,” Niasse says. “I always think about my career – to make good choices. Yes, I had opportunities but I wanted to play in the Premier League and it’s because I know I can do a lot of things in the Premier League. That’s why I am keeping my head, even if it’s hard now.
“Anything can change. Koeman just wants the best for him and, in two months, if I can be the best for him, he will take me, because he doesn’t have any problem with me and I don’t have any problem with him. It’s football and bigger players than me have had this problem with their coaches. How many times did Real Madrid say they didn’t want Lassana Diarra and, at the end of the season, who was playing?”
Niasse had it tougher, much tougher, at Lokomotiv, after his €6m transfer from the Turkish club, Akhisar Belediyespor, for whom he scored 15 goals and had seven assists in 2013-14. Niasse knew nobody in Moscow, he could not speak the language and the temperatures of -15C were brutal. There were also the depressing brushes with racism.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Oumar Niasse during last season’s 3-2 home defeat to West Ham. He had come on as a substitute after 76 minutes with Everton, who were playing with 10 men, leading 2-0. Photograph: Jan Kruger/Getty Images
“It’s very hard to be a black guy in Moscow,” Niasse says. “Even in the games, you can sometimes hear the fans doing some [Poor language removed]. I remember they did it to me. Away to CSKA Moscow [in September 2015], we had a penalty and I took it but all the fans were making these noises. It didn’t bother me. I scored the penalty. I didn’t say anything.”
Niasse struggled desperately during his first season at Lokomotiv. The club had Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dame N’Doye up front and, after the latter moved to Hull City in February 2015, they signed the Serbian Petar Skuletic to replace him. Niasse kicked his heels. Between 24 November 2014 and 18 April 2015, he did not appear for a single minute.
But he was given a chance towards the end of the season and he responded by scoring the equaliser in the Russian Cup final against Kuban Krasnodar. Lokomotiv would win 3-1 after extra time. When the following season kicked off, Niasse caught fire. He scored 13 times and made 10 assists, before the Russian League broke for the winter.
“People say Russia is not a strong league but you go to Moscow, with the weather, with the way that they play, with everything, and you’ll see that to play there is much more complicated.
“If I did it in Russia, why can’t I do it in England? What happened in Moscow makes me know that I can turn it around here.”
Niasse starred in Lokomotiv’s Europa League matches last season and it really is bizarre that he has gone from that kind of form to his current predicament of having to pick up the pieces with Everton Under-23s. Since 19 September, he has played four times for David Unsworth’s team, scoring goals against Arsenal and Manchester United.
“I’m just thinking about what I have to do,” Niasse says. “If, at any time, Everton need me – for the 23s or the first-team – I will be there, because I work for Everton. They paid a lot of money for me and that’s why I feel I have to show something. People say what they think but they don’t know me in England. They have never seen me fit and playing.
“I want to show myself in the Premier League and I hope it can be at Everton, because it’s the team that I’m feeling. Every weekend, I’m watching the games, I’m supporting the team, I’m behind them. I’m a blue. But, if I get the opportunity to show what I can do at another Premier League team, I will go and I will do it. You never know what can happen. This is football.”
Ashtonian
Banned on request
Might sound silly but if the lockers were allocated and then all of a sudden Oumar is turning up for training with them, be hard to give him a locker then.
Remember he was meant to be gone as of the first week in july, the fact he is still here is just down to him.
Plus it will be down to koeman anyway, doesn't want him and wants to kick him out club. remember out of the entire squad, he is the only player Koeman has wanted to get rid of. That must tell us something about what sort of player or even fella Niasse is to begin with that he kept everyone else bar him.
Wah wah, I'm on 60 grand a week but I have to play with the kids because I didn't leave when I had offers to.
Well, he wanted rid of McGeady as well.
Kaiser Soysauce
Player Valuation: £10m
Seems to me like he's acting professionally. My boss pays me good money for nothing lol.
neil999
Player Valuation: £80m
ijjysmith
Calm
He hasnt got a locker mate
I don't know how he copes. It's a joke really.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Ok, he gets paid a lot of money to be treated shamefully, but it's still being treated shamefully.interview in the guardian today:
Oumar Niasse was told by Ronald Koeman that he was not wanted at Everton after one 45-minute appearance in pre-season. The Senegal striker was stripped of his shirt number and he was ordered to train with the club’s under-23 squad. But it is a finer detail that shines a light on just how far the 26-year-old has fallen since what was a dream £13.5m transfer from Lokomotiv Moscow last February.
“I’m in the dressing-room with the under-23s but I don’t have a locker,” Niasse says. “The other players have where they put their stuff but I don’t. I come with my bag and I just have a place that I know. I put my bag down, I train and after, I put everything in my car and go home.”
There are many questions for Niasse as he sits down to talk at his house in the Manchester suburb of Worsley but there is one that practically screams at him. How has it come to this?
When Niasse was signed by Koeman’s predecessor, Roberto Martínez, he had torn up the first half of the Russian league season. He became the third-most expensive signing in Everton’s history – behind Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini – although he would be bumped down to fourth when the club took Yannick Bolasie over the summer.
The move has turned into a personal nightmare and the headline statistic is that Niasse has appeared for just 152 minutes across seven matches. There were initial fitness concerns. He had last played for Lokomotiv on 10 December, before the Russian winter break, while he had also undergone a wrist operation. His match fitness would deteriorate further as Martínez continued to overlook him – his first start did not come until 30 April in the home win over Bournemouth. It has been a vicious cycle.
But the overriding impression was that Martínez realised he had signed a dud. There has been ridicule. Before this interview, an Everton-supporting friend suggests that the photo-shoot ought to feature a cow-field and a banjo, so that Niasse could test the veracity of the old saying.
It reflects a perception of the player and things have got worse under Koeman. It is hard to ignore the feeling that the lack of a locker for Niasse is an attempt to humiliate him, or punish him, for his decision to stay on after the 1 September transfer deadline.
“It’s sad, it’s really sad,” Niasse says. “And, to be honest, I think that I don’t deserve this. But what I can do is just keep my head and fight to change things. I’m not going to make a drama over this. I just deal with it. I know that it’s just one period.”
Niasse is a fighter and he makes it perfectly clear that he intends to fire an upturn in his fortunes; to show his true levels to supporters in England – be that at Everton or another Premier League club, when the transfer window reopens in January. He wants it to be at Everton and he clings to the notion that he could yet force Koeman into a rethink of his opinion. Niasse’s self-belief is unshakeable.
But what shines through is his humility and the complete lack of malice, particularly towards Koeman. Niasse played in the second half of Koeman’s first game in charge – the 1-0 friendly win over FK Jablonec on 16 July – and he thought that it did not go too badly. Forty-eight hours later, he was called into the manager’s office.
“Koeman said: ‘You have to leave,’” Niasse says. “I couldn’t understand how that decision could have been made after 45 minutes but I just said: ‘OK, thank you.’ It’s his decision. He’s the manager. What can I do? I called my agent and he said that he would look into the opportunities for me. To be honest, I didn’t ask Koeman to explain his reasons. I just thought, even if I asked why, I would never understand. After just 45 minutes, you cannot say to me: ‘You are no good.’”
Niasse has since had one further conversation with Koeman, which was when he learned of his demotion to the under-23s. “He changed everything,” Niasse says. “He took my shirt number and he told me I wasn’t allowed to be in the dressing room for the first team; that I wasn’t going to train with them. I had to go with the second team.
“I said: ‘OK, no problem.’ When you say you don’t need a player, you don’t have to see him. I’ve just kept working in training. Even if I’m training with the under-23s, I give them the respect.”
There are several occasions when Niasse attempts to explain away what has been a remarkable sequence of events as simply being “football” – as if the sport’s capacity to defy logic ought to be explanation enough.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Oumar Niasse celebrates scoring for Lokomotiv Moscow in a Europa League match against Besiktas. His form in 2015 for the Russian club was what first attracted Roberto Martínez to the Senegal striker. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Everton had scouted Niasse at Lokomotiv; they watched him many times and he was no impulse buy. Other leading clubs in England and mainland Europe wanted him too but, after Everton had paid the money, they came to feel that he was not for them. Moreover, through the words and deeds of Martínez and Koeman, they have made it plain to Niasse’s potential suitors that they see little value in him. How is that £13.5m asset looking now? Football, eh?
The saga says much about the modern Premier League, with its power plays and financial imperatives, and it reinforces the image of England’s top division as the place to be; a ticket to be seized and not relinquished. Niasse believes that he has been harshly treated but he has a good contract until 2020 and he is not blind to the bigger picture. A football career must be plotted with the utmost care.
It is also interesting to consider Koeman’s position. He has made a judgment call, in good faith, on Niasse and it is one that, at the very least, represents a serious setback to the player’s career. He has backed him into a corner and yet the manager has been unable to make him blink.
“It is all up to the player whether he doesn’t leave, I can’t understand it but that is normal,” Koeman said on 22 September. “Football players like to play football, that’s how I see it, and I explained to Niasse why he was not in my plans for the season.” Koeman is not in the best position to get too huffy about the situation.
Niasse wants to play football but not just anywhere. He wants it to be at a club of his choice and he wants it to be in the Premier League. He had offers over the summer from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Turkey but there was never a decision for him to make over a Premier League move, despite interest from Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City.
“It’s not only about having opportunities and then, you’re going to leave,” Niasse says. “I always think about my career – to make good choices. Yes, I had opportunities but I wanted to play in the Premier League and it’s because I know I can do a lot of things in the Premier League. That’s why I am keeping my head, even if it’s hard now.
“Anything can change. Koeman just wants the best for him and, in two months, if I can be the best for him, he will take me, because he doesn’t have any problem with me and I don’t have any problem with him. It’s football and bigger players than me have had this problem with their coaches. How many times did Real Madrid say they didn’t want Lassana Diarra and, at the end of the season, who was playing?”
Niasse had it tougher, much tougher, at Lokomotiv, after his €6m transfer from the Turkish club, Akhisar Belediyespor, for whom he scored 15 goals and had seven assists in 2013-14. Niasse knew nobody in Moscow, he could not speak the language and the temperatures of -15C were brutal. There were also the depressing brushes with racism.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Oumar Niasse during last season’s 3-2 home defeat to West Ham. He had come on as a substitute after 76 minutes with Everton, who were playing with 10 men, leading 2-0. Photograph: Jan Kruger/Getty Images
“It’s very hard to be a black guy in Moscow,” Niasse says. “Even in the games, you can sometimes hear the fans doing some [Poor language removed]. I remember they did it to me. Away to CSKA Moscow [in September 2015], we had a penalty and I took it but all the fans were making these noises. It didn’t bother me. I scored the penalty. I didn’t say anything.”
Niasse struggled desperately during his first season at Lokomotiv. The club had Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dame N’Doye up front and, after the latter moved to Hull City in February 2015, they signed the Serbian Petar Skuletic to replace him. Niasse kicked his heels. Between 24 November 2014 and 18 April 2015, he did not appear for a single minute.
But he was given a chance towards the end of the season and he responded by scoring the equaliser in the Russian Cup final against Kuban Krasnodar. Lokomotiv would win 3-1 after extra time. When the following season kicked off, Niasse caught fire. He scored 13 times and made 10 assists, before the Russian League broke for the winter.
“People say Russia is not a strong league but you go to Moscow, with the weather, with the way that they play, with everything, and you’ll see that to play there is much more complicated.
“If I did it in Russia, why can’t I do it in England? What happened in Moscow makes me know that I can turn it around here.”
Niasse starred in Lokomotiv’s Europa League matches last season and it really is bizarre that he has gone from that kind of form to his current predicament of having to pick up the pieces with Everton Under-23s. Since 19 September, he has played four times for David Unsworth’s team, scoring goals against Arsenal and Manchester United.
“I’m just thinking about what I have to do,” Niasse says. “If, at any time, Everton need me – for the 23s or the first-team – I will be there, because I work for Everton. They paid a lot of money for me and that’s why I feel I have to show something. People say what they think but they don’t know me in England. They have never seen me fit and playing.
“I want to show myself in the Premier League and I hope it can be at Everton, because it’s the team that I’m feeling. Every weekend, I’m watching the games, I’m supporting the team, I’m behind them. I’m a blue. But, if I get the opportunity to show what I can do at another Premier League team, I will go and I will do it. You never know what can happen. This is football.”
That is 'kin scabby and below the standards we set at this club.
Jack1882
Player Valuation: £950k
The part where I feel the situation has been mismanaged is with the open advertisement from Everton of how poor he is and how much of a mistake you made.
It's put him in a situation where the offers he got through the summer were likely significant pay cuts on what he is currently earning and a large part of that is because of how loud Koeman has been about how unimpressed he is by his ability.
The stance from Everton has significantly dropped his value and now he's expected to just take the hit on the chin.
He had a decent scoring record in other leagues if you guys had just been a bit coy on the situation and made out he's on the fringes somebody would have taken a chance on him.
It's put him in a situation where the offers he got through the summer were likely significant pay cuts on what he is currently earning and a large part of that is because of how loud Koeman has been about how unimpressed he is by his ability.
The stance from Everton has significantly dropped his value and now he's expected to just take the hit on the chin.
He had a decent scoring record in other leagues if you guys had just been a bit coy on the situation and made out he's on the fringes somebody would have taken a chance on him.
- Status