brieverton
Player Valuation: £50m
I think you are right to call our professionalism. Lets be frank there's a reason why Barry's performances didn't dip and haven't dip in his entire career regardless of the manager. He's a real credit to the profession and it's easy to see why Martinez made him his first proper signing.
There are 2 issues with Koeman and time. The first will be whether he wants to stay here beyond 2 years, the second will be whether he has the skillset to. He seems to like moving upwards and is very ambitious. I'm not sure why he would show us any more loyalty than teams in his own country who he has won Trophies with. That being said if we get things right off the pitch and if the supposed investment in players we have been suggested to materialises over the next two years outside of the marquee jobs there will be few better places to manage than here.
The question about his skillset remains open though. In their own ways both Martinez and Moyes were "longer term" managers who were both trying to build over a longer period. Koeman hasn't done that yet. That's not to say he can't but he hasn't done so yet. I also think if we stagnate or plateaux at 5-8th as we did under Moyes I don't think people will be satisfied with that.
We'll see I am very happy with him as manager now. I think both parties have gone into it with their eyes open. We've given him a better chance of getting top 4 football and a trophy and he is the same. I'm not sure either party in their heads have looked beyond it being a two year fix. Having said that Everton is a special club and does grip people and there is a chance Koeman could be hooked. I do think his character suits Evertonians and scousers very well and we have a similar ethos. We will see.
Things took a real turn for the worst for the Arsenal game in March. It was so bad after that, short of Martinez' sacking it probably warranted the squad being called together and being given a bollocking by the Chairman/CEO, only we did not and do not have the people in place for such a thing.
Martinez as manager had ultimate responsibility for team affairs, but it would be fair comment in my view to suggest that that vast majority of the squad simply downed tools in a completely unacceptable way towards the latter part of last season, even if the desired end result was achieved with Martinez sacking.