Blueeyedboy
Player Valuation: £225k
Koeman is absolutely 100% correct here...
“I had a short meeting with Bill (Kenwright) last Tuesday evening, and we spoke about the situation with Ross,” said the Everton boss.
“I think it’s his responsibility and the responsibility also of his agent to say yes or no because that’s what the club needs to know because we can’t wait until the last moment, it’s not good for the player and it’s not good for the club.
“The manager will continue even without Ross. I need to talk more with the chairman and the board of the club and I will do that after the weekend.
“We have offered him a contract, they had several meetings about a new contract and this is contract, we don’t go and go and go.
“This is what he needs to sign if he wants to stay.
“He is working well, he is training well, he is doing his best but maybe the time he still needs to give the club the right answer is in my opinion a long time and that maybe is about that he has doubts about to stay, I don’t know.
“I don’t like to make this a big issue, but we need – it’s more than like – we need to know before the end of the season.
“I’ve mentioned in the last two weeks that we need to improve in our offensive part, and that’s the main thing for the team – to have more productivity in the team,” he said.
“We have one striker who has scored 24 goals, and after that defenders and Ross on three or four goals. We need more players from midfield offensively to give us that productivity and that’s what we try to find.
“If Ross stays yes or no, we will still scout in that position.”
Anybody saying otherwise is being ridiculous.
He's handled this well, just as he did earlier in the season when Ross was 'dropped'.
Ross isn't really to blame, but now the time has come that a decision has to be made and there's nothing wrong with applying that pressure.
I like most of what Koeman does but he's not perfect and I do think he and the club could learn from this saga. Firstly, not offering him a contract last summer, when he was probably at a low ebb and surely would have signed, was a mistake. Even in January Koeman was happy to leave the contract offer until later in the year. Now we are in situation where the club is in a weak position. Secondly, I think the public criticism was a bit OTT earlier in the season, especially when everyone knows he is somewhat sensitive character. Once, to get a reaction is fine but repeatedly was too much and Ross maybe thinks Koeman has never been that keen on him.
That said I think koeman has improved him as an all round player, improved his fitness levels and Ross should think really hard whether moving elsewhere, he will continue to develop a career which has stalled on several occasions.