brieverton
Player Valuation: £50m
A good question from the OP.
I hadn't particularly thought about a more bullish attitude from RK in the face of sitting on a large transfer budget, but he can only work with the players he currently has. After the novelty of his initial honesty and straight talking (now worn off a bit for me), he would look foolish in the extreme talking up our prospects on the basis of signings that have yet to be made.
As for Moshiri, its apparent that he is not savvy or experienced in dealing with the media despite his personal wealth. And his Jim White texts were a disaster for someone trying to communicate with fans, as good as his intentions may have been. We can only hope he has learned from that.
So, as to the question "Where are we heading" then it seems we might expect slow but steady improvement with plenty of bumps on the way until Koeman has a squad that is made up of his own players by and large. It's still a decent enough start despite yesterday. I appreciate the difficulties he has - IMO this squad is awful, populated with distinctly average players in the main, and more worringly, players whose attitude and commitment are very questionable, no, very very poor. We have a lot of players that are on a downward curve and going through the motions in collecting their wages.
One thing I think is becoming clearer is that this rebuilding job will take up the majority of Koeman's 3 year contract. If, as I hope there is a large turnover of players in the next 12-18 months, then it will take further time to gel things together. The strategy of aiming for signings of the likes of Witsel and Mata will probably have to be jettisoned in favour of signing players who can play together and consolidate us as a Top 7 team. We have to be practical and deliberate with our targets and cut our cloth accordingly.
I have never been bothered as such by making high-profile and/or elite signings, not that we can get those players - for me its about having genuine competition for places right across the squad and cover in all areas whilst keeping an eye on the appropriate mix of youth and experience. It should not be reduced to signing Enner Valencia on loan - with all due respect to him he'll get a goal or two if he's lucky before May and then return to West Ham - what good will he have done for Everton?
It would be great to be a fly on the wall as to Koeman's thinking. I always thought from the start that it was a risk for him taking this job given a generational history of failure at Everton. Perhaps he did take it for $$$, but he is going to have a hell of a challenge on his hands transforming us into a Champions League outfit within 3 years, if that's the intention. If he achieves it and then wants to leave, he will have my lifelong thanks. I would be sceptical of this, my feeling is this rebuilding will take longer with the prospect of better things only becoming more likely, if at all, by the end of his first contract.
What Koeman, and the club want, in the longer-term, only they will know. As fans we are told nothing and that's a completely other issue to be addressed.
I hadn't particularly thought about a more bullish attitude from RK in the face of sitting on a large transfer budget, but he can only work with the players he currently has. After the novelty of his initial honesty and straight talking (now worn off a bit for me), he would look foolish in the extreme talking up our prospects on the basis of signings that have yet to be made.
As for Moshiri, its apparent that he is not savvy or experienced in dealing with the media despite his personal wealth. And his Jim White texts were a disaster for someone trying to communicate with fans, as good as his intentions may have been. We can only hope he has learned from that.
So, as to the question "Where are we heading" then it seems we might expect slow but steady improvement with plenty of bumps on the way until Koeman has a squad that is made up of his own players by and large. It's still a decent enough start despite yesterday. I appreciate the difficulties he has - IMO this squad is awful, populated with distinctly average players in the main, and more worringly, players whose attitude and commitment are very questionable, no, very very poor. We have a lot of players that are on a downward curve and going through the motions in collecting their wages.
One thing I think is becoming clearer is that this rebuilding job will take up the majority of Koeman's 3 year contract. If, as I hope there is a large turnover of players in the next 12-18 months, then it will take further time to gel things together. The strategy of aiming for signings of the likes of Witsel and Mata will probably have to be jettisoned in favour of signing players who can play together and consolidate us as a Top 7 team. We have to be practical and deliberate with our targets and cut our cloth accordingly.
I have never been bothered as such by making high-profile and/or elite signings, not that we can get those players - for me its about having genuine competition for places right across the squad and cover in all areas whilst keeping an eye on the appropriate mix of youth and experience. It should not be reduced to signing Enner Valencia on loan - with all due respect to him he'll get a goal or two if he's lucky before May and then return to West Ham - what good will he have done for Everton?
It would be great to be a fly on the wall as to Koeman's thinking. I always thought from the start that it was a risk for him taking this job given a generational history of failure at Everton. Perhaps he did take it for $$$, but he is going to have a hell of a challenge on his hands transforming us into a Champions League outfit within 3 years, if that's the intention. If he achieves it and then wants to leave, he will have my lifelong thanks. I would be sceptical of this, my feeling is this rebuilding will take longer with the prospect of better things only becoming more likely, if at all, by the end of his first contract.
What Koeman, and the club want, in the longer-term, only they will know. As fans we are told nothing and that's a completely other issue to be addressed.
