The thing with Ronald Koeman, well, one of the things, is that he doesn’t come across as a particularly nice guy. Leaving enemies scattered around, it’s no huge surprise that when he’s down there’s no shortage of people ready to join the kicking.
What must be especially annoying for the Dutchman is that such a situation makes it all the easier to pile the blame on him and absolve others who really should be taking their fair share.
For example, right now everything which went wrong with Everton recruitment is largely seen as Koeman’s fault, whereas everything which shows signs of being right is credited to Steve Walsh.
There’s not been many impassioned responses from the Dutch media backing up Koeman. Sure, De Telegraaf, who the former Everton manager writes a column for, have pointed out Walsh’s failure to bring in a top quality striker, but they did that before the window shut anyway.
In his column towards the end of August, Koeman made it clear he expected that extra signing, but it didn’t happen. Again in September, Koeman stated he was left with ‘option 3, 4 or 5’ as the window was closing.
At that time, with optimism still around Goodison Park, it didn’t seem like a big deal. With the benefit of hindsight, that changes.
Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad have had a look at the wider situation, and Koeman doesn’t escape blame. It’s stated he failed to build a positive relationship with the fans, who saw him as ‘arrogant, distant, clinical and with little tact’.
But he’s not alone, AD explain: ‘The inability of Technical Director Steve Walsh, hijacked from Leicester City, led to chaos. The discoverer of revelations like N’Golo Kanté and Riyad Mahrez appeared to be green at the negotiating table. Koeman was still short of a successor for Romelu Lukaku and a left-wing defender at the end of August, but largely received footballers for whom the Premier League came too early.
‘The incapable technical director Walsh caused a swamp, from which the coach did not find a way out fast enough.’
