Going back to St Mary’s holds no worries for the manager who has Champions League ambitions for his new club
Ronald Koeman pauses for a moment to think of a succinct answer to the question that has been bothering Southampton supporters since his summer departure and is already hovering over his return to St Mary’s with Everton on Sunday. Are the prospects at his new club really that much better than at his old one? Southampton are already in the Europa League, after all, and that seems to be the limit of Everton’s realistic aspirations, always assuming they can regain consistency after almost falling to an unexpected home defeat against Swansea last week.
“Everton is a big club but not an easy project,” he admits, before going on to outline the reasons why. One is that for all the club’s history and stature it is surrounded by bigger, wealthier neighbours. It used to be just Liverpool and Manchester United but, now Manchester City have joined in, it is hard to see what Everton can do to be anything other than fourth best in the north-west. Then there are the London clubs to consider. Chelsea are back in contention along with Arsenal this year while Tottenham are finding out just how hard it is to break into the Champions League echelon and stay there.
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