Koeman rues Everton’s failure to sign Giroud

Former Everton manager, Ronald Koeman has said the failure to sign Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud this summer contributed to the poor run of the club so far this season.

Koeman was sacked on Monday after a 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal on Sunday which meant the Toffees were without a win in five games in all competitions.

Everton spent £150m on players over the summer, including midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson for £45m, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford for £30m, defender Michael Keane for £30m and midfielder Davy Klaassen for £24m.

They sold Romelu Lukaku, their leading scorer for the past four seasons, to Manchester United in July in a deal worth an initial £75m, but failed in their attempt to replace the Belgian with Giroud.

“I had Olivier Giroud in the building,” Koeman told Dutch football magazine Voetbal International.

“That was hard to swallow It would have been perfect but he decided he’d rather live in London.

Read also: Claude Puel replaces Craig Shakespeare at Leicester

“You tell me where you can get a better striker,” he said of the France international.

“Lukaku was important to us, not only because of his goals, but because of his way of playing – strong, quick, direct”, said Koeman.

“There was always the option of the long ball to him. Now we missed such a player, we had Nicola Vlasic and Wayne Rooney, players who want the ball into feet”, he added.

The Toffees are currently being managed by David Unsworth who led the side to a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in Wednesday’s Caraboa Cup fourth round clash.

Unsworth has said that he wants the job full-time and also revealed that he was scheduled to meet the club leadership on Friday afternoon.

 

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