Ronald Koeman says Everton fans “expect too much” and are “living in the past” after reflecting on his time at Goodison Park.
The now Barcelona coach joined the Toffees in the summer of 2016 but was sacked after 16 months with his side in the relegation zone.
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Looking back on his Blues tenure, Koeman told Alan Shearer for The Athletic: “It was difficult, that period, because Everton are a club, and also the fans, who expect sometimes too much.
“I think sometimes they are still living in the past about the great seasons that they had at Everton.
“My first season was a really good one, Romelu Lukaku scored 25 league goals and we had great home games against Manchester City, who we beat 4-0, we beat all the big ones and it was great.
“But to do the next step, that’s the most difficult one. We spent a lot of money, we signed Jordan Pickford, we signed Michael Keane, we signed Gylfi Sigurdsson and some more players but the big miss was that we did not have a striker like Lukaku. That was really painful.
“We were close to signing Olivier Giroud at that time. Finally, we started with Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the No 9. At that time, he was too young, but if you see him playing now, he’s really a good player and I like him.
“That was a really difficult situation — when we lost Lukaku, we lost 25 goals.
“That was difficult and when we signed Wayne Rooney, maybe we had Davy Klaassen and some other players in the same position at that time. That was difficult, but what we missed at that time was really a goalscorer.”
Koeman said Everton was much more intense experience that his previous position on England’s south coast.
He said: “It was really quiet at Southampton!
“I enjoyed Southampton in that way as there was not a lot of pressure. No, it’s different. At Southampton, there wasn’t the same pressure as when I was the manager in Everton, and Everton wasn’t the same pressure to compare with the pressure at Barcelona.”
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