Koeman wants titles, European football with Everton

Ronald Koeman met the press for the first time earlier today as the manager of Everton, and immediately stated that he was at the club to win. He spoke of the history of the Toffees, and how he wanted to start by improving the team’s record at Goodison Park.

The press conference got underway with a question about his departure from Southampton, but Koeman got past that quickly -

“I’ll keep it short because the most important thing is to look forward and not back in life and football.

“After the season I met with the board and the first option was to go into the last year of my contract and that was not possible. I said I can’t do that. There was no way I was signing a new contract and we did not agree.

“Throughout that whole story Everton was showing interest and Southampton gave me the permission to talk to Everton. I’m now the new Everton manager and that’s all I want to say about Southampton.

“Thanks to them for two fantastic seasons; thanks to the players, thanks to the staff and thanks to the fans. I’m at Everton now.”

The manager continued, expressing his admiration for Everton and his plans for the future -

"To be involved in this great big project for the next couple of years is fantastic and a big feeling.

"Everybody knows the history of Everton. It's a big history and it's nice to be part of that, to win and play European football and win titles. Everyone is ready to take the next step and I'm one of them.

"Every manager has his own style, I like the fans to enjoy it but I also like to win the game. I'm not a coach or a manager to wait. I play to win the game, it's the style I like, it's the spirit we like to have in the team. That's the way how I want to manage Everton."

He then went on to speak about his interest in keeping his young stars like Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley and John Stones at Everton.

“I’ve not spoken to Romelu yet. I’ll do this press conference and then I’m starting to work about Everton and of course I will talk to several players.

“Lukaku is a key player a goalscorer and you don’t want to lose one of your best players. He’s a young player who needs support and to improve. We like to keep that type of player.”

Koeman was asked if he would try to keep Stones and help him improve, the youngster being a ball-playing central defender like he once was -

“I like to help everybody and of course you sometimes have something more because he played in the same position as me.

“There will be good support for the boy but first I want to speak to him personally, get his feelings and that will be what we do.

“It’s not so difficult. I had that experience in my last two years always a lot of interest in the players.

“First of all we like to keep these types of players. You don’t sell you best players but I’ll have meetings and we’ll see what happens.”

Bill Kenwright also spoke about his excitement regarding Koeman’s signing -

"He made his impression before we met him.

"When we said goodbye to Roberto - a sad day - he was the first name of mine and Farhad's lips. He's very much the choice of the board, and from what I gather, a big choice of Evertonians.

"I've told him I've seldom felt so much unison in the fanbase. He says all the right things, I'm impressed! He has our total support and we're really behind him, we are really grateful he has joined Everton.”

What are your thoughts on Koeman and what he said today?