Koeman’s comments on Kone failed transfer and other players’ moves

Everton manager Ronald Koeman spoke to the media ahead of Saturday’s game hosting AFC Bournemouth. The first question he was asked was about what happened with the failed transfer of Arouna Kone to Crystal Palace.

“Everybody knows there was some interest for Arouna, but finally no deal happened.

“I don’t know enough about the situation why. What I heard from the Board was there was really interest from different clubs, of course Crystal Palace was one of them.

“But finally there was no deal, and now he is still an Everton player until the end of the season.”

Asked about how the player would integrate back into the squad, he went on to say -

“Arouna’s role is difficult. He wasn’t involved in a lot of games this season. He also had some physical issues.

“I like the boy, I know him well, I worked with him in PSV in Holland.

“All the front players are really fit, if we get injuries then maybe we’ll need Arouna and he needs to wait for his opportunity. That’s difficult at the moment, but you know in football things change very quickly.

“I’m happy that he’s still in because he’s a really experienced player, and maybe we’ll need Arouna.”

Koeman was also asked about his overall impressions of the January transfer window and the other transfers out - Tom Cleverley, Oumar Niasse, Bryan Oviedo and Darron Gibson.

“I am very satisfied. First of all, we had some players without a good future and no chance to really get game time and they are now away from the club because they’d like to play more and have game time.

“I think that’s good because that’s always the ambition of a football player. We have a really small squad at the moment, but enough numbers to compete and have competition.

“The spirit is a little different now, because all of them have opportunities to play, to start, to be on the bench. That is good for the spirit of the team as everybody is really involved.”