Klaassen wants to stay at Everton despite difficult first season

Not much went right for Davy Klaassen at Everton last season.

The £23.6m signing arrived at Goodison Park fresh from captaining Ajax to the Europa League final and had high hopes of making an impact in the Premier League.

Unfortunately for the Netherlands international it went very wrong, very quickly.

For starters, it seemed Klaassen would need time to adjust to the physicality of the English game as he struggled to make an impact in his early performances.

However, Klaassen was also an unfortunate victim of circumstance. He was one of three no.10s signed by Ronald Koeman last summer so was shoehorned into an awkward formation that didn’t suit anyone.

Then, with the team struggling he quickly found himself out of the side and when Koeman was sacked in October he was cast out of the picture entirely.

The 25-year-old didn’t feature in the Premier League from the end of September until early March, when he came on as a late substitute against Brighton.

Sam Allardyce clearly didn’t fancy him, with the midfielder only making four appearances under the former England boss, one of those away at Apollon in the Europa League when Allardyce didn’t even travel. He was reportedly close to a move to Napoli in January only for the deal to collapse.

You’d think after such a tortuous season Klaassen would be ready to leave at the earliest opportunity.

But it seems he is determined to try and resurrect his career on Merseyside, if comments by his agent are anything to go by.

Speaking to AD in the Netherlands and as reported by Sport Witness, the player’s agent, Søren Lerby, said:

“Davy is not someone who gives up quickly. He wants to start the preseason at Everton.”

Klaassen certainly seems to have an extremely professional attitude as reports throughout last campaign suggested he continued to work hard in training despite his lack of first-team action.

The arrival of fellow Dutchman Marcel Brands as director of football is likely to have been one of the factors behind Klaassen’s decision to stick around for now.

He is also likely to want to wait until the new manager is in place and see what his plans are before deciding his future.

I can’t say I was impressed with what I saw from Klaassen last year, but I can hardly say he was given a fair chance either.

Moving to a new league and different country is always a challenge and some players take longer to adjust than others, especially when playing in a struggling side that ultimately went through three managers.

Klaassen may well end up leaving the club this summer and go down as one of a number of expensive flops signed by the club in recent years. But that is likely to rest on the plans and vision of the new manager, rather than the player himself.