Everton fans must remain patient with club

Everton’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri has promised that the club will invest heavily on strengthening their squad this summer

Since Farhad Moshiri’s arrival at Everton as majority shareholder Toffees fans have been excited, especially when Moshiri promised funds to strengthen the squad.

That excitement was doubled by the arrival of highly-rated Dutchman Ronald Koeman as boss.

The club from Merseyside have been linked with every player and his dog this summer.

The likes of Juan Mata, Alex Witsel and Georginio Wijnaldum are just three of the names that have been linked with a move to the blue half of Merseyside. Every day the Toffees are seemingly linked with a new player.

Lack of transfer business so far

Despite cash supposedly being available to boss Koeman, the only player that has arrived is veteran Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg for a nominal fee. The 33-year-old will provide experience in a position that the Toffees were short in after the exit of Tim Howard.

With very little transfer activity so far, Everton fans have taken to the forums and comments sections of the football websites. The fans have become accustomed to their club being cautious in the transfer market, but the arrival of Moshiri and Koeman was supposed to be a new brave era.

Some Evertonians have even started to question whether Moshiri will be true to his word about the transfer funds that are available this summer. A minority have even started to question whether Moshiri was part of the problem of Arsenal not spending, when he held shares in the north London club.

However, that theory is slight far-fetched considering that Moshiri is believed to have had very little power at the Emirates Stadium, which led to his interest in having a more hands-on role at Everton. Football hierarchies are not known for their honesty, but from his actions so far, especially in his pursuit of Koeman, Moshiri seems to mean business at the Merseyside club.

Koeman needs time to assess his squad

Everton boss Koeman would not be doing his job properly if he did not assess his squad prior to making any big money signings. The Toffees are currently warm weather training in Austria, which is a good chance for Koeman to assess his options and see where he needs to strengthen.

The Dutchman has only been working with his squad, minus the players at Euro 2016, for a couple of weeks. Koeman must feel like he needs more time to get to know the players. He still has to get to know the players who have been at Euro 2016 and Copa America participant Ramiro Funes Mori.

The Dutchman will want to strengthen in the right areas of the team. I am sure that the Toffees are already working hard behind the scenes on identifying targets and making moves to improve the current squad.

There must be an improvement from Roberto Martinez reign

Everton have gone backwards in the last two campaigns under Spanish boss Roberto Martinez. A big problem for the Toffees was the complete lack of defensive nous of their former boss.

Everton will not have the same problem with Koeman at the helm. The Toffees had the most individual mistakes that led to goals in the top-flight in the previous two campaigns. In stark contrast Southampton had the least in the Premier League.

Some would say that is down to the players, but in truth a defence that is well drilled and taught can cut down on the individual errors. A good boss can also help defenders to become mentally stronger and make fewer mistakes in the process.

Koeman will bring a great solidity to the Everton defence and the team will achieve far better results next season, as for much of the campaign the Toffees produced some very good attacking football.

Speculation still surrounds the future of the Toffees star striker Romelu Lukaku. If he stays and produces the sort of form he showed in the first half of last season, then Everton’s odds of 7/2 to finish in the top-six next season could seem like a decent bet.

One thing is for sure the Toffees will not be an easy touch like they were under Martinez, especially at Goodison Park, which was a daunting trip for any opposition teams in the past.

Everton may not have splash the cash just yet, but Ronald Koeman would not have jumped ship from Southampton if he was not given certain guarantees about transfer funds being available this summer.

Toffees fans will have to remain patient and have faith in Mr Moshiri that he will deliver the funds to strengthen an already talented squad for the start of the new season.

Will Everton spend big this summer?