Everton failed to land striker Olivier Giroud in 2017.
Everton’s 2017 summer window as praised at the time, but is now looked on very differently after failing to really live up to some of the promise they had shown.
The Toffees revamped their team, bringing in goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, defender Michael Keane, midfielders Davy Klaassen, Nikola Vlasic, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Wayne Rooney, as well as attacker Sandro Ramirez.
However, they also lost star striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United, and it proved to be a tumultuous season for Everton.
Ronald Koeman lost his job, Everton couldn’t land preferred replacement Marco Silva, Ross Barkley left for Chelsea and Sam Allardyce came and left within a matter of months before Silva finally took his job.
Marcel Brands is still trying to unpick some of the knots from that summer window, with Vlasic, Klaassen and Rooney already gone and others likely to follow.
Now, Erwin Koeman – Ronald Koeman’s brother and his assistant at Everton – has offered an inside view on that window to the Liverpool Echo, making claims about their pursuit of Olivier Giroud.
Koeman claims that Giroud ‘was the solution’ to the Everton attack after Lukaku’s exit, but the move just couldn’t be agreed with Arsenal – just months before he headed on to Chelsea.
Koeman added that Ramirez just wasn’t what Everton needed at the time as he had struggles adjusting to life in England whereas Giroud was already established, with the Dutchman feeling that the lack of a replacement for Lukaku was a big factor in their struggles.
“The club did a lot to get a good replacement, Ronald hoped that Giroud was coming and I think he would have been a good player for Everton. He’s been a goal scorer everywhere he’s played and he makes goals too. That was the solution but he did not come,” said Koeman.
“Sandro Ramirez was not the type for that moment that we needed. Of course, he was not that expensive and everybody inside the club hoped he would do well, but he had some problems as well. He came from Spain, which is always difficult because they play differently than in the Premier League, so he had some problems. But I was speaking to everybody, to Duncan, from the beginning that we needed a striker but that did not come. You know what you had to pay in those days, in 2017 and so I can’t blame the club and I understand that it was difficult to replace that type of player,” he added.
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