The media are suggesting that when Ronald Koeman picks up his transfer kitty at Goodison Park he will be heading straight back to St Mary's to spend it, but will that be his first mistake ?

The rumours suggesting that Ronald Koeman will be looking to spend a large chunk of his £150 million war chest on signing some of Saints squad perhaps indicate that the Dutch manager has not gripped the reality of what expectation will be up on Merseyside.

Yes I am sure that he would love to add the four players so far linked by the press, Sadio Mane, Virgil Van Dijk, Jordy Clasie and strangely James Ward Prowse, but there would be a couple of problems for him.

Firstly there would be the cost, Saints would be looking for £40 million for Mane, £30 million for Van Dijk, £20 million for Clasie and another £20 million for Ward Prowse.

Given only Mane has less than three years left on his contract, Saints are in a strong position and are ready to show that yes they did get caught out a couple of years ago, but that is not the case now as they proved by refusing to sell Schneiderlin and Wanyama when they did not want to.

So seemingly Koeman is ready to blow around 2/3 of his budget on these four and that would perhaps be a big mistake given that only Van Dijk can truly look back on his season with any real satisfaction that he has not only performed well but consistently.

But spending so much on these players will not endear him to Everton's supporters or indeed the man funding the Blues attempt at resurgence, they want Everton to be a force that rivals the top six clubs and put bluntly that means spending money on what they see as truly top class players, Van Dijk aside they would be disappointed with what they would get for the other three, who although all Premier League standard, as far from the real deal when it comes to both true class and more importantly consistency.

Everton supporters are not demanding that Everton emulate Southampton and chase the top six, they are demanding and i mean "demanding" that they finish in the top four immediately or at least show intent.

Perhaps the amount that Koeman would have to spend just to get these four in his squad shows the enormity of his task, the reality is that if he spent every penny of his transfer budget on players of this calibre he would be no where near having the squad he had at St Mary's this past season.

So if he went for the truly class players then he would get even fewer for his money and the fact is the Everton squad does not have the substance and quality in it presently to provide a good foundation for whoever comes in.

The fact of the matter is that Everton need to spend a lot more than £150 million to boost their squad, they probably need to spend twice that to even stand a chance of the top six.

Ahead of them in the pecking order are either clubs like Saints who over the past four years have slowly but surely built up good squads by a good transfer policy of selling high and buying potential low, or the likes of Liverpool, United, City, Arsenal, Chelsea & Spurs who have been spending big consistently for years and therefore have a plethora of class players.

But that will not be good enough for Farhad Moshiri, the man bank rolling Everton's spending spree, he will not be happy with anything below top six and that is going to be very difficult this coming year given that Chelsea will be looking to be back and Liverpool have a Jurgen Klopp revival scheduled. Not to mention West Ham who will be looking to utilise their new stadium and its potential income streams and of course Leicester City.

In fact Leicester City could be the weight on Koeman's back, Moshiri is willing to buy success, but Leicesters title win will convince him that money is not everything, therefore Koeman is effectively being asked to take on the big guns on the cheap. £150 million is not that much compared to what they have spent over the past few season and this.

All of these add up to the fact that Everton have the potential to return to what they see as their rightful place amongst the big boys, but until they build their new stadium then they will struggle to match those clubs and this is probably three to four years away, does Moshiri have that patience.

So Koeman is being asked to do the job he did at Saints but without the time and patience, Everton, Moshiri and their supporters have not seemed to realise that a fair chunk of what Koeman achieved at St Mary's over the last two years was not just down to his own talents, but the fact that Saints had a strategy and foundation in place, built up over a number of years that made his job a lot easier than it will be at Everton.

If Koeman is to succeed at Everton he does not want to try and clone what has happened at Southampton, we finished sixth and not fourth in the season just gone for a good reason and that reason is consistency.

Koeman has to march in to Goodison and start off on the right foot, aim far higher than Saints standards, if Everton match Saints 6th place then it will be seen as a reasonable start to his Everton career, 7th or 8th will be seen as under performance, outside of the top ten as a disaster. Everton want to see big names not those who have yet to reach the heights.

I do wish Koeman well, I am sad he will depart, but it was only ever a question of when, the disappointment is that he is not leaving for a big job and is taking a step backward for money.

I have said this seemingly every summer recently but it has provedtobe the case "It is not what has happened, it is what you do next " that is the case today, if Saints go out and appoint FRank De Boer or Unai Emery then there are many Saints supporters who will feel that Saints have upgraded their manager and are only following their transfer strategy on players with the manager.

Ronald Koeman has been a great manager for Southampton Football Club, I wish he could take it further, but I am not afraid of the future without him, and the old adage that it is better to have loved and lost than not loved at all is very pertinent in this case.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:19 - Jun 7 I don't give a stuff about Koeman or Everton. It is the impact on US that matters. Already, half of our first team are being 'linked' with moves away and our first response seems to be Eddie Howe. I know I will be told to stop bedwetting because they are only rumours and speculation but a depressingly high proportion of these end up with our players going. The fact that many don't succeed elsewhere is beside the point. The club needs to act quickly and decisively or this summer has the potential to be worse than the last two. Koeman leaving is not a disaster, appointing an unimpressive manager and dithering while our best players leave one by one will be.

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LordDZLucan added 10:24 - Jun 7 What we don't know is the release clauses that have been written into those new contracts. The fact that Fraser, Virgil and James were in such a hurry to sign suggests to me that the contacts contain those clauses which means that as soon as another club comes up with the readies we've as good as lost the player. And it may be no coincidence that those are the players that are being linked with Everton. We may have shot ourselves in the foot big time by getting them to sign new contracts if the old contracts didn't contain those clauses. Could this have all been very carefully orchestrated by Koeman prior to jumping ship? What a thought!

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SanMarco added 10:54 - Jun 7 Nothing about Koeman's departure has felt "carefully orchestrated" to me Lord Lucan!! Probably more that Everton haven't got a defence/GK. The players signed because it gave them more money and they know as well as we have come to know that a contract means very little once all the nonsense starts.
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DPeps added 10:59 - Jun 7 It's a very easy story for papers to write, although concerningly Koeman does have form for taking players with him. I refuse to get worried until we know who the new manager is. If it's one of the bigger names then he'll command the respect of the players and be able to bring in good replacements if need be. As I've said before, yes Koeman has been good but he's not irreplaceable

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perazi added 11:03 - Jun 7 Mane is every bit the top class player VVD is, and I can well understand that Koeman would be keen to recruit them. It would certainly be a leap of faith on Koeman's part to spend big on Clasie and with the greatest respect to Prowsey, I'll drive him up to Merseyside if the Iranian moneyman wants to spend big on JWP's corners and dead ball right to left benders.
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Jonesy1878 added 11:09 - Jun 7 No intent to start anything here....because we'd really, really like you to keep Sammy Lee. In a steel box several feet below the surface of the Solent, if you could arrange, it would be the preference. I get that there is upset about the way this has happened. We know all about that at Everton too....we've loved Southampton for a couple of seasons because your squad got raped and pillaged instead of ours and your ex-players suddenly became...er...a bit average when they pulled on a Liverpool jersey. Great stuff!. As far as we can make out So'ton and Koeman said no to us when we first came to see how things were. Fair enough...tip the cap and move along. Surprised the hell out of us that he came back into the picture. Anyway point I came here to make is that you seem to be saying in one breath above that the players Koeman is supposedly wanting aren't good enough to meet our expectations up, but, also that we dont have a squad that compares with yours. Those are contradictory standpoints. Also that I dont think that you need to be too worried as, personally, I was quite keen on seeing what de Boer could do with my club. I dont think you'll get Emery, just as I didnt think we would, but if you end up with de Boer we'll have an interesting chat at the end of the season about who's got the better dutch guy?. I wouldnt try and call it now. Hope you get him.

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WanderingSaint added 11:17 - Jun 7 I've said on another story that surely it will form part of the settlement agreement that they cannot bid for any of our players for 1 or 2 windows? If we don't do something like that then LR and the Board definitely need questioning It is standard in business world and that is what football clubs are nowadays. That said, they can have Clasie as far as i'm concerned, never been impressed and think Romeu should have had much more game time.

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SanMarco added 11:20 - Jun 7 Good points Jonesy (and apologies in advance for all the petty anti-scouser nonsense you will attact) - the article, wrongly in my opinion, focusses on Koeman and Everton. Yes the scales would tip in your favour if all those players swapped and you may come above us but if we come 13th then a couple of places above us is....
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Jonesy1878 added 12:05 - Jun 7 Cheers Marco truth be told we get petty anti-scouser nonsense on our own boards from our own fans so on another teams site, with whats going on, got to be expected!. The point about not raiding former players, for a specific time, is a fair one. We had that with Moyes when he ran down his contract and engineered his way to Utd on a free (least that isnt happening to you). Moyes gave an undertaking that he wouldnt poach players. That summer Fellaini left and Baines was seriously tapped up, so, it does happen. Way I see it we have a keeper problem...apparently you cant have an Iranian owner and an American goalie....who knew there'd be friction!. Your lad would fit so I could see that, but, we definitely have other targets allegedly for our needs and, before Koeman came back in the picture, none I saw were Saints players?.

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bstokesaint added 12:12 - Jun 7 I would like to think that the board had the sense, given Koeman's record for short-term contracts (and original likelihood to go to Barca or do the Dutch job in the very near future), to put some sort of clause in new contracts which prevents our players from jumping ship. We need to keep the backbone of our team together. I can handle a few players in and a few out each season as part of a normal cycle, but mass exodus' and incomings will not always been successful. I fully expected Mane, Wanyama and Pelle to be on the way out this summer. It's not necessarily what I want, but I could accept that even if the media dress this as an "exodus". We know that wouldn't necessarily be the case.

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aceofthebase added 12:38 - Jun 7 Surely we can include Clasie, Soares and Juanmi into RKs jump ship deal. This dreadful episode has highlighted the failings of Koeman, poor team selections, favouring some poor buys, ignoring the youthful players. Come to think of it we did well last season despite Ronald Koeman, but we could have been in Champions league. I will miss his charming presence and I cannot stop myself commencing every sentence with 'Yaaaarrrr'

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SanMarco added 12:57 - Jun 7 Bit off topic but re aceofthebase and Soares: https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2016/may/18/premier-league- I agree bstoke that those three will go but that should be the maximum number of departures not the minimum.
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aceofthebase added 17:47 - Jun 7 Staying off topic, Soares was often outpaced and rarely prevented the crosses coming over. That is his number one job and not racing down the wing. I have always said he would make a far better attacking player than a defender where he was continually found wanting. I think Mane will stay if the right manager is appointed. Now what is wrong with Van Gaal? That should get me a few minus points!

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Big_T added 21:17 - Jun 7 At least if we get van dull in mean Van Gaal nobody would ever come and poach him.
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SanMarco added 21:44 - Jun 7 Yes Big T but knowing our luck the Sultan of Brunei would take over Crystal Palace and offer him a 400m transfer kitty...
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VancouverSaint added 01:48 - Jun 8 It's interesting to listen to Jonesy's point of view. As this is almost a done and dusted deal, I'm OK with it. The big concern now is who is replacing him. As it's said elsewhere on here, the right manager that commands respect will probably be able to keep most of our team together. Mane to me seemed to be very pi**ed off the last two months because of Ron's punishments. To get Fraser and Virgil away from us will cost way too much, but hey, if they do then good money buys good replacements. It's all good business and it boils down to the back room boys.

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