Ronald Koeman set to now raid the Toffee Jar

The search for a new Everton Manager sees to be nearly complete with the news that they have agreed a £5m compensation fee with current Southampton boss Ronald Koeman which will now clear the path for Koeman to move to Goodison Park.

The 53 year old has been in charge for Southampton for two seasons and in both campaigns has led The Saints to a Europa League place, so it’s fair to say that this move has come as somewhat of a surprise but is Koeman making the right move.

Historically Everton are certainly a big club but their league position wouldn’t have suggested so at the end of the season. A miserable campaign was ultimately the undoing for Roberto Martinez as a season of underachievement was only slightly lessened by getting to two domestic Cup Semi Finals

That 11th place coupled with fan resentment towards the end was the death knell for Martinez with the pressure arguably being raised on the Spainard once Farhad Moshiri purchased his 49.9% share in the club. Riches were promised once Moshiri bought into the club, but it was obvious that Martinez was never going to be the man to be trusted to spend the Summer warchest

And perhaps that very warchest has tempted Ronald Koeman to make the move to Merseyside. He has been promised £100m to spend, although does that come with a caveat that the promised funds will be offset by sales of any combination of Ross Barkely, Romelu Lukaku and John Stones

That will be the first challenge for Koeman in making sure he can keep that trio of names at Goodison Park although it looks as like he maybe too late in terms of Lukaku and if Stones and or Barkley have a good European Championships with the former being the more likely of the two then they will have a number of suitors ready to prise them away from Goodison

But if Moshiri is good to his word and there is £100m to spend regardless of additional sales then all of a sudden the Merseyside club does become a very attractive proposition. Arguably the last real “big club” in the traditional sense of the word to have found the riches of a wealthy backer but that’s not to say Southampton don’t have their own billionaire backer

But with Southampton you get the feeling that the funding and the expenditure is all a bit more reserved. They’ve done fantastically well over the last couple of Summers to keep rejuvenating and a lot of credit must got to Koeman for that but have they peaked in terms of ambition

Do the Southampton board really want to spend the funds to push the club further and into the reaches of Top 4. From the soon to be departing manager’s point of view it seems as if the club has reached the end of the road and certainly can’t match Koeman’s vision of the club over the next few years

One thing that will certainly have tempted Koeman will be the fact he will be earning £6m a year. That puts in him in the top half dozen earners in the world in terms of club management. Quite the pay rise but you do have to wonder if Everton have perhaps paid over the odds

If Koeman can get Everton in the top 8 next season then he can straight away point to an improvement on last season. Although that wouldn’t be difficult after such a miserable campaign it would still paint the ex Barcelona Defender in a positive light, so it could be a shrewd move in terms of boosting his own stock

But he has to be careful, this is someone who was on the radar of both Barcelona and Holland in terms of being their next Manager so a  bad spell at Everton could undo his hard work and send him down the pecking order. There will be a lot riding on this appointment

As for Southampton, it’s the more things change the more they stay the same. Once again they’ve been plucked of either playing or managerial personnel. They’ve probably been expecting this for a while so will have a replacement lined up but you do have to wonder if they just showed a but more financial willing then they perhaps wouldn’t be perpetually in this situation