The Toffees ‘ Premier League campaign starts with Tottenham visiting Goodison Park on Saturday and Koeman feels he had too much work to do in pre-season as Martinez had scheduled too much time off for the players before his May sacking.
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Everton lost centre-back John Stones to Manchester City in a deal worth an initial £47.5m ($61.5m) earlier this week, but quickly offset that departure by securing the signing of Ashley Williams from Swansea City. He started late because of the Euros and, of course, last week all the business between Swansea and Everton, he did not really do training sessions with the team.
“Lukaku is doubtful because of the cut from the Espanyol game”, Koeman told journalists, “(Seamus) Coleman has a problem as well”.
Koeman insisted his team will be “strong” on Saturday, but suggested it would be “two to three weeks” before Everton have increased to 100 per cent fitness.
It appears unlikely that Williams will be the last new face through the door at Everton’s Finch Farm training base after the club were heavily linked to Crystal Palace winger Yannick Bolasie and Sunderland centre-back Lamine Kone this week.
He added: “What Everton fans can expect of me is an honest player, a hard-working player who will try to do as good I can for my teammates and the club”.
When then asked about talk Lukaku is to be offered a new contract by Everton, Koeman said: “The club is doing everything to keep all the players we’d like to keep in the team”. It is not about rumours.
The Everton manager says Oumar Niasse has no future at the club and Everton are actively trying to offload the £13.5m forward. “We need to improve”.
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“Phil Jagielka is the captain of the team. We have discussions with the board and with Steve Walsh, and we want three or four more players”, the club’s Twitter account reports him saying.
