Ronald Koeman reveals the reason behind his Everton sacking

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London, Oct 27: Sacked Everton manager Ronald Koeman has suggested he knew his team may struggle in the field this season following his failure to land Arsenal striker Oliver Giroud to replace former striker Romelu Lukaku, who went to Manchester United.

The Everton board sacked the Dutch manager following a miserable 5-2 defeat against Arsenal last week which have put them now in the relegation zone as the Toffees only managed to win twice in nine league games, losing five.

The French striker reportedly started transfer talks with a couple of clubs after failing to pin down a regular place in the Arsenal starting XI and clubs like Marseille, West Ham and Everton were all believed to be interested in the striker.

However, the 30-year-old was Koeman's first choice to fill the void left by Romelu Lukaku's enormous multi-million move to Manchester United, and they were almost agreed on terms of landing him once the Gunners had captured Alexandre Lacazette.

However, the move collapsed as Giroud wanted to stay at Arsenal for the time being and Koeman now claimed things could have been different had the Arsenal striker signed for them to take control of a proper number 9 role in the team.

"I had Olivier Giroud in the building," Koeman told Dutch football magazine VI. "He would have fitted perfectly but, at the very last moment, he decided that he'd rather live in London, and stay at Arsenal.

"That was really hard to swallow. You tell me, where you can get a better striker?

"Lukaku was so important for us, not just because of his goals. If things were not going well in a game, if we could not play the way we were used to, there was always the option to use the long ball towards him."

"All of a sudden, we were missing such a player. With Nikola Vlasic and Wayne Rooney, we had attackers who want the ball at their feet."