Morgan Schneiderlin has opened up on his time at Everton.
The France international joined the Blues from Manchester United in January 2017 for a reported £20million on a four-and-a-half year deal to link back up with Ronald Koeman, who had previously been his manager at Southampton.
Things started well for Schneiderlin, with Everton qualifying for Europe under Koeman, but the move quickly unravelled when Romelu Lukaku was sold before the start of the new season and Ross Barkley didn't kick another ball for the club before eventually forcing through a move to Chelsea.
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Koeman was sacked only two months into the new campaign, after a poor start in both the league and Europe, and Schneiderlin was left feeling like the club's ambitious vision had been miss-sold to him.
Speaking in an interview with the Mail, he said: "I spoke with Spanish and Italian clubs that played in the Champions League or Europa League, but Everton had ambition to be a top-four club and with the team I joined, I think we could have got there. You always want to play in the big, big clubs and I really thought with all my heart Everton would be one of them. It is a big club but from the conversations I had with Ronald Koeman and the chairman (Bill Kenwright) and sporting director (Steve Walsh), I really thought this club would be top, top, top every year.
"At Everton I found joy again. The fans were liking me. I was sad when Koeman left. The club was selling me a project with him… then we lost some big players and didn't take the direction I'd been told (slants hand upwards). I could see with the transfer business they did, we wouldn't go like this.
"People shouldn't misinterpret this. I don't regret going to Everton. But I regret leaving Manchester United so early. I should have thought, 'you worked all your life for this and spent seven years at Southampton going from League One to become a top Premier League player. Stay and you will succeed'."
Schneiderlin hit a low at Goodison Park when he was excluded from a match-day squad for a Premier League game against Watford, along with Kevin Mirallas, after it was reported that the duo had walked off the training pitch early 24 hours later. Schneiderlin denies the story but his image was not helped as he had been sent off for the Blues in the Europa League against Lyon three days earlier.
The midfielder found the fans to be turning on him and found it difficult to take. His unpopularity reached a peak when he was booed onto the pitch as a late substitute against Crystal Palace in February 2018.
He said: "You think, 'f****** h***', two years ago I was in the best club in the world and now people think I left training and don't give a s*** about their club'. You say to yourself, 'f****** h***, what went wrong? What did I do? Who is on me? Someone wants bad for me'.
"I should have thought, 'okay, you are booing me, it is part of being a football player, I will fight'. But I didn't have the same love for them in this moment. It was the same for them, they didn't have the same love for me. A good performance from me was average in their eyes and they were never satisfied with me. A lot of times I could feel I was the scapegoat for the fans.
"I followed Everton after and saw the same thing happened to [midfielder] Andre Gomes. When he arrived, the fans put him like me when I joined, up there (points skywards), 'oh, the performances are amazing'. Then it went a bit wrong."
Eventually the club granted Schneiderlin permission to leave, but not before trying to convince him to stay again after performing well in training. In September 2018, Schneiderlin's father died and playing only four days later, he lasted just 44 minutes of a match against West Ham United, before disappearing under then Blues boss Marco Silva.
"Marco Silva thought I was somewhere else [mentally], maybe," said Schneiderlin. "But I dealt with this very well and didn't understand why I wasn't in the squad. I played against Cardiff [in February 2019] when we won 3-0, then played almost every game until the end of the season.
"I said to Marco in the summer, 'the thing with the fans, probably it is best for me to go'. I had a great offer from Galatasaray and wanted to go but the club didn't let me. But I still respected Everton and gave everything the next season. And at the end it was good for everyone I left."
Eventually, Schneiderlin joined Nice in 2020, but has since admitted to regretting missing out on working with Carlo Ancelotti at Goodison. He is happy to concede that Silva is an excellent manager, but believes that the Blues' lack of a clear strategy on the type of manager they wanted has been detrimental to the club, leaving it where it is today, until the arrival of Sean Dyche.
He added: "[Silva] is a very good manager…his training sessions are good and the way he wants to play from the back is very clear. But, sometimes [at Goodison], you could feel it was very tense, so it is hard as a manager to keep players confident playing from the back. He is doing a great job at Fulham and I am not surprised.
"As a club you need an identity. Everton had that with David Moyes, going to Goodison you knew what you would get. When you take managers, you need to keep an identity. You cannot go from a manager who wants to play great football from the back to a manager who wants to play long ball, then a manager who wants to play high intensity, to another who wants to sit deep, then another one… That, for me, was the biggest mistake.
"You buy players, then six months later they are not suited to the style. Six months later they are suited again, then they are not. Sean Dyche could be a very good match for the club. I think he brings the style the fans want: when you don't think too much, a lot of crosses and aggression and intensity."
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