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Ronald Koeman felt Everton were too quick to wield the axe on his Everton reign.

The 56-year-old lasted 16 months at Goodison before being sacked after a poor start to his second season in charge saw his tenure unravel.

Koeman is now in charge of a resurgent Dutch national team and as he prepares to face England in the Nations League semi-finals this week, he has spoken about his Blues departure in detail for the first time.

Everton finished seventh in his first season but were second bottom in the table when he was fired following a heavy defeat to Arsenal in October 2017 - which left his side with just two wins from nine league games.

Koeman says the Blues hierarchy acted hastily in bringing his time at Everton to an end.

Asked if he had hoped for more time to turn the team's poor form around, he replied: “Yeah, ok, I feel like why on that moment?

(Image: Tony Marshall/Getty Images)

“Because sometimes that kind of decision is taken too quick, too early by the responsibility of that people and the presidents, but we know most of the time, I don’t know exactly how much, but most of the time it is not a good decision because the team is not doing better and the problem for Everton is they like to be part of the Champions League, but how you compete to the Big Six and the crowd historically-wise expect more, and that’s really difficult for Everton.”

Everton were handed a tough start to the Dutch legend's second season, facing Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Spurs in their opening run of games.

And Koeman says a daunting schedule, compounded by Europa League commitments and the influx of eight new players, meant the pressure was on from the start.

“I remember that period as a difficult period because you feel it,” he said.

“You feel it from the crowd, from the fans, from the media and that is normal. You feel it.

“But ok, that is normal because if you don't do well – and even with the excuses that it was a difficult start to the season where we played the top six in the first nine games, and we had Europa League qualification early in the pre-season and we had new players, but that happened.

“I look back to a great period of three-and-a-half years in the Premier League, as a total picture, and those two seasons at Southampton were unbelievable and the first season at Everton was really good. Only the start of the second season was not so good, and if that is three or four months they will discuss about the manager, I do not have any problem with that.”

Koeman is enjoying his first foray into international management and admits he is relieved to be out of the daily pressure cooker of club management.

Holland face England in Guimares, Portugal on Thursday night (7:45pm) with the former Everton boss in charge of an exciting young side.

“It’s different,” he told a small group of English media at Holland's Zeist training base late last month.

“It’s still football but of course it’s not every day. It’s not every weekend. and it was a good moment after the Premier League, after Everton, to do something else in football, but not every day.

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“At Feyenoord, I was there for three seasons and then straight to the Premier League and two years with Southampton and then another year and four months at Everton.

“I decided to go back and take a rest but after that I got the possibility to become the head coach of Holland.

“That was good because it means I am still working in football. If you are working outside your country then your family, your kids… you lose also different things because you work as a manager in the Premier League without stopping, seven days a week.

"And what happened of course in the last few months at Everton was difficult so it was good to go back [to Holland] and start this job.

“Every Monday and Tuesday I am here to do interviews, planning or analysing our opponents and the rest of the week I travel to see players and games. Once a week I can play golf!

(Image: PA Wire)

“I became a grandfather two weeks ago and I will be again after the Nations League with our daughter. It’s different but I like it. At the moment. I won’t say when I will stop managing the national side and if I will then go back to managing a club. I also learned not to look too far into the future because it’s football - what it is today can be different tomorrow. I’m really happy about the time now we spend in Holland and of course it’s all about the national team are doing well after having a lot of critics."

He added: “You are always learning. You learn every day. Of course you learn from success but also when a club sacks a manager - sometimes you don’t look too much back because it is something that happens in football and it is normal. But you learn from mistakes and decisions like everybody in every job - you learn from what has happened in the past.”