It was meal time at a hotel outside Barnsley where the pre-season programme was beginning, and the Dutchman expected his squad would be sitting down to eat. As staff scurried round trying to get food on the table, Koeman’s blood pressure began to boil. He was told the delay would be two minutes. Five then elapsed and the meal still was not ready. Roberto Martinez was not one for confrontation, preferring to shush those players willing to speak out in the dressing room following a defeat rather than allowing debate to rage. His successor did little to disguise his unhappiness; making plain his anger and voicing his upset in a manner which confirmed to those in the vicinity the outlook was changing. The rumpus was not for effect. Koeman is a stickler for timekeeping, insistent everything is done in a certain way, and from that moment on Everton’s players realised they would be conforming to a new set of rules.

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An in-depth team meeting then follows for the starting XI and the substitutes. Those not in the 18-man squad are excluded. The amount of people milling around the tunnel on match-days is also now kept to a minimum which is a theme continued at the training ground. Where previously a dressing room overflowed with support staff, so Koeman has cleared it out ensuring only his technical staff – such as brother, Erwin, Jan Kluitenberg, Duncan Ferguson, David Unsworth, John Ebbrell and goalkeeping coach Patrick Lodewijks – get changed together now. It may have felt harsh to those who had grown accustomed to life in the bosom of the first team, but it serves merely as a reflection of Koeman’s clinical attitude. He is a man who keeps conversation to a minimum – lunch is served when he says “buon appetito” and no one eats before then – with Erwin more hands-on during training which is shorter but more intense. Everton look fitter, Koeman has estimated the players have lost around 8lbs on last season, although that may also be due to fitness coach Kluitenberg banning the homemade lemon drizzle cake that was favourite in the canteen. There is a sense that Koeman is a coach who comes alive on matchday and he is not someone who lives and breathes Everton in the same way as David Moyes and Martinez did.

GETTY Roberto Martinez endured a torrid last season at Goodison Park