The striker signed for £13.5m towards the end of Roberto Martínez’s reign at Everton is refusing to give up on his Premier League dream despite being left without a locker and training with the under-23s

Oumar Niasse was told by Ronald Koeman he was not wanted at Everton after one 45-minute appearance in pre-season. The Senegal striker was stripped of his shirt number and ordered to train with the club’s under-23 squad but it is a finer detail that shines a light on how far the 26-year-old has fallen since a dream £13.5m transfer from Lokomotiv Moscow in February.

“I’m in the dressing-room with the under-23s but I don’t have a locker,” Niasse says. “The other players have where they put their stuff but I don’t. I come with my bag and I just have a place I know. I put my bag down, I train and after, I put everything in my car and go home.”

There are many questions for Niasse as he sits down to talk at his house in the Manchester suburb of Worsley but there is one that practically screams at him. How has it come to this?

When Niasse was signed by Koeman’s predecessor, Roberto Martínez, he had torn up the first half of the Russian league season. He became the third-most expensive signing in Everton’s history – behind Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini – although he would be bumped down to fourth when the club bought Yannick Bolasie in the summer.

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The move has turned into a nightmare and the headline statistic is Niasse has appeared for only 152 minutes across seven matches. There were initial fitness concerns. He had last played for Lokomotiv on 10 December, before the Russian winter break, while he had also undergone a wrist operation. His match fitness would deteriorate further as Martínez continued to overlook him – his first start did not come until 30 April in the home win over Bournemouth. It has been a vicious cycle.

But the overriding impression was Martínez realised he had signed a dud. There has been ridicule. Before this interview, an Everton-supporting friend suggests the photoshoot ought to feature a cow and a banjo, so that Niasse could test the veracity of the old saying.

It reflects a perception of the player and things have got worse under Koeman. It is hard to ignore the feeling the lack of a locker for Niasse is an attempt to humiliate him, or punish him, for his decision to stay on after the 1 September transfer deadline.

“It’s sad, it’s really sad,” Niasse says. “And, to be honest, I think I don’t deserve this but what I can do is just keep my head and fight to change things. I’m not going to make a drama over this. I just deal with it. I know it’s just one period.”

Niasse is a fighter and he makes it perfectly clear he intends to fire an upturn in his fortunes; to show his talent to supporters in England – be that at Everton or another Premier League club when the transfer window reopens in January. He wants it to be at Everton and he clings to the notion he could yet force Koeman into a rethink. Niasse’s self-belief is unshakeable.

What shines through is his humility and the complete lack of malice, particularly towards Koeman. Niasse played in the second half of Koeman’s first game in charge – the 1-0 friendly win over Jablonec on 16 July – and he thought it did not go too badly. Forty-eight hours later, he was called into the manager’s office.

“Koeman said: ‘You have to leave,’” Niasse says. “I couldn’t understand how that decision could have been made after 45 minutes but I just said: ‘OK, thank you.’ It’s his decision. He’s the manager. What can I do? I called my agent and he said he would look into the opportunities for me. To be honest, I didn’t ask Koeman to explain his reasons. I just thought, even if I asked why, I would never understand. After just 45 minutes, you cannot say to me: ‘You are no good.’”

Niasse has since had one further conversation with Koeman, which was when he learned of his demotion to the under-23s. “He changed everything,” Niasse says. “He took my shirt number and he told me I wasn’t allowed to be in the dressing room for the first team; that I wasn’t going to train with them. I had to go with the second team.

“ I said: ‘OK, no problem.’ When you say you don’t need a player, you don’t have to see him. I’ve just kept working in training. Even if I’m training with the under-23s, I give them the respect.”

There are several occasions when Niasse attempts to explain away what has been a remarkable sequence of events as simply being “football” – as if the sport’s capacity to defy logic ought to be explanation enough.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oumar Niasse celebrates scoring for Lokomotiv Moscow in a Europa League match against Besiktas. His form in 2015 for the Russian club was what first attracted Roberto Martínez to the Senegal striker. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Everton had scouted Niasse at Lokomotiv; they watched him many times and he was not an impulse buy. Other leading clubs in England and mainland Europe wanted him too but, after Everton had paid the money, they came to feel he was not for them. Moreover, through the words and deeds of Martínez and Koeman, they have made it plain to Niasse’s potential suitors they see little value in him. How is that £13.5m asset looking now?

The saga says much about the Premier League, with its power plays and financial imperatives, and it reinforces the image of England’s top division as the place to be; a ticket to be seized and not relinquished. Niasse believes he has been harshly treated but he has a good contract until 2020 and he is not blind to the bigger picture. A football career must be plotted with the utmost care.

It is also interesting to consider Koeman’s position. He has made a judgment call, in good faith, on Niasse and it is one that, at the very least, represents a serious setback to the player’s career. He has backed him into a corner and yet the manager has been unable to make him blink.

“It is all up to the player whether he doesn’t leave, I can’t understand it but that is normal,” Koeman said on 22 September. “Football players like to play football, that’s how I see it, and I explained to Niasse why he was not in my plans for the season.” Koeman is not in the best position to get too huffy about the situation.

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Niasse wants to play but not just anywhere. He wants it to be at a club of his choice and he wants it to be in the Premier League. He had offers over the summer from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Turkey but there was never a decision for him to make over a Premier League move, despite interest from Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City.

“It’s not only about having opportunities and then, you’re going to leave,” Niasse says. “I always think about my career – to make good choices. Yes, I had opportunities but I wanted to play in the Premier League and it’s because I know I can do a lot of things in the Premier League. That’s why I am keeping my head, even if it’s hard now.

“Anything can change. Koeman just wants the best for himself and, in two months, if I can be the best for him, he will take me, because he doesn’t have any problem with me and I don’t have any problem with him. It’s football and bigger players than me have had this problem with their coaches. How many times did Real Madrid say they didn’t want Lassana Diarra and, at the end of the season, who was playing?”

Niasse had it tougher, much tougher, at Lokomotiv, after his €6m transfer from the Turkish club Akhisar Belediyespor for whom he scored 15 goals and had seven assists in 2013-14. Niasse knew no one in Moscow, he could not speak Russian and the temperatures of -15C were brutal. There were also the depressing brushes with racism.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oumar Niasse during last season’s 3-2 home defeat to West Ham. He had come on as a substitute after 76 minutes with Everton, who were playing with 10 men, leading 2-0. Photograph: Jan Kruger/Getty Images

“It’s very hard to be a black guy in Moscow,” Niasse says. “Even in the games, you can sometimes hear the fans doing some shit. I remember they did it to me. Away to CSKA Moscow [in September 2015], we had a penalty and I took it but all the fans were making these noises. It didn’t bother me. I scored the penalty. I didn’t say anything.”

Niasse struggled desperately during his first season at Lokomotiv. The club had Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dame N’Doye up front and, after the latter moved to Hull in February 2015, they signed the Serb Petar Skuletic to replace him. Niasse kicked his heels. Between 24 November 2014 and 18 April 2015, he did not appear for a single minute.

He was given a chance towards the end of the season and he responded by scoring the equaliser in the Russian Cup final against Kuban Krasnodar. Lokomotiv would win 3-1 after extra time. When the following season kicked off, Niasse caught fire. He scored 13 times and made 10 assists, before the Russian League broke for the winter.

“People say Russia is not a strong league but you go to Moscow, with the weather, with the way they play, with everything, and you’ll see that to play there is much more complicated.

“If I did it in Russia, why can’t I do it in England? What happened in Moscow makes me know I can turn it around here.”

Niasse starred in Lokomotiv’s Europa League matches last season and it really is bizarre he has gone from that kind of form to the predicament of having to pick up the pieces with Everton Under-23s. Since 19 September, he has played four times for David Unsworth’s team, scoring against Arsenal and Manchester United.

“I’m just thinking about what I have to do,” Niasse says. “If, at any time, Everton need me – for the 23s or the first team – I will be there, because I work for Everton. They paid a lot of money for me and that’s why I feel I have to show something. People say what they think but they don’t know me in England. They have never seen me fit and playing.

“I want to show myself in the Premier League and I hope it can be at Everton, because it’s the team that I’m feeling. Every weekend, I’m watching the games, I’m supporting the team, I’m behind them. I’m a Blue. But, if I get the opportunity to show what I can do at another Premier League team, I will go and I will do it. You never know what can happen. This is football.”