Everton Fan View: Oumar Niasse is the Goodison Park revenant

Oumar Niasse was a joke. Literally, a joke. The Senegalese striker was bought by Everton in 2016 for a huge fee of £13.5m. That fee doesn’t sound so big now, but this was before things started getting crazy.

He came over from Russia, he was unfit, and Everton were playing terrible football under Roberto Martinez. It was a horrible time, and Niasse got caught up in the mess. He was given opportunities, not enough for a fair judgement, but he was awful. The striker didn’t look close to scoring and things went from bad to worse.

READ MORE: What next for Yaya Toure?

READ MORE: Seven things we can’t wait to do on FIFA 18

READ MORE: Looking back on two years of Klopp

He became that joke. Everton fans at the time thought if they couldn’t cry, they’d laugh. A complete and utter waste of money. A player not good enough, who we couldn’t shift. Koeman didn’t like him, and publicly said so. There was a moment in pre-season where he tried to take the ball in his stride and fell over it. It was enough. The first half of that season may well not have existed for him.

Then things started to change. If there’s anything Everton fans love in a player, its a good attitude. Here was a man given a Premier League dream, resigned to the under 23’s. He talked about not been given a locker, training and going straight home. Niasse didn’t sulk, or moan. He got told to leave, but he fought, he got his head down. He tried, he worked hard and he scored goals at a level he must have never thought he’d see again. It wasn’t enough for Koeman, a man too stubborn to give the lad a chance.

The laughing stopped

The joke had become a hard luck story. The player Everton fans had forgotten, had become a player they rooted for. He was never getting a game for us, he went to Hull on loan. The joke still remained with some, Hull were getting the disaster. He wasn’t that though, and he got his Premier League goal. And a few more to add. He actually looked decent.

At that time I was hoping he’d find a good home in the summer. Succeed. Prove Koeman wrong. No-one was willing to take a punt on the man, he stayed, and he kept his head down and kept working hard. In a sport that is forgetting what it means to be a professional, he was the epitome of one.

Then it was the 20th September 2017, Koeman decides to finally play him. 19 months after signing for the club. He takes the ball down and produces a brilliant finish to score his first goal for Everton Football Club.

Everton fans don’t laugh, they rejoice. He earned it, he deserved it, he knew it, and we knew it. The revenant. His Everton career looked dead, he worked tirelessly to keep it alive. Rarely have I been so happy to see a player score a goal. Koeman’s Everton have looked toothless in attack this season. The manager needs to give the player the 2nd chance he deserves.