Niasse on Everton exile: ‘It’s sad, I don’t deserve this’

Ronald Koeman told Oumar Niasse to leave Everton after seeing the striker play only 45 minutes of pre-season football.

Niasse, the fourth most expensive player in Everton’s history, only moved to Goodison Park in a £13.5million transfer from Lokomotiv Moscow in January.

But the 26-year-old has been left without a squad number and told to train with the club’s under-23s since Koeman replaced the sacked Roberto Martinez.

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

“It’s sad, it’s really sad. And, to be honest, I think that 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 that it’s just one period.”

Koeman publicly told Niasse to leave on numerous occasions this summer.

The Senegal international, who is among the Premier League players to have been relegated to Checkatrade Trophy duty, played in the second half of Koeman’s first friendly in charge of Everton.

But two days after the 1-0 friendly win over FK Jablonec in July, the forward was told he had no future at the Toffees.

“Koeman said: ‘You have to leave.’ 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,” he said.

“What can I do? I called my agent and he said that 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.’

“He changed everything. 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.”