Ashley Williams wants Ronald Koeman to stay at Everton as he urged the Dutch manager to ignore speculation linking him with LaLiga giants Barcelona.
Former Barcelona player Koeman has emerged a possible replacement for head coach Luis Enrique, who will depart Camp Nou at the end of the season.
Koeman has refused to commit to Everton beyond the current campaign, with the Merseyside club seventh in the Premier League and six points adrift of the European places, but centre-back Williams is desperate for the 53-year-old to finish what he has started at Goodison Park.
"For me personally and the lads, we obviously hope he stays," Williams said
"He's started building a team here and we're all confident the future looks good for Everton so from our point of view we'd obviously want him to stay.
"But he might have his own ambitions. I can't speak for what he wants from his managerial career but just from our point of view, definitely we enjoy working with him.
"You can see form the way we've been playing of late that it's working."
Williams, who played in Sunday's 3-2 loss at Tottenham, added: "I think we're building a team, the gaffer is building a team to what he wants.
"They're [Tottenham] a bit more settled than us, they play the same 11 most games and they know each other very well so that's where we're trying to get to.
"We saw it as a good test to see where we are as a team because they're clearly one of the best teams in the league.
"The gaffer is trying to build a team he wants and we've done well in the last couple of months. It's about kicking on now and trying to take that into next season."
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