Everton have this morning confirmed that incumbent manager Sam Allardyce has now left his role as gaffer.
🔵 | Sam Allardyce has left his role as manager.
More: https://t.co/0kJowzOX0r pic.twitter.com/ErJpWEEN7T
— Everton (@Everton) May 16, 2018
With fans turning against the one time England man owing to the style of play utilised this season, the news has clearly come as a relief to plenty. Fresh on the heels of boardroom changes in recent days as the club prepares for far better next term, a brief statement on the Official Site from Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale this morning read.
“On behalf of the Chairman, Board of Directors and Mr Moshiri, I’d like to thank Sam for the job he has done at Everton over the last seven months. Sam was brought in at a challenging time last season to provide us with some stability and we are grateful to him for doing that. However, we have made the decision that, as part of our longer-term plan, we will be appointing a new manager this summer and will be commencing this process immediately. Again, we’d like to place on record our sincere thanks to Sam for his work with us over the last few months and wish him well for the future.”
Even the most critical of Allardyce will probably accept that the words and the sentiment used by the Professor are genuine. After Ronald Koeman and our inability to secure a striker to replace Romelu Lukaku following his departure, we struggled for goals mainly but had few problems in conceding them, so Big Sam’s remit was to tighten us up and get us on a more even keel.
Fans will quibble about relative positional improvement and our away form in particular, but whilst it was rarely pretty he did achieve the remit he was set. We became tougher to beat and in what was largely a shambles of a season, it wasn’t a complete shambles with our league finish and the financial return we’ll get for that.
The problem for many was with a little bit more, the campaign could’ve been a lot better and we could’ve certainly been easier on the eye.
With the news coming in this morning, the Twitter thread from the club is barely 30 minutes live and it’s already attracted almost 500 responses, and that alone probably tells you how this news has been received.
Most of the following speaks for itself when it comes to renewed hope for the coming campaign. The question now is, who do we appoint?
— Jonny Horne (@Jonnyhornez) May 16, 2018
— Rex (@ThatRexGuy) May 16, 2018
— Jamie Seddon (@seddonjamie) May 16, 2018
Me in work right now. pic.twitter.com/GdRrGSh13P
— Darren (@nsno_83) May 16, 2018
Hodgson????
— Tom Godfrey (@KangtheIrishOne) May 16, 2018
— Richie Hetherington (@Richie_H7) May 16, 2018
Big Sam, Pardew, Stoke, West Brom, Joe Hart’s world cup selection gone.
God had mercy on English football.
— Sam (@S_am29) May 16, 2018
Thanks Farhad, I can now return to Goodison Park????
— Baz (@Barry1878) May 16, 2018
Finally brought an end to the most embarrassing period in our club's history.
Make sure you get the next appointment right please. None of us ever want to have him or his like associated with this club ever again.
— Grab68 (@Grab68) May 16, 2018
Knew this would be the outcome from the off and Sam knew aswell. Some good words from DBB and very professional and to the point!
— Aidy Dews (@AidyDews) May 16, 2018
It’s fair to say though, the split in the fanbase continues as Allardyce has his backers – whether their strictly Everton fans I’ll leave to you, so only a tiny selection.
Hodgson????
— Tom Godfrey (@KangtheIrishOne) May 16, 2018
Hounded our more like!! Shame on you Everton fans who wanted him out! Did a good job in my opinion don’t know what thu expected had a decent finish
— chris mcmanus (@chris4981) May 16, 2018