Everton are looking for their fourth permanent manager in two years after Sam Allardyce was sacked.
The 63-year-old was brought in as Ronald Koeman’s replacement in November to steer the club away from potential relegation trouble, eventually guiding the club to eighth in the Premier League.
However, Allardyce was an unpopular choice with fans from the outside and with the atmosphere at Goodison Park becoming toxic in the latter stages of the season as fan discontent grew the Toffees boss has been jettisoned with 12 months still remaining on his contract.
Allardyce was not even major shareholder Farhad Moshiri's first choice but after failing to lure Marco Silva from Watford, an approach which contributed to the Portuguese's sacking when results took a nose dive after the Toffees were turned down, he took a pragmatic decision and went with chairman Bill Kenwright's recommendation.
Silva is now favourite to take over at Goodison after he was dismissed by Watford in January with the club stating the catalyst for their decision was Everton’s “unwarranted approach” which they felt contributed to a significant deterioration in both focus and results and jeopardised the Hornets’ long-term future.
Denise Barrett-Baxendale, who it was announced on Tuesday will take over from departing chief executive Robert Elstone in a boardroom reshuffle, was charged with delivering the news.
“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.”
The departure of the manager will be the start of a summer of change at Everton, which has already begun at boardroom level.
In additional to Barrett-Baxendale’s promotion Keith Harris has become deputy chairman in place of Jon Woods, who will remain on the board, with existing director Sasha Ryazantsev joining the executive leadership team with responsibility for financial and commercial performance.
Allardyce’s backroom team of Sammy Lee — another unpopular appointment as a former Liverpool player — and Craig Shakespeare are expected to depart.
Director of football Steve Walsh’s position is also under threat after last summer’s disappointing £200million transfer spending with PSV Eindhoven’s Marcel Brands reported to be arriving.
