After repeated ideological clashes with the fanbase, despite encouraging results, Everton manager Sam Allardyce has departed the club, the Toffees confirmed on Wednesday.
“Everton Football Club can confirm that Sam Allardyce has left his role as manager,” a statement on the club website stated.
Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale said: “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.
Allardyce was hired mid-season after Ronald Koeman’s disastrous start to the 2017-18 campaign saw the Merseyside outfit languish near the relegation zone.
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‘Big Sam’, regarded by many, somewhat unfairly, as a relegation survival expert, did the job he was brought on to do but fans repeatedly asked for him to leave as they were unsatisfied with his ‘overtly negative and primitive’ tactics.
“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.”
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Under the former England manager, Everton became a dour unit that effectively played for 1-0 wins, something that did not go down well with the Toffees faithful.
An exasperated Allardyce repeatedly insisted he couldn’t have done more than steer them to an eighth-place finish in the Premier League table.
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He remained defiant he would still be managing the club next season, but it seems the fans seem to have gotten their way as the 63-year-old was asked to leave, judging by the language of the club’s statement.