Daily Times

LONDON: Everton’s structural shake-up left no room for Sam Allardyce who was sacked as manager on Wednesday after a six-month reign in which he steered the Merseysiders to eighth place in the Premier League. Former England manager Allardyce replaced sacked Dutchman Ronald Koeman in November with the club 13th and five points above the relegation zone. He had a year to run on his contract. Denise Barrett-Baxendale, who will officially replace Robert Elstone as the club’s CEO on June 1 as part of a raft of changes at the top, said the task of replacing Allardyce would begin immediately. “On behalf of the Chairman, Board of Directors and (owner) Mr (Farhad) Moshiri, I’d like to thank Sam for the job he has done at Everton over the last seven months,” she told the club’s website. “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. We wish Sam well for the future.” Allardyce was not a popular choice with the fans and the writing looked on the wall for the 63-year-old when he criticised the recent changes in the club’s hierarchy on Tuesday. “I’m shocked, disappointed and disgusted that the football club didn’t have the decency to tell me, my Director of Football and my staff about the changes,” he told the Liverpool Post. “They must have been in the pipeline for a considerable time but no-one thought to tell me and my staff.”

Published in Daily Times, May 17^th 2018.