Everton confirm departure of Sam Allardyce as club continue talks over Marco Silva
The Toffees are already in talks over bringing Marco Silva to the club
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Your support makes all the difference.Everton have confirmed the departure of Sam Allardyce after just seven months in charge.
The former England manager was brought in as a firefighter after Ronald Koeman's spell in charge tailed off alarmingly.
But despite guiding the Toffees to safety, Allardyce became unpopular among fans culminating in a walk-out as their season ended and club owner Farhad Moshiri has decided to move on.
Everton's new chief executive 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.
“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.”
Everton want a young, exciting manager to take the club forward and three Portuguese coaches are understood to lead their list - Paulo Fonseca, Sergio Conceicao and Marco Silva.
But it is the latter, who Everton tried to hire from Watford before settling for Allardyce, who is the favourite to take over at Goodison.
Everton and Watford are locked in compensation negotiations over the tapping up of Silva which would allow him to assume the hotseat on Merseyside.
Watford filed an official complaint to the Premier League earlier this year over what they saw as an ‘illegal approach’ for Silva from Everton last October. Everton wanted Silva to replace Ronald Koeman, and Silva wanted to go, but the clubs could never agree a deal. Watford’s season was destabilised, and they eventually sacked Silva on 21 January, replacing him with Javi Gracia. Watford believe this entitles them to compensation.
The Premier League suggested mediation between the two clubs and when Keith Harris and Bill Kenwright met Watford officials in London last month, they said that Silva would not be appointed as the next Everton manager.
No compensation package was agreed between the two clubs and if nothing is agreed then the Premier League will step in and could decide a punishment. If Silva is appointed the next manager at Goodison Park, as is expected, then Watford’s compensation claim would be further strengthened, especially given Everton’s recent assurances that it would not happen.
Meanwhile Silva and Watford are still involved in their own legal process over whether Silva breached his Watford contract, which is being mediated by the League Managers Association. But that process will not slow down Everton’s attempts to appoint Silva as their manager.
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