Three and a half months ago, if you told an Everton fan that when they woke up, their manager would be Sam Allardyce, they’d probably sit you down for a serious chat about your drinking.
For Everton, it seems everything has capitulated.
Big name transfers came into the club, with the likes of Sigurdsson, Pickford and Keane all showing Everton’s desire to flex their newly-found financial muscle. Koeman was granted a sizeable war-chest like none seen at either side of Stanley Park, leaving Liverpool fans looking nervously over their shoulders.
But things just didn’t work out. After losing 5-2 to Arsenal and falling into the relegation zone, Koeman was inevitably axed.
Everton have gone from a team backed by many pundits to challenge for top-4, to a team battling to avoid the relegation zone.
And that’s why Allardyce has today been appointed as Everton manager.
Allardici, despite his spurious claims to the contrary, is a man suited to the lower echelons of the Premier League, forging a career with a direct and pragmatic approach to football. “If you can’t win, don’t lose” is often cited as Big Sam’s mantra, and it’s something that has largely delivered.
Allardyce has not been brought in as a farsighted appointment. He’s been brought in to resurrect their season, drag them away from the relegation zone, and in the summer, he and Everton’s owners will reflect on the future. Maybe he will stay, but it’s not out of the question that regardless of where they finish, he could be thanked and cast aside.
Allardyce’s big challenge is to prove that he deserves the season after. Everton fans will never love him, he’s the antithesis of everything that they were promised. After replacing Moyes with Martinez, and Martinez with Koeman, Everton had firmly established their desire to play expansive, attractive football. Football for which Allardyce is hardly renowned.
Everton approached a variety of managers and with Diego Simeone, Marco Silva and Dyche amongst the approaches to be rebutted, Everton have undeniably settled with Allardyce – something that Toffees fans will be acutely aware of. It shows not only that Everton have failed in their quest for a successful expansive style, but it’s even more worrying for Everton fans that that couldn’t prise either the Burnley or Watford managers away.
The first issue to resolve is keeping the fans onside. Agitation and discontent is tangible in big stadiums, and whilst Everton fans will show support initially, it is the sad truth of modern football that all it takes is a few bad results for things to turn against you. Of course, bringing the ex-Liverpool player and assistant manager, Sammy Lee, to his backroom staff won’t help, either.
The answer for Allardyce is simple. He needs to get results, and quickly. With 9 games in the next month and between games and recoveries, he faces a struggle to implement wholesale changes. But if he can stem the flow of goals conceded, and manage to turn a squad of talented individuals into a team, the 2018-19 season could be his.
Big Sam’s career has been a success of near-hits and spectacular misses. When he was the Bolton manager, he claimed that all he needed was one window’s investment to turn them into a Champions League team – something he didn’t get. With West Ham, he was tasked with keeping them in the Premier League, so they could entice a more exotic manager for when they moved to the Olympic Stadium, and let’s just not address the England job.
Should Allardyce perform well this season, he may finally get that backing that he so desperately desired. Then we will finally see whether Big Sam Allardici is the top-4 manager that he so bullishly claimed.
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