Is Sam the Man?

 

After the debacle of Everton’s manager chase, the club of Howard Kendall and Harry Catterick looks like appointing a disgraced former England manager.

Candidates such as Carlo Ancelotti have distanced themselves whilst flavour of the month Marco Silva was futilely chased while his club refused permission to talk. Act in haste, repent at your leisure. How would the appointment of Sam Allardyce affect Everton’s future?

Organisation

There is no doubt that Allardyce has the organisational skills to keep Everton up but at what cost? According to some sources, he wants 4 million pounds a year until 2020. This for a manager who last finished in the top 6 a decade ago. Is this where Everton have fallen to?

Sam Allardyce, is the godfather of Pulisball. For years, fans complained about Everton’s style of play under Moyes, but Allardyce was a master at getting men behind the ball and playing for the nil nil. Whilst we all want to see some organisation at Everton, do we really want to watch us grind out results week in week out?

Big Sam = Instability?

It is telling that Allardyce fell out of favour with fans at Newcastle and West Ham for his style of play. It is also telling that both clubs struggled after he left. Managerial change causes instability at a club. New managers often don’t fancy players brought in by the previous manager. These are then shipped at a loss.

For example, look at what happened after Martinez was sacked. Koeman spent 6 months at the club evaluating players, (one or two of whom Martinez would have got rid of) then brought in his own players last summer. This season, Everton have struggled, sacked Koeman and Davy Klaassen could be off to Besiktas this January. 25 million down the drain. This is unsustainable, even for a club like City, never mind Everton.

Allardyce will evaluate his players quickly and will shift out players who don’t fit in with his athletic style of play. He will also bring in his own players. The 63 year old retired at the end of last season so he is not exactly a long term manager for Everton. We have gone from trying to bring in a manager who can take us on to the next level, to a manager who is keeping us in the division.

Board Issues?

Part of the reason that we are in this mess must lie with the board. The appointment of Koeman and the current managerial farce have taken a long time. Certainly in Koeman’s case, that cost us time in the transfer market. This time, it has cost us points and our status in world football. Everton are not seen as the club most likely to knock on the door anymore. We are instead seen as a divided club.

Farhad Moshiri has been on barley with a lot of blues. The usual suspects are blaming Bill Kenwright as usual. It could be that Kenwright has disagreed with Moshiri over the future manager as some reports have suggested. Koeman was Moshiri’s man and the Iranian has to take some of the blame as he is said to have the final say on a new manager.

The truth is we don’t know. Secrecy has always ruled at the club as it should, they are in a competitive business. What we do know is that the club have taken too long in appointing the manager. We have played 4 league games and got a point for each. Sacking a manager without having a new manager lined up has cost the club.

Lessons to be Learned

This will be the second time in Moshiri’s 22 months at the club that he is appointing a new manager. Previous to this, Everton had 2 managers in 13 years. Some call this stagnation, others call it stability. Everton need stability going forward. It breeds success. Whoever comes in, it is important that the board of the club learn from their experiences. Act in haste repent at your leisure. Newcastle, a club with a large fan base, fired their manager every year and were relegated twice. Everton need to learn from this quickly. In the meantime, Allardyce may save us from relegation. The question remains, can he and Everton’s board, bring them back to the Promised Land?

Click here for our article about Big Sam’s career so far.

Do you want Big Sam at Goodison?  Let us know in the comments below.