Premier League: Everton sack manager Sam Allardyce

Everton have decided to sack manager Sam Allardyce after just six months in charge, even though the experienced boss had signed a contract with the Toffees until the end of the 2018-2019 season. The 63-year-old manager took over in November, after Everton had sacked Ronald Koeman following the team's terrible start to the season. Everton were thirteenth in the Premier League table when Allardyce was appointed as manager and they finished the season in eighth place. However, they missed out on qualification for next season's Europa League. Despite the results, Allardyce was criticized by the Everton fans for his style of play. At the end of April, during Everton's 2-0 victory over Huddersfield, Allardyce was subjected to abusive chants from Everton fans and after the match he said: "I can't honestly produce any more than I'm doing. I'm sorry some fans don't like it but we are trying as hard as we can, myself, my staff and the players. We have got 14 points from our last seven games. I can only say it is just one of those things and if we keep winning it might change to love." It is true that Allardyce's Everton was not the most spectacular team in the league, on the contrary: they had the least number of shots in the whole Premier League this season. Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale said that the decision to sack Allardyce was part of a long-term plan for the club: "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." Marco Silva is the favourite for the vacant Everton job, he is 1/2 at William Hill to become the new manager of the Toffees, while Paulo Fonseca is 2/1.