Allardyce bringing in Lee to help save Everton
SAM ALLARDYCE will be unveiled as the new manager of Everton in the next 48 hours with Liverpool legend Sammy Lee expected to be part of his coaching team.
Talks were continuing last night after representatives of Allardyce met Everton’s major shareholder Farhad Moshiri in London yesterday.
Allardyce, 63, arrives back from a holiday with wife Lynne today and is expected to meet Moshiri to finalise the deal.
But most of the details have already been agreed, including a salary of approaching £6million a year, and both sides expect the former England boss to be in charge for Saturday’s Premier League match against Huddersfield.
Bringing in Lee, 58, is a bold move by Allardyce, despite their history together. Lee was Allardyce’s assistant at Bolton before their brief stint with the FA last year and at Crystal Palace in the second half of last season.
While there could be unease about recruiting a coach with such strong links to Everton’s great rivals Liverpool, Allardyce wants someone who played such an important role in helping him keep Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
He also knows Lee will be hugely motivated to succeed at Everton, given the circumstances around his departure from Liverpool in June 2011. Then manager Kenny Dalglish told Lee he was no longer required, bringing to an end a 35-year association with the club.
Allardyce hopes to complete his backroom team with ex- Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare, goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson and fitness coach Ryland Morgan. Allardyce’s imminent appointment is a surprise after he publicly distanced himself from Everton two weeks ago, saying: ‘It never materialised as I thought it would, unfortunately. [There was] such a long time without a decision, so I had to make a decision myself. ‘I decided it was probably better it wasn’t me and I’d move on to something else. It would have been a fabulous job, but it just didn’t feel right. I think when you’re in my position, you want people to be decisive and feel like they want you. I didn’t get that feeling overall. They were hesitating that I was the man.’ Everything changed after Everton failed to lure Marco Silva from Watford and the Goodison club suffered another crushing defeat, this time at Southampton, under caretaker boss David Unsworth. Allardyce’s advisers were contacted on Sunday night and talks have progressed.
Unsworth will still be in charge for this evening’s game against West Ham — last night it was unclear whether Allardyce would be there — and he warned Everton yesterday that it won’t be easy to turn the club around.
He said: ‘There is no such thing as a quick fix in football. There is no secret ingredient where someone comes in and all of sudden you start winning again. Whoever gets the job needs time, patience, support and backing.’
They also need the players onside and Unsworth left no doubt that there are individuals in Everton’s squad who have not been fully committed.
‘When you are in a tough moment, in this day and age the mentality of players isn’t what it used to be,’ said Unsworth.
Meanwhile West Ham manager David Moyes, who returns tonight to the club where he spent 11 years, admits he would probably not have lasted more than two seasons there in the modern day.
In his second full season, the Scot had secured safety by April, but Everton ended the campaign by going six games without a win, losing the final four — a run which culminated in a 5-1 hammering by Manchester City.
‘That was probably the only time I thought, “Maybe this is the way it’s going”,’ Moyes recalled.
‘We had to get rid of the feeling at Everton that being safe was good enough. If I can get good stability and strength at West Ham, I could easily have 11 years here. West Ham have unbelievable potential to be up there,’ he added.
Moyes accepts the game has changed and managers are given less time now — he is in his fourth job in four years. But he believes perseverance from owners would be rewarded. He was afforded patience by Everton chairman Bill Kenwright from the beginning in 2002.
‘Bill said to me I had £5m a year to spend when I took the job,’ Moyes said.
‘I asked Bill for a couple of things in exchange; that I could prepare my players any way I liked and that he wouldn’t sell any, and he agreed to it. We shook hands and I got on with it.’