DAY OF HIGH FARCE BUT WHAT A FIRST NIGHT AT GOODISON!
SAM ALLARDYCE’S remarkable entrance at Goodison came after a day of high farce. In the morning a section of the club’s supporters were fuming, though there was little dissent as the goals flew past West Ham goalkeeper Joe Hart last night. The 63-year-old’s advisers agreed an 18-month deal, worth £6million a year, on Tuesday in London and Allardyce came back from a holiday in Dubai yesterday to meet his new squad at the club’s Finch Farm training base. That, however, was only half the story as the day began with fans reacting angrily to Sportsmail’s revelation that former Liverpool stalwart Sammy Lee had been appointed to the coaching staff alongside Craig Shakespeare, goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson and head of fitness Ryland Morgans. There will, at least, be an Everton connection in the technical team with Duncan Ferguson staying as a coach. David Unsworth, who has been in caretaker charge, will take charge of the Under 23s again along with his assistant John Ebbrell. But after the Lee controversy, matters got worse when Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s major shareholder and man who has driven the recruitment of Allardyce, chose to release the fact that business had been concluded with the former England manager through broadcaster Jim White on Twitter. Everton’s communications department were unaware of this and an
embarrassing situation was made worse when bookmaker Paddy Power released quotes given to them by Allardyce two weeks ago in which he dissected the team’s problems. Then SportPesa, Everton’s shirt sponsors, sent out a mocking tweet featuring a video clip of Allardyce dancing in Marbella 16 months ago with the words ‘talk about finding love in a hopeless place’. The tweet was deleted but damage had been done. Everton issued a holding tweet to say that Allardyce was expected at the training ground for talks but, even though contractual matters had long since been concluded, no official announcement came. Allardyce arrived at Finch Farm at 3pm, speaking to the players over their pre-match meal. He spent just over three hours there before making the 25-minute drive to Goodison Park, where he arrived with Moshiri. The initial reception he received was muted. Moshiri and Allardyce watched the game from the directors’ box — his first official match in charge will be Saturday’s home clash with Huddersfield. Moshiri is adamant, after waiting 37 days to find Ronald Koeman’s successor, that Allardyce will be a ‘strong leader who will give us stability’ and vowed to give him ‘all the support he wants’. Writing on paddypower.com, Allardyce had noted the players’ ‘loss of belief in themselves and lack of confidence’. Last night, out of the blue, they seemed well on the way to regaining it.