Sam Allardyce has ruled himself out of the running for the Everton job after claiming that the club took too long to make him an offer following tentative talks.
Allardyce told Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast on Talksport (15th November, 06:00) that he is no longer interested in the Toffees job after being forced into making a decision for himself.
The former England boss emerged as a surprise candidate for the Goodison Park job after the sacking of Ronald Koeman, and became one of the favourites to take the position.
With Allardyce now out of the running, and with Watford’s Marco Silva also reportedly ruled out, only Sean Dyche and David Unsworth remain from the original candidates.
Allardyce said: “It never materialised as I thought it would unfortunately. For me, such a long time without a decision I had to make a decision myself. It would have been a fabulous job but it just didn’t feel right.
“If it was going to be me it was getting in as soon as I can to have the international break to get settled in and unfortunately that didn’t happen for me.”
EXCLUSIVE! Sam Allardyce tells the Sports Breakfast he is no longer interested in talking to #Everton about taking over as manager at Goodison Park… pic.twitter.com/hGeQ4xkv94
— talkSPORT Breakfast (@TSBreakfast) November 15, 2017
OPINION
While it did look for a while like Allardyce was indeed to be the next Everton manager, reports have been circulating for a day or so that suggested he was out of the running. These comments definitively confirm that Everton must look elsewhere now to replace Koeman, and the longer this calamitous search continues, the more likely it is looking that David Unsworth will be given the job. This is not necessarily out of choice, with owner Farhad Moshiri wanting to bring in an established name, but out of necessity, with so many coaches now having been ruled out.