Everton are keeping tabs on Shakhtar Donetsk manager Paulo Fonseca as doubts grow about the long-term future of Sam Allardyce, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claim that the 44-year-old Portuguese could be brought in during the summer, depending on the club’s results between now and the end of the season.
The Mail report that director of football Steve Walsh is also under pressure, with PSV counterpart Marcel Brands being lined up, and the Toffees are ready for a total overhaul of their management structure.
It is said that Fonseca’s contract with Shakhtar expires this summer, and Everton owner Farhad Moshiri is growing impatient with the lack of return on his investment in the club recently.
Fonseca has been Shakhtar manager since the summer of 2016, and won the Ukrainian league-cup double in his first season at the helm.
Allardyce’s deal at Everton runs until the summer of 2019, and the club started promisingly under him with a seven-game unbeaten run, but Saturday’s win over Crystal Palace was just their second in ten recently.
OPINION
Allardyce’s viability as a long-term manager at a club like Everton, who are looking to break the monopoly of the top-six, was always going to be brought into question at some point. His brilliant start as Toffees boss had some thinking that he may be up to the task, but the club’s dismal run in recent weeks has illustrated his shortcomings as a top-level boss. It would therefore not be surprising to see him let go in the summer, with someone like Fonseca brought in to take the club to the next level.