Sam Allardyce has spoken out over his dismissal as Everton manager, suggesting that it was nothing personal and that it is just the nature of the Blues’ fans to hound bosses out.
The former England manager left Goodison Park at the end of last seasons despite guiding the Toffees to an eighth-placed finish following a dire start to the campaign under Ronald Koeman.
Speaking to the Mirror, Big Sam hinted that his departure was the result of a fickle fanbase.
He said: “Look, it’s not about Sam Allardyce – it’s about the manager that they don’t like at the given time.
“They didn’t like [predecessor] Ronald Koeman’s style and they didn’t like Roberto Martinez before him, so they hounded both of them out and then hounded me out, too.
“So I don’t think it was necessarily me, that’s why I don’t take offence personally. The fans are entitled to express an opinion. They pay their money and are entitled to have a say.
“I don’t like it, of course. But I don’t take offence. I look at the previous managers and see what happened to them. They were hounded out like me, but I think it was about the club at the time, not specifically me.”
OPINION
You have to say that Big Sam’s dismissal as Everton manager always felt a tad harsh. The manager came in with the club at it’s lowest point in many years and managed to drag them to a more than impressive eighth-placed finish with a pragmatic and not entirely unappealing style of football that played to the strengths of his squad. It was always fairly evident that Big Sam was not the club’s first choice, however, and when it became clear that Marco Silva was available over the summer, Allardyce was never going to last the distance. Since then, you could argue that the Toffees have taken a big step backwards, and much of that comes from the Portuguese’s dedication to a style of play that some would argue he doesn’t have the personnel to fully pull off at the moment. He may not always be fashionable but Big Sam cottoned on to the limitations of that Everton side, and was so successful because of it.