The hard work starts now for Everton after Sam Allardyce sacking

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The Toffees made the expected decision if relieving Sam Allardyce of his duties, but will need a lot of work to compete in the Premier League.

It was coming: Sam Allardyce has been let go by Everton as they decide that survival should not come at any cost, even if the job he did was arguably a good one.

It’s easy to forget how bad Everton were when they appointed Allardyce; the Toffees were sliding towards relegation at such an alarming pace that they gave up on their pursuit of pretty, attacking football and went with the antithesis of everything they had hoped to stand for after David Moyes left in 2013.

But it was the right thing to do, undoubtedly. If that appointment had gone wrong, Everton would likely have faced the same fate as West Brom, Stoke, and Swansea after their own replacements backfired.

And now Everton are left needing a rebuild that will take an awful lot more than replacing Allardyce.

Marcel Brands has reportedly arrived as a new director of football, a solid start, but this squad will require a massive overhaul as well as the right manager.

Ronald Koeman simply did not get the players he needed for the football he wanted last summer, despite the club finally spending as fans had long hoped they would, instead watching as the club built a side that was clearly more suited for Allardyce.

That will need undoing as much as anything – with Everton’s defence arguably top of the list and their lack of creativity not far behind.

A relatively inexperienced Michael Keane is the only defender in the Everton squad in what you would usually label the ‘prime’ of their career, while their attack doesn’t feature a single player who is in that age bracket and plays the way the fans want to.

It’ll take a lot of money and likely an equal amount of time – Everton fans have got what they wanted but they’ve already seen first hand that it’s not as easy as that. They’ve earned a second chance but there will be no Allardyce to save them next time.