Everton have appointed Sam Allardyce as their new manager – how long till the Andy Caroll speculation goes into overdrive?
If you told Everton fans when Farhad Moshiri took over at Goodison Park last year that Sam Allardyce would be in the dugout and Oumar Niasse would be their centre-forward by the end of 2017, you wouldn’t have received a particularly family-friendly response.
Moshiri promised a blank chequebook and a challenge for the Champions League. And while Everton have indeed spent more than at any other time in the club’s history, splashing out £140 million in the summer alone, Allardyce clearly isn’t a manager intended to reserve The Toffees a seat at Europe’s top table.
Instead, he has been appointed until the summer of 2019 with the idea of keeping Everton in the Premier League. And it says a lot that his unveiling at Goodison Park has been better received by supporters of his own club, West Ham, than on the blue half of Merseyside.
After all, Hammers fans are hoping that they can find a way to get Andy Carroll out of the club in January. And with Allardyce a big fan of the lanky centre-forward, and Everton crying out for a new number nine, the pieces seem to fit.
Carroll has picked up more red cards than goals this season and you get the feeling that West Ham fans will be happy if they can recoup the £15 million they paid Liverpool in 2013 (BBC) for the injury-prone targetman.
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