Sam Allardyce has revealed it was easy to accept Everton’s offer to become manager despite the club’s lack of urgency at the beginning of the process.

The 63-year-old was appointed as the 23rd manager in the Blues’ history on Thursday evening and was quickly thrust in front of the media on Friday afternoon after giving his first interview to the club’s official website on Thursday.

Whilst there was little talk about Saturday’s game with Huddersfield Town, one point he expanded on was his ease in accepting the job when the club returned with a second offer for him a number of days ago.

Speaking to the press at Finch Farm, the new Everton boss said: “It’s Everton. The name of the club says it all. I’m big mates with Peter Reid, Andy Gray, Paul Bracewell and they all eulogise about this football club. Big Dunc (Duncan Ferguson), whose on the coaching staff here talks about this club with great affection and what it means.

“It was extremely difficult for me to move on last time but I couldn’t say no when they came back. I didn’t have a tough decision to make once they (the club) finally said ‘let’s see where we go'.”

Other job offers

The new Blues boss also revealed that he’s had a number of job offers since heading into retirement but turned them all down.

When Everton and majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri came calling, a temptation to come out of retirement and head back to the Premier League touchlines came about.

Allardyce said: “From my point of view I expected it to be a little bit quicker and it wasn’t. But then, of course, the phone call came and 48 hours later I was here. Everton was always going to be a temptation to come back out of retirement and take up the challenge.

“I have been offered a number of jobs from retiring from Crystal Palace - more than I have ever been offered in my life - but finally Everton came along and like I said in the end it was done within 48 hours even with me being in Dubai.”

Allardyce added: “I’m delighted that I’ve come back into a club of this magnitude, size and history.”

Winning over the fans

The Blues boss is unlikely to be the most popular manager in Goodison Park history but if he to pick up results and turn the club’s season around, he may just win over a few detractors.

When questioned about his ability to win over the sceptical fans, he answered: "Everyone has to win over fans. If you lose the fans criticise you, if you win the fans are okay with you.

“Whatever perception the fans have about me there’s nothing I can do about that. It’s been over many, many years now and it’s not true, of course, because we play a game of football to try and win it and with the players we have available my job is to try and allow the players to play to their best and play to their strengths and that has always been the case wherever I have been.”

Where does Wayne Rooney fit in

One of the faults of Ronald Koeman prior to his sacking was trying his hardest to play Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson together as attacking midfielders, rather than leaving space between them.

Sigurdsson operated on the left-hand side whilst Rooney operated behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin on Wednesday night, as the former England captain put in one of his best performances of the season.

“There’s no problem with him playing deep anymore. He’s put that one to bed now. Where would you see him after Wednesday night? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or a manager do you to know where he’s going to be playing. My God, it was an outstanding performance. Wayne has set his standard again and he has to deliver that standard,” Allardyce eulogised.

“That was almost like the old Wayne Rooney at Manchester United. He completely controlled the game. His outstanding quality and the way he drifted into the box for his second goal and the way he took his third goal.”

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About the author
Connor Bennett
Everton editor for VAVEL UK - contributing since 2015. Premier League accredited journalist. Journalism graduate from Liverpool. Writing about Football, eSports and the NFL. Email: [email protected] | Twitter: ConnorBennett14