Sam Allardyce has denied reports that he has been in talks with Everton about taking over as manager at Goodison Park.
Reports surfaced last week that Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri had contacted and conducted face to face talks with the former England boss in London with a view to taking over the managerial role until the end of the season.
When asked about the role by Jim White on Talksport, Allardyce said he’s heard “nothing, at the minute.” When quizzed by White again about even speaking to Moshiri, the 63-year-old added: “No, I haven’t.”
Yet, the former England boss refused to rule himself out of the running.
He finished by saying: “It’s like everything else, if somebody comes calling and there’s the opportunity to speak, there's no doubt about that.”
The Dudley-born boss is seen as the favourite to take over the Blues role with some bookmakers refusing to take bets on him and some even closing the market on him becoming the next Everton manager in the last few days.
Everton had reportedly been set to approach Burnley for their boss Sean Dyche towards the end of last week but nothing has stemmed from those initial reports.
Names in the hat
There are a few names that are continually linked with the Everton role but with the international break upon us, there’s still no clear sign of who will take over.
The Toffees had hoped to have the situation resolved by this break but seem unsure who they want to replace Ronald Koeman on a full-time basis.
Sunday’s 3-2 excellent comeback win over Watford will help David Unsworth’s case no doubt but issues remain over whether or not he can make the step-up, at this time, from interim boss to permanent manager.
Marco Silva, the losing boss on Sunday afternoon, had denied he was thinking about leaving the Hornets in the build-up to the game but when quizzed about it in his post-match press conference, refused to deny the chance he could Vicarage Road.
Either Allardyce or Dyche seems the most likely at this point in time but with neither likely to go down really well with the Goodison Park faithful, the Blues have plenty of thinking to do.