Wednesday 16 May 2018 15:34, UK
Sam Allardyce has been sacked by Everton as the Merseyside club work to appoint Marco Silva as their new manager.
The club announced Allardyce's departure after chairman Farhad Moshiri met with the 63-year-old on Wednesday morning, Sky Sports News understands, following an Everton board meeting on Tuesday.
Allardyce will be paid the vast majority of the final 12 months of his contract, estimated to be around £6m, and the full cost of doing so and replacing him with Silva could cost an eye-watering £16m.
Everton are yet to resolve their dispute with Watford over the alleged tapping up of Silva while he was in charge at Vicarage Road last year, and Sky Sports News believes that settlement alone could cost as much as £8m.
Finally, the contract settlements for Allardyce's backroom staff including Sammy Lee, Craig Shakespearce and Martyn Margetson is likely to cost a further £2m.
Allardyce, 63, secured an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League after just two defeats in their final nine matches, having been installed to save them from potential relegation.
After Ronald Koeman was sacked, the Toffees sank into the bottom-three in November, during a troubled period under the caretaker charge of David Unsworth.
Ahead of his dismissal, Allardyce told Sky Sports News: "I've done all that I can, the backroom staff have done all that they can, and the players have done all that they can."
And on confirming the ex-England, West Ham and Newcastle boss's exit, Everton's new deputy CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale said: "On behalf of the chairman, board of directors and Mr Moshiri, I'd like to thank Sam for the job he has done at Everton over the last seven months.
"Sam was brought in at a challenging time last season to provide us with some stability and we are grateful to him for doing that. However, we have made the decision that, as part of our longer-term plan, we will be appointing a new manager this summer and will be commencing this process immediately.
"Again, we'd like to place on record our sincere thanks to Sam for his work with us over the last few months and wish him well for the future."
