‘Disgusted’ Sam Allardyce sacked by Everton

Allardyce had another year left on his contract, but met the club's major shareholder Farhad Moshiri on Wednesday morning when his departure was confirmed.

Ahead of the meeting, Allardyce has hit out at a lack of "decency" after Everton pushed ahead with boardroom changes by appointing Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale to replace Robert Elstone as CEO with Dr Keith Harris becoming deputy chairman without his knowledge.

“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," said Barrett-Baxendale. "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.”

Former Watford and Hull City manager Marco Silva is apparently the Goodison Park club's preferred choice to replace Allardyce.

“I'm shocked, disappointed and disgusted that the football club didn't have the decency to tell me, my director of football and my staff about the changes," said Allardyce.

“They must have been in the pipeline for a considerable time, but no-one thought to tell me and my staff. I'm pretty disgusted.

“I will be meeting Farhad on Wednesday morning to discuss what happens next, but I'm not expecting a long meeting.”

The former England manager took over in November after the sacking of Ronald Koeman and guided Everton out of the bottom half of the Premier League to an eighth-placed finish.

But the style of play under the 63-year-old has not been met with universal appeal among Everton fans.

According to reports, Allardyce will receive a £6 million pay-off from the Premier League club.