‘Close to Europe’: Sam Allardyce makes claim about his time at Everton

Former Everton manager Sam Allardyce has made a claim about his time at the club.

The 68-year-old was appointed in November 2017 following the sacking of Ronald Koeman, coming out of retirement and signing an 18-month contract at Goodison Park.

Everton were in thirteenth place in the table at the time of his appointment and ended the season in eighth before his dismissal at the end of the 2017/18 campaign.

However, the former England boss has claimed that he would have taken the club ‘close to Europe’ has he remained at the helm.

Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast, Allardyce said: “The old stigma at Everton got rid of me in the end.

We only played the way we played because of the quality of players. Over the years, I’m experienced enough to know this is what the players are capable of and this is how we’re going to set out.

We lost two at home in the entire time we were there, but there’s that word in the press when they start niggling and then the bubble starts getting bigger and bigger.

In the end, the fact that the fan reaction is taken by your owners and that was the reason why I got sacked – not by the amount of points I accumulated.

But they just weren’t brave enough to stick with us. If they had stuck with us I would have them close to Europe.”

Allardyce may have a different view on his tenure at Goodison Park than the fans do

Everton went on a seven-game unbeaten run following Allardyce’s appointment and ended the season in a respectable position given the state the club was in following Koeman’s sacking.

However, the football was dreadful and statistically, Everton were ranked amongst the lowest performing teams in the English top-flight.

Allardyce’s style of football saw Everton ranked twentieth for total shots, nineteenth for shots on target, seventeenth for total shots faced and sixteenth for passing accuracy.

This is also the man who spent £27m on Cenk Tosun.