Everton are keen to re-open talks with Sam Allardyce over the managerial vacancy at Goodison Park, sources have told ESPN FC, due to growing concern within the club's hierarchy over the prospect of a battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

But with Allardyce reluctant to return to management on a six-month contract, Everton are faced with the prospect of having to offer the former England manager a more long-term deal in order to persuade the 63-year-old to end his self-imposed exile from the game in the wake of his resignation at Crystal Palace during the summer.

While sources have reiterated that Watford manager Marco Silva remains the favoured option of Everton's majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, the inability to secure the Portuguese from Vicarage Road has left the Merseyside club in need of an immediate solution to the form slump that has seen the team win just one of seven games in all competitions under caretaker-manager David Unsworth.

Everton have lost five of Unsworth's seven games in charge, conceding nine goals in their last two games, against Atalanta in the Europa League and at Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday.

With the club now just two points above the bottom three ahead of Wednesday's encounter with third-bottom West Ham at Goodison, there is a determination at Everton to resolve the managerial uncertainty in the coming days.

Unsworth has been in temporary charge since Ronald Koeman was sacked on Oct. 23, but a failure among the Everton hierarchy to agree on a preferred successor has seen the situation drift.

Allardyce had been an early front-runner, alongside Burnley manager Sean Dyche, but he publicly withdrew from the race to succeed Koeman earlier this month due to a lack of firm interest from Goodison.

However, with Everton's pursuit of Silva so far proving fruitless, Unsworth's inability to improve the team's form has left them needing to appoint an experienced manager to help prevent a further slide into relegation trouble.

Sources have told ESPN FC that Allardyce remains reluctant to act as a stop-gap until another move for Silva takes places next summer, so Everton must either offer a long-term term contract or incentivise a shorter deal to reward the former Bolton, Blackburn, Newcastle, Sunderland, West Ham and Palace manager in the event of him steering the club away from the relegation zone and ensuring Premier League survival.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Mark Ogden

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