Kevin Mirallas claims that Sam Allardyce took an extremely relaxed approach to training at Everton, and that the club’s players didn’t enjoy playing for him.
The former England manager was appointed as Ronald Koeman’s successor in November 2017, and despite steering the Toffees to an eighth-place finish, he was relieved of his duties in May.
Allardyce was a controversial figure among the Everton fan base. While the former Bolton and West Ham manager delivered results, his negative brand of football, his condescending dismissal of the opinions of the fan base and his general lack of connection with the club made him feel like a mercenary who had no interest in being in it for the long haul.
Reflecting on Allardyce’s short stint at Goodison Park while talking to The Athletic, Mirallas revealed that Allardyce was barely present at training, leading him to believe that the man couldn’t possible know enough about his squad to pick a team every week. Mirallas said:
Martinez and Koeman wanted to play football but after, there was Allardyce.
I don’t know if he even knew football because he only spent five minutes on the pitch in training. Nobody knows this, but it’s true.
That’s difficult. You have to pick players at the weekend but you don’t watch training.
I only stayed for one month while he was there but I spoke to some players and they told me it was very difficult.
It’s true he won a lot of games, but they didn’t enjoy it.
When contacted by The Athletic, Allardyce refuted Mirallas’ claims, saying that between himself, Sammy Lee, Craig Shakespeare and Duncan Ferguson, he had a good grip on the training sessions.
Read Everton Verdict
I’ve never been one to hide my thoughts on Allardyce, and Mirallas’ claims are completely believable to me. Allardyce never appeared as though he was invested in the club, so i could easily accept his lack of commitment in training.
It seems that more and more people are dismissing his tenure as Everton boss, which further proves wrong the pundits and neutral fans who asked ‘what more do Everton want?’
Marco Silva is going through a rough period right now, but he is markedly better than his predecessor in almost every possible way, so despite the horrible Premier League run, it really could be worse.
