On This Day In Everton History: May 16th

With games winding down, each day brings more somber news...manager sackings. So, let’s take a look at how this date shaped Everton history as we know it!

2018: Sam Allardyce’s reign as manager ends

The past 5-10 years have been rough for Everton. Managers have come and gone, the team has looked bleak for most of it and there hasn’t been too much to cheer about, but no time has been more dark in recent memory than the 2017-2018 campaign. At the beginning of the season, Ronald Koeman was manager, but he was fighting for his job. The team had tons of turnover, losing guys like Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku while spending a large sum of money on guys like Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen. There was hope that things would turn around for the Toffees with the introduction of promising players and the recent influx of cash with Farhad Moshiri buying 49.9% stake in the club just over a year prior, but that hope would dwindle fast. Unfortunately, the campaign started off in terrible fashion with the Toffees winning just 4 of their first 16 matches in all competitions. Things finally fell apart on October 22nd, 2017 when Everton got a beatdown from Arsenal losing 5-2, ending Koeman’s reign as manager.

At the time, the Toffees were in the midst of a 5-game winless streak and it would only get worse. The Everton board couldn’t decide on a manager and David Unsworth was having a tough time keeping the team afloat in the interim role. The Toffees failed to win 10 straight games and won just once in a 14-match span before the board finally came to a decision. To the disappointment of the fans, the club was in a relegation battle and they needed someone to make sure they stayed out of that, so the board hired Sam Allardyce as the next manager.

Despite the lack of excitement behind the appointment, Allardyce did his job, leading the team to 7 unbeaten matches in a row to start his tenure with the team only allowing 2 goals over that span. Unfortunately, Allardyce couldn’t keep that up and the team slumped once again, losing 7 of their next 10 matches, but it wouldn’t mean too much. The Toffees would figure things out, only losing 2 more the rest of the way, and finished in 8th place after a grueling season. Allardyce had done his job and avoided relegation, but the standard of play wasn’t good enough, certainly not for a club that has top six aspirations. The club and the fans wanted more, which brings us to May 16th, 2018.

On this day, the Everton board made the decision to move on from Allardyce just under 6 months after he was hired. With the influx of cash and the talent the Toffees believed they had, they felt like it was time for a fresh start. Two weeks later, the club decided on Marco Silva as the next manager of Everton. Unfortunately, though, we all know how that worked out (or not) and Silva would be sacked a year and a half later, making way for the hiring of current manager Carlo Ancelotti.

And THAT is today in Everton history!