Sam Allardyce leaves Everton

Allardyce took over at Goodison Park following Ronald Koeman's sacking, guiding the Toffees to an eighth placed finish in the Premier League this season, winning 10 games.

The decision comes after crunch meetings between the club's board earlier this week.

In a statement issued on the Everton website, the club confirmed the 63-year-old's exit.

"Everton Football Club can confirm that Sam Allardyce has left his role as manager." read the statement.

"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." Everton director, Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale said.

"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."

Allardyce had a memorably controversial stint as England boss, leaving by mutual consent after just one game in charge of the side in 2016.

He was filmed in an undercover sting by the Daily Telegraph allegedly agreeing to be paid £400,000 to offer advice on how rules could be broken on player transfers, leading him to claim that 'entrapment has won' following his exit.

Marco Silva is being tipped as the manager likely to replace Allardyce at Goodison Park, although Watford have reportedly made a complaint against the Toffees over the alleged tapping up of the former Hornets manager, who left the club in January.