Everton perfect fit for Allardyce

Cancelling Christmas isn’t an obvious means of ingratiating yourself with a raft of new employees but it appears that Sam Allardyce can do no wrong at Everton where the latest chapter in one of British football’s most intriguing careers has kicked off on the most promising of intros.

It’s all of two weeks since this son of a police sergeant laid down the law. The planned club party was off, he explained, in view of their poor form but the sense of panic enveloping the blue half of Merseyside was already beginning to ease by then with Everton winning two and drawing another of Big Sam’s first three games in charge.

Add in the club’s 4-0 win over West Ham United before his unveiling — he sat in the Goodison Park stands that night with his trademark cheeky chappie smile as wide as Stanley Park — and the six points banked since his Scrooge impression and Allardyce’s reputation for transforming the fortunes of clubs in the mire has only been strengthened.