With Ronald Koeman being one of the four Premier League managers who have already been sacked this season, Everton still find themselves without a full-time manager. With David Unsworth taking the job on a caretaker role basis, there have been a host of names linked with the job.
Despite investing heavily in the summer, they find themselves languishing in 15th position in the table with only three wins from the opening six games and crashing out at the group stage of the Europa League, is a start that most Everton fans would not have imagined at the beginning of the campaign.
Definitively Ronald Koeman had to leave, performances were not simply good enough, his frustrations showed, publicly lashing out at his players and ultimately it looked like the Dutchman had lost the dressing room. With the investment under new owner Farhad Moshiri, the Everton hot seat looks like a prestigious job and would be an attractive prospect for lot of managers across Europe.
However the recent speculation towards Sam Allardyce emerging as the favourite to take the job and Sean Dyche amongst the frontrunners for the job, this looks a poor prospect for the Everton fan.
Former England manager Sam Allardyce is a manager that comes with a reputation, his ability to help teams avoid relegation, is what Allardyce has ultimately made a career out of. Appointing Allardyce would surely look like a panic move from the Everton board.
Yes, they have struggled in the early quarter of the season, but appointing the former Bolton and Crystal Palace man would be almost admitting that the club is in a serious fight with relegation. The Everton faithful deserve better after seeing the club spend so much money on the likes of Gylfi Sigurðsson, Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford to name a few and need to see the team play good football and not just set up one dimensionally under the guidance of Allardyce.
The Everton backline and goalkeeper does need work and that would definitely fall into one of the strong points of Allardyce's management style but this would be taking a step back for the club, they need to change the attitude of the club, as a team pushing forward not going sidewards and as a result pondering in the lower regions of the Premier League.
Current Burnley manager Sean Dyche has a lot of admirers and has found himself to be one of the favourites to land the Everton managerial position. The Everton job would ultimately be a step up for Dyche despite Burnley's excellent start to the season, but would he be the man to take Everton forward?
Not really. Dyche has a squad of players in that Burnley squad in which he trusts, would many of them make other Premier League teams? That would be questionable. The Englishman tactically is very organised, disciplined and hard-working. Are they good to watch? No, despite their results.
If it was a direct choice between the two English managers then Dyche would certainly get the nod over Allardyce but neither seem the right fit to take this group of Everton players forward, they are a young group and respectively the younger players will not develop much, with both Allardyce and Dyche both having a reputation for not using too many younger players in their teams.
What has been evident since the dismissal of Koeman, is the need to talk about British managers being linked with the Everton job, however this is a group of players with quality throughout the team, and they are a very gifted technical group of players, with players in the mould of Davy Klassen, Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurðsson in the ranks.
Current caretaker boss David Unsworth has expressed his desire to get the job on a full-time basis. However, his short tenure thus far has not helped his case in getting the role full time, with the comeback win at home to Watford resulting in the only win in four games in charge, and ultimately performances on the pitch have not improved significantly.
If reports of owner Moshiri declaring Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone as his number one target are to be believed, the Everton fans may be in for a long wait as to who will be the club's next manager. This would be the unlikeliest move that could happen for the blue half of Merseyside.
The recently sacked Carlo Ancelotti was also linked briefly with the job, but again the club needs to be realistic. Former Hull City and current Watford manager Marco Silva would be the ideal candidate for the job, but would he swap Vicarage Road for Goodison Park? It doesn't seem likely at this point, especially after Watford making a very positive start to the season under the guidance of the Portuguese manager.
One man who the Everton board should consider to take charge is the current Nice manager Lucien Favre. The Swiss manager is one of the more underrated managers across Europe but his style of play and his ability to integrate young players into a team would be ideal for this current Everton group.
Favre would certainly be an upgrade on the potential appointments of either Allardyce or Dyche, his style of play would better reflect the players who he would have at his disposal at Goodison Park. It is easy to forget the success that Favre achieved with Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany and the great season last time out with Nice finishing third in Ligue 1.
The Everton board need to really add quality to their options, the attraction of managing in the Premier League for managers now is great, and especially at a club that has the finances to back the manager. Former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique would surely be worth trying to lure to the club, former PSG manager Laurent Blanc achieved great success in France, surely the board could be trying to lure a manager to the club that could really push the club forward.
The appointment of the next Everton manager is a massive decision for the Everton board, it will affect the rest of the season for the club, however mentally it is important to look higher than bringing Sam Allardyce to the club as straight away the players will not feel they are any better than a relegation scrap.