Ronald Koeman sacked: who will be the next Everton manager?

After a disastrous start to the Premier League season Everton have confirmed that Ronald Koeman has been sacked.

Everton’s poor run of results continued yesterday with a 5-2 home defeat against Arsenal. The latest loss leaves the Toffees languishing in the relegation zone with only eight points and two wins from their nine league matches.

The 54-year-old Koeman joined Everton from Southampton in June 2016. He led the Merseyside club to a seventh-place finish in his first season and secured qualification to the Europa League.

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Despite bringing Wayne Rooney back to Goodison Park and spending more than £140million during the summer transfer window, Koeman’s future has been hanging in the balance following the poor start to the campaign. He also failed to replace striker Romelu Lukaku, who left to join Manchester United.

In an official club statement, Everton said: “Chairman Bill Kenwright, the board of directors and major shareholder Farhad Moshiri would all like to express their gratitude to Ronald for the service he has given to the club over the past 16 months and for guiding the Club to seventh place in last season’s Premier League campaign.”

So who next for the Goodison Park hot seat? Bookmaker Coral has David Moyes as 3/1 favourite to return to Everton while the club’s under-23 manager David Unsworth is 7/2.

Unsworth is expected to be named as caretaker manager, says The Daily Telegraph. If he’s given the temporary role, his first job will be to lead the side away at Chelsea in the League Cup on Wednesday.

Another front-runner for the Everton job is Sean Dyche. Both the Telegraph and Daily Mail report that the Burnley manager is heading a list of potential candidates. Dyche has also been linked to the vacant role at Leicester City.

Other names being reported include Watford’s Marco Silva and out-of-work duo Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti. The Daily Star also names Sam Allardyce and Chris Coleman as likely successors to Koeman.