Sam Allardyce hits out at Premier League

Bengaluru, February 2: Everton boss Sam Allardyce has hit out at the Football Association of England for scheduling games on the transfer deadline day.

Big Sam has claimed that five players in the squad to face Leicester City had their Goodison futures thrown into doubt on deadline day.

The former England manager has claimed that the agents of five Blues stars wanted to secure their players loan moves in the hours building up towards kick-off at Goodison.

The Everton manager said it could have impacted on their display against the Foxes and wanted to vent his frustrations at a situation he says must be avoided.

“We were hit with that severe blow of the deadline and having to play tonight,” Allardyce said.

“I'll tell you this, that five of our players in the squad today their agents had called to see if they could go out on loan.

“So it was obvious the player knew as well as us dealing with it which was never going to happen that we were going to let any of those go.

“But it is upsetting, it's not right, it disturbs the players, it hasn't disturbed us today, it's not effected the result I'm glad to say but it could easily have done so.”

“It's up to our bosses to sort it out. Every boss at every football club should sit at the AGM and say: 'Look, you've got to stop doing this to our managers and our football club'.

“Unless they sort that out at the AGM, which they clearly haven't, they clearly let the Premier League go and they clearly vote for it, if they want us to give and deliver they can't put us in a game on the final day.”

“It happened to me last season at Crystal Palace, it's happened again to me tonight and I've spent all day fending off people trying to upset my players and take my players away,” he added.

“Some we've let go, one we might bring in today and to have a game while that is going on...

“It's alright for me, I don't have to go and run around on the pitch but it's not alright for the players when they get phone calls from their agents and we get agents saying: 'Sam's not playing him you've got to let him go'.

“It's not their position to tell us what to do. We must change that situation. Why can't we play a midweek game next week?”