Everton line up Vieira to replace Allardyce

Bengaluru, May 8: Everton are lining up a move to land former Arsenal skipper and current New York City FC manager Patrick Vieira to replace Sam Allardyce as manager this summer, according to reports.

The Blue half of Merseysiders are reportedly in the market for a new manager after growing frustrated with current boss Sam Allardyce's football prospect. Everton spent nearly £100 million in the summer with former boss Ronald Koeman, however, a disastrous start saw the Dutch manager getting the sack and Everton loitering in the relegation battle.

Primarily Marco Silva was the Everton board’s first choice to replace Ronald Koeman but after the Portuguese manager opted to remain with Watford, the Toffees board appointed veteran boss Sam Allardyce to handle the situation. Allardyce signed a contract which runs until the summer of 2019.

The English boss since taking over charge has handled the uproar profoundly and has taken Everton to a comfortable midtable position as the end of the season looming.

However, still, talk remains that he will be dismissed this summer with the former England manager is hugely unpopular with fans at Everton.

The Everton fans have shown their displeasure numerous times this season and even in some of the home games a bunch of supporters mocked him by name-calling him with chants.

Seeing the fans keen for more change, the board and owner now have now reportedly decided to bring a younger manager and according to some of the reports, former World Cup winner Vieira is topping the list.

Vieira also in recent times has been linked with a return to Arsenal following Arsene Wenger’s decision to stand down at the end of the season. The invincible's captain spent nine years as a player between 1996 and 2005 with the Gunners and has been touted as the next Arsenal boss by Arsenal fans but reportedly, Everton are ready to beat the Gunners to land him in the Summer.

Vieira earlier also acknowledged the fact that he is attaining interest from Premier League and will welcome a move to England.

He said: “I still have, of course, next year. It is going to be my contract at least until the end of the season and then after that, anything can happen. When your name is linked with big teams in Europe, it’s good. That shows that people are following what you are doing and you are doing a good job.”

Vieira since 2016 has been working as a manager of MLS side New York FC and has been impressive in his first foray into management. The Frenchman led NYCFC to their first-ever playoff appearance after finishing second in the Eastern Conference in his very start season.

The Frenchman has a contract with NYFC until December 2018 and only earns £2million-a-year thus Everton believe they can lure the man to Merseyside and easily eclipse the salary which he gets at MLS.