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On the day Sam Allardyce should have been naming his first England squad for a major international tournament, he was finally shown the exit door at Goodison Park.

That very same afternoon, West Ham United confirmed David Moyes - incumbent of the Everton hotseat for over a decade - would not be returning to lead the Hammers next season.

Moyes’ future, like Allardyce’s could have been wildly different.

This campaign would have been his fifth at Manchester United - had he not been sacked - after replacing Sir Alex Ferguson back in 2013.

Moyes signed a six-year deal upon leaving the Blues for Old Trafford, but instead of negotiating a new deal and racking up silverware in Manchester, he too will join Allardyce in the increasingly crowded management wilderness this summer.

The fate - read: fall - of both Allardyce and Moyes from unlikely choices at both England and United respectively to walking caricatures shows that football is, still, a funny old game.

But perhaps the events of Wednesday May 16th point towards a very new game.

A game that they are, whether they like it or not, no longer welcome in.

Fans and pundits alike gleefully rolled out the statistic this season that Everton, Stoke, Newcastle, West Ham, West Brom and Crystal Palace had, somewhat frantically, been swapping managers for the past ten years.

Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew, David Moyes, Roy Hodgson and Mark Hughes have all cleared each others belongings from various desks across the Premier League - and for one reason in particular.

The fear.

With the absurd, eye-watering amounts of money floating around the Premier League - largely thanks to the inflation of TV revenue - chairmen and owners across the country are petrified of losing their status in England’s top-flight.

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Allardyce, Moyes and the other names listed above are deemed as firefighters, men with stern glares and old-fashioned methods who deliver the goods without too much fuss.

Only Hodgson, however, can be deemed a success story from the litany of failures across management’s old guard this season.

Pulis was removed from his post at doomed West Brom after just a handful of games in November, while Stoke - where Hughes started the season - also suffered relegation.

Moyes was, quite frankly, back to his Moyesian best at West Ham - which isn’t quite a compliment.

He recovered from a harrowing spell at Sunderland last season - another club to have utilised the merry-go-round of English managers to much less success - to solidify and reorganise an ailing West Ham side.

The problem is, that is simply not enough anymore in this expansive, money-littered, new-age Premier League.

And Evertonians will know that better than anyone after the last six months.

Social media was alight with debate after the sacking of Allardyce on Wednesday as supporters defended the decision to part ways with the former Bolton boss.

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan - a Sheffield United fan - and BBC correspondent Dan Walker (Crawley Town) both expressed confusion at the sacking, with the latter pointing out that Allardyce, everyone was forgetting, had guided the Toffees to an 8th-place finish.

But Everton fans - and, seemingly, the powers that be in charge of the club - had to witness the turgid post-January displays that his joy-sapping strategies offered.

In recent years, Blues have sat back and watched Wigan’s shock FA Cup victory, Leicester’s unprecedented title-success, and to a lesser extent, Burnley’s assault on the Europa League places.

None of these clubs have the history, resources or fanbase of Everton.

But there was a belief, firstly under Moyes himself and then Roberto Martinez and Ronald Koeman, that the Blues weren’t far from ruffling their own feathers.

Allardyce - from his tactics to his gloating demeanour - completely wiped that optimism from the mind of every single supporter.

Evertonians never have - and never will - accept the kind of dour, stay-at-home football that is repeatedly offered up, season-after-season, by Big Sam and the merry-go-round men.

(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)

And this season may just have proved to be the final nail in many of their top-flight coffins.

Allardyce’s prehistoric mantra of percentage-based play - coupled with almost accepting defeat to United and City while pawing at a weak Liverpool side at Goodison - was enough to leave the Goodison crowd at breaking point.

For every team outside the top seven this season, there was a stomach-turning moment when relegation lurked menacingly over their shoulder.

For Everton, that should never have been a possibility - but neither should the desperate act of appointing Allardyce.

Not when the motto below the badge reads Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, anyway.

Evertonians understand that change under a new boss will be progressive. Nobody, surely, is expecting a title-challenge next season.

But for now, stepping off the merry-go-round and ditching Allardyce is a fantastic start to a crucial summer.

The fear, by the end of Allardyce’s reign, was no longer relegation, but another year of Sam himself.

Everton must now ensure that the keywords of last season - division, fear and apathy - are replaced by confidence, stability and togetherness in the new year.

Marcel Brands and the new manager will have a huge part to play in that task - but for now, Everton’s powers that be have at least sent a message to supporters that nothing but the best is still required at Goodison Park.