I believed Allardyce's comments that the thought of starting on next year's campaign - mere days after having just ended the last campaign with a breathtaking escape from relegation - pushed him into retirement. His comments about an international job suiting him might have been a sly dig at the EFA and/or him announcing his availability for such a gig to any interested national teams.

What he is doing now - signing with Everton - is not in conflict with his post-retirement explanation, IMHO. He's been given an obscene amount of money (for a manager) to run a club for just over half a season while avoiding all the pre-season grind and drudgery. Many speculated that this is exactly what he'd do (sans international gig) so it's hardly a surprise. He waited to get a call from the biggest club without - or likely to be without - a manager (the biggest club that would sign Allardyce, that is, i.e. not Liverpool or Spurs who may yet bin their respective coaches).

I bet he'll have a big war chest for January and will get to enjoy this campaign because Everton aren't the sort of squad who should have been as bad as they were. He'll likely retire again at the end of the year but, even if he doesn't, I don't think he was lying to us back in May. I'm still angry at him for quitting on us like he did, but I don't think he's a hypocrite then or now.

Thinking about it, Sam may turn to Bentenke to fix their lack of a target man and were he to go I think he would flourish there with Sigurdsson's set-pieces. I don't want him too, though, I was just thinking.

Who are these 2 reasonable strikers? I don't see many for sale in January.

It's a nailed on certainty the club won't have done, beyond the parade of tired old names that appear in TT season in, season out.