Why Big Sam MUST target a trophy to prove he's more than a firefighter at Everton

In what has surely been one of the silliest managerial spats of the season, Marco Silva landed a telling blow on Sam Allardyce at the weekend. After taking over at Everton last week, Big Sam said of his erstwhile rival for the job: “If you look at my track record, why wouldn’t I be here irrespective of Marco Silva? I have every respect for Marco Silva and I am not criticising Marco Silva, but Marco Silva’s track record has got no comparison whatsoever with mine because he got Hull City relegated.”

Regardless of whether or not it’s fair to say Silva “got Hull City relegated” – Mike Phelan and the club hierarchy may also have had a hand in Hull’s failure to retain their Premier League status – Big Sam was setting himself up for a sharp riposte with those comments.

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Silva obliged after seeing his Watford side draw with Tottenham on Saturday, saying: “If you want easy work, go and see what [Allardyce] was doing when he was 40 years old or what he was doing in his first seven seasons as a coach. Then look at what I am doing. Or you can wait until I am 63 years old and we can compare what I have done. That is the best solution.”

The implication was clear from Silva: Having picked up trophies in both Portugal and Greece before he turned 40, he’s justified in shrugging off criticism from a man who has failed to win any major silverware in a 25-year managerial career. Big Sam has no answer to that, really.

While his reputation for saving clubs from relegation is justified and should be celebrated given the value of Premier League survival, the fact that he’s only ever reached one major final – in 2004, when his Bolton Wanderers side lost the League Cup to Middlesbrough – is indicative of his priorities as a manager. Ultimately, that’s why Allardyce is stereotyped as a firefighter, a slugger, a relegation dogfight specialist: he’s far more associated with stability and reliability than he is with making dreams come true.

That’s precisely why, this season, Allardyce should target silverware with Everton. Having won two crucial games against West Ham and Huddersfield since he arrived at Goodison Park – even if he was only a spectator at the former – Everton are now 10th in the table and no longer teetering so precariously above the drop zone.

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That gives Big Sam some breathing space and an opportunity to revive a sense of ambition at Goodison. Having hoped for a top-four tilt at the beginning of the season and watched their side fall short so dramatically, many Everton fans were disappointed with Big Sam’s ‘safety first’ appointment. That’s another good reason for him to up the ante and try to win them round with a rollicking cup run.

If Allardyce really wants to change the perception that he is little more than a survival slogger, he should go all out in the FA Cup over the next few months. Often accused of neglecting the cup during his time with West Ham – he went out at the Third Round three seasons running – it now represents his best opportunity to prove his critics wrong.

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Everton have shown that they have the workings of a capable side over the past few games, and in Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson they have two potentially explosive form players ready to get into their stride. With a slice of luck and a bit of enterprise they could still make a success of their season – there is no reason they can’t excel in a knockout format and make themselves the surprise package of the tournament.

The FA Cup could be a fresh start for a team who started the campaign so meekly, and for a manager whose rivals will always have a comeback for as long as he remains without a major trophy to his name. Likewise, rather than have 18 months at Goodison and be satisfied with steadying the ship, Allardyce could use a crack at the cup to convince Everton fans that he’s more than just a safe pair of hands.