Everton manager hunt: Paulo Fonseca move BLOCKED by Shakhtar Donetsk as Toffees consider Allardyce

Everton have failed in an attempt to hire Paulo Fonseca as the English Premier League club’s new manager.

It is understood that the highly regarded Portuguese coach agreed to fill what has become an increasingly problematic vacancy for Everton’s owners earlier this week only for current employers Shakhtar Donetsk to block the appointment.

The Ukrainian champions’ refusal to release Fonseca from the second year of his contract at Shakhtar follows a series of unsuccessful offers from Everton to buy compatriot Marco Silva out of his position at Watford.

READ MORE: Marco Silva focused on job at hand despite Everton interest

READ MORE: Everton re-approach Sam Allardyce regarding vacancy

According to sources familiar with those negotiations, the English club are now considering turning to disgraced England manager Sam Allardyce as a short-term solution to the managerial problems.

Both Silva and Fonseca would be interested in taking what promises to be an unusually well-resourced job at a club whose ownership is planning to radically overhaul its playing staff with the aim of securing Champions League football.

Fonseca, 44, will be a free agent at the end of Shakhtar’s current campaign. Silva, 40, has an end-of-season break clause in his Watford deal and has been greatly frustrated by the Italian-owned club’s refusal to accept a financial settlement potentially worth over £10million from Everton this month.

Watford did not appreciate the timing nor manner of Everton’s efforts to take Silva, a manager they believe capable of qualifying their talent-rich squad for European football. Shakhtar have won Ukraine’s Premier League, Cup and Super Cup titles since hiring Fonseca from 2016 Taca de Portugal winners Sporting Clube de Braga. Currently leading Ukraine’s top tier, they host Manchester City next week requiring one point to guarantee a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Although Allardyce’s qualities as a coach versed in ensuring the Premier League survival of a series of troubled clubs has been pushed by sections of Everton’s dysfunctional hierarchy, those behind the club’s recent takeover have tried to avoid appointing an individual whose style of football and management does not mesh with their own vision for the club.

For his part, Allardyce has let it be known that he “needs convincing” that Goodison is the right place for him to return to work after keeping Crystal Palace in the top tier last season and that he would want to be hired beyond the end of this campaign.

While Andre Villas-Boas has been suggested as a third Portuguese candidate for the Everton job, a friend of the former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager told Yahoo Sport that there had been no offer from the club. Villas-Boas agreed terms to leave his position as Shanghai SIPG coach following an away-goal Chinese FA Cup Final loss on Sunday.