Everton have sent a section of fans a survey asking for their feedback on a number of club issues - with a section asking for the ‘manager and coaching staff,’ ‘senior leadership’ and ‘the direction of the club’ to be marked a score out of 10.

The Blues sent out a survey similar to this at the end of last season and have recently asked for feedback from supporters on both plans for the planned new stadium and the work completed by Everton in the Community.

The objective of the most recent survey, which has been sent by a fan panel, asks for supporters opinions on just how ‘connected they feel’ to the club.

Supporters filling in the survey are also asked to rate the level of trust in players being ‘loyal and performing at their best’ for the club and how they feel about how Everton are portrayed in the media.

The contentious section

However, the section asking to score the work by current manager Sam Allardyce has sparked debate and outrage in some sections.

Allardyce’s relationship with the fans could be best described as non-existent with the majority of fans demanding his exit between now and the end of the season.

Those who travelled to watch the Blues play out a 1-1 draw with Swansea City last Saturday made their feelings known on numerous occasions - letting the Blues boss know, in no uncertain terms, just how they feel about him and his management.

It was a similar song to what fans of Newcastle United and West Ham United sang to make their feelings known about the 63-year-old.

That wasn’t the first time either.

Allardyce heard the same chants and songs during trips to play Burnley and Watford and plenty of fans are prepared to make their voices heard on Monday night when the Blues host Newcastle.

He hasn’t been able to forge a relationship with fans, for the most part, with many not being fans of his style of play and his continued ability to ‘talk the club down’ during media appearances - with a continued use of ‘me’ and ‘I’ - whilst describing his tenure instead of ‘the club’ or even ‘we.’

Many fans can be best described as ambivalent towards the club and are looking forward to the summer break and the chance to scrub this campaign from their view.

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Slide away

Like those fans who travelled to South Wales, those asked to fill in the survey are making their feelings known.

Many fans who took to Social Media to discuss the survey will have scored Allardyce’s management a 0. Many others also scored ‘senior leadership’ and ‘the direction of the club’ a 0.

The frustrations at Goodison Park are boiling over. 

As for Allardyce, he is likely to depart the club in the coming weeks. Whilst he never had the full backing of Everton fans when he joined in November, once the fans make their feelings known it doesn’t usually end well.

Roberto Martinez and Ronald Koeman both found that out the hard way.

There’s nothing Machiavellian about it.

The club and their fan panel want the opinions of fans and want to be able to quantify that in such a way that they can shape, amongst other things, the club’s direction and how they interact with those fans.

They're getting that fan interaction data and then some.

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About the author
Connor Bennett
Everton editor for VAVEL UK - contributing since 2015. Premier League accredited journalist. Journalism graduate from Liverpool. Writing about Football, eSports and the NFL. Email: [email protected] | Twitter: ConnorBennett14