Everton have failed with an approach for former Tottenham and PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino.

Everton sacked manager Frank Lampard on Monday afternoon.

TheDaily Mail says Blues owner Farhad Moshiri had known that a situation like this was approaching and had started to make plans for this eventuality.

It is understood the Iranian contacted Sam Allardyce, who managed Everton for 167 days in the 2017-18 season, as he began to draw up possibilities but the pair never met.

There was a reluctance to go down the route of appointing the 68-year-old, in the same way that there isn't an appetite to go for Sean Dyche, who remains a prominent figure in bookmakers' lists. Dyche, 51, is available immediately, having not worked since leaving Burnley in April last year.

Prior to that, there was an ambitious attempt to see if Pochettino would have been interested in the post — a call was made during the World Cup in November — but Bielsa is now the leading candidate, with West Bromwich's Carlos Corberan a dark horse.