Seasons2017-18Rumour Mill

Allardyce cools Koné talk

Sam Allardyce has played down media speculation linking Everton with one of his former players, Lamine Koné.

The defender made a big impact at Sunderland the start of the 2015-16 season and was later courted by Everton to the point that he go as far as visiting Finch Farm but a move never materialised.

Koné remained with the Black Cats and, under Allardyce, went on to score against the Blues in the fixture that confirmed that club's Premier League status at the end of that season but his form suffered in the following campaign as Sunderland eventually succumbed to relegation.

It's that slump in performances that is what concerns Allardyce and would give him pause before attempting to reunite with the Ivorian centre-half.

“There's no truth in it at the moment,” the manager said when asked about the links with Kone in his pre-match press conference. “He was one of the outstanding defenders that produced a remarkable run of performance when he first arrived at Sunderland to that club stay in the Premier League.

“Since then, I'm not quire sure what's happened to his career but it's obviously slipped way down from when he performed with me.

“That puts a doubt about his ability he can sustain that level of performance so I'm not sure whether I'd be interested or not to be perfectly honest.

“But I found him not only to be a fantastic footballer and a fantastic lad when he was playing for me during that period of time.”

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