Allardyce to get England job

It's widely understood the 61-year-old will be announced as Roy Hodgson's replacement after the FA's three-man panel of chief executive Martin Glenn, vice-chairman David Gill and technical director Dan Ashworth report back to the governing body's board.

It will end a long wait for the former Bolton, Blackburn and West Ham manager's dream job with Steve McClaren having beaten him to it a decade ago, but his impending departure from the Stadium of Light has not gone down particularly well with his current employers.

A Sunderland statement issued on Wednesday evening said: "Naturally we are aware of the intense media speculation this evening. However at the present time, Sam Allardyce remains our manager.

"We share in the anger and frustration of our supporters and would like to assure them that we are working to conclude the matter in the best interests of Sunderland AFC."

Sunderland, who voiced their displeasure over the disruptive nature of the process last week, will be due compensation with Allardyce, who was appointed as Dick Advocaat's replacement in October last year, having a year remaining on his contract, but have already drawn up a contingency plan with David Moyes understood to be the leading candidate for the forthcoming vacancy.

However, they are unhappy with the amount of time it has taken to reach this point with Allardyce's candidacy having been an open secret for more than a week, although Glenn was quick to offer a defence.

He said: "Three weeks. Is three weeks a long period of time? If we'd have done a knee-jerk and done it in three days, we'd have been rightly accused of knee-jerking.

"We're taking an appropriate amount of time. Of course we're concerned about how individual clubs manage, etc. We aren't blind to that, we just need to make the right decision."

Allardyce was present for the Black Cats' 3-0 friendly victory at Hartlepool on Wednesday evening, but had left Victoria Park long before the final whistle as news of his new opportunity emerged.

A man who has established a reputation as something of a firefighter thought he had taken on one of the biggest challenges of his career after accepting Ellis Short's offer of employment, but the stakes are about to be raised significantly as he attempts to revive England's on-field fortunes.