Sam Allardyce jokingly told reporters that the defeat at Arsenal made him think about retiring, but he needs the ‘hassle’ of management too much for that.

The Everton boss watched Arsenal walk all over his team in a 5-1 defeat at the Emirates last weekend.

He admits the defeat didn’t leave him in a good mood, and gave him some sleepless nights.

“I think retirement always crosses your mind,” Allardyce admitted in Friday’s Daily Star.

“I felt terrible after that defeat. You don’t sleep much. [Retirement] crosses your mind sometimes when you are a bit down but that doesn’t last very long.

sam allardyve daily star 9 feb 2018
Daily Star 9th Feb, 2018, p. 43

“Do I need the hassle of this job? Yes, because it keeps me feeling alive. As Alex Ferguson said, ‘I’m getting too old to retire!’.”

The Gunners were pretty ruthless in the first half of the match last Saturday.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang exploded onto the scene with their first goals and assists, and the contest was over before Everton knew what hit them.

The second half was a bit more even, until Arsenal scored the fifth and sauntered to the finish line.

I can’t say I feel too sorry for the 63-year-old manager, though. This is a man who said in 2015 that he enjoyed beating Arsenal more than any other team. That’s unfortunate for him as he’s only managed to beat Arsenal six times from 34 attempts, losing 20.

He also claimed that Arsene Wenger had “an air of arrogance” about him, and that he liked to wind the Frenchman up.

If Wenger was the man to batter an Allardyce side so hard the Everton boss retired, I’d be pretty happy with that outcome.

It’s too bad it seems like it was only a joke.