But Short and his fellow directors recognise they are powerless to prevent him walking away if the England job is offered to him and Moyes is the man they want to build on the work Allardyce has done since arriving on Wearside just 10 months ago.
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That process can not be completed quickly enough for Allardyce’s current employers, who have seen their preparations for the new Premier League season disrupted by the speculation surrounding their manager with the supposedly secret initial interview procedure having become all too public.
Allardyce on Tuesday had an initial meeting with the three-man Football Association panel which will appoint the next England boss.
The FA are expected to hold further talks with alternative candidates, including Jurgen Klinsmann, Eddie Howe, Guus Hiddink and former Sunderland boss Steve Bruce before choosing their man.
Sunderland have given the Football Association permission to speak to their manager, Sam Allardyce, about the position of England boss.
Allardyce has emerged as the favorite for the England national team job left vacant by Roy Hodgson’s immediate resignation after the loss to Iceland at Euro 2016, but he won’t have anything like the January transfer window as a tool to turn around what ails England.
Sunderland said they agreed to let Allardyce speak with the FA as a “potential candidate” after he requested permission, but are upset discussions did not remain confidential.
“Sam is very much key to our plans”.
The statement continued: “We urge the FA to respect the disruption that this process is causing and bring about a swift resolution to the matter”. “After what was an extremely challenging season, we are keen to see a period of stability, both on and off the field”.
Allardyce, though, is the odds on favourite with English bookmaker William Hill for, despite not winning anything significant in his managerial career with among others Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham, he generally engenders respect and is seen as a great motivator of players.
England begin their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign on 4 September, when they face Slovakia in Trnava.
Allardyce’s quote after he lost out to McClaren sounds even more propitious: “The problem isn’t now, the problem is in the future”.
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“And would England be interested in me? You’ve got this, ‘what’s sexier?’ element now, rather than how good you are at doing the job”.
