Stoke assistant Mark Bowen surprised Brighton's Chris Hughton not in running for Everton job

Stoke City assistant manager Mark Bowen does not understand why Brighton & Hove Albion boss Chris Hughton has been overlooked for the vacant managerial post at Everton, who have still not found Ronald Koeman's successor despite sacking the Dutchman almost a month ago.

Hughton has worked wonders at the AMEX Stadium since taking over from Sami Hyypia in 2014. The former Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager guided the Seagulls to promotion last season and now has them situated in eighth place in the Premier League table, with 15 points from their opening 11 matches.

The former Newcastle United and Norwich City boss has rightly been lauded for his stellar work so far this season, but Bowen, who was at Tottenham with Hughton in the 1980s, is perplexed as to why his former teammate's name is not mentioned when positions at clubs such as Everton become available.

"I played with Chris at Tottenham Hotspur a long time ago, and he is a good friend of mine - I know his family really well," Bowen told Stoke's official website.

"I think he is very much underrated as a manager, and it really surprises me when I don't see his name linked with other jobs that crop up - like the Everton one for example.

"If you look at his CV and what he has done, he's got a knack of not just coaching, but getting the best out of players also, which is more important these days."

Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Diego Simeone and Sean Dyche are just a few of the managers that have been linked with the Everton hotseat since Koeman was dismissed last month. Silva seems to be Everton's main target at present, but Watford have told Farhad Moshiri et al in no uncertain terms that they have no interest in parting with the Portuguese, who has no release clause in his contract at Vicarage Road.

Whoever follows on from Koeman will have a whole host of problems to sort out at Goodison Park. The creaking, porous defence and toothless attack have proved costly on a number of occasions, but the Toffees are already making moves to rectify their issues at the back ahead of the January transfer window.

Croatian outlet 24sata report that Everton have offered a deal to Dynamo Kiev centre-back Domagoj Vida, who is out of contract in January. Serie A giants AC Milan have also offered a deal to the Croatia international, with the report claiming that he has received two "fantastic" offers but only has 10 days to decide what his next move will be.

Vida would presumably be a replacement for the ageing pair of Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams, who has endured a torrid season thus far, and has garnered 51 caps for his country since making his debut in 2010. He was also recently linked with Turkish outfit Besiktas.