The good news about the imminent appointment of Sam Allardyce’s appointment as the new England manager, if there is such a thing, is that he will start with the lowest of low expectations. It’s certainly how I feel but then I am not one of the professionals consulted by the FA, one of whom will have been Sir Alex Ferguson who thinks Allardyce is the right man.
It is hard to deny that Big Sam has a decent track record with modestly sized football clubs (and I include Newcastle United in that category). His style of football has rarely been attractive, but then he has never been at a club where money is no object. For most of his life he has been shopping in football’s Aldi, not football’s Waitrose.
I am at the stage where I will accept almost anyone in the job in the full knowledge that things won’t work out. The usual England manager is not the one who has won the Premier League or just about anything else. we have been down the overseas route, we have been down the domestic route, none of it seems to work. Perhaps there’s something else at play? Maybe the players aren’t any good?
A good manager or coach can be everything. Just look at the England rugby union team. Woeful under nice guy Stuart Lancaster and unbeatable under new Aussie coach Eddie Jones. After a grim failure in the world cup, England then won the grand slam and then won a series in Australia. With virtually the same players.
Maybe Roy Hodgson wasn’t very good when the pressure was on, all that experience but not much of winning anything. Same with McClaren, same with Ron Greenwood (one for the kids there) and even dear old Bobby Robson’s domestic record was good, but not stellar. What will Allardyce bring to the table?
I am hoping not Andy Carroll but I have seen football Big Sam style before. In days gone by, it was either route one or hit the channels. Has he seen the light?
I keep reading that Allardyce is a bit of a revolutionary. He uses sports sciences, he’s a stickler for innovation. I am hoping that the reason it doesn’t immediately look like that is because he is not dealing with the best players.
He certainly deserves a chance, that’s for sure. If he can do better with a modest national side than Hodgson did, at least in tournaments, then what’s to lose?
