Coventry La La La
New Member
Sam Allardyce insists he is ready for another crack at the Premier League.
Big Sam has been enjoying himself in the four months since being sacked by Blackburn and has combined some sunbathing with a few rounds of golf and punditry work.
Yet he feels he is too young to retire to the golf course and TV studio and compared to his big pal Sir Alex Ferguson, he is a relative pup at 56.
Allardyce’s desire to manage in the top flight burns as fiercely as ever and he claims he has never failed during his managerial career, going back to his first job at Irish side Limerick 20 years ago.
“I’m 56 now,” said a tanned and relaxed Allardyce. “I thought when I went to Bolton at 45 that I would have 10 years there and finish at 55. But I don’t want to finish just yet.
“I’ll wait for the next opportunity to come along and hopefully I’ll breed success, as I have at most of the clubs I’ve been at.
“From my point of view, you look at it and say that everywhere I’ve been I’ve managed to turn a club around - right from my first one.
"Limerick got promoted and won the championship when I took over.Blackpool: I took them from the bottom three to the play-offs in two seasons. Notts County: I couldn’t save them in the beginning because I got there too late, but I won the championship in record time and then took them to second in the next division up.
“Then Bolton came calling and I got them up into the Premier League inside 18 months and moved them on.
“I was only at Newcastle for six months, but when I left they were 11th.
“Everybody knows about Blackburn because it’s recent history.
"So my track record - European qualification, Carling Cup final, championships, promotions - shows I know how to do my job.
“I’ve been in the Premier League with three different clubs for 10 years and in this precarious job if you’re not any good at what you do, you don’t last very long.”
A proud man, Allardyce still hurts at the way he was brutally axed by both Newcastle and Blackburn and will always be sad that he was never allowed to finish what he started.
He feels he was the victim of boardroom politics because he was sacked soon after both clubs were taken over by new owners.
Allardyce is particularly disappointed by Mike Ashley’s decision to give him the boot at Newcastle in 2008 and he believes he could have guided them into the Champions League if he had shown more faith in him.
Neither club prospered after getting rid of him and Newcastle were relegated the following season, while Rovers are in danger of emulating them in the current campaign.
“I suffered two hugely disappointing times in the last few years,” said Allardyce. “The disappointment for me was not being allowed by two clubs now to do for them what I did for Bolton.
“That was the aim, particularly for Newcastle, because that was the bigger club - the club that could give me the tools and the backing to get to the next level of the Champions League.
“Unfortunately, through circumstances, it’s happened to me twice now where new owners have taken control and dispensed with me as manager.
“That’s hugely disappointing. For me, it’s about the opportunity of the next job being the right job from the point of view that the owners of the football club want to be successful. Then I can show them from a football perspective what can be done.
“So if someone is willing to employ me on the basis of wanting to improve their football club, then I will be very happy to work with them.”
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BIG SAM BY THE NUMBERS
P W D L
Blackpool (1994-96) 102 44 23 35
Notts Co (1997-99) 145 56 39 50
Bolton (1999-2007) 371 153 104 114
Newcastle (2007-08) 24 8 6 10
Blackburn (2008-10) 90 32 24 34
Win %: Blackpool 43.14%, Notts Co 38.62%, Bolton 41.35%, Newcastle 33.33%, Blackburn 35.56%
