Jack Fulham
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The rise and rise of the football manager is one of the wonders of our sporting age. Once he was the modest fellow who picked the team, pacified the chairman and suffered the sack when it all went wrong. No longer. Now he struts the stage, milking the applause and delivering significant opinions.
He is a figure of substance, a man whose views are not mocked. Unless, of course, he happens to be Sam Allardyce. In which case, mockery may be the only appropriate response.
Time I found a bigger club?: Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce insists he could manager at a higher level
The Lancashire Krakatoa erupted not once but twice last week. It was the usual stuff; part malice, part mischief, part self-promotion, part selfdelusion. And the louder he shouted, the more we wondered: how has it come to this? Why do people hang on the words of one with so little of interest to say?
As you may have gathered, this column has no great regard for Allardyce. His manner is crude and his teams even cruder. He produced a Bolton side which was moderately successful and miserably unwatchable. He was then employed by Newcastle's Freddy Shepherd, shortly before Shepherd decided to seize the money and scamper. Newcastle had become almost as charmless as Bolton when the new chairman, Mike Ashley, sent Allardyce packing with his pride hurt and pockets full. His passing was not widely mourned on Tyneside.
He then he turned up at Blackburn, where he has produced a scowling, muscular, intimidating side, much loved by the kind of people who don't much care for football and enjoyed watching Bolton. And yet, on the back of those dubious achievements, he has grown mysteriously ambitious.
A few weeks ago, he announced that he would leave the Premier League in two or three seasons and take over a national team.
He didn't specify the fortunate nation - could Germany become more efficient? Do Brazil need more flair? Are Spain really the finished article? - but deep down we knew. Since he doesn't approve of a foreigner managing England, then there was only one job that could accommodate him.
But we may have been wrong. His thoughts are now directed at some of Europe's needy clubs. 'I'm not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter Milan or Real Madrid,' he declared. 'It wouldn't be a problem for me to manage those clubs because I would win the Double or the league every time.'
We imagined all those Italian and Spanish executives wailing: 'Why did we waste our time on Trapattoni, Hiddink, Capello and Del Bosque when Big Sam was there for the taking?'
Yet if a job at Inter or Real should fail to materialise, would his arrogance be dented? Not at all. 'Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same', he promised. 'It wouldn't be a problem.' As you see, he has no shortage of confidence. Ability is a rather different matter. Yet it was that misplaced confidence which led him into another clumsy assault upon his old enemy, Arsene Wenger.
The Arsenal manager holds Allardyce in the deepest contempt and finds great glee in beating Blackburn on a regular basis. For his part, Allardyce loathes Wenger.
Indeed, I suspect he doesn't much care for foreigners at large - he once argued that he would have been offered the England job had his name been 'Allardici'. But Wenger is his most regular target. And so he has lifted his blunderbuss and taken unsteady aim.
I quote: 'Arsene has most of the media in his pocket now and is almost - almost - affecting the officials so that you can't tackle an Arsenal player. That's something he's very clever at working in his favour, you can see that. He's a very clever man in terms of influencing referees, officials and everyone in football ... In terms of saying people are trying to injure players, he's trying to influence, through the media, the referees and that's something they shouldn't get sucked into.'
Extraordinary stuff. Not English but gibberish. It makes John Prescott sound like Barack Obama. And do you know what is worse? He thinks he's being smart. Not that tosh about Wenger pocketing the media - the reality is that the Frenchman barely tolerates scribblers, while few managers work harder at cultivating media chums than Allardyce himself.
No, it's the fact that he clearly believes that by drawing attention to Wenger's alleged attempts to influence referees, he will persuade those same officials to take a harder line with Arsenal.
This is known as a 'mind game', a sport for which Allardyce seems conspicuously ill-equipped.
But perhaps we should not judge him too harshly, for he is both absurdly rewarded and fatuously indulged.
Of course, the best managers firmly refuse to inhale foolish flattery. They are not our concern.
No, the real problems lie with the others, the daftly deluded, the ones who close their eyes and see themselves at San Siro or the Bernabeu, teaching the foreigners the mysteries of Route One.
Mockery is the very least they deserve.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ers-Sam-Allardyce-gets-way.html#ixzz105Fkfo62
He is a figure of substance, a man whose views are not mocked. Unless, of course, he happens to be Sam Allardyce. In which case, mockery may be the only appropriate response.
Time I found a bigger club?: Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce insists he could manager at a higher level
The Lancashire Krakatoa erupted not once but twice last week. It was the usual stuff; part malice, part mischief, part self-promotion, part selfdelusion. And the louder he shouted, the more we wondered: how has it come to this? Why do people hang on the words of one with so little of interest to say?
As you may have gathered, this column has no great regard for Allardyce. His manner is crude and his teams even cruder. He produced a Bolton side which was moderately successful and miserably unwatchable. He was then employed by Newcastle's Freddy Shepherd, shortly before Shepherd decided to seize the money and scamper. Newcastle had become almost as charmless as Bolton when the new chairman, Mike Ashley, sent Allardyce packing with his pride hurt and pockets full. His passing was not widely mourned on Tyneside.
He then he turned up at Blackburn, where he has produced a scowling, muscular, intimidating side, much loved by the kind of people who don't much care for football and enjoyed watching Bolton. And yet, on the back of those dubious achievements, he has grown mysteriously ambitious.
A few weeks ago, he announced that he would leave the Premier League in two or three seasons and take over a national team.
He didn't specify the fortunate nation - could Germany become more efficient? Do Brazil need more flair? Are Spain really the finished article? - but deep down we knew. Since he doesn't approve of a foreigner managing England, then there was only one job that could accommodate him.
But we may have been wrong. His thoughts are now directed at some of Europe's needy clubs. 'I'm not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter Milan or Real Madrid,' he declared. 'It wouldn't be a problem for me to manage those clubs because I would win the Double or the league every time.'
We imagined all those Italian and Spanish executives wailing: 'Why did we waste our time on Trapattoni, Hiddink, Capello and Del Bosque when Big Sam was there for the taking?'
Yet if a job at Inter or Real should fail to materialise, would his arrogance be dented? Not at all. 'Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same', he promised. 'It wouldn't be a problem.' As you see, he has no shortage of confidence. Ability is a rather different matter. Yet it was that misplaced confidence which led him into another clumsy assault upon his old enemy, Arsene Wenger.
The Arsenal manager holds Allardyce in the deepest contempt and finds great glee in beating Blackburn on a regular basis. For his part, Allardyce loathes Wenger.
Indeed, I suspect he doesn't much care for foreigners at large - he once argued that he would have been offered the England job had his name been 'Allardici'. But Wenger is his most regular target. And so he has lifted his blunderbuss and taken unsteady aim.
I quote: 'Arsene has most of the media in his pocket now and is almost - almost - affecting the officials so that you can't tackle an Arsenal player. That's something he's very clever at working in his favour, you can see that. He's a very clever man in terms of influencing referees, officials and everyone in football ... In terms of saying people are trying to injure players, he's trying to influence, through the media, the referees and that's something they shouldn't get sucked into.'
Extraordinary stuff. Not English but gibberish. It makes John Prescott sound like Barack Obama. And do you know what is worse? He thinks he's being smart. Not that tosh about Wenger pocketing the media - the reality is that the Frenchman barely tolerates scribblers, while few managers work harder at cultivating media chums than Allardyce himself.
No, it's the fact that he clearly believes that by drawing attention to Wenger's alleged attempts to influence referees, he will persuade those same officials to take a harder line with Arsenal.
This is known as a 'mind game', a sport for which Allardyce seems conspicuously ill-equipped.
But perhaps we should not judge him too harshly, for he is both absurdly rewarded and fatuously indulged.
Of course, the best managers firmly refuse to inhale foolish flattery. They are not our concern.
No, the real problems lie with the others, the daftly deluded, the ones who close their eyes and see themselves at San Siro or the Bernabeu, teaching the foreigners the mysteries of Route One.
Mockery is the very least they deserve.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ers-Sam-Allardyce-gets-way.html#ixzz105Fkfo62
