Sam Allardyce's punditry career is proving to be more entertaining than the football his teams played during any of his managerial stints. Although perhaps unsurprisingly, the amusement he is generating since the start of the new Premier League season has been unintentional, as he stretches the boundaries of self-parody to an alarming extent.
Having spent most of the last week ranting against everything from passing football to the plight of the British manager in an increasingly multicultural Premier League, today he had a pop at the idea that smaller clubs should take any tactical risks when playing against the top sides.
Sam Allardyce explains how to beat relegation and says it's not done by listening to @GNev2 & @Carra23! #beINPL #MCIHUD pic.twitter.com/qgcJmCFsHt
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) August 19, 2018
Speaking on beIn Sport ahead of Huddersfield's trip to Man City, Big Sam name-checked Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher when calling nonsense on the idea that sides from the lower end of the division should do anything other than park the bus when taking on the big boys.
The pressure on the manager now, even Huddersfield, is for everybody to say "you might as well have a go"....well the last thing you want is to get beaten five or six.........I've heard Gary Neville saying, Jamie Carragher and all those....it's really not the case to get beat by that many because you lose your job in the end.
Despite having claimed last weekend that his Everton side had played good football during his reign there, Big Sam has been busy pouring scorn on any progressive, forward-thinking strategies that foreign certain managers have deployed in attempts at making the game a more attractive spectacle. With these latest comments, it appears that his disdain for such expression extends to the Sky Sports MNF studios, where Neville & Carragher have been lauded for their progressive, forward-thinking analysis.
The plight of proper British football values is of huge concern to Big Sam, so it is obvious from his punditry career so far that he will continue to fight against it through his analysis until he returns to the dugout and can take the fight back to the pitch. The eager nodding and agreement from Andy Gray, Richard Keys & Dennis Wise in the beIN studio suggest that his traditional football views are likely to be unchallenged in the Middle East.
