After Sam Allardyce caught the football world off guard with his unexpected retirement from management on Tuesday, the reaction has been a bit mixed.
While some now wonder what any relegation-threatened team are going to do with no option to sack their boss and appoint Big Sam, others are simply happy to see the back of him, and it is very clear where former Ireland international and RTÉ pundit John Giles falls in that regard.
In his weekly column for The Herald [via Independent.ie], Giles laid into Big Sam, describing him as a braggart, and claimed that his worst fear is being subjected to his views on a regular basis should he move into punditry.
I won’t miss Sam Allardyce.
In fact, my greatest fear is that he will now become a full-time pundit and we’ll be hearing from him every day.
He seems to think that saving Crystal Palace somehow repairs a reputation flayed by the events which surrounded his removal from the England job. It doesn’t.
And it wasn’t as if his reputation was any great shakes before he took the England job.
I’ve always seen him as a braggart who ruined the good work he did as a coach by talking himself up at any opportunity.
Two-footed from Giles, although many will agree with him as Big Sam is someone who has always split opinion from his Bolton days right up to his final weeks as Crystal Palace manager.
There is absolutely no questioning his ability to make a sub-par squad play above themselves, and get the most out of a player, but he has often rubbed people up the wrong way in his dealings with other managers and his clear fondness of his own achievements.
Of course, Giles too has taken a lot of stick for his analysis, particular his U-turn on Jurgen Klopp this season and his attack on Eric Dier's credentials as a midfielder, which did not go down well with fans of Liverpool and Spurs after they came to light.
It's inevitable that Big Sam will be on our TV screens in the near future, all that's left to find out is how regular he's going to feature.
