Sam Allardyce is less a football manager than a state of mind; a certain style of living. Evidence of this arrived at Pep Guardiola's first press conference as Man City manager, in which he referred to Allardyce as The Big Sam: a kind of unapologetic jowly embodiment of the quintessential English traits incubated on Keys and Gray, TalkSPORT and Gilette Soccer Saturday.
Among the many things achieved on these platforms is the balancing of complaints against the lack of employment opportunities for British coaches with the continued employment of British coaches, about which Allardyce expertly raved on about a couple of weeks ago.
You are almost deemed as second-class because it's your country, today.
It's a real shame on the fact that we're highly-educated, talented coaches with nowhere to go.
The Premier League is a foreign league in England, now.
Of course, Allardyce has since landed the Everton job, albeit he was very much second choice to Everton's preferred candidate, Marco Silva. At a press conference ahead of his first game in charge, Allardyce was asked about Silva, and decided to take a pop at his record.
If you look at my track record why wouldn’t I be here irrespective of Marco Silva?
I have every respect for Marco Silva, and I am not criticising Marco Silva, but Marco Silva’s track record has got no comparison whatsoever with mine because he got Hull City relegated.
That seems profoundly unfair: Silva did an admirable job of keeping Hull in the fight to stave off relegation after his appointment, winning six of his final eighteen games. Up to then, the club had won just thrice all season. Plus, Allardyce is measuring Silva by the only yardstick he has ever really shown interest in (bar perhaps the League of Ireland and the England job, which went up in flames so absurdly). Silva has also won the league at Olympiakos, promoted tiny Estoril to the top division in Portugal, and won the Portuguese Cup with Sporting.
Allardyce has his talents, and he will keep Everton up, but the sheer ignorance in portraying avoiding relegation from the Premier League as among the only achievements worth talking about is typical of the 'why's it always got to be a foreign manager' isolationism that has held English football back for decades.
[the Times]
