Allardyce watches a recent EPL game
Photo: Wikipedia/Egghead06
Sam Allardyce is old school.
In the 1970s and into the 1980s, it was relatively rare to see managers who came from the same age group, or even within 15 years of the players. Men of stature like Don Revie, Bill Shankly, Bill Nicholson and Bob Paisley dominated English club football.
The bosses were more often 45-years-old or over, and watched matches warmly wrapped in a sheepskin coat or at least so the stereotype goes. The age of the track-suited younger coach was about to be inflicted on English football; partly as a result of club chairmen believing that anybody who had played under Sir Alex Ferguson had a special insight to success.
Players rolled directly off the roster at Old Trafford with the scent of liniment oil barely off their legs into management with Bryan Robson (Middlesbrough), Gordon Strachan (Coventry City), Steve Bruce (Sheffield United), Ray Wilkins (QPR), Roy Keane (Sunderland), and Ole Gunnar Solskjær (Molde) all managers before they reached 40.
Few served their dues as assistants to an older man, and as you can see from the list of their clubs, few started at the bottom end of the rung in their first challenge. This is is in marked contrast to Sir Alex himself who started at Scotland’s frequently worst side East Stirlingshire before further learning his trade at St Mirren.
This conveyor belt of entitlement wasn’t limited to Fergie’s United charges.
Mark McGhee played for him at Aberdeen and was managing Reading at 34 and Willie Miller was boss at Aberdeen by 37. Eric Black scored the first goal that defeated Real Madrid in the 1983 Cup Winners Cup Final for Fergie, and was in charge of Motherwell by 38 but at least he served his apprenticeship as assistant coach elsewhere first.
Of all the ex-Fergie players who headed into management early, only Neil Webb at Weymouth and Paul Ince at Macclesfield were seemingly content to learn their trade at a lower level, before vast sums of money were being made available to them.
That trend of younger managers hasn’t ever left us although more parade the touchlines in suits than track suits these days. Arsene Wenger’s glorious reign at Arsenal is an exception and he is the longest serving manager in the EPL, ahead of a man whose words today will set a million tongues wagging.
That other man who has swum against the tide and become one of English football’s great survivors is Sam Allardyce, known to opposition fans and his own as “Big Fat Sam”.
Now 60, Allardyce seems to have been part of England’s cultural football fabric for decades.
He was Bolton Wanderers’ brave and heroic icon when they challenged Spurs for the Second Division title in 1977/78 in a year where the newly relegated North London giants were supposed to cakewalk their way back into the First Division. Allardyce’s Trotters pipped Spurs to the Second Division title although Spurs followed on their coat tails (well actually Southampton’s) back into the top flight.
Bolton knocked Spurs out of the FA Cup in the 3rd Round to boot, temporarily creating an unlikely rivalry for Tottenham. Bolton survived in the top flight for two years. When Allardyce left for Sunderland, they promptly dropped straight to the 4th division with three relegations in eight years.
Allardyce played for Tampa Bay in the NASL
Photo: mytampabayrowdies.blogspot.com
He went on to play for Huddersfield Town, Coventry City, Millwall, and Preston North End before heading to the NASL to represent the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Unlike those listed above, he started his managerial career slowly and gradually.
Between 1989–1991, he was Brian Talbot’s assistant at West Bromwich Albion, before oddly becoming player/manager at Limerick in Ireland.
His third trial was as caretaker at Preston in 1992 after Les Chapman (later to become Manchester City’s kit man) was fired. He held that post for two years.
By the time he was appointed as boss in his own right, it was 1994.
Even then, it was at third tier Blackpool where he continued his education and started his managerial career at the age of 40.
Although a West Midlander by birth, Allardyce spent so much of his footballing life in the north that many suppose him, and his no-nonsense attitude, to be based in Northern English values.
This relationship with the North continued into his managerial career as he bossed Notts County, Bolton, Newcastle United and then Blackburn Rovers, all way north of the Watford Gap the anecdotal border between England’s north and south.
He was therefore a surprise appointment when Avram Grant was sacked at Upton Park in 2011. The appointment was surprising for two reasons. As stated, Allardyce was thought to be a man with a temperament and a style best suited to northern climes.
Secondly, that reputation spread to his teams’ styles and, if there is any one club in English football with a reputation for playing attractive football (sometimes even over winning), it is West Ham United, the club that brought us Trevor Brooking, Bobby Moore, Alan Devonshire, Alan Curbishley, two Frank Lampards and Joe Cole.
The Watford Gap denoted the border between north and south in English folklore.
So integral is a philosophy of stylish football to the Hammers that one of their nicknames is the Academy of Football. Sky Sports explains that reputation further:
‘West Ham United are often referred to as ‘The Academy of Football’, in recognition of their policy and reputation for developing skillful youth players. Apart from the three West Ham and England legends of the 1966 vintage, Upton Park has also produced other England stars such as Trevor Brooking, Tony Cottee, Paul Ince, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard.’
Walking into an environment like that, Allardyce had to be quick to put fears to rest in the media telling reporters on his arrival:
“That history that West Ham have, I am very well aware of, and we will play the West Ham way with the players we have got to achieve the ultimate, and that’s winning football matches.
“It will be a tale of home and away. At Upton Park we’ll attempt to play the kind of passing game the fans want. We will aim to continue the same on our travels but we’ll also be hard to beat.”
That remark and our journey through Allardyce’s career became all the more interesting when he was discussing this weekend’s 3-0 win over Hull City with reporters:
“Getting the ball into the box quickly with quality is definitely sometimes the best way forward. That’s what we did in the second half and that’s why we won the game.”
West Ham had been booed off at half time by their home crowd following 45 scoreless minutes against Hull City. In the second half, according to Allardyce they resorted to humping the ball into the penaly box. To rub salt into the football purists’ wounds, he added:
“All this tippy-tappy stuff – everybody keeps on going about the right way to play football.”
West Ham lie 7th in the table, a very creditable showing for a side that haven’t finished any higher since 1999, and has only done so five times in its history.
New York City’s Frank Lampard is today’s best known Academy product
Nevertheless Allardyce is bound to be pilloried for his remarks today despite that by the guardians of the beautiful game, who love a goal to be scored with as many preceding short passes as possible if they can’t have it curled in from 30 yards. The debate should be fruity.
Two things though are for sure. Allardyce has reopened the debate about beautiful football and about whether he is a dinosaur in the modern game.
The other certainty is that West Ham scored three more goals raining bombs into the Hull penalty box quickly, than they did with tippy-tappy football.
The next round of EPL action should be very interesting indeed, especially West Ham’s match at Liverpool – as should the conversations in the pre-match pub.
Also See:
With just four black managers, is it time for an NFL-style Rooney rule in English football?
