Sam Allardyce Yesterdays Man

[phild]

Taken from todays TELEGRAPH. I've posted it because it is behind a paywall.
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When it comes to facing up to the threat of relegation, the chairmen of Premier League clubs do not exhibit much in the way of imaginative thinking. Barring 2011, every year since 2005 at some point in the season, a top tier club in England has appointed one of the following managers: Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp, Neil Warnock, Tony Pulis or Sam Allardyce. And with the news that, after firing Slaven Bilic, West Bromwich Albion have turned to Allardyce, comes proof that panic still prevails over logic.

Somehow this collective has developed a lucrative trade in crisis management. A firefighting merry-go-round has delivered them almost constant employment. We have long been intrigued by the manner in which Italian football is enslaved to the concept of experience. But our own game is just as prone: to the chairman in trouble, what matters is getting in someone who has been there before. In Allardyce’s case more than once.

In a game in which the prospect of relegation is financially ruinous, it is not altogether surprising that the most important line on a prospective manager’s CV is that he has never taken a club down. Never mind trophies won, or records broken, or the beauty of his team’s passing patterns, in times of crisis this is the quality that most appeals to floundering owners.

And at the front of the queue reminding us of his record is Allardyce. The fact is, as he never tires of telling anyone who will listen, he has never been relegated. And the more he tells us, the more he is seen by those offering employment as a magician of management, in possession of the secret which can invariably haul their club back from the very lip of the precipice.

But blinded by the terror of demotion, chairmen rarely see beyond immediate salvation. Like a drowning man thrashing in the swell, they never check precisely how well inflated is the life belt they grab in their desperation. Because the fact is what procuring the services of the relegation whisperer almost invariably entails is a rapid falling out with their fan base. If things go his way, Allardyce might provide immediate balm, but the longer term consequences are almost always toxic. At Newcastle, at West Ham, at Everton, it was the same: he may have kept them up, but the fans’ gratitude was short-lived.

The reason is always the same: safety loses its allure when it is invariably accompanied by tedium. Allardyce is a very organised manager. Obsessed with sports science, he imposes on his teams a system which reduces risk, squeezes out individualism, mistrusts improvisation. Like all managers he is a control freak. And he uses adversity as a cover for insisting on his systems. Do you want to avoid the drop? Well here’s what you need to do. Never mind a club’s tradition or aesthetic, it is Sam’s way or the highway. And how that infuriates fans who draw their self-worth on the supposed superiority of their club’s history. At Everton’s School of Science they loathed his long ball instruction. At West Ham’s academy of football, the regulars detested tactics they reckoned reductive and ugly.
And so it will be at West Bromwich. This is the club of Laurie Cunningham, Bryan Robson and Cyrille Regis, a club where panache is embedded in the DNA. Bilic knew that and bought into the place’s values. His problem was he didn’t have the resources available to counter the downward trajectory. The excellent goalkeeper Sam Johnstone and the Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher apart, he had a squad at his disposal that is simply not of Premier League quality. As they proved at Manchester City, the players are not short of effort, will or togetherness. It is ability they lack.

So beyond the myth of relegation immunity, what precisely will Allardyce provide that Bilic didn’t? He will have the same inadequate squad. Sure, he will organise. But watching Bilic as he stood on the edge of his technical area semaphoring instruction constantly throughout a game, he did not look short of that. Yes, Allardyce will get them in the gym, strap them up to machines to test their oxygen intake, plan how they can mark Jack Grealish out of the game to squeeze a nil nil draw at home to Aston Villa on Saturday. But will that be enough?

And the fear for West Bromwich fans is that the situation is so desperate not even a sacrifice of their footballing heritage will be enough. Because Allardyce has been long out of the game. He has not worked since 2018, when he was last let go - to the relief of every Goodison regular - by Everton. His usual escapology schtick of signing up Kevin Nolan in the first transfer window is no longer an available option. And the game has moved on significantly. Another generation, with new progressive ideas have taken up residence in the dug out. They are the future. Allardyce, as many would suggest has long been the case, represents the past.

Besides the appeal of the old school relegation fighters is being rapidly diminished by time. Redknapp has retired, Hughes and Pardew are unemployed, Pulis and Warnock obliged to try and spin their trick in the Championship. Allardyce is the last one standing in the Premier League. As West Brom fans are about to find out, there may well be a reason for that.

[Bombers right foot]

Roll on relegation, and rid of another dinosaur

[DaveP67 is back!]

Very good article that and spot on IMO

[Albionic68]

As it's currently a lovely looking sunny morning outside here's an alternate slant......

https://www.theguardian.com/football...premier-league

[freer]

Sam's appointment is a brave ground breaking move almost revolutionary in its daring indicative of the W B A board's imagination and unshakeable commitment to free-flowing football.

Now the Baggies can focus on parking the bus in time for their cup final this weekend,watch out late charge for 18th spot !

I'm sure Allardyce will do just fine, with Sam. it's never about the money

[baggieal]

Sam's appointment is a brave ground breaking move almost revolutionary in its daring indicative of the W B A board's imagination and unshakeable commitment to free-flowing football.

Now the Baggies can focus on parking the bus in time for their cup final this weekend,watch out late charge for 18th spot !

I'm sure Allardyce will do just fine, with Sam. it's never about the money

Parking the bus is normally afforded to big clubs which is not the Vile. If Fat Sam can’t get three points on Sunday there’s little hope. Let’s just hope Grealish after playing bumper cars and in bed with a slapper does not hit the ground like a wounded veteran!

Bored with your own board? One is not surprised as more activity on there than a cemetery on a snowy day!

[freer]

Parking the bus is normally afforded to big clubs which is not the Vile. If Fat Sam can’t get three points on Sunday there’s little hope. Let’s just hope Grealish after playing bumper cars and in bed with a slapper does not hit the ground like a wounded veteran!

Bored with your own board? One is not surprised as more activity on there than a cemetery on a snowy day!

It is perfectly okay to post garbage—as long as you read it back

As per the Sandwell’s wordsmith absolute retardation and incomprehensible analysis.


There’s definitely a German word that would be pertinent to use to describe your horsesh!t , If I could only think of it... Scheisse?

[DaveP67 is back!]

It is perfectly okay to post garbage—as long as you read it back

As per the Sandwell’s wordsmith absolute retardation and incomprehensible analysis.


There’s definitely a German word that would be pertinent to use to describe your horsesh!t , If I could only think of it... Scheisse?

Here’s hoping for a bit of ‘schadenfreude’ at the seals expense on Sunday!

[baggieal]

It is perfectly okay to post garbage—as long as you read it back

As per the Sandwell’s wordsmith absolute retardation and incomprehensible analysis.


There’s definitely a German word that would be pertinent to use to describe your horsesh!t , If I could only think of it... Scheisse?

Lots of foreign languages in Witton but German isn’t one of them! As I am fluent in Spanish - Que pendejo eres!

[WBA123]

Roll on relegation, and rid of another dinosaur

I don't buy that he's a dinosaur. He has embraced flair players in the past and I think he is different to Pulis in that respect.