Big Sam It Is

[RandyMarsh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36850753

Well deserved, he should make us hard to beat at least.

[joeluke]

At least we won't get relegated

[Togo]

Lol joeluke. Good choice. All I need now is the Potters to sign Van Persi and Behrahino.

[vernonk]

Truly crap appointment. He's never won anything. He's a merchant of mediocrity. I bet he is forced to resign within two years after achieving nothing.

[joeluke]

Togo....if you're a Stoke fan it looks like you'll have to make do with Joe Allen!

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/165/10507644/liverpool-have-accepted-a-163-13million-bid-for-joe-allen-from-stoke

[Togo]

Do us Joe. Direct replacement for Charlie Adam. Who owes us nothing by the way, he has been a good servant for the club. ( see avatar)

[fiction-factory]

He has been a good servant at The Torch?
Surely it closed before he was even a teenager

[Togo]

Haha he was a bit toooo uncool for the Torch in the sixties. Perhaps he'd have been a bouncer. My "see avatar" message was for joe's "if you a Stoke fan" rider.

[-Talbot-]

I wonder which foreign manager is lined up to replace Sam?

[andy-hughes]

From my limited knowledge, and the reports I have read in the paper - it appears that SA is a good choice, being an experienced and respected manager.

Unfortunately, any England manager has thin gruel to work with - overpaid and pampered Premier stars who do not gel properly as a team - and that shows no sign of changing any time soon..

However, SA is renowned for his man-management abilities, so if anyone can get them pulling together, it would hopefully be him.

[-Talbot-]

//Unfortunately, any England manager has thin gruel to work with - //


Allardyce has made his name working with 'thin gruel' whatever that means.


//overpaid and pampered Premier stars who do not gel properly as a team - and that shows no sign of changing any time soon.. //



Er .... getting a team to gel is the managers job. If you don't see that changing anytime soon then Allardyce is the wrong choice.

[andy-hughes]

Talbot - ////Unfortunately, any England manager has thin gruel to work with - //


Allardyce has made his name working with 'thin gruel' whatever that means. //

It means working with poor material. As a club manager, SA can take young hungry ambitious club fotballers and school them every week, passing on his knowledge, bringing out their skills, and playing them through a season - analysing and assisting them as they go.

Compare that to having charge of a bunch of arrogant millionaires who probably see an England shirt as their right, put together for a few weeks a year and told to play like a club side, not really bother too much, and then pop back to millionaire 'big fish/small pool' lives at their clubs.

There is no comparison - which is why England is a triumph of memories and imagined status over fact and reality in my view.

//overpaid and pampered Premier stars who do not gel properly as a team - and that shows no sign of changing any time soon.. //

Er .... getting a team to gel is the managers job. If you don't see that changing anytime soon then Allardyce is the wrong choice. //

It's the sheer practicality of not having a squad working together for anything like long enough to develop as a cohesive unit that doesn't change. Couple that with the laissez-faire attitude of millionaire players who have no serious incentive to win, and you are doomed before you start.

That is my view as a non-fan whose opinion is un-clouded by misty memories of 1966, and the peculiar, and utterly undeserved idea that England are somehow a superior team on the world stage.

[-Talbot-]

imo, you have just waffled there andy.

[andy-hughes]

Talbot - //imo, you have just waffled there andy. //

Thanks for your input.

[andy-hughes]

10ClarionSt - //Big Sam has just taken his first step on the road to the sack, just like his predecessors. //

What has he done?

[Bazile]

So, what is Sam Allardyce , going to do that none of the managers have not done , since 1966?