News
Big Sam: chairman can’t stand the pressure
Published by Simon Head on February 18, 2008
Former Bolton and Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce today told talkSPORT, the UK’s only national commercial speech radio station, that the money being spent, the unrealistic expectations of the fans and the pressure they bring is what causes the Chairman’s legs to buckle and sack the manager.
Speaking to Andy Townsend and Mike Parry on the Wickes Weekend Sports Breakfast, Sam Allardyce told of the mounting pressure from fans on Chairman Mike Ashley was what led to his sacking from Newcastle United. “Unfortunately I didn’t know Mike or Chris Monk that well and I thought they might withstand the pressure,” said Allardyce. “But obviously they didn’t. They have since said that I was never their man anyway which was a little disappointing, as they could have said that at the beginning. Withstanding the pressure – they are huge businessmen, multi-millionaires in their own right, very clever. But they’ve never been shouted at. They cannot withstand the pressure and their knees buckle.
“They don’t stand strong and they use the easy option to take the pressure off themselves. That’s a general comment, it’s not based purely and simply on Newcastle. The Chairman gets a bit of stick from the fans, ‘the managers no good’, and they have to be the strongest ones and often they are the weakest ones when it comes down to it. They’ve never experience that no matter how much money they have earned or how successful they have been in business. They may like the limelight that goes with it now when the success comes. But they certainly cannot put up with the other side of it that today is really quite volatile.
“This season, it’s been a mad, mad world to be in management. It’s all down to the money now. I think that money has turned the game in to an unstable environment for managers because people are throwing good money at the game in the Premiership, at the top level particularly.
“Now there are fewer and fewer capable players to find in the world. That makes them more expensive. The more expensive they get, the higher the expectation. The spending of the money raises the expectation. £530 million was a record last summer, over £100 million in January. People think it’s an instant cure for success, which of course it isn’t. Every club in the Premiership has bought in more players than ever before. Then you’ve got to have the stability period where the players and you get to know each other and only then you can get the best out of them. That [time] is not given anymore.
“What has just happened to Bryan Robson this week, expecting Sheffield United to get straight back in to the Premiership. He sells £7million worth of players because they get relegated, he has to try and rebuild the team and because he’s mid table and not in the top four there’s demonstrations outside the ground. I think it’s just a bit ludicrous.”
Asked by Townsend if he would like to get back in to football management, Allardyce said: “Well, it’s an addiction. After 16 years I needed a break. But when Saturday comes around I’m still lying in bed, agitated, still wondering, trying to make the decisions I should be making because I’ve been making them for that long. Now the only decision’s I have to make are whether I have tea, coffee, toast or corn flakes for breakfast.
“Newcastle has been a bitter disappointment. But with it being such a short space of time, I hope it hasn’t had any lasting effect out there in the world of football when it comes to what Sam Allardyce can do as a manager. We’ve got a lot of foreign managers infiltrating the game and I’m always ready to take up the fight and prove that we are as good, if not better, than them and I think that we are. People like myself must keep on proving ourselves and if I get the chance, hopefully I’ll get to do it again.”
Asked by Mike Parry if he still regretted not being picked as England manager, Allardyce said: “From my point of view, the FA made completely the wrong choice. No disrespect to Steve, at the time I thought I was ready. The players that I spoke to, I had behind me. The public in general appeared to be behind me and at that particular time I’d have done a really good job.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.