[Archived] Fat Sam Is A Knob!

[philipl]

The Owen thing was obvious-

The clauses existed so if Owen activated them BFS could point at it being the other bloke's fault, not that Owen didn't fancy 60 yard passes on great circle trajectories.

Owen stayed and BFS expected to be a hero for keeping him but the Geordies think Newcastle is heaven on earth and of course he'd want to stay regardless of BFS sitting in the Manager's desk for the time being....

Thankfully, Rovers Management have far too much sense than pay Barton £60K a week to spend next season inside.

[Rover95]

Newcastle fans must be the most clueless on the planet . There seems to be a kind of collective hysteria up there at times .

I completely agree. I can't stand them and would be delighted if they were relegated. All this "great geordie support" is a myth. OK, they may have a lot of supporters but it doesn't

necessarily mean that its good support. All they do is whine and moan about how their current manager isn't doing the business and they shoud be winning major trophies and

competing with the big 4. What utter rubbish! We may not have the most supporters in the league but at least we get behind the players and the manager.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Arsenal 1-0 up in 4 mins , I can hear the crowd singing "your getting sacked in the morning" not sure if it's the Arsenal fans or the Toon army singing it.

[ABBEY]

Arsenal 1-0 up in 4 mins , I can hear the crowd singing "your getting sacked in the morning" not sure if it's the Arsenal fans or the Toon army singing it.

surely the accents will give it a way

if its babbling like it will the geordies

[RevidgeBlue]

Excellent result in the end for the barcodes, in fact they were slightly unlucky not to nick it at the end. They were also unlucky to lose on Saturday as well if you're being objective.

They now go into a winnable run of four games against the likes of Brum, Wigan, Fulham etc.

Decent run there and everyone might be wondering what all the fuss was about.

Having said that, spoke to someone tonight who I think knows Mike Ashley's family and he said before tonight's game that Ashley had his finger on the trigger and the replacement was already lined up. The name REALLY surprised me and personally I don't rate him. Would be better off with Sam imo.

However he didn't think Ashley would be able to fire the bullet just yet in the light of the decent result.

[philipl]

Being totally objective Newcastle got the result they deserved on Saturday and tonight could easily have lost as well.

That said, Saturday and tonight were two cracking matches and the barcodes were extremely effective in disrupting the Arsenal slick passing game.

I don't think it is a given (ho ho) that Brum, Wigan and Fulham will be pushovers for the mags- new management and all that.

[Eddie]

Pains me to say it but the only one I'd take from them would be Joey Barton.

N'Zogbia is a really good prospect. Martins is a good player, as is Owen. I also wouldn't mind Emre or Milner. They have a good bunch on players, they just aren't a good team.

[thenodrog]

Having said that, spoke to someone tonight who I think knows Mike Ashley's family and he said before tonight's game that Ashley had his finger on the trigger and the replacement was already lined up. The name REALLY surprised me and personally I don't rate him.

Little fat Sam?

Edited December 6, 2007 by thenodrog

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

When it comes to football, I like to see beauty not the beast....

It appears that I'm not alone in becoming increasingly concerned at the moment at the prospect of Big Sam managing our beloved football club. (I also have separate concerns about Paul Ince, but that's for a later post, perhaps tomorrow.)

With regard to Big Sam I loathed his brutal ugly style of play at Bolton - long balls whacked upfield to Kevin Davies with his elbows flying.

Big Sam, a so-called modern thinker, favours a prehistoric brand of long-ball football, which although can at times be effective against teams in the Premiership, will certainly never succeed at European level where you have to keep possession and control of the ball.

As Brian Clough famously said about the long-ball tactics favoured by teams like Wimbledon in the 1980s: "If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there."

I like to see players who are comfortable at putting their foot on the ball and able to pass it on the ground with accuracy and creativity, intelligent players with the ability to thread a defence-splitting pass, players like Tugay at his peak five or six years ago and Eyal Berkovic in our promotion season of 2000/01. Those are the sort of creative imaginative players that people pay good money to watch, not the likes of Dirty Diouf and Kevin Davies.

I disagree with Sam when he said during his spell as Bolton manager: "We are in the business of results. How you get results doesn't matter." No Sam, style does matter to a lot of people. Results and entertainment are important to supporters. They like to see a team that gets results, but preferably with an attractive style of play.

I was disgusted at the way Big Sam defended the diving, cheating and spitting antics of the repulsive El-Hadj Diouf. I'm very wary of a manager who defends such a vile disgusting character like Dirty Diouf.

In our promotion season we had some good attendances at Ewood Park, like 29,000 against Huddersfield and 26,000 against Sheffield United - a reflection of the fact that not only were we going for promotion, we were also playing some good football back then, a pass-and-move style which utilised the pace of Duff and Jansen in attack, before things went severely pear-shaped during the last 18 months of Graeme Souness's reign.

I fear that attendances could drop under Allardyce, with a significant section of Rovers fans becoming disenchanted with Big Sam's style of play. The increase in attendances we had last season could be put at risk with a man like Allardyce in charge.

For football purists like myself who believe that the game should be played in an attractive free-flowing pass-and-move style, Big Sam is frankly a nightmare.

As for his time at St James' Park, I thought the editor of the Newcastle United fanzine "The Mag" got it right when he said of Sam's time in charge of the club: "He was guilty of ugly, functional, soulless non-football, bewildering selections, negative tactics, baffling substitutions and the unshakable belief that the way to face the likes of Fulham, Derby and Wigan is to stop them playing. Even the most patient of fans were livid that Allardyce went to Sunderland looking for, and very lucky to get, a draw."

In any case, Sam left Bolton after saying that he was frustrated at working for a smaller club with a limited transfer budget. How long would it be before he got frustrated at Blackburn, not able to spend the millions that he would like?

I also have concerns about the character of Allardyce, his stubborn arrogance in the face of legitimate criticism from supporters, and the way he spat his dummy out of the pram by refusing to speak to the BBC. He first claimed that he was going to sue the BBC, but never did. Why didn't Sam put his money where his mouth was and actually go ahead with suing the BBC?

The final report of the Stevens inquiry, published in June 2007, expressed concerns about the involvement of Craig Allardyce in a number of transactions. "The inquiry remains concerned at the conflict of interest that it believes existed between Craig Allardyce, his father Sam Allardyce - the then manager at Bolton - and the club itself."

This came after two agents, Peter Harrison and Teni Yerima, were secretly filmed, each claiming that they had paid Allardyce through his son.

Sam was sacked by Newcastle and Blackpool. He could end up making it a hat-trick by being sacked at Rovers, but hopefully he won't get his foot in the door at our club. I don't want to see Wimbledon FC reincarnated at Ewood Park.

Big Sam says that he's keen on modern sports science methods, with a large backroom staff - but the reality is Damien Duff said that the fitness levels of the Newcastle players under Allardyce were not good enough. Kevin Keegan said that he inherited a Newcastle squad which was chronically short of confidence as well as match-fitness.

Duff says that the training greatly improved under Keegan and the Newcastle players became fitter. So much for Big Sam being a modern fitness expert then. As for Sam being a tactical genius, well his Bolton side were outplayed by Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough team in the 2004 Carling Cup final.

A few other results worth noting during Sam's time in charge at Bolton include being beaten 6-0 by Glenn Hoddle's Spurs in the 2001/02 season. In the 2003/04 season Bolton were beaten 6-2 by Man City. In Big Sam's last year at Bolton, in the 2006/07 season, they were beaten 5-1 by Middlesbrough.

Sam's ugly percentage football - long balls, long throw-ins and corners can sometimes come a cropper. It certainly doesn't always work well. Allardyce's favoured style of football reflects his career as a player at clubs like Coventry, Sunderland and Millwall, when as a defender he used to whack the ball, or the striker - whichever came first - as far up the field as possible.

He was an ugly beast of a man as a moustachioed player. Likewise as a manager his style of play is ugly too. Mr Williams, please take note of the fans' concerns. Many supporters don't want to see this beast of a man at our football club.

[S15]

Incey is so in for it tomorrow.

[Scotty]

Yep. Ex-Man U player - no stranger to controversy - said bad things about Blackburn in the past - black.

AESF's bile will be pouring out in bucketloads.

[roversmum]

This is what worries me. Appointing this man as Blackburn Rovers Manager, in my opinion, would send out entirely the wrong message of what our club is about. (re: Big Sam).

Edited June 12, 2008 by roversmum

[Presty On Tour]

Good work aesf, first class post and top marks from me.

[Hasta]

What a load of truths, half truths and codswallop.

Still, some will believe it all.

[Hughesy]

Still the FACT is that Allardyce had bolton at a similar level to our boys, but with a much poorer squad. Yes his style of play was rubbish but it got them results.

If he could take our team and play good football then i would be happy with his appointment.

[Jan]

Still the FACT is that Allardyce had bolton at a similar level to our boys, but with a much poorer squad. Yes his style of play was rubbish but it got them results.

I think that's the point. The evidence is that he can ONLY play one way. He had a better squad at Newcastle, and confused the hell out of them by trying to make them hoof it up to the shortest forwards in Christendom. I, for one, don't want to see that every week, but the evidence suggests that's what we'll get. Oh and the biggest team of arse-lickers in the business to support him. 32!! We'll need a bigger dug-out. Honestly think it's about the worst appointment the board could make, and signals the end for our creative players.

He was a lumper of a player and his teams take after him.

[Hasta]

Lets calm down and see if we actually do appoint him. I still believe if the board really wanted him he'd be here now. If they're prepared to look at an unproven, inexperienced Alan Shearer first then they obviously aren't that keen.

[tcj_jones]

AESF's sentiments reflect a very large proportion of this board. I agree with pretty much everything he said.

If Allardyce were to join the club, I can forsee horrible football, the club's profile going downhill, controversy surrounding events at Ewood Park and attendances plummeting. He will probably bring stability, but I don't want us to sell our soul in the process.

[S15]

Yep. Ex-Man U player - no stranger to controversy - said bad things about Blackburn in the past - black.

Exactly.

[RoyRover]

AESF's post highlighted all the reasons why Sam Allardyce shouldn't become our manager. I would be disgusted with the John Williams and the board if he were chosen to take us forward from where Mark Hughes left off. I can't imagine too many of our players would welcome his arrival either and that could lead to a whole different set of problems.

[American]

Never thought AESF would get so many new fans!

[roverich]

Primarily I agree with AESF's concerns regarding BFS's personality, attitude and controversial history but I think Hughesy is right in that fans enjoy playing badly and winning regularly more than playing well and losing regularly. Regarding the legitimate tactical concern Jan raised, I believe the ability to play alternative styles is also heavily dependent on the rest of the coaching staff and I'm sure JW and the board will hold this concern in the same light as any other and will not make the appoinment unless they truly believe Sam either does have the necessary tactical prowess or has good enough support staff who can have a positive impact on tactics. Likewise, I'm sure that, especially given the fact that they are looking for a buyer and hoping to inflate the value of the club, they will want to be confident that the new appoinment will not bring harmful (potentially value decreasing) controversy to the club. I trust JW and the board to not only value the fans opinion but more importantly put the club first - the latter may well lead to his appointment despite fans' reservations but only if all the other concerns are dealt with.

As such I will support BFS if he were to become our manager but it will take sometime before I stop believing him to be a selfish, arrogant, tactless, fat ugly sod with very narrow tactical expertises and it will be solely upto him to change my opinion by maintaining our status as a solid top-half club which enjoys an occasional good cup run and regular appearances in Europe.

Edited June 14, 2008 by roverich

[FourLaneBlue]

It seems that one of the problems with appointing Allardyce would be the fan reaction. Would that be a healthy situation for us as a football club? On what he achieved at Bolton he is bound to be one of the contenders but the strength of the opposition to his appointment (which I surprised at for being so vitriolic from many) has to come into whether or not he is a good choice. It would be a bit of an uphill battle for him to be accepted from the very start,

[jim mk2]

Never thought AESF would get so many new fans!

One more than you, apparently.

This campaign against Allardyce is nonsensical. What would Rovers fans rather have - an entertaining 3-2 defeat or a 1-0 win ?

Professional football is a results business and the club cannot risk appointing a manager who may or may not provide "entertainment" but takes the club down to the championship. Steve Coppell anyone ?

My preference would be McClaren but Allardyce would do a good job for Rovers.

[AggyBlue]

What would Rovers fans rather have - an entertaining 3-2 defeat or a 1-0 win ?

As a one off I don't mind an entertaining 3 - 2 defeat or an ugly 1 - 0 win. I don't want ugly every game though.

BFS takes gamesmanship beyond MY acceptable limits, therefore I feel I wouldn't want to watch his team week in, week out.