[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[imy9]

Bit of a pointless comparison...it was the 8 games lost in a row that cost Ince his job.

My comparison was not pointless as I was responding to someone who was highlighting that we had gained 1 point in 9, merely emphasizing how quickly things change.

[patrickvalery]

Paper clubs win paper cups...

I'd settle for a paper cup!!

[spencey7]

Occasionally you make some valid points in between the undisguised bile and relentless repetition but frankly quoting a Newcastle fan (ANY Newcastle fan) as "evidence" to support your point is really not helping you

The Newcastle supporter's quote was just to somewhat illustrate the man's track record.

"Tongue-in-cheek" or not, that was a ridiculous and mind-numblingly stupid thing to say yesterday. The Blackburn Rovers faithful breathe blue and white, and were so desperate for results last season we even ended up with someone once considered a hate figure as our manager.

Fans discuss the club, players and tactics all the time - in the stadium, at work, in the pub, etc. It's part of football. To say that the fans shouldn't have an opinion on the team and their views don't deserve to be respected is first-class idiocy. Not a soul on here can deny that.

How many more "performances" like that will Ewood Park take?

[broadsword]

So we have "the best back four since '94", a Real Madrid CL winner and the future of Croatian football and yet we have to be deluded to hope of finishing top 10?

He said best back four since we won the title ... not 94.

Minor point admittedly.

[Parsonblue]

How many more "performances" like that will Ewood Park take?

The club will take whatever is necessary to retain Premier League status. You say we ended up with 'a hate figure' as manager. You may have hated him spencey7, I for one thought he did a brilliant job at Bolton and he was my first choice for the Ewood job when Mark Hughes left.

The fact that rumours suggest that Sam is involved in bringing in a new man for the Academy would indicate that the club see Sam as part of their long term future.

Premier League survival is vital as relegation would ultimately lead to a slide down the leagues as we experienced in the late sixties and early seventies. The reason that Sam was appointed in the first place was because John Williams and co believe he is able to keep a club in the Premier League on a shoestring budget. Even if we are in the bottom three at Christmas I firmly believe that the club will keep faith with Sam and that he will eventually keep us in this League. At the moment we have a long injury list which hasn't helped plus a couple of new signings that need to get up to the pace of things.

I agree, yesterday's match wasn't the best. However, the previous three games I have found entertaining and yesterday we got a point and kept a clean sheet. I've seen far worse matches at Ewood and seen far worse squads than the one we have got now.

[Silencio]

The fact that rumours suggest that Sam is involved in bringing in a new man for the Academy would indicate that the club see Sam as part of their long term future.

Parson, always enjoy reading your posts.

I am behind SA but worry a little that he feels no affection for the club. Do you think that Sam is truly interested in the Academy side of the club?

Even though the club are not investing in the first team, I hope they will put some money into getting the right man for the Academy.

[Steve Moss]

^ I don't think SA feels "affection" for the club. He's a professional for hire, like our players. He is, however, conscious of his reputation. I think he'll do a good job setting up the Academy, like he does coaching, as he wants respect something of a legacy.

[Silencio]

^ I don't think SA feels "affection" for the club. He's a professional for hire, like our players. He is, however, conscious of his reputation. I think he'll do a good job setting up the Academy, like he does coaching, as he wants respect something of a legacy.

I'm fully aware that he is a professional but he does seem to show his frustrations quite openly. I understand his frustrations after this summer but wonder if sorting out the Academy is going to be a priority for him.

That wasn't meant as a big criticism. I am behind SA and feel we should try our best to support and keep him here.

[Steve Moss]

^ I wasn't trying to knock you. What I was trying to communicate, is that Sam will sort out the Academy as it is one piece of the puzzle to establishing something of a legacy within the club. He's a massive ego and getting the club, including the Academy, in order is the best monument he'll likely get.

[John]

^ I wasn't trying to knock you. What I was trying to communicate, is that Sam will sort out the Academy as it is one piece of the puzzle to establishing something of a legacy within the club. He's a massive ego and getting the club, including the Academy, in order is the best monument he'll likely get.

Not read the rumour/story but where is the talk regarding Sam on the academy, appointing the new manager etc...??

[Sandiway Blue]

The club will take whatever is necessary to retain Premier League status. You say we ended up with 'a hate figure' as manager. You may have hated him spencey7, I for one thought he did a brilliant job at Bolton and he was my first choice for the Ewood job when Mark Hughes left.

The fact that rumours suggest that Sam is involved in bringing in a new man for the Academy would indicate that the club see Sam as part of their long term future.

Premier League survival is vital as relegation would ultimately lead to a slide down the leagues as we experienced in the late sixties and early seventies. The reason that Sam was appointed in the first place was because John Williams and co believe he is able to keep a club in the Premier League on a shoestring budget. Even if we are in the bottom three at Christmas I firmly believe that the club will keep faith with Sam and that he will eventually keep us in this League. At the moment we have a long injury list which hasn't helped plus a couple of new signings that need to get up to the pace of things.

I agree, yesterday's match wasn't the best. However, the previous three games I have found entertaining and yesterday we got a point and kept a clean sheet. I've seen far worse matches at Ewood and seen far worse squads than the one we have got now.

Good post!

With it being Sam`s first full season he HAS to give the likes of Dunny,Reidy,Grella and the Admiral a chance to get fit.I do think if the situation remains at the end of the season where all of these 4 players are playing less than half the games,then Sam will have to get rid of at least 2 of them.

Rovers can`t afford to carry this amount of players as it is really hurting us on the pitch (and off!).If all 4 were fit,i wager we would have more than just the 1 point so far.

[thenodrog]

For the first time today I saw what the Allardyce haters see,

So did the Allardyce haters.

[Big Fat Sam]

"We played the way we did because of the players we had available - and we played it very well. All you punters and supporters out there, leave it to me. I'm the expert, not you."

To be fair he does say it tongue in cheek in the video so lets hope the majority see the video and don't just read it. Because when you read it you automatically get the wrong impression.

To be fair Tris respect has to go both ways and I think those wuckfits on the top corner were a disgrace. Don't get me wrong I think Sam made a mistake with his tactics today but I think it's quite a tame quote given what he must think of that section of ingrates. Thankfully I was in a position to shout exactly what I thought about them.

Allardyce will always have his doubters, 3,000 plus signed that petition as Imy said. He should know that and realise that its going to take more for some to come on board completely. As such why he couldn't have said a humour based reply and not one that has the potential to be used against him, I don't know.

[MarkBRFC]

Would it be fair to say that Big Sam has no idea what his first choice line up & formation is?

[RevidgeBlue]

And on a final note, i think Sam has given us more reason to cheer than any summer under Hughes. I'm adamant that Hughes would not have squeezed as much money out of our board. Sam has clearly pressured the powers that be to go that extra mile this close season. Every year numerous fans bemoan the lack of incoming transfers. Well that can't be levelled at Sam. He has now got the best back four i've seen us have since we won the title. Paid £6m for 'the future of Croatian football' and brought in a Real Madrid CL winner.

Eh? I can't agree with that, he's "squeezed" minus 16m quid out of the owners for a squad that was nearly relegated as it was last season!

Souness for all his faults seemed quite good at getting money out of the Board.

I also disagreec that we've brought in a lot of players. We might have brought in seven or eight but we must have let go nineteen or twenty including the people out on loan.

[Amo]

The club was promoted under Souness. I expect it was a similar situation to Hull & Stoke now, in that the Sky money was a substantial bonus rather than a bare necessity.

Although Hughes did a stellar job here and improved the turnover of the club, he also had the added bonus of David Bentley, Pedersen's skilful twin brother, and a younger Tugay. Sam inherited a long-term rebuilding job, one already bulldozed by Paul Ince's catastrophic regime. We sold Santa Cruz & Derbyshire for a combined £20m, yet Sam was only allowed to "splash" 30% of that. That's the harsh truth the club finds itself in right now.

I'd say Sam has a few factors to consider before he knows his ideal line-up. He's yet to play Dunn & Grella consecutively, and has Emerton & Reid to bring into the squad as well. N'Zonzi wouldn't be a major player had those four been available to him.

[RevidgeBlue]

Very strange comments attributed to Sam in the NOTW today.

"We won't be freescoring teams like us never are."

What the hell does he mean by that?

A supposedly "small" club or one that plays negative boring long ball stuff?

Sorry to disappoint you Sam but I've seen us score 3, 4, 5 and 6 goals on various occasions over the years in the old Divisions 2 and 3 with a lot less talent at our disposal than at present.

[Amo]

Sorry to disappoint you Sam but I've seen us score 3, 4, 5 and 6 goals on various occasions over the years in the old Divisions 2 and 3 with a lot less talent at our disposal than at present.

And the same for the opposition?

[Stuart]

Very strange comments attributed to Sam in the NOTW today.

"We won't be freescoring teams like us never are."

What the hell does he mean by that?

A supposedly "small" club or one that plays negative boring long ball stuff?

Sorry to disappoint you Sam but I've seen us score 3, 4, 5 and 6 goals on various occasions over the years in the old Divisions 2 and 3 with a lot less talent at our disposal than at present.

If he is going to set out his stall every game just to keep a clean sheet and hope that the one chance we get we put away wins it 1-0, then we are in for some poor games this season. More worryingly, if the strikers/midfielders know that the team is set up for One Chance, it's no wonder they seem afraid to shoot in case he blames them for us not winning.

I'm really getting the impression that Big Sam is trying to get in his excuses early on so that when his tactics backfire, he can just stand back, throw his arms up and and tell everyone that it wasn't his fault, the club was holding him back.

Forget 'Big Sam', it should be 'Big Iam'.

[RevidgeBlue]

If he is going to set out his stall every game just to keep a clean sheet and hope that the one chance we get we put away wins it 1-0, then we are in for some poor games this season. More worryingly, if the strikers/midfielders know that the team is set up for One Chance, it's no wonder they seem afraid to shoot in case he blames them for us not winning.

I'm really getting the impression that Big Sam is trying to get in his excuses early on so that when his tactics backfire, he can just stand back, throw his arms up and and tell everyone that it wasn't his fault, the club was holding him back.

Forget 'Big Sam', it should be 'Big Iam'.

If Sam is going down the Howard Kendall route of trying to win 1-0 every week whilst drawing the occasional blank, I have no problem with that - but only as long as it actually works!

[Parsonblue]

Very strange comments attributed to Sam in the NOTW today.

"We won't be freescoring teams like us never are."

What the hell does he mean by that?

A supposedly "small" club or one that plays negative boring long ball stuff?

Sorry to disappoint you Sam but I've seen us score 3, 4, 5 and 6 goals on various occasions over the years in the old Divisions 2 and 3 with a lot less talent at our disposal than at present.

So have we all Rev. However, this isn't the old Division 2 or 3. We are a small town club, with a limited budget going up against teams with far bigger resources. I think the manager is merely stating that we are not likely to be scoring three or four goals on a regular basis. I think that would be a fairly accurate assessment of the situation. I wouldn't expect Bolton, Wigan, Hull, Portsmouth, Burnley etc to be free scoring teams either. They'll all be trying to nick games by a goal or two.

[Stuart]

If Sam is going down the Howard Kendall route of trying to win 1-0 every week whilst drawing the occasional blank, I have no problem with that - but only as long as it actually works!

Yes, but that involves trying to win . Sam's tactics seem to be aim for 0-0 and anything else is a bonus!

[Parsonblue]

I am behind SA but worry a little that he feels no affection for the club. Do you think that Sam is truly interested in the Academy side of the club?

Even though the club are not investing in the first team, I hope they will put some money into getting the right man for the Academy.

Personally, I've always believed that the manager should have more influence over the Academy. We have tried to keep the two separate for the past decade and it clearly hasn't worked. At Bolton, the seniors, reserves and academy all played a similar system so that players knew the roles that were expected of them when they moved between teams. I also believe that at Bolton, Sam had the Academy lads joining in with senior training sessions. I think the fact that the two training establishments at Brockhall are separated by the village has perhaps reinforced this idea of two separate organisations. Getting the two working more closely can only be a good thing, particularly if we can fast track lads up to the reserves - which we now seem to be doing - and then into the first team squad. The fact that Phil Jones has moved from the Academy to the Senior squad with very little reserve team football behind him suggests that we are moving in the right direction.

[Mr. E]

If I was BFS I'd have them training night and day for the next 2 weeks until even the ball boy can hit the back of the net at every touch. I have the feeling things are way too lenient in the locker room and BFS is telling them "no luck lads, next time we'll get 'em". The players need to be absolutely terrified of repeating what they did in the first 3 games. They get paid massive sums, so let's see them try to earn them a bit.

If we don't have the resources of other teams than we need to compensate through maximum training and ruthless discipline and preparation. And isn't this part of the reason why we got BFS in the first place? For all his special training methods, doctors, psychologists and what not? Where did all that go? Instead of reaching above our potential, currently we're underachieving.

[JAL]

Think that all the doubters should let things evolve and get behind the team.

Watching Gael Givet perform the last two home games gives Rovers every opportunity to progress, this guy competed and won the ball nearly every time he went for it, Givet turned the opositions attacks into Rovers attacks what more can you ask. Hes just one ' outstanding' player we have.

For me a team is one with excellent' stoppers', very good 'get it and give it types' that provide the service to the 'architects or creators' and most importantly 'the finishers'. The missing link is the architect creator type which we all crave for but for now Rovers will just have to run with what they've got which isnt at all that bad for a small northern town team.

If the club and big Sam could find that architect type creative player i'm sure the performances would improve immensely.

Have faith !