[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[unluckymorton]

Sam is doing a damned good job now but he is not as good as Sparky was. We were spoilt rotten by what Sparky achieved for us but despite making more mistakes than Sparky did and playing more rigid systems, I wouldn't bet against Sam lifting us into Europa contention next season one way or another regardless of how tight the purse strings are this summer.

I totally agree. The thing is with Hughes was that he was never 100% committed to our club and was always going to move on when a more fashionable club waved a decent transfer kitty at him. I'n not knocking him for that in any way, he's a good up and coming manager. Hughes left us in a good position with valuable assets. The problem was the mess that the gobshite we got in after Hughes left us in meant we HAD to sell our assets to make amends and move forward. What we've got in Sam is a manager who has already been dazzled by the bright lights and knows that our club is probably the best he will ever get and will most probably be his last job in football management, hopefully lasting for several years to come.

There is no reason why we cant make Europe next season especially if the clubs outside the top 5 or 6 are as poor next season as they have been this season. I'm looking forward to being part of next season and I can't understand the minority that will not back our manager.

[67splitscreen]

44 points, league position from the reduction from 22 to 20 teams.

08/09 13th................Relegated 28

07/08 13th................Relegated 34

06/07 13th................Relegated 38

05/06 15th................Relegated 34

04/05 14th................Relegated 33

03/04 15th Rovers.....Relegated 33

02/03 17th................Relegated 42

01/02 Joint 13th........Relegated 36

00/01 14th................Relegated 34

99/00 15th................Relegated 33

98/99 14th................Relegated 36

97/98 14th joint........Relegated 40

96/97 13th................Relegated 40

95/96 12th................Relegated 38

94/95 22 teams 44points would have seen you in 19th place and survived

The only time you may have had a bit of a dog fight is in 02/03 when Bolton went down. this does of course depend on your points spread through the season.

What i have found interesting from this is our budgeted position of 13th, in the 14 seasons with 20 clubs, 44 points has an average finishing place of 12th.

No doubt Sam's stats came into play with JW's budget.

[broadsword]

The same style of football with the end product is far more entertaining Bryan.

I wouldn't say that, becxause the football will still be rubbish. More entertaining to see the ball nestle in the net, yes. Far mpore entertaining? No.

[unluckymorton]

I wouldn't say that, becxause the football will still be rubbish. More entertaining to see the ball nestle in the net, yes. Far mpore entertaining? No.

It would be to me and that's the only opinion I can voice.

If the ball goes in the back of the net more often and we walk away from games with 3 points more often the world will be a far better place and our season tickets will be even more of a bargain.

Give me Sam's football and 11th in the league any day against a less than pretty burnley or West Ham side in the for the last third of the season.

Not all the football we see is rubbish, we see some good stuff. I'd rather watch Rovers battle for a result and be proud of my side that watch the likes of Gerrard and Torres diving to con the ref to win a game.

We will slowly become a better footballing side, just be patient and support the manager, he's done very well up to now and hopefully he'll keep us going in the right direction. If it's sexy football and the Champions League that you want get on the waiting list for tickets at Arsenal or Chelsea. We are an unfashionable rough and ready club that other clubs dread to play. I'm more than happy with that.

[Harry Balls]

Allardyce has his deficiencies but then so do many managers. And yes there have been some poor games this season but there have been some exciting ones too. Just like under Hughes's management, and Souness for that matter. To suggest Allardyce is "sucking the life and soul out of the club" is dramatic nonsense - true fans will support the club whoever is in charge which is obviously not the case with you. Have you thought of spending your Saturdays doing something else - pottery-making classes for instance ?

Who says I'm not supporting the club?

Let's get this straight. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and as such there's not much more I want than for Sam to succeed. Why, you may ask? Well if that happens, then our club succeeds.

However, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not entirely convinced he is the right man to take us forwards. Granted, we're unlikely to get relegated under his management, but his sheer lack of ambition is unlikely to yield much more than that. For the sake of our club, I hope I'm wrong.

Having said that, your comment does strike a nerve. Does it really make me a better fan if I never criticise the manager? That's a serious question, I'm just trying to get my head around the lemming mentality that some on here seem to be suffering from. Furthermore, do you recall only a few months ago that the vast majority on this board were calling for Sam's head? So during that inglorious period, were they all anti-fans as well? Or was it the other way around because of the aforementioned lemming syndrome?

[unluckymorton]

Who says I'm not supporting the club?

Let's get this straight. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and as such there's not much more I want than for Sam to succeed. Why, you may ask? Well if that happens, then our club succeeds.

However, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not entirely convinced he is the right man to take us forwards. Granted, we're unlikely to get relegated under his management, but his sheer lack of ambition is unlikely to yield much more than that. For the sake of our club, I hope I'm wrong.

Having said that, your comment does strike a nerve. Does it really make me a better fan if I never criticise the manager? That's a serious question, I'm just trying to get my head around the lemming mentality on here. Furthermore, do you recall only a few months ago that the vast majority on this board were calling for Sam's head? So during that inglorious period, were they all anti-fans as well? Or was it the other way around because of the aforementioned lemming syndrome?

Circumstances were very different a few months ago. People had every right to lose their rag after the outing at Eastlands but since then it has been onwards and upwards but Sam doesn't seem to get any credit from the anti-Sam minority.

If he's not the man to take us forward I'd love to see who you'd appoint as manager to come in and do better.... This could take some time so I'll carry on with my work for a while and leave you to it.

[The Rover of Finland]

Sam is doing a damned good job now but he is not as good as Sparky was. We were spoilt rotten by what Sparky achieved for us but despite making more mistakes than Sparky did and playing more rigid systems, I wouldn't bet against Sam lifting us into Europa contention next season one way or another regardless of how tight the purse strings are this summer.

PL has changed in few years. Spurs, Villa and Everton are much better than few years ago. City is a different story. They are fifth big club today. That makes 8 clubs who has totally different financial situation. We are in the third group and then there are the clubs who were relegated plus Wolves making the fourth group. Ninth place would have been our best possible this season. We will probably be 11th or 12th. Very expected I think. Sam can lift us few places if he finds a good striker and we will play a good season. But if owners don´t support him more than now we can´t dream of Europe. Well, there is always cups but not by league position. And it doesn´t mean Sparky did better. Both has done great job I think. And finally, Sam has been forced to check our own young lads. Jones has proved there can be extra power. Maybe someone else breaks next season? I have big hopes on Jackson Ramm but his time won´t come so soon. Maybe he will be our right back after Salgado?

[Amo]

PL has changed in few years. Spurs, Villa and Everton are much better than few years ago.

I wouldn't say that. Spurs were one dodgy lasagne away from CL football in 2006, and Everton have finished in the top 8 for the last four seasons.

[The Rover of Finland]

I wouldn't say that. Spurs were one dodgy lasagne away from CL football in 2006, and Everton have finished in the top 8 for the last four seasons.

Top 4 club aren´t as good as few season ago. No English club playing Cl semis says it too. But next four clubs are bigger now than when were under Hughes. I think it´s very obvious.

[jim mk2]

However, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not entirely convinced he is the right man to take us forwards. Granted, we're unlikely to get relegated under his management, but his sheer lack of ambition is unlikely to yield much more than that. For the sake of our club, I hope I'm wrong.

Furthermore, do you recall only a few months ago that the vast majority on this board were calling for Sam's head?

Last season was firefighting exercise to avoid relegation while this season we are finishing in a respectable mid-table position and have reached the semi-finals of one of the two cup competitions. The team is slowly being overhauled with some exciting young players promising much for the future despite the lack of money available to spend on transfers. If that is not the sign of a manager taking the club "forwards" then I do not know what is. Allardyce is naturally a cautious manager which somtimes in reflected in his tactics and team selections but for a club in our position that is not bad thing.

Many were calling for the manager's head but I was not among them and that does not make them "lemmings" any more than fans backing the manager are "lemmings". You are entitled to question the manager but I think at this stage of his tenure your criticism is unjustified.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Sam is doing a damned good job now but he is not as good as Sparky was. We were spoilt rotten by what Sparky achieved for us but despite making more mistakes than Sparky did and playing more rigid systems, I wouldn't bet against Sam lifting us into Europa contention next season one way or another regardless of how tight the purse strings are this summer.

I'd take the bet. We've taken 6 points off the top 8 clubs this season and got tonked in many of the games. To be in the mix for a Euro place we'd have to be doing much, much better than that and I can't see the squad changing enough to justify such a turnaround.

[Tom]

Does anybody follow the fake big Sam on Twitter? It's absurb and random but quite funny at times.

Me and some of the lads gave an impromptu performance of Eternal's "I Wanna Be the Only One" in training today.

I took on BeBe Winans masterful vocals, while Brett Emerton, Míchel Salgado and Nikola Kalinić added some sweet soul melodies.

[DeadlyDirk]

Does anybody follow the fake big Sam on Twitter? It's absurb and random but quite funny at times.

Me and some of the lads gave an impromptu performance of Eternal's "I Wanna Be the Only One" in training today.

I took on BeBe Winans masterful vocals, while Brett Emerton, Míchel Salgado and Nikola Kalinić added some sweet soul melodies.

I guess it's obvious he's a fake Sam when you hear Salgado is doing backup vocals, he wouldn't settle for second place, it was believable up until then.

What's his Twitter ID thing?

[Manc Rover]

He's on Talksh*te right now

[Manc Rover]

He's on Talksh*te right now

To summarise, saying no wholesale changes because happy with squad and prob just a couple of new faces to improve quality in some areas. Then Brazil and Irani praising us for our achievements on a small budget. They even manaaged to say it without sounding patronising.

Refreshing to hear we've a settled squad now most of the dross has been moved on!

[Tom]

I guess it's obvious he's a fake Sam when you hear Salgado is doing backup vocals, he wouldn't settle for second place, it was believable up until then.

What's his Twitter ID thing?

TheBig_Sam

[Hughesy]

I'd take the bet. We've taken 6 points off the top 8 clubs this season and got tonked in many of the games. To be in the mix for a Euro place we'd have to be doing much, much better than that and I can't see the squad changing enough to justify such a turnaround.

The 'tonkins' came early season - we have seen some big improvements since then....

We are only 13pts of 8th at the moment - realistically we could have taken more from Wolves (A), Hull (A), Stoke (H), West Ham (H), Sunderland (H & A).....and should have thrown the draw against Everton away. Change those type of results next season - tighten up against the bigger teams and we shouldnt be too far off!

He's on Talksh*te right now

To summarise, saying no wholesale changes because happy with squad and prob just a couple of new faces to improve quality in some areas. Then Brazil and Irani praising us for our achievements on a small budget. They even manaaged to say it without sounding patronising.

Refreshing to hear we've a settled squad now most of the dross has been moved on!

We still have some deadwood to move - Reid, Zurab, Judge

& Still some who are weak-links - Andrews, Brown & Roberts - but overall our squad is starting to look much better.

Add a good striker & a good midfielder and it would push us on alot further!

[waggy]

To be honest the only real complaint we can have against Sam is the style of football. It is pretty dire to watch, even out wins are usually not that pretty.

lard@rses football will never change,the sooner he goes the better

[unluckymorton]

lard@rses football will never change,the sooner he goes the better

Better for you maybe but not for the club the rest of us follow.

[tony gale's mic]

I wouldn't say that. Spurs were one dodgy lasagne away from CL football in 2006, and Everton have finished in the top 8 for the last four seasons.

They were also 11th in Hughes' final season and had been in the lower/mid table before the days of Martin Jol. Villa came to prominence only halfway through Hughes' reign and City obviously weren't even in the league then. The top 4, City, Everton, Villa and Spurs are all out of our reach now as they're big spending clubs who are all near enough achieving what they should be.

There's no club that was outperforming us under Hughes that has now slipped away, but there are clubs that were either inconsistent or not even on the scene under Hughes that are out of our reach, meaning it's next to impossible for Sam to achieve a Europe league place unless one or two of these clubs have a mini implosion. But all Newcastle need is to sort themselves out a bit and given their potential resources they could be another club that could soon pull away out of our reach too.

I'd say this season has been quite good overall, it would have been excellent had we kept the momentum going and got a top half finish (our displays at Pompey and Wolves put paid to that, those 4 pts dropped would have put us 9th currently). However I am slightly worried about the fact we have two teams with solid Premier League experience coming up next season, though West Brom seem to be a perennial yo yo club.

The biggest positive for me though doesn't come in league performance, it comes in the players that Sam's signed. Like it or not we have to be a selling club to survive in this league as it's our main source of revenue. At the start of the season we had to rack our brains to think of players in our squad who could go for big money except for maybe Samba.

This season Samba has grown in stature but we also have N'Zonzi, Jones and Olsson who unless they have a big drop in form will surely be going for much more than what we sold. There's also Kalinic who is still young and if he hadn't hit the woodwork literally every other game this season would have had a pretty impressive goal tally. I know it's all conjecture but if we were to sell them now I think we'd get around £12m for Samba, £4-5m for N'Zonzi and maybe £4m for Olsson. Jones and Kalinic are hard to price for different reasons but they have good seasons again next season their values will close to double I would have thought - even in the days of Hughes we didn't have this much bankable talent in the side, there was always just one or two at a time.

[Hughesy]

lard@rses football will never change,the sooner he goes the better

Or better still - the soooner MARDARSE goes the better!

[Blackburn Ender]

We are a good 12 points off a European place and our away form next season will need to be much better than this.

However, we seem to be back in a position of strength where European qualification, not relegation avoidance, can be a realistic goal.

Remains to be seen who leaves over the summer, but it has to be said that BFS has done the business.

Continued stability on the management side and a continued lack of buyers for the club and we might get a few more seasons in the top division punching above our weight.

I think Sam is now doing as good a job as Mark Hughes. And he has not found a new job yet, has he?

Three out of the last four managers have done a decent job for us.

I did not want BFS at the time Ince was appointed, but recognised he was probably the best man for the job following Ince's disastrous tenure.

He's certainly exceeded my expectations and we should have no need to worry about another change for some time.

The last two appointments we got really wrong (Ince, Kidd) were easy to spot from the start.

I'm looking forward to a new season for the first time in ages.

[DeadlyDirk]

We are a good 12 points off a European place and our away form next season will need to be much better than this.

However, we seem to be back in a position of strength where European qualification, not relegation avoidance, can be a realistic goal.

Remains to be seen who leaves over the summer, but it has to be said that BFS has done the business.

Continued stability on the management side and a continued lack of buyers for the club and we might get a few more seasons in the top division punching above our weight.

I think Sam is now doing as good a job as Mark Hughes. And he has not found a new job yet, has he?

Three out of the last four managers have done a decent job for us.

I did not want BFS at the time Ince was appointed, but recognised he was probably the best man for the job following Ince's disastrous tenure.

He's certainly exceeded my expectations and we should have no need to worry about another change for some time.

The last two appointments we got really wrong (Ince, Kidd) were easy to spot from the start.

I'm looking forward to a new season for the first time in ages.

Pretty much sums up my own feelings.

I wasn't excited about him joining but recognised after Ince's spell he was perhaps the best man for the job. I didn't expect much from him but slowly over time he's grown on me and has exceeded my expectations. He is far from perfect but he's done alright and were headed in the right direction. In his time here working under a tight budget (Tighter than a nun's c**t) I think he's got more things right than wrong and at times we dwell far too much on the negative rather than look at some of the positive things he's done. I still have reservations about him in certain areas but I believe he's earned the right to at least try and take things forward.

[John]

Interview with Sam on Rovers TV, reflecting on the season.

Was worried that lack of spending would mean we might struggle more this season (based on what other clubs spent in the transfer market).

The team/club does not have his stamp on it yet - quite a way off that he says. Critical with little resources that staffing wise we have to improve which in turn should help/improve the players.

[waggy]

The team/club does not have his stamp on it yet - quite a way off that he says. Critical with little resources that staffing wise we have to improve which in turn should help/improve the players.

god help us then,the football is crap now just wait for next season