[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[Gav]

The actual quote is factually correct. Anyone can buy the League as long as they have three things:

The funds available - which we had thanks to Jack; a good management team - which we had thanks to Kenny and Ray; and, of course, a slice of luck during the season with injuries, suspensions and the bounce of the ball.

If the money was not important why didn't we win the League before Jack got involved? The only other two times that we won the League we were bankrolled by a local benefactor. Ultimately, it was Jack Walker who changed the club with his willingness to spend his fortune to rebuild Ewood Park, to attract a top management team and then attract top players. Without his money we wouldn't have two state of the art training facilities at Brockhall.

With regard to Gav's accusation about the media, is it just a media conspiracy that suggests that we, like Chelsea, United and Arsenal 'bought' our title? When you consider that we broke the British transfer record twice - to sign Shearer and Sutton and also created a new World record fee for a goalkeeper - in signing Flowers - I'm not quite sure how what Sam said is incorrect.

It would appear that it's not the fact that what he said is accurate it's just that it doesn't fit in with the myth that the Rovers won the title differently from every other club.

To pick up Gav's point, I would agree that Sam continually attacked the Rovers during his stint at Bolton. Nothing wrong with that as we were local rivals. Now, when he is the Rovers' manager, he gives an answer which is factually accurate but one which we don't want him to talk about for some reason. Would we expect him to say that money isn't important in winning the League? Would we expect him to say that Jack's financial power had no impact on our club?

I don't know about him not knowing about the impact of his words but I will accept that he is perhaps not tuned into the particular sensitivities of Rovers' supporters with regard to accusations of "buying the title". However, can we really blame him for not being aware of our sensitivities with regard to our title win. I assume he would feel supporters would be highly delighted that the club used Jack's financial might to help win a title. Personally, I have no problem with our manager merely stating that we won the title in the same way as every other club has done because ultimately, thanks to Jack, that's exactly what we did. .

We're not going to agree, but I respect your point of view and do agree with some of what you're saying.

I just feel the manager should be in tune with the club, its history and its supporters. The bottom line is he doesn’t engage his brain before speaking, a trait long associated with the man.

[Mattyblue]

It's the old sensitivities around the fact that whenever someone says "bought the league" someone else says Blackburn.

It's mostly borne out of jealousy in that we are the most successful town club. But it'd be nice if it could be acknowledged that Chelsea bought the title too, as a for instance.

It all just fuels the conspiracy theories and North-South divide. I wonder though if City will be accused of the same when they eventually win it? Although they are a "big club" so probably not...

On topic, maybe Big Sam is a little jealous that he'll never win the title. Must be a pain passing those framed pictures every day.

All notwithstanding the fact that he shouldn't have said it.

Good post.

Blackburn Rovers don't sell papers or bring in the viewers, therfore we were not worthy of success.

Our history and the fact we had the best team in the land do not come into it. Only teams from the big cities with 40000+ crowds are allowed to be at the top.

Of course, we could be 'plucky' like Blackpool and Burnley, the media love that, bit of Hovis music playing, black and white pics of the good old days. But don't try and break the status quo.

We have been fighting against this for 15 years, so to hear your own manager come out with the very statement that drives us potty will get fans annoyed.

[des]

The game is about the fans.

yes the fans pay to watch ,however we go to see the players play not the manager which is want I ask writing about.

[Gav]

so to hear your own manager come out with the very statement that drives us potty will get fans annoyed.

Absolutely Mattyblue.

[92er]

The actual quote is factually correct. Anyone can buy the League as long as they have three things:

The funds available - which we had thanks to Jack; a good management team - which we had thanks to Kenny and Ray; and, of course, a slice of luck during the season with injuries, suspensions and the bounce of the ball.

If the money was not important why didn't we win the League before Jack got involved? The only other two times that we won the League we were bankrolled by a local benefactor. Ultimately, it was Jack Walker who changed the club with his willingness to spend his fortune to rebuild Ewood Park, to attract a top management team and then attract top players. Without his money we wouldn't have two state of the art training facilities at Brockhall.

With regard to Gav's accusation about the media, is it just a media conspiracy that suggests that we, like Chelsea, United and Arsenal 'bought' our title?

Would we expect him to say that money isn't important in winning the League? Would we expect him to say that Jack's financial power had no impact on our club?

.

It is quite clear to me that without Uncle Jack's money we would not have been promoted from the 2nd Division and we could never have dreamed about winning the Premiership. And to go off at a tangent, I do find it interesting that the only 3 times we have won the top division has been as a result of a benefactor-we might have been even more successful but for the intervention of the 1st World War.

However, as far as I know we are the main team that is accused of buying the Premiership. Now I accept that we broke a number of transfer records, including 1 in the close season before we won the title.

But there is a real contrast between people involved with the club at the time and others. Tony Gayle used to argue with other commentators who came out with the glib comment that we had bought the league by pointing out that not everybody in the team had been bought for a record fee, which is the impression given by the glib comment.

Allardyce was not involved with us at the time and because he was managing Blackpool at the time, was not even involved in the Premiership and thus was very much an outsider.

I personally prefer Gayle's perspective.

If you want to continue to argue that we bought the league I can accept that, as long as it is accepted that every team that wins the league buys it.

And that it is also recognised that the season we won it, we actually paid out less in transfers than the club who came second.

[47er]

How would you know how this board used to be? You’ve not been around long enough to know….

I don’t like Allardyce, but I don’t spend my time on here slagging him off without reason, quite the opposite, he’s done a great job in terms of results and his transfer dealings have been 1st class. These facts are regularly trawled out by myself, but you and the rest of your little cliché prefer to ignore such comments.

Also calling someone pathetic for having an alternative view is a little like me calling you thick for the same reason, but I’ll be sure not to do that 47er

I've been posting for 2 years but reading the site avidly for many years. Will that do?

And I note that from time to time you have something complimentary about the manager. However you usually return to type not long after.

We won't see eye to eye on this so I'll leave it there.

[Parsonblue]

It is quite clear to me that without Uncle Jack's money we would not have been promoted from the 2nd Division and we could never have dreamed about winning the Premiership. And to go off at a tangent, I do find it interesting that the only 3 times we have won the top division has been as a result of a benefactor-we might have been even more successful but for the intervention of the 1st World War.

However, as far as I know we are the main team that is accused of buying the Premiership. Now I accept that we broke a number of transfer records, including 1 in the close season before we won the title.

But there is a real contrast between people involved with the club at the time and others. Tony Gayle used to argue with other commentators who came out with the glib comment that we had bought the league by pointing out that not everybody in the team had been bought for a record fee, which is the impression given by the glib comment.

Allardyce was not involved with us at the time and because he was managing Blackpool at the time, was not even involved in the Premiership and thus was very much an outsider.

I personally prefer Gayle's perspective.

If you want to continue to argue that we bought the league I can accept that, as long as it is accepted that every team that wins the league buys it.

And that it is also recognised that the season we won it, we actually paid out less in transfers than the club who came second.

I wouldn't disagree with much of what you say here 92er. I would totally agree that EVERY team buys the League title in one way or another. Even when United won it with a glut of home grown players they still had a sprinkling of 'big buys' in their team that made all the difference between winning and not winning the title.

I suspect that the reason we get a little more stick than others for our 94-95 win was because we "came from nowhere" in a relatively short time span. Between 1966 and 1992 we had been a second or third division side that rarely made the national headlines. When Jack came along all that changed and suddenly everyone wanted to talk about Jack and his millions. Luring a managment team like Kenny and Ray to Ewood - combined with a host of talented players - ensured we would be in the public eye.

However, people tend to forget how much United spent in the 1980s on trying to win the title without success and that fact tends to get overlooked when the media discuss our Championship win.

With regard to the present manager I agree with Gav in that we will have to agree to disagree while respecting each other's viewpoint.

I think it's rather ironic that on Saturday all three of us will be at Ewood hoping for a win over a Fulham side whose manager, I must admit, I regard as one of the best that the Rovers have had in recent times.

[FourLaneBlue]

Two things all Rovers supporters can agree on -

1. Big Sam has achieved a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Rovers in taking us from seeming relegation certainties to (just) inside the top half and a cup semi-final while spending a lot less than zero. This is ignoring any thoughts on style of play.

2. Big Sam is a self-aggrandising knob who really would do better to keep his mouth shut at times.

Think that sums up it nicely. We get the benefits of the first point but have to put up with the second and all the other baggage that comes with Sam.

[rebelmswar]

Two things all Rovers supporters can agree on -

1. Big Sam has achieved a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Rovers in taking us from seeming relegation certainties to (just) inside the top half and a cup semi-final while spending a lot less than zero. This is ignoring any thoughts on style of play.

2. Big Sam is a self-aggrandising knob who really would do better to keep his mouth shut at times.

Think that sums up it nicely. We get the benefits of the first point but have to put up with the second and all the other baggage that comes with Sam.

Sorry 4LB one other thing – He needs to learn to chew with his mouth shut. Looks like a flesh coloured Pacman on the sideline at times.

[Amo]

Sorry 4LB one other thing – He needs to learn to chew with his mouth shut. Looks like a flesh coloured Pacman on the sideline at times.

[rebelmswar]

We should make a game and shareware it - Samman, have small pieces of gum as the dots, packs as the big dots, brown bags of cash for the cherries, and BBC reporters as the ghosts.

[47er]

Sorry 4LB one other thing – He needs to learn to chew with his mouth shut. Looks like a flesh coloured Pacman on the sideline at times.

No worse than Fergie in that respect and I've never heard a Manu fan complain.

[rebelmswar]

No worse than Fergie in that respect and I've never heard a Manu fan complain.

They wouldn’t dare, God knows what hoodo would befall the fool that uttered heresy about the dark master.

[Neil Weaver]

Two things all Rovers supporters can agree on -

1. Big Sam has achieved a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Rovers in taking us from seeming relegation certainties to (just) inside the top half and a cup semi-final while spending a lot less than zero. This is ignoring any thoughts on style of play.

2. Big Sam is a self-aggrandising knob who really would do better to keep his mouth shut at times.

Think that sums up it nicely. We get the benefits of the first point but have to put up with the second and all the other baggage that comes with Sam.

Think I remember Zulu (the Bolton fan) saying pretty much this after Ince had gone and it was looking like we'd get Allardyce. The words were maybe a bit different but the message was the same - he's a safe pair of hands but the style he'll have Rovers playing won't win many friends, and he's a good self-publicist.

[LeChuck]

I am unimpressed. Tony Pulis is copying Big Sam's antics on Twitter. Rather poorly, I might add.

That's really embarrassing. I hope whoever is doing that stops soon, they obviously don't have the intelligence to do it as well as whoever is doing the Sam one, which is just brilliant.

[LeChuck]

What do you mean? It is Sam!

Sorry, my mistake!

[dazmaz]

this one is a classic

She placed a curse on me. That's all I need - the FA adding "gyspy curse" to the 'reasons not to give that #### the job' file they have.

[BuckyRover]

Check out "Chilean_miner"

Very funny

[thenodrog]

I really don't understand the arguement that we didn't buy our success. Without Jack's money we wouldn't have made it into the Premier League, let alone win it. How many of the title winning squad came through the youth ranks at Ewood and how many were bought? Every team who wants to win something goes out and buys better players. Jack provided Kenny and Ray with the finance to build a title winning squad. However, having bought the players, it was their skill and know how which turned them into a title winning team. Which is what Sam said yesterday. That money and good managment and coaching can win titles. I would have thought that was something that was obvious. I really do believe that we are far too sensitive about the contribution that Jack's money made to our success. It provided me with my best season in 50 years of following the Rovers - although I live in hope that it might be repeated at some point. I for one, was and am very happy that Jack opted to spend his money to allow Kenny and Ray to build a highly successful team.

I respect your viewpoint but in my memory we only played 'catch up' to the teams that had been spending big for decades, and we made profit on virtually every player. We didn't smash the player market to smithereens by spending vast sums that will only ever be written off as a loss as Chelsea and Man City have done.

[rebelmswar]

Very interesting story from Sam here about the benefits of being the "Bully boys", that brand never phased me and I would love it if every team that had to play Rovers said "Oh God not them again."

Instilling fear of playing us in the first place will go along way to helping us win. If they are depressed before they even kick a ball - that is a victory.

If we have to kick bits out of fancy pants players so be it, and humping long balls away from home is nothing to be ashamed of.

Have at it Sam.

I Want Every Club to Fear Us

[gumboots]

Very interesting story from Sam here about the benefits of being the "Bully boys", that brand never phased me and I would love it if every team that had to play Rovers said "Oh God not them again."

Instilling fear of playing us in the first place will go along way to helping us win. If they are depressed before they even kick a ball - that is a victory.

If we have to kick bits out of fancy pants players so be it, and humping long balls away from home is nothing to be ashamed of.

Have at it Sam.

I Want Every Club to Fear Us

I'm actually a fan of a more robust style of football myself. I don't like dirty and dangerous tackles but a bit of physicality goes a long way to making the game more exciting. Watching rovers win is exciting. Watching Arsenal weave pretty patterns around the edge of the penalty area before giving the ball away isn't.

[Doaksie]

The Big_Sam remains as glorious as ever:

"Watching my valiant boys on 'Match of the Day'. Is it wrong to go erect while watching my team? If it's wrong then I don't want to be right."

For anyone who still hasn't read it, it's very funny stuff.

[BuckyRover]

Note to self.

gumboots likes it rough.

[rebelmswar]

And people worried about my designs for chaddy

[sweet]

Just a thought on if/when a takeover does go through. Will Allardyce be arming himself with a world class back room team - akin to the amount he had at bolton (not sure if he took them to newcastle)?

I wonder if so, whether that alone will give us a push up league, not even including any signings we could make that would improve us as a team.