Leeds United’s Sam Allardyce Provides Banter But Must Deliver Survival

It was difficult to tell whether the Leeds United fans were singing ‘We’ve got Sam Allardyce’ ironically at the Etihad Stadium.

Trailing by a respectable 2-1 scoreline at the home of last season’s champions, the Yorkshire contingent decided to briefly serenade their new coach.

Undoubtedly in the mere days he’s been back in England’s top flight Allardyce had a far bigger impact on the division than his predecessor Javi Gracia.

This is in no small part down to a stunning first press conference that put the weekend soccer news agenda in a headlock.

“I’m 68 but there’s nobody ahead of me in football terms. Not Pep [Guardiola], not [Jurgen] Klopp, not [Mikel] Arteta,” said Allardyce with all the nous of a coach who knows generating headlines about one’s self is a great deflector for a team under pressure.

But alongside the claim he was better than the two most revered coaches in the division, as well as this season’s most impressive performer, there was an element of genuine frustration in the way the coach felt cast aside.

“Leeds have known where I am but it’s not materialized until now,” he told reporters

“The football club chooses which way it wants to go and far too many people think I am old and antiquated which is so far from the truth.

“It’s all there with me. They do what they do, I do what I do. In terms of knowledge and depth of knowledge, I’m up there with them. I’m not saying I’m better than them, but certainly as good as they are,” the former West Ham boss added.

When one of the men named by Allardyce, Pep Guardiola, was offered the opportunity to respond to his rival’s claim the Catalan chose to praise the new Leeds United coach.

“He [Allardyce] has the charisma and he will put out the pressure on the players and knows exactly what to do in this situation in a relegation battle,” said the Manchester City coach.

“People [think] 35, 40[-year-old managers] invent[ed] football. No, football is already created.

“These guys helped us to do it and that’s why […] There are many English managers who have done really well, you don’t have to be young to be a good manager. As much experience you have you are good.”

Guardiola’s description of younger coaches being in vogue certainly feels accurate, but the truth is England has tended to lean towards an older demographic.

Five years ago the average age of a Premier League boss was just under 50, while seven years ago it was around 53.

By comparison, the German and Portuguese leagues have coaches a full five years younger.

Our perception of the game moving towards younger managers is probably colored by the wave of appointments of relatively inexperienced coaches at top six sides in the past five years.

Mikel Arteta, Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solkesjaer were all given highly prestigious jobs at Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United with sparse experience at the highest level, unquestionably there were no comparable positions on their CVs.

Even five years earlier it was unthinkable three of the league’s biggest teams would do such a thing and it gave the sense as if the league was making a distinct break from older heads.

But of those three inexperienced men, only Arteta remains in post and there is little prospect such a shift will be repeated.

Particularly in the lower levels of the division, the tendency to go for the experienced option has dominated decision-making.

Often it was the same limited selection of old wise heads linked with a vacancy, men in their sixties like Steve Bruce, Rafa Benitez and David Moyes were regularly on shortlists, and even older bosses like Roy Hodgson and Claudio Ranieri were also drafted in.

Stints by these coaches rarely lasted long, but clubs kept coming back for more.

A relegation stain

Allardyce himself, since being axed as England boss in 2016, has been brought in by four different relegation-stricken Premier League teams.

Crystal Palace, Everton, West Bromwich Albion and, now, Leeds United have all called on his services.

The three years which elapsed between his role at West Brom and the Leeds job is less to do with him being considered “antiquated” and more about the fact the Baggies were relegated under his stewardship.

Had he kept West Brom in the division, Leeds United may well have been picking up the phone to ‘Big Sam’ sooner.

However, Allardyce’s view is an unfair perception of his managerial style has consistently hampered his ambitions.

It didn’t help that his direct no-nonsense approach was often criticized by coaches of an elite club in the wake of an embarrassing result.

There is perhaps no better example than Allardyce’s West Ham side being described by Jose Mourinho as playing soccer “from the 19th Century.”

The Portuguese manager, who is hardly known for playing expansive or attacking soccer, only fuelled the sense it was a PR problem Big Sam had.

As he once infamously said, “I won’t ever be going to a top-four club because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce.”

But the truth is Allardyce has been handed opportunities.

What does Allardyce feel he deserves?

In 2007, he was hired by an aspirational Newcastle United side which provided him with funds to try and challenge at the top of the table.

After a strong start, Big Sam crashed and was sacked after half a season in the North East.

In 2016, he was handed traditionally the biggest job in the country when he became England’s boss.

But his tenure was to be one of the shortest-lived in the nation’s history after a controversial newspaper sting saw him leave by mutual consent.

Even the Everton job in 2017 presented an opportunity for Big Sam to re-establish himself at a club with a storied history.

But the fanbase failed to ever really buy into his style of play and it ultimately ended with his leaving.

After Allardyce’s recent declarations that he is as good as the most highly-rated managers in the league, the former England boss is now facing a barrage of baited headline-generating questions all playing to the sense he’s been overlooked.

Asked if he could win the treble with Manchester City Allardyce replied “Absolutely. The players make you a good manager or coach. Your job is to communicate with those players.”

The real question is what opportunity does Big Sam feel he should have got which would have enabled him to prove himself in the same bracket as Guardiola?

Few coaches get the chance to coach Everton, Newcastle United and England, could they not have provided a platform to demonstrate his skill?

Not that this debate offers any comfort to Leeds United fans desperate for their club to survive.

They will simply be hoping it is the Allardyce who guided Sunderland or Crystal Palace to safety in the Leeds United dugout and not the man who could do little to help West Brom survive.