WILL IT BE A BOOS UP FOR BIG SAM?
As ex-boss goes back to his old Upton Park stamping ground...
SUNDERLAND have had a lot more on their mind recently with the Adam Johnson sex case, but Sam Allardyce has been concentrating on the football (and beating Manchester United). Now relegationthreatened Sunderland travel to Upton Park on Saturday for a return to Big Sam’s old stamping ground.
He is likely to receive a hostile reception from many West Ham fans after his four years in charge, despite having won promotion at the club. His playing style was often criticised and he was not a popular manager.
Here, Sportsmail’s writers predict what kind of welcome awaits.
MATT LAWTON
Chief Sports Reporter
I HOPE that West Ham fans still recognise what Sam Allardyce did for their club, not only securing promotion to the Premier League after only one season in the Championship but maintaining a solid position in the top flight.
Criticism of his football style was harsh — Sam deserved more respect than he got even if things have clearly improved under Slaven Bilic. But I suspect his comments back in October — when he called the club’s fans ‘brainwashed’ and ‘deluded’ — will be held against him. After all the stick he received, he was well within his rights to respond — but I doubt supporters will see it that way.
IAN LADYMAN
Football Editor
DAVID SULLIVAN, West Ham’s owner, admitted in these pages recently what all West Ham fans had known for a while — that Allardyce sees football differently from them.
Hammers like to dream while Big Sam views the world pragmatically. Fair enough, but there was nothing dreamlike about West Ham’s time in the Championship, was there? That was where they were when Allardyce took over. When he left, they were established once again as a Barclays Premier League club.
Slaven Bilic is doing great things this season but it was his predecessor who laid the platform. Some polite applause would reflect that nicely when he returns.
MATT BARLOW
Football Reporter
AFTER taking West Ham up at the first attempt and keeping them there for three years, Allardyce might expect a polite ripple of applause by way of thanks.
It wasn’t always pretty, there were dodgy signings and things said, but forget the myth that Upton Park has witnessed nothing but heavenly football since Ron Greenwood’s era.
The base for this season’s success was laid during Allardyce’s tenure. West Ham can pay Dimitri Payet £125,000 a week because they are secure in the top flight. Big Slav goes from B to C because Big Sam went from A to B, and perhaps did it so well that they could have bade him farewell a year sooner, since there was clear animosity brewing.
Allardyce and the fans formed their own mutual lack-of-appreciation society. He likes gravy with his pie. They prefer liquor. He likes a long ball and a big man up front and short sleeves in the snow, and hides it behind the fact that he once signed Jay-Jay Okocha. They prefer a short corner and a playmaker clutching his shirt cuffs for extra warmth while slicing audacious volleys off target.
Sam will feel the need to say something smug and mildly offensive. They will boo and, underlining the message with hand gestures, tell Sam he’s going down with the Villa.
NEIL ASHTON
Football News Correspondent
IT will be a mixed reception. Those who recognise the work Sam did to take West Ham back into the Premier League — and keep them there — will receive him warmly.
Those who detested his football would be hypocritical to do anything but give him grief. Any boss who keeps a team in the top flight should be carried into the stadium shoulder high. It won’t be that way for Big Sam, but he won’t care.
TONY MOORE Designer and West Ham season ticket holder
IT’S inevitable that the fans will boo Big Sam on Saturday, they booed even when we won a game!
When he first took charge I was with the majority who said it was a great appointment. It wasn’t pretty but he dragged us out of the Championship so when he returns to Upton Park I will stand and clap.
The applause won’t last long, however. The football style, the constant ‘ What is the West Ham way?’ rant and even his shiny shoes all started to grate.
A year ago I said I’d rather go down playing good football than stay up playing the Big Sam way. So when the managers take their seats, there will be a huge sigh of relief that Allardyce will be in the away dugout.
SAMI MOKBEL
Football Reporter
WEST HAM fans intent on booing Allardyce need to get over themselves. They got what they wanted — Big Sam left, and, what’s more, they now have a manager in Slaven Bilic who plays the ‘West Ham way’. Allardyce has moved on and Hammers fans should, too.
LAURA WILLIAMSON,
Sports News Editor
EXPECT a lot of gleeful booing from those in claret and blue when Allardyce returns to Upton Park in charge of a team fighting for their Premier League lives.
It’s sad, but somebody who calls himself ‘Big Sam’ can handle it.
Allardyce and West Ham always felt like a marriage of convenience but this odd couple achieved good results together. He took the club back to the Premier League, kept them there and left them in a much better state than when he arrived. The divorce was messy and spiteful words have been said, but Allardyce deserves the fans’ thanks.
LEE CLAYTON Head of Sport and West Ham season ticket holder
‘WE’VE got Payet, Dimitri Payet, I just don’t think you understand. He’s super Slav’s man, he’s better than Zidane, we’ve got Dimitri Payet.’
That’s how the song goes. But without the Upton Park Sam, West Ham would never have had the Upton Park Zidane.
The club was in the Championship, with a huge debt, and signing free transfers and journeymen like Nicky Maynard and Sam Baldock. Allardyce turned it around.
Yes, the last half of a season was excruciating for season ticket holders, but clap him. He deserves it. Give the man a standing ovation (I will)...and then watch the latest Payet masterclass (he’s not really better than Zidane, but he’s very, very good). Don’t use up all the emotion — and goals — against Sunderland, though... it’s Tottenham next on Wednesday.
CRAIG HOPE
Football Reporter
HE should — and probably will — get a good reception. Without him the club would not be heading in the exciting direction it currently is, and perhaps that is appreciated more in hindsight.
Bilic appears to be taking them to the next level, yes, but Allardyce’s part should not be underestimated.