BIG SAM: THE ITCH WAS BACK
Hungry West Brom boss finally accepts he’s the man for a jam
EVEN his friends call him Red Adair these days. But within Sam Allardyce, there finally seems to be a softening of old urges to set them straight.
There has been an underlying frustration in this great survivor who has tended, with some justification, to see himself as more than just a fighter of fires.
But for now it would appear such typecasting is no bad thing. Sam is the man to call in a jam, as the reputation goes, and that is precisely why he finds himself back in the big show, with West Bromwich in a desperate mess in 19th. It’s more than a chip-pan issue in his eighth stint as a Premier League manager.
To hear him hold court yesterday, and to see the old grin two years and seven months after his last job, was to gain understanding of Allardyce’s delight to be back in the spotlight, following his longest period of unemployment since he was 15.
‘It makes you feel worthwhile as a person,’ he said. ‘When you are used to the level of scrutiny I have had as a manager for all those years, it gets embedded into your DNA. When you haven’t got it, it feels like a bit of a relief in the early stages, but as time goes on you miss it.
‘Sammy (Lee, his assistant) will tell you. We have spoken on several occasions about how bored we are. We were looking to get back in. This came and I feel it is right. I thought, “Let’s give it a shot and see if I can do it again”.
‘I’ve been addicted since I was 15. I thought I had cracked it after two years but I mentioned to my wife that I was feeling an itch, and she said she could see for months that I was getting a bit restless.
‘She wasn’t very happy (that it is happening just before Christmas) but she has always been very supportive. She understands what I’m like after 47 years married — she has had to put up with a lot of times when I have been on a bad run or whatever. She has given me some great team talks.’
This was Allardyce in his element and for all that has been aimed at West Bromwich over an apparently unimaginative appointment, it would be an awfully cold heart that wouldn’t be a little glad to see him back. After the sacking of Slaven Bilic, West Bromwich certainly have the requisite urgency about their situation, given they have won once in 13 and have the worst defensive record in the division.
Allardyce made a point of explaining how the January transfer window formed a central part of his discussions with the club prior to his recruitment, and that at least one signing would probably be made once he has assessed the squad.
However, economic restrictions tied to the pandemic will limit how much he can achieve.
His confidence in regard to saving West Brom has evidently not taken a knock in the time he has been away. Much as Allardyce’s reputation comes from never having been relegated from the top flight, he continues to insist ‘nearly all the times I have had the sack, I didn’t deserve it’.
This challenge will be a tough one, though Allardyce has relished a story arc that sees him return to the club where he took his first steps in coaching. It was during an 18-month spell across 1989 and 1990 that he served as reserve-team player-manager and then as assistant to Brian Talbot with the West Brom first team.
‘The first training session, I was a bag of nerves,’ he said. ‘I remember I asked Brian the day before how many players I had. He said 16. I planned for it and then that next morning he says, “You only have nine now, I am taking the rest with me”. I was right in the deep end. It taught me to think on my feet more.’
Thirty years on, he returns as a more robust figure, albeit one who reluctantly has had to content himself with a status in the game that has not necessarily developed in the way he envisioned.
‘I have already had texts from my mates calling me Red Adair,’ he said. ‘I can’t get away from that tag.’