Big Sam to rescue

WEST Bromwich Albion have confirmed Bolton Wanderers legend Sam Allardyce as the club’s new boss.

The 66-year-old has been out of football management since 2018 but is now back in a dugout at the helm of the Baggies.

Allardyce represented Bolton both as a player and a manager.

The defender played nearly 250 times for the Trotters in two spells with the club, winning the Second Division title in the 1977/78 season.

He took over the helm at the Reebok Stadium, as it was then known, for almost a decade from 1999 and oversaw a rise that included promotion via the play-offs from the First Division to the top flight and all the way to qualifying for the UEFA Cup. He led Bolton to a sequence of top-half finishes in the Premier League, including sixth in the 2004/05 season and led Wanderers into the UEFA Cup, reaching the last-32 stage in the 2005/06 season.

He left Bolton in April 2007 and has since had several managerial positions across the top flight, including at Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Everton and a brief spell in charge of the England national team.

But he is now back in the game after agreeing an 18-month contract with the Baggies to be head coach and takes over from the departed Slaven Bilic with the club in the relegation zone.

West Brom sporting and technical director Luke Dowling said: “In Sam, we have a man who has a proven Premier League pedigree with a track record of improving every club he has managed.”