For me, this job isn’t a poisoned chalice. I want to be here England DNA unravels as Sam does it his way
H IS outfit had already offered a silent introduction. The initialled shirt cuffs. The Three Lions badge on the lapel. But when he was then asked if, like Jose Mourinho, he wanted to be referred to by more than simply his name, he replied: ‘I’m just Sam Allardyce, manager of England.’
The buttons on his tailored shirt almost popped off at that moment, so swollen with pride was this police officer’s son from a council estate in Dudley.
‘At 15, when I left school, I never imagined I’d be sitting here, but here I am,’ he said, his eyes briefly glistening with emotion.
A reporter from the Wolverhampton Express and Star seized his moment and asked him about the Old Park Farm Estate where he was raised. ‘It was a great place to develop as a footballer,’ he replied. ‘It was a council estate with a green in the middle, but it didn’t have much green on it. It was brown and bare and muddy because we played on it that much. That was where it all started for me.’
It might have started there, but it finishes here, at the National Football Centre at St George’s Park, for what he believes, at 61, will be his last job in football and what he very much hopes will be the successful conclusion to a sofar fine career.
‘This is my time, my chance,’ he said, and it was one of many soundbites he delivered with an encouraging mixture of passion and sincerity.
Rarely, if ever, has an England manager appeared more pleased to be given the ‘impossible job’.
He said his wife, Lynne, had raised her concerns about the level of scrutiny an England manager is under, but he remained undeterred.
‘I think I fit the chair,’ he said. ‘I’m here because I want to be, because I want the challenge, because I can make the team better. It’s not a poisoned chalice, for me. I’m tough enough to take it, so bring it on lads.’
Allardyce’s no-nonsense approach seemed to be echoed by his new boss. Martin Glenn, the FA chief executive, might have scored a bit of an own goal in Chantilly when he admitted to not being ‘a football man’, but he, too, cut through some of the hyperbole that tends to over-complicate issues around England.
Having listened to Allardyce dismiss the idea of the England team adopting a style that was replicated by all the junior sides, Glenn appeared to torch the FA masterplan that has been in place these past few years. ‘DNA, that’s a slightly pretentious term to be honest,’ he said.
While Dan Ashworth, the FA technical director whose vision for English football is built around his ‘DNA’ model, might now wonder where that leaves him, never mind the work being carried out by a growing army of staff here in Burton, Allardyce and Glenn at least seem to be on the same page. After all, there is nothing remotely pretentious about Allardyce and Glenn seems to like that.
This was Allardyce’s first test as England manager and he performed well. How did he respond to the concern expressed in some quarters that he had not managed at the highest level? He said he had at least managed ‘some worldclass players’, Fernando Hierro and Michael Owen among them.
He also argued that ‘saving’ clubs such as Sunderland and Blackburn were ‘big achievements’.
The accusation that his teams lack style? He responded by making the point that he played the diminutive Jermain Defoe as a centre-forward last season when he has long had the reputation for sticking the big man up front. Further to that, Allardyce pointed out that, Arsene Wenger aside, he was actually the most experienced manager in the Premier League.
The issue of the England captaincy, and whether Wayne Rooney would remain in possession was one Allardyce did not have to answer on his first day in office and he wisely said he would wait until he met up with his new players ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia on September 4.
After a meeting yesterday afternoon with FA staff and his new assistant, Sammy Lee, he also passed on the opportunity to have a friendly game at Wembley on September 1, preferring instead to hold training sessions ahead of the encounter with Slovakia.
That might be regarded as something of a risk, but so too could a game against the side of the quality of Croatia, who were among those being suggested as possible opponents, when Allardyce has the challenge of rebuilding a team damaged by European Championship defeat to Iceland.
‘I think I can turn things around pretty quickly,’ he declared. ‘I’m more than that, as a manager, but I know how to create a successful journey for a football team.’
It was on the journey down from his Lancashire home to his main office here at the National Football Centre that he was struck by the sheer magnitude of the challenge he has accepted.
‘I realised the reality of what is resting on my shoulders,’ he said. ‘It’s the greatest challenge I’ve ever had and I look forward to it, even with all the pitfalls that there might be. It’s my time, my chance and I’ve waited a long, long time for it. And it’s arrived.’
He was reminded of those pitfalls; of the fact that Roy Hodgson will be defined by that defeat to Iceland; of Steve McClaren’s crushing demise.
‘Oh yes, the missus made me think about that side of it long and hard, but I am going into it with my eyes open,’ he said. ‘It could well be me somewhere down the line, but I’m not going to do anything after this one anyway.
‘I’m 61, coming up to 62. There’s not a lot more I’m going to do after this one, is there? There’s not a lot more after this one that is going to excite me as much.’