Big Sam is an age-perfect fit for England job
FA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Dan Ashworth insists Sam Allardyce’s age and Premier League experience makes him exactly the right man for the England job.
“In the last five major tournaments the youngest manager to win one was Joachim Loew at 54,” says Ashworth. “The oldest was 69 (Luis Aragones).
“Historically it’s a job for an experienced manager with all the things around tournaments – the high-profile players, the pressure games, the media scrutiny.”
It’s a fine theory – until you remember that Alf Ramsey, the only England manager ever to win a trophy, was 46 when the World Cup was lifted 50 years ago this weekend.
And that at each of their last seven major tournaments, England have had a coach who was over 54.
In fact, the only man to take England to a major finals who was younger than Ramsey is Glenn Hoddle, who was 40 at France 98.
Roy Hodgson had three tournament attempts in his 60s, Fabio Capello was 64 at the 2010 World Cup and Sven Goran Eriksson was aged between 54 and 58 for his three failures.
England managers are ultimately judged on tournament football and Allardyce has never experienced one in over 1500 games as player or manager. It’s a concern Ashworth dismisses.
“If our criterion was to employ only people who’d managed at tournaments and were English, there wouldn’t have been much depth to the list,” he says.
“Sam’s a fast learner. He’s always used innovation, he understands players and I’m sure he’ll adapt really quickly.”
Meanwhile Allardyce’s pragmatic reputation has made it necessary for the FA to backtrack from the England DNA project set up by Ashworth only 18 months ago.
His vision was based on the theoretically-sound idea that all England teams should adhere to a set of basic playing principles, based on ball retention.
Though Allardyce publicly backs the idea when applied to the age-group teams, he reserves the right to “do whatever it takes” when it comes down to the senior side.
Chief Executive Martin Glenn went as far as to say: “DNA – what does it mean? It’s a slightly pretentious term, to be honest.”
Even Ashworth himself admits that Allardyce won’t be expected to stick to the blueprint.
“Every club in the country now has a defined philosophy of developing young players through their academy system,” he says.
“But when they go into the first-team environment, it’s more about winning matches.
“It’s about finding that balance between player development and England’s senior team winning.”