WORLD CUP QUALIFIER with the FEAR ... with the FUN
BIG SAM HAS ENGL AND FACES SMILING AGAIN
SAM ALLARDYCE has made an immediate impact on the Three Lions by creating a lighter atmosphere in a bid to wipe out the fear factor of playing for England.
And Leicester striker Jamie Vardy reckons, by creating an extension of the players’ club football, Big Sam is already putting the fun back into wearing the shirt.
Priority
Erasing the burden of dealing with England’s past tournament failures for his stars is a major priority for Allardyce.
And he’s made a start by simply creating a more laid-back vibe around the camp when the players aren’t doing the more serious detailed match-specific work on the training pitch.
Already he’s lined up comedians Paddy McGuinness and Bradley Walsh ( right) for quiz- night fun while the players are at their hotel on down time.
Vardy can already see a difference after the doom and gloom days of Euro 2016 in France where past demons devoured England again.
“One of the main things is making it enjoyable,” said Vardy. “The last thing you want is to make it harsh and gruelling, so when you get called up again you’re thinking ‘Oh, wow, I’ve got to go there’.
“If you make it enjoyable, you are definitely up for coming.
“But you’ve got to be professional when you’re doing them and that’s another good thing to do.
“It has been great, it is early days and there’s a lot of new staff in as well. It’s about getting to know them and them to know us as people too. The good thing is he wants to make it as much as if we were just at normal clubs, he doesn’t want it to be, ‘You come here and that’s it’. “We come on to the international scene and you aren’t together for that long. “But Sam wants it to be as if you are in every day for the full season and you are enjoying it. So, that is a good thing and that is how it has been so far. “Lifting that weight off the players is another reason why he is trying to make it as if you were just playing for your club.” With a new positive vibe running through the camp, Vardy has vowed to make Slovakia pay for England’s Euro 2016 flop. He played the whole game in the 0-0 draw against Slovakia in St Etienne in England’s second group game before Roy Hodgson’s side crashed out of the last 16, beaten 2-1 by Iceland.
Vardy said: “It was heartbreaking. Every single one of us is a football fan as well. If we weren’t playing, we’d have been watching a nd i t was heartbreaking.
Stalemate
“It was a massive learning curve for all of us because the squad was quite young. Quite a few in there had never been to a major tournament and it can only help us to have had that experience.
“But we do have to move on and this is a new chapter with a new boss. We have to make sure we get the win today and take it into the rest of the qualifying campaign and reach the World Cup.
“Slovakia were a well-organised team, we knew they would be. But we know we can hurt them if we’re at our best. We all have to make sure we give 100 per cent and, hopefully, that will be