Sam Allardyce: Right man for England job, or just the only man?

Sam Allardyce (picture) admits that as he gazes across the hills from his villa on the Costa Blanca — the ultimate status symbol of the Premier League manager done good — his mind goes back to that moment 10 years ago when the Football Association overlooked him for the England manager’s job.

“I should have got it and, as I’m a better manager now than I was then, I believe I should be in the running whenever it comes round again,” he wrote in his autobiography, published last year.

“That’s not vanity or being full of my own importance. My track record entitles me to be considered.”

Of course, Allardyce knows perfectly well that being Big Sam he does have a big ego to match. He has never been slow to toot his own trumpet, well aware that there are few others who will do it for him.

At West Ham United and Newcastle United, his two biggest jobs, the supporters could not wait to see the back of him and the notion of him being England manager has only surfaced at what is the lowest point in the team’s history since the Euro 2008 qualifying debacle.

For once, Allardyce’s timing has been impeccable. His nine months at Sunderland have coincided with a bonfire of careers across the English coaching spectrum.

In the space of little more than 12 months, Garry Monk, Tim Sherwood and Gary Neville were all sacked. Gareth Southgate’s Under-21s crashed at last year’s European Championship. The so-called anglicised candidates Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers lost jobs and Rodgers took another. Arsene Wenger turned the FA down.

Last man standing was Big Sam, and perhaps he is the big man to solve a big problem of rejuvenating an England team with some promising young players who were beaten by Iceland at Euro 2016. But it feels like a very underwhelming moment in the life of the national team.

Allardyce was overlooked for the job three times in the past 10 years, and his failure each time to land the role was hardly a cause for national outrage. Yes, managers improve, and the late-blooming 2016 successes of Claudio Ranieri with Leicester, and Fernando Santos with Portugal demonstrated that much useful experience was gained in years of mediocrity.

Allardyce has certainly done the miles, and he is English, but we await with interest the FA’s reasoning why now, more than any other time, he is the right man for the job.

The strongest argument in his favour seems to be the theory that Euro 2016 has proved international tournaments are a lottery of half-hearted, exhausted players who are best served taking a pragmatic approach. Under these new rules, Allardyce is perceived to be the best English exponent of the latest mantra for success: Get the job done by any means necessary.

As with so many England manager appointments, Allardyce, with his hyper-pragmatic approach, is seen as a direct contrast to Roy Hodgson. It was ever thus: Fabio Capello was appointed as a reaction to Steve McClaren’s fatal matiness; Hodgson was regarded as an antidote to Capello’s confusing foreignness.

Perhaps Allardyce is the right man at the right time. There are no Englishmen with Premier League titles and only one with Champions League experience. But, above all, you would hope that the new England manager wants to build his success playing the kind of football people remember.

There is just not enough of that in Allardyce’s managerial history to alleviate the kind of fears about the way in which his England team will play. He has always argued, even at Newcastle and West Ham, that circumstances prevented him from doing so.

Yet in recent years, clubs with far fewer resources than the usual elite have proved that you can play a sophisticated brand of football and thrive in the Premier League without having to take the approach back to basics.

For English football and the England team, one hopes this is the moment Allardyce shows the world he has been waiting for a chance to play a different kind of football from that which has been his trademark.

The FA will know it is taking a risk in that regard. It was only January 2014 when he made the pragmatic decision to select a West Ham team of young players against the Championship side Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round and subsequently lost 5-0. It was shortly followed by his first team being hammered 6-0 by Manchester City in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final.

Doubtless, the FA has taken this all into consideration and decided that Allardyce is the right man for the job. They may also feel that he is the only man for the job, which is another matter altogether. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

* Sam Wallace is The Daily Telegraph’s chief football writer

SAM ALLARDYCE’S CAREER IN NUMBERS

7

The number of English clubs he has managed. After starting at Blackpool in 1994, he went to Notts County, Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn, West Ham and Sunderland.

467

The number of Premier League matches Allardyce has taken charge of. Harry Redknapp is the only Englishman who has been at the helm for more games in the division.

3The number of promotions he has achieved in his career. He took Notts County up to the third tier before bringing Bolton and West Ham into the Premier League.

6Bolton’s highest league position under Allardyce (in 2004-05). They then reached the last 32 of the UEFA Cup the following season, having advanced from a group that included Besiktas, Zenit St Petersburg and eventual winners Sevilla.

7The number of points Sunderland were adrift of safety at the start of January. Allardyce prevented the Black Cats from being relegated as Sunderland lost just one of their final 11 matches.