EPL Talk » Sam Allardyce

Gary Megson Is Unloved and Unwanted

Paul Bestall — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:14:47 +0000

Well you’ve got to hand it to him, Gary Megson must have the thickest skin in professional football. I’ve seen him barracked by his own fans at 4 different clubs over the years and that’s some going, even in the fickle world of the football supporter. At a Nottingham Forest game, I saw fans come to blows trying to get to him, at Leicester I saw a fan throw his season ticket at him in his 3rd game in charge. At Bolton he famously finished last in an online poll with 1.7% of the vote behind A.N Other before being announced as manager.

It’s a weird situation when this kind of vitriol follows someone around throughout their career and he’s continually knocked noses out of joint wherever he’s been. Even as a player, whilst highly regarded, Brian Clough was disgusted with his pre-match ritual of throwing up before playing, so much so that he sold him on after only 4 months.

With the exception of the Leicester City job, out of his 8 managerial positions, he’s been sacked from 4 and resigned from 2. The two he left freely were Blackpool and Nottingham Forest, though for his own safety, I think he did well to get out of the City Ground alive. It’s the one thing that astounds me about managers, that whilst I appreciate the mangers success can only be as good as the tools at his disposal, why do so many bad managers keep getting work.

Now it may seem churlish to label Megson as a bad manager, but there is no doubting he is unpopular wherever he goes, with the exception of West Bromwich Albion. Albion were on a slippery slope when he came in and he got them in to the Premiership and they’ve been yo-yoing back and forth ever since, but good lord he plays awful football and that’s where the problem lies. My biggest criticism of him as manager of Bolton is his over reliance on the long ball game and consistently negative outlook.

The constant arguments between Megson and the Bolton fans took a new twist the other day when he said “We’re not Real Madrid”. I don’t think any Bolton fan is under the delusion that they expect the team to play as if they were, but surely Megson could try and pacify the fans rather keep coming out with statements that seem to deliberately antagonise them. With the players he has at his disposal, it’s not too far a jump for them to play football now and again.

The nucleus of a good side is there, with the likes of Matty Taylor, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, the underrated Jussi Jaakelainen & Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill. Yet the negativity of the fans is beginning to drive a wedge between everyone at the Reebok Stadium. Did the Sam Allardyce reign give them a false level of optimism?

Some Bolton fans have never forgiven Megson for playing a reserve side in their biggest game for 50 years in the UEFA Cup. Megson’s idea was to rest the players for a Premier League game against Wigan the Sunday after, which they ironically lost. That game against Sporting Lisbon was the high point of some Wanderers fans football lives and they resent the fact he didn’t care enough.Staying up was all that mattered and to some fans, that was a bridge too far.

No doubt, the most vitrolic Bolton fans are wanting him out, in 6 League and Cup games they’ve won two, both away from home. The win against Tranmere was no surprise, they are in big trouble already. If anything Megson would have been relived to see the pressure John Barnes is under at Prenton Park. The only win in the league was at troubled Portsmouth who can’t buy any luck at present.

Yet when Megson starts a home game playing with one striker what does he expect? By playing negative football at home, he promotes the negativity in the stands. Each fuels each other, Megson is now scared to lose games, the fans expect defensive, boring football. The fans boo, he complains about lack of support. Trouble is, if Megson does go, who on earth will they bring in to replace him?

Bolton Slowly Sliding

Christopher Walker — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:13:05 +0000

Bolton Manager Gary Megson

In October 1999 Sam Allardyce breezed into his office at the Reebok Stadium to take over a club at the foot of the first division table. Amazingly, he guided Bolton Wanderers to the play-off semi finals the same season as well reaching both domestic cup finals.

The following season Wanderers finished in third place and again competed in the play-offs – this time they dispatched Lancashire rivals Preston North End 3-0 in the final. Allardyce had led Bolton to promotion in his first full season. The first two years in the Premier League were understandably spent fighting off relegation which they did successfully. What we didn’t expect was for the Trotters to then finish in the top eight four season’s consecutively - qualifying for the UEFA Cup twice in the process and even achieving sixth place in 2004/05.

These highly succesful seasons in the Premier League owe no small part to Wanderers’ success in the transfer market. During this era Youri Djorkaeff, Jay Jay Okocha, Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo and Nicolas Anelka all donned the the white shirts of the Lancashire club. Not only did Bolton qualify for Europe, they made it to the League Cup final in Cardiff where they were beaten by Middlesbrough.

However those days of European qualification, cup finals and regular top ten finishes seem like a distant memory. When Big Sam left to take over at Newcastle United in April 2007, Bolton turned to his assistant Sammy Lee. Lee’s tenure was disastrous. Despite ensuring qualification for Europ in the month after taking over his name sake, Little Sam lasted lasted until October of the next season with just one win to his credit. In stepped Gary Megson and the continual battle against relegation. Despite the direct style of football not really changing since Allardyce’s reign, it seems poor signings have led the club to the position they are in.

Johan Elmander arrived at the club in 2008 for a whopping fee of £8.2 Million from Toulouse with Daniel Braaten going the other way. He has managed a pitiful 5 goals in his 28 games for the club. For the sake of pointless statistics that is £1.64 million pounds per goal, tad expensive for a centre forward you feel?

Gary Cahill was signed last season from Aston Villa for £5 Million. Now I want to go on record and mention that I watched Cahill on loan for Sheffield United in the same season and make 16 appearances for the Blades. He looked an outstanding player in the Championship but £5 Million quid is a big fee when you consider that Everton landed Phil Jagielka for £4 Million.

Bolton were once incredibly shrewd in the market but have splurged on mediocre players since the days of Sam Allardyce. Add Gretnar Steinsson (£3.5 million), Danny Shittu (£2 Million basic) and we add further weight to the issue. Matt Taylor has been a reasonable acquisition, a tad over-priced at £4 million but at least he has 10 goals to his credit. Yes, the £8.2 million striker Elmander has been out-scored by a left back/midfielder.

I know that transfer fees for players are forever spiralling upward, but does anyone out there not think that Allardyce wouldn’t have spent that cash better than Megson? Considering that the Trotters sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea in January 2008 for £15 Million those transfer funds have been poorly distributed. Maybe Bolton saw Megson a fit appointment in relation to his direct style of physical football – it can’t have been his charisma. A quiet character by the name of Neil Warnock once commented on Megson releasing an auto-biography by saying ”Oh he’s writing a book is he? Well it’ll be the best f**king cure for insomniacs that’s ever been published”.

I fear that Bolton, a good family club may join the likes of Southampton, Coventry and Middlesbrough in domiciling in mid-table anonymity for years before finally suffering the drop. Bolton have been good for the Premier League and have been a model for other promoted clubs to base their for model for success on. However with the current man in charge I cannot see Wanderers firing back up the table – particularly if they don’t replace Kevin Nolan.

Big Sam Sparks Rovers’ Revival

Michael Scallon — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:37:41 +0000

Allardyce's Arrival Has All But Staved Off Relegation

Who else could have saved Blackburn so effortlessly? Sat second bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety with just 13 points from 17 games, Sam Allardyce succeeded Paul Ince as Blackburn Rovers’ manager, and in less than 20 games he has made them all but safe – almost in second gear.

He took Bolton up, took them into Europe and developed them into a club so stable that even Gary Megson can keep them afloat with ease. His over-eagerness to join Newcastle perhaps has meant that he probably will be firefighting with clubs like Blackburn forever, but even that “marriage made in hell” was not as bad as first seemed: Mike Ashley sacked Allardyce with the Toon in the heady heights of 12th place, and subsequent failings have shown that Big Sam’s performance - in the cold, hard textbook of results – was in fact a relative success as he seemed - initially at least – to be able to wring the best of Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins (the latter’s brace at Bolton on opening day the highest peak of his short managership). Ashley’s happiness to jump into bed with the fans meant that he immediately replaced Sam with Kevin Keegan – a man who, even four years previously had looked to sign a host of ageing nineties’ superstars for Manchester City (Robbie Fowler, Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman, Michael Tarnat, need I go on? ) and whose work in football for three years amounted to running a childrens’ “Soccer Circus” in Glasgow. It was like replacing Fabio Capello as England manager with Glenn Hoddle – and it was shabby treatment for a manager who, whilst not putting any trees up was definitely not going to make Newcastle relegation candidates.

Of course there are mitigating factors: Newcastle were in a shocking run of form, and the “brand of football” issue raised its ugly head once the results started to turn. He is oft-mocked for his “agricultural” style at Bolton, but with signings like Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Nicolas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha, can you play completely long-ball football? His football tends to be direct, of course, but his organisation and motivation of players is second to none – at Bolton he came away with two draws from three games at Stamford Bridge during the José era, and with consecutive wins at Old Trafford in his first two seasons in the Premier League, surely he was the man to take Newcastle to the level they had slipped from since Bobby Robson left in 2005. I guess Mr Ashley had other ideas.

So Sam ended up at Blackburn. What had become (under Ince) a gung-ho football team with a brittle underbelly, became a drilled, structured outfit with an underbelly made of titanium. Benni McCarthy went from the outskirts of the side to a prolific Premier League goalscorer, Jason Roberts went from an Ade Akinbiyi impression to a spirited strike partner, and Ryan Nelsen has remembered how to defend: In other words, Blackburn are now a worthy Premier League side, who, with Big Sam at the helm can perhaps look towards Europe next season – after all, since Allardyce’s arrival, they have taken 27 points from 19 games, which is European form and would place them comfortably in seventh if taken over a whole season. He is no Mourinho, no Benitez, no Ferguson, but he has sparked a remarkable revival from a team on it’s knees, and – this becoming an increasing Big Sam trademark - has got the best out of a (relatively) small Premier League club.

The Relegation Rumble: Will Blackburn Rovers Go Down?

tyduffy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:56:00 +0000

Buoyed by Mark Hughes’ overachievement and shrewd signings, Blackburn had been living in a fantasyland of consistent contention for Europe. Paul Ince transported them rudely back to small city reality. Blackburn took an admirable risk, hiring the Premier League’s first black manager, but, in this instance, it clearly backfired. You know things are dreary when Sam Allardyce becomes Midas.

Form: Sam Allardyce has revolutionized Blackburn. Since he took over Dec. 17, the club has won or drawn ten of their thirteen matches, a noticeable improvement from Ince’s brief reign. Of the three losses, two came in no shame affairs away to a resurgent Arsenal and Manchester United. Aston Villa gave them their only home defeat. Characteristic of an Allardyce team, they will battle in every match.

Schedule: Blackburn have a reasonable run of games to get points. Their home ties against Tottenham, Wigan, Portsmouth and West Brom are all winnable. Their away fixtures are a bit tougher, traveling to Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Stoke City. Though, given the Allardyce style, it’s not inconceivable they trip up a similarly physical Liverpool or Chelsea side.

Injuries: Injuries could play a role for Blackburn, where they need help, scoring goals. Benny McCarthy is probably questionable with his hamstring injury. Roque Santa Cruz seems keen to return against Tottenham, with just four goals in 17 appearances leaves much to be desired when he is fit. Diouf could help out, so could Morten Gamst-Pedersen, if he rouses from his season-long doze.

Prognosis: Blackburn will not go down. They are a comfortably mid-table team placed in a whole because of Ince. Cynical Sam’s style evokes neither beauty nor romanticism, but it’s effective. For Blackburn this season, it will also be lucrative, keeping them in the league. Newcastle may climb out, but not at Blackburn’s expense.

The UEFA Cup: What Is The Point?

Michael Timbury — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:39:44 +0000

The question I am posing is looking purely at what the UEFA Cup means to clubs from the English Premier League. Judging by recent participants and how they have fared, it appears to feature very low on most Premiership clubs’ list of priorities. Before the profile of the European Cup was sufficiently raised and rebranded as the Champions League, the UEFA Cup was almost equally as prestigious and would appeal to a number of top quality clubs from across the continent. However, with the money that has been ploughed into the Champions League and the Premiership, the UEFA Cup now seems to be nothing more than an inconvenience.

Take for example the teams fielded by both Aston Villa and Tottenham in the last 32 knockout phase of the tournament. Both clubs put out far from full strength sides in order to be defeated, thus avoiding a fixture pile up come the latter parts of the season as well as the added bonus of giving fringe and youth players some valuable European experience. Should for one reason or another, the under strength sides happen to get the better of their opposition, those players are then rewarded by featuring in the next round. However, what I fail to understand is why teams wait until they have got far in the tournament before writing it off as an unnecessary distraction and burden on their resources.

Last season Bolton Wanderers waited until the quarter final stage of the competition before submitting to Sporting Lisbon over two legs, despite some memorable and historic results against the likes of Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. Sam Allardyce must be wondering why on Earth he worked so hard to drag Bolton into Europe, only for Gary Megson to forfeit a quarter final tie having drawn the first leg. If anything it is an insult to the fans of these clubs who pay to watch their side compete in European competition, some of the more hardcore even travelling to some obscure places for the privilege.

I get that clubs with a small squad have to prioritise and with all the financial implications that dictate the modern game, the more lucrative option of Premiership survival takes precedence over a run in Europe but if this is the case then what are the majority of Premiership sides striving for? What is the point of a side finishing high enough in the league to qualify for Europe, to then deem it pointless and not worth the hassle? Have they ever thought that perhaps their loyal fans would like to see them compete in Europe and give it their best shot considering most of them are never going to qualify for the Champions League or win a major trophy.

It would be nice to see a team show the gusto that Middlesbrough did in 2006 when they selected a strong side and went on an exciting and unforgettable journey all the way to the final before eventually being outclassed by a strong Sevilla side. With a little bit of effort, it would be amazing to see what they could achieve (take Glasgow Rangers last season as a further example). If Premier League clubs aren’t interested in competing in Europe, then why not give up their place to a side that might actually give it a go and embrace the chance to succeed.

Of course the neglect that the tournament has been shown in recent years hasn’t gone un-noticed amongst the UEFA decision makers who first tried to shake things up by introducing a group phase to the mix. This idea backfired though and another restructuring process was brought into effect. So as from next season the UEFA Cup will be known as the Europa League, a tournament that has a similar format to the Champions’ League with the idea of boosting both the competition’s status and profitability. Whether this works or not remains to be seen.