Less than a week into the new season, Sam Allardyce is one of many top flight managers predicting that this could be the toughest Premier League competition yet. Sue McCann caught up with Allardyce to discuss opportunity and expectation.
Every ambitious manager craves the chance to manage a massive club and Newcastle is perceived to be just that; how does it feel to be manager of Newcastle United?
“Well I think that you get the air and the sense of that when you walk into the stadium, walk around the city and meet fans, and obviously everybody knows how well the club is supported. Of course, having taken many sides to play there I’ve always felt the atmosphere of the Toon army’s 52,000 fans getting behind the side. The downside of course is the lack of success that has happened at the club over many years now and the frustration that lies behind such a big club, not getting anything in terms of the success they think they deserve. So it brings a bigger and more added pressure to you as a manager to take that club on and then try and deliver the success that they are all so desperate for. But that’s why you are a manager, you challenge yourself more and more as you go on, you set new goals and when you get a bigger club you have to set higher and more productive goals, so that’s the reason why I am here.”
Now that you have actually got this ‘big job’ do you have to pinch yourself or do you just automatically snap into the role?
“I think naturally on a day to day basis you move into it and you set-up your own structure and what you believe will be successful which has been successful elsewhere. That is the real secret behind success I think, I don’t think then it matters the sort of club you are managing at. What’s more important then is what players you let go, what players you buy to replace those players and what players you have already got to make them better. I think that for me is the remedy of success. So the big club scenario comes around the media, publicity, the fans, the filling of the stadium, week in and week out, and the expectation. On the day to day stuff you realise where you are, but you get on with your job the same way as you always have, whether you are manager of Limerick as I’ve been or the manager of Newcastle United. “
Whilst at Bolton you were signing a lot of mature players like Campo and Djorkaeff, I imagine initially down to budget restraints. More and more in modern day football, is there room for these older players and the exceptional experience they can bring and will you still look at that option at Newcastle even though you will want to bring in young players?
“Yes absolutely. I think my initial intake into the football club in terms of players was how much Premiership experience is out there and how quickly can we get it in. So we ended up with Mark Viduka who is an experienced player and Geremi from Chelsea who is a very experienced Premier League player. Then we had the younger end by purchasing Joey Barton and Alan Smith, so there was a great capture of four very, very experienced players in the Premier League; two still what we call of prime age in Alan Smith and Joey Barton and two of the experienced age which is Mark Viduka and Geremi who are only just into their 30’s. The experience of the Premier League is crucial to bringing you success, and then behind that you find players from abroad now as well as developing your own players in your own academy, to come in behind that to replace those players when you are moving them on; rather than actually getting them and throwing them straight into the Premier League which could be very, very difficult indeed. That’s where a lot of clubs over the last few years have slipped up, where the foreign element has made up a lot of the intake they’ve been asked to play immediately and then found life difficult to adjust. They’ve then got a lot of criticism for the way they’ve performed because the expectation was so much bigger that they couldn’t actually deliver, until they got used to a change of culture, environment, and language. Then they really could produce their very best on the field instantly.”
You’ve talked about Alan Smith and I always look at him and think that in a football society where the modern day player can often be maligned, he seems to embody everything that is right about a player. When he was injured Sir Alex Ferguson said his attitude was fantastic and when he was on the bench at Manchester United he didn’t whinge and took his chances when they came; that for you must be a great signing based on your own principles...
“Yes, you always listen to a man of Sir Alex’s experience. If you say when he chooses a player he finds it quite simply the desire to be successful and the desire to make himself better. If they have that desire then he always wants to sign them and that’s Alan Smith in a nutshell really. He has the desire to get the maximum out of himself, every day, every single game, he has the commitment to go along with the talent that he has got and I think that’s where a lot of people outside of the game slip up. They see a lot of skilful people, a lot of very talented people, but they don’t quite have the desire that it takes to become winners. I believe I’ve got that in Alan Smith and in Joey Barton as well, who hasn’t quite achieved as much as Alan yet but I think ultimately will do.”
When the England Managers job became available you made your intentions and desires clear in terms of you wanted to work with some of the best players in the world and that you had the talent to do so. Now I guess to be working with players like Michael Owen must be quite fulfilling for you because not every manager will get the chance to coach somebody who is recognised as a world class talent....
“Yes that is absolutely true. I think from my point of view Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith, Joey Barton are very, very talented, good players. Damien Duff is another one, Kieron Dyer, England internationals or renowned internationals in their own country. So you have a lot of very, very experienced, very, very talented human beings, that have a desire to be successful and that is why they are as talented as they are. You’ve got to live up to their standards and by the same token you’ve got to set your standards higher than them. If you can do that, then obviously you can get more out of them. It’s what you want as a manager because to make yourself better at the end of the day, the only real way you make yourself better is to have better players.”
With just two games played already many managers are already coming out and saying this could be the toughest Premier League season yet; is that a view you would concur with?
“Yes without a doubt, I think that the spending power of football clubs throughout the Premier League is the greatest that it’s ever been in the history of English football. Where we would see the better top four clubs who would generally be spending the money as usual for them year in and year out, we’ve now found that other football clubs have joined that bandwagon if you like. Newcastle have always been one of those trying to spend that sort of money to try and get into that Top 4; we’ve carried on spending again this year but this time around there’re many, many other clubs like Tottenham, Portsmouth, West Ham, Fulham and you’ve got Wigan at the lower end, who’ve gone into the 10, 15 even 20 million pound mark to improve their squad. Of course this week I think you’ve got Sunderland topping the £25 million mark and I think that when you look at the spread of spending across the Premier League that’s why it’s going to make it the most difficult it’s ever been.”
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