Sam Allardyce For England Is The Right Move
By Ty Duffy
England have their next coach. It won’t be Jurgen Klinsmann. Sunderland coach Sam Allardyce is expected to be named on Thursday. That’s the right move.
Allardyce was the best realistic candidate. He’s tactically astute, detail-oriented, and organized. He’s innovative. He’s practical. He plays a direct brand of soccer that unnerves more talented, possession based teams. That is what England need to play. It can be ugly, but ugly results are better than losses to Iceland.
This anecdote from Allardyce’s interview for the job in 2006 spells out the professionalism he brings to the table for England.
"“I wanted to do a real knock-your-socks-off interview for the FA, so I put together a PowerPoint which looked at every single detail,” Allardyce wrote in his new book, Big Sam: My Autobiography, which is being serialised in the The Sun. “There was nothing missing. Nobody but nobody was going to beat it. “But then Brian Barwick, the chief executive, told me there were no PowerPoint facilities at the interview venue, so I had to print off hard copies for the panel. “So much for the progressive FA.”"
Allardyce won’t suffer fools in the dressing room. He’s self-assured enough to not get swamped by the immense pressure from outside. England is a big job. Big Sam has been waiting his entire coaching career for it.