Ever since his unceremonious dismissal from the Newcastle United hot-seat, people have been talking over the sacking of Sam Allardyce. Overpaid ex-players have spent innumerable column inches berating the Geordie board for a lack of realistic expectations, for not giving Big Sam enough time, for making a knee-jerk decision to dismiss someone who was looking to build a 10-year plan at the club. The reality is, however, that Sam Allardyce was not sacked for poor results. Not directly, anyway. He was dismissed for a complete lack of vision and, ultimately, being too arrogant and stuck in his ways in terms of tactics and transfer dealings for the step up in class he took when he took over the reigns at St. James' Park, pissing tens of millions of chairman Mike Ashley's money up the wall in exchange for very little, and showing no signs of knowing how to improve on the predicament.
The problem with Big Sam was, and is, that he prides himself on making superstars out of wayward talents, or players overlooked by bigger clubs for one reason or another. He did it countless times at Bolton, managing to hold together a team that was driven, at different times, by notoriously difficult players such as El-Hadji Diouf, Nicholas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha. But, at some point on the journey between Bolton and the north-east, he clearly fell too far in love with his own abilities, and his signings over the summer, with the exception of the odd classy player like Mark Viduka, have reflected more a desire to boost his own reputation for turning players around than a desire to help Newcastle United up the table, and as more often than not these signings have blown up spectacularly in the face of the management, it's no surprise that Mike Ashley gave him the boot - he isn't paying to fund the retirement packages of a motley bunch of has-beens, could-have-beens and never-weres, especially at the extortionate prices Allardyce paid for them.
Worst of the offenders, of course, is Joey Barton - £5.8m for a player who's erratic performances at Manchester City were further let down by repeated on-pitch altercations and off-pitch brushes with the police was a rediculous gamble, and one that has proven the ultimate indictment of Allardyce's reign, with the player now confined to a sports recovery clinic on police bail, and facing possible prison time for a fight in Liverpool city center over the holiday period. Sam's ability to turn around the world's wayward footballing talents appears to have deserted him with Barton, but so dedicated was he to preserve his reputation and turn Barton, one of the worst footballing thugs in the Premiership, into an angelic world-beater that he sent not one, but three personal trainers to the sporting clinic where Barton is currently staying to ensure he retains his fitness - more of Mike Ashley's money pissed up the wall to attempt to justify Sam Allardyce's bruised ego. Barton, however, is the low-hanging fruit, and only part of the money-haemmorhage problem that cost Big Sam his job - nearly half a dozen less spectacular failures have also contributed to his downfall, both on the pitch and off of it, and they all center on one thing: Allardyce was too stuck in his ways from day 1.
When he took over at Newcastle, Allardyce had the resources of a sportswear billionaire at his disposal, and one that knew that any outlay would be not only possible, but justifiable, safe in the knowledge that bringing trophies to St. James's would bring the paying adulation of a city full of Geordies to the doors of his club shop. Yet, instead of going out and buying established players from the Premiership, Serie A or La Liga, Sam went back to his Bolton tactics of signing the cheap and cheerful from the backwaters of European football; while Curtis Davies and Zat Knight moved to Aston Villa for perfectly reasonable fees, money that Mike Ashley could probably find down the back of his black-and-white striped sofa, Big Sam attempted to plug the gaping hole in the Geordie defence with Claudio Cacapa, a 31-year-old free transfer from that powerhouse of European competition, Olympique Lyonnais, who is both older than much maligned Jean-Alain Boumsong and worse than Titus Bramble, now in the form of his life at Wigan. When your chairman has more zeroes on his bank statement than you'd find at a Dungeons and Dragons convention, and is waving his chequebook at you with enough vigour to make you worry he's going to give himself a heart attack, there is no reason to resort to a frankly, and this is no disrespect to the club, Bolton-esque signing - another case of Big Sam being too enamoured with his abilities to turn players around, and the same could be said of David Rozenhal, another solid professional equally unlikely to propel Newcastle to the heights their fanbase wish to see, the only difference being that Allardyce chose to spend the better part of £3m for him, and Jose Enrique, who might eventually develop into a solid full-back, but frankly was not worth the £6.5m that was forked over for him - another Bolton-esque signing, made with Newcastle-esque funds, ending in sub-par performances and all-round disappointment. Spending £2m on Senegal's Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye was another bad move for a player at Bolton who, at around 30, was never going to be able to make the push up to consistent top-6 finishes in the Premiership, and the same goes for Habib Beye, another signing from the French Ligue 1 along with Cacapa and Rozenthal, and the spending of £6m on Alan Smith just to play him out of position was rediculous for a player who has never consistently cut the mustard in the top flight and, while he might not be a great striker for anyone in the top three quarters of the Premiership, is certainly not £6m worth of central midfielder in anyone's money.
Yes, a certain section of the Newcastle fans do have unrealistic expectations about where the club should be, and instant trophies and Champion's League qualification should not be even remotely on the cards, but let's not forget that the reason Sam Allardyce got the boot was because he had pissed the better part of £20m of the chairman's money up the wall on players that were not good enough quality for a club with the resources, not neccessarily the history, of Newcastle United, and showed no signs of knowing any way out of the stagnation that led a club which must now surely qualify as one of the 6 richest in the Premiership to a sorry 0 - 0 draw to Championship paupers Stoke City. Accusing the Newcastle board of a knee-jerk reaction in sacking Sam Allardyce is a knee-jerk in itself, and the people writing the headlines screaming from the back pages of every newspaper the length and breadth of the country should take a look at the bigger picture - Allardyce was not building a dynasty, he was buying up sub-par 'solid professionals' in their 30s from sub-par leagues, leaving the club he promised to turn into a European power £20m worse off and going nowhere.
The problem with Big Sam was, and is, that he prides himself on making superstars out of wayward talents, or players overlooked by bigger clubs for one reason or another. He did it countless times at Bolton, managing to hold together a team that was driven, at different times, by notoriously difficult players such as El-Hadji Diouf, Nicholas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha. But, at some point on the journey between Bolton and the north-east, he clearly fell too far in love with his own abilities, and his signings over the summer, with the exception of the odd classy player like Mark Viduka, have reflected more a desire to boost his own reputation for turning players around than a desire to help Newcastle United up the table, and as more often than not these signings have blown up spectacularly in the face of the management, it's no surprise that Mike Ashley gave him the boot - he isn't paying to fund the retirement packages of a motley bunch of has-beens, could-have-beens and never-weres, especially at the extortionate prices Allardyce paid for them.
Worst of the offenders, of course, is Joey Barton - £5.8m for a player who's erratic performances at Manchester City were further let down by repeated on-pitch altercations and off-pitch brushes with the police was a rediculous gamble, and one that has proven the ultimate indictment of Allardyce's reign, with the player now confined to a sports recovery clinic on police bail, and facing possible prison time for a fight in Liverpool city center over the holiday period. Sam's ability to turn around the world's wayward footballing talents appears to have deserted him with Barton, but so dedicated was he to preserve his reputation and turn Barton, one of the worst footballing thugs in the Premiership, into an angelic world-beater that he sent not one, but three personal trainers to the sporting clinic where Barton is currently staying to ensure he retains his fitness - more of Mike Ashley's money pissed up the wall to attempt to justify Sam Allardyce's bruised ego. Barton, however, is the low-hanging fruit, and only part of the money-haemmorhage problem that cost Big Sam his job - nearly half a dozen less spectacular failures have also contributed to his downfall, both on the pitch and off of it, and they all center on one thing: Allardyce was too stuck in his ways from day 1.
When he took over at Newcastle, Allardyce had the resources of a sportswear billionaire at his disposal, and one that knew that any outlay would be not only possible, but justifiable, safe in the knowledge that bringing trophies to St. James's would bring the paying adulation of a city full of Geordies to the doors of his club shop. Yet, instead of going out and buying established players from the Premiership, Serie A or La Liga, Sam went back to his Bolton tactics of signing the cheap and cheerful from the backwaters of European football; while Curtis Davies and Zat Knight moved to Aston Villa for perfectly reasonable fees, money that Mike Ashley could probably find down the back of his black-and-white striped sofa, Big Sam attempted to plug the gaping hole in the Geordie defence with Claudio Cacapa, a 31-year-old free transfer from that powerhouse of European competition, Olympique Lyonnais, who is both older than much maligned Jean-Alain Boumsong and worse than Titus Bramble, now in the form of his life at Wigan. When your chairman has more zeroes on his bank statement than you'd find at a Dungeons and Dragons convention, and is waving his chequebook at you with enough vigour to make you worry he's going to give himself a heart attack, there is no reason to resort to a frankly, and this is no disrespect to the club, Bolton-esque signing - another case of Big Sam being too enamoured with his abilities to turn players around, and the same could be said of David Rozenhal, another solid professional equally unlikely to propel Newcastle to the heights their fanbase wish to see, the only difference being that Allardyce chose to spend the better part of £3m for him, and Jose Enrique, who might eventually develop into a solid full-back, but frankly was not worth the £6.5m that was forked over for him - another Bolton-esque signing, made with Newcastle-esque funds, ending in sub-par performances and all-round disappointment. Spending £2m on Senegal's Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye was another bad move for a player at Bolton who, at around 30, was never going to be able to make the push up to consistent top-6 finishes in the Premiership, and the same goes for Habib Beye, another signing from the French Ligue 1 along with Cacapa and Rozenthal, and the spending of £6m on Alan Smith just to play him out of position was rediculous for a player who has never consistently cut the mustard in the top flight and, while he might not be a great striker for anyone in the top three quarters of the Premiership, is certainly not £6m worth of central midfielder in anyone's money.
Yes, a certain section of the Newcastle fans do have unrealistic expectations about where the club should be, and instant trophies and Champion's League qualification should not be even remotely on the cards, but let's not forget that the reason Sam Allardyce got the boot was because he had pissed the better part of £20m of the chairman's money up the wall on players that were not good enough quality for a club with the resources, not neccessarily the history, of Newcastle United, and showed no signs of knowing any way out of the stagnation that led a club which must now surely qualify as one of the 6 richest in the Premiership to a sorry 0 - 0 draw to Championship paupers Stoke City. Accusing the Newcastle board of a knee-jerk reaction in sacking Sam Allardyce is a knee-jerk in itself, and the people writing the headlines screaming from the back pages of every newspaper the length and breadth of the country should take a look at the bigger picture - Allardyce was not building a dynasty, he was buying up sub-par 'solid professionals' in their 30s from sub-par leagues, leaving the club he promised to turn into a European power £20m worse off and going nowhere.
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