Sam Allardyce

[davek]

Have you set him up to fail then by asking too much? If he gets rid of a lot of the rotten core who make up the senior players which I have to agree with needs doing, then we'll be creating a huge upheaval in the playing squad that will quite likely cause us a huge setback. As new players are getting up to speed we are potentially looking at another written off season. Now this might well be what we need, but if we're 16th come Christmas, then we could well be seeing another firefighter in if Moshiri panics like this season.

I think that a more likely scenario is that a new manager comes in and the most disruptive elements of the senior pros go. I think (unfortunately) that a few of the senior pros are quite weak willed and a couple of stronger more professional players coming in will force them to buck their ideas up and keep some stability. The remaining deadwood will go over the next couple of transfer windows. It's a bit of half way house but as long as we see progress and evolution towards a better standard football and dare I say it, a real challenge for silverware then I would be very happy indeed. Over to Moshiri and probably Brands to deliver this.

If he sacked the manager and hired an industry expert CEO and allowed them a free hand to carry out a scorched earth policy that seen the clique in the dressing room destroyed and the hanger on coaching staffed binned, then there could be no criticism for Moshiri over grasping the nettle over team affairs.

 

[COYBL25]

From The Guardian.

A bit of contrast in a newspaper against the head-patting.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/apr/29/sam-allardyce-everton

'Allardyce’s Firefighter Sam job offers Everton fans too little spark

Everton’s football has remained lumpen since it became clear they were free of relegation danger and supporters are hardly being unreasonable wanting moreIn happier times for Sam Allardyce, back in the days when he was managing Bolton Wanderers and not carrying the same baggage that now weighs him down, he wanted some advice about the best way to deal with the media if, as he confidently assumed, his career in football management was going to continue on its upward trajectory.

The man he asked was Alastair Campbell and the trick, according to Labour’s spin doctor, was to see the difficult questions coming in advance, be prepared with a diversion tactic and, if necessary, veer off on a tangent rather than providing a direct answer.

Allardyce, by his own admission, taught himself to say anything to “distract and confuse” his audience. “It was good advice,” he wrote in his 2015 autobiography, “and I learned to do it subconsciously, always conveying the message I wanted to deliver, not the one the media were after.” If anyone pointed out the question hadn’t been addressed, he explained, he was already moving on to the next subject. Switch topics, keep talking and don’t get drawn into the nitty-gritty. And, though he didn’t add these words, never be afraid to tell everyone how marvellous you are.

On that basis, it isn’t entirely easy to know what to make of his assertion that his talks with Everton’s majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, concluded this past week with an understanding that, contrary to what some fans might want, there was not going to be a change of manager. “We have some clarity moving forward now,” Allardyce said. “We discussed next season and if I wasn’t going to be here why would we be discussing next season at great length?”

Allardyce might want to believe that is the case – or, rather, he might want us to believe that is the case – but perhaps it is better to keep an open mind when Everton have high ambitions, with a new sporting director, Marcel Brands, joining in the summer, and there is such a weight of evidence that the manager’s relationship with large sections of the club’s fanbase has broken down.

For that, I have seen Everton’s supporters described as ungrateful, unreasonable and unrealistic when Allardyce has, after all, achieved the prime objective of keeping the club above the relegation quagmire. He has done it with something to spare and it can come as a jolt, when Everton seem to have spent the entire season in a state of near‑crisis, to find the team squatting defiantly in eighth after their win at Huddersfield, regardless of the anti-Allardyce banners and mutinous songs.

The truth, however, is that he has always been an awkward fit for a club with Everton’s aspirations. As a result, many Evertonians have found it difficult to embrace him from day one. Sometimes in football it just goes that way and it is unusual, in the extreme, that the manager forces a complete rethink. Indeed, the only time I can remember that happening is in the case of Martin O’Neill, going back more than 20 years now to his early days at Leicester City.

Leicester’s fans took a long time to recognise O’Neill’s expertise. There were protests and lots of aggro. He won them over but he kept the less complimentary letters in his desk and maybe it was true, as his friends used to say, that the “O” in O’Neill used to stand for obstinate. After Leicester’s promotion, their cup finals and top-10 finishes he would often amuse himself by digging out those letters and, in a couple of cases, ringing up some of the people who had written them.

Unfortunately for Allardyce, it is difficult to envisage the same kind of happy ending in his case. He has already lost jobs at West Ham and Newcastle because the fans could not tolerate his style of play and maybe it counts against him in his current job that Liverpool, the club Everton will always measure themselves against, are producing the kind of attacking, adventurous football they have craved at Goodison for longer than they would wish to remember.

While Everton have some of the dreariest statistics in the Premier League, Liverpool have scored at least five goals past every opponent on their way to the verge of a Champions League final – 10 over two legs against Maribor, eight against Spartak Moscow, six against Hoffenheim, five versus Sevilla, Porto, Manchester City and, in the first leg of their semi-final, Roma.

Everton, on other hand, went into the weekend 19th out of the 20 clubs in the Premier League when it comes to the number of shots they have managed on Allardyce’s watch, 19th in terms of efforts on target, 19th in chances created and 19th for attempted dribbles. Again, Allardyce can point out that the only statistics that should matter are the points that have taken the team into the top half of the table. Plainly, however, it does matter to many Everton followers. The supporters want more. Is that so unreasonable?

When Allardyce took the job he talked about an opportunity to show he was more than just a firefighter. That, more than anything, has been the most disappointing part. The football has remained lumpen since it became clear Everton were free of relegation danger. Allardyce has still been the man who substituted an attacker, Yannick Bolasie, with a centre-half, Ramiro Funes Mori, in a 1-1 draw at a Swansea side five places off the bottom. He has abandoned Davy Klaassen when surely these would be opportune moments to experiment with a £23m player. And when it comes to spinning the truth, how about his assertion that Everton were below West Brom before he took over?

That would be true if Allardyce wants to claim Everton’s 4-0 defeat of West Ham on 29 November as his own work. But it wasn’t. It was David Unsworth’s final match as caretaker manager – Allardyce watched from the directors’ box – and the win meant Everton moved up from 17th position to 13th. Allardyce, to give him his due, has moved Everton another five places up the table but he should know enough about the business to understand he cannot take anything for granted this summer, no matter what he might say in public.'

Very good article, lets hope Mohiri sees things the same way.

Just shows how many of the other journos are just printing, lazy rehashes of the myth that Allardyce has created about himself, without doing their homework first.

 

[dancing llama]

There are plenty of reasons to get rid of Sam but the main one for me is hope. If we kept him then all my hopes and dreams of good things for this amazing club will just be drained away and be replaced by a grim expectation of hoofball and safety from relegation. Everton is better than this. I want to believe we can beat anyone and everyone. That's never ever going to happen with Sam.

 

[Barnfred 55]

The thing is tho, BS has got results and moved us up the league,

what if we bring in Fonseca (3 year contract)and he's struggling in this league and it's looking like a relegation battle,

90% get on his back after 5 months, do we sack him ?

OK. 90% is a lot of the fan base and they are well aware that he has moved us up the league. Still they feel the same. Explain that.

As regards Fonseca, if it looks like a real relegation battle (and I don't mean like the knee jerk reaction in November like we had with Allerdyce) then the board should certainly consider sacking him.

But your insinuation that we shouldn't get rid of Allardyce because he is the only manager that guarantees we won't be relegated is, quite frankly, ludicrous.

 

[peteblue]

There's a battle for the soul of the club going on. I don't think divisive views are helpful. Unfortunately sometimes it's necessary. As supporters we know the direction the club needs to take, whether the board are interested in that, we'll see.

Lets call a spade a spade here. There isn't one club in the top six who would entertain Allardyce as a manager. The last time spurs won the league was in 62. he wouldn't come near their club and we are supposed to entertain him? No, it doesn't fly with me.

You can argue we were relegation candidates in November, fair enough. I don't agree like but once you start accepting that this club, should be grateful for 8th or what his style of management brings to the table. You're killing the heritage of our club, by proxy. And though you may be an Evertonian, that mindset will kill us, slowly but surely.

I look at it like this. Thanks Sam, you did your job but bottom line, you don't have the skill-set to get us where we belong. nothing personal, few do, that's why we worship them, turn them into deserved legends. You ain't never gonna be a Catterick or Kendall. Leave at the end of the season while there will still be goodwill towards you.

After that, this club needs some serious soul searching. Because somewhere along the way I'm starting to fail to recognize the club I've supported all my life.

Great post and sums up nicely the drip, drip, drip, over the years of fans and management willing to accept second best.....time for radical change......

 

[Barnfred 55]

I was thinking earlier, is it just us the fans who hate him and don’t want him here??
Pretty much every footy pundit or ex player are saying what’s our problem, he’s done a great job, give him time etc. For me he’s got to go but there’s a niggling feeling he’s here for another year.

Ask Newcastle and West Ham fans mate. They're probably the only ones who at least understand where we're coming from.

 

[mutley]

OK. 90% is a lot of the fan base and they are well aware that he has moved us up the league. Still they feel the same. Explain that.

As regards Fonseca, if it looks like a real relegation battle (and I don't mean like the knee jerk reaction in November like we had with Allerdyce) then the board should certainly consider sacking him.

But your insinuation that we shouldn't get rid of Allardyce because he is the only manager that guarantees we won't be relegated is, quite frankly, ludicrous.

No insinuation at all, i just wanted to know what you would do because we can't just keep sacking and paying off managers.

btw in November i didn't think we were good enough to beat any team in the league and a lot of people on here thought the same way.

 

[peteblue]

The thing is tho, BS has got results and moved us up the league,

what if we bring in Fonseca (3 year contract)and he's struggling in this league and it's looking like a relegation battle,

90% get on his back after 5 months, do we sack him ?

Anyone who is not up to the job, manager, trainer, DoF, CEO, player, groundsman, tea lady, should be sacked and replaced with someone who is. We need to get back to the ruthless days of the 60’s....

 

[Barnfred 55]

I think we should give him another season.

Nobody 'big' will join a club that has finished 8th.

Given Brand's impending appointment, it looks like transfer dealings will be 'handed off' to a DoF - so I have no concerns there.

So you are happy for us to spend millions on new players then hand them to a manager who won't play them because they don't fit his system. Or worse, try and force them into his system

 

[nickDtoffee]

Any ITK around? I need cheering up. Even just for a few hours.

 

[mutley]

Anyone who is not up to the job, manager, trainer, DoF, CEO, player, groundsman, tea lady, should be sacked and replaced with someone who is. We need to get back to the ruthless days of the 60’s....

yep i agree with you on that

 

[streeky]

How dare BFS compare himself to Marmite, i wouldn't let him within 100yds of my breakfast table.

 

[mutley]

Any ITK around? I need cheering up. Even just for a few hours.

I'm a mate of the Mosh's son, he loves Big Sam.

 

[Toast]

Great post and sums up nicely the drip, drip, drip, over the years of fans and management willing to accept second best.....time for radical change......

We've had a radical change.
We have a billionaire owner who's radically given us over £200m to spend.

The fact we've spunked it on a load of crap is what the problem is.

 

[royalblue66]

My Kopite mates think we are mad wanting to sack S A, reckon we won't get anyone better.