An overconfident Allardyce was appointed this week to keep Leeds United for the Premier League. At his first press conference, he showed that his self-confidence has remained undiminished. His math skills, on the other hand, were rather absent.
Allardyce is bursting with confidence: “I’m at the level of Guardiola and Klopp”
A contract for four games, it is a rare construction, with a controversial clause: if Allardyce is upheld, a bonus of almost three million euros will appear on his account. His first press conference was not about money, but about content.
“If I wasn’t missing management, I wouldn’t have done this. I didn’t think it would happen this season, but after a few minutes I said yes. This is a big responsibility, and I took it on because of what kind of club this is. I think this is the biggest challenge I’ve ever taken on, because there are so few competitions left. Fortunately, we have a piece of cake on Saturday,” Allardyce winked. His first game for the Yorkshire club is against City.
Allardyce has an extraordinary amount of faith in himself. “Why do they call me Big Sam ? Yeah, because I’m kind of a fat bastard,” Allardyce responded with self-mockery years ago, and his confidence still rivals his size. If you ask him, none of his fellow trainers are better than him. “People think I’m old-fashioned. That’s total nonsense. I have it all in me. When it comes to substantive knowledge, I’m on a par with Mikel Arteta, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola,” said Big Sam.
After Manchester City, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur await. Allardyce is confident. “I expected the atmosphere to be worse, I hope we get six points, that would be a good performance. I hope my striker Patrick Bamford will be a key player, but the goalkeeper and the four defenders are the priority,” Allardyce hinted at implementing his beloved 4-4-2 system. “If everyone improves by 2%, that is an improvement of 22% for the team,” the new manager concluded with a piece of poor calculation.
Allardyce immediately issues a fine at the first press conference
Sam Allardyce is back in the Premier League. Big Sam celebrated his managerial comeback – he was appointed at Leeds United – with an extremely amusing press conference on Wednesday. In addition to some nice quotes, it also delivered a warning for his new group of players: phone use is not appreciated.
Between the comparisons with Pep Guardiola and the use of questionable mathematical calculations, one of the journalists received a phone call. The device was not on a silent mode and so it blared right through Allardyce. The 68-year-old manager decided to fund his new employer’s charitable foundation right away.
Allardyce went on with a straight face as the phone boomed. He mentioned, “That’s a fine, by the way. Ten pounds, for charity. Who is this? You? Thank you. Does this club have a charitable foundation? The Leeds United Foundation? Okay, that’ll be £10 for the Leeds United Foundation, thank you very much.” Then he went on to answer the questions.
