Samuel Allardyce was born on 19 October 1954 and is an English football manager and former professional player who is manager of Premier League club Leeds United.
89 Facts About Sam Allardyce
2.
Sam Allardyce spent the 1980s as a journeyman player, spending time with Sunderland, Millwall, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Coventry City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, and West Bromwich Albion.
3.
Sam Allardyce returned to England as youth coach at Preston North End, serving briefly as caretaker-manager.
4.
Sam Allardyce took up his first permanent management role in England at Blackpool in July 1994, but was dismissed after two years having narrowly failed to achieve promotion.
5.
Sam Allardyce then returned to Bolton Wanderers as manager, leading the club to promotion out of the First Division via the play-offs in 2001, as well as a League Cup final and UEFA Cup qualification.
6.
Sam Allardyce was appointed West Ham United manager in June 2011, leading the club to promotion out of the Championship via the play-offs in 2012, before leaving West Ham in May 2015 after criticism from fans over his playing style.
7.
Sam Allardyce was appointed Sunderland manager in October 2015 and saved the club from relegation.
8.
Sam Allardyce was appointed as manager of the English national team for a brief spell in July 2016, before taking charge at Crystal Palace five months later.
9.
Sam Allardyce has been labelled a long ball manager by some analysts, though he has disputed this perception as "totally and utterly wrong".
10.
Sam Allardyce takes a modern technology- and statistics-centred approach to tactics and coaching, and has been praised for his organisational and man-management skills.
11.
Sam Allardyce has been criticised for alleged corruption and has twice been the subject of undercover media investigations.
12.
Samuel Allardyce was born in October 1954 on the Old Park Farm Estate, Dudley, the son of Robert Allardyce and Mary Agnes Maxwell Allardyce nee Duff.
13.
Sam Allardyce has an older sister, Mary, born in Scotland in 1939, and an older brother, Robert junior, born in 1951.
14.
Sam Allardyce was educated at Sycamore Green Primary School and later at Mons Hill School, having been unsuccessful in his Eleven-plus exam.
15.
Sam Allardyce discovered in later life that he has dyslexia.
16.
Sam Allardyce spent his youth with semi-professional side Dudley Town, making his debut at the age of 14 he quickly learned how to play centre-half in the highly physical West Midlands League.
17.
Sam Allardyce trained with local Football League clubs West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and had an unsuccessful trial with Aston Villa.
18.
Sam Allardyce was spotted by Bolton Wanderers just before leaving school at the age of 15, and signed an apprenticeship with the club.
19.
The Bolton under-18s were very successful, winning the Lancashire Youth Cup and reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, and Sam Allardyce quickly rose through the B-team into the A-team.
20.
Sam Allardyce impressed during this short run, winning himself the club's Young Player of the Year award.
21.
Sam Allardyce decided to leave Bolton at the end of the season as he felt that he was underpaid at Bolton and did not get on with Anderson.
22.
Sam Allardyce was offered a contract by Norwich City manager John Bond, but the offer was bettered by Colin Addison at Derby County, and he verbally agreed a three-year contract with Derby.
23.
However Sam Allardyce soon wearied of the long-distance travel from Sunderland to his home in Bolton, and put in a transfer request when chairman Tom Cowie refused to help finance the purchase of a home in Sunderland.
24.
Millwall player-manager Peter Anderson had seen Sam Allardyce as the successor to long-serving central defender Barry Kitchener, and as Anderson was a property developer he allowed Sam Allardyce to live rent free in a six-bedroom mansion.
25.
Sam Allardyce came close to joining Charlton Athletic on a free transfer in March 1983, but Charlton boss Lennie Lawrence did not complete the move before the end of the transfer deadline.
26.
Sam Allardyce wrote to every club in the top two divisions to inform them he was available on a free transfer, and privately lamented choosing his past clubs for financial rather than footballing reasons.
27.
Sam Allardyce subsequently applied in his managerial career many modern practices of American football with regards to training, player management and tactics.
28.
Sam Allardyce found playing difficult however, due to the heat and the all-out attacking nature of his teammates, which led to him being frequently exposed at the back, though he found that the club's masseurs managed to cure a long-standing hamstring scar tissue problem.
29.
Bolton were then managed by Charlie Wright, who was the goalkeeper at Sam Allardyce's first spell with the club.
30.
Sam Allardyce was offered the chance to join Tranmere Rovers, but instead joined Preston North End after being persuaded by manager John McGrath, who promised to make Sam Allardyce the backbone of his team.
31.
Sam Allardyce did however possess good awareness and heading skills, and his anticipation made up for his lack of pace.
32.
Sam Allardyce was hired as a player-coach by Brian Talbot at West Bromwich Albion in February 1989.
33.
Ten games into the season Chapman was dismissed and Sam Allardyce was appointed caretaker manager.
34.
Sam Allardyce worked as youth team coach for 18 months, but later said the extreme long ball tactics Beck enforced upon the club were "indefensible".
35.
Sam Allardyce changed the club's backroom staff, hiring Bobby Saxton as his assistant, promoting player Phil Brown to a coaching role, and appointing Mark Taylor as physio, who would follow Allardyce to Blackburn and Newcastle.
36.
Sam Allardyce then had a brief spell on the coaching staff under Peter Reid at Sunderland, working as director of the academy.
37.
In January 1997, Sam Allardyce made his return to football as manager of struggling Division Two club Notts County.
38.
Sam Allardyce remained in charge at Meadow Lane until 14 October 1999, when he resigned his post at Notts County to return to Bolton Wanderers.
39.
Sam Allardyce was appointed manager of Bolton Wanderers following Colin Todd's departure, who had resigned in protest at the sale of Per Frandsen as the club attempted to raise funds for the new Reebok Stadium.
40.
Sam Allardyce was forced to sell Andy Todd, son of Colin Todd, after he broke assistant manager Phil Brown's jaw in a team-bonding session.
41.
Sam Allardyce blamed referee Barry Knight for the play-off defeat, accused him of being biased against Bolton.
42.
Sam Allardyce was rewarded for turning the club around with a ten-year contract, though the terms of the contract only entitled him to a one year's compensation pay if he was dismissed.
43.
Sam Allardyce focused on spending money to improve the club's facilities and backroom staff, believing that money spent in these areas would allow Bolton to compete with clubs who had bigger budgets and paid bigger wages than Bolton could afford.
44.
Sam Allardyce brought in Spanish central defender Ivan Campo on loan from Real Madrid.
45.
Sam Allardyce's side finished eighth in the league and reached the League Cup final, in what was his first major domestic final appearance as a player or manager.
46.
Sam Allardyce was interviewed for the position and was told by FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick that the final choice would be between him and McClaren, however the FA eventually decided to give the job to McClaren.
47.
Sam Allardyce was again offered the Newcastle job and was this time to keen to take it, but Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepard broke off contract negotiations after electing to appoint caretaker-manager Glenn Roeder on a full-time basis.
48.
Sam Allardyce's team seemed unaffected by speculation on his future or by their European exploits, and ended the season in eighth position.
49.
On 29 April 2007, Allardyce resigned with the club in fifth place with two games of the season left to play, and the following day his assistant Sammy Lee was announced as his replacement.
50.
Sam Allardyce was offered the Manchester City job, but the offer was withdrawn after Thaksin Shinawatra's purchase offer of the club was accepted.
51.
On 15 May 2007, Newcastle United announced that Sam Allardyce had signed a three-year contract to succeed Glenn Roeder as manager.
52.
However they then had a series of disappointing results in the run-up to Christmas, and after gaining only one point from a possible six from bottom-of-the-table Wigan and Derby Sam Allardyce parted company with Newcastle United on 9 January 2008.
53.
Sam Allardyce had gone into the meeting with chairman Chris Mort expecting to be told Newcastle had signed a new player only to learn he was being replaced by Kevin Keegan in his second stint as Newcastle manager.
54.
On 17 December 2008, Sam Allardyce was appointed as manager of Blackburn Rovers on a three-year contract, succeeding Paul Ince who left the club in 19th place with just three wins from 17 games.
55.
The club was put up for sale in summer 2010, and Sam Allardyce was offered the job of managing Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai, but could not secure permission to leave Blackburn without paying compensation to the club and so remained in charge at Ewood Park.
56.
Sam Allardyce was later dismissed by new owners the Venky's on 13 December 2010, with Rovers placed 13th in the league.
57.
Sam Allardyce was replaced by one of his coaches, Steve Kean, whose agent Jerome Anderson was a highly influential figure with the Venky family.
58.
Sam Allardyce was appointed as manager of then-recently relegated West Ham United on 1 June 2011, signing a two-year contract.
59.
Sam Allardyce vowed to play "attractive football" in getting West Ham back to the Premier League, according to the "traditions of the club," and rejected the claims that he played dull, long-ball football at previous clubs.
60.
Sam Allardyce signed Abdoulaye Faye, Kevin Nolan, Joey O'Brien and Matt Taylor.
61.
Faye, Nolan and O'Brien had all played under Sam Allardyce at his former club Bolton Wanderers while Taylor was a Bolton player who had joined after Sam Allardyce left the club.
62.
Sam Allardyce made striker John Carew West Ham's fifth signing of the season, on a free transfer, followed by defender George McCartney from Sunderland on a season-long loan, strikers Sam Baldock from Milton Keynes Dons and midfielder Papa Bouba Diop on a free transfer.
63.
Sam Allardyce concluded his summer transfer window signings on deadline day by bringing in midfielders David Bentley from Tottenham Hotspur and Henri Lansbury from Arsenal, both on season-long loans, as well as utility man Guy Demel from Hamburg for an undisclosed fee.
64.
Sam Allardyce signed goalkeeper Adrian on a free transfer from Real Betis.
65.
Sam Allardyce was awarded the Premier League Manager of the Month for February 2014 following a run of four wins and one draw in their five Premier League games.
66.
In summer 2014, Sam Allardyce signed midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate, left-back Aaron Cresswell, attacker Enner Valencia, right-back Carl Jenkinson, striker Diafra Sakho, defensive midfielder Alex Song, midfielder Morgan Amalfitano, and forward Mauro Zarate.
67.
Sam Allardyce left West Ham on 24 May 2015, the final day of the season, after his contract was not renewed.
68.
When Sam Allardyce was appointed, Sunderland sat 19th in the Premier League table with three points from their first eight games of the season.
69.
Sam Allardyce earned praise for his management of Sunderland from some pundits, particularly for his organized approach and emphasis on a strong defence.
70.
On 22 July 2016, Sam Allardyce signed a two-year contract to become manager of the England national team.
71.
Sam Allardyce won his first and only game in charge on 4 September, as an Adam Lallana goal deep into injury-time was enough to beat Slovakia on the opening day of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
72.
On 23 December 2016, Sam Allardyce signed a two-and-a-half-year contract to become manager of Crystal Palace, a day after the dismissal of Alan Pardew.
73.
Sam Allardyce unexpectedly announced his departure from Crystal Palace on 23 May 2017, saying he had no intention of seeking another job, in what was interpreted as a retirement announcement.
74.
However, on 19 July 2017, Sam Allardyce clarified that he would be open to an international management position, but not another club job.
75.
Sam Allardyce guided the "Toffees" to a seven-game unbeaten run at the start of his tenure, a spell which included five clean sheets.
76.
On 16 December 2020, Sam Allardyce was appointed manager of West Bromwich Albion on an 18-month contract after Slaven Bilic was dismissed with the club 19th in the Premier League table.
77.
In January 2021, Sam Allardyce said three transfers for West Bromwich Albion FC had fallen through as, following Brexit, the players would not have been able to obtain a work permit.
78.
Sam Allardyce had wanted to sign another two players before the transfer window closed.
79.
Sam Allardyce is a keen proponent of sports science and using technology and innovative techniques in coaching his teams, such as computerised performance analysis and yoga.
80.
Sam Allardyce has a reputation for using long ball tactics, though he has said that this perception is "totally and utterly wrong".
81.
In October 2014, Sam Allardyce claimed his reputation for playing long ball football was "not founded in fact" and had been used as an excuse by opposing managers such as Arsene Wenger, David O'Leary, Graeme Souness and Rafael Benitez following defeats by sides managed by Sam Allardyce.
82.
Sam Allardyce wrote in his autobiography that "when they hit a 50-yard ball it was a cultural pass; when we did it, it was a hopeful hoof".
83.
In 2021, Sam Allardyce was described by Pep Guardiola as a genius for his ability to save clubs from relegation.
84.
Sam Allardyce met his wife Lynne Ward while still a youth team player at Bolton Wanderers, and the pair married on 1 June 1974.
85.
Sam Allardyce was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Bolton in July 2010.
86.
Sam Allardyce published his autobiography, Big Sam, in October 2015.
87.
In January 2013, Sam Allardyce received "substantial", but undisclosed, damages from former Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean.
88.
In 2011, Kean had been recorded in a bar in Hong Kong alleging that Sam Allardyce had been dismissed from his post at Blackburn Rovers because he was a "crook".
89.
Robert Sullivan, Director of Strategy at the FA, later confirmed to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that Sam Allardyce's comments were "a factual, correct statement around the laws of the English game and having third-party ownership".