Bolton Wanderers Hall of Fame #3: Sam Allardyce

Sunday October 26th, 2008

Why does everyone outside Bolton hate Sam Allardyce?

Will Portsmouth fans react in the same way as Nottingham Forest and Blackburn fans did now that Big Sam Allardyce is being tipped as favourite to replace Harry Redknapp, following his deaprture for Spurs?

A few weeks ago Vital Bolton Wanderers wrote about how Forest fans were up in arms about rumours that Sam Allardyce might be their next manager.

Blackburn fans reacted in a similar way when Big Sam was linked with their club before Paul Ince eventually got the job over the summer.

I’ve already seen a couple of negative comments on Pompey fan sites and message boards, like this one and this one.

I just don’t get it. OK, so he has a reputation for playing long ball (this is an over simplification, as I’ve written before) and the Panorama documentary a couple of years back didn’t do his reputation any good, but no-one could look at the situation Newcastle are in now and say that they did the right thing when they sacked Allardyce.

More importantly, no Forest (yes that’s the same Forest who are currently anchored to the bottom of the Championship!), Blackburn or Portsmouth fan (all clubs similar to Bolton in many ways) could say that what he did with the Wanderers was not extraordinary.

In fact it’s only now, as we watch Gary Megson trying to do a bad impression of Allardyce, that we’re realising just how lucky we were to have him.

So, in defence of the Allardyce reputation, welcome to the Manny Road Hall of Fame, Sam.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iet3xoNGoMA]

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