Sam Allardyce to be named new England manager on Thursday
A board meeting of the governing body will meet on Thursday morning to decide the new manager
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Your support makes all the difference.The Football Association will appoint Sam Allardyce as the next manager on Thursday, after a hugely impressive interview in which he committed himself to the development of future talent at all age levels and offered to work with a young English coach who could be his successor.
Allardyce has been the favoured candidate all along and his recruitment as Roy Hodgson’s successor is expected to be rubber-stamped at a full board meeting of the governing body on Thursday. The FA had been willing to pay £4m a year to their new manager but with Allardyce commanding £2m a year at Sunderland, the cost will be considerably less than that.
Allardyce has easily seen off competition from Jurgen Klinsmann, the United States manager, and Hull City’s Steve Bruce, and is thought to have struck a chord by telling the FA that England are not lacking top quality talent, which simply needs to be managed better.
It was thought on Wednesday night that the FA was some distance away from putting a contract in front of Allardyce, who was at Hartlepool United’s ground last night for a pre-season friendly with his Sunderland side. Allardyce was hugely disappointed to be overlooked for the position ten years ago and feels the time is right to step away from the relentless demands of Premier League football and take up the international role.
The FA have felt the need to move quickly to confirm Allardyce’s appointment, with Sunderland declaring publicly that the uncertainty created by the search for a successor has affected their attempts to prepare for the new Premier League season. Sunderland have put David Moyes at the top of their possible list to replace Allardyce
Allardyce has shown a positive outlook on the work which has been undertaken to create the FA’s St George’s Park set-up. Roy Hodgson did not relocate to the Staffordshire base as a place of work and there has been no suggestion that his successor would, but Allardyce has always taken a dim view of the suggestion that it has been dumped somewhere inaccessible. In his autobiography, he said that the governing body could have built a new national stadium next to Birmingham’s NEC, on St George’s Park’s doorstep, and saved themselves a fortune at the same time.
When interviewed in 2006, Allardyce also rejected the view of commentators who said that Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were incapable of operating together in the same midfield. He told an interviewing panel made up of the FA’s Geoff Thompson, Trevor Brooking, David Dein and Dave Richards and Brian Barwick that the two should simply operate within a three-man midfield with a sitting midfielder behind them, giving each of them the flexibility to advance.
Allardyce felt the interview had gone very well but the job was given to Steve McClaren. To compound his disappointment, Allardyce’s Bolton played McClaren’s Middlesbrough on the night by which the two of them were to have heard if they had been given the job.
Martin Glenn, the FA’s chief executive, said on Wednesday that the new man must make concerted, innovative and “un-ashamed” use of sports psychology as he aims to build mental resilience in the face of the “world’s most intensely passionate” press.
“The British press, like it or not, are probably the most intensely passionate about the game in the world and that has a spill-over effect,” Glenn said. “The consequence of which is people probably play not to make a mistake, as opposed to play to win.
“So the new manager’s got to be someone who can inspire people to get the best out of themselves, build resilience and unashamedly adopt the kind of psychological techniques that other sports and other football teams have done. To really to inspire people that when they put their England jersey on they play as well for England as they do for their club.”
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