Sam Allardyce to be named as new English manager
The FA have announced that long-time Premier League coach Sam Allardyce will replace Roy Hodgson as manager of the English National Team
Sam Allardyce has stepped into arguably one of the biggest jobs in all of football.
The AP is reporting that Allardyce will be announced as the replacement to Roy Hodgson for the manager of the English National Team within the next 24 hours.
The 61-year-old has long been a long time Premier League manager with stints at Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham United, and Sunderland. Now he will look to take over the struggling national team side after Hodgson stepped down following an embarrassing exit from Euro 2016 in the Round of 2016 to feel-good story Iceland.
The announcement will happen, according to the AP, at a Football Association (FA) board meeting on Thursday afternoon.
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As soon as Hodgson stepped down rumors erupted on who would be replacing him in the position, with Allardyce’s name mentioned early and often. Steve Bruce, manager of newly promoted Hull City, also interviewed with the FA and both Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe and USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann were named to the shortlist earlier this month. In the end Allardyce was the one that the FA was most comfortable with to help the national team.
This is actually the second time Big Sam has been in contention for the national team job. After the 2006 World Cup it was thought that he might replace Sven-Goran Eriksson. He ended up losing out on the job to Steve McClaren.
Allardyce won’t have much time to settle in before being tested, though. England currently has a friendly scheduled on the first of September and they open up their 2018 World Cup qualifying in Slovakia a week later.
Allardyce might have been favorite for this job because he has gained a reputation for being able to help turn around struggling teams. He is a very focused on his squad’s defense and tactics, making him what the FA think the national team squad needs.
While this is certainly a very exciting time for him, it is most certainly a time of stress for his soon to be former team Sunderland. The Black Cats have been going through an unstable time, having multiple relegation battles within the past five years. Big Sam was hired in October 2015 and safely kept them in the Premier League with a really strong 2016 in the league. Fans were hoping this offseason could lead them into a time of stability and contention for finishes in the top half of the table.
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It was originally thought that Allardyce would have complete control over transfers during the summer 2016 window. This lead people to hope he could improve them significantly enough to reach that top half of the table goal. When Allardyce’s name was starting being thrown around for the national team, however, it made it impossible for Sunderland to sign players and now they have wasted the first three weeks of the transfer window not making a single new signing.
We won’t have to wait long for the first test on September 8th in Slovakia and I’m sure English people everywhere will be glued to the TV to see if Big Sam will be able to take their underachieving national team side to the heights of 1966.