Sam Allardyce

Samuel "Sam" Allardyce (* October 19, 1954 in Dudley, West Midlands, England ) is an English former football player and current coach. Since 2011 he coached West Ham United in the Barclays Premier League.

Playing career

Allardyce - also called by his followers "Big Sam" - first attended the " Sycamore Green Primary School " and later the " Wren 's Nest Secondary School ". His greatest success as a football player was 1978, winning the second division championship with the Bolton Wanderers and thus equally significant rise in the top English league. Later he was for Sunderland active before he moved to the U.S. North American Soccer League, to play there for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The football club announced there plants with the American Football Club Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their training methods and tactics Allardyce inspiration for his later career, should be found in the English football moving into innovative form.

Coaching career

After retiring as a footballer Allardyce was committed from West Bromwich Albion for the position of Kotrainers by Brian Talbot in February 1989, where he curiously, always a supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers - had been - the biggest rival of West Bromwich. However, his employment with the " Hawthorns " only lasted two years and ended in his dismissal and Talbots, when the club was relegated to the third division for the first time.

Allardyce took over from then on the role of the players coach the Irish FC Limerick and led the club in his only season there in 1992 as second division champions in the top division of the country.

His next stop was the coach FC Blackpool, where he was made redundant, as it did not succeed, the rise to the second division, although the club had led the table during the entire course of the season. Blackpool still fell from third place and thus missed the direct ascent on the final day. In the subsequent play-off, the club also still lost after a 2-0 first-leg victory against Bradford City in the second leg 0-3. Allardyce was still on leave in the summer of the same year.

In January 1997, Sam Allardyce returned to the business of football, but could not prevent the descent of his new club Notts County from the third division. However, it was already in the first attempt in 1998, the direct re-emergence, with Notts County with the fourth division championship several state and Club Records broke when the club won the league with 19 points difference and the first post-war team set that a rise already the middle of March could ensure. Until September 1999, he stayed at the " Meadow Lane " and then returned to his former club Bolton Wanderers back to be there in the second division of the new coach.

Although Bolton lost in 2000 in the play- off games to rise against Ipswich Town, but came under the leadership of Allardyce to the FA Cup semi-final. The following year the club again reached the play-off finals and has now claimed a 3-0 win over Preston North End ensured a return to the Premier League after three years of absence.

The first season in the English top division began stormy with three wins and a draw from their first four games and Allardyce commented hopeful that the club could even be a potential candidate in the race for the English Championship. However, the quality of the team's squad turned out to be not good enough and the club even had to worry about the whereabouts in the league, which then could be done perfectly well until the penultimate game of the season. In the following year the club even ranked in the final table with only two points behind only one place above the relegation zone.

Henceforth, Allardyce established with his team but increasingly in the Premier League and also reached the final in the Carling Cup, Bolton 1:2 lost to Middlesbrough FC, who had not won major English trophy. The 2004/05 season concluded Bolton - level on points with Liverpool - in sixth place from and qualified for the UEFA Cup. There Allardyce could lead his club through the group stage and established him in the top half of the English league.

After the spring of 2006 Sven -Goran Eriksson announced his resignation from the office of the English national team coach after the World Cup in 2006, also Allardyce was touted as a possible successor. Bolton claimed to allow the Football Association FA talks with Allardyce, there should be a concrete interest. Ultimately, however, Allardyce was at no time an offer and as successor Steve McClaren was determined instead.

Allardyce filed on 30 April 2007 at Bolton in his resignation. Replacement during the English Premier League club was Sammy Lee. On 15 May 2007 Newcastle United announced that Allardyce would with a three -year contract new coach of Magpies. There, however, he should remain only a few months before the club's management left the club " by mutual agreement " already on 9 January 2008. In mid-December he was introduced as the successor to Paul Ince at Blackburn Rovers. In December 2010, he was released again.

For the season 2011/12 the first division - Abstieger West Ham United Allardyce committed. Under the direction of the team succeeded him after one season, immediate re- promotion to the top league of England Premier League.

Allardyce wrote in his regular column for the magazine " Four Four Two " about football training, tactics and management.