Sam Allardyce Quotes

I always like working with young people, it keeps you young.

I have always said that managers stay in a job when they win football matches.

Finishing in the top four for Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United was easier before, but now it’s getting much more difficult with the emergence of teams like Manchester City.

The vast sums of money that are coming in at the top end of the game are stretching the rest of the sides to try to get as much benefit out of what finance they’ve got and get the best players they can find for that finance.

Defending is an art, everybody has forgotten it.

There’s only a certain amount of times you can tell somebody what they should or shouldn’t be doing. If they don’t want to take it on board there’s little you can do.

If I got sacked because my results weren’t good enough at Everton, I accept it, but getting sacked when they finish eighth, it is ridiculous. In fact, it is ludicrous.

It’s extremely depressing that a country of this magnitude, and where it thinks it lies in itself, can allow so many foodbanks to be operating in this country.

The type of football I played at Everton, the fans said it wasn’t good enough and I would say the same – I knew it wasn’t good enough for Everton – but I knew I had to get them in the position where they were safe.

To say we have to play a certain way, or try to, every game is great in theory, but depending what players you have got you have to play to their strengths and cover up their weaknesses.

There’s always going to be a time when there’s a difficult period and my responsibility is to manage the players through that. You have to make sure you bring stability back to the club and get where you want to be.

I want my team to win.

Football is a worldwide business consortium and to satisfy that best you need to find the best players.

Man-management is my biggest asset, to help the players enjoy themselves and be better than they already are.

Mum wasn’t scared of dad but I’m sure she got fed up with him taking her for granted… When I look back it was an empty relationship but I doubt there was ever a question of them splitting up. It wasn’t the done thing.

I’m not going to make a present of Santa.

My management skills are more suited to developing teams to be better than what they were before, and not just about avoiding relegation.

A quality player is a quality player.

Expectation builds the one thing you must have when you get to a new stadium when it’s built, which is a winning team.

Today was about our lack of ability to not produce the ability we’ve got.

Hopefully Andy Carroll has only tweeted his hamstring.

My dad was a pretty social animal when he wasn’t working.

People seem to expect when that happens, for players to be brought in that are so much better than the ones that have left. In the end they might be better but in the beginning they might be worse. Because they all have to gel and get to know each other and get to know you.

My confidence is in myself and how I run a football club and I’ve been doing that for many, many years now.

Jay Jay Okocha. On and off the field he was the captain you looked for.

I don’t think there is any coach more sophisticated than me any more…

It is about trying to entertain and win, that is the ultimate, but you have to keep winning first to change the things that need to change.

There is a lot of pressure at first when you first take over a club that’s struggling but you want to go and do your best for yourself, your family and the club that employ you.

If a better player comes along, I will try to persuade the club to get him in. Sometimes, you can do your business and all of a sudden something appears that you never expected to appear.

I think that the problem for any player you want to select for England, not just in isolation, is that it’ll be a concern if that player doesn’t play for his team.

Football is to be enjoyed and I’ve enjoyed my life in football for many years, it’s the pinnacle of my career and I want to enjoy it the most.

I am not a great sleeper, so 30 minutes of meditation, they say in research, is as good as two or three hours sleep, which is why you feel better.

We are in a position where we always have to change more players than we really want to and that brings a lot of instability and makes your job so much harder than it should be, because players come and go almost at the drop of the hat.

When you hit that safe 40-point mark it’s very easy for a player to think about his holidays and actually switch off.

I think accepting an instruction is part of a player’s responsibility.

I’ve worked at St James’ and in the first game of the season there the fans will lift the players.

Football today means players stay less now than ever before and you have to accept that. As a manager, a big part of your business is doing far too much business that you don’t want to do really.

My model is much deeper than looking after players. My model is understanding the industry, working within it.

If a player digests his own statistical information in his own time, on his own laptop, tablet or whatever, without a coach standing over him, it makes it easier for him. It helps with the pressure. There’s a fear factor but spending time at home analysing things can help control it.

Everybody walks around talking about, ‘Sam Allardyce’s style is not good enough, he doesn’t play the right way’ and so on and so forth and it is a massive problem for me. People believe it. You believe the false lies, the false implications. Football does that – it believes that lie sometimes.

I’m hardened over many years. You toughen yourself for whatever job. You either take the good with the bad or don’t bother.

I have to remind Arsene about his team, which used to win the league, that was the dirtiest team in the league. If you cast your mind back to when they were winning the league, they had more seedings-off and bookings than anyone else.

I am very shocked and disappointed to be leaving Blackburn Rovers. I am extremely proud to have managed this club and I enjoyed a fantastic relationship with the players, my staff and the supporters during my time in charge.

I don’t have to prove a point to anybody. The only thing I do is continue to do my job and all the outside press can do and say what they want to because that’s their right and their industry.

Just because a player drops down a division, it doesn’t mean he’s turned into a bad player overnight and isn’t good enough for England.

It’s always a good time to play against a team when they come back from Europe, whether it’s the Europa League or Champions League.

Teams with limited budgets will always find times tough and results won’t always go your way.

We live in a world that builds people’s expectations so high, so when the downside comes there is a knee-jerk reaction.

You have to try to win the ball at all costs and if someone doesn’t get it quite right people get injured.

The more goals you concede ultimately results in the bottom three, not the more goals you score.

I had four great years at West Ham. People will always refer to the difficulties at certain times, but you get those everywhere.

Historically almost every team I’ve managed has returned from even just a five-day break with improved physical output.

Your cruciate ligament, like many long-term injuries… when they come back they’re expected to be what they were before the injury. While fit it sometimes takes a little bit longer for some than others.

Ambition is important for any manager or coach, owner or director.

No matter what people say outside of football, we don’t work for money, we work for the love of the game and the money is something that follows.

As the game changes you have to change with it.

It’s difficult in your life when both parents pass so quickly and you’re not really that old when they move on. There is a big gap in your life. There’s a hole. You learn to live with it but never forget it.

Everybody thinks they can do my job better than me, they always feel you’ve got to throw caution to the wind and that’s the way supporters are.

From an early stage in my career, if you’re talking about picking up knowledge, it would have been via Ian Greaves who was involved in my success as a young player at Bolton. And working under managers such as Bobby Gould and George Graham helped me to expand my knowledge at bit more.

Busquets is a sitting midfield player who breaks up play, intercepts, passes it very quickly and is intelligent. That’s what he is. He’s not much more than that, but he gets a lot of praise for it. Whereas Eric Dier does a similar job, but sometimes gets loads of criticism for it.

One of my best friendships dwindled in the pub business – we still talk, but it challenged that friendship too much – and that taught me to go into football and find people that I can have good relations with but without being overly friendly.

Have transfer prices in England surprised me? No. Are the prices over-inflated? Yes. But there is no surprise now.

The satisfaction for me is that when you leave somewhere you look at what you are leaving and I know I left West Ham in great shape.

As a manager, you look at who is going to get the fans on the edge of the seats.

I hate perception. There’s far too much of it in football