What Big Sam told undercover reporters
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He’s only been in the job for a matter of months but Sam Allardyce is already at the heart of a controversy after he was secretly filmed by reporters from The Telegraph who were claiming to represent a Far East firm who were looking to invest in the Premier League.
Here are just a few of the controversial things that Sam told the undercover reporters:
Sam on Roy Hodgson as a potential public speaker
“He’d send them all to sleep, Roy. Woy. He hasn’t got the personality for it.”
Sam on what Hodgson did wrong as England manager
Players let him down in the end. I think maybe he was too indecisive. Cast a bit of an anxiety over to the players maybe. I mean prior to the Iceland game, he won all ten qualifiers. We’d drawn with Russia, we should have won. We beat Wales, and that was our worst performance. We drew with Slovakia, and we only had to draw with Iceland to get through … he just collapsed.”
Sam on Gary Neville & Hodgson apparently arguing about bringing Marcus Rashford on against Iceland
“They were arguing for ten minutes about bringing [Rashford] on, him and Gary Neville. So Gary was the wrong influence for him. ****ing tell Gary to sit down and shut up, so you can do what you want. You’re the manager, you do what you want, not what they anyone else”
Sam on picking players who aren't playing for their club
“Can’t play them then. Joe Hart. Jack Wilshere, on the bench for Arsenal. Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench. You can play them, but they’re not playing for the club. When they’re not playing for the club, they’re just short of match practice.”
Sam on Wembley
“[The FA] stupidly spent £870 million on Wembley, so they’re still paying that debt off. They completely rebuilt it. If they’d built it anywhere else, it would have cost about £400 million. They completely floored it and then rebuilt the new stadium which is fabulous, but that sort of debt is not really what you want. Most of the money the FA make[s] will go to the interest on the debt.”
Sam on gambling habits of ex-England players
“[A club owner] bailed [a player] out twice. That’s players for you, dealing with the boredom, see. It was worse in our time, we gambled more in our time than they do now. We played cards, played cards all the way back [from away matches], you’d do your wages in.”
Sam on The FA
“They’re all about making money aren’t they? You know the FA’s the richest football association in the world? Well, I shouldn’t say that. They’re not the richest at all. What they do know is they have the biggest turnover in the world with £325 million.”
Sam on Prince William not turning up at the launch of the Euro 2020 football tournament
“The only one that never turned up was Prince William. He’s our ambassador for the Football Association, so it would have been nice if he’d have turned up but he obviously had more, much busier things on.”
Sam on Prince Harry
“Harry’s a naughty boy. He’s a very naughty boy, very naughty. He shows his bottom and all sorts.”