"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
Big Sam
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Sam Allardyce, London, Headline, 2015. ISBN 978 1 47223 267 0
The book tells the story of Sam’s career as a player and manager. For me the most interesting part of the book is the process by which he took Bolton Wanderers into the Premier League and not only kept them there but had them challenging for honours.
Playing in America for a short period was life-changing as he saw a different approach to fitness and preparation and a new level of professionalism. When he started as manager of Bolton Wanderers, he was quick to implement what he had learned: “I wanted sports scientists, strength-conditioning coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, better scouts and the Prozone system which analysed games by using cameras right round the stadium. I wanted more of the American concept that so inspired me in Tampa. The budget for players was small, but by getting the best backroom team and equipment we could compete with our big-money rivals”. The first problem was that the entire Bolton Wanderers Football Club at that point only had one computer!
There was another early learning curve: “I went through all the managerial clichés of throwing cups of tea across the room and upturning plates of sandwiches. I thought that’s what you were supposed to do as a manager but it had limited effect, and after a while players looked at you like you were an idiot. I was using the f-word a lot too, especially in training, and realised the expletives sometimes detracted from the message I was getting across”.
He used one unique method of motivation described in a chapter called: “Sheep’s testicles”. “If we lost by more than three, the players had to eat sheep’s testicles…but if we won by more than three, then the backroom staff and I had to eat them.”
The book is excellent on coping with being sacked – particularly when you have achieved everything asked off you and still get the push – on the stress of management and on his experience with being interviewed to be England manager. He is critical of referees at several points – referring to one individual as the “worst referee in the history of the game” - but also has a solution – the idea of recruiting young players who don’t make it in the game to a refereeing fast-track.
He went to church in his youth and sums up his beliefs as: “I’m still not sure whether I’m religious or not. I’m not entirely convinced by it, but I’m not against it either, and as I got married in church and go to funerals, I suppose I must be hedging my bets”. Yet he is very supportive of his club chaplain and saw the value of accommodating all his players’ beliefs as a way of getting the best out of them.
I finish my review of this excellent book with a great one-liner from Sam who is dyslexic: “I’ve always found it funny though that dyslexia is one of the hardest words to spell of all. It’s not easy for us dyslexics”.