A Very Competitive Profession: Big Sam's Winter Of Discontent

Following the breadwinner’s shock dismissal from his most recent outpost in Blackburn, it looks like being a cold white Christmas in the Allardyce household this year. I'm speaking in terms of employment, of course - I'm sure Waitrose will still be delivering a decent sized turkey, and you'd imagine iPhone 4s for the kids won't exactly be out of the question - certainly not if that position in Madrid he's been after pans out. Still, losing your job on the eve of Christmas (not to be confused with Christmas Eve) must be a wrench. I've never experienced it myself, for which I'm grateful, but I would imagine that for those who have, the fairylights probably glow just that little bit dimmer. Especially if you can't afford the electricity bill. 

Sam Allardyce has always been something of a managerial puzzle box. Infamous for his supposed inclination towards what some would generously term 'agricultural' tactics, he nevertheless remains the only manager in history to successfully mould Youri Djorkaeff and Paul Warhurst into the same midfield. By the same token, Blackburn Rovers, his now former employers, are themselves something of an oddity of the modern footballing age; the only team outside the holy trinity of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to lift the Premier League crown, but one which struggles to fill its home ground on a bi-weekly basis, cursed equally by fortune and geography. Fifteen years ago this month they were English football's representative on the biggest stage in European club football. A decade and a half on they have become, in global terms at least, something approaching a pub quiz answer.

Of course they have had a rich history prior to this. The second club to win three FA Cups on the bounce, the trophy cabinet isn't exactly bare. Indeed, when the Premier League took off they were something of a trend-setter. With the late and beloved Jack Walker's millions earning solid building society interest, they swiftly rose from the old Division One (or even older Division Two) to the top of the English tree, plucking some of the best on and off-field talents (Shearer, Sutton, Batty, Flowers, Dalglish) along the way. Just three short years separated promotion and coronation, enough to make Flavio Briatore tent his pants. At the time the English game, like a pre-1990s communist state, was very much in the larvae stage of mass foreign imports, overseas ownership even less evolved still. But even then the accusations flew – Blackburn, they said, had bought the league.

Having given Big Sam the boot (a game plan he may have otherwise approved of), the now-ruling Venky's Ltd stated this week that they would be seeking another British manager to move them forward, quashing speculation that his dismissal was due to him not being called, as the man himself would say, “Sam Allerdyci”. Indeed, at time of writing Steve Kean – assistant to Allardyce and touted for the Motherwell job during the summer – has, like old Saint Nick, been handed the reigns, and with a stirring endorsement from the owners ringing in his ears. "He could be manager forever" they blurted, a proclamation which perhaps betrays the naivety of those in charge. The fun doesn't stop there either – "we want to achieve the number four position" they straightfaced, a pretty bold mission statement by any measure and a strong signal of intent that they dream of lifting Blackburn back to the highest echelons of the game. But if they do one thing before naming a permanent successor to Allardyce, they should perhaps sit down for a quick history lesson.

Let's pause for breath for a second and take stock, for there's something troublingly familiar about all this. If memory serves me correctly (and I'm making no guarantee that it does), the past few years have seen remarkably similar soundbites pumped out by a whole variety of clubs. Manchester City and QPR have thrown money at the problem of basically not being Barcelona, while to a lesser extent Cardiff and Leicester City, amongst others, have outlined plans to head toward the top-most reaches of the domestic game, to say nothing of the continued star-reaching of Tottenham, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Everton. That top four is going to become awfully crowded at some point soon. Perhaps Richard Scudamore should consider hiring a marquee.     

I think I should make one thing clear – this isn't all 'bah-humbug' on my part. I'm no Scrooge McDuck. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, nor am I looking to mock the ambitious. Quite the opposite in fact – the more competitive the league the better as far as I’m concerned. Only in the past few years have countries such as Portugal, Holland and France been able to break away from sustained periods of dominance by a handful of teams, while Scotland finds itself continuously mired in a state of perpetual two-team monopoly. Now Monopoly, as we all know, is a game which lends itself happily to a Boxing Day family gathering, but less so to the continued health of a major European league.

For Venky's to go on record with the aforementioned statement is surely only useful if their target is to set themselves up for a potentially gigantic fall. Talking a good game is one thing; seeing it through is another entirely. Let's not forget the case of West Ham and their Icelandic owners who rolled into town with lofty ambitions and found themselves selling up a little over three years later, chastened and out of pocket after some really quite silly spending and foolhardy decisions at all levels. They weren’t helped by the rapid global economic downturn, but as people that live, breath and quite possibly excrete money, they could have had the foresight to keep some salt in stock for an icy winter. The Hammers’ current plight should be warning enough to Rovers. If Manchester City represents the success story, then are West Ham not the cautionary tale? Perspective, as with so much in life, is everything.

In a curious twist of events, we could see Allardyce back in the ballgame before long, as West Ham themselves have reportedly been fluttering their eyes his way as they instruct the increasingly forlorn Avram Grant to win at least one game before Christmas or face the fall of a particularly chilly seasonal axe. Allardyce may feel more at home at the Boleyn anyway, possibly already dusting off the trapdoors and mirrors of his now-famed relegation escape act.

For now though, his dismissal adds further disappointment to a recent past that includes receiving some shoddy treatment at Newcastle and being overlooked for the England job once Sven Goran-Eriksson's slow-burning demise was complete. He kept Rovers impressively afloat following Paul Ince's doomed tenure but at the moment (especially in light of Bolton's aesthetic resurgence under Owen Coyle) he's a man out of favour and out of line with the status quo. Blackburn's new money men, meanwhile, could do worse than heed the words of the ghosts of takeovers past.

~ Matt