That's one of the first criticisms of Sam that I've heard that I think has an element of truth to it. Stuff about him being a dinosaur is well wide of the mark, he was embracing sports science before it (probably) had a name. Equally it's wrong to say he's a long ball merchant; if he was we'd have been relegated, you can't play long ball to Defoe up front by himself and still get wins. It wasn't even as if he had a big man on the wing to win flick ons, we had borini and Khazri, neither particularly big lads. We actually played some decent stuff (well, better then we're used to anyway!).
But yes, he is defensive minded. As an ex centre back I suppose that's not a surprise. He doesn't give a fuck about Newcastle wanting to be "entertainers" or about the "west ham way" (which as he mentions in his autobiography no one seems to know what it is, for a club with no top flight titles you'd think whatever their way is they'd change it). He focuses on what he's good at which is organising and man managing and, imo, he's never failed anywhere he's been.
As you say though, will England accept that? I tell you what, they fucking should if they've got any sense. International tournaments frequently throw up sides who are well organised, hard to score against and who, as a result, do well. Portugal being the most recent example. I'm not saying we'll win anything under Allardyce but if he can sort the defence out you'd always fancy us to have enough going forward to grab a goal, he'll get us moving the ball forward quickly; directly, not long. He has experience of getting the most out of the flair players at his disposal.
If he can do what he's always done the football may be a bit worse to watch but it will be more successful than what preceded it. If that's not good enough for England fans or the FA then quite frankly that's their fault and they deserve what they get. We've never win a European championship knockout game in normal time, we haven't made a semi final for twenty years, our "recent" run of tournament knockout scalps since euro 96 is embarrassing. We aren't some massive nation trying to regain their rightful place at the top.We're a nation that keeps copying others when we should embrace our own style. We aren't good enough technically to stroke the ball around and keep possession like Spain. Sam will give us pride, passion and he'll get the best out of us. I feel sorry for him that it will largely be met with pictures of Mike Bassett and "funny" pictures of hippos and neck braces. Maybe he sent have the image people would like but he's a damn fine manager and he deserves some respect.
And I'm saying that as someone who has heard from someone at the club about the reasons for our statement about him leaving being so brief, he didn't behave well at all at the end and neither did the FA, I still hope he's a massive success at England
