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Sam Allardyce: facts count. not opinions
The West Ham manager on the chain of events that led to post-match disagreement with TV interviewer this week
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23 March 2012
It was another home draw and more frustration the other night against Middlesbrough. Perhaps that frustration showed a little when I was interviewed by Sky’s Andy Burton afterwards but all I really said was that we should have had two penalties — I knew what I was talking about.
Matthew Bates made a movement towards the ball, stopped it going into an empty net and it doesn’t matter how much or how little of the arm the ball has hit, as long as some of it has been struck by the ball — and it had.
Compare that one with the penalty given against Michael Essien at Manchester City on Wednesday night. The ball was going way over the crossbar and was a powerful volley from less than five feet away.
Decisions like that change games and even help to decide titles. If City hadn’t been given that penalty, in my opinion, they wouldn’t have won the game. They might have drawn but they wouldn’t have won.
Our other claim on Tuesday night was equally strong. Matt Taylor was clearly caught by their goalkeeper but it wasn’t highlighted and not many saw it.
My job is to see everything. When I am asked my opinion I give it from a position of knowledge — and therefore strength. That is different from people who have an opinion often affected by the desire to say the things that others, say TV viewers, want to hear.
My opinion on Tuesday night and at other times is based on information from officials on how they want their referees to operate.
I remember that information so that when I give an opinion or talk to referees, it has a base, it’s not plucked out of thin air.
I don’t have an agenda. Telling the truth often hurts and if you’re an open and honest person, telling the truth, especially in football, can be detrimental to your career.
I have always been honest. At Bolton we achieved great results because we were clever enough to prepare the team tactically to beat bigger opposition. But the problem then was that opposition managers, either out of embarrassment and as an excuse, would sometimes criticise how we played.
That was picked up by the media and no matter what I did or said after that, eventually it became fact.
Against Middlesbrough the other night, we were accused of lumping the ball up. We didn’t, we comfortably out-passed them but once again, the long ball thing was brought up. It annoys me but I can’t let it get me down.
As I’m often saying, I don’t live in the world of perception, I inhabit the world of reality.
For example, the perception on Tuesday night was that we didn’t play well — in reality, we did. We did everything other than finish with a scoreline better than Middlesbrough’s.
They didn’t play better football than us and we made more passes, even though the perception was different.
That’s what slightly annoyed me about the TV interview afterwards. Middlesbrough didn’t play lovely football but they did employ a well-structured defensive game and then counter-attacked.
That is difficult to break down but we did and we had enough chances. Our failure was not to confirm that advantage by scoring.
None of the teams who we’ve played recently have played better than us. Not Crystal Palace, not Watford, not Doncaster, not Leeds and not Middlesbrough. What we have failed to do is deliver the final product.
The bottom line is how many clean sheets can we keep and how many goals can we score? Our defensive record remains solid but, at the moment, we’re not scoring enough goals.
We can’t cure those deficiencies by getting other players in, only by the players we have scoring.
We know the opposition will go the extra mile when they play us. Leeds played so hard against us that, in their next game against Nottingham Forest, the tank was empty. On Tuesday night Middlesbrough celebrated as if they had won.
It’s nothing we didn’t expect. We have to face up to it and the players must be big enough to take it. If we do under-perform, it has to be less than anyone else.
There has been criticism this season that we have loads of strikers yet I play just one up front. My answer to that is that it is antiquated nonsense. The reality is that I usually play three up, not one.
When we change it and play two up front and don’t score, as has been the case, no one seems to mention that.
No one has more knowledge and data at this football club than me. That’s fact. It’s not arrogance but it is self-confidence and there is an important difference.
I’m always learning, I never stop learning and that’s why I am confident. If I was arrogant I would be out of w**k now because I would have stopped listening in the misapprehension that I was already great.
This approach can be misconstrued as self-praise yet when a foreign coach comes here and says he is the ‘Special One’, the reaction is very different.
I do what I do for those players at West Ham. They are my priority. They are 95 per cent of my life, the rest revolves around other parts of the job and seeing the family.
The one thing about football, about life in general, is that if you don’t get the basics right, you don’t succeed.
We had a young chap in recently to talk to the players. He was a soldier in Afghanistan and lost the use of his arm after being shot. He emphasised that, if they don’t get their basics right out there, they could be dead.
One of the hardest jobs is to keep sight of the reality. It’s an emotional game and sometimes that results in people saying things they later regret. We’re all guilty of that.
There’s nothing to be negative about, though. Yes, we’re frustrated because, as I’ve said before, the players and me want to win games more than anyone. It’s our job, our responsibility.
The West Ham manager on the chain of events that led to post-match disagreement with TV interviewer this week
Share Share this article Email this article Print this article
23 March 2012
It was another home draw and more frustration the other night against Middlesbrough. Perhaps that frustration showed a little when I was interviewed by Sky’s Andy Burton afterwards but all I really said was that we should have had two penalties — I knew what I was talking about.
Matthew Bates made a movement towards the ball, stopped it going into an empty net and it doesn’t matter how much or how little of the arm the ball has hit, as long as some of it has been struck by the ball — and it had.
Compare that one with the penalty given against Michael Essien at Manchester City on Wednesday night. The ball was going way over the crossbar and was a powerful volley from less than five feet away.
Decisions like that change games and even help to decide titles. If City hadn’t been given that penalty, in my opinion, they wouldn’t have won the game. They might have drawn but they wouldn’t have won.
Our other claim on Tuesday night was equally strong. Matt Taylor was clearly caught by their goalkeeper but it wasn’t highlighted and not many saw it.
My job is to see everything. When I am asked my opinion I give it from a position of knowledge — and therefore strength. That is different from people who have an opinion often affected by the desire to say the things that others, say TV viewers, want to hear.
My opinion on Tuesday night and at other times is based on information from officials on how they want their referees to operate.
I remember that information so that when I give an opinion or talk to referees, it has a base, it’s not plucked out of thin air.
I don’t have an agenda. Telling the truth often hurts and if you’re an open and honest person, telling the truth, especially in football, can be detrimental to your career.
I have always been honest. At Bolton we achieved great results because we were clever enough to prepare the team tactically to beat bigger opposition. But the problem then was that opposition managers, either out of embarrassment and as an excuse, would sometimes criticise how we played.
That was picked up by the media and no matter what I did or said after that, eventually it became fact.
Against Middlesbrough the other night, we were accused of lumping the ball up. We didn’t, we comfortably out-passed them but once again, the long ball thing was brought up. It annoys me but I can’t let it get me down.
As I’m often saying, I don’t live in the world of perception, I inhabit the world of reality.
For example, the perception on Tuesday night was that we didn’t play well — in reality, we did. We did everything other than finish with a scoreline better than Middlesbrough’s.
They didn’t play better football than us and we made more passes, even though the perception was different.
That’s what slightly annoyed me about the TV interview afterwards. Middlesbrough didn’t play lovely football but they did employ a well-structured defensive game and then counter-attacked.
That is difficult to break down but we did and we had enough chances. Our failure was not to confirm that advantage by scoring.
None of the teams who we’ve played recently have played better than us. Not Crystal Palace, not Watford, not Doncaster, not Leeds and not Middlesbrough. What we have failed to do is deliver the final product.
The bottom line is how many clean sheets can we keep and how many goals can we score? Our defensive record remains solid but, at the moment, we’re not scoring enough goals.
We can’t cure those deficiencies by getting other players in, only by the players we have scoring.
We know the opposition will go the extra mile when they play us. Leeds played so hard against us that, in their next game against Nottingham Forest, the tank was empty. On Tuesday night Middlesbrough celebrated as if they had won.
It’s nothing we didn’t expect. We have to face up to it and the players must be big enough to take it. If we do under-perform, it has to be less than anyone else.
There has been criticism this season that we have loads of strikers yet I play just one up front. My answer to that is that it is antiquated nonsense. The reality is that I usually play three up, not one.
When we change it and play two up front and don’t score, as has been the case, no one seems to mention that.
No one has more knowledge and data at this football club than me. That’s fact. It’s not arrogance but it is self-confidence and there is an important difference.
I’m always learning, I never stop learning and that’s why I am confident. If I was arrogant I would be out of w**k now because I would have stopped listening in the misapprehension that I was already great.
This approach can be misconstrued as self-praise yet when a foreign coach comes here and says he is the ‘Special One’, the reaction is very different.
I do what I do for those players at West Ham. They are my priority. They are 95 per cent of my life, the rest revolves around other parts of the job and seeing the family.
The one thing about football, about life in general, is that if you don’t get the basics right, you don’t succeed.
We had a young chap in recently to talk to the players. He was a soldier in Afghanistan and lost the use of his arm after being shot. He emphasised that, if they don’t get their basics right out there, they could be dead.
One of the hardest jobs is to keep sight of the reality. It’s an emotional game and sometimes that results in people saying things they later regret. We’re all guilty of that.
There’s nothing to be negative about, though. Yes, we’re frustrated because, as I’ve said before, the players and me want to win games more than anyone. It’s our job, our responsibility.
and as for the state thing on the last 5 draws - I couldnt give two shits if we dominated the oppponent for 90mins the fACT IS WE DREW NOT WON FFS BFS AND ITS WINS WE NEED 
