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Sam Allardyce has given his first major interview since being appointed as the new manager of West Ham United.56-year-old Allardyce, speaking in conversation with TalkSport revealed that he had signed a two year contract - and can't wait to get started in his new role...
Why join West Ham?
The size of the club. It's a big job to be done but one that excites me a
great deal because [of] the status and the history of the club. It's
magnificent, and it's probably one of the biggest clubs I've had to
manage. Newcastle was perhaps slightly bigger with its fan base but West
Ham? Great potential, a great opportunity to really further my career
and do my very best in the first year to get them back in the Premier
League. Then the ultimate move to the Olympic Stadium, which is a very
exciting prospect indeed.
Potential player sales
That's probably going to be the case, for financial reasons. There's a
dramatic loss of revenue, even with good parachute payments. It's still a
massive loss and you have to adjust like every club has to adjust when
they've fallen out of the Premier League. But for me, whatever happens
with some of the good players there'll still be the basis of a very good
squad and there's some very good young players at West Ham to enable us
to rebuild very quickly. The transition needs to be a quick as possible
and how big that transition will be we don't know yet, until probably
closer to the start of the season. But one would hope it happens quickly
if it has to happen so we can rebuild the focus of the football club,
West Ham and the players that are there to get out of the division.
Potential signings
Like every manager whether you're new or established, what can you find
for the football club to make it better than it already is? We'll all be
hunting around for players in this small period of a window that's open
until the end of August. It always makes it a very frantic time and for
me of course it makes it even more so when you're finding out about
everything else. You're finding out about the players you've still got,
the staff that are still there and you're trying to put your ideas into
place as quickly as possible and make that transition as smooth as
possible to get a team playing as a team.
Often, with such a big transition you could end up with a team that
plays as individuals, not as a team. That's the dangerous point, the
early part of the season because everybody expects that from the 6th
August we're going to go out and start winning immediately. We hope we
can do that, we'll do our very best but sometimes it might take a little
longer depending upon how late the ins and outs come.
Who has the final say re:new signings?
It's me and David Sullivan. He's very knowledgeable in the football
world and has done [this] for a number of years at Birmingham. My
discussions and recommendations go to him and we'll try our best to
secure the player. But I'll have the final say, it's not a football club
I think that drops a player on your door that you don't know about, I
don't think that's going to be the case at all.
Scott Parker
Can we keep him? I don't really know yet, we'll have to see. But at the
moment it looks - from a distance - like that would be very difficult. I
haven't spoken to Scott about that. At the moment, as far as speaking
to chairman David Sullivan there's no indication of any bids for Scott
Parker yet so that 'll happen over the next few weeks one way or the
other. But their promise to me is they're backing us as best they
possibly can but
supporting me from a footballing point of view and a financial point of view to help us get back into that Premier League.
The Championship
It's a 46 game season and there's a much greater demand physically and
mentally because of the extra games. You've got to plan for
Saturday/Tuesday throughout the season rather than Saturday to Saturday
as you do in the Premier League. The focus of training, recovery,
nutrition, strength, conditioning, psychology is all very important.
Training
I break the season up into four [sections]. The excitement of the start
of the new season when everybody's raring to go and then the winter
months kick in. Then Christmas, when the training programme changes
somewhat and then there's the big push at the end where you relinquish
the physical aspects and focus more on the organisation and the mental
[side] more to get the ultimate push.
A big one always today for eveybody is how you can prevent injuries, how
you can have fewer injuries than anybody else. I'm a great believer
that the greatest opportunity to win football matches is when you have
your best players available more than the opposition teams, as that'll
give you more chance to win.
Tactics
That boring long-ball tag that's been following me for many years? It's
always going to crop up for me now. But if people cast their minds back
to the sort of teams I've managed it's a bit of a nonsense - but I can't
relinquish that tag. But I'm well aware of it.
The history of West Ham and the type of football they play; have they
really played that type of football recently, one has to ask one self?
Realistically, they haven't really as they've just been relegated. But
for me it's always remebering the history of the football club, the way
they need to play and that will be very much in the forefront of my
mind. Of course that has to be a winning style of football, I've always
said I always play winning football and my last ten years in the Premier
League has proven that.
Backroom staff
I've already started with Neil McDonald as I did at Blackburn. The rest
of the staff at West Ham for me is about working with them, them working
with me and we'll see how that develops. I had a very good team I built
at Bolton but they moved on to better things when I went to Newcastle
and now are all established in the Premier League. So from my point of
view it's not about taking lots of staff that I know with me but finding
new members of staff that can live up to my expectations. I like the
areas and the departments to have a highly-qualified member that runs
that department and for us all to pull together for the one goal - to
get the players on the field to play the best they possibly can.
The Olympic Stadium
That's why I'm taking it, I wouldn't take it under any other
circumstances. I've got to get in and get the job done. I've got a
two-year contract so I've got two years to do it. But my ambition is to
do it in year one; with the experience I've got, my relationship with
the players and the support from my chairmen hopefully we'll achieve
that in the first year.
Why join West Ham?
The size of the club. It's a big job to be done but one that excites me a
great deal because [of] the status and the history of the club. It's
magnificent, and it's probably one of the biggest clubs I've had to
manage. Newcastle was perhaps slightly bigger with its fan base but West
Ham? Great potential, a great opportunity to really further my career
and do my very best in the first year to get them back in the Premier
League. Then the ultimate move to the Olympic Stadium, which is a very
exciting prospect indeed.
Potential player sales
That's probably going to be the case, for financial reasons. There's a
dramatic loss of revenue, even with good parachute payments. It's still a
massive loss and you have to adjust like every club has to adjust when
they've fallen out of the Premier League. But for me, whatever happens
with some of the good players there'll still be the basis of a very good
squad and there's some very good young players at West Ham to enable us
to rebuild very quickly. The transition needs to be a quick as possible
and how big that transition will be we don't know yet, until probably
closer to the start of the season. But one would hope it happens quickly
if it has to happen so we can rebuild the focus of the football club,
West Ham and the players that are there to get out of the division.
Potential signings
Like every manager whether you're new or established, what can you find
for the football club to make it better than it already is? We'll all be
hunting around for players in this small period of a window that's open
until the end of August. It always makes it a very frantic time and for
me of course it makes it even more so when you're finding out about
everything else. You're finding out about the players you've still got,
the staff that are still there and you're trying to put your ideas into
place as quickly as possible and make that transition as smooth as
possible to get a team playing as a team.
Often, with such a big transition you could end up with a team that
plays as individuals, not as a team. That's the dangerous point, the
early part of the season because everybody expects that from the 6th
August we're going to go out and start winning immediately. We hope we
can do that, we'll do our very best but sometimes it might take a little
longer depending upon how late the ins and outs come.
Who has the final say re:new signings?
It's me and David Sullivan. He's very knowledgeable in the football
world and has done [this] for a number of years at Birmingham. My
discussions and recommendations go to him and we'll try our best to
secure the player. But I'll have the final say, it's not a football club
I think that drops a player on your door that you don't know about, I
don't think that's going to be the case at all.
Scott Parker
Can we keep him? I don't really know yet, we'll have to see. But at the
moment it looks - from a distance - like that would be very difficult. I
haven't spoken to Scott about that. At the moment, as far as speaking
to chairman David Sullivan there's no indication of any bids for Scott
Parker yet so that 'll happen over the next few weeks one way or the
other. But their promise to me is they're backing us as best they
possibly can but
supporting me from a footballing point of view and a financial point of view to help us get back into that Premier League.
The Championship
It's a 46 game season and there's a much greater demand physically and
mentally because of the extra games. You've got to plan for
Saturday/Tuesday throughout the season rather than Saturday to Saturday
as you do in the Premier League. The focus of training, recovery,
nutrition, strength, conditioning, psychology is all very important.
Training
I break the season up into four [sections]. The excitement of the start
of the new season when everybody's raring to go and then the winter
months kick in. Then Christmas, when the training programme changes
somewhat and then there's the big push at the end where you relinquish
the physical aspects and focus more on the organisation and the mental
[side] more to get the ultimate push.
A big one always today for eveybody is how you can prevent injuries, how
you can have fewer injuries than anybody else. I'm a great believer
that the greatest opportunity to win football matches is when you have
your best players available more than the opposition teams, as that'll
give you more chance to win.
Tactics
That boring long-ball tag that's been following me for many years? It's
always going to crop up for me now. But if people cast their minds back
to the sort of teams I've managed it's a bit of a nonsense - but I can't
relinquish that tag. But I'm well aware of it.
The history of West Ham and the type of football they play; have they
really played that type of football recently, one has to ask one self?
Realistically, they haven't really as they've just been relegated. But
for me it's always remebering the history of the football club, the way
they need to play and that will be very much in the forefront of my
mind. Of course that has to be a winning style of football, I've always
said I always play winning football and my last ten years in the Premier
League has proven that.
Backroom staff
I've already started with Neil McDonald as I did at Blackburn. The rest
of the staff at West Ham for me is about working with them, them working
with me and we'll see how that develops. I had a very good team I built
at Bolton but they moved on to better things when I went to Newcastle
and now are all established in the Premier League. So from my point of
view it's not about taking lots of staff that I know with me but finding
new members of staff that can live up to my expectations. I like the
areas and the departments to have a highly-qualified member that runs
that department and for us all to pull together for the one goal - to
get the players on the field to play the best they possibly can.
The Olympic Stadium
That's why I'm taking it, I wouldn't take it under any other
circumstances. I've got to get in and get the job done. I've got a
two-year contract so I've got two years to do it. But my ambition is to
do it in year one; with the experience I've got, my relationship with
the players and the support from my chairmen hopefully we'll achieve
that in the first year.
