If life has given Sam Allardyce lemons of late, he’s probably asking for extra salt and tequila while pondering the meaning of life on the Costa Brava. Yet Big Sam is ever the forward thinker and is already eyeing a return to the dugout – and not where you might think. No vacancy at West Brom, Stoke or – perish the thought – Sunderland will cut the ice when he looks to resurface from last weekend’s … errrr … sandstorm. That might be hiding in plain sight; instead, England’s statistically most successful manager is apparently tempted to make some sweet, sweet lemonade over in the United States – perhaps rebooting his career in Major League Soccer. Bad times can sometimes get us looking back fondly and Sam is no exception, harking back to a simpler time spent with Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1983 and wondering if he shouldn’t just do it all again. He might have been out-tacticked by the Telegraph’s undercover team, but think of the postcards he’ll be able to send his old pals from across the pond.
Things aren’t great for Roberto Di Matteo at the moment, either. It is only five years, remember, until Aston Villa are the top club in Europe with the highest number of fans all over the world, and there’s nothing like getting a job done ahead of time so Tony Xia has decided to kick things on a bit by parting company with the Italian. Villa sit 19th in the Championship table and their gargantuan international fanbase may soon be watching Steve Bruce, David Wagner, Lee Johnson or Steve McClaren propel them to the stars and beyond.
It is very much a Monday morning of managers, an alliteration that next brings us news of Francesco Guidolin’s increasingly slack grip on his job at Swansea. He will beg the club’s new American owners for more time at a meeting later on Monday; performances, if not results, suggest he may get it and keep Ryan Giggs waiting in the wings a little longer.
Perhaps Giggs can keep abreast of matters at his old club in the meantime. Manchester United are giving the eye to Benfica left-back Alex Grimaldo, whom they watched play and score in a 4-0 win over Feirense on Sunday night. Grimaldo, a Spain youth international and free-kick wizard, only joined from Barcelona in January but is hot property – although there is a cool £51m buy-out clause to navigate around. Valencia, Juventus and, yes, Middlesbrough are also keeping tabs.
Another hot young Spaniard is going absolutely nowhere. That’s if you trust Arsenal’s stance on Hector Bellerín, who have a laid five-year contract offer on the 21-year-old’s table as Barcelona, where he started out as a youngster, come sniffing around. The Gunners are keen to avoid a Cesc Fàbregas-style situation – and, come to think of it, Bellerín probably is too.
Also not going anywhere is Thibaut Courtois, who has scotched ideas that he would like to return to Spain sooner rather than later. So now that’s clear. And that, also, is that – a quiet Monday, unless you support a struggling MLS team that needs a firm hand. You’d almost think there’d been some football going on.
