Sam Allardyce has embarked on a mission to prove Dick Advocaat wrong. As he settled into the Dutchman’s recently vacated seat Sunderland’s new manager acknowledged he must deconstruct his predecessor’s theory that the club’s players are simply “not good enough” for Premier League survival.
It was a damning verdict from the former Holland coach, who resigned nine days ago, and served to emphasise the scale of the task confronting Allardyce. His latest team are without a Premier League win this season and have conceded 18 goals in eight games.
“Dick’s a very experienced man and he has worked with the players,” Allardyce said. “That’s his opinion and I have to prove that wrong, don’t I? I have got to be the man who comes in and, at some point down the line, is able to say: ‘Dick, you were wrong’.
“I hope I’m not saying: ‘Dick, you were right,’ that’s for sure. If that happens, I have made a bad decision, haven’t I?”
Confounding Advocaat will require the former West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers manager to receive help from his players. With a clear challenge issued, it seems the time has come for certain individuals to accept increased responsibility.
“I have to draw on my experience,” said Allardyce who has not discounted the possibility of recruiting his former Bolton and West Ham captain, Kevin Nolan, who is a free agent.
“But there’s a lot of Premier League experience in this squad and I have also to draw on the experience of the players who have played in this league.
“It’s their responsibility to step up to the mark now. They have done all of this before. They know what the Premier League is about. They have to deliver. I can guide them along the way but ultimately we send them out on to the field to make fewer mistakes than the opposition.
“If they do that, then we will have a better chance of winning. There’s enough experience here for the players not to be making the sort of mistakes they have been all season. Everyone has to perform better than they have done. We’re second bottom in the league and for this club that isn’t good enough.”
Although he has signed an 18-month contract at the Stadium of Light, for the moment at least Allardyce is thinking purely short-term. He has arrived in Red Adair mode with all thoughts of longer-term “building projects” an extravagance he knows he cannot afford to indulge in.
“I’m here to save them,” he said. “I’m the troubleshooter. I’ve got to get the club out of trouble and then rebuild it. The only priority I’ve got is to focus on saving it. The job’s not to focus on the academy or what happens in two years’ time. It’s got to be about now.
“It’s about protecting Premier League status because, if the club wants to move forward, it can’t have the financial devastation relegation will bring. It needs the pot of money the new television deal will bring in the summer.”
After spending four years at Upton Park Allardyce accepts his stay on Wearside could be shorter. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here just yet,” he said. “It’s a risk business. I’ve got an 18-month contract. It may be extended but that will only happen if I’m successful.”
Appointing the right support staff is likely to be crucial for the eighth manager to have worked with Ellis Short, Sunderland’s owner, in the past seven years. While he expects to announce an assistant – possibly Steve Round or Blackpool’s manager, Neil McDonald – soon, Allardyce also made it plain he is very much the main man.
Enjoying a wide sphere of autonomy, he has ensured Short’s recent dalliance with a director of football is over. “I am the manager,” he said. “I wear a suit on match day. I organise the entire football structure at first-team level. I will make a lot of decisions on a daily basis. I have to make a lot of decisions very quickly and I have to make sure the vast majority of those decisions are the right ones.”
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