Five things ex-Newcastle United boss Sam Allardyce has done and said that we don’t talk about enough

As things stand, Allardyce is out of a job having left West Bromwich Albion last year off the back of his first relegation, though he was still wanted at The Hawthorns.

Though, he did contribute to a relegation at Newcastle United where he endured a difficult spell as manager back in 2007/08.

Allardyce is not remembered too fondly by Magpies fans, and opinions of him in general tend to vary due to his style and personality.

And so, there is never a bad time to look back on some of his underrated bizarre comments and actions:

Training style

Former Newcastle United man Geremi once shed some light on one of the reasons Allardyce didn’t go down too well with the club’s star players.

"Leaving Chelsea and Jose Mourinho for Newcastle and Sam Allardyce was, of course, a completely different style for me to adapt to. I’d say Sam Allardyce is a typical English manager," he said while speaking with Ladbrokes.

"He was a very, very nice person, but he had a different style to anything I’d ever experienced before in my career.

"It was such a surprise for me because the first thing I noticed about him was that he’d never come and watch us train at the start of the week. He wouldn’t come out for our sessions until two or three days before our match.

"For me, I was coming from Chelsea, having played in Europe, and I’d never seen anything like it," he continued.

"Every day, my managers would be out on the training ground. So it was a surprise for me when I worked with Sam. He spent those few days in his office and gave everything else to his coaching staff.

"Then he’d come out on the Thursday or the Friday and he’d bring out that voice of his."

Sacking

After being sacked by Newcastle, Allardyce didn’t seem overly bothered.

He said: “The only decisions I’m making at the moment are whether I have tea, coffee, toast or cornflakes in the morning.”

‘Allardici’

Allardyce is, of course, associated with less glamorous jobs and situations, but doesn’t think that’s because of his style.

“I won’t ever be going to a top-four club because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce,” he once said.

…And then

Fast-forward a few years, and Allardyce was walking away from a job because he wanted to be a short-term problem fixer,

“I was given assurances over the budget but irrespective of that it’s about me and me being a short-term manager, that’s my pigeon hole, it has been for six or seven years now,” he said when walking away from West Brom.

“When you are put in that pigeon hole, you might as well stay there. That’s where I see myself, a saviour, a troubleshooter – whatever you want to call it.

“There was no blame pointed at anyone. I was flattered they wanted me to stay on. But at this moment I’m stepping down after Leeds disappointed I haven’t done more for the team.”

So it’s not the name?

Tippy-tappy

We had to include this one, just because of how much it encapsulates Allardyce as a manager, and it’s not the sort of thing you want to say if you want to change your reputation.

“All this tippy-tappy stuff – everybody keeps on going about the right way to play football – is all a load of b******s sometimes,” he once said.

“Getting the ball into the opposition box as quickly as you can with quality is definitely sometimes the best way forward and that’s what we did in the second half and that’s why we won the game.”