Say what you like about Sam Allardyce, and people have been doing exactly that all week, he is not one to shirk a challenge. Most managers would be ready to call it a day at the age of 66 after more than two years out of the game, especially if they had already worked for seven Premier League clubs and had a proud record of never being relegated to uphold.
Given that firefighter Sam has been sent into some fairly tricky situations in his time, he could have been forgiven for looking at the yo-yo record of West Brom in recent years and concluding this might be a feat of escapology too far.
Not a bit of it. “It’s what everybody now thinks I can do, so I thought: ‘Why not give it a shot?’” the new Albion manager said. “This job can wear you down, but so can being away from it. I think I am reasonably healthy for my age, both my wife and I have a full medical every three years, and I have learned to deal with the pressures the job brings.
“I’m a lot calmer than I used to be and more health conscious. Don’t forget that being out of work can affect your health as well, especially your mental health. It is easy to feel down about your situation, as if you are not worthy of another job. You can’t help but feel you should be working, making decisions, dealing with challenges.
“When you first step away from the game you are glad of the rest, but after a while you get bored when the only decision you have to make is what to have for lunch.”
Not many 66-year-olds think that way, especially if they are financially secure with a long and successful career behind them. Allardyce was told by fellow managers that after two years out he would not fancy another managerial position, that he would have realised by then there was life beyond football, though evidently he has spent his time since leaving Everton chomping at the bit. “I didn’t have to think too long about saying yes to West Brom,” he said. “I wanted another job and I wanted it to be Premier League. I might have considered a Championship club, but this was the offer that came along and I was happy to take it.
“It annoys my wife that I keep taking on new jobs just before Christmas but she knows what I’m like. At least I was able to discuss it with her. When I accepted the Blackburn job 12 years ago I gave them an almost instant answer and the club announced it before I had even reached home.”
Blackburn 12 years ago were an established Premier League club, albeit one in danger of relegation when Allardyce took over from Paul Ince. They had never really managed to build on their 1994-95 title success, but apart from one season they had been part of the top-flight furniture since arriving in 1992, backed by Jack Walker’s money.
West Brom, on the other hand, have been up and down four times in the past couple of decades, twice staying up for a single season, and in the 28 years of the Premier League era have employed 20 permanent managers.
In following, not for the first time, where Roy Hodgson, Alan Pardew and Tony Pulis have been before, Allardyce knows exactly what he is taking on. Albion, for their part, believe they are getting the best possible chance of survival, even though the squad at the moment is more suited to the Championship.
Anyone who imagined the Baggies were going to send for Eddie Howe or someone even younger was over-romanticising the situation. They might as well have continued with Slaven Bilic as do that. As Tuesday’s commendable point at Manchester City proved, the West Brom players were willing to give everything for , but in all likelihood everything was not going to be enough under Bilic to ensure survival. The club had identified Allardyce as the man they wanted before Albion’s fighting draw at the Etihad, worried that if they did not act quickly enough some other relegation-threatened side might claim him.
So, beginning with Sunday night’s derby against Aston Villa, Allardyce has it all to do. Not just turn a team of inexperienced triers into Premier League stayers, but he must win over the fans, silence his many critics and justify the Albion board’s faith in his ability to keep avoiding relegation. “I can’t guarantee it won’t happen, there are no guarantees in football,” he said. “All I can say is that I’m proud of never being relegated from the Premier League, it’s a tag I don’t want to lose. It would kill me if it were to happen, I’d be massively upset.”