The 61-year-old, fresh from keeping Sunderland in the Premier League against the odds, was the unanimous choice from the Football Association panel to replace Roy Hodgson, who stepped down after the humiliation of defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016.
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“I’m going to leave that until we meet all the players and we get all the coaching staff together behind the scenes and plan for the internationals in September”. “Players should keep that, they should hold it and use it as a positive, say “we don’t want to experience that again”, he said in an interview with FATV.
“These young players have had a lot of experience now, even though some of those experiences have been pretty bitter”.
Rooney was named captain after the 2014 World Cup and was skipper for the European Championship in France – his first major tournament leading the team – but Allardyce wants to wait before making a final decision on who will wear the armband.
“In the Premier League it’s very similar as the money has got greater”.
“I’ve been a success at every club I’ve been at, starting with Limerick FC, by the way”, Allardyce said as his record was questioned by some journalists.
“I took West Ham up, I saved Blackburn Rovers and now Sunderland but I consider myself much more than that personally”, he said. “I have enjoyed my life in the game, this job is the pinnacle and I want to enjoy this the most”, Allardyce added.
“Everyone thinks I play one style – it’s a tag I can’t shake but I played with Jermain Defoe up front on his own last season at 5ft 10”.
“I hope so, I think he wasn’t the only candidate around. You have to manage that, not just manage players but manage staff, to delegate to them and to give confidence to produce the qualities they have which are actually better qualities than me”, the former Sunderland head coach said.
Asked what he would bring to the job, he said: “Man-management, I think”.
“My style of play has always been a tag for me that I can’t shake off but I played with Jermain Defoe down the middle on his own a year ago so it cannot be really associated with me after that”.
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From my side, the only thing I can promise is that I am going to try to support him the best way, prepare the players for him, try to have the English players always available in a good condition to help him.
