“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”.
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“Potential is a word I don’t like to use too much because this is the England first team and you want the players to be producing top quality in every single game”.
Many an onlooker has doubted Sam’s credentials to manage a team of top-level players, but when that particular criticism was put to him he was resolute in his response.
Meanwhile, Allardyce also stressed the importance of striking up positive relationships with Premier League clubs to avoid the club-verses-country disputes which have disrupted the tenures of his predecessors with the national team.
“What we all want is a successful England team and that will be the biggest challenge in my long career”. “I think I can create a good environment”, the former defender said. “And have some fun, the game of football is to be enjoyed and I’ve enjoyed my life in the game for many years”, he said.
He added: “There’s no lack of passion I don’t see a lack of passion anywhere from the players who play for England”.
Allardyce, a vastly experienced coach at club level with Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham, has earned a reputation as a shrewd tactician but primarily as a great motivator.
Allardyce has been touched by the reaction he has received since taking over having missed out on the job to Steve McClaren back in 2006.
“I think that worked everywhere else I’ve been so hopefully that will work on the England side”.
“I think that it was 10 years since I was last interviewed and to sit here is a huge thrill for me”, he said. So I don’t know, perhaps it was political, I don’t know.
It had been suggested that Rooney’s captaincy of England was a foregone conclusion but Allardyce, speaking at St George’s Park on Monday morning, has moved to deny those reports, citing the infancy of his tenure as the reason for the delay on a decision. Sam Allardyce has been hired as England’s national soccer team manager on a two-year contract, on Friday July 22, 2016.
He fully intends to carry that practice into worldwide management.
But while he rejected the notion that the summer represented rock bottom, he did make clear that England’s young players do not have the time to simply be regarded as potentially impressive, and must deliver now.
“I have to thank everybody at Sunderland for that opportunity, because that’s the opportunity that came along at the time”.
“I consider myself to be much more than that personally, but I can turn things around pretty quickly and I can get among teams and staff and try and create a successful journey”.
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“I’m here because I want the challenge, I’m here because I think I can make the team better and I think I’m tough enough to take it so bring it on!”
