From Ireland On Sunday
[FONT=arial]The Millennium Stadium is a far cry from Rathbane but Sam Allerdyce remembers his past[/FONT]
By Joe Bernstein
SAM ALLARDYCE goes into today's League Cup final regarded as one of the finest motivators in the Premiership. But Jay-Jay Okocha and Bolton Wanderers superstars probably don't realise that their esteemed boss learned his trade in Limerick, where he had to stave off a player rebellion within days of arriving and spend his season trawling the city's nightclubs to make sure players obeyed curfew in what ultimately turned out to be a promotion-winning year.
Allardyce arrived in Ireland in 1991 because he couldn't get a job after being sacked as West Brom's assistant-manager. Not only was he a long way from home, it was also the first time he had been a number one at any club.
He didn't have to wait long to face the first test of his authority, but having passed it with flying colours, the rest is history. 'I learned about being manager very quickly, about an hour before my first league game,' revealed Allardyce in the run up to this afternoon's cup decider between Bolton and Middlesbrough in Cardiff. 'Home matches kicked off at two o'clock because there weren't any floodlights at Rathbane, and an hour before the game our star centre-forward hadn't arrived.
'He finally wandered in about 20 past one, to my disgust. Apparently that was what he had always done before, and when he found himself on the subs' bench, he wondered what had happened. I said that everyone was meant to report at 10 to one. He said he normally came a bit later and I replied "well, you don't now or you don't play".
It was a huge moment for me and the club. When you stick your neck out with a star player, it makes everybody else stand up and think "Jesus Christ, he is the top man". It makes them think they had better be careful. But the most important thing is having made the big decision, you've got to go out and win. If I had lost that first match after leaving out our top man, I would have been under no end of pressure; the press lads in Limerick are same as anywhere else.'
The moral of the story was 'Don't mess with Big Sam'. But to describe Allardyce as a ruthless disciplinarian is way out of line. Nobody could incorporate effectively the likes of Okocha, French World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff and a dozen other nationalities at Bolton through use of the fear factor. What Allardyce is big on is treating his players as professionals and expecting the same in return, even when his job was at a part-time club like Limerick.
'Discipline is all-important, that is what I learned there. It is the all-important thing in any business,' he said. 'If you haven't got it people will play with you and test your patience, and you can't allow that to happen. What I said to the Limerick lads was they all had to turn up at the same time, train at the same time and that’s it. It must have worked because we won a trophy.
'It's not all about ruling by the iron rod, though. Modern Premiership players won't tolerate that. I am thankful to my mum and dad because I can still use the rugged, dirty centre-forward look and it can be pretty intimidating. But really the management game is about dealing with people.'
If Allardyce's Bolton beat Middlesbrough, he will become the first English manager to win a major trophy since Brian Little eight years ago. The big clubs are already sniffing around, with his name linked to the Manchester City job and even Liverpool. Yet it's hard to believe now given his success and respected reputation that when he arrived in Ireland it was the desperate last chance for a journeyman pro wondering if he would last in the game.
'I was sacked at West Brom after Woking knocked us out of the FA Cup. I did some work at Bury after but there was no money to give me a job. I got a phone call in June, with this voice on the other end saying 'It's Fr. Joe Young, I want you to be player-manager at Limerick".
'I told the caller to stop taking the **** and put the phone down but thankfully he didn't take offence and called back. I didn't know where Limerick was but they had a few friendly games arranged against English clubs so I went over with Lynn (my wife). It was a case of any job is better than none; I needed to feed my family, so off I went.
Allardyce quickly learned things about management that are never contained in a coaching manual. Money was so tight at times, he would walk round town with Fr Young raising the £1,500 needed to pay the players the following week. 'My Saturday nights were spent catching lads out in nightclubs because we played Sunday and walking round pubs to make sure none of them were in'.
It was pretty daft at times and I wondered why I was doing it, but I had a bunch of players who were winning every week, so I stayed the season. I don't regret it; it wasn't a great route to go down at the time but experience of life is the best education for anybody.'
Having been used to the English way of life as a player, Allardyce's Irish experiences helped him cope admirably when the Premiership became multi-cultural a few years later. He has thrived on the challenge at Bolton. They were near the bottom of Division One when he took over five years ago and are now established in the Premiership and just 90 minutes away from Europe.
'Dealing with people broadens your horizons, your education, your outlook. The players at Limerick or at Bolton probably don't realize it but I learn from them as much as they learn from me,' said Allardyce, reflecting on a decade that also saw him work at Preston, Blackpool, Sunderland and Notts County.
Victory might even tempt him to give Fr Young a call. 'I lost touch after he went to America but it would be good to hear from him. All we had at Limerick was a pitch, one shower, a burned-out bar and a minibus to go to away matches in. But it was my first job as a manager and I took valuable lessons from it.'
Article Snippet:
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Pity they didn't go on to win it, would have been nice to see a former Limerick manager win a major trophy. Who was the star striker in question though? Probably Johnny Walsh!
