Exclusive: Sam Allardyce mocked predecessor Roy Hodgson - and hit out at Gary Neville
Sam Allardyce mimicked his predecessor Roy Hodgsonâs speech impediment by calling him âWoyâ and saying he was no use as a public speaker because âheâd send them all to sleepâ.
The England manager also suggested Hodgson had âjust collapsedâ as the national team crashed out of Euro 2016 to lowly Iceland, and that he had been âtoo indecisiveâ.
He said that Gary Neville, Hodgsonâs assistant manager, had been âthe wrong influenceâ and should have been told to âsit down and shut upâ.
Allardyce said the squad of players Hodgson took to the tournament was too young. He also told undercover reporters posing as Far East businessmen about the England chances of players including Joe Hart, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Allardyceâs unguarded comments about his own players to a group of people he had never met before are likely to trouble his employers at the Football Association, as are his derogatory remarks about Hodgson.
The FA has previously complained about the use of the word âWoyâ when referring to Hodgson.
During a one-hour meeting with the reporters â the first time Allardyce had met them â he spoke freely about his views on Englandâs football team and its previous manager.
Asked if Hodgson had outside earnings, Allardyce said: âNo, he wouldnât want to, heâd send them all to sleep, Roy. Woy. He hasnât got the personality for it.â
In 2012 the FA accused The Sun newspaper of âunacceptableâ behaviour after it poked fun at Hodgsonâs speech with the headline âWoy Gets England Job⌠Bwing On The Euwosâ.
The FA said the headline was âdisrespectfulâ and âin poor tasteâ, suggesting they may want to speak to Allardyce about his own reference to âWoyâ.
In a meeting with undercover reporters at a London hotel, where Allardyce was discussing opportunities for earning extra money, he discussed his views on why England had done so badly at Euro 2016.
âPsychologically, we canât cope,â he said. âThereâs a psychological barrier.â Referring to Hodgson he said: âThe players let him down in the end. I think maybe he was too indecisive. Cast a bit of an anxiety over to the players maybe. If that ever happened to me as a manager, Iâd be absolutely gutted. It would be my fault.
âSo Iâd have come in at half time and gone, right: bang bang bang bang bang. And then if that didnât work Iâd have gone bang, substitute, substitute, know what I mean, and changed the complete style in the teamâŚbut he ummed and ah-ed and Gary Neville arguing about when to bring Rushford [sic] onâŚâ
One of his advisers corrected him, saying âRashfordâ, adding that âthey only brought him on for five minutesâ referring to Hodgsonâs decision to bring on striker Marcus Rashford at the end of the Iceland game.
Allardyce said: âThey were arguing for 10 minutes about bringing him on, him and Gary Neville. So Gary was the wrong influence for him⌠----ing, tell Gary to sit down and shut up, you do what you want. Youâre the manager, you do what you want, not what anyone else wants.â
Turning to Icelandâs goals, he said: âIf somebody makes two mistakes, one after the other, youâre gonna get in big trouble. We all make mistakes, but the next man canât make the same ones. And Kyle Walker made a bigger mistake than Wayne Rooney.â
Allardyce agreed when one person in the meeting said he has ânever felt lowerâ as an England fan than following the Iceland defeat. The manager then explained he believed the age of Englandâs squad was a vital factor.
âIt was the youngest side in Europe. It was the youngest squad,â he said. âThe average age was under 25. There are some stats out there that says that any team that wins a tournament has to be, has to have an average age of 27 or above.â
Allardyce was concerned about England players such as Rashford, the Manchester United youngster, failing to be picked for their club sides.
âCanât play them then,â he said. âJoe Hart. Jack Wilshere, on the bench for Arsenal. Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench. You can play them, but theyâre not playing for the club. When theyâre not playing for the club, theyâre just short of match practice.â
Allardyce was talking about the players to what he thought was a group of investors looking to make money in the transfer market. The FA will now have to decide whether, in doing so, he risked a potential conflict of interest.
Asked if managers would fight him to stop him taking their players on international duty, he said: âThatâs the name of the game innit, like.
âWhen they finish the game on Sunday Iâm in control of the players. Not them.
âSo if I want to call them up, Iâll call them up, whether they say I can or I canât. Iâll call them up anyway. I donât give a s--- about what you say.â
Turning to his employers, the FA, he said: âTheyâre all about making money arenât they? You know the FAâs the richest football association in the world?â
He then qualified his statement by saying the FA had the biggest turnover, but were not the richest, because âthey stupidly spent ÂŁ870âmillion on Wembley, so they are still paying that debt offâ.
He said Englandâs home stadium was âfabulousâ, but went on: âIf theyâd built it anywhere else, it would have cost about 400 million⌠most of the money the FA make will go to the interest on the debtâ.
Wembley will host the semi-finals and final of the Euro 2020 football tournament, which is being held in 13 cities across Europe, rather than in one country.
Last Wednesday, Allardyce attended the official launch of the event in London, and during a meeting with undercover reporters the next day he complained that the Duke of Cambridge, who is president of the FA, was âthe only one who never turned upâ.
He said: âHeâs our ambassador for the Football Association, so it would have been nice if heâd have turned up but he obviously had more, much busier things on.â
Told that the Duke, who works for East Anglian Air Ambulance, is a helicopter pilot, Allardyce replied: âThatâs Harry. Harryâs the helicopter man. Harryâs a naughty boy. Heâs a very naughty boy, very naughty. He shows his bottom and all sorts.â
During a conversation about Englandâs upcoming matches, Allardyce said the national side were next due to play Malta and then âitâs Slovenia or somethingâ. England play Slovenia on Oct 11.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/26/exclusive-sam-allardyce-mocked-predecessor-roy-hodgson---and-hit/
