February 5 – Big Sam’s Big Deal

FOOTBALL management is a fickle game. When a team is riding high populist chairman will claim that their beloved gaffer has a ‘job for life’, only to give them the short shrift a few games down the line when your local rivals have just put five goals past you.

Bolton big-wig Phil Gartside was putting his money where his mouth was today in 2001 when he gave manager Sam Allardyce a whopping ten-year deal as the club sought promotion to the Premier League.

The deal was the longest ever given out to a manager in the English game, and if all had gone to plan, Big Sam would still be at the club, giving it another couple of years before riding off into the sunset as one of the longest serving managers in the country.

Gartside’s confidence in his man proved to be justified at the end of that season, as Big Sam led Wanderers to the promised land of the Premier League as they defeated Preston 3-0 in the Division 1 play-off final a the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

As favourites to go straight back down Bolton shocked pundits across the land, beating Leicester 5-0 in their first game and winning their next two, including the scalp of Liverpool as they went top of the table. They soon came back down to earth, finishing the season in 16th, as their reputation began to grow past that of plucky survivors.

Over the next few seasons Big Sam would bring in players such as Youri Djorkaeff, Fredi Bobic, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro and the fan favourite Jay-Jay Okocha as their league position steadily began to improve. This was supplemented with a Carling Cup final appearance, but the Trotters would lose to Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough 2-1 in 2004.

Two years later McClaren would pip Allardyce to the England job after Big Sam had talked himself up after his side has finished sixth and eighth over the previous two seasons.

In April 2007 he broke from his record-breaking contract, as he left the club after eight years and soon joined Newcastle. Like so many before him, this would prove to be a terrible career move, as the club that has irrevicably damaged so many careers ran into another turbulent period as Mike Ashley soon came in and didn’t like the cut of Big Sam’s jib and broke Kevin Keegan out of suspended animation.

After a few months taking the easy life as a pundit Allardyce can now be found back in the north-west, picking up the pieces from Paul Ince’s brief reign at Blackburn and making outlandish statements about not selling Roque Santa Cruz for £40m.

We’ve got a story of another plucky underdog tomorrow, but until then have a look at what else happened today here.