England Expects

England Expects. Sam Allardyce gets his England managerial career off and running this weekend and the pressure is on him to transform the country’s fortunes.

Allardyce has landed the  job he has always craved at the second time of asking after losing out to Steve McClaren ten years ago but is arguably the toughest task of his career with the national team at its lowest ebb.

Roy Hodgson oversaw England’s worst showing at a World Cup two years ago and Euro 2016 offered him the chance of redemption, but in the end he could only guide the Three Lions to humiliating defeat in England’s history when they crashed out of the finals to minnows Iceland.

Allardyce has been handed task of lifting the nation at a point when morale in the national team among supporters is lower than a snake’s belly.

England are in a state of transition right now and Allardyce must restore national pride among fans first and foremost.

But appointment of Allardyce hasn’t exactly filled fans with optimism as he has never won any major trophies in his club career or managed any of the so-called big guns in the Premier League.

Allardyce throughout his managerial career has also come in for criticism for his style of play and his methods always divide opinion.

However, it is fair to say Allardyce is a very good manager who does not get enough credit for the work he has done at the clubs he has managed.

He has improved every Premier League club he has managed, helping smaller clubs punch above their weight.

Allardyce was hounded out at Newcastle and Blackburn, but both clubs suffered after his departure by suffering relegation from the Premier League.

Allardyce was never accepted at West Ham because of his style of football, but he set for the foundations for the upwardly mobile team they now have firstly winning promotion back to the Premier League and then establishing them in the Premier League.

He also performed miracles at Sunderland guiding them to survival last season when they looked dead and buried at the turn of the year to maintain his proud record of never suffering relegation.

But arguably his biggest success was at Bolton taking the unfashionable club from the Football League into the Premier League and along the way luring some of Europe’s top players to play for the club.

Allardyce exceeded expectations at Bolton helping them qualify for Europe twice and ruffling more than a few feathers among the Premier League’s elite along the way.

Allardyce loves proving his doubters wrong and he has the personality to help England overcome the mental scars of their harrowing Euro 2016 campaign.

England are in a bad place right now, but Allardyce won’t shirk the fight he faces to turn England from also-rans to contenders again.

He has already made some big decisions leaving two of England’s most-talked about talents Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley out of his first squad, while picking players on form rather than reputation after giving West Ham’s Michail Antonio his first call-up.

Allardyce’s style of football isn’t going to delight the purists, but as Portugal showed at Euro 2016 you do not have to be the most pleasing on the eye to be successful.

There has never been a question mark Allardyce’s ability to organise players and getting this current crop of England players to play with more fight and passion will be a step in the right direction to win back the faith of the England fans.

As Allardyce prepares for his debut against Slovakia it should be noted the last permanent England manager to lose his first game in charge was Alf Ramsey in 1963 and he didn’t do too badly in the end!