Sam Allardyce rewriting history (yet again) at Newcastle United

Sam Allardyce is one of the few things we can’t blame Mike Ashley for.

Fat Sam being the leaving present Freddie Shepherd left for the retail supremo.

On 15 May 2007 Sam Allardyce was announced as new Newcastle United manager, then only eight days later John Hall sold his shares to Mike Ashley, effectively selling him the club.

Sam Allardyce has a vivid imagination where Newcastle United are concerned, claiming only a change of ownership prevented him being a massive success at St James Park…

Allardyce telling Kammy and Ben’s Proper Football Podcast:

“Looking back on my career, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that was particularly Newcastle United.

“When I took the Newcastle job, that was going to be the big one.

“It was going to escalate my career beyond what we had achieved at Bolton, which was pretty major.

“Unfortunately, a takeover meant that I lost my job and couldn’t build Newcastle into what Freddy Shepherd wanted them to be.

“Mike Ashley bought the club and moved me on, so it was wrong place at the wrong time.

“Whatever anybody says, no matter how good you were before then, that affects your credibility as a manager.

“You have got to go and prove yourself again and then of course, I was building Blackburn Rovers back into something, then they sold that club.”

The truth is that Sam Allardyce was the one who almost certainly poisoned Mike Ashley against the idea of any ambition at Newcastle United, as back in summer 2007 he gave him a very decent £34m to spend on players (It was the most money that had ever been given to a Newcastle manager to spend in a single transfer window apart from when Souness wasted a fortune on the likes of Owen and Luque in 2005) and even more so, allowed some pretty serious wage deals. Geremi and Viduka were both on reported £100,000 a week deals after ‘free’ transfer moves, the likes of Smith and Barton given five year £60,000 a week deals, whilst other experienced / older players such as Cacapa, Beye, Rozehnal and Faye were also given significant wage deals. The one successful exception was Jose Enrique, the only real successful signing long-term.

A kind fixture list helped Newcastle to five wins and two draws in the opening nine PL games under Sam Allardyce but very quickly fans were spotting the warning signs, the football quickly getting ever more negative.

The next 12 PL matches saw only two wins, these were both very fortunate last minute victories, 2-1 at home to Birmingham when Beye scored in the final minute. Then a 1-0 last gasp win at Fulham, Barton scoring a penalty with Newcastle’s first proper shot of the match.

The football was absolutely shocking in the final stages of Allardyce’s stay, culminating in a terrible 0-0 draw at second tier Stoke in the FA Cup third round, Sam Allardyce playing the entire match clinging on for a 0-0 whilst the travelling NUFC fans made their feelings known.

Three days later Mike Ashley sacked Sam Allardyce, then another seven days on, appointed Kevin Keegan only hours before a ten men NUFC side took apart Stoke 4-1 in the replay.

A billionaire owner who had listened to the fans, what more could you want?

Kevin Keegan eventually turned it around, going on a seven game run of four wins and three draws before ending the season with two defeats.

Of course unknown to us all, even when Keegan took the job, Mike Ashley had secretly given the power on transfers to Dennis Wise, thus ensuring KK would be forced out.

Sam Allardye claims it was wrong time, wrong place for him at St James Park. We all know the answer to that one! There was never a time when Sam Allardyce going to NUFC was the right time…

However, we do all of course wonder what would have happened if Mike Ashley had backed Kevin Keegan instead of undermining and deceiving him, what might have been?