Top 45 Sam Allardyce Quotes

To say we have to play a certain way, or try to, every game is great in theory, but depending what players you have got you have to play to their strengths and cover up their weaknesses.

What is entertainment? Entertainment is the master of defence in Europe – Simeone.

Expectation builds the one thing you must have when you get to a new stadium when it’s built, which is a winning team.

Now astronomical wages are making it very difficult to take somebody who might not even have a transfer fee attached to them, because of the net value that they want and the net value that they’re worth.

My model is much deeper than looking after players. My model is understanding the industry, working within it.

I want to be able to savour life while I’m still relatively young and when I’m still relatively healthy enough to do all the things I want to do, like travel, spend more time with my family and grandchildren without the huge pressure that comes with being a football manager.

There’s always that time in football where people say that when you have the dip, it’s how well do you overcome it. And when you do overcome it, you then end up being a much better player and generally your career lasts a lot longer after getting through that period.

It’s not a very secure industry but it’s one we all love and enjoy doing.

As the game changes you have to change with it.

You have to try to win the ball at all costs and if someone doesn’t get it quite right people get injured.

I am very shocked and disappointed to be leaving Blackburn Rovers. I am extremely proud to have managed this club and I enjoyed a fantastic relationship with the players, my staff and the supporters during my time in charge.

There is a lot of pressure at first when you first take over a club that’s struggling but you want to go and do your best for yourself, your family and the club that employ you.

We’ve got the greatest Premier League, greatest domestic competition in the world but the downside of that is we’ve got fewer and fewer English players playing in that league.

There’s always going to be a time when there’s a difficult period and my responsibility is to manage the players through that. You have to make sure you bring stability back to the club and get where you want to be.

It’s never just about talent, it’s about a lot more than that.

Football is a worldwide business consortium and to satisfy that best you need to find the best players.

A quality player is a quality player.

Ambition is important for any manager or coach, owner or director.

Busquets has been a great player for Spain and Barcelona, don’t get me wrong. He’s a very effective player and is the first pick for every manager because he plays such a simple game. But we laud him as a genius, whereas our own we don’t, we criticise.

If a player digests his own statistical information in his own time, on his own laptop, tablet or whatever, without a coach standing over him, it makes it easier for him. It helps with the pressure. There’s a fear factor but spending time at home analysing things can help control it.

I think that the problem for any player you want to select for England, not just in isolation, is that it’ll be a concern if that player doesn’t play for his team.

I don’t have to prove a point to anybody. The only thing I do is continue to do my job and all the outside press can do and say what they want to because that’s their right and their industry.

People seem to expect when that happens, for players to be brought in that are so much better than the ones that have left. In the end they might be better but in the beginning they might be worse. Because they all have to gel and get to know each other and get to know you.

A group of players go out and win a game in a style that gets the best out of them. That’s the key to management.

Arsene has most of the media in his pocket now and is almost – almost – affecting the officials so that you can’t tackle an Arsenal player. That’s something he’s very clever at working on and it’s almost working in his favour, you can see that.

My parents are from Scotland and my sister and brother were both born in Scotland so my heritage is from there.

My management skills are more suited to developing teams to be better than what they were before, and not just about avoiding relegation.

Busquets is a sitting midfield player who breaks up play, intercepts, passes it very quickly and is intelligent. That’s what he is. He’s not much more than that, but he gets a lot of praise for it. Whereas Eric Dier does a similar job, but sometimes gets loads of criticism for it.

My main aim is to finish as high up the top of the Premier League as possible. I have the ability to help teams survive.

I believe first of all it’s always a disappointment to lose the players at an important moment of the season.

I always like working with young people, it keeps you young.

Most young talented players I worked with over many, many years who I’ve met later have said, ‘Oh, I wish I’d listened to you.’ When you meet them later in life they regret not taking the opportunity with the talent they had.

For the record, I’ve never taken a bung in my life. I might have enjoyed a meal or a bottle of wine on an agent or two but that is it. I was earning £1.5m a year, so I didn’t need a little bit extra from an agent. It would have been madness.

The vast sums of money that are coming in at the top end of the game are stretching the rest of the sides to try to get as much benefit out of what finance they’ve got and get the best players they can find for that finance.

Historically almost every team I’ve managed has returned from even just a five-day break with improved physical output.

If I got sacked because my results weren’t good enough at Everton, I accept it, but getting sacked when they finish eighth, it is ridiculous. In fact, it is ludicrous.

We live in a world that builds people’s expectations so high, so when the downside comes there is a knee-jerk reaction.

Teams with limited budgets will always find times tough and results won’t always go your way.

I want my team to win.

The bonding of the team is exceptionally important and trying to create a good team spirit and to have some fun.

People too often – because it’s an easy, lazy tag – dwell on my style of football.

It’s difficult in your life when both parents pass so quickly and you’re not really that old when they move on. There is a big gap in your life. There’s a hole. You learn to live with it but never forget it.

Jay Jay Okocha. On and off the field he was the captain you looked for.

As much as I liked Wolves as a boy and it was a childhood dream to play and perhaps manage for the club, I’ve come to Bolton and this is where I want to stay.

Too many times I have had to sacrifice a trophy or the chance of winning one because the owners have said you have to stay in the Premier League at all costs.