Efficient asset allocator Allardyce – why England fans can begin to dream again

By Alec Hogg

West Ham United supporters are sport’s equivalent of willing masochists. Even the football club’s anthem speaks of its hopes being burst like bubble in the air. Despite a conveyor belt of fresh talent from a youth programme that expertly harvested its low income catchment area, the club bounced between the top and second level of English football.

That was until the new manager of English football, the man the fans initially jeered as Big Fat Sam, brought his unique pragmatism to inject steel and success into the cinderella club.

Britain Football Soccer - Hartlepool United v Sunderland - Pre Season Friendly - Victoria Park - 20/7/16 Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce Action Images via Reuters / Lee Smith Livepic
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce.

Sam Allardyce was dumped by the club’s ambitious but parsimonious owners after making the hard yards. Working off a small budget, he steered the club through the most treacherous of waters, overachieving with a moderate and injury-hit squad by landing the club on dry land ahead of a transformational stadium move.

He did it with pragmatism but mostly by efficient allocation of its resources. His next assignment was the unlikely rescuing from relegation of perennial under-performer Sunderland. Again, as he has been required to do for most of his lengthy career, Allardyce efficiently applied limited resources to overcome a seemingly impossible task.

Now Allardyce is about to be charged with recovering the pride of an England national team fresh from being knocked out of a major tournament by footballing minnows Iceland.

Everyone knows he is only being given the chance because the first choice, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, wants another year with his club. Also playing a part was that Allardyce is prepared to sacrifice money for the honour – he will earn less than the £3.5m package of predecessor Roy Hodgson.

But England football fans may just have lucked out.

The business world is full of examples of how pragmatic CEOs succeeded where their flashy peers have failed. Allardyce is the antithesis of flash. Like the 61 year old did for West Ham and numerous other football clubs in a long career, he will rely on an ability to get the very best out of the resources he possesses. It is this quality that gave him the vote of the greatest football manager of the modern era, Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson.

English football is at last to be driven by a superior resource allocator who, like the national rugby team’s Eddie Jones, is in it to succeed – not to win popularity contests. And it is that single minded focus on how to best allocate the resources at your disposal that ultimately leads to success.

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