Sam Allardyce

Samuel Allardyce was born in October 1954 on the Old Park Farm Estate, Dudley, the son of Robert Allardyce (27 April 1916 – 23 August 1989) and Mary Agnes Maxwell Allardyce née Duff (7 June 1918 – 3 July 1991).

His father was a police sergeant.

Both parents originated from Scotland: his father from Nairn and his mother from Dumfries.

He has an older sister, Mary, born in Scotland in 1939, and an older brother, Robert junior, born in 1951.

Allardyce was educated at Sycamore Green Primary School and later at Mons Hill School, having been unsuccessful in his Eleven-plus exam.

He discovered in later life that he has dyslexia.

As a child, he supported Wolverhampton Wanderers and dreamed that one day he would play at and manage the club.

Allardyce spent his youth with semi-professional side Dudley Town, making his debut at the age of 14 he quickly learned how to play centre-half in the highly physical West Midlands (Regional) League.

He trained with local Football League clubs West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and had an unsuccessful trial with Aston Villa.

He was spotted by Bolton Wanderers just before leaving school at the age of 15, and signed an apprenticeship with the club.

To supplement his income before officially starting his apprenticeship he worked in a factory producing record decks.

The Bolton under-18s were very successful, winning the Lancashire Youth Cup and reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, and Allardyce quickly rose through the B-team into the A-team.

Samuel Allardyce (born 19 October 1954) is an English football manager and former professional player who was most recently manager of Leeds United.

Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football League, as well as brief spells in the North American Soccer League and League of Ireland.

He was signed by Bolton Wanderers from Dudley Town in 1969 and spent nine years at Bolton, helping the club to win the Second Division title in 1977–78.

Manager Jimmy Armfield gave Allardyce his debut for the "Trotters" on 6 November 1973, in a 2–1 League Cup defeat to Millwall at Burnden Park.

He made his Second Division debut eleven days later, in a 2–1 defeat to Notts County.

However he failed to establish himself in the first team under Armfield, and only got a run of games under new manager Ian Greaves, who played Allardyce in the last ten games of the 1974–75 season after he sold Don McAllister to Tottenham Hotspur.

He impressed during this short run, winning himself the club's Young Player of the Year award.

Bolton lost to Newcastle United after two replays in the FA Cup Fifth Round in the 1975–76 season, and went on to miss out on promotion out of the league by a single point.

He spent the 1980s as a journeyman player, spending time with Sunderland, Millwall, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Coventry City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers (for a second spell), Preston North End, and West Bromwich Albion (also working as assistant manager).

During this time he helped Preston to win promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1986–87.

Moving into management, he took charge of Irish club Limerick in 1991, leading the club to the League of Ireland First Division (second tier) title in 1991–92.

He returned to England as youth coach at Preston North End, also serving briefly as caretaker-manager.

He took up his first permanent management role in England at Blackpool in July 1994, but was dismissed after two years having narrowly failed to achieve promotion.

He spent January 1997 to October 1999 in charge at Notts County, taking them to the Third Division title in 1997–98.

He then returned to Bolton Wanderers as manager, leading the club to promotion out of the First Division via the play-offs in 2001, as well as a League Cup final and UEFA Cup qualification.

In September 2006, he and his son, Craig, were implicated in a BBC Panorama documentary for taking bribes, allegations which they denied.

Following a spell at Newcastle United from May 2007 to January 2008, Allardyce managed Blackburn Rovers for a two-year spell from December 2008.

He was appointed West Ham United manager in June 2011, leading the club to promotion out of the Championship via the play-offs in 2012, before leaving West Ham in May 2015 after criticism from fans over his playing style.

He was appointed Sunderland manager in October 2015 and saved the club from relegation.

He was appointed as manager of the England national team for a brief spell in July 2016, before taking charge at Crystal Palace five months later.

In September 2016, undercover Daily Telegraph reporters posing as businessmen recorded him offering to help them to get around FA third party ownership rules and provisionally agreeing a £400,000 contract.

Following the Daily Telegraph investigation, Allardyce resigned as England manager in a mutual agreement with the Football Association on 27 September.

After helping Palace to avoid relegation that season, he announced his resignation in May 2017.

He has since had spells as manager at Everton from 2017 to 2018, West Bromwich Albion from 2020 to 2021, and Leeds United in May 2023.

Allardyce has been labelled a long ball manager by some analysts, though he has disputed this perception as "totally and utterly wrong".

He takes a modern technology- and statistics-centred approach to tactics and coaching, and has been praised for his organisational and man-management skills.

Allardyce has been criticised for alleged corruption and has twice been the subject of undercover media investigations.

He signed his first professional contract on his 17th birthday, receiving a £125 signing on fee and wages of £14 a week.