Sam Allardyce = Scrooge

By: Laurie | December 4th, 2007

(Before you read this post, you have to check out this link from reader Ashley N, showing us graphically what a Scrooge the guy really is! Okay, now you may continue.)

My Christmas plans involve hosting in-laws for three days, so being spirited off for four days of football stuff at hotels sounds pretty good to me. Therefore I don’t quite understand what the Newcastle guys are complaining about.

But for some reason they are not at all happy with Big Sam Allardyce’s plans to snatch them all away from their families on Christmas Day and not allow them home till the 29th:

Newcastle’s players are underwhelmed by Sam Allardyce’s idea of separating them from their families for four nights at Christmas. This would entail staying in a hotel near Wigan on the evening of Christmas Day before Boxing Day’s game at the JJB Stadium and then heading south to stay at another hotel until after the Chelsea match on December 29.

Big Sam and the gang at Newcastle haven’t been having a great year this year. They’re currently sitting 11th in the EPL table and have exactly half the number of points as League leaders Arsenal. And here’s the reason: It’s that damned Christmas spirit thing, taking over the team. And it can be remedied by getting rid of it.

Unfortunately, somebody associated with the team leaked the news to the papers and now everybody’s comparing him to a certain Dickens character. Big Sam’s response?

“Players are not happy with a lot of the stuff I do. I’m the bad ‘un but I’m the man who knows what is right for the club and I know it more than they do. That’s why I’m sitting in this chair. I know what’s right to consistently get positive results. At the moment that’s not working for several reasons we can’t point to but you find out who are the men and who are the boys.”*

Bah! Humbug! Or: Let’s go to the mattresses! (Depending on your movie preference.)

(*Thanks to 101 Great Goals for finding this Quote of the Day.)