Among the many unsavoury aspects of Sam Allardyce leaving the post of England Manager was the disrespect shown to his predecessor Roy Hodgson.
Having the same texture skin as a rhinoceros is one prerequisite of a high-profile football manager, but the cheap shots Allardyce took at the way Hodgson pronounced certain words was childish to say the least – for the record I always found Roy Hodgson a courteous, engaging character.
After spending the past twenty-eight years writing about football, for me it was more untimely proof of how respect between managers has dwindled, another example of how the game has become rich in cash, but poor in etiquette.
My press box career began in the long ago, pre-Sky TV days (anyone else remember those?) and was fortunate enough to coincide with some of the last seasons of four managers who through the ’70s and ’80s gained a reputation for being ‘good for a quote’ – namely Ron Atkinson, John Bond (main picture), Malcolm Allison and Brian Clough.
Being Midlands-based I regularly came into contact with Atkinson, Bond and Clough, while I encountered Allison late in his managerial career during a brief spell he had at Bristol Rovers.
The hour I spent listening to him after a match at West Bromwich Albion one night made me arrive home far later than I should, but gave rise to a belief that I thought I knew football until I met Malcolm Allison – only to realise I knew nothing.
Each of them were opinionated, funny and could be critical of their team and the opposition, but if they ever took the opposing manager to task it was never done with spite – I am sure John Bond thought the best way to outsmart a rival manager was to merely turn up in a more expensive overcoat. I remember a Birmingham City player telling me when he took over at St. Andrew’s, Bond went into the dressing room wearing a suit that cost more than the entire first team squad.
They were not perfect by any means and seeing the sad decline of poor Cloughie at close quarters was particularly distressing and in more recent times remarks made by Ron Atkinson when working as a television summariser were as crass as they were surprising – but each man wanted their sides to play entertaining football, reflecting the personality of the manager.
In Gareth Southgate England have a pragmatic, orthodox coach. But how they could do with the swagger of a Clough or Allison – and a team that played that way.
This article was first published on 22/12/2017.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an acclaimed thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle Book.
