Sam Allardyce

Bolton Wanderers

Allardyce spent his youth with semi-professional side Dudley Town, making his debut at 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. He 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. He signed his first professional contract on his 17th birthday, receiving a £125 signing on fee and wages of £14 a week. 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…

Bolton fans gave him the nickname "Super Sam Bionic Man" due to his tough tackling approach and the way he quickly got up after heavy collisions whilst the opposition player would be left flat on the ground. Veteran manager Dave Bassett, a friend of Allardyce, once humorously remarked that "He was what I called a ball-playing defender... If he wasn't playing with the ball he was playing with your balls." He was uncomfortable in possession. He played simple balls to his nearest teammates when he found himself with the ball, whilst teammates would be reluctant to pass to him. He did however possess good awareness and heading skills, and his anticipation made up for his lack of pace.

Early career

Allardyce was hired as a player-coach by Brian Talbot at West Bromwich Albion in February 1989. He spent most of the rest of the 1988–89 season at The Hawthorns managing and playing for the reserve team, before being promoted to first team coach in the summer, in a move that saw former first-team coach Stuart Pearson demoted to reserve team coaching. Allardyce and Talbot were dismissed in January 1991 following a defeat to Isthmian League side Woking in the FA Cup. He later worked as a part-time coach at Bury, but manager Mike Walsh could not afford to keep him on the staff for the 1989–90 season. Allardyce then took up the role of player-manager of Limerick and guided the team to promotion into the League of Ireland Premier Division after winning the 1991–92 League of Ireland First Division. Despite tremendous financial pressures, they achieved promotion, with Allardyce coaching and playing for the first team whilst the club board signed players as Allardyce had no knowledge of the Irish football scene. After his season in Ireland, Allardyce returned to England for the start of the 1992–93 season to coach at Preston North End under Les Chapman. Ten games into the season, however, Chapman was dismissed and Allardyce was appointed caretaker manager. Despite a promising spell in charge, Allardyce did not get the job permanently, and in December 1992 Preston appointed John Beck as manager. Allardyce worked as youth team coach for 18 months, but later said…

Samuel Allardyce was born on 19 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.