The Guardian/London
It was with a mixture of wistfulness and his usual forthright bullishness that Sam Allardyce, briefly moving his attention away from the 21st-century football that West Ham United intend to confront Chelsea with yesterday afternoon, looked back eight years and contemplated what he might have achieved in his final season at Bolton Wanderers if he had received greater financial backing – or, to be precise, any financial backing – when his team were hovering around the Champions League places at Christmas.
As eye-catching as West Ham’s rise to fourth place has been, that really was an excellent and underrated side that Allardyce put together at unfashionable Bolton, masters at putting noses out of joint and winding up the big teams with their attempts at insurrection just below the Premier League’s glass ceiling.
Like the current West Ham side, Allardyce’s Bolton had a variety of attacking methods. Their prowess at set pieces was unrivalled and their physicality made them a nightmare to play against, especially at the Reebok Stadium, but the caricature of them as a dirty long-ball side was an unfair exaggeration: a midfield of Iv?n Campo, Gary Speed and Kevin Nolan had control, energy and goals, while a front three of Stelios Giannakopoulos, El-Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka contained pace, guile, skill and one genuine world-class striker.
Bolton were third at the start of 2007 but their small squad became overwhelmed. An extra-time defeat at home to Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup was deflating, they won four league games after Christmas and Allardyce, unable to take them any further, resigned two games before the end of the season. Bolton still finished seventh and qualified for the Uefa Cup, but it was the end of an era.
Allardyce does not wish to repeat that experience. He has led West Ham to their highest position at Christmas since 1985 and, although he is not foolish enough to say they will still be there in May, he believes that the difference now is the depth of his squad.
“I think what disappointed me at Bolton – not that I’m saying this is going to happen this time – was my squad was short in depth and it had done as much as it could to get in the top three,” Allardyce said.
“In fact, on 1 January we were third in the league with 39 points and it was then that I went to strengthen that squad and wasn’t allowed to, which was the biggest disappointment probably of my management career. Being sacked, that’s a disappointment, but to think that we were there …
“This scenario, I think the squad we’ve got now, it’s going to be very difficult with the players that are going to be available in January to make it better. Our strength in depth is far greater than the Bolton squad then, which Kevin was in, playing absolutely brilliantly at that particular time with Nicolas Anelka.
“There were two times in that period in the first 20 games where we won five games on the trot. The last five games on the trot was over the Christmas period. I knew the squad was tiring and I wanted to add to it. This one, I don’t think needs to be added to, unless it’s a top, top player.”
One top, top player Allardyce has brought to Upton Park is Alex Song and what a boost for West Ham that they will have the midfielder available in January after he was left out of Cameroon’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations. Song, as Allardyce says, makes them sing and his contest with his former Barcelona teammate Cesc Fàbregas will be fascinating against Chelsea; he will also relish facing Arsenal, one of his former clubs, when they visit Upton Park tomorrow.
Allardyce told an entertaining story about seeing José Mourinho punch the air at a Soccer Aid match when Chelsea’s manager realised he had convinced Fàbregas to sign for the club. Allardyce had a similar feeling when Song decided to join West Ham on loan from Barcelona. “That was under the radar,” he said. “It took a while for you boys to twig on, which was very unusual. It fended off any other possible takers for Alex. I was absolutely delighted.
“I thought it was a miracle, based on what normally filters out in football today. But eventually it did. We fended off one big club in Turkey. He’s never rushed and I think that’s the measure of a quality player.”
West Ham would love Song to sign permanently. “We’ve got ambition,” Allardyce said. “If he likes it, he might want to stay.”
West Ham United’s English manager Sam Allardyce.
