LMA chief: Allardyce will manage again soon

Daniel Storey

Managers’ chief Richard Bevan expects axed England boss Sam Allardyce to return to the game and join the one thousand club.

Allardyce is around 40 games short of reaching the four-figure mark as a manager after his England reign ended after just 67 days last month, following comments made to undercover newspaper reporters.

The 62-year-old has already been linked with his former club Sunderland, who are without a Premier League win this season and bottom of the table under Allardyce’s successor David Moyes.

“The FA are looking at their next manager and Sam needs to look at building the next part of his career,” League Managers Association chief executive Bevan told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme.

“He has shown in 25 years in management he has the ability to come back from setbacks and he’ll need to show the same resilience going forward.

“I will be very surprised if he doesn’t come back.

“He has had 957 matches as a manager – only a few games away from a thousand – and there are only 25 managers in the history of football management who have reached that.

“Personally, I very much hope he reaches the one thousand club.”