Dean Holden

My old boss Sam Allardyce is the right man to lead England.

As a novice manager at Oldham Athletic in 2015, I had a problem with one of my players. He didn’t show for training on Friday morning and didn’t tell us why. He showed on Saturday ahead of the game claiming he’d had food poisoning, but in the meantime we’d done some detective work and found our that he’d been out drinking on Thursday night. With social media, it’s not hard to find out what a player has been up to.

The situation was a first for me and I wasn’t sure whether to drop him or not. On the off chance, I called my first professional manager, Sam Allardyce. I didn’t expect him to answer for it was 90 minutes before his West Ham side were due to play. Like me, he was about to give his team talk. Sam heard what I had to say. There was no small talk, he dispensed his advice immediately.

“Get your captain and two or three of your lieutenants,” he said. “Find out what they want to do.”

That’s what I did. They felt the player had let the team down and that he shouldn’t play. That was my decision made.

Sam gave me my first professional contract at Bolton Wanderers, my debut as a professional too. I’ve never anything but the highest respect for him and I think he’s the perfect man to be the next England boss, more so considering where England are now.

He’d go in there and create a club-like atmosphere. He’s great at bringing people together – the best he can get from sports scientists to players – and making them feel important and getting the most out of them. He’s a superb communicator, man-to-face, face-to-face. He’s a no-nonsense working class lad from Dudley who has clear ideas and is open to more. He learned a lot playing in America after his career in England. He’s honest, he’s frank. More than anything, he knows how to win football matches.

He builds up a trust with those he works with so that if he has to give them a rollocking they’ll take it on the chin. And, trust me, he’ll put a rocket right up your arse if he needs to.

His methods work. How else do you think he got Bolton Wanderers into Europe? How else did he get wonderfully skilled footballers like Fernando Hierro, Youri Djorkaeff and Jay Jay Ockocha to play for Bolton? He also came within 24 hours of getting Rivaldo to Bolton.

The teams which did well in the European championship, including the winners Portugal, were those which had the best team spirit. Iceland and Wales beat far, far better teams. Allardyce is a master at creating an unrivalled team spirit.

On the day I signed a first year pro contract at Bolton, he invited me out with the first team for a meal in Manchester. I was there with lads like Eidur Gudjohnsen thinking ‘I want a bit of this’.

When I was sent off in a game against Charlton after going face to face with a player to show that I was a hard lad from Salford, I soon regretted it. Big Sam came up the tunnel after the game, faced me up and shouted: ‘Did you touch him?’

‘I don’t know gaffer,’ I replied as my mind went and my legs turned to jelly. He fined me two weeks’ pay and used the money for the players have a good day out at the races. I was invited too and watched them spend my wages. I made a note not to get sent off so stupidly again.

The best managers can adapt with their players. It’s no good ranting and raving all the time because players will switch off. I’ve seen him walk into a dressing room and lighten the mood with a joke.

I work with footballers every day and there’s nothing more powerful than if a manager can create a superb team spirit. It doesn’t come by chance. Players like what Allardyce tells them, which is exactly what he wants them to do on a football field. He’s crystal clear and they appreciate that.

With England, he’d have players looking forward to the next international meet up, not dreading it and thinking of retiring from international football at 31.

When I was at Bolton, we reached the League Cup semi-final at Tranmere. There was a bit of needle between Sam and John Aldridge, the main man at Tranmere. We played the away leg at Prenton Park and Sam sent his assistant Phil Brown to the ground with the team sheet. We players followed later. We changed on the team coach, walked off it with full kit on 30 minutes before kick-off. We walked straight down the tunnel and onto the pitch, then began our warm ups right by the Tranmere players. It wouldn’t be allowed now, but everyone was wondering what on earth we were up to. First, Tranmere didn’t think we were turning up, then we starting warming up in their space. It spooked them. We felt like we had the edge over them psychologically, we felt unbeatable. Then we lost!

Sam doesn’t always get it right, but he usually does. He cares not about reputations, but about ability.