Allardyce rejects criticism of Bolton's tactics

Kieran Daly
Thursday 22 September 2005 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Many regard Allardyce as the forefather of negative football in the modern British game, playing a system to simply survive rather than entertain. Allardyce, though, is refusing to take the blame. "Why is it all my fault?" he asked.

"That's great isn't it. People love blaming me don't they? Well, that shows a lack of intelligence, or they don't even come here and watch us, or they are jealous, which is probably the big one.

"We will deal with what we have to deal with, and if you want to have a look at my record, it stands up for itself. I make no apologies about how we go about our job because we are a very attractive football team, no matter what anybody else says, and we are winning more matches than ever.

"We also get the best out of our players week in and week out, we spend less money than anybody else and yet we are in the top half of the table and playing in Europe, so I don't see how you can blame me."

Instead, Allardyce offered his own theories. When asked whether the Premiership had become more boring, he replied: "It's too early to tell yet because we are only six games in.

"I think everybody has become frightened about Chelsea because they haven't conceded a goal, and they are saying it's negative.

"But at the end of the day, I saw Arsène Wenger play one up front in the FA Cup final in May and wait for penalties, and all they say about him is that he plays open, attractive football.

Allardyce, though, always felt the supporters would start to turn away due to the volume of live televised matches currently available.

"There's a huge amount of games being played, and people can't afford to go to more than one game every week, or even a game a month," Allardyce said.

"There's now the opportunity to keep a few quid in your pocket on a Sunday, drink a few pints with your mates at the pub, watch your favourite team on the telly and then stagger home, have your dinner and go to sleep.

"There is too much live football on television, day in and day out, week in and week out, so we might have over-exposed it to the public who are getting slightly fed up now."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in