Sam Allardyce: Lack of PowerPoint facilities cost me the England job
The Sunderland boss prepared a 'real knock-your-socks-off' presentation
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Sam Allardyce has put his failure to be appointed England manager in 2006 partially down to a lack of PowerPoint facilities.
The new Sunderland boss was one of the names on the Football Association's shortlist to succeed Sven Goran Eriksson, who had elected to leave his post after that year's World Cup finals.
Allardyce had, at that point, guided Bolton Wanderers from the second tier of English football into mid-table Premier League security.
However, Steve McClaren, now manager of Newcastle United, was ultimately chosen to replace Eriksson, and the decision frustrates Allardyce to this day.
"I wanted to do a real knock-your-socks-off interview for the FA, so I put together a PowerPoint which looked at every single detail," Allardyce wrote in his new book, Big Sam: My Autobiography, which is being serialised in the The Sun.
"There was nothing missing. Nobody but nobody was going to beat it.
"But then Brian Barwick, the chief executive, told me there were no PowerPoint facilities at the interview venue, so I had to print off hard copies for the panel.
"So much for the progressive FA."
Allardyce believes he was the best candidate for the role nine years ago and still believes he could take on what many call 'the impossible job'.
"I should have got it and, as I'm a better manager now than I was then, I believe I should be in the running whenever it comes round again," he wrote.
"That's not vanity or being full of my own importance. My track record entitles me to be considered.
"I'm ambitious and I still want the England job, but I have less chance now even though I'm better equipped to do it.
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