Sam Allardyce is a one of a kind character in world football, and we’ve already seen that at Leeds United.
From claiming that he was shocked to get the job to stating that he was a better manager than Pep Guardiola, Big Sam’s first day in charge at Elland Road was eventful to say the least.
While he may have said some entertaining things in his press conference, Allardyce saved his best slice of comedy gold for the training ground.
Indeed, according to Graham Smyth, speaking on the Inside Elland Road Podcast, Allardyce had the Leeds staff in stitches as soon as he came into training, while one of his first ports of call was to tell Pascal Struijk in no uncertain terms just how attractive he thinks he is.
Allardyce’s Struijk quip
Smyth shared what Allardyce said to Struijk when they first met.
“He has a large personality. Angus Kinnear said it yesterday, we spoke to him before the press conference yesterday, and he said that Sam is not a man who suffers for self -confidence. He boomed into the training ground and there were people who were laughing for the first time in a while. I believe he went up to Pascal Struijk and using some expletives he remarked on what a good looking boy Pascal was,” Smyth said.
Takes the edge off
This is what man-management is all about sometimes.
The Leeds squad would have been so nervous about a new manager coming in with four games to go, but Allardyce cracking this type of joke straight away will have made everyone feel a bit more at ease – well, maybe Struijk himself may have felt a bit awkward after hearing his new manager fancies him a bit.
Allardyce isn’t the world’s greatest tactician, let’s be real, but he knows how to treat players and he knows how to calm situations down.
Allardyce has gone into Leeds as a firefighter, and he’s already put out his first fire by getting the squad smiling and laughing again.
