Sam Allardyce or Jurgen Klinsmann to be next England manager? It has to be the son of Dudley every time

The most important point about Allardyce is that the players will run through brick walls for him

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce (Getty)

Sam Allardyce is entitled to curse those who arrive in Britain and make immediate assumptions about him and his style of management. Pep Guardiola was at it, last week.

About five minutes into his inaugural press conference at Manchester City, he referenced “Big Sam” as one of the bleaker British aspects of the challenge ahead. “Cold,” “wind” and “Boxing Day” were what Guardiola grouped Allardyce with. You get the picture.

This game we love is analysed to death and yet we seem to be stuck with a binary notion of football management. The “old school” British one, proponents of which ask players to lump the ball long and defend to death. And the exotic “modern” school – populated by more glamorous individuals than a son of Dudley like Allardyce, who ask players to shift it around at speed.

To say that Allardyce is incapable of anything but the former seems a desperately narrow interpretation of an individual who has managed football teams for more than 20 years. And a grossly unintelligent one at that.

Not everyone seems stuck in this rut, when it comes to Allardyce. When I argued here two weeks ago that he must be the man England turn to, the numbers supporting the notion edged it by about 60 to 40 percent. But as the Football Association seemingly narrowing their targets to Allardyce and Jurgen Klinsmann (providing that no other candidate materialises late on), it is worth pointing out the contradiction at the heart of the equation which says: Big Sam – old. Klinsmann – new.

Klinsmann looks a bit more glamorous, of course. Allaryce would not argue with that. But we should not be fooled by the glamorous impression we also gained of Klinsmann’s USA team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The side’s football is actually conservative and built around a counter-attacking game. Klinsmann is equated to a more beautiful football because of the overhaul of the German football system during his time managing the side, but that was ancient history.

Results have been decidedly mixed with the USA team, too. Only a month ago, his USA boss Sunil Gulati refused to guarantee the German’s future in his current job. “Results of the last 18 months overall haven’t been what we would have hoped for, especially in the official competitions,”Gulati said.

Allardyce’s focus on shoring up the Sunderland defence last season will, needless to be say, be cited in evidence against him. But the endless drills he embarked upon, aimed at creating a defence shape that players knew so well they would be seeing it in their sleep, was a professional necessity. It kept Sunderland up. It’s quite clear that the FA’s director of elite development Dan Ashworth understands that the Allardyce and an expressive brand of football are not mutually exclusive concepts.

The most important point about Allardyce is that the players will run through brick walls for him and because of his adroit management he is also excellent at extracting performances from players that other managers would not. Sir Alex Ferguson was always taken with the way Allardyce made a top striker at Bolton out of Kevin Davies, who was not the fastest.

Allardyce celebrates keeping Sunderland up (Getty)

He looks for the marginal gains. Ferguson – who has given the FA’s David Gill the benefit of his opinion on this recruitment matter - was always taken with the way he knew precisely which ball into the penalty area would cause opponents most problems. From those exercise bikes in the dug-out that he went in for, to the science of nutrition, recovery techniques and statistical data, he has always wanted to re-think football’s parameters. He looks outside, not just within.

Some will consider appointing him to be a retrograde step, though the notion that England must scour the world for a £4m manager simply reflects the hubris of those who feel the best in the world is required to manage one of the best squads in the world. England are not a top 5 nation. They need an individual to get more out of their players.

To hear Roy Hodgson, on the eve of the European Championships, saying at The Grove Hotel that he felt tactical discussions were over-rated underlined England’s abandonment of the basics. There are very many managers – Luis Felipe Scolari, Roberto Mancini, Guus Hiddink - making it clear they would be happy to take that FA money and replace him. The solution lies very much closer to home.