Mick McCarthy: Sam Allardyce is the man for England
Sunderland boss Allardyce has become the frontrunner for the role, holding talks with the FA earlier this week, and McCarthy believes he would be a good choice.
“Sam’s just been excellent, I think. I don’t know how many things he’s won. Promotions, stays in the league. He gets the best out of people,” McCarthy said.
“Somebody wants to write a CV for him. What’s his CV? He gets players for not a lot, he gets the best out of them and generally they get promoted, stay up or upset the apple cart with everybody else.
“He just gets the best out of people. Surely that’s got to be the remit of any manager.”
McCarthy believes Allardyce has at times been unfairly pigeon-holed for a style of football seen as unsophisticated.
“Sometimes Sam has been tagged with the long ball and how he plays. But for me it’s about winning games.
“I’d imagine that the better players Sam’s got the better football he’ll play.
“And if he can get the best out of them, why not?”
Trevor Brooking shares McCarthy’s view.
“These players are very talented technically — we even saw that in France,” the former FA director of football development said. “But they were found wanting in terms of mental toughness.
“In the Iceland game, I saw players moving into positions where they could hide. It’s easy to blame the man in possession — often Wayne Rooney — but there weren’t passing options for him to knock the ball into.
“There’s an overhead camera and I think it would be pretty damning for that game. That was the most disappointing thing for me to see.
“That’s the thing about Sam — he’s always made the best use of the players available.
“He got West Ham back into the top flight and made Sunderland stronger mentally and defensively.
“Combine that with the technical ability of these England players and I think you have a decent mix. The next manager has to be English and Sam is very experienced and organised.”
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