NTTF Exclusive: Sam Allardyce Touts Thomas Frank For Man Utd Job

On the latest episode of the NTTF Podcast Sam Allardyce was joined by the former Sunderland and Blackburn player turned talkSPORT’s Man Utd correspondent, Michael Gray, to discuss the future of the Red Devils and why Jim Ratcliffe’s restructuring of the club might not bring immediate success.

Sam: “He has done a fantastic job [at Brentford], because it was a club that survived on selling their best players. I think the trouble is, he's not tippy tappy, so is anybody going to give him a top job?

“Supposedly, he doesn't suit the ethos of what the football's supposed to be played like today, which is nonsense. He creates a style of play that could win any game, anytime, anywhere, and even more so now, because nobody else does it.

“Whenever Man City centre halves came across Ivan Toney, they didn’t have a clue what to do. Obviously not this season, but the season before, [Brentford] won [against City], and they won comfortably, and this season, they still caused them a few problems.

“I do find it a little tongue in cheek with Pep. He doesn’t say ‘I’ve admired him’ when he's lost, but he'll say it when he's won. And I think that, while I’d take that as a compliment, I'd be doing it with a tongue in cheek if I were Thomas Frank. But he [Frank] does deserve a top job.”

Michael: “No disrespect to Brentford, but he [Frank] could certainly work at a better club. You don't want managers [Erik ten Hag] to lose their jobs, but anybody would sit here and say exactly the same thing as me. Is he a perfect fit for Man United? I'm not sure who is at the minute.”

Michael: “I think they've got more problems off the field than they have on it. Everybody thinks because Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s come into the club that there's a quick fix. They've had one transfer window, and they've brought in five or six new faces. It's going to take another three or four transfer windows before they get anywhere near challenging Man City again, and then you've got Arsenal to boot as well.

“They’ve found themselves in this position by disconnecting themselves from Manchester United for too many years, over the last 10 to 15 years. That's why they find themselves in the problems now, and they're playing catch up.

“The problem they've got there is they’ve lost a decade of support, which has gone to Manchester City, because young kids and young generations, they want to support the most successful team.

“They've got to try and build that again. The club's been run into the ground. You've seen the stadium, you've talked about the roof, you've seen the inside, infrastructure and everything. Manchester United is the biggest club in the world, but even with the infrastructure and the way that that club's being run at the moment, they're nowhere near winning the Premier League.

“They're fortunate that they've won two domestic cups over the last couple of seasons under Erik ten Hag. So whatever manager walks through that door, they've got a heck of a job on, and it's not going to happen for the next four to five years in my eyes.”

Michael: “I was in a nightclub whilst at Blackburn, and some Man Utd players came into the same nightclub - Wayne Rooney was there. We had one booth [Blackburn players] and the Man Utd lads had another. I saw the United players and I leaned over and said, ‘Alright Wayne, which one are you having tonight?’, not knowing that Coleen was one of the girls that were in the crowd next to him. He didn't really like that and I got I got one in the eye.

“I woke up the next morning, and there must have been 40 paparazzi behind the bushes with long-lens cameras. Later, I got outside of the training centre at Blackburn and there's another 40 people there wanting to speak to me. I got into the training ground and I told the manager, Mark Hughes, the story and his reaction was ‘Great, we'll get a bit of publicity from this’.

“I've seen him [Rooney] since and he's he's alright about it. My eyes not alright, but he is.”