NTTF Exclusive: Big Sam’s Job Offer & Beckford on Leeds

‘Big Sam’ has exclusively revealed on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast sponsored by William Hill that he turned down a job offer that could’ve changed the course of Premier League history.

The 68-year-old, who notably managed several outfits in England’s top-flight such as Bolton, West Ham, Sunderland and more actually turned down the Leicester City managerial vacancy in the summer of 2015, meaning that ‘Big Sam’ himself would’ve been at the King Power Stadium instead of Claudio Ranieri, the man who famously lead the Foxes to the most remarkable Premier League title win in 2015/16.

Later on that campaign, Sam himself took over at Sunderland, memorably leading the Black Cats to Premier League survival at the expense of their bitter rivals, Newcastle United.

To many people’s surprise, despite having a good squad of players, Leicester City are in the midst of a relegation battle as they are 18th in the Premier League table.

Big Sam believes that the Foxes will be one of the favourites for relegation next season if they stay up this campaign, with ex-Leicester forward Jermaine Beckford believing that their squad will be cherry-picked, with Caglar Soyuncu and Youri Tielemans set to leave as free agents, while Wilfried Ndidi only has one year remaining on his current deal on top of the fact that James Maddison has been persistently linked with moves away.

Both pundits have stated that they would stick with current Interim Manager Dean Smith if Leicester are to be successful in their fight against relegation. The 52-year-old currently has one win, one draw and one loss in his first free matches with the Foxes, having faced Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United - meaning that four points is a decent tally.

Following this statement, Big Sam revealed all about his chance to manage the Foxes, stating that after five years at West Ham United, he felt as though he needed a break, especially when considering Leicester’s close battle with relegation from the Premier League in 2014/15 under Nigel Pearson, where they survived by six points in 14th place from a nearly impossible position.

Sam noted that there aren’t a lot of options about for Chelsea, joking that if he was called “Sam Allardichio” then he would be right at the top. However, Allardyce has expressed that he was disappointed that Graham Potter didn’t make the grade at Stamford Bridge due to the lack of British managers at the top of English football.

Beckford believes that Pochettino's experience at PSG will have helped him in the long-term, having handled a series of egos such as Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and more, while stating that the 51-year-old Argentinian will have to get the Chelsea squad out of their old ways while carrying on his track record of developing younger players.

Allardyce has also mentioned that Todd Boehly won’t be too fussed about the style of his next manager and that it will all be about winning. The Stamford Bridge club have won just four Premier League matches since the end of October despite the American owner spending £595m on transfers this season.

Leeds United are currently above the Premier League’s relegation zone by just one point with five games to go, with a potentially nerve-shredding end of the season coming up, especially after last season’s close call.

Beckford has stated that he is slightly worried about Leeds’ top-flight status and believes that there are a couple of players that aren’t playing and should be featuring regularly, such as Wilfried Gnonto due to the Italian forward’s talent, having scored four goals and created three assists in 23 matches for the Whites.

However, the 39-year-old has also noted that Leeds do have a plethora of talented attacking players, while their defence seems to be a big issue. Beckford, who was a fan favourite at Elland Road has labelled Leeds’ recent 5-1 and 6-1 defeats to Crystal Palace and Liverpool as “embarrassing” and has said that with the exception of the Elland Road clubs’ recent draw with Leicester, that “there hasn’t been any leadership in the recent home games”.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the Premier League relegation battle unfolds between now and the end of the season with just six points separating 19th-placed Everton to 15th in the table, West Ham United.

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