I Almost Became Manchester City’s Manager – Sam Allardyce

Sam Allardyce, former manager of Premier League clubs including West Brom, Everton, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, and West Ham, has revealed that he was on the verge of becoming the new Manchester City manager back in 2007.

Sam Allardyce said that he had an agreement with John Wardle and David Makin, who owned City at the time, to take over from Stuart Pearce after ending his successful nine-year spell in charge of Bolton Wanderers.

However, plans changed when the club was sold to former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the new regime had different ideas. Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed as City boss prior to the 2007/08 campaign instead of Allardyce.

Allardyce disclosed this on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, stating that he was disappointed that the deal fell through, but ended up managing Newcastle instead.

He said that the owners of JD Sports saw what he had done at Bolton and wanted him to help rebuild the club. Allardyce expressed his joy at the opportunity to become Manchester City’s manager, but the deal did not materialize, and he went on to manage other Premier League clubs.

Despite Eriksson’s promising start, his side finished ninth and was relieved of his duties following an 8-1 thrashing at the hands of Middlesbrough on the final day of the season. Mark Hughes replaced Eriksson in the summer of 2008. City was then taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group on transfer deadline day.

Allardyce went on to manage several Premier League clubs after his short-lived stint at Newcastle. He also managed the England national team but left via mutual consent after allegedly being filmed giving advice on how to get around third-party ownership as part of a Daily Telegraph sting.

“I was going to be the Manchester City manager when Stuart [Pearce] left in 2007,’ Allardyce revealed.

“That was a deal that was done and dusted which was going to happen with John Wardle and David Makin, the owners of JD Sports.

“| think that they wanted me to come and help rebuild the club because they’d seen what I had done at Bolton.

“I’d left Bolton and was ready to go into the job and of course the day before it was due there was a phone call from either John or Dave to say, ‘I’m very sorry Sam but we’ve sold the club and they want Sven-Goran Eriksson’.

“That was a disappointment but I ended up at Newcastle, so it looked like it was going in the right way at Man City and that changed unfortunately for me when the ownership changed, but Mike Ashley took over from Freddie Shepherd at Newcastle who chose me as manager.”