Which obviously begs the question ... rather than bring in a manager who's history is hardly up there with the greats ... why not try and tept the likes of Wenger or Benitez if you're willing to pay such a ridiculous fee?Sam Offered More Money Than Wenger And Benitez!
Which obviously begs the question ... rather than bring in a manager who's history is hardly up there with the greats ... why not try and tept the likes of Wenger or Benitez if you're willing to pay such a ridiculous fee?No disrespect to Sam Allardyce. But to make him the Premiership's third best paid manager behind Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson ... on even more money than the England manager ... is beyond belief.
Is that what it takes to get a manager to move to Newcastle? We've dne this sort of thing for so many years it's obvious the fans are
Daily Telegraph: Newcastle could have appointed the former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier, now at Lyon, and even the ex-England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson for less.
However, Freddy Shepherd, the St James' Park chairman, declined to take calls from their representatives last week, despite Houllier topping polls of Geordie fans asked to name their preferred choice as Glenn Roeder's successor.
It is understood that Alan Shearer was sounded out but he is happy working for the BBC and travelling the world as an ambassador for the club.
With the board expected to ratify the former Bolton manager's £12 m deal at a specially convened meeting tomorrow, Allardyce - who had originally hoped to succeed Stuart Pearce at Manchester City - is poised to be formally appointed on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Quite apart from paying Allardyce roughly three times the salary afforded to Roeder, who resigned last Sunday, and around seven times the £400,000 Sheffield United's Neil Warnock has earned this season, Shepherd will almost certainly need to negotiate a compensation package with Bolton.
Allardyce had two years remaining of his contract at the Reebok when he walked out a fortnight ago but a compromise may be reached if the new manager agrees not to poach key members of his former Bolton staff.
Bolton are braced to lose Gary Speed, their newly-appointed player coach and a former Newcastle midfielder, to a similar role at St James' Park where the coaching staff could also be augmented by Neil McDonald, currently the Carlisle United manager.
Allardyce apparently convinced an initially sceptical Shepherd of the need to employ so many assistants by comparing the number of potential playing hours Newcastle players have lost to injury this season with those forfeited by Bolton personnel.
While Roeder's squad spent a collective total of approximately 400 hours sidelined, Allardyce's men were indisposed for just 70. However, another statistic 'Big Sam' presumably did not mention over lunch with Shepherd at Claridges in London on Friday is that in his last 16 games in charge of the Wanderers they took just 16 points; in contrast, the unfortunate Roeder's Newcastle collected 17 points from his final 16 matches.
A £3 million salary would make Sam Allardyce the third highest-paid manager in the Premiership. Chelsea's Jose Mourninho tops the table with a figure that is after the tax has been paid.
Jose Mourinho Chelsea £5.2m contract until 2010
Sir Alex Ferguson Man Utd £3.6m rolling one year contract
Arsene Wenger Arsenal £2.5m contract expires 2008
Rafa Benitez Liverpool £2.5m with contract until 2010
Steve McClaren England £2.5m contract until 2010