Former Newcastle United and Sunderland manager teases shock return to old club
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Former Newcastle United and Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has hinted he would be willing to make a shock return to Bolton Wanderers - but stopped short of committing to a possible return to management.
The 70-year-old made over 200 appearances for the Trotters during his playing career and enjoyed a successful eight-year reign as Wanderers manager between 1999 and 2007. After guiding Bolton back into the Premier League in 2001, Allardyce persuaded the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha, Fernando Hierro and Youri Djorkaeff to test their fortunes in the Premier League and they enjoyed two separate UEFA Cup campaigns that were brought to an end by Marseille and Sporting CP.
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Hide AdAllardyce left Wanderers for Newcastle after being named as successor to Glenn Roeder in the summer of 2007 - but his St James Park reign lasted just over six months after criticism over his playing style and some poor results led to a parting of ways in the early weeks of 2008. The veteran boss returned to the North East with Sunderland in October 2015 and helped inspire an upturn in fortunes to help the Black Cats avoid relegation into the Championship at the expense of Newcastle.
Allardyce was named as England manager during the following summer but his time in charge amounted to just a solitary game and he has since taken charge of the likes of Crystal Palace, Everton and West Bromwich Albion - but has been out of work since leaving Leeds in June 2023. With speculation mounting over the future of Bolton manager Ian Evatt, Allardyce has admitted consider a return to Bolton - but stressed he would not be willing to step back into management with his former club.
He told Football Accumulators ‘Tippy Tappy Football’ podcast, he said: “In some capacity yes, but as a manager no. I would never even consider being a threat to the manager at the time. The manager will have had enough time sat in the office looking out and wondering who's threatening you, who's on your side, and who's not. I've had enough of that in my entire 20-odd years as manager. The last thing I'd want to do is put that manager under that much pressure from me. But in some capacity, yes I’d return to Bolton.”
The Trotters are sat in tenth place in League One after losing four of their last seven league games and there were some suggestions Evatt could leave his role at the club in the aftermath of last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at Rotherham United. However, the former Barrow boss has expressed his desire to stay true to his beliefs as he looks to spark an improvement in form between now and the end of the season.
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Hide AdSpeaking to the Bolton News ahead of Saturday’s home clash with struggling Cambridge United, the Trotters boss said: “We've got a good squad of players. They've suffered a lot this season. We've all suffered a lot this season, but we can't keep talking about that. We have to stay positive. I believe in them and they believe in me. Anything else in that just isn't right or isn't true. We're going to stick together. We're going to stick to the way that we want to do things and stick to our DNA that we've created. Hopefully, come the end of the season, that's enough.”
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