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Football is full of lazy clichés and so we can imagine being the subject of one of them is quite annoying – but no-one’s going to stop saying them if they get reactions like we got from Sam Allardyce on Wednesday night.
The West Brom boss has been labelled ‘long-ball Sam’ (or something to that effect) ever since football was invented, and West Ham striker Michail Antonio alluded to that fact following the Hammers’ 3-1 win over the Baggies.
It’s fair to say the West Ham frontman wasn’t being particularly complimentary when he mentioned Allardyce’s style of play, leading the outgoing West Brom boss to embark on quite the rant…
“He [Antonio] has just insulted me and my team,” he told reporters (via the Daily Mail). “I know he’s a nice lad but it’s disgusting what he said. I think he should go back and watch the game and see how we really played. Our front two are 5’10 and 5’9 so I don’t know what big men he saw running in the channel.
“I haven’t been more than that for the last six to seven years because it’s all you lot [the media] talk about. Just like Michail Antonio said, ‘it’s Sam, we’re long ball. It’s Sam, the way we play’.
“It is a load of crap and it always has been a load of crap because I’ve never played the same at any club I’ve been at and if you thought that was long ball today [Wednesday] then somebody is deluded.
“We played long ball against Liverpool because it was the right way to play and we should have got a result against them. They didn’t like it. But it shows if you play a simple game against Liverpool, you can get at them, get behind them and you can get chances.
“They’ve gone and beat Burnley 3-0 tonight, they were dead lucky to beat us the other night, dead lucky. Today, West Ham didn’t deserve to beat us 3-1, but that’s our fault and nobody else’s.”
Jeeeez, someone get the man a pint of Sauvignon Blanc.