Allardyce distances himself from Huddersfield role

Former England boss Sam Allardyce says it is "highly unlikely" he will be the new manager of Huddersfield Town. The Premier League strugglers are on the look-out for a replacement for David Wagner, who departed by mutual consent on Monday with the Terriers eight points adrift of safety with 16 matches remaining. Allardyce, whose reputation as a firefighter was made by dragging Sunderland and Crystal Palace away from danger previously, says he would discuss the vacancy if contacted but distanced himself from taking over at the John Smith's Stadium.

He told talkSPORT: "It's a difficult job but it has to be planning - and I know the fans won't want to hear this - for what looks like relegation and then planning to get back into the Premier League. For me, at this stage of my life... if they made an approach I'd chat with them but it's highly unlikely. You'd hope a new manager coming in would have a positive effect, which you can get in the short term and can give a lift in results, but whether you can maintain that comes down to you as a manager."

 

January 14, 2019

Comparing the Huddersfield squad to those he inherited at Sunderland and Palace, Allardyce pointed out one major difference. "They've scored 13 goals in 22 matches," he said. "I've managed to pull teams away from the bottom but, at Sunderland, I had Jermain Defoe scoring 18 goals. At Palace I had [Christian] Benteke who scored 15 goals. I have watched a lot of Huddersfield's games, they've always been very close. They've never been thrashed but because of the [lack of] quality in front of goal they've ended up losing instead of drawing and drawing instead of winning."

Mark Hudson will take charge of the team for this weekend's game with defending champions Manchester City while David Moyes, Carlos Carvalhal and Alan Pardew have also been linked with taking on the job on a permanent basis.