Big mistake to sack Sam Allardyce – James Milner

May 5 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

JAMES Milner is in no doubt as to why Newcastle United are embroiled in an undignified fight against relegation – because they sacked Sam Allardyce as manager.

With three Premier League games left this season, the Magpies lie three points adrift of safety and six behind a Blackburn Rovers side beneath them when Allardyce took charge shortly before Christmas. Alan Shearer has become the fifth caretaker or permanent Magpies manager since Allardyce’s January 2008 sacking, and Milner believes instability has been his old club’s undoing.

“If Sam Allardyce had still been at Newcastle, they wouldn’t be in the position they are now,” said the winger, who was signed by Sir Bobby Robson and left for Aston Villa eight months after Allardyce’s departure. “Allardyce was planning for the long-term. The staff he brought in, he was looking at a bigger picture.

“The plan might have taken three, four, five years. There’s always going to be question marks about the way you play football, but first and foremost Allardyce’s job was to get stability. The organisational ideas he had worked at Bolton so why should he change from that? But he never told us to just hit it. We had the players to play and Allardyce wanted us to do that.”

Allardyce was given just half a season to recreate the success he had with Bolton Wanderers. He was appointed by Freddie Shepherd shortly before the Magpies chairman was ousted by Mike Ashley. Allardyce perhaps paid the price for not being an Ashley appointment, and for a functional style of play. The 2007-08 season started well for Newcastle but was fading by Christmas. At no point, though, were they ever as low in the table as they have been throughout the current campaign.

On the other hand, with the exception of Habib Beye, his signings ranged between poor and, in the case of Joey Barton, unmitigated disaster. But Newcastle’s instability started with Robson’s 2004 departure – and Milner grew sick of it.

“The reason I’ve come to Aston Villa is there is stability with Martin O’Neill in charge and that should mean you’ll see the best of me,” he explained.