Sam Allardyce has made his career by maximising meagre resources. As a result, he’s developed an extensive network of contacts that help him pick up obscure talents. Unable to compete for star power, he’s gone after experience. Unable to compete for talent, he has ensured that the technical and training side of his management were top notch.

In short, Big Sam is a budget manager.

As such, he’s a big change for Newcastle. He’ll bring stability to the club - all that technical speak helps bring the Newcastle fans on Sam’s side but let’s face it, stabilising the Newcastle ship isn’t what fans want.

Fans want success, and it’s a big step up for Sam to turn from a budget manager to a championship-winning manager.

The Bolton mentality will help stop Newcastle from sliding backwards, but there are still more heartbreaks to come for Newcastle and it will take a big effort from Sam Allardyce to turn things around and deliver on the fans’ expectations.

Discuss this in the SL forum.