Big Sam Allardyce admits he is ready and willing to row with Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho
England manager says arguments with club bosses are part of international management
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SAM ALLARDYCE admits it is inevitable he will fall out with Jose Mourinho as England manager.
The Special One wants to follow in Alex Ferguson’s glorious footsteps at Manchester United — so rows with the national boss are part of the job.
Mourinho was unsure about Luke Shaw being ready for England but Big Sam is ready to pick the left-back.
And Allardyce wanted Marcus Rashford raring to go for the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia but starting the campaign on the bench means he is with the Under-21s.
Big Sam said: “I will speak to him. We’ve got on well together and when you’re having a conversation with an international manager we all know the difficulties of the past.
“I’m not saying we won’t have a fall-out now and again, who knows, because we’re both passionate about what we do.
“So there may be a time when it gets a little sticky when he doesn’t agree with me or I don’t agree with him. Hopefully that’s miles away.”
Jermain Defoe expects England snub
JERMAIN DEFOE is braced for disappointment when Sam Allardyce picks his first England squad on Saturday.
The Sunderland striker, 33, played his way into contention to face Slovakia on Sunday but may now miss out as Southampton forward Nathan Redmond, 22, has impressed.
Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater should be recalled and Everton defender Phil Jagielka is also back on the radar.
Allardyce said: “I think the biggest problem is in the goalkeeping area.
“Joe Hart’s not playing, Jack Butland’s injured. There’s only Fraser Forster playing at Southampton on a regular basis.
“That’s a bit of a dilemma for me.”
Allardyce and Mourinho have fallen out before.
They had a spat two years ago after West Ham earned a dour 0-0 draw at Chelsea.
Mourinho blasted the Hammers’ defensive tactics as “football from the 19th century.”
Big Sam responded by saying: “He can say what he wants . . . I don’t give a s***! He can’t take it because we’ve outwitted him.”
Allardyce would have been certain to pick Rashford if he started the season in Mourinho’s team — but Zlatan Ibrahimovic has led the attack for United.
The England boss commented: “A disappointment for me at the moment would be Rashford who has not played.
“That’s a great shame but with Jose buying the sort of quality player he brought in and the team looking like it has, he takes a bit of a back step which is understandable.
“But from an England point of view he did it in a short time last year in the first team.
“If he got some Under-21 football it would benefit him because it’s international football. There’s all that sort of stuff we need to talk about.”
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One of the biggest causes for club-v-country rows is when players get injured on duty.
Big Sam is ready for that and will tailor individual programmes to make sure the likes of Daniel Sturridge can get through international breaks.
He said: “If we can send a player back to the clubs as good as what they arrived, I think that’s one of my challenges.
“Then that builds confidence and what we’re doing is we’re borrowing their players for a short period of time and we’re going to look after them.
“The only thing I can’t guarantee is players getting injured in games and hopefully not in training.
“We’re communicating with all the clubs and hoping we can get as much information as possible.
“If a club chooses not to communicate with us, that’s their prerogative and they can’t really complain about what we do or don’t, I suppose, within reason.
Sam Allardyce has the tough task of returning some pride to the England team after Euro 2016
“What we try and get is the broad basis of where they are, he’s not played so much, he’s played a lot, he’s in the middle so our training programme would not be all the same.”
“My big end is announcing the team and preparing the team for a couple of days before we play.”
Allardyce could have played a friendly this Thursday but his players’ work-load was one of the reasons he scrapped the idea.
He said: “Let’s face it, the last thing the players need is a friendly.
“The last thing I need in my first get-together was to have to think about a friendly at Wembley and then only have two days after that to prepare for Slovakia away.
“Who do I play? Do I play anybody that’s going to play in Slovakia? For the first time it’s all being together and training to get to know each other, then hopefully we pick the right team and come back with a victory.”
With any luck, Big Sam hopes managers will adopt the attitude he had to international football.
He added: “There was slight trepidation in the early years.
“And then it was great to get away, watch from afar and get some sunshine on my back.”