Allardyce shifts the blame

Sam Allardyce has claimed that the Newcastle job was not too big for him despite getting the sack for a disappointing run of results back in 2007. Allardyce is currently on the look out for work.

"When you get sacked, reflection is a difficult scenario," Allardyce told the Sunday People. "The one thing you have to evaluate first and foremost is how much of it was your fault.

"I think you can accept it a lot more if you can come to terms with the fact that a good percentage of it was your fault, but that doesn't apply to me at Newcastle.

"The usual rubbish that goes when someone like me is sacked from a club like Newcastle is that that job was too big for me. That's just not true.

"If I'm honest, the reverse is probably true. Newcastle probably wasn't big enough for me - it didn't live up to my ambitions in the short time that I was there.

"And because it didn't do that the club missed a chance to realise its own ambitions.

"The more I analyse it, the more I come to the conclusion that it was never about me or results. It was about things the club wanted to put in place."