Sam Allardyce offers to ‘fly back from Dubai tomorrow’ to replace Mauricio Pochettino as Chelsea manager
SAM ALLARDYCE has offered to “fly back from Dubai tomorrow” to take over at Chelsea.
That’s after a Chelsea fan demanded the former England boss replaced Mauricio Pochettino on a radio phone-in.
Poch is coming under huge pressure from fans after losing the Carabao Cup final 1-0 to Liverpool on Sunday – despite Jurgen Klopp fielding a makeshift side.
The Blues are currently 11th in the league and cut adrift from the European places.
Wednesday’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Leeds represents Pochettino’s last chance to salvage Chelsea’s season – with his job security looking shaky should he be knocked out.
Allardyce hasn’t worked since his brief four game stint with Leeds at the end of last season and has since been living in the Middle East.
When asked if he’d take on the Chelsea job should Pochettino be sacked, Allardyce said: “Oh yes, I’d fly back from Dubai tomorrow for that – get me there!,” he joked to talkSPORT Breakfast.
He said the first thing he’d do as Blues boss would be to “sort the defence out.
“It’s the worst defending I’ve seen in the Premier League for a long, long time.
“People see that as a negative punt. There’s a big thing on Monday Night Football about Manchester United and how many shots they’ve conceded and then looking at the top teams like Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.
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“They have the best defensive records. It’s a simple mathematical equation. You win the league if you have the best defence not the best attack.
“The best attack gives you the opportunity to get the points in the end but the defensive side of it wins you the league.
“The defending has been ignored for many years now and I’ve never seen such bad defending for a long time.”
The former manager continued to say that the general level of defending in the Premier League isn’t up to standard and said: “Considering the quality of the Premier League and the money that’s spent, the quality of defending in the Premier League is worse or has been bad for the last two or three years, so I actually question the coaching these days.
“There’s such a big emphasis on the quality of football and playing the right way, that people seem to have shunned one of the most important things and that is when you haven’t got the ball, you have to be good at winning it back.”