SO, ‘Big’ Sam Allardyce is back in football management and again he will be peddling his brand of bland, outdated, long ball kick-and-rush in the North-East.

This is the same ‘Big’ Sam who was unceremoniously sacked from Newcastle for turning a half decent attacking team with no shortage of flair into a slow, predictable, boring, bully boy team whose points tally was lower than its number of red and yellow cards.

I’m not a Sunderland fan, but surely even the most blinkered red-and-white must worry why, after only eight games and with 90 points still to be won, it looks like the senior management team have settled for a ‘so long as we survive this season’ approach to appointing Dick Advocate's replacement.

I’d even say I almost feel sorry for the Mackems as they really won’t have much to look forward to – January’s transfers will no doubt be filled with 2nd string Premiership journey men and a few ex-Bolton & ex-West Ham mercenaries.

I say ‘almost feel sorry’ because if there’s one thing for certain to come from this appointment, it’s that, once again, Sunderland will beat Newcastle in the next Wear-Tyne derby – as the previous wins have shown, Sunderland change their manager just before and hey presto, new manager honeymoon means they retain the derby bragging rites.

This time it’ll be ‘Big’ Sam’s first home match in charge and, if we’ve learned nothing else from this season so far, it’s that Newcastle can’t cope with high tempo, physical teams who are ably assisted by match officials.

Patrick Church,

Bishop Auckland.