WHEN Sam Allardyce’s appointment as Sunderland manager was confirmed on the same day that Jurgen Klopp was officially unveiled as Liverpool’s new boss last week, a joke swept across social media.

“Jose Mourinho – The Special One. Jurgen Klopp – The Normal One. Sam Allardyce – The Route One.” Had Sunderland’s eighth permanent manager in the last eight years seen it, it would undoubtedly have struck a nerve.

For all that Allardyce has achieved in the game, for all the money and kudos he has amassed, and for all that he could easily have seen out the rest of his days sunning himself in Casa St James’, the holiday villa on the Costa Blanca he bought with his pay-off from Newcastle United, the 60-year-old has returned to the unforgiving glare of Premier League management because he does not want his career to end without him being afforded the respect he feels he deserves.

“Style of play is just a label everyone uses against me,” he said shortly before his dismissal as the manager of West Ham United at the end of last season. “No matter what style I play, I am never going to get rid of it.

“The style of play I have is not how it is described, just like the style of play I had at Bolton is not like what they said it was. When the tag is laid down, you just can’t get rid of it, so you just ignore it.”

Ignoring it, however, seems to be easier said than done. Since leaving Bolton Wanderers after guiding the Lancashire club to their highest-ever league position and the first European campaign in their history, Allardyce has spent the rest of his career on a quest to achieve a level of recognition that has so far proved elusive.

He is respected by the majority of his fellow Premier League coaches, and those who have worked under him describe a character completely at odds with the commonly-held caricature of being a managerial dinosaur stuck in the footballing dark ages.

Allardyce was one of the first top-flight managers to embrace statistical analysis, eagerly signing up to the ProZone system as a way to monitor and assess his players’ performances. While Arsene Wenger is credited with transforming the way English dressing rooms operate, Allardyce was focusing on nutrition, medical techniques and psychological advances long before the Arsenal boss was championing a change of culture. And while Harry Redknapp recently admitted he “couldn’t even send an Email”, Allardyce has long been adept at using modern technology to assist his management.

Yet for all of that, he remains bedded, in the eyes of many, to a brand of football that should have been consigned to the history books. Get the ball forward to the big man, and let him knock it down to the players around him. Don’t be scared to use a bit of gamesmanship to run down the clock and unsettle the opposition. Always take the safety-first option and settle for a point by keeping things tight rather than attempting anything more expansive.

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Jose Mourinho branded Allardyce’s approach as “19th Century”, and while the Chelsea boss is hardly averse to a bit of gamesmanship himself, the tag has stuck.

Newcastle United fans would certainly agree with it, with Allardyce’s seven-month spell at St James’ Park regarded on Tyneside as an unmitigated disaster. The signings were dreadful – a fortune was squandered on Geremi, Claudio Cacapa, David Rozehnal, Alan Smith, Joey Barton and Abdoulaye Faye – results were just as bad, and the Magpies’ rudimentary playing style was regarded as an affront to the club’s cherished traditions.

A two-year spell at Blackburn followed, and again Allardyce was dismissed amid grumblings about his team’s unrefined style. On to West Ham, and the same thing happened again. Allardyce guided the Hammers to promotion via the Championship play-offs, and successfully stabilised their position in the top-flight.

Yet he was never afforded much credit for his actions, with West Ham’s fans regularly airing their unhappiness at his footballing philosophy. When he was sacked at the end of last season, it was hard to find many dissenting voices at Upton Park.

Allardyce claims to be unperturbed at the clinical nature of his dismissal from West Ham, yet he clearly remains deeply unhappy at another consequence of his perceived limitations.

In 2006, he felt he should have been appointed as England manager in the wake of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s departure. He arrived for a Football Association interview armed with a high-tech presentation, only to discover there were no Powerpoint facilities available. The job went to Steve McClaren, a fact that will add even more piquancy to the impending Wear-Tyne derby, which will be Allardyce’s first home game as Sunderland boss.

Four years later, when Fabio Capello came under pressure after England’s disastrous showing at the 2010 World Cup, Allardyce again outlined his desire to be boss of the national team. Again, he was unceremoniously overlooked.

“I won’t ever be considered for a top job because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce,” he said a couple of years later. “I would be more suited to Inter (Milan) or Real Madrid,” was another memorable quote. “It wouldn’t be a problem to me to go and manage those clubs because I would win the double or the league every time.”

The Northern Echo: Sam Allardyce is staying on as West Ham manager next season

Instead, Allardyce finds himself back at Sunderland, where he spent part of the 1980-81 season as an uncompromising defender and where he also briefly worked as a coach under Peter Reid.

His remit is simple – keep Sunderland in the top-flight – and given that he has only ever been relegated once as a manager, with Notts County, it would be foolish to bet against him achieving the feat.

Yet as he prepares to return to management, Allardyce’s thoughts will be as much about redemption as avoiding relegation. There are scores to settle, career assessments to rewrite. The Stadium of Light has proved a managerial graveyard in recent years, but its latest inhabitant is desperate to prove he has plenty of life left in him yet.