Martin Allen

[Koke]

Says a lot of things we already knew but here's some cliff notes. It's difficult to watch as he takes too many pauses between sentences. Starts from 1 hour and 9 minutes in (1:09:26).

 

- When he was offered the job he was told we had already signed 11 players which was a red flag for him  

 

- Mandaric wanted to sign a washed up Hasselbaink but Allen was dead against it.

 

- We had 44 players in our books. He organised an indoor pre season game and he had 44 professional players in front of him.

 

- Hossein Kaebi, another player signed without his knowledge. He saw him and said he was too small and skinny for the Championship. 

 

- Wanted to sign Dean Kiely but Milan signed  Casino Jimmy, who was useless says Allen. 

 

- The Clive Clarke incident at Forest 

 

- Was sacked 10:30 the following morning without a reason. 

 

 

[TJB-fox]

He does fail to mention HUGELY pissing off our experienced core lads in the dressing room and treating them like mugs. I’m sure Milan was a joke of a chairman and set him up to fail but Allen was no saint either. Should never be managing at championship level 

[Arriba Los Zorros]

I watched a bit, he does seem quite bitter and negative but fair enough, he didn't get a fair crack and Milan was a madman.

 

Can't imagine him inspiring players though, he comes over as glass half empty and not a whole lot of charisma.

[dmayne7]

I mention it everytime Martin Allen is brought up but there's a lot more to that Clive Clarke story according to one of the directors at the time. Does not make good reading for Allen.

[coolhandfox]

I think it best left in the past.

 

All seems a bit of an act to me, would be very tiring and wearing to deal with the man all day everyday! 

 

Not convinced that there isn't more to the the Clarke story, no club sacks the manager the morning after one of their players have nearly died without good reason.

[fazzyfox]

If the sacking story is true on that then I've been guilty of believing and no doubt sharing a different version, which alleges that when it came to discussing playing the 2nd half at Forest their manager (Billy Davies?) wasn't sympathetic with the situation and Allen got aggressive with him and that the sacking the following day was for that conduct. 

 

I remember managers speaking of the in-balance of the squad, it seems the recruitment was a mix of agents treating us as suckers and someone (Mandaric?) being like a 5 year old on a Football Manager game (the two things obviously related), it must have been so frustrating but as he says he had a core group that were decent / trusted but needed a focused upgrade in some positions he just didn't need every tom, dick and harry who owned a pair of boots being added to the squad.

Edited 30 April 2021 by fazzyfox
added "which"

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

DJ Campbell

Stephen Clemence

Radostin Kishishev 

Hossein Kaebi 

Bruno N'Gotty

Shaun Newton

Carl Cort

Jimmy Neilson

James Chambers 

 

What a summer window! 

[RonnieTodger]

Hume hinted that the players brought in that summer were through the same agent. 

 

Like a dogshit version of Jorge Mendes. 

 

I remember being quite excited when we appointed him. Really strange era.

[stripeyfox]

1 hour ago, fazzyfox said:

If the sacking story is true on that then I've been guilty of believing and no doubt sharing a different version, which alleges that when it came to discussing playing the 2nd half at Forest their manager (Billy Davies?) wasn't sympathetic with the situation and Allen got aggressive with him and that the sacking the following day was for that conduct. 

 

I remember managers speaking of the in-balance of the squad, it seems the recruitment was a mix of agents treating us as suckers and someone (Mandaric?) being like a 5 year old on a Football Manager game (the two things obviously related), it must have been so frustrating but as he says he had a core group that were decent / trusted but needed a focused upgrade in some positions he just didn't need every tom, dick and harry who owned a pair of boots being added to the squad.

I think it was Colin Calderwood - he was the one who came out and made the announcement about the abandonment.

[RoboFox]

Who's the "Big french" forward? Is he talking about De Vries? 

[Koke]

4 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

Who's the "Big french" forward? Is he talking about De Vries? 

 

De Vries is Dutch but I'm not sure Allen knew or cared about the difference.

[Langston]

Neilsen wasn't Norwegian / bought from Norway either.

 

Allen was shafted a bit by Mandaric but I don't think he'd have lasted too long regardless.

[whetstonefox]

What a season , Martin Allen, Gary Megson and Ian Holloway.

 

i looked at the league table for that season the other day, we only conceded 45 goals, but scored only 42, which considering we had 3 games where we scored 12 goals( 2 x 4-1 and a 4-0) is remarkably inept.

 

 

 

 

[Houdini Logic]

The more he talks the more (1) I dislike him as a person and (2) I want to keep listening with fascination. Not sure how that works

[bovril]

Seems like a bit of an odd guy.

[Uncle Monty]

I don't think he comes across that badly tbh. He seems pretty honest about the situation. I don't know much about what happened behind the scenes with the Clive Clarke incident but seems it affected him. 

 

 

[RoboFox]

Just now, Houdini Logic said:

The more he talks the more (1) I dislike him as a person and (2) I want to keep listening with fascination. Not sure how that works

I have this issue every time this particular podcast is posted. 

 

I like the anecdotes as insight into the inner workings of football clubs is interesting, but often the contributors just come across as total dickheads.

 

The hosts don't help either. They're morons and their "laddy banter" is cringeworthy dross.

[MPH]

Did he talk about the training ground flower beds? Did he ask how they were getting on?

[shailen]

It seems like Mandaric wanted to make him a frontman for certain signings and that he was never really in control of the team. Probably just about summarises the craziness of the Mandaric era here. 

[Gamble92]

He actually comes across as unhinged.

 

Its really interesting for me to hear about this period. Remember that summer so well. Was buzzing that we were actually signing players for money and all the old administration fears were well behind us. 

 

Can someone properly explain the other side to the Clive Clarke story? I wouldn't blame Allen for reacting badly to Calderwood wanting to carry on with the game. If that's all there was to it then its a pretty strange sacking.

 

These stories always change though. I've seen Allen say it was directly because he didn't want to sign Hasselbaink. 

[Gamble92]

What I've always found strange is Pearson never seemed to have this issue with Milan. So did Milan just realise he needs to take a step back? 

 

The likes of Dyer, Morrison etc were clearly Pearson signings when he come in. 

[Paninistickers]

I have zero insider info, but using logic and piecing bits and bobs together, it's possible the signings made via this agent had nothing to do with football and everything to do with, err, shall we say some kind of launderette 

[SuperMike]

41 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

He actually comes across as unhinged

You are certainly right there! I believe his nickname was 'Mad Dog' !

The interesting person however is Milan Mandaric. I remember at the time he was owner writing on here (or another forum) that my humble opinion said we'd be well rid of him and his odd ways. My god! The slating I got from others! Told to go off and support another team and 'didn't I know he'd saved us'?

As it was when Kun Vichai and Top took over it sort of vindicated what I had been saying, and we were soon to become the best-ran club in the country. Much the same as when I was vehement in my criticism of Puel - goodness, the abuse I got for wanting a 'proper' manager!!   ...and now we've got one - boy, their opinions have changed!

So I was 100% right about Mandaric and Pue,l but  (and you can't win them all  ) I was 100% wrong about Iheanacho !!  

...sorry Kel!

[Tuna]

Can't be long before he's back at Barnet again for his 83rd spell as manager.

[Stevosevic]

Clown. That is all.