Patrick Bamford reveals brutal Sam Allardyce message in aftermath of Manchester City defeat — Yorkshire Post 23/11/23
Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford has spoken candidly about playing under Sam Allardyce – and revealed a particularly brutal post-match message.
By Tom Coates
Allardyce was drafted in with Leeds embroiled in a battle
for Premier League survival last season.
He took charge of the club’s final four games but was unable
to prevent the Whites dropping back into the Championship.
Speaking to comedian Joe Wilkinson on the ‘My Mate’s a
Footballer’ podcast, Bamford has opened up on Allardyce’s management style.
After the Whites fell to defeat against Manchester City
under Allardyce, Bamford was given a particularly brutal post-match message.
He explained: “When Sam came in, we played Manchester City
away, obviously a tough game anyway. I felt like a dog chasing a ball that I
was getting nowhere near.
"I remember, after the game, I was like ‘wow, I’ve not
done anything that game’.
"He came up to me and he goes ‘alright?’. I said yeah.
He goes ‘never play like that for me again’.
"That just reaffirmed what I already knew – I had had a
shocker. “
Leeds had become infamous in the top flight for their
calamitous defending and it was one of the key reasons behind their eventual
relegation.
It was a problem Allardyce identified immediately upon his
arrival, according to Bamford.
He said: “Honestly, he was brilliant. We had a meeting,
we're all sat there, he's come in, just walked in, just stood at the front with
his cup of tea, and just basically told us basically we're **** [negative
expletive] at defending.
"Just told us we need to sort this out. And that's what
he did. There was no beating around the bush. The lads who didn't really know
much about him, in terms of they'd been playing abroad or are foreign lads, are
a bit taken aback.
"But obviously us English lads, who even growing up
have watched him as a manager, you know what he's like. We're just like 'this
is brilliant'. Tell it to us how it is and we can deal with it.
“It was simplifying it and just going back to the basics,
which obviously last year we weren’t very good at. So he had a job on his
hands.