Sam Allardyce in Rangers and Celtic job desire declaration as legendary manager issue ‘right time’ admission

Sam Allardyce has admitted he would have jumped at the opportunity to manager Celtic or Rangers if the timing had been right - insisting even he was surprised to have not been seriously linked with either post.

The former West Ham and England boss, who was born to Scottish parents, has been out of management work since 2021 after stepping down from his role at West Bromwich Albion.

The 68-year-old famously built his reputation by guiding clubs away from the English Premier League relegation zone, but he also cited the Hammers Championship play-off win in 2012 and winning league titles at Notts County and Limerick behind his success at managing sides at the top end of the table.

Speaking to William Hill and the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, Allardyce explained why he would have liked to have tried his hand in Scottish football and what management skills would be required to keep the Glasgow giants motivated to consistently win trophies.

He said: “With Scottish parents you would’ve thought at some stage someone might’ve pointed that out for me and said, ‘do you want a job in Scotland? I think - at the right time - I would have gone to manage in Scotland, yes, because of the size of the clubs, the size of the fans and the fact that you’re winning most of the time.

“When I was with West Ham, I went to the Championship for a different challenge because I thought let’s go and see if we can get West Ham back up again, and we lost only eight games in the entire season. And what a pleasure that is having only eight miserable weekends, and the rest of the time was glorious. Obviously winning the play-offs as well was fantastic.

“So if I went to Rangers or Celtic, what you’d have to instil is, and I’ve listened to this from Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho… How do you find, or what do you have to do as a manager to get your players to keep winning, as those clubs need to do? Because to keep winning is so much harder than to keep losing. They can’t keep winning, they can win and then they switch off.

”The player who can win all the time is the one with the most resilience, the best mentality, and the ability to go with it. He’ll have the capabilities of winning. Because you often see a team which wins the Champions League, or certainly the Premier League, and then doesn’t get as near next year.

“Sir Alex said the first thing you have to do is go again, right from day one, no complacency, you have to win it again and not rest on your laurels. Anything he saw, he got out, anything he thought was better he got in, and that’s what drove his continued success over 27 years.”