The Allardyce interview – big opportunity lost

There’s an old saying in journalism which still rings true: “You are only as good as the questions you ask!”

That came back to me quite strongly as I listened to Alan Brazil apparently interviewing Sam Allardyce this morning.

There were so many questions that could have been asked such as:

O When did you claim that Ravel Morrison was not part of your plans as suggested by David Sullivan on here?

O What went wrong in New Zealand – surely an EPL team should never be beaten by minnows such as Phoenix and FC Sydney?

O The fans seem to be on your back again – can you win them over as the owners wish

O and are we going to see a change in style as demanded by the board?

Instead what we got under the gentlest prodding in the world

O Sam telling us that New Zealand was a trip too far;

O that he would  do everything he could to improve our league position,

O that  Ravel would play (perhaps) if his discipline was right which has already more or less been on the official site anyway

O that he didn’t worry quite as much about things as he spent longer in the game because he had learned how to overcome problems.

O oh, and that we might sign Carl Jenkinson, in the next 24 hours which was pretty well known anyway.

Sam sounded nice and calm and composed throughout but this was an opportunity lost.

Talk Sport arrived on air with an agenda to ask the tough questions – the ones that mattered.

There was a brilliant opportunity to get to the bottom of a whole load of issues this morning – every one of them was missed.

As a PR exercise  Sam’s few minutes on air could be judged a success no doubt – as an opportunity to really tell the fans what was going on and what they could expect it was an opportunity lost!