Sam Allardyce holds back a tear as new England manager reflects on path to dream job

JUST for a second, Big Sam almost lost it.

Away from the TV cameras the tough-as-old-boots British bulldog image slipped.

As if from nowhere — and he looked as surprised as anybody at his reaction — a tear suddenly had to be held back.

Allardyce was in a quiet room, reminiscing about where he came from and how he had come to be sitting in the FA’s St George’s Park HQ yesterday morning, as the new manager of England.

And just for that second, as his face twisted a little in emotion, it all got to him.

There are plenty who question the 61-year-old’s appointment as Roy Hodgson’s successor.

But in terms of pride, in terms of the passion he will bring to the job, there can be no question whatsoever.

For King Sam of England came up the hard way and he never intends to forget his roots or how he made what he calls “his journey”.

Allardyce had sat there, dressed in a dark suit and off-white monogrammed designer shirt, holding court in his usual gregarious fashion.

He was speaking about the morning’s drive to his coronation when the enormity of how a miner from the coalface of football had come to rule the roost  hit home.

He was saying: “It’s been a whirlwind these last few days.

“I think that waking up, then the drive down, was the reality of what is resting on my shoulders.

“That and the satisfaction that I will be the man most focused on when games come around and to meet that challenge head-on.”

As that tear almost rolled, he  continued: “It’s the greatest challenge I’ve ever had and I look forward to it so much, even with all the pitfalls that there might be.

“It’s my time, my chance and I have waited a long, long time for it, a long time. And it’s arrived. I  suppose at 15 I never thought I would be sat here.”

Even last month, in the wake of Hodgson’s resignation following the humiliation by Iceland at Euro 2016, most people would not have been thinking that, either.

Even Allardyce says he is a pragmatist, someone who thinks about the result first and the Beautiful Game sometime after that.

But he still dared to dream of the big job,  even after being rejected by the FA in favour of Steve McClaren a decade ago.

Now that he is living that dream, Allardyce insists his working-class roots, grown on a Dudley housing estate in the Black Country, have given him the true grit to be successful as boss of the Three Lions.

He was reminded of his childhood in Ash Green, part of the Old Park Farm estate, and said:  “My old mate still lives there in his dad’s house.

“He was one of my schoolboy friends.

“I had a very strict upbringing, the old man being a policeman, so I think that stood me in good stead. I think the discipline he showed me from a very young age has taken me through life.

“His principles and my mum’s principles have always stayed with me. It was a great place to be  developed as a footballer.

“The area was Ash Green, a  council estate with a green in the middle — but it didn’t have much green on it.

“It was brown and bare and muddy because we played on it that much. That was where it all started for me.”

His journey as a jobbing centre-half took him to a string of unfashionable clubs and then as manager to equally unfashionable jobs, starting in the Irish outpost of Limerick.

Allardyce made Bolton sexy for a few years but most of his time has been about fire-fighting — such as saving Sunderland from Premier League relegation last season.

Now he finds himself in a different league altogether, though fire-fighting might now be part of his job description with England.

Hodgson, like so many of the 18 men who have managed England since Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1966 World Cup triumph, found that he was drinking from a poisoned chalice.

Allardyce insists he is ready for anything, though, saying: “I’m hardened. Bring it on.

“I’ve been dreaming all my time. I’ve dreamt about this job and have fulfilled that dream so I am a lucky man.

“I am exceptionally lucky. Or am I exceptionally good? I suppose you’ll decide that along the way.”

He did not look worried about the outcome.

And having let the mask slip for a second, Big Sam was back at his jovial,  all-guns-blazing best again, over suggestions he might give himself a title.

Like the Special One. Or the Happy One. Maybe even the Chosen One.

He laughed at the very thought of such a thing for a Black Country lad, even if he had finally made it big. Then he replied: “I don’t call myself anything. I’m Sam Allardyce, manager of England.”