Martin Allen admits he has to drop ‘mad dog’ act because of heart problem, as Eastleigh manager prepares to face former club Brentford in FA Cup
Cult manager had to have an operation in the summer after getting into a cold swimming pool
FOR a manager who has always worn his heart on his sleeve, the warning could not have been any more stark.
One more touchline tantrum or one more dressing-room hairdryer routine and Martin ‘Mad Dog’ Allen could be dead at 51.
That’s what the heart specialist has told him. That’s what his wife keeps reminding him, his physio too. A lifetime of getting overexcited by football has taken its toll.
Allen, a wild-eyed West Ham cult hero as a player and a manager renowned for eccentric motivational techniques, is now in charge of National League Eastleigh, who head to his former club Brentford in the FA Cup third round today.
He twice led the Bees to the fifth round, with a famous giant-killing of Sunderland along the way. So today will be emotional for Allen and, these days, emotions must be kept checked.
Allen explained: “In July I went for my annual medical at the League Managers Association and they told me I had something wrong with my heart. Initially they thought it was blocked arteries.
“When the consultant said I had a problem it turned my life upside down.
“The same week, my wife had booked a last-minute holiday to the worst hotel in Crete. I went to get into the coldest swimming pool in the world and I lost my breath. I couldn’t get in, I felt I could die.
RELATED STORIES
“It was a massive shock because I hadn’t felt I had a problem.
“They told me I’d need an operation. When they started to do the op, it wasn’t blocked arteries, but something wrong with one of my chambers. Now I’m on medication, I have had to calm down a lot and take it easier.
“Since it happened, I watched a few games from the directors’ box. The only time I broke the rules was away at Halifax in the second-round replay on the Tuesday night where we were poor.
“I wasn’t happy at half-time and that is probably the only time since the consultant told me to calm down that I have let myself go on the touchline and in the dressing room. I got told off by my wife and my physio. We gave a much better account of ourselves in the second half, but I knew I had put my life at risk by losing my rag like that.”
MART HELL AT FOXES
MARTIN ALLEN has managed the current champions of England and the oldest professional club in the world — but neither job left him with happy memories.
At Leicester ten years ago owner Milan Mandaric made his manager’s life a misery.
Allen said: “He paid me crazy money, more than I’ve ever been paid and I don’t think I’ve ever been unhappier.
“He was putting pressure on me to sign players. He signed half a squad that I didn’t want. It turned into a nightmare. I was getting pressure phone calls, ‘Why are you playing this one? Why don’t you play that one?’
“Players were signing and I didn’t even know who they were.
“We had a full-back from Iran. He was 5ft 6in and built no bigger than the smallest jockey in the flat-racing season. He didn’t speak English. He had an interpreter walking with him on the training pitch.
“I was told I had to play him and I didn’t play him.
“They sacked me after four games when we were seventh in the Championship.”
Notts County, the world’s oldest pro club, was another bitter experience. Allen says he knew he would be replaced by Keith Curle weeks before the axe fell in February 2012.
He said: “The next manager was watching all the home games and everyone in the stadium knew it.”
Barred from strenuous exercise, Allen has still lost three-quarters of a stone with a healthier lifestyle — and is obsessed with hitting daily walking targets on his Fitbit.
Five weeks ago, after a dog walk and a Tesco shop — both good for a man’s step count — Allen got a ‘life-changing phone call’ from Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous telling him ambitious Eastleigh were after him.
It was Allen’s fourth spell in charge of Barnet, who did not stand in his way when he agreed what was believed to be a hefty pay rise to move down a division. Soon, he found himself back under the FA Cup’s spell.
He said: “I never get a great Cup draw so when this came out, oh God, tears ran down my cheeks. But this is about the players and fans of Eastleigh — not my old Brentford days.
“We beat Sunderland and drew at Southampton, who were lucky to win the replay.
“They were brilliant times — the League One play-offs twice, FA Cup fifth round twice.
“People always remember when I jumped in a river the day before we played Hartlepool and everyone said it was mad.
“Yet it was Brentford’s first away win of the season and Hartlepool’s first home loss. So when people say ‘that’s mad’ I’d say ‘you formed your opinion without the facts so perhaps you’re mad’.”
Allen says his methods are less eccentric now and credits sessions with business guru Rob Northfield for improving him as a manager and helping him lead Gillingham to the League Two title in 2013 and Barnet to the National League crown in 2015.
But the FA Cup has always held a special place in Allen family folklore — his uncle Les won the Double with Tottenham in 1961, cousin Clive reached finals with QPR and Spurs.
Most memorably, his cousin Paul became the youngest player to appear in a final as West Ham defeated Arsenal in 1980 — with a 14-year-old Martin at Wembley to see Paul cynically denied a clear goalscoring chance by Willie Young’s professional foul.
Allen said: “The closest I got to a final was when West Ham lost a semi to Nottingham Forest in 1991.
“Apart from Brentford’s win over Sunderland, the other great Cup memory was watching Paul in the final when he was 17.
“When he went through on goal and Young brought him down it was the first time in my life I had ever sworn in front of my mum.
“I leapt up and shouted ‘b*****d!’ — I was horrified. I turned round and looked at my mum and she said, ‘Don’t worry, son, he is a b*****d’.”