Richard Keys hails ‘clever’ Sam Allardyce at Leeds United, hits back at Jamie Carragher and digs out Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta
Sam Allardyce has been “clever” upon his arrival at Leeds United by drawing all the attention to himself, according to Richard Keys.
The new Whites boss had said none of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta were ahead of him in managerial ability as he addressed the media for the first time since his arrival at Elland Road [Sky Sports, 3 May].
Jamie Carragher trashed those claims in his column for The Telegraph on Friday (5 May), under a headline branding Allardyce “delusional”, but Keys believes the Leeds United boss knows exactly what he is doing, and slipped in a dig at one of his favourite targets, Mikel Arteta, for good measure.
Reacting to a report on Carragher’s column on Twitter Keys wrote: “Clever big man. Get them talking about you – not the players.
“I wouldn’t have put Arteta in the group you mentioned though. He’s nowhere near yet.”
Bigger picture
It is admittedly difficult to tell with Allardyce given he has a fairly long history of bemoaning his public reputation in comparison to the biggest names in English football, but he has gone in so heavily on this point that Keys is probably right.
The fact that Carragher saw fit to devote an entire column to it suggests it has worked, in as much as there has been far more focus on Big Sam than there has been on the beleaguered Whites squad and the form they have been in.
It may be a long shot for them to translate the shield their new manager has provided for them into a match-winning performance at the Etihad but it has surely improved those chances at least slightly.
Javi Gracia’s team were being thrashed by teams far inferior to Manchester City so there was a realistic prospect of a record score on Saturday (6 May) if he was still in charge.
That may happen anyway, but if, partially-freed from the spotlight by Allardyce, the Whites players turn a corner and produce an encouraging performance against Guardiola’s side it will be evidence that yet another change in the dug-out has had an effect.
At this stage of a messy campaign that is perhaps all that can be asked for.
In other Leeds United news, there was a major piece of injury news on Friday ahead of the meeting with City.