Sam Allardyce was on the verge of becoming Man City manager, deal fell through at the last second

Sam Allardyce has revealed he was on the verge of becoming the new Manchester City manager before the deal fell through at the last second.

Allardyce was well in the frame to take over from Stuart Pearce back in 2007, having just ended a superb nine-year spell in charge of Bolton Wanderers.

‘Big Sam’ had guided Bolton into Europe and had the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro and Jay-Jay Okocha in his talented squad.

John Wardle and David Makin, who founded JD Sports, owned City at the time and had an agreement with Allardyce, according to the man himself.

However, plans changed when they negotiated a deal to sell the club to controversial former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The new regime had different ideas though and instead wanted to Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was then appointed as City boss prior to the 2007/08 campaign.

“That was a deal that was done and dusted which was going to happen with John Wardle and David Makin, the owners of JD Sports.

“| think that they wanted me to come and help rebuild the club because they’d seen what I had done at Bolton.

“I’d left Bolton and was ready to go into the job and of course the day before it was due there was a phone call from either John or Dave to say, ‘I’m very sorry Sam but we’ve sold the club and they want Sven-Goran Eriksson’.

“That was a disappointment but I ended up at Newcastle, so it looked like it was going in the right way at Man City and that changed unfortunately for me when the ownership changed, but Mike Ashley took over from Freddie Shepherd at Newcastle who chose me as manager.”

Despite a promising start, Eriksson’s side finished ninth and the Swede was relieved of his duties following a dismal 8-1 thrashing at the hands of Middlesbrough on the final day of the season.

Mark Hughes was drafted in as his replacement in the summer of 2008, where City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group on transfer deadline day.

Allardyce lasted half-a-season at Newcastle and went on to manage a slew of Premier League clubs, including Blackburn, West Ham, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Brom.