Sam Allardyce shares whether he’d have taken the Leeds United job in hindsight

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Leeds United head coach Sam Allardyce has spoken about his spell at Elland Road on the latest episode of the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.

The 68-year-old took the Whites role on a short-term basis after the club sacked Javi Gracia at the start of May.

Allardyce had just four games to try to save Leeds. Unfortunately he fell short as the club went down on the final day.

Leeds lost to Manchester City before a draw with Newcastle United gave the Yorkshire side hope.

However, the Whites then lost to West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur to put an end to their time in the top flight.

Allardyce boss remained coy when asked about his future at Leeds on the No Tippy Tappy podcast.

He said he would be having talks with the Elland Road hierarchy over the coming days.

Co-host Tim Sherwood asked Allardyce: “If you had to make that decision again, would you go back in there?”

“It’s Leeds United,” replied the veteran manager. “You have to, you know what I mean?”

Sherwood added: “I think it’s a no-brainer.”

‘You’ll never stop missing it’

Allardyce continued: “I look at the fixtures and I go ‘pfft’, that’s more than tough, you know what I mean?

“But it’s an opportunity to get in amongst the players again.

“When you’re out of it for two years – which is probably the longest I’ve been out of it – you’ll never stop missing it.

“For all the pressures that (come) with it, all the times we go ‘you can’t do this… it’s bad for your health,’ and all that stuff, in the end it’s a drug.

“So if you get the opportunity and you think you can help that’s the most important thing.

“Support from the club and everything we wanted to do as quick as we wanted to do it, that was there.

“But unfortunately the results didn’t match the effort.”

Our view

Although Allardyce is known as a relegation firefighter, Leeds giving him the job with four games left was too little too late.

In addition, those games were against strong opposition.

You had two top-four sides, a team that was in the Champions League this season, and a European finalist.

It’s a shame with how things panned out. Hopefully Leeds can pick themselves up and hit the ground running next term.