It was the sort of damp, unseasonal, May morning when low-lying grey cloud blanketed the Yorkshire countryside and only the car headlights spearing a path east fractured the gloom. Sam Allardyce has travelled to work in far worse conditions but, as he swung off the A1(M) at Wetherby and on to the winding B-road through apparently endless fields, his mood matched the weather.
Anyone expecting the new Leeds manager to stride through the training ground door in full showman mode, perhaps even accompanied by a blast of Tina Turner’s Simply The Best, would have been sorely disappointed on Friday. “Saturday morning, I’ll be pretty nervous,” says Allardyce. “And the nerves will carry on until kick-off.”
