Paul Robinson has claimed that Sam Allardyce is "the best man manager" he has ever worked under and insisted that he should have been appointed as Leeds United head coach over Javi Gracia back in February.
Confirmation of Allardyce's position as interim manager for the final four games this season was confirmed on Wednesday morning. Gracia's 12-game spell in charge came to an end after a 4-1 defeat to Bournemouth proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the Spaniard.
The 68-year-old now faces an uphill battle to keep the Whites in the Premier League, as he prepares for games against Manchester City, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur. The decision to appoint Allardyce was met with widespread scepticism, but Robinson for one believes that the former England boss, with whom he worked with a Blackburn Rovers, is exactly what the club needed and that he should have been brought in far earlier than he eventually was.
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"Sam will do that on the training ground," he told BBC 5Live Sport when asked if Allardyce can bring a unity to the Leeds squad. "He's the best man manager that I've ever worked for, probably the best manager that I've worked for.
"He gets a lot of disrespect because of a stigma about his style of play. But let's not forget this man was once thought of as good enough to be an England manager, who was an England manager - his track record speaks for itself of keeping teams in this league.
"I think with better players he would do better jobs, but I think with this Leeds team they need organisation, they need setting up right, pointing in the right direction and organisation to stop leaking goals. This is a team that have been beaten 6-1 by Liverpool. Okay, fair enough that can happen. But five against Palace, four against Bournemouth, no disrespect but that's teams around them. They shouldn't be doing that.
"If Sam can bring everybody together. His leadership, his man management qualities is what's needed at Leeds. And you know what, in all honesty, he should have had the job when Javi Gracia got the job. I think there's obviously a discontent at the boardroom. Hence the reason that Victor Orta left. I suspect that he wasn't Victor's pick. But I think that when Javi Gracia came in, it should have been Sam at that time."
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