About this blog

Sport lends itself to statistics, opinions and a lot of money. Interestingly, these three rarely tally. I aim to shed a little light on the area of sports statistics to prove (or otherwise) the perceived wisdoms of sport.

This blog is for day-to-day observations. My other blog, www.minto.net (see links on the right) is where I put longer pieces of research.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Why was Sam Allardyce fired?

Why was Sam Allardyce fired? Politics aside, his record merited a "wait-and-see".

Allardyce's record

TeamsGamesWinsDrawsDefeatsWin %points per gamepoints per season
Newcastle United2175933%1.2447.04
Bolton Wanderers22680668035%1.3551.45

Let's put this into perspective. Allardyce averaged 1.2 points per game with Newcastle - a season average of 47. Since the Premiership was reduced to 20 clubs, no team has been relegated with more than 42 points. The average points gained by the top of the relegation zone is 36.4. So Big Sam was not going down. His points per game was better with Bolton, but it was early days at Newcastle. they hired a mid-table manager. They got a mid-table manager. Firing him is a mystery.

Some good stats on the Telegraph's site on this. I've just added my own extra stats.