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England boss Sam Allardyce comes home

Dudley's own Sam Allardyce has no doubt he is tough enough to deal with the challenges of the England manager's job and declared "bring it on."

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The 61-year-old dismissed suggestions the job was a poisoned chalice after he was officially unveiled by the Football Association yesterday.

Allardyce was brought up in the West Midlands and now the job he has craved more than any other sees him back in the region.

He's carrying out his day-to-day duties at St George's Park, the home for the Football Association, which is based in Burton, Staffordshire.

Allardyce admitted it was driving back to the Midlands yesterday – for his official unveiling as national team boss – that made him realise the size of the challenge he has accepted.

He said: "Driving down was the reality about what is resting on my shoulders.

"When I was 15 years old and at high school I never thought I would be sat here – and here I am. This is the greatest challenge I have ever had.

"I'm going to meet it head on. I am looking forward to it so much. It's my time, my chance and I have waited a long, long time for it. But it has arrived."

Allardyce has left Sunderland after keeping them in the Premier league last season and replaces Roy Hodgson.

The former manager quit following England's disastrous Euro 2016 campaign, where they were dumped out of the competition by Iceland.

England also failed to get out of the group at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and have not won a major competition since lifting the World Cup 50 years ago.

Allardyce said: "I'm hardened over many, many years. You toughen yourself for whatever job you take. You take the good with the bad, otherwise you don't do it – don't bother.

"I am here because I want to be here, because I want the challenge, I'm here because I think I can make the team better and I think I'm tough enough to take it.

"People see me as being able to turn a club around very quickly and I suppose that comes with taking West Ham up, saving Blackburn Rovers and now saving Sunderland.

"I consider myself to be much more than that but that is the sort of label I've been left with.

"I can turn things around pretty quickly and get amongst teams to try to create a successful journey and a successful journey starts with all of us pulling together.

"I have managed world-class players in Fernando Hierro, Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha, Gary Speed, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen.

"The good thing about really talented players is they make your life easier. They know what you want and it takes you less time.

"Working with the England elite players is going to be exciting for me.

"When it comes to winning no trophies or cups, unfortunately as an English manager I never really got the chance to go right to the top of the Premier League.

"But look at what I've achieved over the years, like not being relegated, and they are big achievements, difficult to do.

"They don't hold the same category as winning the FA Cup, Capital One Cup or winning the league.

"But it's very important today in the Premier League to secure a football club's financial status, which is a difficult thing."

Allardyce has added his former Bolton assistant Sammy Lee to his coaching staff.

Hr was just a teenager when he left the Midlands to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer.

A pupil of Sycamore Green Primary School and later Wren's Nest School in Dudley, neither Albion, Villa or Wolves – the club he supported – were keen on the big, burly centre-back.

Fortunately, Bolton were impressed with the defender who had turned out for Brierley Hill & Dudley Schools, Staffordshire Boys and Birmingham and District boys.

So, aged 15, Allardyce left the Old Park Farm estate in Dudley to begin a career that has now seen him appointed England manager.

Allardyce has always been proud of his Black Country roots and corrects people if they assume he is from Birmingham.

His only professional job in the Midlands came when he was appointed to Brian Talbot's coaching staff at Albion in 1989.

Now though, the job he has craved more than any other sees him back in the region, with the 61-year-old carrying out his day-to-day duties at St George's Park, the home for the FA, which is based in Burton, Staffordshire.

Allardyce was born in a council house in Ash Green – and honed his football skills on a playing field outside his home.

He credits his father Robert – who was a police sergeant – and his mother Mary for helping him become a successful manager.

He said: "I had a very strict upbringing, what with my dad being a policeman.

"But that has stood me in good stead throughout my career and still does now – the discipline he showed me throughout the ages. It has taken me through life.

"His principles and my mum's principles have always stayed with me."

Now tasked with guiding England to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Allardyce has some big decisions on his hands. Top of his list is whether Wayne Rooney stays on as England captain."

While Allardyce had to move away from the Midlands to start his football career, he hinted his home region is likely to be where it will end with the England job potentially his last.

He added: "Success or failure – there is not a lot more I can do after this one. There isn't a job that will excite me as much as this one.

"Maybe I'll be enticed in some different form. A new challenge. But this is the job I have been dreaming of all my life.

"I have dreamt about this job and fulfilled my dream. I am a lucky man. Nearly every I have had I have fulfilled.

"Am I exceptionally lucky or exceptionally good? The fans will decide that."

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