HER husband has just landed the most stressful job in football but Lynne Allardyce arguably has a tougher role on her hands – watching his back.
Lynne has been married to fiery new England boss Sam Allardyce for 42 years and has stuck by him through his numerous managerial jobs, unfounded corruption claims and a severe heart scare.
Yet she rarely goes to a match, despises the Wag lifestyle, scours the internet for criticism of her husband and would be happy if he gave up the game for good.
In fact, when “Big Sam” was previously tipped for the job he finally landed last Friday, she admits she was not bothered whether he got it.
Writing in Big Sam: My Autobiography, she explained: “My usual optimistic self thought he had no chance, but then I realised he had a very good chance.
“I was worried about the attention and the fact the whole country might start hating him if England lost.
“Also (former England boss) Sven-Göran Eriksson’s girlfriend, Nancy Dell’Olio, was always dressed to the nines and never went anywhere without her make-up on.
“Would I have to do that?
“No thanks.
“I’d have been more like Cherie Blair the morning she opened the door in her dressing gown and her hair all over the place after Tony became PM.
“I wanted Sam to get the job for himself, but underneath I wasn’t bothered if he didn’t.”
For all her anti-football sentiment, self-confessed worrier Lynne, 61, is fiercely loyal and will back Sam all the way.
Sam, also 61, first tried to woo Lynne when they were 16, on the dancefloor at Bolton’s Playmate Club, albeit with “some weird moves”.
Also in the book, she added: “He wasn’t much of a dancer.”
At the time Sam played down the fact he was a footballer, telling Lynne he mended record players in the week and just enjoyed kickabouts at the weekend.
It was only when she saw his picture in the paper that she realised he played for Bolton’s youth team, earning just £4 a week.
Furious, she dumped him but Sam confessed he only lied so she would not think he was made of money.
The pair married, aged 19, in a low-key ceremony.
By 20, Lynne had given birth to their son, Craig, with daughter Rachael following four years later.
Lynne stood by Sam as he tried to make his name as a player, including at Sunderland — who he turned his back on as manager to take the England job — Millwall, Coventry, and a “life-changing” move to Florida’s Tampa Bay Rowdies.
As the clubs who wanted Sam started to dry up in the early Nineties, so did the profits at the pub he and Lynne ran in Bolton.
Lynne battled to keep the business going but her efforts were in vain.
The experience helped prepare them for the turbulence football management would bring.
Sam’s first big job came in 1994 at Blackpool.
Stints at Notts County, Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham followed.
Lynne says her happiest times were at Bolton, where she became the organiser-in-chief of the Wags’ social outings.
She was not one for the glamour of modern football and would never “get a second glance doing the weekly shop at Asda”.
Lynne said: “I wouldn’t have been able to afford the Louis Vuitton shoes and handbags.
“Chanel and Armani was for the rich, not us.
“I bought my stuff at M&S and was always one for a bargain.
“I’d have hated the attention the partners of players get today as well.
“They are in glossy magazines as much as their husbands and boyfriends.
“I was a jeans and jumper girl.
“No one had a clue who I was and that’s how I liked it.”
Sam’s time at Bolton, between 1999 and 2007, saw him steer his side to the Premier League and go on some impressive cup runs.
But in 2006, things took a difficult turn off the pitch.
BBC’s Panorama secretly filmed two agents allegedly paying bungs to Sam through son Craig.
Neither Sam or Craig were charged.
A friend said: “The family thought Sam’s chance of becoming England boss had gone after that.
“They thought mud sticks.
“Lynne wanted Sam to quit years back but she’s always known being England manager was his dream job.”
Things got worse in 2009 when, while watching England on TV, then-Blackburn manager Sam suffered chest pains.
He was told he was weeks away from a heart attack.
Doctors operated on him to correct the narrowing of one of his arteries.
Worried Lynne made it clear to her husband that he was not to call assistant Neil McDonald to talk tactics while he recovered.
Speaking at the time, Neil said: “He won’t be making contact during the game if it is anything to do with his wife.
“She confiscated his phone on Sunday.”
Allardyce previously promised Lynne he would quit football at 55 — the age he had his heart op.
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Lynne said: “Actors seem to have this thing about dying on stage being the best way to go, but I don’t want Sam dying on the touchline.
“He’s more relaxed now, the heart scare made sure of that, but football is in his blood, it’s an addiction.”
Lynne became hooked herself when Sam managed West Ham in 2011.
She was obsessed with reading fans’ reaction to her husband’s teams online and admitted: “It was like a drug that was killing me but I couldn’t stop taking it.”
The jury will be out for some time on his time as England boss but Big Sam will always have at least one big fan.
- Big Sam: My Autobiography is out now, published by Headline, priced £20.
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