Big Sam turned down Burnley opportunity (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Big Sam turned down Burnley opportunity

9:00am Saturday 20th October 2012 in Sport By Chris Flanagan, Sports reporter

SAM Allardyce has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to take over as Burnley manager less than a month after leaving the Clarets’ arch rivals Blackburn Rovers.

Allardyce had been linked with the Turf Moor vacancy following Brian Laws’ departure in December 2010, having been surprisingly sacked by Rovers just weeks before.

But, after initially avoiding ruling himself out, he later made it clear that he was not interested in the job.

And the 58-year-old, who has since returned to management with West Ham, has now claimed that the Burnley job was his for the taking if he wanted it. Eddie Howe was eventually appointed as boss.

“What is not generally known is that I was offered the Burnley job before I came to West Ham,” Allardyce said.

“I was out of work at the time and it was good of them to approach me, however my response was a polite ‘thank you very much but I will sit tight and see what materialises’.

“It was the right decision.”

The Clarets’ latest managerial search continues as they look for a replacement for the now departed Howe and former Burnley defender SteveDavis is understood to be one of a number of names on the club’s shortlist.

Davis yesterday insisted he was remaining focused on his current job as Crewe manager, but stopped short of ruling himself out.

“You cannot control these type of things in football,” he said.

“If you are a player or a manager and you are doing reasonably well then you are sure to appear on someone’s radar.

“That is natural and you cannot do anything about the speculation that comes with football.

“I have a job on here at Crewe and I am concentrating on that. From my point of view the only thing that matters to me is the three points up for grabs at Walsall this weekend.”

Dougie Freedman, another believed to be of interest to Burnley, has said he does not want to leave Crystal Palace with the job ‘half done’.

The odds on a return for former boss Owen Coyle have shortened in the last couple of days but Clarets operational director Brendan Flood tweeted: “We had a great run with OC and we cannot take away the special memories, and the terrible ending, but we have to move on completely.”

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