SAM Allardyce has declared “I love this job” after telling Blackburn Rovers fans he plans to be around Ewood Park for a while longer yet.

The Rovers boss has experienced his fair share of ups and downs during his 18-month managerial reign but admits he would be lost without football.

Having guided the club to Premier League safety last campaign, Allardyce shrugged off some early critics this time round to take Rovers to an impressive 10th place finish.

And, despite suffering a heart scare, enduring reports linking him with him the sack, and constantly being criticised for his approach to the game, Allardyce insists he wouldn’t swap it for anything.

He said: “I am not so sure, if I wasn’t in management it wouldn’t be worse for me, that is the problem. I am addicted unfortunately.

“I think it is a tough business and a tough game and a tough league to manage in, because it is transparent and you are scrutinised in every single area.

“There are times when you absolutely sit at your desk in your quiet moments and think ‘is it all worth it’, because the intrusion is never ending.

“But the experience I have gained over the years has helped me to be able to cope and deal with that side of things and look at the positives side of what we have got rather the negative.”

Allardyce was forced to miss four games in late November, early December after being rushed into hospital for an angioplasty - a procedure which widened one of his coronary arteries.

The scare led some to question Allardyce’s future in the game, with some fearing he could quit through health reasons this summer, but the Rovers boss insists retiring never crossed his mind.

“I really, really enjoy Monday to Friday,” he said. “I really enjoy working with the players, I really think the work you put in and the benefits you get from it are outstanding but the lows are very low.

“But when you have been doing it for as long as I have and you have been brought up on it, what else is there for you to do?

"Retiring is okay but retiring and doing nothing can’t be the way forward.

“So somewhere along the lines, I suppose I will wake up one morning, as lots of other managers tell me, and you will know you have had enough.

“I haven’t got to that stage yet. Speaking to the specialist and asking him the first question in November ‘do I have to pack this job in?'

"After holding my breath for a short space of time and watching him contemplate the answer and then he said ‘no you don’t have to’.

“That was it from then on. It never entered my head again.”