Joey Barton tells a truly incredible Sam Allardyce story in his new autobiography

Classic Big Sam!

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Sam Allardyce's remarks to The Telegraph's investigative reporters posing as businessmen, you can't deny that the now ex-England manager is one of the last old school characters of British football. They say the test of whether a politician has the common touch is whether or not you'd like to go for a pint with them. It's basically that philosophy that made Nigel Farage a major player in British life. So if whether or not you'd like to go for a pint with them is the the test of who is fit to hold high office, then Big Sam should be England manager for life, regardless of what he may or may not say when being filmed by a secret camera when he may or may not be drinking a pint of wine. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/780779026977816576 Well now, courtesy of Joey Barton's new autobiography, comes a Big Sam tale for the ages. Barton joined Big Sam's Newcastle for £5.5m from Manchester City in the summer of 2007. It could have been so different, however, as Big Sam, it seems, was in the running to replace Stuart Pearce as City manager that very summer before club owner Thaksin Shinawatra stepped in and insisted that Sven Goran Eriksson was the man he wanted to dish out shed loads of cash for largely mediocre players. Barton, for no apparent reason other than it's a good story, recalls a possibly apocryphal tale of how Big Sam went into Preston North End folklore due to his escapades on a post-season lads' holiday in Spain. [caption id="attachment_96883" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Via Twitter/NickMiller79)[/caption] A bit of sumo wrestling, followed by being buried in the sand while team-mates pump out rock music followed by a mammoth fried egg eating session – with this kind of form it's a shame we're unlikely now to ever see Big Sam at a major summer tournament. But now that it has turned sour, let it be the image of him sunburned and baked in sand whilst shovelling fried eggs into his mouth that lives on in our minds.