Sam Allardyce has responded to Gary Neville’s criticism of his Unai Emery remarks.
Allardyce ridiculed Emery’s decision to play out from the back in Arsenal’s season opener against Manchester City two weeks ago, with the former England manager insisting the new Gunners boss got his tactics all wrong.
Neville discussed Allardyce’s assessment on Monday Night Football by explaining that: “Unai Emery’s not trying to get eight points from five games to avoid relegation. He’s trying to build a team to win a title. He’s trying to build a team in the style to win a title. Not lump it long and get in behind them.”
https://twitter.com/DF_Arsenal/status/1031623749215416321
The simmering war of words continued on Thursday morning, when Allardyce insisted that Neville “thinks he’s always right.”
Big Sam highlighted his own expertise as a former manager, suggesting that he is better placed to discuss football than Neville, who returned to the realm of punditry after less than four months in charge of Valencia.
“Gary thinks he’s an expert in the field, as you well know,” Allardyce said on talkSPORT.
“Why he quite had a dig, I’m not that sure, but of course Gary is very open in his own opinion.
“Let me say this: I’ve managed seven Premier League clubs and over 1000 games – do you think I’m entitled to my opinion? I think so.
"Gary thinks he's always right – but he's not right."
Sam Allardyce hits back at @GNev2 for dismissing his playing out from the back comments.
Who’s right? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/0FT5ZzwsMm
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 23, 2018
“So like I said, Gary is Gary, and in the end he thinks he’s always right, that’s probably the reason why he said it.
“But at the end of the day, people ask me for my opinion and I say what I see, I always give my honest opinion.
“He talks about me having to win five games to save a club from relegation, I never got five or six weeks [like Emery at Arsenal]. If I don’t get a result in five weeks, the club I take over is relegated – so I have to do it in days.
“I have to work out the players immediately and convince all of them we have to turn results around immediately.
“So he’s not right in what he said, but Gary is Gary – he’s got his opinion and I’ve got mine.”
