sport news Cruise liners, robotic barmen and neck massages - how Grandad Sam has spent his ... trends now
A few weeks ago, Sam Allardyce marvelled at the wonders of the Bionic Bar aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise, where two robotic bartenders serve your drinks. They would not, you assume, pour wine into a pint glass.
But if that was a vision of the future, Allardyce knows that his own worth still exists in the past. That is not to say he is a has-been, or his methods are redundant, more so there is a body of work that makes him an appealing short-term solution for any crisis club. Even his friends call him 'Red Adair'.
It is more than two years since he last answered one such cry for help, only for it to end in tears. His first four home games at West Bromwich brought an aggregate score of 17-0 - and not to West Bromwich. This time, at Leeds, he only has four matches to avoid a second Premier League relegation of his career. He has been out of work since taking the Baggies down, but that was never going to signal retirement.
'It's a drug, an addiction. It's very difficult to shake off,' he said last year. 'You miss it. You're inspired by the pressure.'
Allardyce, 68, did not look like he was longing for a return when he visited his grandson, Sam, at university in the United States last month. There, at the Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando, he enjoyed an impromptu neck and back massage beneath the swimming pool's waterfall. Maybe it was one last chance to relax after all, before picking up his hose and tackling the flames inside Elland Road.
Sam Allardyce has agreed a shock return to football after he was appointed as the new Leeds United manager
His last job was a sorry one with West Brom - though he will not feel his powers have regressed
And that is how he has spent much of the past 24 months - being granddad. He was with his wife, daughter and grandsons as part of the same Stateside trip before they embarked the Wonder of the Seas cruise-liner at Cape Canaveral. The ship is described as 'the boldest, the biggest and larger than life'. Little wonder Big Sam fancied it.
He celebrated the 21st birthday of his grandson, Keaton, at an Alice in
