Sam Allardyce: Stick from other managers used to p**s me off but I've evolved over time and I love beating the best bosses

Sam Allardyce has done his homework. He is about to eat in an East End pie and mash shop for the first time but he knows the drill. Not just the liquor, made from the water in which they cook eels and coloured with parsley, but the vinegar he pours on to his pie. ‘I spoke to a member of our staff and he told me you have to eat it with vinegar,’ he says.

In Nathan’s on the Barking Road, a place that has been serving up this working-class speciality to Londoners since 1927, the staff and the customers delight in his apparent expertise. Almost as much as they delight in the success he is now enjoying just around the corner at Upton Park.

‘Thank you,’ says a West Ham supporter before wishing him a ‘Merry Christmas’, while others request Allardyce pose with them for a photograph.

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Sam Allardyce enjoys his east London gourmet lunch at Nathan’s pie and mash shop

West Ham boss Allardyce signs autographs for fans as he enjoys himself in east London

Allardyce poses for pictures with the staff at Nathan's pie and mash shop in West Ham

Allardyce sat down to discuss his career with Sportsmail's Chief Sports Reporter Matt Lawton

This time last year Allardyce was not quite so popular. His side were at the wrong end of the table and the supporters directed much of their frustration towards their manager. ‘Those two months, December and January, felt like six,’ he says.

But now he says ‘time is flying’ and his team are flying too: fourth in the Barclays Premier League and playing a brand of football that some critics, among them rival managers, might have dared suggest he was incapable of drawing from 11 professional players. Not least during what was actually an immensely impressive eight years at Bolton.

‘That did p**s me off,’ he says. ‘Particularly when it came from fellow managers.’

So will the football West Ham are playing now — fast, fluid, attacking — be changing opinions?

‘I think so,’ Allardyce says. ‘But that stuff will never go away. It’s taken its toll. No doubt about that.

Allardyce (right, with Leicester boss Nigel Pearson) is enjoying his time at high-flying West Ham

Andy Carroll opens the scoring in West Ham's win over Leicester which lifted them to fourth place

Stewart Downing celebrates scoring West Ham's second goal in the 2-0 win over Leicester

‘As I say, it p****d me off when that kind of criticism came from fellow managers. We were a good team (at Bolton). We only played like that when we needed to. Winning and entertaining is our responsibility but the essential thing is winning.’

On Friday Allardyce will take his side to Chelsea. When West Ham were last at Stamford Bridge back in January, Jose Mourinho accused them of playing ‘19th century football’ to secure a valuable draw.

After guiding his side to a 2-0 win over Leicester on Saturday, Allardyce was reminded of that. His response was bullish, to say the least. ‘We’ll see what century we are in,’ he said, and spoke of ‘breaking barriers’ in the Premier League, too.

Here, over pie and mash, Allardyce is a little more mischievous. ‘He plays like that as well when he needs to,’ he says of Mourinho. ‘But that day he was frustrated, and trying to deflect attention away. Look, the way we played that day wasn’t very adventurous but I was staring down the barrel of a gun. I had to do what I had to do to save my position.

‘I was under increasing pressure and my team needed a result. That day a draw was as good as a win, and it proved the turning point of our season. It lifted the whole confidence of my team at that time, and in the end we finished 13th.

‘But I prefer that response (from rival managers) to the one I used to get when I started — the managers who would praise your team for the way they played after they had just beaten you. That used to grind on my teeth.

Jose Mourinho (right) accused Allardyce's team of playing '19th century football' when the two met in January

Allardyce and Mourinho shake hands after Chelsea's 0-0 draw with West Ham at the Bridge earlier this year

Allardyce says criticism of his Bolton team as direct is unfair

Allardyce has had run-ins with many managers, including Arsene Wenger (left) and Sir Alex Ferguson

‘I’d think, “We’ll see what you’re like when we beat you”. And when we did start beating them we were too physical, or we’d stopped them playing.’

Now teams are trying to stop West Ham playing, to stop them adding to the 29 goals they have already scored this season. So what has changed?

‘It’s time isn’t it?’ he says. ‘There’s never enough in this game but we’ve had time to get things the way we want them here now.

‘It’s all down to recruitment... players, staff. The philosophy has been established, with staff who have been with us for a period of time, people who know what we are looking for.

‘That enables players to come and settle into West Ham, and settle into life in London and focus on playing football. People look at our training ground and, yes, we are lacking in terms of facilities compared with some clubs. It’s something the owners are planning to look at but I’ve always believed a facility never makes the player. The staff at a facility make the player.

‘The big difference this season is the fact that we now have a wide array of players who score goals.

‘We have pace in players like Sakho and Valencia but we have a huge range of players who can score goals for us. Stewart Downing has been excellent. Andy Carroll is back. That has been the biggest difference.

Diafra Sahko (left, in action against Leicester) has scored seven goals since signing for West Ham

Enner Valencia (left, scoring against Hull) has also made a big impression since joining West Ham

‘We’ve changed the system, a diamond formation, to suit the players. That enables us to get two up top, but also control midfield.’

He agrees that his recruitment of Teddy Sheringham as a coach who works with his forwards, has been significant.

‘One or two coaches I spoke to wanted time to think about it,’ he says. ‘I liked the fact that Teddy said yes immediately. He really wanted it. He jumped at the chance without thinking about it.

‘And he’s been great, working with the players on where to run, where to find the space. Those sort of conversations are very good for a player, and when you’re someone of Teddy’s standing there’s a level of respect. It’s working well.’

Certainly better than last season. ‘December and January was tough,’ he says. ‘But if that was the one difficult period when we are sitting here well into our fourth year I don’t think that’s too bad.

‘All managers have those spells. I don’t think the dissatisfaction that was shown by West Ham fans at the time was any greater than any other set of fans when their team aren’t doing well.

Teddy Sheringham played for West Ham between 2004 and 2007 and is now back at the club

Sheringham opens up to Sportsmail's Matty Lawless in an exclusive interview earlier this year

‘We got promoted in the first year, which was great. Wembley, with 50,000 West Ham fans, is one hell of a memory.

‘Then we finished 10th in the first year in the Premier League and perhaps after that there was a bit of an over-expectation.

‘But we climbed our way out of trouble last season and here we are today. And it’s not just a good start. It’s more than that because we are nearly halfway there. We’ve got better players and younger players. We’re keeping the ball better, playing better football.’

And yet one report last week suggested Allardyce’s future as the manager of West Ham remains uncertain. Even Allardyce acknowledges that his employers have made no mention of a new contract when his current deal runs out at the end of this season.

‘They won’t be rushed,’ he says, calmly. ‘That’s what they want to do and I’m comfortable with that. Just as I was the last time we negotiated. If we continue to do well then it shouldn’t be a problem. And if it goes well I’d like to carry on, of course. I don’t lose any sleep over it. I didn’t last time and I won’t this time.

‘The only downside is that it leads to speculation. But that doesn’t worry me either. When David (Gold) and David (Sullivan) are ready I’m sure we will talk about it.’

Allardyce celebrates promotion from the Championship with Karren Brady (left) and David Gold (centre)

A CGI mock-up of what the Olympic Stadium make look like when West Ham move in

West Ham hope to move into the Olympic Stadium at the end of next season in 2016

Allardyce would like to continue because he always saw the club’s move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium, something that will happen at the end of next season, as part of his remit. ‘That’s a massive responsibility on top of everything else I do here,’ he says. ‘This club has to be ready for that stadium. It has to be an established Premier League team.

‘When we got promoted there was a pressure not just to stay in the Premier League but build something capable of staying here for a prolonged period of time, like we did at Bolton and David Moyes did at Everton.

‘The new stadium is going to be one of the greatest stages in European football. So moving there with a team that warrants being in an arena like that; that’s what this job is about.’

Now 60, Allardyce has long proved himself a master of not just securing promotion but keeping teams there. He has experienced relegation just once, arriving too late to save Notts County one season but securing promotion in record time — indeed securing the Division Three championship in March — the following year.

Only once he has left do teams tend to go down. Bolton, Blackburn, Newcastle even. ‘It’s certainly true,’ he says. 

Allardyce keeps teams up because he never stands still. ‘I’m proud of what I’ve achieved,’ he says. ‘Many of the managers of my era, managers who were working when I came into the Premier League, are not there any more.

West Ham fans hold up a banner calling for Allardyce to be sacked earlier this year in April

Allardyce is still relishing the challenge of managing and has not given up on getting the England job

‘I’ve seen so managers be hugely successful but keep relying on the same methods, and because they didn’t evolve they didn’t last as long as perhaps they should have done.

‘I take great satisfaction from the way I’ve managed to evolve as the years have gone on. I’ve changed styles, I’ve changed methods.

‘I think I’ve always had an open mind. I’ve always been prepared to listen to what people have to say.’

Allardyce has always been innovative, embracing the science of sport before many of his contemporaries. Right now he is fascinated by what can be learned from the data collected on players when they play and train. He starts to talk about ‘body composition’ and the idea of putting the data into some kind of ‘algorithm’. ‘Every top bank and every top bookie uses algorithms,’ he says. ‘It’s about trying to predict what is going to happen; reducing the risk.

‘We still do lots of old-fashioned watching and the key to everything, as I say, is recruitment. That will never change. It’s still about finding the best players.

Allardyce tucks into his food as he talks exclusively to Sportsmail

Allardyce has been quick to embrace modern developments in football, such as data tracking

Allardyce enjoys a hot beverage during his chat with Sportsmail's Matt Lawton

‘But then it’s about getting the best out of them once you have them; about creating an environment that allows them to be the best they can be.’ For Allardyce it is all about attention to detail. The details fascinate him. The science fascinates him. ‘I still watch the DVD of my heart operation every now and again,’ he says. ‘I love all that.’

His passion for work is undiminished, too. So much so that he will not rule out one day becoming England manager even if he has already been overlooked twice in the past.

Even if he arrived for one Football Association interview ready to deliver a high-tech presentation only to discover they had no Powerpoint facilities. ‘Luckily, I brought hard copies,’ he says.

The stigma of negative football, he agrees, would probably count against him even today. ‘I think I’d have to be managing a top-six team at the Olympic Stadium to even be considered,’ he says, ‘but it’s great being a manager in this league, pitting your wits against the best in the world.

‘There’s the daily stress and pressure but if you don’t like it, get out. I love it. I think I thrive on it. A lot of ex-players who could become managers seem to be put off by the aggravation but, for me, aggravation is a bit of an addiction.’

Not that there is an awful lot of aggravation right now.