The Football Association's appointment of Sam Allardyce as the 14th permanent manager of the England national football team

This is a man who, on more than one occasion, has lost his grip on club jobs due to a perception of playing
lumpen, direct, unattractive football. For detractors who have previously lamented Stone Age football emanating from the British Isles, he is the perfect appointment for a soft-focus, black-and-white team in a technicolour world.

Allardyce's brash persona and nickname have become synonymous with all that is unglamorous about English football.

At his first news conference as Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola - that epitome of footballing cool - took the time to highlight a clash with his perceived antithesis that will now remain in his imagination.

"Against Sunderland, against Big Sam, in the first one, I am sure it will be completely different," said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss with slightly surprising familiarity.\

As with most caricatures, attempts to cast Allardyce as yesterday’s man are not entirely fair. The 61-year-old has rarely missed an opportunity to talk up his use of new technologies, such as Prozone, while he is tactically pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

Derision over Allardyce's style was largely absent when he took a celebrated chance on bringing mercurial talents such as Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha to Bolton Wanderers.

England are unlikely to be reduced to playing purely route-one football under his stewardship - even if Andy Carroll should be rightly buoyed by the appointment - but there will be no delusions of grandeur, meaning Allardyce could be the antidote to one of his national team's most long-standing ills.