Malcolm Allison

Malcolm Allison
Personnel
Surname	Malcolm Alexander Allison
birthday	September 5, 1927
place of birth	Dartford ,  England
date of death	October 15, 2010
Place of death	Trafford ,  England
position	Middle runner
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
	Erith & Belvedere
1945–1951	Charlton Athletic	2 0(0)
1951-1958	West Ham United	238 (10)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
	Romford FC
1962-1964	Bath City
1964-1965	Plymouth Argyle
1965-1971	Manchester City (Cotrainer)
1971-1973	Manchester City
1973-1976	Crystal Palace
1976-1977	Galatasaray Istanbul
1978-1979	Plymouth Argyle
1979-1980	Manchester City
1980-1981	Crystal Palace
1981-1982	Sporting Lisbon
1982-1984	Middlesbrough FC
1985-1986	Kuwait
1988	SC Farense
1992-1993	Bristol Rovers
1 Only league games are given.

Malcolm Alexander Allison (born September 5, 1927 in Dartford , Kent , † October 15, 2010 in Trafford ) was an English football player and coach . Allison was known for his extraordinary extravagance - known as "Big Mal" - in around three decades of his coaching career, also in Turkey and successfully in Portugal . He celebrated his greatest triumphs as an influential assistant coach to Joe Mercer in the second half of the 1960s at the Manchester City club . He is considered to be one of the most colorful figures in English football and used the local media for the purpose of self-expression to a degree that was still unusual at the time.

Player career

Allison achieved only very modest successes during his playing career. After the end of the Second World War , he was initially employed by the London club Charlton Athletic , came as a middle runner , but only in the 1950s at West Ham United in the second-rate Second Division to train properly.

When Allison fell ill with severe tuberculosis in 1958 - at the age of only 30 - and had to have a lung removed, he ended his career prematurely. The legacy of his former position went to Bobby Moore , who was to lead England as team captain to win the football World Cup in his own country in 1966 . Allison had previously distinguished himself as its sponsor and mentor.

Coaching career

First attempts in low-class football

Like many companions in his club, Allison also sought a career as a coach and after a first attempt at FC Romford , he joined Bath City in the county of Somerset in the amateur field . In the two years of his activity, he led the team in the Southern League to a tenth and after the commitment of numerous squad reinforcements to a third place, where the team could play for the title for a long time. Another great success in his second season was reaching the third round of the FA Cup , in which City faced the first division side Bolton Wanderers and wrested a 1-1 from them (the club then lost the replay 3-0). Two weeks before the end of the 1963/64 season Allison left his first coaching position in the direction of the second division side Plymouth Argyle and was inherited by the former Welsh international Ivor Powell .

In Plymouth he had a very successful 1964/65 season. He built numerous young players into the team, trained them primarily in tactical aspects and made it to the semi-finals of the League Cup . Nevertheless, he was fired before the end of the season after falling out with some club officials.

Manchester City

What followed was probably the most successful phase in Allison's coaching career. During this time, however, he was not employed as a head coach, but assisted Joe Mercer as a co- trainer at Manchester City between 1965 and 1972 . This era is still the most successful time of the club today. They include winning the English championship in the 1967/68 season, winning the FA Cup in 1969 and winning the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup in the following year . Allison looked after a team that included players like Colin Bell , Mike Summerbee and Francis Lee , and was largely responsible for the development of the new offensive style. Allison's methods in training theory appeared revolutionary and groundbreaking at this time, which was also expressed in the fact that he placed emphasis on diet and worked with a specially appointed fitness trainer. Not infrequently, Allison opened a verbal duel with the opponent or made full-bodied predictions before the start of the season. For example, before participating in the 1968/69 European Cup , he said that the team would now “carry football to the moon” (“We will take football to the moon”), but this was followed by the first round defeat against Fenerbahçe Istanbul in the autumn of 1968 followed.

When Mercer left the club for Coventry City , Allison took over as head coach. In his first season in independent responsibility for the club, he was able to win almost the championship right away, until a series of lost key games ensured that Manchester City fell back to fourth place. In the second year of his full-time coaching Allison did not understand how to establish the team in the upper table area. Above all, the commitment of the extroverted Rodney Marsh ensured that the team lost stability and only came eleventh in the end. Before the end of the season, Allison moved to the Crystal Palace club .

When Allison returned to Manchester City in 1980, the now second term should not repeat the triumph of earlier Kotrainer days. He initially sold audience favorites such as Peter Barnes and Gary Owen and replaced them with largely unknown players such as Michael Robinson and the completely overpriced Steve Daley , whose 1.43 million pound change even exceeded the previous British transfer record. He left behind a large mountain of debt and so led - until his resignation in January 1980 after a cup defeat in the third round at the lower-class Halifax Town - the decline of the club, which should last until 1998.

Crystal Palace

On March 31, 1973, Allison first moved to Crystal Palace. The remaining games of the season were initially unsuccessful and after five defeats in the last seven games, the club was relegated from the first division. The subsequent 1973/74 season was even more disappointing and ended in relegation. Allison then completely rebuilt the team, but often annoyed his own followers himself, as he sorted out long- serving players - such as goalkeeper John Jackson . His excessive self-confidence, which surrounded him like an aura, often seemed a little misplaced in the third division. Although his presence alone raised the expectations of his own supporters, the opponents in particular were also very motivated to defeat the “great coach”.

The difficulties in everyday life in the league contrasted with successes in the FA Cup. There Allison moved into the FA Cup semi-finals with his third-rate team in 1976. After Away victories at the first division club Leeds United , Chelsea and Sunderland defeated Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge against Southampton FC . During this cup competition, Allison wore an extraordinary appearance in public and always used his fedora felt hat and a sweeping coat made of sheep's wool for good luck and posed with large cigars.

In May 1976 - shortly after the semi-final defeat - Allison was sacked. Previously, he had invited the former Playboy model Fiona Richmond to team training in a publicity campaign, which, with the presence of a cameraman from the News of the World, turned into a photo shoot and ended in a shared bathroom with the players. Overall, the events led to the FA football association punishing him ("for bringing the game into disrepute", that is, for bringing football into "disrepute") and Allison thus no longer appeared acceptable for the Crystal Palace management team.

He was later to return to the club in the 1980/81 season, which now played first-class again. In the two months there, however, he could no longer prevent the club from missing relegation by a clear margin as bottom of the table.

Allison as "wandering bird"

After his first layoff at Crystal Palace, Allison's future coaching activities continued to shrink. First he joined the Turkish club Galatasaray Istanbul in 1976 , which had already had a certain tradition of employing English coaches in the years before and especially since the early 1970s.

He then followed in 1978 the call of the North American professional league NASL , where he was provided for the care of the Memphis Rogues . This engagement was only to last for a short time and after he failed to sign a sufficient number of players to reinforce the team, he was dismissed by the club's management and replaced by Eddie McCreadie - a former Chelsea FC player.

Allison returned to England in the same year to Plymouth Argyle - his first professional coaching station - who played in the third division for relegation. There they promised a return to better times with the successful coach. In January 1979, however, he left the club again and later rejoined his old club, Manchester City, for another term.

The 1981/82 season was much more successful for Allison. After leaving Manchester City for the second time, Allison was now employed by Sporting Lisbon in Portugal , where he won the domestic cup and championship double .

Three months after his promise never to return to the dugout, he signed a two-year contract in October 1982 with Middlesbrough FC , who had just been relegated to the second division. The league could be achieved there under Allison at first, but the financial situation of the club steadily deteriorated from then on, which made the commitment of new players impossible. When the club management urged Allison to sell more players, he replied in a public statement that "the club should rather die than wither away". On March 28, 1984, Allison was released. His suggestion to play the home games on artificial turf dyed orange , after having been inspired to do so during his time in the United States, was previously spectacular . However, this idea did not meet with a positive response.

At his last coaching position, he was in charge of the English second division club Bristol Rovers between 1992 and 1993 . There he introduced a tactical concept which he called “Whirl” (German: “Wirbel”) and which involved all players in changing positions depending on the situation. At the end of the season, however, the club rose from bottom of the table in the third division.

After football

Allison retired on a part-time basis, commenting on football games on the radio as an expert until the late 1990s. However, after he was verbally abusive during a live report on the radio station Century FM , the radio company dismissed him.

At the turn of the year 2001/02 it became known that the now 74-year-old Allison - like Mercer before him - fell ill with Alzheimer's disease and is now being housed in a clinic in Altrincham , just a little more than ten kilometers from his old successful work center in Manchester has been. Allison passed away on October 15, 2010 at the age of 83.

Statistical data

Success as a trainer

• Portuguese champion: 1982
• Portuguese Cup Winner: 1982
• European Cup Winner: 1970 (as assistant coach)
• English champion: 1968 (as Kotrainer)
• FA Cup Winner: 1969 (as Kotrainer)
• English league cup winner: 1970 (as assistant coach)

literature

• Malcolm Allison , Colors of My Life , Everest 1975, ISBN 0-903925-55-9

Web links

• Obituary in the Guardian
• Obituary in the Independent

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Malcolm Allison in the barryhugmansfootballers.com database. Retrieved August 16, 2020.