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Graham Smyth shares hilarious Sam Allardyce first impression with Leeds United ace

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Image for Graham Smyth shares hilarious Sam Allardyce first impression with Leeds United ace

Leeds United manager Sam Allardyce has been revealed to have instantly been taken aback by the handsomeness of Pascal Struijk in his first interaction with the squad.

The Whites are under their fourth coach (third permanent) of the season this week with Sam Allardyce preparing for his first game in charge of the club since taking over on Wednesday.

In joining Leeds, he has four games left in the season to produce arguably the best survival job of his career to date as Leeds sit outside the bottom three but with difficult fixtures remaining.

How has Allardyce’s first days gone?

The manager has only been officially in the club for less than two days, but looks to be aiming to make an instant impact, with less than a month in the job before he’ll know whether he’s achieved his objective or not.

His press conference brought moments of contention as he claimed to be on the same level as Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, and Jurgen Klopp, while stating this is the biggest challenge of his career so far.

A light-hearted ‘hello’ on the way from the dressing rooms to the pitches at Thorp Arch suggests he is happy to take on this test:

Big Sam’s first meeting with Big Pascal

As a group, this Leeds squad have been full of character for some time, with a decent portion being together since days in the Championship.

It looks like Allardyce has taken to the group quite well already, having a humorous interaction right off the bat with centre-back Pascal Struijk.

That’s according to the YEP’s Graham Smyth, who shared this insight on the Inside Elland Road podcast:

“He has a large personality. Angus Kinnear said it yesterday, we spoke to him before the press conference yesterday, and he said that Sam is not a man who suffers for self-confidence.

“He boomed into the training ground and there were people who were laughing for the first time in a while. I believe he went up to Pascal Struijk and using some expletives he remarked on what a good looking boy Pascal was.”

Is Sam Allardyce a good appointment?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Just what this side needs.

A huge personality that is going to command respect, because it was quite clear from the lack of effort under Gracia that this wasn’t happening.

With Allardyce, none of this will fly, and he’s going to get every last bit of effort out of the side in the push for survival.

Tactical nous isn’t going to be brimming out of these four games with such little time left in the season, but we will see how good a man-manager the 68-year-old is.

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Leeds United season ticket holder since 2013/14, currently situated in the middle of the FA5 noise. From Pablo Hernandez to 5-1 drubbings, I've seen it all at Elland Road.