Ex-Leeds United boss Sam Allardyce opens up on his departure, infamous press conference - and approaching the club in February

The veteran boss, who took over for United's final four games of the 2022-23 Premier League season following the sacking of Javi Gracia and was unable to save the Elland Road outfit from relegation, told William Hill’s podcast Up Front with Simon Jordan that he got in touch with Leeds 12 games before he was appointed - after the earlier departure of Jesse Marsch.

Featuring on a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions while scrutinising their careers, Allardyce said: “I asked Leeds to take me 12 games before they did.

"I rang up Angus Kinnear and said, ‘Take me, I’ll save you’. After they sacked Javi Gracia, Angus said, ‘Can you come; will you do it, please?’

"I think survival would have been touch and go if I’d come in earlier, but I think we would have been really close.

"We were really close in the four games because we should have won the Newcastle match. We missed a penalty, we gave two penalties away, we had someone sent off, and we drew 2-2. That was the changing moment.

"In the West Ham game, two of the goals were half an inch onside and not half an inch offside.

"In the first 30 minutes, we should have been three goals up, so it was always going to come back and bite us because we didn’t defend very well – we didn’t keep a clean sheet since last February – and we couldn’t score goals or create chances.

“You don’t want the reputation that you got them relegated.

“I’d probably say that applies more with the West Brom job rather than with Leeds because I had a long time at West Brom; I had nothing to lose with the Leeds job. I got to choose who I wanted to be."

Meanwhile, Allardyce has also shed some light into the reasons why he ultimately decided against sticking around at the club following relegation, in conversation with Jordan.

He continued: "I chose whether I was going to get Leeds back up again, and under the circumstances of what I saw in a short space of time, I thought it was going to be hugely difficult because the reasons behind it are a lot deeper.

"There were a lot of players who had buy-out clauses in their contracts, so can you imagine a time when we got to August with two weeks to go until the window shuts and then, all of a sudden, four players abort? You have time to get more players in, but how good would they be?

"For years and years, I have had the aggravation of trying to get players to sign and re-sign on, sorting the pre-season, sorting the travel, seeing what the hotels were like, and checking what the food would be like. I could be walking around on holiday and the missus would say: ‘Are you ever going to put that phone down – what’s the point in coming abroad on holiday if all you do is check that?’

"The two factors in not staying were: do I think there are enough goals up front for Leeds? If they kept all the players, probably. Defensively, they are going to have to lose some players for financial reasons."

Allardyce's brief stay is also remembered for an infamous press conference unveiling when he compared himself to Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp and said he was 'up there' alongside the best coaches in England.

For his part looking back, the 68-year-old insists it was a deflection tactic to try and keep the pressure off the players he was inheriting, with Leeds embroiled in a desperate relegation fight.

He continued: “I was speaking to (assistant) Karl Robinson and he said it would be amazing to see how many people take it literally; I thought it would be a lot of people who were daft enough not to read between the lines.

"Alex Ferguson always said that when you are in trouble, divert the attention onto you.

"When I turned up, the players looked so dejected – there was barely a smile on their faces. We had to pick the players up, so I thought that taking the pressure off by creating a headline was a good way to do that. It made the press really easy."