Like many others, I thought that Big Sam was a good choice as manager. Excluding the fantasy choices like Scolari and Mourinho, he seemed to have the qualities that we could reasonably expect – a good record of over-achievement at smaller clubs, and experience at Premiership level. Allardyce had not been an England candidate for nothing.

Yet, only half a season later, he’s gone. I go back to the days of Joe Harvey, and no episode in our club’s turbulent recent history has me scratching my head like this one. Why did it all go wrong, so quickly?

The most frequent criticism of Big Sam has been his over-cautious attitude, particularly when playing away to teams below us in the league, such as Wigan, Derby and Reading. There has been a strong belief that we would have done better with a more attacking approach. Within this criticism is the idea that, psychologically, Sam was still managing Bolton, whose defensive tactics away from home were probably wise.

I think the observation is mostly valid, in that the caution was definitely there. However, whether our players were good enough to be successful with a more attacking approach is more debatable. The team finished 13th last season, and with a definite downward momentum. There were some changes, but it often takes a while for a new team to find its feet. Sam was in the process of assessing his players, most of whom were not of his choosing. While we may have felt more satisfied if we’d gone down with all guns blazing, I’m not too sure that we wouldn’t have gone down none the less. Losing to Reading and Wigan aren’t exactly novelties for us.

I feel that other criticisms have been less well founded. I don’t think we played in a ‘long ball’ style any more than most other teams in the Premiership. This was a case of Allardyce’s reputation going before him. Although our attempts at playing through the midfield weren’t very successful, I think this was mainly down to a lack of confidence – and sometimes quality - on the part of the players, rather than instructions from the bench.

I’d say that the criticism that players were ‘out of position’ is also flawed. Zoggy came to the club initially as a full back, Smith had been played in centre midfield by Ferguson, and Milner had played just as many games on the left as on the right. You could argue that these three weren’t in their best positions, but in each case I felt that Sam’s reasoning was sound enough, and represented the sort of juggling of limited resources that every manager is forced to undertake, including those in the big four.

One area where Sam was a little unlucky was Joey Barton, who has failed to find anything like his Man City form, and who has sunk to new depths in his troubles off the pitch. Sam badly needed Joey to add that bit of creativity to the midfield, but the player has struggled to find the pace. However, I don’t think Sam can be criticised too harshly for going for a player who was also being keenly pursued by rival clubs. The gamble doesn’t seem to have paid off, but he wasn’t the only one prepared to take it.

While Sam hasn’t exactly been lucky with injuries, I wouldn’t say he’s been too hard done by either. In recent weeks, we’ve been moving closer to a fully fit squad – a luxury that neither Souness nor Roeder were able to count on – and yet the performances have still looked inhibited.

For me, the criticism that has rung most true is that Sam made too many changes, week by week. With every game, we seemed to see not just new players, but new formations and tactics as well. This is partly down to Sam’s clear preference for a 4-3-3, which clashed with the demands of some of the players that he inherited. I’m thinking particularly of Martins and Owen, his main potential goalscorers, who cannot play either as the target man or as the wide players in a 4-3-3. They are at their best on the shoulder of a main striker in a 4-4-2.

Allardyce seemed to bat between the two formations in an uncommitted way that ran contrary to his usually ebullient, decisive style of leadership. He seemed to be constantly in search of the right blend, and this uncharacteristic uncertainty must have had an unsettling effect on the players. If the boss doesn’t seem to be enjoying his job, it’s difficult for the staff to drum up the necessary confidence and fire.

Sam has a reputation for being a good motivator and man-manager, and so this particular development was surprising. Apart from a revival in spirits around the Birmingham and Arsenal games, he seemed like a man who was struggling to get a good night’s sleep. In short, he began to look and talk like a man under pressure, struggling for confidence.

It’s a cliché, but there’s a pressure attached to the Newcastle job that most managers – Allardyce included – would not have experienced. Along with the extra attention of a more high profile post, there are the higher expectations, fuelled by the frustrations of past under-achievement. It’s important that any manager, new to that experience, makes a good impression in the first dozen or so games. Allardyce didn’t, and inevitably the question then gets raised – is he now out of his league? It’s very difficult for those kinds of doubts on the part of spectators not to lead to self-doubts within the manager, and at times Sam seemed to be affected.

What could have helped was Sam feeling that the owner and chairman were both solidly behind him, but although the noises from the boardroom seemed to be positive, the sudden nature of Sam’s departure suggests that the previous votes of confidence were largely cosmetic. Either that, or Ashley and Mort were not completely of the same mind.

Allardyce was not Ashley’s choice, and in retrospect, one must now wonder whether he was always very much on probation. There were warning signs early on, when Sam voiced concerns at the new Board’s lethargy in the transfer market. He made the carefully guarded public observation that the new regime hadn’t realised the importance of snapping up transfer targets early, before rivals could step in. He was anxious to chivvy things along, and looking back, you must wonder whether he had also begun to worry about whether he really carried the new owner’s confidence.

At the end of the day, new players were brought in, but the approach was in vast contrast to Man City, the other club of similar standing that had fallen into the hands of a multi-millionaire with cash in hand. Eriksson was able to spend considerably more money, freely and quickly. The new owner seemed intent on kick-starting the new era with as big a bang as possible, but Ashley seemed to be sticking his toe in gingerly.

I’d thought at the time that this was down to Ashley’s uncertainty over the financial position of the club and – as Allardyce had intimated – inexperience in the world of football. I’m now more inclined to think that Ashley was reluctant to let Allardyce spend freely without seeing what he could do with smaller amounts. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sam’s departure followed a meeting in which the transfer targets for January were discussed. It looks to me like they had a row.

If Sam had the feeling, right from the start, that Ashley was only half-committed, that would have affected his morale, as well as his ability to spend money on the players that he would have ideally liked. His position would have been similar to that of Ranieri, in his last season at Chelsea – a dead man walking. There’s no question that Ranieri’s judgement began to flounder under pressure, and I think the same thing may have happened with Allardyce. Anyone who has found themselves in that kind of unsupportive working environment would know how difficult it is to think clearly and make fine judgements with confidence.

Should Sam have been given more time? I’d say yes, but only if he had been working with the genuine, long-term support of the new regime. It’s hard to say whether Sam’s inexperience at big club level, or the apparent lack of full-blooded support from the owner, was the chief factor in his downfall. However, what’s pretty clear now is that the combination of the two was always likely to be a lethal cocktail.

Anyway, we move on.