‘On our list’: Sam Allardyce says he wanted to sign £30m Real Madrid player when he was at Newcastle

Sam Allardyce had a tough time of it as the manager of Newcastle United.

Allardyce had the misfortune of being in charge at St James’ Park when Mike Ashley took control of the club from Freddy Shepherd.

Allardyce has said that he was unlucky to lose his job at Newcastle.

“Losing the job at Newcastle was the biggest knockback of my career, even though I didn’t deserve to lose it by a change of ownership. It took me seven years to build myself as a top manager in the league with Bolton with great players, but Newcastle lasted six months and I got the sack for no reason other than a change of ownership,” Allardyce said.

Perceptions of Big Sam may have changed over the past 15 years, but, at that point, Allardyce was hot property in the managerial world having made Bolton Wanderers into an established top-half Premier League team, and he planned to do the same for Newcastle.

Allardyce’s Bolton was built around smart recruitment as Big Sam manufactured moves that almost seemed impossible as he signed the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Jay-Jay Okocha and Youri Djourkaeff for the Lancashire outfit.

Allardyce planned to do the same at Newcastle, and speaking on the Seaman Says Podcast, Big Sam has claimed that he wanted to bring one of world football’s premier talents to Tyneside.

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Sam Allardyce wanted to sign Luka Modric at Newcastle

Allardyce has plenty of stories of players he almost signed.

Allardyce nearly signed Darren Fletcher when he was at West Ham, but that story pales in comparison to the fact that he wanted to sign Luka Modric when he was at Newcastle.

“Freddy said you got about 30, 35 million to spend. And I’m like, whew. You know, Modric and people like that were on our list,” Allardyce said.

“All of a sudden, not Mike’s fault, but he buys the football club.

“He was cautious. Well, that was no help for me because I ended up signing loans and free transfers again, which were never going to really take Newcastle where they wanted to go.

“So, I just wanted to try and get through the first season. And unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

Luka Modric’s career since Newcastle near miss

It’s fair to say that this is a transfer that could’ve changed the course of Newcastle’s history.

Indeed, Modric has since gone on to become one of the best midfielders in football history.

Jermain Defoe has described Modric as a ‘special’ player, and he’s not wrong.

Modric is a legend in every sense of the word. He’s won more Champions League trophies than any other player, he took Croatia to a World Cup final, and he managed to win a Ballon d’Or in the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era.

It is hard to imagine Modric playing in a Sam Allardyce team, but regardless of the system, Modric is the type of player who improves any side.

Who knows what could’ve happened at Newcastle if Allardyce was given the backing needed to get this signing over the line.