Big Sam Strengthens Back Room Staff

Martyn Glover will re-join Sam Allardyce at Sunderland, it has emerged.

Glover was Big Sam's former head of recruitment at West Ham, and had only commenced a role at Leeds United last summer but Sunderland look to have snared their man.

In addition to working together at West Ham, the former PE teacher has worked with Allardyce at Blackburn Rovers too. Therefore, this seems very much an appointment made by Big Sam rather than one by the Sunderland hierarchy.

The move for Glover, given the recent departure of Sunderland's Director of Football Lee Congerton, makes sense. Whilst Allardyce was named ‘manager' rather than ‘head coach', he can't do it all himself.

It is understood that Allardyce has been overseeing all the recruitment activity during the current January transfer window. However, the modern game has moved on to such an extent that the pressures of running a football club on a day-to-day basis means Allardyce will need to master the art of delegation.

Some notable transfers made by West Ham during Glover's time with the club include Cheikou Kouyate, Enner Valencia, Aaron Cresswell and Diafra Sakho. The Hammers made a phenomenal start to the 2014/15 Premier League campaign owing to some fantastic transfer dealings during the summer. How much of this was down to Glover directly is unknown. That said, it is unlikely Allardyce would make moves to work with him for a third time if he didn't feel his contribution to transfers/scouting would be significant.