Kevin Phillips stands by Sam Allardyce after West Brom player turned up late for March fixture
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Kevin Phillips is delighted with Sam Allardyce for sending a West Brom player home last month after he turned up to a friendly match 20 minutes.
According to The Telegraph, an unnamed Albion player failed to turn up on time for a friendly match against Aston Villa at their Bodymoor Heath training ground.
It is understood Big Sam had no hesitation in sending them to drive home on their own.
Phillips has blasted the player who turned up late, saying there’s no reason for that to happen at the moment with very little traffic on the roads.
“It’s good. It’s kind of an old-school thing but even now, I think it’s right,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“For me, there’s no excuse to be late. Yes, there can be accidents but there’s not even much traffic on the roads these days with the state the country is in.
“Sam’s gone in with that mentality that he’s not messing about. He’s there to do a job and he’s trying to keep that football club in the Premier League.
“He’s trying everything and you can bet your life he’s in at the training ground at 6am every morning and doesn’t leave until six at night.
“For someone to turn up 20 minutes late is unacceptable so I have no issues with that.
“It sets the benchmark, it sets the precedence that if you’re going to mess about, you’re not on board and you’re not going to take it seriously, I don’t want you to be around the squad.
“It sends a big, big message that he’s deadly serious in the job that he’s doing and if you don’t want to be a part of that, you can go home.”
Allardyce is not a manager who you want to cross and the player in question should have known that before they turned up late.
While it could have been accidental as everyone’s been late to something at least once in their life, there’s no room for stuff like that at the moment.
Big Sam, as Phillips said, was brought in to do a job at The Hawthorns and he cannot give any lee-way to anyone as he bids to achieve his target.
In other West Brom news, John Percy has shared a big update on the potential Albion takeover.
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