I have been saying that Chelsea should sign Sam Allardyce every time the managerial position has been vacant since 2007, that is, roughly twice a year. It was always somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Now, with Rafael Benitez's only plan to score a goal being that the opposition does something like this, I believe I may actually be serious when I say Big Sam is a viable option.

If this idea would have been put forward at any other time, it would have been greeted, at best, with a few chuckles. In these dark times, however, the hour has come to put forward the case for Allardyce, who has put forward the notion himself:

I'm not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter or Real Madrid. It wouldn't be a problem to me to go and manage those clubs, because I would win the double or the league every time. Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same, it wouldn't be a problem.

There you have it. He's interested and doing the double won't be a problem! He's carved a career out for himself by taking bad teams and making them average. Why couldn't he make an average team good, or a good team great? Plus, a quick Google image search reveals he wears club ties, unlike the current incumbent, whose bizarre support for the House of Orange midweek is strangely at odds with the Spanish role in the 80 Years' War (you're welcome, Graham MacAree).

It would require something of a change in terms of transfer targets. Chelsea would be no longer linked to someone like 5'4'' Brazilian playmaker Bernard, but, instead to 6'6'' Texas native Brede Hangeland. Think of how many hulking bone-crushers Roman's billions could bring in!

So, I would like to invite the WAGNH community to do two things. The first would be express their ideas on how this could work; if you are more cynically inclined, feel free to shoot down the creativity of others as they put forth way more effort to find creative solutions. The second task would be to put forward your 2013-2014 starting lineup for Big Sam's preferred 5-0-5 formation, with bonus points for using only two players under six feet tall. I wonder which of the current squad could make the cut...