I played in the Premier League under Sam Allardyce and he once paid thousands for a private jet on a pre-season tour

SAM ALLARDYCE once forked out thousands of pounds to have his Blackburn Rovers players fly in style.

The disgraced former England manager was in charge of Rovers for two years – guiding them to a League Cup semi-final and a tenth-placed finish in the 2009-10 season.

Sam Allardyce was in charge of Blackburn Rovers for two yearsDAVID PINEGAR

GETTYFormer Rover Keith Treacy revealed Big Sam once paid for his players to fly in a luxury private jet[/caption]

Several of Allardyce‘s former Blackburn players still speak very highly of him.

And that may be in small part down to him dipping into his own pocket to fly them in a luxury private jet during a pre-season tour of Austria.

Former Rover Keith Treacy told Off The Ball: “I have a little story. We were in Austria on a pre-season tour.

“You charter flights over to these places and we were flying back and the plane hadn’t taken off from whatever airport it was in.

“The girl said it will have to get the landing gear fixed and it will be a three or four hour delay.

“Sam said ‘no, I’m not having this, is there another plane around?’.

“[She said] there’s one on the tarmac we can get it turned around, £60,000.

“He just whipped his card out.

“Now, I’m sure he got it back from Blackburn in the end, but he just whipped his debit card out and said no problem.

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“We were all sitting in big recliners on the way back and thinking this guy’s alright.

“He looks after his players and he knows how to get the players onside.”

Allardyce found himself back in top-flight management this month when Premier League strugglers Leeds asked him to steady their sinking ship.

But Big Sam has only managed to pick up point in his first two matches in charge – which came courtesy of a 2-2 draw with high-flying Newcastle last Saturday.

After the match, he said: “Very, very satisfied with what they’ve done and how they applied themselves.

Sam Allardyce picked up his first point as Leeds boss last weekendREX

“There are lots of areas where we say room for improvement, but we didn’t get dispirited even though we made life extremely difficult for ourselves.

“We missed a penalty then conceded two but scored to save 2-2.

“Our defending was magnificent today. When you consider where Newcastle are and we played Manchester City last week, we are moving in the right direction now.”

He added: “We have to stick with it and do as much as we can to save our position in the Premier League.

Leeds will be back in action on Sunday, travelling to the London Stadium to take on fellow strugglers West Ham.