SAM ALLARDYCE interview: Ex-England boss reveals management plans, inside his lads' holiday with Alan Pardew and Tony Pulis, and his take on the Premier League's set-piece mania

We're 10 seconds into chatting and Sam Allardyce has already called me out on my moustache, or 'bumfluff'. A fair critique from a man who once boasted one of football's finest facial accoutrements. 

He carries himself breezily, Big Sam, in this era of podcasts and horse racing and lounging by the swimming pool with Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew, feet on show. The rigours of countless relegation battles show no bearing on the 71-year-old who, at times, bursts into spontaneous laughter during our old-fashioned chinwag. 

It's been 906 days since he last prowled the touchline. He isn't remembered by that ill-tempered day at Elland Road, a 4-1 thrashing by Tottenham to seal Leeds' relegation from the Premier League. A second demotion on his CV, hardly his fault after just four games in charge, and it's a gig he doesn't regret. You get the sense the miracle-worker is hankering, somewhere, for a return, though he's in no rush. 

'If I pop up on a club's radar, I'd be more than happy to have a chat,' he says. I haven't had any conversations. I'm not ringing everybody up saying "give me that job."'

Would he test the Allardicio hypothesis and look abroad? 'I don't think the family, having supported me all my life, want me to do that anymore. They don't want to pack up and go. 

'Maybe an international job where you don't have to be there 24/7, 365 days a year. I'm told Mr [Thomas] Tuchel spends a lot of time back in Germany. That might be an opportunity.'

We speak as Allardyce lends his support to the Every Minute Matters CPR campaign, in partnership with the British Heart Foundation and Sky Bet. One of football's most sobering days saw Fabrice Muamba suffer a cardiac arrest in 2012, as Bolton took on Tottenham a couple of years after Allardyce had left The Trotters. 

'I can still vividly remember what happened to Fabrice,' he says. 'Thanks to immediate CPR and defibrillation, Fabrice made a full recovery. But most grassroots football teams don’t have a medical team, which is why it’s critical that anyone knows how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator. Anyone can learn these lifesaving skills.'

He still chats occasionally with Muamba, who has most recently been a youth coach with Burnley. You sense that footballing fraternity is important to Allardyce, an elder statesman of the game who has seen more than 1,500 fixtures as a player and manager. 

And so there's the odd meal with Sir Alex Ferguson ('the wine is very good'). He hasn't had a chance to hold court with the globetrotting Jose Mourinho but would like to ('we'll both talk about parking the bus!'). 

Quite unexpectedly, in August, we were blessed with footage of the lads' holiday we were least expecting: Allardyce, Pardew, and Pulis, hitting the barbecue and sun loungers. Allardyce reclined with cucumber on his eyes in one clip. Sky Sports and Uber Eats had delivered a marketing masterpiece. 

'That was the best two or three days I've had doing something like that. Fabulous,' says Allardyce. 

'It was a good laugh and we had a great time. It was great to meet up with Alan and Tony again. When Uber Eats want to refresh that advertisement, we'll be there! Don't worry about that.'

Daily Mail Sport probes further, wondering where Allardyce would take the chaps next. Maybe a trip to Wayne Lineker's O Beach in Ibiza? Magaluf? Ayia Napa? But no. Allardyce proffers a more sophisticated location: Dubai. 

Perhaps that's no surprise. The United Arab Emirates' most iconic asphalt jungle was a regular haunt for Big Sam throughout his Premier League career, when he'd take his squads out for some warm weather, exercise, and boozing. 'I think we trained at one of them,' former West Ham winger Matt Jarvis joked earlier this year. 

Allardyce always had his slightly unorthodox ways, most reputedly at Bolton. There, armed with a decade-long contract, he'd apparently have more coaches than footballers at points. His 'War Room', a sensory overload of screens displaying players' performance data after training, gave him an edge over the opposition.

He feels he never really got credit for that, his reputation instead tarred, for perpetuity, by the necessary long-ball tactics at Bolton as they acclimatised to the top flight before breaking into Europe. 

'We were brilliant at Bolton. We were labelled unfairly in the end. In the beginning, to stay in the Premier League, we had to play a certain way more often than not,' he says. 

'But we improved the team with world-class players. Not Premier League-class, but world-class. It was a big insult to them by most media outlets that they still called us long-ball. What an absolute disgrace. 

'Unfortunately everywhere after that was just the same, a tedious response. Same old, same old. Non-thinkers didn't know what had changed, but I never played the same way at any two clubs.'

Undeniably, though, set-pieces and aerial balls were a weapon for Allardyce. There's no smoke without fire. At one stage, his Boltonian brigade won four consecutive home games against Arsenal, with each of the opening goals being a header. 'They sucked us in and played the long ball,' Arsene Wenger bemoaned, at his wits' end. 

Maybe a modern Premier League gig would play into Allardyce's hands, now that set-pieces are so in vogue. Ninety-two goals have been scored from set plays already this season. 

Surprisingly, he resists the notion of there being a trend. 'I just think it's come to bat because of the goals Arsenal have scored from them. That's just highlighted it. If you've forgotten about set-pieces as a coach, you're a fool! And I don't think anybody had.'

There's much more we could ask, but all good things come to an end. One of the final things we learn from Allardyce is that no, he hasn't managed to visit the mural of him eating fish and chips in his home town of Dudley, but he intends to. Among his pleasures growing up was eating battered chips, a West Midlands delicacy. 

Then it's time for us to part. 'Time up, sir. See you, lad.' Daily Mail Sport has been dismissed.