"Foreign coaches are fashionable for the top jobs in this country at the moment, including the England job.
"I'm not having a go at Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez, Sven Goran Eriksson or Arsene Wenger by any stretch of the imagination, but this country sometimes judges an Englishman's credentials to manage a football club on what he did as a player. Yet those four have done f*** all in football.
"Sven and Benitez did nowt as footballers. They run the top end of football in this country yet they've no credentials as footballers."
On England boss Sven Goran Eriksson, Allardyce barked: "Sven's been out watching teams as much as any previous England manager, and knows as much about all the players.
"He had a look at Michael Ricketts when he was here with us, Darius Vassell when he was at Villa and Andy Johnson at Crystal Palace.
"Having said that, if Kevin Nolan or Nicky Hunt were transferred to Chelsea or Manchester United, it's much more likely they'd be noticed by England. Then again, Glen Johnson's gone backwards since he joined Chelsea from West Ham."