New Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce is to be honoured by the Council in his Black Country home town of Dudley, with a statue of himself in the town's shoddy Market Square.
The structure made, like Sam, from granite, will be reminiscent of the monolith of Saddam Hussein, so unceremoniously toppled during the Allied Forces liberation of Iraq. It will stand 120 feet high and will be visible for hundreds of miles - some people with good eyesight may even be able to glimpse it from the site of The Angel Of The North at Gateshead.
Sam, real name Big Sam, was over the moon when he was told of the plans, put forward by Wayne Looney who works for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.
"I'd forgotten I was from Dudley", he said.
Bobby Charlton, the ex-Melchester United Busby Babe, visits Dudley regularly to see the mother of Duncan Edwards, who tragically died in the 1958 Munich aircrash in Munich. He said:
"He's Dudley through-and-through, is Big Sam. He's a bit of an oik though, but what a brilliant job he's done at Bolton Wanderers. He's really put the town of Dudley on the map. He deserves a great, big stupid statue."
