Sam Allardyce says he deserved to be England boss in 2006

Sam Allardyce is convinced he should have been made England manager in 2006 - and he still wants the job.

Allardyce was interviewed by the Football Association following Sven Goran Eriksson's departure and was so desperate for the post he went as far as recruiting captain David Beckham as a referee.

But he lost out to Steve McClaren, and even nine years on it is a decision that still rankles with the new Sunderland boss.

Writing in his autobiography, serialised in The Sun newspaper, Allardyce said: "I should have got it and, as I'm a better manager now than I was then, I believe I should be in the running whenever it comes round again.

"That's not vanity or being full of my own importance. My track record entitles me to be considered.

"I'm ambitious and I still want the England job, but I have less chance now even though I'm better equipped to do it."

Revealing the secret meeting with Beckham, then at Real Madrid, he said: "David said 'the next manager needs to have experience to handle Champions League and World Cup games', but I didn't agree.

"I got on the front foot and asked David to lunch in Madrid...he could see I was serious and I think I left having convinced him I could do it.

"He said if anybody at the FA asked him about me he wouldn't have a problem, but he didn't think he would have a say."

Allardyce, who led Bolton to eighth place in the Premier League in 2006, once joked he would have been given a shot at a top-four club if his surname had been 'Allardici'.

He left West Ham in the summer and on Saturday signed a two-year deal at Sunderland