SAM Allardyce should replace Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager, according to a nationwide supporters' survey.

The Wanderers boss is streets ahead of the rest as the people's choice to manage the national team, leaving the likes of Eriksson, Steve McLaren, Alan Curbishley and even Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger trailing in his wake in the popularity stakes.

Thousands of England fans have been so impressed by the job he has done in establishing the Whites as a Premiership force on limited resources that they made him their overwhelming choice with 19 per cent of the vote - a staggering seven percentage points clear of the field.

ZOO magazine claims its Football Census to be the biggest ever football fan survey of its kind and the result was a clear vote of "no confidence" in Eriksson and two of the men who are regularly touted to succeed him - Middlesbrough's McClaren and Charlton's Curbishley, who polled 12pc and 7pc respectively.

Allardyce, who was voted the greatest Wanderers manager of all time with 88pc of the vote in the Legends poll, paid tribute to George Taylor, his first coach when he came to Bolton as a 15-year-old, and Ian Greaves and George Mulhall, the management team he enjoyed success with in the late Seventies, for teaching him the basics.

"Of all the managers I've seen since - including the Lippis and the Erikssons - I haven't learned anything I didn't learn from Ian Greaves and George Mulhall," he said.

Allardyce, who is on the threshold of becoming the first manager to take Wanderers into Europe, has warned his Reebok bosses he will need to strengthen his squad considerably to sustain the challenge.

"We'll need an extra five or six players if we get into the UEFA Cup," he said. "And for us to compete in Europe they would have to be top-end players.

"But it's also important to sign players who can improve us in the Premiership so that we can get back into Europe.

"If you play in Europe one year you are going to want to do it the year after.

"Your players become geared for it and then the expectation level rises.

"So if we don't support the players by trying to stay in Europe they may become discontented with the club because we can't match their ambition.

"If we're going to get there we have to make sure we can sustain it. There's no point just having a fleeting moment and a one-off run in Europe. "