Sam Allardyce names the biggest EFL derby - It's not Wolves v West Brom | OneFootball

The former England manager was put on the spot over which match he thinks is the EFL's biggest derby, and he picked one of his former clubs.

The former England manager has been asked who he thinks is the biggest derby in the EFL, and his final answer was a match between a club that he played for and a club that he managed.

The start of the new football season traditionally starts with the release of the fixture lists, and for most supporters, eyes will usually turn to the date of their fixtures in their biggest local derby. These are the matches that really matter, for which the calendar may have to be cleared.

And below the Premier League, these fixtures might not even come about very often. Promotion and relegation can mean that clubs barely get to play their local rivals for years, and this has been the case for the heated rivalry between West Ham United and Millwall. West Ham's relegation from the Premier League at the end of 2025-26 has set up a renewal of their hostilities following an absence of 14 years.

These rivalries don't get forgotten in those intervening years, and former England manager Sam Allardyce has now said that he calls this derby as the biggest in the EFL.

Sam Allardyce has named West Ham vs Millwall as the EFL's biggest derby

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Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, the former England manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed his view that derby between West Ham United and Millwall, which resumes this season, is the biggest in the EFL.

Allardyce was given a series of matches, starting with AFC Wimbledon vs MK Dons, and asked to play off these matches against each other. He ranked Portsmouth vs Southampton as a bigger derby than this, and then Cardiff vs Swansea, Burnley and Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers vs West Bromwich Albion as bigger still.

We might have expected him to stop at Wolves vs West Brom. After all, Allardyce was born in the Black Country and got his first professional contract as a player after being spotted playing for Dudley Town in 1969. But when pushed, the manager then called the derby between West Ham United and Millwall as the biggest of the lot.

What fans have been saying this summer about the return of the West Ham vs Millwall rivalry

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The return of the derby between West Ham United and Millwall following an absence of a decade and a half has provoked a lot of comment online this summer, so here's what some fans have been saying about it.

This West Ham fan rather likes the idea of a potential Championship title race between the two clubs:

This Premier League fan from abroad wants to see both clubs promoted so that they can continue their battles in the top-flight:

West Ham have banned half and half scarves from The London Stadium this season, which may be important when they come to play Millwall...

...But this Millwall fan wanted one anyway, though he had no intention of wearing it:

There are some big derbies in the EFL this season, but the scarcity of West Ham vs Millwall makes it rare

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With a playing career that took in eleven clubs and a managerial career that took in 13, Sam Allardyce has seen a fair few local derbies over a career in football which stretches back over half a century.

Allardyce has connections to both clubs. He was the West Ham manager when the clubs last met during the 2011-12 season, and his team took four points off Millwall that season, with a goalless draw at The Den and a 2-1 West Ham win in the return match at The Boleyn Ground.

But the former Irons boss also has a connection to The Den as well. He played for Millwall from 1981 to 1983, making 63 appearances for them and scoring two goals, though he didn't get to play for them against West Ham United.

The lengthy gap between these two sides meeting hasn't dimmed their rivalry, and the 15-year wait to play each other isn't the longest gap they've faced before. The two clubs were fairly regular opponents of each other until the Second World War, but then didn't play each other at all in the 31 years between 1947 and 1978.

Figures from 11vs11.com

There are some heavyweight derbies in the EFL this season, and there's no doubt that AFC Wimbledon vs MK Dons, Portsmouth vs Southampton, Cardiff vs Swansea, Burnley vs Blackburn and Wolves vs West Brom are all huge matches in the English football calendar.

But these clubs also play each other reasonably regularly, and this isn't the case with West Ham vs Millwall. Indeed, it's been so long since these two clubs last met each other that they've still never played each other at The London Stadium, and West Ham have been there for a decade, now.

And there is certainly no love lost between these two clubs. In this particular case, absence certainly doesn't seem to have any hearts grow fonder. The two meet for the first time this season at The Den on the 19th September, and it's a fixture that all Championship fans will be wanting to take the time to watch.