Allardyce: “All bosses have Boleyn fan problems”
Allardyce – with a book on the way – has been talking to the Sunday People and seems keen to dismiss the idea that the trouble he encountered with the Irons fans was a “Sam Allardyce/West Ham” thing.
He said: “There were difficulties and differences of opinion with the fans, but like every manager at West Ham, they have difficulty with the fans at some stage and that’s acceptable.
“You know that before you take the job. It’s not a Sam Allardyce thing with West Ham fans. But because you are the manager, people make it a Sam Allardyce thing.
“But you don’t take the job if you don’t know that’s going to happen.
“Do people think I’m so naive at this stage of my life that I didn’t speak to everyone I could about West Ham? Of course I did – I haven’t been that naive for a long, long time so I knew what to expect from some fans.
“But I enjoyed my time there: Everything we achieved, the challenge, living in London, it was a great time and experience for my family.”
And speaking of the owners he says: “The split was the right time for both of us. I was ready to go and had decided I would and they wanted a change, too. But perhaps we both could have both done it better.
“They weren’t letting the cat out of the bag, but neither was I. I knew they were speaking to people behind my back. I am a manager of many years experience and I knew that was happening. It’s not good, but it happens everywhere so you just have to leave it at that.
“I had four great years at West Ham. People will always refer to the difficulties at certain times, but you get those everywhere. The satisfaction for me is that when you leave somewhere you look at what you are leaving and I know I left West Ham in great shape.”