Sam Allardyce appears to have been forced into an embarrassing climb down over Ravel Morrison.
Co-owner David Sullivan claimed last week in a TalkSport interview that the manager didn’t want to keep the player whilst the board wanted to offer him a new contract.
But the manager has now declared he’s happy for the 21 year old to stay depending on contract negotiations.
Asked if he wanted to keep the midfielder he said: “If he continues to do what he did last season then yes.
“But that depends on how much players want and if that is too great, that becomes a difficulty.”
On the groin injury that saw the player have surgery rather than tour New Zealand, Allardyce said: “The groin has been causing him problems for a while.
“Hopefully that pain will have relinquished and he will feel a much freer, more active player for us. If he can do what he did for us early last season then great.”
What else can he say, his job is on the line, and everybody knows it ,