Allardyce: “What will be will be”

Sam Allardyce has finally opened up on a week which he admits has seen him firmly in the firing line.

Writing in his London Evening Standard column he says:  “While the vast majority of fans are sensible and smart and understand how far this club have come in a relatively short space of time, for a few, one poor performance means the manager is heading for the sack.”

Her quoted an example saying: “On Tuesday our co-owner David Gold came to the training ground for a planned technical board meeting regarding the academy.

That was interpreted by some as a crisis meeting about my future. One media outlet even suggested I had been sacked.”

In fact ClaretandHugh reported the meeting as being entirely innocent whilst claiming  – as we still do – that candidates are being sought across Europe to replace him.

He adds: “On my contract situation, it will be what it will be. I am not pushing the board to give me a new deal on the basis of their clearly stated opinion of the way they want to negotiate, which is consistent with what has happened before. So be it.

On the defeat at West Brom he said: “It was a huge disappointment for everyone but before last weekend, when was the last time we played that poorly? Perhaps people should remember that. Disappointments do happen in football.

We haven’t got the biggest squad in the world and it was further depleted because of injuries. The previous Wednesday we ended the game against Southampton with nine men. The players expended a monstrous amount of energy in that game and came away from St Mary’s with a tremendous point.

The players are human beings and they had given everything against Southampton and Manchester United the previous Sunday.

I would also like to make a point about the fixture list. Everyone talks about the importance of the FA Cup but the Premier League have slipped in a full midweek schedule before the third and fifth rounds this season.

As a manager, I have to manage the expectation. If you start poorly, the criticism will come. If you start well and then dip, the criticism will still also come because people expect you to just carry on.

As a team, I will admit we’re searching to return to the level of performance we showed earlier in the season. I thought it was there against Manchester United.