Sam Allardyce has been assured he will remain in charge of West Ham until the end of the season!
Speculation was running riot this afternoon (Fri) that former Hammer Malky Mackay would be marching into Upton Park as the club’s new boss.
But a highly placed Hammers source continued to insist that although “no manager is ever completely safe” there was no more than a five per cent chance the club would replace Allardyce.
Mackay has been sacked as manager by Cardiff City after a meeting of the club’s board of directors.
A statement on the club’s website says a new first team manager will be appointed in due course.
Mackay had been in charge at Cardiff for two-and-a-half years after taking over from Dave Jones in June 2011.
Questioned directly on the possibility of Mackay taking over at the Boleyn Ground by Claretandhugh the source claimed the club was behind Allardyce and that he would remain in charge.
That, however, could change should the side’s slide continue over the next couple of games.
Our source said: ” We are behind Sam Allardyce. If he were to find himself on the market today anyone of two or three threatened clubs would come in for him.
“He’s known to be the man to get clubs out of trouble and we trust him to do that. No manager is ever 100 per cent safe but we have no plans to replace our manager.”
Allardyce, meanwhile, admitted in an e-mail to subscribiers today that the defeat against Arsenal on Boxing Day had been hard to take saying: “I’m sad for the players because to have no reward from such a great effort is a little hard to swallow.
“Every game is now important to us, and it will be the same when West Bromwich Albion visit us on Saturday.
“To try and get in the changing room at full-time with 17 points after 19 games still won’t be good enough but it will be a start because we need to get more points than games played as quickly as we can. “
Let’s see what the mood like tomorrow night, if we haven’t beaten WBA. And if we then screw up against Fulham, then that 5% is going to shoot up off the graph.