Frank McAvennie reckons Manuel Pellegrini should have stayed with the Hammers squad rather then flying off to Chile on personal business.

The Irons boss has taken criticism for his decision but the counter argument is that he has a highly paid backroom team fully capable of overseeing the training regime during his brief absence.

However, Macca doesn’t believe it was a good idea in the present circumstances for him to stick by his plan to fly off to South America.

He said: “It’s all well and good saying his staff can look after things and that’s true but I think it sends out the wrong message to be missing when things aren’t going so well.

The other aspect to it is that once the manager appears on the training ground everything goes up a level or two.

“As I’ve said before I have no doubt he will turn things around but I would have liked to have seen him at the club during the break.”