Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m in the football camp that believes that Sam Allardyce does a very good job in what he’s asked to do, and I’m old enough to remember how he had Bolton Wanderers playing with the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha all those years ago, but West Bromwich Albion really shouldn’t be contemplating him as our next manager.
His reputation is deserved, simply because the jobs he has taken since Bolton has seen him, in my humble, lose the attacking flair and desire he once had, as he looks for stability and safety.
At the right club, he’d do a great job where expectations were realistic.
Expectations at The Hawthorns clearly aren’t realistic as we have a Board who don’t believe fourth place, given the lack of investment over the summer where finances and getting players out were the priority, is good enough as Guochan Lai looks at the bottom line and panics about no Premier League football.
Whatever side of the fence you sit on the Darren Moore decision, it wasn’t about style, it wasn’t about football, it was about finances and Premier League panic.
Had Sam been appointed at the start of the season, there would’ve been an uproar from many fans still sore from Tony Pulis’ time in charge. I’m also not sure, with our squad and without additional spending, he could’ve bettered where we are now, and whilst I think we could’ve still been in this position in the table, it certainly wouldn’t have been with the attacking intent we had under Moore, and still have under Shan to some degree, it would’ve been more based on defensive solidity.
But the managerial search ongoing, if it actually is and Shan doesn’t have the job fulltime until fans turn on him, the E&S via Talksport have got Allardyce keeping his potential hat in the ring.
“Do I want the job? It’s not a question of whether I want it or not. It’s a question of whether the club contact me personally or my agent and say what the position is, what they want me to do and what they expect me to do and what I think I’m capable of doing for West Brom if it gets to that stage. If everybody’s comfortable with that then it may be a possibility.”
If the Board were prepared to be patient, I could see the sense in Allardyce to some degree but it would have to be a longterm plan where we transitioned from defensive to a more pleasing style, but our style is already progressive, so it would be a backwards move.
The other option is an Allardyce type manager to consolidate after promotion back to the Premier League, but that would see us back in the same position we were with Pulis where we try and stand still, rather than kicking on.
So it has to be a non-starter, and looking around social media at other fan reactions, plenty feel similar.
