They say a week is a long time in politics when it seems even longer in football.
In the last seven days we lost our second game against an A league team in our disappointing New Zealand tour and had the news confirmed that Andy Carroll required an operation and would be out injured for 4 months. It was then the war of words begun with David Sullivan’s appearance on Talksport last Thursday evening. Sam appeared to hit back with various sound bites from his press conferences in New Zealand quoted daily in the tabloids with speculation that he faced the sack. The bookies sensed blood and immediately made Big Sam odds on favourite to be sacked before the first day of the season, in fact he remains 1/2 odds on with some bookies this morning. Next came Twittergate when David Gold appeared to favor a tweet calling for the manager to be sacked. Gold moved quickly to distance himself from that tweet yesterday saying:
“After a 33 hour flight from New Zealand, I was in my car scanning through my tweets and it seems I accidently ‘favourited’ one. I should clarify that I did not and would never, deliberately or intentionally, endorse a tweet that questions our manager’s position. Lesson: don’t use twitter when you’re jet lagged!”
Sam Allardyce appeared on Talksport Sports breakfast radio show this morning with Alan Brazil and Andy Gray. He said he thought the New Zealand tour was a trip too far, confirmed the loan signing of Carl Jenkinson which he expected in the next 24 hours and claimed the speculation on his future had now been put to bed. On Ravel Morrison he suggested Ravel needed to be more disciplined in training to succeed at West Ham.
You can listen to Sam’s full interview on Talksport here:
I understand there is no chance of Sam being sacked this year. What next year holds for Sam will be completely up to him but if he starts blaming results on being forced to play attacking football or not being fully in charge of transfer policy then his days in January 2015 may be numbered. His ongoing relationship with the fans may be a factor as we approach the new year.