Sam Allardyce And Rafa Benitez
Sam Allardyce expects his West Bromwich Albion future to be resolved imminently. The 66-year-old former England boss has been in charge at The Hawthorns since replacing Slaven Bilic in December and signed a contract until 2022. Albion’s form has improved recently but relegation to the Championship will be confirmed with defeat to Arsenal at The Emirates on Sunday evening. The question on the lips of every Baggie now is whether Allardyce – who has overseen four wins in 22 matches to date – will stay on and lead the club in the second tier.
Sam Allardyce said: “There’s no definite update. We’ve had general chats about pre-season and things. What’s happening with myself is undecided yet. I suppose most probably in the next week we’ll have those more in-depth discussions. That will probably go a little bit deeper after the Arsenal game.”
Pressed further,
Sam Allardyce remained tight-lipped: “I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew myself! I wouldn’t tell anybody so you’re not going to get any information regarding that situation until I sit down with Luke (Dowling) and Ken (Xu Ke) and look at it. I was hoping there would be no need to speculate about my future because we’d have already secured our Premier League status but that’s not the case.”
Allardyce was brought in with one aim, and while the survival specialist isn’t likely to achieve it this time, he has won lots of admirers among the Albion faithful.
Sam Allardyce added: “The sad thing is there’s been many times where we could have made life easier for ourselves. It would have still been difficult but with four games to go, maybe we could have won two, drawn one and lost one or won two and lost two to achieve the ultimate in terms of not getting relegated. In the last two games, not getting over the line in terms of victories, has been a real disappointment for me.”
