Sam Allardyce was keen to structure his own narrative on Saturday afternoon as BBC Sport beckoned his response to an official club statement revealing he won’t be in charge of West Ham next season, claiming the mysterious negotiations over a contract extension at Upton Park, well-documented by the tabloids over the last six months, never actually took place.
According to the 60 year-old, he’d made the board’s mind up for them some time ago by revealing he wouldn’t say on past the expiration of his four year contract.
But whether Allardyce walking, the Hammers board sacking him or a departure of mutuality becomes the prevailing truth over the course of the next few months is largely irrelevant. No matter the circumstances surrounding the end of his reign, it’s time the East London club start thinking bigger than Sam Allardici.
Allardyce and West Ham were always somewhat of an unholy alliance, a compromise of the club’s traditional ethos of positive football and development of its own academy products for the sake of Premier League stability. I wouldn’t describe that as the official ‘West Ham way’ – or even testify to the actual existence of one – yet Allardyce’s departure from the footballing norm at Upton Park created fractures between the board, the management and the fan base.
Big Sam’s results can’t be faulted. Under his leadership, the club have gone from the Championship to recording three sturdy finishes in the Premier League – during which, the Hammers have spent just seven match days out of a possible 114 in the relegation zone. Likewise, they’ve spent 57 match days, exactly 50% of that time, in the Premier League’s top half.
But dissidence towards Allardyce always lingered under the surface. In parody of Alan Pardew’s situation at Newcastle, a point had been reached where Big Sam was the fall guy for every defeat, constantly rekindling terrace debates of negative football, crooked signings and inevitably, the ever-fabled ‘West Ham way’. It was an unhealthy, unsustainable situation that lacked an obvious remedy.
But arguably more important are Allardyce’s inevitable limits. From his four spells and 14 years in the top flight, he’s only qualified for the Europa League thrice – this season coming via the bizarre and uncharacteristic route of the fair play league.
Allardici has protested before that he would achieve major success at a top club. But actions always speak louder than words in the Premier League and whether it’s an unjustified stigmatism or not, Big Sam’s record thus far suggests he’s at best a mid-table manager – a guardian of the formula that guarantees Premier League stability.
Throughout virtually any other period in West Ham history, a club that have never won the top tier title, that would more than suffice – even amid an era where the fans and owners relentlessly demand continuous progress. But the coming campaign isn’t ‘any other’ for the east London club. In fact, it’s arguably their most important to date.
In 2016, West Ham will move to the Olympic stadium, a ground that will give them the third-largest capacity throughout English football (excluding Wembley) and double their match-day revenue from £20million to £40million per year – before all consequentially improved sponsorship deals and corporate arrangements are factored into the equation. It could transform the club from a fringe outfit into one of the Premier League’s most dominant forces, but will require West Ham’s successes on the pitch matching those off it.
Yes, it’s a massive risk parting with a manager who guarantees Premier League survival ahead of such a future-defining move; one need only look at what happened to Bolton, Blackburn and Newcastle after parting company with Allardyce to realise the dangers the Hammers now face. A lengthy spell in the Championship would see those expected revenues become unsustainable stadium costs.
But equally, Allardyce has taken West Ham as far as he can. Even with the influx of new arrivals last summer, including Alex Song, World Cup star Enner Valencia and one-in-two goalscorer Diafra Sakho, the Hammers finished the campaign just one place higher than last season – and once again sacrificed advancement in the FA Cup and Capital One Cup in the process. The search for intrinsic causes inevitably comes back to the Hammers’ style of football under the 60 year-old, amongst other aspects of his management style.
Indeed, West Ham need to think bigger, long-term, global, if they’re to maximise the opportunity the Olympic stadium offers. Allardyce, for all his offerings of sustainability, represented none of that. The Hammers need a manager who can attract proven players to East London, get the club into the European competitions and knows a thing or two about progressing in them. From there, the footballing world is West Ham’s oyster.
The names David Moyes, Slaven Bilic and Marcelo Bielsa certainly come to mind; three realistically available managers with experience in the Europa League whose passion for the game will particularly resonate with the Hammers fan base.
But let’s give some credit where it’s due. Regardless of his turbulent relationship with the supporters, Allardyce has played a major role in future successes at West Ham. A house crumbles without strong foundations, but Signor Allardici’s three successive campaigns in the top flight have laid the platform for the club to grow. Something tells me the hindsight of history will look upon his tenure with particular fondness.
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