Sam Allardyce makes interesting West Brom claim after leaving club in the summer

Sam Allardyce has suggested that he would’ve been open to staying on as West Brom boss had he been given backing in the transfer market.

The former England boss was named as Slaven Bilic’s successor in December 2020 but despite a few positive signs initially, he couldn’t prevent Albion suffering relegation from the Premier League with a whimper.

Ahead of the current campaign, the board decided to go down another route, so Allardyce departed and they spent £2m in compensation to bring ex-Barnsley chief Valerien Ismael to The Hawthorns.

And, speaking to the Express & Star, Allardyce was critical of the decision to turn to the Frenchman, as he revealed he may have extended his stay had he been given the money used to get Ismael on improving the squad.

“I had plenty of chats with the club about the financial situation, so to see them pay £2million for that manager really was bizarre. If they’d have said to me ‘we’ll give you £2million to spend on players’, it might have been an opportunity for me to stay.

“It wouldn’t have gone a long way in terms of bringing in players on fees, but that money would have gone a long way towards getting a couple of top, top players in on loan.”

The verdict

It’s hard to believe that Allardyce would’ve been tempted to stay over £2m, which is what he is claiming here, but he clearly had talks with the board and was aware that money wasn’t going to be available.

That proved to be the case in the summer, with Ismael not spending a penny until Daryl Dike arrived in the New Year.

Whether Albion fans would’ve been happy with Allardyce staying is open to debate, but it’s clear that the Ismael appointment did not work at all, so they will be hoping for major improvements under Steve Bruce.

Thoug