Sam Allardyce reveals all about West Brom exit & makes ‘bizarre’ Valerien Ismael comment

Sam Allardyce has revealed West Bromwich Albion could have kept him if they didn’t waste £2million on Valerien Ismael.

Allardyce walked out on Albion after relegation from the Premier League and the club paid Barnsley £2m in compensation to secure Ismael as his replacement following a protracted managerial search.

The former England boss, 67, decided against a stint in the Championship after discovering the club’s budget during talks with former technical director Luke Dowling and chief executive Xu Ke - also known as Ken.

He has now admitted, in an interview with Ladbrokes, that he could have been persuaded to stay at The Hawthorns if Albion had promised him the £2m to spend on new players.

“It really did surprise me – and I don’t want to criticise anyone in particular – that the club paid £2m in compensation for Barnsley’s manager when there were a whole host of top managers out of work at the time, just queuing up around the block for an opportunity like West Brom,” Allardyce said.

“It’s easy to say in hindsight because it hasn’t worked out for Valerien Ismael at the club, but I think that there are so many names that were better qualified to do the job.

“I had plenty of chats with the club about the financial situation, so to see them pay £2m for that manager really was bizarre. I mean, if they’d have said to me ‘We’ll give you £2m 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 £2m would have gone a long way towards getting a couple of top, top players in on loan. That sort of budget should have been spent on players.

“There were so many good managers out there at the time capable of getting West Brom