This would be Big Sam’s greatest achievement at West Ham

Allardyce stays, Allardyce stays, Allardyce stays! We’re all shouting this with excitement from the rooftops as the news broke that Sam Allardyce will be in charge next season after promising to play a more attractive and exciting style of football. A style that will get fans out of their seats and have opposition defenders quaking in their boots. Perhaps. To be fair to Sam, when he is given a target he has normally fulfilled this, and to look the bigger picture it is maybe better to realise that Travis weren’t right at the turn of the century, and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Statistics and figures were released within the last week that showed the money each Premier League team accrued this season through television rights. Whilst the figures were ultimately staggering, and to a point obscene, it also shows the price for staying in the top flight. The proviso given to Sam was to keep West Ham in the Premier League. Like him or not, he achieved his target.

In his first season in charge he was told that promotion was the minimum he had to deliver. He delivered. With football being more about filthy lucre than it is about the fans who part with their hard earnt money, no matter how insistent a club chairman is about being a fan himself, he is ultimately also keeping an eager eye on finances. So instead of a knee jerk reaction like Cardiff City, Fulham and Norwich City, the board seem to have had their trust repaid by Big Sam. Had we have replaced him, we may well have suffered the same fate as those three relegated sides and been one of those teams to drop a division.

Now I forgive you for thinking this is a Big Sam love-in, but it certainly isn’t. There are times I’ve liked Sam, promotion at the first attempt was one, getting under Jose Mourinho’s skin was another. However, there have been times when I have strongly been appalled by him. Cupping his ear to the crowd who booed his tactics to show their disdain smacked of arrogance (and maybe despair on his front to be fair,) but saying he had more ambition than he club who employed him? Not going to earn him many fans. Admittedly I have never been in such a high profile or pressured position as Sam, but he has to be careful not to alienate the fans.

Sullivan, Gold and Brady will have been unable to ignore the fans’ protests, but as the print media seemingly reminds us anytime an Allardyce story breaks, they don’t have a history of sacking managers. They will be aware that it will take a good start from Sam to get the fans on the same page as Sam next season. If the sales of season tickets takes a hit, that will be something else they hopefully will inform Sam of, possibly to give him the motivation to prove the fans wrong.

After the hat-trick of wins over T*ttenham was completed, we briefly forgot about the protests against Sam and celebrated one of the few highlights of our season. A good atmosphere and feeling was around the Boleyn Ground, and demonstrations were briefly forgotten. If Sam can use not only that win against Sp*rs, but the negativity as catalysts to turn our fortunes wrong and maybe prove the doubters wrong, then all props to him. I may not be a Sam Allardyce fan, but I am a West Ham fan. I never liked Kanoute a great deal whilst he was at West Ham but I still celebrated his goals. As a fan I will back the team 100%, however I feel Sam has a big task getting the doubters backing him, but if that is another one he succeeds in, it may be his greatest achievement as West Ham manager yet.