Sam Allardyce confirmed he will no longer be West Bromwich Albion head coach just minutes before attacking Michail Antonio for ‘disgusting’ comments about his philosophy.
The former England boss took charge at the Hawthorns after Slaven Bilic and was tasked with keeping the Baggies in the Premier League having never been relegated from the top flight.
AFP
However, the 66-year-old was unable to stop the slide and announced he will be stepping down at the end of the season minutes after the loss to the Hammers.
“West Bromwich Albion made me a generous offer to stay at The Hawthorns that shows the commitment of an ambitious club,” he said in a statement. “After serious consideration I have decided not to accept that offer.
“If I were to stay and achieve promotion next season the expectation would be for me to continue for at least another season and, sadly, that is not a commitment I feel able to make at this stage of my career.
“I believe the club now needs stability and continuity and this would, in my opinion, best be provided by a young and ambitious manager who can get us back to where we should be as an established Premier League football club.
AFP
“I must thank the players and staff, in particular Luke Dowling and Ken (Xu Ke), for their unwavering commitment to a very difficult challenge during my time at the club. This challenge was made all the more difficult, of course, by the enforced absence of the club’s fantastic supporters, some of whom I am delighted were present for our final home game against West Ham United.
“The club have asked for my opinion on the qualities my successor will require and I have been more than happy to offer my thoughts.
“The search for my replacement starts after the final game of the season at Leeds United. In the meantime, we will be concentrating fully on the preparation for that game and will do everything we can to finish the season with as many points as possible.”
Allardyce then gave an interview after the game and was irate at comments from Antonio suggesting his Baggies side played a direct style of football.
Sky Sports
“Unlike Michail Antonio’s statement that I just heard before he came out here,” he told Sky Sports.
“Saying we got big men that just play it in the channel, he just insulted me and my team so I know he is a nice lad but it was disgusting what he said.
“So I think he should go back and watch the game and see how we really played. I mean, our front two are 5”10 and 5”9.
“So I don’t know what big he thought we could hit into the channel.”
AFP
He added: “You never talk about anything else, just like Michail Antonio just said it, ‘Sam is long ball.’ It is a load of crap.
“It always has been a load of crap because I never played the same way at any football club I’ve ever been at. And if you thought that was long ball today, then somebody is deluded.
“We played long ball against Liverpool because it was the right way to play and should have got a result against them. They didn’t like it.
“But it shows everybody that if you play a simple game against Liverpool you can get at them, you can get behind them and you can get chances.
“They’ve gone and beat Burnley 3-0 tonight and they were dead lucky to beat us the other night, dead lucky. Today, West Ham did deserve to beat us 3-1, but that was our fault and not anybody else’s.”
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