Sam Allardyce makes West Ham plans next season despite doubts over future

SAM ALLARDYCE sat down with West Ham’s owners yesterday to discuss plans for next season despite them refusing to discuss a contract beyond the end of this campaign.

Sam Allardyce on Manchester United and England job - The Clare Balding Show

His current deal expires in the summer and after West Ham picked up just 12 points from their 12 games this year, the David Sullivan and David Gold have made it clear they will not discuss any new offer until the end of the season.

Nevertheless, the club are insisting on it being “business as usual” and Allardyce has drawn up pre-season plans for when the players report back to training in the summer.

“We are planning for next season,” Allardyce said.

“We sat down yesterday and planned when we come back, where we are going to go and who we are going to play. I don’t know whether I am going to be here, but when you are contracted to a football club, you do the job that you are paid to do.”

Sullivan was asked by a fans group earlier this week to sum up the season and said that he was “extremely disappointed by the last 12 games”.

But Allardyce refused to hold much store by that.

“Is he really?” he said. “In my position, the game of football is about reality. Is it about results or performances?

Sam AllardycePA

Sam Allardyce could leave West Ham in the summer

“Everywhere you go, people talk about how you play. But it is about winning and we have not won enough and I have to keep telling the players that. We have been close to winning some major football games and the season as a whole has been exciting.

“We cannot allude to what the season has been on the basis of a few games.

“We are all disappointed because we build the expectations so high when you get into the top four and that can be an Achilles heel when you don’t maintain it. I would not have envisaged we would maintain it but we have also picked up a lot fewer points than I would have thought.

“Sorry to remind everybody, but they have got short memories. The association to winning means you have played well and the association to not winning is that they have not played well. But that is not the case.”

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