Carlton Cole says Sam Allardyce's uncertain future is putting the brakes on a new contract
The Hammers lie ninth in the Premier League and are still in with a chance of European football despite a recent tail off in results. But Allardyce’s contract runs out at the end of this campaign, and there has been no move from the board to begin talks with the 60-year-old.
Cole, also out of contract in May, is looking for a new deal too, but said: “I don’t think Sam knows what he is doing so he is not going to be talking about my contract.
“It can be all fine and dandy one year and next year you are having a stinker. You don’t know what is going on. You don’t plan, you take it game by game. If you try and plan, you get disappointed.
“It is the position that we are in with Sam at the moment. We don’t know whether he will be there or not.”
Cole, now 31, has started only five games all season and scored two goals, but added: “I don’t want to jinx myself, but of course I would like to stay at West Ham. I have been here for 10 years.
“I am trying my best to make myself a presence in the team, which has been hard this year. We did go on a good run, and I felt in the last 12 or 13 games I could have played a bigger part, but the manager chose to go with someone else. Whenever I do get my chance I do my best.”
Cole, who has embarked on a major fund raising project with Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne to help Ebola sufferers in his mother’s home country of Sierra Leone, revealed: “I was on the brink of going to West Brom In January.
“I was not playing regularly at West Ham. I’m still not. Sam chose not to let me go. It was really hard and we had a few words. It was 20 minutes to the deadline. I was on the table saying ‘Where do I sign?’
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“It was really frustrating. I was effing and blinding. But you dust yourself off and carry on.
“I do like Sam a lot. He is an honest guy. He told he couldn’t let me go as he didn’t have a replacement.
“He said he needed me, but I don’t think he has. I think I have played 120 minutes since. Sometimes you don’t get what you want. I didn’t.
“I can’t be bothered complaining. What has happened has happened. I have to do the right thing by me and my family now to try and get another deal.”
Cole’s Football Fighting Ebola project is now something he is focusing on as part of his plans for his future. He has even been asked by Sierre Leone to be a Sports Ambassador for the country.
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He said: “Hopefully one day I will go over there and start doing more. My mum is from Sierra Leone and there’s a big crisis over there and I thought we need to do something in football to create awareness.”
There have been 12,188 certified cases of Ebola in the country, and nearly 4,000 deaths.
Cole said: “My uncle is over there – he can’t come back because there are no planes flying out. I’m trying to get him out. He’s still over there but he’s alright.
“My mum and I have got our own charity Carlakka and we’re trying to help build a school over there, and also an orphanage.”
