Eurosport journalist Dean Jones has featured on the latest edition of Touchline Talk to discuss the future of the West Brom manager, Sam Allardyce.
The Baggies are now nine points adrift of 17th-placed Brighton & Hove Albion with just five games remaining of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign.
Will Allardyce stay at West Brom?
Yes!
No!
Yet despite staring relegation in the face, the transfer expert believes other clubs will consider taking Allardyce away from the Baggies this summer.
Allardyce was appointed as West Brom manager when the Baggies had just seven points to their name with 13 games having been played.
Although the Baggies will be looking for a miracle to remain a Premier League club for next season, Jones believes Allardyce has done a good job just to keep them a fighting chance of staying up.
He said: “The has done pretty well to even give them a fighting chance, and that the style of their football has actually surprised quite a lot of people – me included.
“Look at that Chelsea game, they weren’t lucky to get that win against Chelsea, they played them off the park.
“The style of their goals was lovely, and I think that that would have surprised people. And there’ll be other clubs now considering Sam Allardyce that you might not have thought would have gone down that path before.
“It’s always risky because there’s quite a few fanbases that don’t want to see typical Sam Allardyce football. But I think he’s shown that there is still a place for it. And I think that just because he’s getting older doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know how to get the best out of a team and out of limited resources.
“So I think that there will probably be other options that emerge for him at the end of the season.”
TIF Thoughts on Jones’ comments…
It will be nothing short of miraculous if West Brom stay up this season given their nine-point deficit with just 15 points to play for, however, along the way Allardyce has led West Brom to some noteworthy results including their stunning 5-2 rout over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Allardyce has a fantastic record on the whole against Premier League relegation and it is unlikely to put much of a dent in his reputation given the huge challenge he took on when he joined the club.
With another year left on his contract, it will certainly be interesting to see whether clubs look to take him away from The Hawthorns or whether he will stay and look to get the side straight back up into the Premier League.
In other news: ‘On the grapevine’ – Pundit drops huge West Brom managerial claim