With West Ham falling short of expectations this season and manager Sam Allardyce's contract expiring, the Hammers didn't waste any time after the final whistle deciding his fate.
West Ham announce Sam Allardyce’s departure
It took mere moments after the season ended for West Ham to announce that they won’t be giving Sam Allardyce a new contract.
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STATEMENT: The Club have begun the search for a new manager after deciding not to renew Sam Allardyce’s contract http://t.co/wHlHhyMLZE
— West Ham United FC (@whufc_official) May 24, 2015 While the timing is certainly a little callous on the surface -- the tweet was put out not two minutes after West Ham’s season-ending loss to Newcastle finished -- it’s likely a decision was made weeks ago and Allardyce has known for a while that this was happening.
The decision ends a four-season run for Allardyce at West Ham that started in 2011 in the Championship. He earned promotion by guiding the Hammers to a victory in the playoffs that first season, and the next season his side finished 10th after an impressive first campaign back in the Premier League. They only managed 13th- and 12th-place finishes in their second and third seasons back in the Premier League, though, consistently failing to build on the promise of greater things that West Ham dreamed of.
Allardyce has at times been a controversial figure, especially with his handling of troubled youngster Ravel Morrison last season, but he’s generally regarded as a good manager. Apparently, that includes knowing when it’s time to walk away, as he told the media after the match that he’d chosen to leave anyways, as he didn’t want to overstay his welcome.
He has a reputation for being boring, and was asked to change his style if he wanted to keep his job for this season. West Ham were entertaining in the first half of the season and hung around the top seven, but were poor in the second half of the campaign, winning just three times in 2015.
What’s next for both parties is very much up in the air right now. Allardyce will likely land on his feet back in a top flight somewhere, but who with is a mystery. West Ham had been rumored to be pushing for exit-bound Napoli manager Rafa Benitez, who won the Champions League and an FA Cup at Liverpool, but the Spaniard is believed to have spurned them when Real Madrid came calling. More recently, departed Besiktas manager Slaven Bilic has been linked to the post.
Premier League TV money and upcoming move in to the London Olympic Stadium means they’ll have plenty of suitors, though, so West Ham fans shouldn’t be too worried about their club’s future. Not yet, anyways.
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