‘No disrespect to them…’ – Allardyce makes damning claim about West Brom squad
West Brom boss Sam Allardyce believes that Albion had no chance of staying up with the players who were at the club when he joined.
Big Sam arrived at The Hawthorns after the players had just secured an impressive point at The Etihad which had some fans thinking that the unlikely task of staying up could be achieved.
Allardyce has now claimed that he is an expert in bringing in players who can make an immediate impact after the club signed Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Okay Yokuslu on deadline day.
Big Sam is quoted by Express and Star as saying, “What I did know was that we weren’t going to get better and survive with the existing squad. No disrespect to them, but that’s a fact.
“My expertise are in assessing players very quickly and saying to the board and owners that we need help. That’s no disrespect to them because I’ve done that wherever I’ve been.
“When I’ve brought the players in at those clubs we’ve turned a corner, but we need to turn the corner very quickly now and those players need to make a big impact almost straight away.”
In fairness to Big Sam, he’s right.
The squad simply wasn’t good enough to stay up and after this week’s league loss, it looks like it still might not be strong enough.
After losing to Sheffield United on Tuesday, the club’s status as a Premier League side is in serious doubt as an immediate return to the Championship is looking more and more likely.
Maitland-Niles and Yokuslu weren’t available for the game at Bramall Lane but they will have to have an incredible impact if they are to help Albion stay up.
Big Sam does have a reputation for turning things around but based on Tuesday’s performance, he might not have done enough in January to keep us in the division.
Our next game against Tottenham already looks like a write-off but we have games against Brighton and Burnley coming up in the near future and we can target those games.
Our new boys should be bedded in by then and those are the games we will have to win if we are to pull off an unlikely comeback.
In other West Brom news, these Albion fans are all saying the same thing about this club tweet.
Be sure to follow West Brom News on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on the Baggies and more exclusive interviews with Kevin Phillips.