Sam Allardyce says West Brom wasted £2m on Valerien Ismael, should have gone on players
Sam Allardyce could not believe West Brom spent £2million on Valerien Ismael when there were so many “better-qualified” options.
That amount was paid in compensation to Barnsley to land the French manager on a four-year deal, but he only lasted until January before being sacked and replaced by Steve Bruce.
The former Baggies boss thinks that money should have been used to strengthen the squad, and may have considered staying in the job if he had been offered it to use in the transfer market.
Speaking to Ladbrokes the one-game former England boss said: “It really did surprise me – and I don’t want to criticise anyone in particular – that the club paid £2m in compensation for Barnsley’s manager when there were a whole host of top managers out of work at the time, just queuing up around the block for an opportunity like West Brom.
“It’s easy to say in hindsight because it hasn’t worked out for Valerien Ismael at the club, but I think that there are so many names that were better qualified to do the job.
“I had plenty of chats with the club about the financial situation, so to see them pay £2m for that manager really was bizarre. I mean, if they’d have said to me ‘we’ll give you £2m to spend on players’, it might have been an opportunity for me to stay.
“That £2m would have gone a long way towards getting a couple of top, top players in on loan.”
What if?
As he himself says it is all easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but subsequent events have certainly proven the move to be a mistake in itself.
In going back to an English manager with a lot of experience, who often draws criticism for his style of football, the club has almost been forced to hit reset and return to what they had with Allardyce.
To look at things that way makes the first half of this season a complete waste of time in appointing Ismael when they could have kept the man they had before.
And fans would no doubt love to have seen a pair of “top, top players” arrive at the Hawthorns this season.
On the other hand however, Big Sam can say this now, despite there being no indication he is actually interested in working in the Championship.
It is over 20 years now since he last managed a team that wasn’t in the Premier League or, briefly, the national team.
So there is no way of knowing whether he would be effective in the second-tier any longer, something that cannot be said of Bruce in the same way.
So if it took the failed Ismael reign to lead to the ex-Birmingham and Aston Villa boss, with four promotions to the top flight in the same period, perhaps it will work out for the best.
For what it’s worth, Allardyce himself has backed the current boss to get the club into the playoffs, and if successful, fans will soon forget the hard times.
In other West Brom news, the former boss reveals who he recommended to the board when he left.