Sam Allardyce is expected to be confirmed as West Ham manager later today. Fans of the Hammers may not be too keen on this direct style of play, but will no doubt forgive him if he gets them straight back up. He will apparently double his salary of around £1.2m a year with an equivalent bonus if he does succeed.
Sam Allardyce is expected to be confirmed as West Ham manager later today. Fans of the Hammers may not be too keen on this direct style of play, but will no doubt forgive him if he gets them straight back up. He will apparently double his salary of around £1.2m a year with an equivalent bonus if he does succeed.
He will face a difficult financial situation at Upton Park. The club has debts of around £80m which includes loans and money owed to Sheffield United after the Carlos Tévez affair. Two unsecured loans totalling about £4.6m are due for repayment in September.
72 per cent of the club’s turnover goes on a wage bill of around £50m and his first task will be to reduce that. A number of clubs are interested in Scott Parker who should fetch a good fee. Stoke City have renewed their interest in the injury prone Carlton Cole. Aston Villa are interested in Robert Green while Real Zaragoza might well take Pablo Barrera. Matthew Upson and Kierson Dyer are out of contract this summer and that will save about £6m a year.
Allardyce grew used to work on small budgets in his eight years at Bolton Wanderers, but the owners there were less high profile than the new regime at West Ham.