Allardyce hits out at sack culture

Former Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has hit out at the shock sacking of West Bromwich Albion manager Roberto Di Matteo.

Allardyce – who was sacked himself this season – said West Brom were always going to struggle in the English Premier League this campaign after securing promotion from the Championship.

He attributed their poor results and relegation battle down to a small budget and not Di Matteo’s managerial ability.

“When West Brom came up into the Premier League it was always going to be hard for them to survive. Teams with limited budget will always find times to be tough and results won’t always go your way,” Allardyce told Eurosport.

“Generally, the chairman at West Brom has always been patient even when they’ve been relegated in previous seasons, but this time the club appears to really want to stay in the Premier League.”

“Roberto’s results recently perhaps haven’t been what the club expected, so they have done something that they haven’t done previously by changing the manager to see if they can stay in the Premier League.”

Allardyce stated had the Italian boss not earned the Hawthorns-based club promotion last campaign, he might still have a job.

“I am sure that Roberto will feel confused and dazed as to why this has happened as he was a hero last season getting West Brom promoted. He also had a brilliant start to the new campaign,” he said.

“There is always going to be a bad run which has lasted longer than probably Roberto expected. He has been a victim of his early success, I would probably agree with that.”

A former assistant coach at Albion, the 56-year-old Allardyce did not rule out taking over the struggling club and steering them to safety this term.

“My management skills are more suited to developing teams to be better than what they were before, and not just about avoiding relegation,” he said.

“My main aim (in coaching) is to finish as high up the top of the Premier League as possible. I have the ability to help teams survive.”

“But I want to aim for the top and position teams higher than people would normally expect them to finish, as when Bolton qualified for Europe and reached cup finals.”