[BaggieSteve]

Personally I think we should wait until the end of the season to decide if Allardyce stays next season...

I don't see the point rushing to decide now. Let's see if there is any further improvement or deterioration of the performances between now and the end of the season...

Would I want him to stay? I'll decide at the end of the season, but my instinct now is if there is money to invest, yes.

I think if you're going to spend, you want a manager who knows a player and Sam certainly knows that. We saw in the summer that you can waste millions on players in the wrong positions / with the wrong attitude / not up the job. I don't think we would make those sort of mistakes with Allardyce at the helm. We have seen IMO a massive improvement since the January window, despite having no budget to spend and having to wheel and deal with outgoings just to free up wages for loans. Had he been in charge of the summer budget, when we did spend, I think we'd be in a much better position.

And while I acknowledge he hasn't been able to fix the goalscoring, fixing every problem might've been a bridge too far with just a couple of incoming loans and no money. I don't think this would be a problem in the Championship and if you look at Allardyce's record historically, his West Ham team outscored our promoted Bilic team. We have players who can get us goals at that level even if a couple leave.

Would I want him to stay if there is no money, no. I don't think he stay would anyway in this circumstance. But if there's no money, then I don't see the point. We'll struggle with any manager at the helm in these circumstances so might as well appoint someone who would at least give us a 'feel good factor', as I acknowledge Allardyce isn't widely liked. Although IMO Big Sam is light years ahead of the likes of Appleton in terms of managerial quality.

Slick, I agree with many of the points you make. I do not see the point of changing the manager now (for one thing it would cost us in compensation, money we don't have), I cannot see any improvement a new manager would make at this stage of the season. I also agree that Allardyce is both well known and, historically, has been pretty astute with signings so, if he was to stay next year, we may be able to attract some players decent for the Championship. Personally, i don't want him to stay as I'd rather see us start afresh with a new, younger face but that has its risks as well.

Probably like all managers, Allardyce has his favourites but I cannot, for the life of me, understand his reluctance to play Robinson ahead of Robson-Kanu and his refusal to include Grosicki in the match day squad. Our team is basically pedestrian, particularly the midfield and the striker, so any injection of pace must be a priority. Against Newcastle, we were crying out for someone to run at their defence - it was a game where a point was no good - but the solution was Kanu. I don't think for one minute that either Robinson or Grosicki are EPL standard players, but we have precious few of those.

I think the other issue is Dowling. There has to be a positive relationship between him and the manager; we saw it deteriorate with Bilic although I suspect we'll never fully find out why. Allardyce is a strong character who will be vociferous in his demands for players - I wonder how much Dowling is prepared to argue with his lord and master that he has to support his manager financially. I also wonder how much Allardyce, at his age, wants the grind of the Championship on a severely limited budget.