West Ham winger Stewart Downing is hoping his team’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham will kill off speculation about Sam Allardyce’s future,
Downing, signed from Liverpool for £6million last summer, netted his first Premier League goal of the season against 10-men Spurs and said today: “I hope that performance puts to bed all the speculation about the manager. When you lose games, the manager takes most of the criticism but I think he’s handled it really well, in difficult circumstances at times.
“We would love him to stay, he’s part of the reason why I came to the club but obviously the owners make all those decisions.
“I am sure Sam will be looking at additions to the squad but when everyone is fit we’re a decent team as it is. Against the best teams they will make mistakes if you press them and we did that well against Spurs. That has to be the platform for next season and we can’t just do it every now and again otherwise we will be in trouble again.”
Despite speculation in Italy linking West Ham with a move for former AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri, Allardyce is expected to sit down with the club’s owners within the next 10 days to discuss the future, including targets for next season.
Allardyce has also to decide on the futures of a number of players who are nearing the end of their contracts, including Joe Cole, Jack Collison, Matt Taylor and George McCartney. Downing and his team-mates go to the Etihad on Sunday full of confidence despite City looking to clinch the title on their home ground.
