Sam Allardyce admits he ‘wasn’t telling the truth’ over West Brom future and always planned to go if Baggies suffered Premier League relegation

Sam Allardyce has admitted to talkSPORT he 'wasn't telling the truth' about his West Brom future and said he always planned to leave if the club suffered Premier League relegation.

Allardyce replaced Slaven Bilic in December with a tough task of keeping the Baggies in the top flight.

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They were relegated back to the Championship earlier this month and, following Wednesday's 3-1 defeat to West Ham, Allardyce confirmed his impending departure.

It was the first time the 66-year-old had been relegated from the Premier League after a 17 seasons as a coach in the top flight.

He had previously said he would stay on as West Brom manager in the Championship, if they club gave him guarantees they would provide him with funds for a promotion push.

Ultimately, though, he as decided to leave and revealed talkSPORT that was really his plan all along.

He told talkSPORT: “It’s nothing to do with that. I was only telling you something just to get by. We were in discussion and I was thinking about it then.

“I wasn’t actually telling you the truth. Initially it was always the fact that if we got relegated I wasn’t going to stay.

“They were pleased enough to see the changes we made and the effort we put in. Not just me and my staff but all together.

“I was very appreciative and comfortable with running West Brom, which is sometimes not the case and can be difficult things behind the scenes that make things more difficult.

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“I considered it at great length and really appreciated the offer. For me, it’s about somebody going in long term and to try and get them in the Premier League and keep them in the Premier League.

“It’s somebody who needs a three or four year contract. My position in life, if I’d been in my 50s I would, but I’m in my middle 60s and I didn’t think it was the right thing for me or the football club.

“I might well have got them up, but would have been ‘I’ll stay again’, but I wanted to go now and let them go in another direction.

“Hopefully they make the right choice and hope they do it again.”

Fans were allowed back in stadiums on Wednesday night and Allardyce believes that had they been in all season, the Baggies would have stayed up.

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When asked if he could have kept West Brom up with more time, Allardyce told talkSPORT: “Not just that. I wasn’t expecting as much disruption because of the pandemic, the no fan situation had a significant factor.

“Experiencing the fans yesterday was a completely different atmosphere. Even though we were struggling and are already relegated, it felt so good. They got behind the team and they played with more energy.

“The overall situation is when you arrive at a football club that’s in a difficult position you have a difficult job to do.

“I had the confidence of what I managed before to try and do it again. The circumstances didn’t help, but the bottom line is we tried to change things as quickly as we could. 

“We did our best we possibly could. We had good performances but didn’t get it right in front of goal more often than not. That was the ultimate position.

"The bottom line is we weren't good enough."