Exclusive – Allardyce to hold face to face talks with Parker

Sam Allardyce will meet Scott Parker face-to-face in a bid to convince the England midfielder to stay at West Ham.

It’s widely expected that the former Chelsea and Newcastle star will quit Upton Park following their relegation to the Championship, and new Hammers boss Allardyce admits he’s not yet spoken to the 30-year-old, preferring to wait until he gets the chance to meet him in person.

Allardyce told Hawskbee & Jacobs: “There are many modern ways of communication these days, with email and twitter, but I will wait to speak to the players face to face.

“That the best way to do it and then we’ll know where we stand when we’ve had that conversation. We’ll get face to face and thrash it out.”

Allardyce was unveiled as West Ham’s manager at a press conference on Wednesday and admits he’s excited about the challenge of trying to take the east London club back into the big time.

He added: “This is the only club I would have dropped down from the Premier League for. Everyone knows about the size, history and tradition. The fan base is huge and they’ll come and support the team in all climates.

“If I can excite them and get the team to the top [of the Championship] and try to sustain it, the atmosphere will be fantastic.

“We have to make sure the hangover of relegation is put to bed very quickly. There will be a considerable turnover of players and my job now is at its hardest stage, finding out about players, changing players and discovering where we can find the players to come in and help us go up at the first time of asking.”