page_title: Sam Allardyce
section_title: West Ham United
hierarchical_section_title: Sam Allardyce / Managerial career / West Ham United
caption_attribution_description: Sam Allardyce, West Ham manager.
context_page_description: Samuel Allardyce is an English football manager and former professional player.
  Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football League, as well as brief spells in the North American Soccer League and League of Ireland. He was signed by Bolton Wanderers from Dudley Town in 1969 and spent nine years at Bolton, helping the club to win the Second Division title in 1977–78. He spent the 1980s as a journeyman player, spending time with Sunderland, Millwall, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Coventry City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, and West Bromwich Albion. During this time he helped Preston to win promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1986–87.
  Moving into management, he took charge of Irish club Limerick in 1991, leading the club to the League of Ireland First Division title in 1991–92. He returned to England to coach at Preston North End, also serving briefly as caretaker-manager. He took up his first permanent management role in England at Blackpool in July 1994, but was sacked after two years having narrowly failed to achieve promotion.
context_section_description: Allardyce was appointed as manager of then-recently relegated West Ham United on 1 June 2011, signing a two-year contract. He vowed to play "attractive football" in getting West Ham back to the Premier League, according to the "traditions of the club," and rejected the claims that he played dull, long-ball football at previous clubs. He signed Abdoulaye Faye, Kevin Nolan, Joey O'Brien and Matt Taylor. Faye, Nolan and O'Brien had all played under Allardyce at his former club Bolton Wanderers while Taylor was a Bolton player who had joined after Allardyce left the club. He made striker John Carew West Ham's fifth signing of the season, on a free transfer, followed by defender George McCartney from Sunderland on a season-long loan, strikers Sam Baldock from Milton Keynes Dons and midfielder Papa Bouba Diop on a free transfer. He concluded his summer transfer window signings on deadline day by bringing in midfielders David Bentley from Tottenham Hotspur and Henri Lansbury from Arsenal, both on season-long loans, as well as utility man Guy Demel from Hamburg for an undisclosed fee. Nicky Maynard, Ricardo Vaz Tê and Ravel Morrison followed in the 2011 winter transfer window. Over the course of the 2011–12 season a total of 25 players left the club while 19 were signed. In March 2012, despite standing in third place in the Championship, Allardyce's style of football was again questioned. Fans called for more passing of the ball and football played on the pitch and not in the air. On 19 May 2012, West Ham were promoted back to the Premier League after only one season in the Championship after beating Blackpool 2–1 the play-off Final. Allardyce described this promotion as his best ever achievement.
  A busy transfer window for the summer of 2012 saw Allardyce bring in eleven players, including his former Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen, midfielder Mohamed Diamé, Mali international striker Modibo Maïga, Wales international centre-back James Collins, defensive midfielder Alou Diarra, winger Matt Jarvis, England striker Andy Carroll (on loan from Liverpool) and Israel international midfielder Yossi Benayoun. West Ham finished the 2012–13 season in tenth place, and Allardyce renewed his contract at West Ham by signing a new two-year deal.
  Allardyce's main signing of summer 2013 was Andy Carroll, for a £15 million fee from Liverpool, whilst he also spent an undisclosed fee on winger Stewart Downing, again from Liverpool, to provide crosses for Carroll to convert into goals. He also signed goalkeeper Adrián on a free transfer from Real Betis. However Allardyce's plans were disrupted when Carroll picked up a long-term injury, which left Allardyce regretting the transfer, especially as he had chosen Carroll instead of signing Swansea City's Wilfried Bony, who went on to score 16 league goals in the 2013–14 campaign. Allardyce was awarded the Premier League Manager of the Month for February 2014 following a run of four wins and one draw in their five Premier League games. In April 2014, during an away game against West Bromwich Albion, a section of West Ham fans expressed their distaste at the style of football played under Allardyce by displaying a banner which read "Fat Sam Out, killing WHU". The following month some supporters hung a banner bearing the legend "Fat Sam Out" outside the mansion owned by club chairman, David Sullivan, in Theydon Bois, Essex. Despite protests, on 20 May 2014, the club announced that Allardyce would be staying as manager and would be supported by new attacking coach Teddy Sheringham for the 2014–15 season to "ensure the team provides more entertainment" and to "improve the club's goal tally".
  In summer 2014, Allardyce signed midfielder Cheikhou Kouyaté, left-back Aaron Cresswell, attacker Enner Valencia, right-back (on loan from Arsenal) Carl Jenkinson, striker Diafra Sakho, defensive midfielder Alex Song (on loan from Barcelona), midfielder Morgan Amalfitano, and forward Mauro Zárate. In October 2014, pundits like BBC's Robbie Savage were commenting about the team's "more attractive and attacking playin
caption: Allardyce (right) as manager of West Ham United in 2011
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