West Ham facing dilemma of no Allardyce or no transfer budget

A host of bets on Sam Allardyce being the next Premier League manager to lose his job caused this particular market to be closed for a period, but now the market is back live, attentions should be turned away from the West Ham boss.

It seems that Allardyce has survived the axe for now after talks with those at higher positions at the Hammers, but another defeat in the next round of Premier League games at Cardiff could be the final nail in his coffin.

Allardyce remains 4/7 to be the next manager to leave and two points from West Ham’s last seven Premier League games is certainly form of a manager primed for the sack.

However, one thing that is worth considering is whether Allardyce is too expensive to be sacked at this point.

One list has him as the 13th highest paid manager in world football, picking up more than Laurent Blanc at PSG, Antonio Conte at Juventus, Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid and Roberto Mancini at Galatasaray.

It has been speculated that Allardyce would be due £6m in compensation if he was sacked, which is probably not much less than West Ham’s January transfer budget.

Therefore, would the West Ham board risk battling relegation with the current injury-depleted squad, having used their budget on sacking Allardyce and then perhaps forking out more compensation on his successor?

Instead, they may decide to back Allardyce, as they have with the likes of Avram Grant previously, allow him to bring in a couple of new faces in problem areas and give him until the end of the season.

If this is the case, there may be some value in the other managers prominent in the next boss to go betting.

Chris Hughton is 5/1, with Norwich only three points from the drop zone after going five games without a win.