There are few better placed to hand out advice than Sam Allardyce as West Ham United throw their support behind Nuno Espirito Santo in an attempt to bounce back from relegation at the first time of asking.
Nuno gets the chance to repeat his Championship success with Wolves in 2018, West Ham United confirming that the head coach will be retained.
That is despite him becoming only the third manager, after Glenn Roeder and Avram Grant, to suffer relegation in East London.
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Rather than opt for a fresh start as they did in 2011, when Grant was given the boot and Sam Allardyce appointed, the Hammers are offering Nuno Espirito Santo an opportunity to right the wrongs of his first eight months in charge.
Sam Allardyce has a message for Nuno Espirito Santo and West Ham United
On his No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, Allardyce was asked if he had any advice for one of his descendants in the West Ham dugout.
Mateus Fernandes, Axel Disasi and Crysencio Summerville are certain to go, of course. But the man who secured promotion via a play-off victory over Blackpool 14 years ago feels that David Sullivan must still back Nuno to the best of his ability.
As Jacob Steinberg writes on X, the club hope to go into next season with a spine of Mads Hermansen, Dinos Mavropanos, Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen and Taty Castellanos.
“I would say you’ve got to do your very best to hold on to the players that you want to keep, and try and convince David that it’s essential that the base of your squad for the start of next season is good enough to get you promoted,” says Allardyce.
“Clearly, there has to be some sales. So, you have to replace those [who leave].
“And of course, you’re not saying like, ‘I’m going to keep hold of Jarrod Bowen’. What you are saying is you’ve got to get as much money for him as you can, and then their recruitment policy needs to find a way to cover up the financial loss.
“But bring players in that will get West Ham to the top of the league again.”
Allardyce says replacing West Ham’s star players will be key
A source at the club told Hammers News this week that West Ham are hopeful of retaining captain Bowen. The skipper appears to be keeping his options open, releasing a couple of decidedly non-committal statements following Sunday’s final day victory over Leeds.
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Allardyce lost the likes of Scott Parker, Matthew Upson and Demba Ba following their previous relegation in 2011. The arrivals of Kevin Nolan, Abdoulaye Faye and Wembley hero Ricardo Vaz Te helped offset those departures, though.
West Ham will hope to enjoy similar success in the market this time around.
“There’s going to be a big financial upset first, which there was when I got there,” Allardyce explains. “And if you’re starting the new season, the clear-out needs to be done as quickly as possible.
“Because if you’re scrimping and scraping around towards the deadline when the season has started and you lose a particular player that’s very, very important to you, there’s little or no time to replace him with anything good enough to help you get promoted.
“The help I had with David Sullivan when I got back up there was imperative. We got rid of big players and sorted out the financial side of it. But then there was still enough money for me to bring Kevin Nolan [who worked with Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers] in from Newcastle.
“Now, the only reason Kevin came and dropped out of the Premier League from Newcastle was because we wanted to partner up again together, and I wanted him to be captain and lead the dressing room. So, he was one of the major, major signings.
“Even though most of the top players were getting sold, Kevin had a tried-and-trusted Premier League record and was still only, I think, 28 at the time.
“In January, I pestered [Sullivan] massively to sign Ricardo Vaz Te because he knew nothing about Ricardo. He was scoring goals at Barnsley, so we bought him. I think from January onwards he scored 11 or 12 goals, including the winner in the playoff final.
“So, we got enough goals then, and I think that was most important of all. Keep your goals, sort your defence out, and you’re more than 60 per cent there.”
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