Sam Allardyce joined West Bromwich Albion on an 18-month deal in mid-December, but his contract comes with a break clause at the end of his first season, so the option is available for him to leave over the summer.

The Baggies find themselves 19th in the Premier League table and 11 points off safety with just 13 games left (WhoScored), so it’s hard to see them fending off relegation. Allardyce hasn’t managed in the Championship since 2011/12 (Transfermarkt), so it remains to be seen whether he’d stick around if West Brom went down.

When asked when he was planning to hold talks with the board over his future, Allardyce gave a coy response, telling the Express and Star:

Hopefully, I’m sat here planning for next season in the Premier League. That’s going to be a real difficult challenge.

But it’s still my hope and desire to be sat here and saying: ‘wow, how did we do that?’ It’d be great if we could do that, I’ve done a few of those where I’ve got up the next morning and wondered just how did we get out of trouble.

Allardyce’s response suggests that he would consider staying if West Brom beat the drop, otherwise his break clause may be exercised. The 66-year-old has never taken a club down from the top-flight, but it looks like that could change when looking at Albion’s predicament, so he doesn’t want to commit his future until the season is finished.

READ WEST BROM VERDICT

West Brom need to overturn an 11-point deficit and only have 39 points available in which to do it (WhoScored). Fulham, who are immediately ahead of them in the table, have averaged 0.88 points per game and are projected to finish on 33 points.

West Brom would need seven wins from their remaining 13 games to surpass that total, so it’s a big ask for a club who have managed only two wins all season.