Sam Allaryce: West Brom board deserve credit for backing me in January

Following his appointment as head coach back in December, Allardyce made it clear funds would be tight heading into the transfer window.

The Baggies did pay a fee to sign Robert Snodgrass from West Ham.

But their three other first-team additions – Mbaybe Diagne, Okay Yokuslu and Ainsley Maitland-Niles – arrived on loan.

Those four players have all gone on to improve Albion’s squad significantly.

And for the money they spent, Allardyce feels the club couldn’t have done any better in the January window – although he does wish the players had arrived earlier in the month rather than later. “We got four very good players on a limited budget of a greater quality than I thought we would achieve,” the Dudley-born chief said.

“I didn’t think we’d get Ainsley from Arsenal and wanting to join the battle.

“Robert Snodgrass was exactly what we were missing — bundles of Premier League experience.

“Then a quality forward, 6ft 4in, who leaves the comfort of being leading scorer of Galatasaray to join West Brom.

“And Okay from Spain, a Turkey international. I don’t think you could loan better for the money we’ve spent.

“What would I have liked to have done better? Obviously get them in on January 2 and January 3 and that might have made a difference to the games we lost.

“But because of the negotiation and that financial situation I thought we did massively well getting those four players.

“I thought it was a massive achievement but whether it’s enough only time will tell.”

Albion should have beaten both Manchester United and Burnley in their last two outings.

Allardyce, meanwhile, is still angry his side failed to beat Fulham and Sheffield United last month – with the Baggies having led in both games.

It means heading into Saturday’s crucial clash with Brighton, Albion remain 11 points from safety.

And Allardyce believes it’s important his players ignore that gap and just concentrate on things one game at a time.

“The last two performances (against Manchester United and Burnley) have given me a lot of confidence – yes,” the boss continued.

“But our points total against fourth bottom is a large one. That should’ve been made shorter over the last few weeks.

“But when you start looking at the gap you start thinking ‘can we catch that up?’.

“We want to be in a positive frame of mind, and if you want that then don’t look at the league table.

“Don’t look at results, just concentrate on what we’re doing. Hopefully, that’ll start bringing us some victories.”