Its a good question, would anyone have kept us up when Allardyce was appointed? I think the answer to that with the team we had is no.

And I think a lot of that has to go down to our recruitment policy. We spent too much of our budget on players who haven't made an impact in Grant and Diangana. And we didn't invest in the areas we needed to - Full back, central striker and in central midfield. We've been crying out for a Diagne or Rondon type striker and for a Yokuslu or Yacob type player in midfield for more than half the season.

The problem is we are so far behind in terms of points is that we now need to create chances to score goals and win games. That's just not his style and I don't blame him for toughening us up at the back first and foremost.

I didn't want Bilic to get sacked when he did, but I thought Allardyce was about as good as we could have gone for after that. It won't be pretty with him, but I do think he'd bring us back up next season - probably with a lot of turgid 1-0 and 2-0 wins. He knows how to keep clean sheets and be hard to beat. Whether he wants to stay for a season in the championship - who knows. It probably has a lot to do with the bonus we will offer him.