BIG SAM: NO QUICK JOB DECISION IF MY BAGGIES DROP

SAM ALLARDYCE has refused to make a quick decision on his future – even if the axe falls on West Brom today.

Defeat at the Emirates this afternoon will end the club’s season-long stay in the Premier League, with three games of the campaign still to play.

And Allardyce’s proud record of never having been demoted from the top flight will be over.

With it will go his unblemished reputation as a fire-fighter after he successfully carried out rescue missions at Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Everton and Blackburn Rovers.

The 66-year-old (right) said: “If we finally get relegated, I’ll have to get over the disappointment of that before I make any decision on what I’m doing. I can’t make a quick decision on this.

“I’ll have to think long and hard both for myself and my family.

“I feel responsible, of course. I felt that we should have achieved more and we should have been closer than we are now. Ultimately, if we failed at the final hurdle, that would be easier to take, but I think we’re in a false position.

“I think we should be around the 34-35 point mark now with a great chance of staying up.

“But we have failed to do that on the back of wins.

“Those small margins, when that chance has been and gone, those are the defining moments that have ultimately counted against us.” Allardyce could have hidden behind the excuse of only taking on the job in December – when it already looked like a long shot that anyone could save West Brom.

A shorter close-season counted against the promoted clubs and, of the trio that were promoted last summer, only Leeds United have managed to secure their status for another campaign.

But Allardyce also took his share of the blame.

He said: “I knew it was a difficult one, I knew it would be a hard task.

“When I spoke to the sporting director Luke Dowling and the chief executive Ken, I couldn’t say for certain, ‘I will save you’.

“Working under the circumstances that we had – which we all had to adjust to – has made life more difficult than it needed to be.

“All I could do was my best.

“If it happens that we are relegated, I’ll be disappointed – but I have tried my best.”