SAM Allardyce’s side were just below halfway in the Premier League, but for the owners it was not enough.

“We have taken this decision as part of our wider plans and ambitions for the club,” the statement read. “We would like to put on record our thanks to Mr Allardyce for his contribution.”

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Those, of course, were the words of Blackburn Rovers five years ago.

Similar sentiments were trotted out in a statement issued by West Ham United on Sunday afternoon, barely seconds after Allardyce had departed the dugout following the final game of his Hammers contract.

“I didn’t want to stay,” he said of his exit, although one wonders whether that may have been partly a face-saving exercise.

Like Rovers, and Newcastle United before that, West Ham had decided they could do better than Sam Allardyce.

Rovers and Newcastle both found out the hard way that they couldn’t. Within 18 months, both were relegated to the Championship.

The style of football has always divided opinion, but Allardyce guaranteed relative success.

He took Bolton from the Championship to European football, and left Newcastle 14th in the Premier League.

Rovers were 13th in the top flight when he departed, having finished 10th in the previous season despite a relatively limited budget.

At West Ham, he secured promotion in his first season then kept them in the Premier League for three more, finishing 12th this term.

It is difficult to see what part of that the Hammers were not happy with, just as it was baffling that Venky’s disposed of him in 2010. Rovers have never recovered.

The bizarre and ill-advised appointment of Steve Kean as his replacement was disastrous, Rovers dropped out of the Premier League and have been unable to return. They now find themselves under transfer embargo, believing the solution following relegation was to throw money at the problem.

In fact, the solution from the very start was to have the right manager.

That manager was Allardyce. Most knew it at the time but Venky’s only realised it when it was far, far too late – if indeed they have ever realised it.

West Ham’s board would be advised to think carefully before appointing Allardyce’s replacement, because if it goes wrong the blame will lie squarely at their door.

There would be nothing more embarrassing than moving into the Olympic Stadium in a year’s time in the Championship. Under Allardyce, it would not have happened. Now, who knows?

It is a gamble they did not need to take, just as it was a gamble Venky’s did not need to take just three weeks into their Rovers reign.

Their popularity has never recovered.

West Ham, you have been warned.