Allardyce to hold talks with trio

12 April 2012

Sam Allardyce will hold face-to-face talks with West Ham's England trio of Robert Green, Scott Parker and Carlton Cole to try to convince them to fight on at Upton Park next season.

While the Irons have been left with a massive black hole in their already precarious finances following last season's relegation from the Barclays Premier League, new boss Allardyce maintains it is by no means a certainty the Crown Jewels will be sold off.

"I don't want to talk to Scott Parker, Robert Green, Carlton Cole on the phone. I want to talk to them when they come back," Allardyce said. "I want to sit them in my office, I want them to look me in the eye and to tell them what I want, be honest with me and I will be honest with them."

He added: "They might walk out of the office and say, 'I don't really fancy him, so I'm off'. If that's the case, we will sell him.

"But who knows? If he likes what he hears, he wants to stay, he wants to be successful then I will speak to the owners.

"If they say it really is a financial necessity, if we get this amount of money on this valuation, we have to let him go, then that's okay, we will replace him and try to get the best replacement we possibly can to play at West ham for promotion."

Allardyce succeeded Avram Grant into the Upton Park hotseat after the Israeli was axed when the east London club dropped back into the npower Championship finishing bottom of the table.

The former Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn boss knows the challenge which awaits him to transform the Irons from a "soft touch", but believes summer signing Kevin Nolan - whom he had as a player at the Reebok Stadium - has the perfect characteristics to meet those head on.

"Kevin has been in the Premier League an awful long time at Bolton, before he moved to Newcastle," said Allardyce, who has also brought in defender Abdoulaye Faye from Stoke, another of his former Bolton men.

"He then guided Newcastle back at the first time of asking - not only with 17 goals, but by being captain. I see Kevin as a great player and a great captain off the pitch."

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