Daily Mail Claim Allardyce Set For The Chop!

Newcastle will end 2007 in the bottom half of the table after Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea and Sunday's newspapers were full of speculation that Allardyce's job is hanging by a thread.

And the Daily Mail's Hayward feels Allardyce has now lost the trust of his players - and that is one of the biggest problems for the former Bolton boss.

He told the Sunday Supplement: "It wouldn't normally be the solution to sack a manager in January, but I think there are a number of problems at Newcastle that suggest Sam Allardyce's time is coming to an end.

"One is the breakdown of trust between the players and the manager. Some of the things Allardyce said after the Wigan game suggested there is a terminal rift there.

"He was saying he didn't want his future in the hands of these players and that sort of thing. He was almost disassociating himself from his own team."

Hayward felt the Magpies were unlucky to lose to Salomon Kalou's controversial late winner at Stamford Bridge, but he also identified tactical problems which are causing unrest among the Geordie faithful.

 

He continued: "They were victims of rough justice in a sense against Chelsea because the winning goal by Kalou was two or three yards offside after Newcastle had done well to get back into the game.

"But on the other hand, once they got back to 1-1 they sat right back in their own half and invited Chelsea onto them for the last 20 minutes. In a way that was an accident waiting to happen.

"I noticed the tactics were using. In the first half they were just pumping balls up to Obafemi Martins, who was playing up front on his own. It was a very sterile style of play and I think that is the root of the problem.

"Allardyce is trying to impose a style of play on Newcastle that the players and the owners and the fans are not happy with."

Hayward also criticised Allardyce's transfer policy and said the signing of Joey Barton from Manchester City - who was arrested earlier this week after being charged with assault - could prove to be a further nail in his coffin.

"Another criteria on which managers are judged is the players they bring in," Hayward added.

"And signing Joey Barton was clearly a pretty catastrophic misjudgement.

"Also the two midfield players - Alan Smith and Geremi - are not sufficiently creative for the Newcastle pallet.

"So his purchases so far have not worked out and he needs them to start performing or else he will be in big trouble within the next couple of games."