West Ham United vice chairman Karren Brady has insisted that the board had never considered relieving manager Sam Allardyce from his duties, despite the bad run of form from December and into January.

Brady said that it would have been short-sighted for West Ham, who are now 10th in the Premier League table, to get rid of a manager who was the right man to lead the club away from danger.

"Our faith in him never wavered," she told Sky Sports News. "We didn't sack him, and we never really thought about it. The easy part is sacking the manager - the hard part is finding someone better to replace them with.

"If we were in that position, Sam Allardyce would be the man we would try and find to get us out of the mess - and we already had him there."

West Ham have won four of their last five to move well clear of relegation.