Sam Allardyce says play-offs are the minimum for Scott Parker’s West Ham United

Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, Allardyce predicts that West Ham will finish the season as champions. If automatic promotion is the ultimate aim, Sizeable Sam believes that the play-offs is the limit to what the Londoners should be aiming to achieve.

“If Scott Parker doesn’t get them in the play-offs, I’ll be very disappointed,” says the former Leeds, West Brom and Blackburn Rovers coach.

The Hammers went into the November international break in ninth – one spot outside the extended play-off positions – after Parker failed to win either of his first two matches in charge. There are, though, only six points separating West Ham in ninth from Birmingham City at the summit.

Hammers News have been told that Parker will be strengthened by a couple of new signings in the January window, too. Head of recruitment Nils Koppen is prioritising a striker and a left-back, though the likes of Fulham enforcer Harrison Reed and ex-Middlesbrough defender Rav van den Berg have been linked as well.

Allardyce is also urging the Hammers not to do this season what they did back in 2015, when Champions League football looked to be a real possibility.

“Are West Ham a big enough club? When we were there, we were big enough at that time to do moderate spending, but we spent in the right way,” Allardyce recalls. “We spent a lot of time with David Sullivan and the scouting system to get the right players in to stay up, and then build from there.

“And eventually, West Ham stayed there. I stayed there until 2015. Never once were we [in danger of relegation]. In fact, the last season, we were fourth in the league by December. So we were going in the right direction, but they didn’t want to buy any players in December, so we then slipped down the league.”

Allardyce says the Hammers must back Parker with Burnley repeat the aim

The Hammers eventually finished seventh, good enough for the Europa League but not the continental elite. Sam Byram, a young full-back brought in from Leeds, was their only January addition.

“[Parker] is a man after my own heart,” Allardyce adds, lauding that Burnley side which conceded just 16 goals en route to a second place finish behind Leeds United. “He had the best defensive record in the Championship anybody’s ever had.

“It’s not easy, but it should be easier than it was getting Burnley up, because [West Ham] have got talented players there that I think are very, very good. With the right organisation and the right management, he should get them at the top of that league this season, really.”