• Premier League

Allardyce battles on despite questions over future

Sam Allardyce watched West Ham endure a poor pre-season tour to New Zealand © Getty Images

Enlarge

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is preparing to sign Arsenal's Carl Jenkinson while his own future appears to be hanging in the balance.

Allardyce is understood to have agreed to take Jenkinson on a season-long loan after holding talks on Monday night with the defender, following West Ham's return from a pre-season tour to New Zealand.

Jenkinson, 22, has been made available after Arsenal captured the signature of Southampton right-back Calum Chambers in a £16 million deal and West Ham are set to beat competition from Hull, Swansea and Queens Park Rangers to lure Jenkinson to Upton Park.

Meanwhile, Allardyce is said to be shocked after West Ham co-chairman David Gold took the extraordinary step of favouriting a derogatory tweet about him on Twitter.

Gold was sent a tweet from a West Ham fan reading "Is today the day we get rid of BFS?? Fingers crossed," a reference to Allardyce's nickname of Big Fat Sam. Gold favourited the message, highlighting it to his 92,000 followers.

Gold favourited the message calling for Allardyce's departure © Twitter

Enlarge

Allardyce is thought to be stunned by the move, which increases the pressure on him after recent clashes with Gold and his fellow owner and co-chairman David Sullivan.

Allardyce, who was warned last season by the owners that they expect West Ham to play a more exciting brand of football, has clashed with the pair this summer over the handling of midfielder Ravel Morrison.

Sullivan wants to offer Morrison, who has become a peripheral figure under Allardyce, a new contract, while he also admitted that the record signing of striker Andy Carroll was a huge mistake.

Sullivan said that he regretted "putting all his eggs in one basket" by signing Carroll after the England international was ruled out for three months with an ankle injury.

Allardyce's position has not been helped by defeats in both of West Ham's pre-season games in New Zealand last week. His side lost 2-1 to Wellington Phoenix before going down 3-1 to Sydney FC.

Gold has since moved to clarify his position, claiming he mistakenly favourited the message after feeling jet-lagged from a 33-hour flight back from New Zealand.

After a 33 hour flight from New Zealand, I was in my car scanning through my tweets and it seems I accidently favourited one (1/3)

— David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014

It has made some of the papers today so I should clarify that I did not and would never deliberately or... 2/3)

— David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014

..intentionally endorse a tweet that questions our manager's position. Lesson: don't use twitter when you're jet lagged! (3/3) dg

— David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd