Allardyce viewing long-term stay

West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce has admitted that he would like to remain in charge of the club beyond his current two-year contract.

Allardyce, 57 - whose current contract expires at the end of the 2012/13 season - revealed that he would be delighted to remain in charge of the club if and when United receive the green light to move to the home of the hugely-successful Olympic Games at Stratford.

"I want to take the club into the Olympic Stadium because I was inspired by it," he told KUMB.com today.

"If any fans had doubts about us moving there they should have been extinguished by the atmosphere that was created [during the games] and the facility that is there for this club - and only three miles down the road."

Although the decision over who will be awarded preferred bidder status for tenancy of the stadium is not expected to be announced for several weeks, Allardyce was in no doubt that it is a necessary move should West Ham wish to progress and challenge the nation's most successful clubs.

"If this club wants to be great, it has to go," he insisted. "Unless you redevelop Upton Park and make it a 60,000 all-seater state-of-the-art stadium.

"If you can't do that, you've got an unbelievable arena [at Stratford] that could create a cauldron of noise - which is what the West Ham fans do, as they showed at Wembley [against Blackpool].

"It could be the catalyst for the next generation, the modern-day history of this football club."

You can read more of Sam's thoughts in the first part of our exclusive Q&A session, which you may find here: www.kumb.com/qa.php?id=34