In a poll conducted by 16 West Ham related fan sites more than 12,392 people took part, and 77.95% of them have expressed the view that Sam Allardyce should not be retained as West Ham manager next season. 22.05% voted for him to continue in his job. The survey ran from Thursday and closed at 7pm on Sunday 27 April. It is thought to be the largest ‘opinion poll’ ever undertaken of a club’s supporters.

The 16 sites taking part were Blowing Bubbles, Claret & Blues, Claret & Hugh, Ex-Hammers Magazine, Forever West Ham,Hammers in the Heart, Iron Views, KUMB

Moore Than Just a Club, Very West Ham, West Ham Fan, West Ham Online, West Ham Till I Die, West Ham World, WHU Stuff and WHUFCTV.com.

Of those who voted, 27% are season ticket holders, with a further 48% attending home matches. A quarter of the respondents never go to a game, but watch them on TV.

28% of those who voted live in London, 26% in the South East, and 12% in East Anglia. 14% who voted are overseas supporters.

KUMB readers provided 21% of the respondents, as did West Ham Till I Die. West Ham Online provided 12%. Of those who voted, a massive 4,850 people left comments. I am trawling through those at the moment and may publish some tomorrow. The points made in the comments which seem to be the most repeated are these…

We should thank Sam for what he has done but he is not the man for the future of the club.

Nobody wants a witch hunt but it is time for him to go

Be careful what we wish for – he should not be sacked without a clear idea of who is to replace him

Many people are threatening not to renew their season tickets

Sam’s style of football is too one-dimensional. There is no plan B.

The conclusions of the poll have been sent to David Sullivan.

A quick comment. It gives me no pleasure to have come to the conclusion that the Allardyce era has reached its natural conclusion. Earlier in the season I voiced the opinion that those who wanted him sacked should explain who they had in mind to take over. The owners were brave in sticking with him when other clubs were losing their heads. Four months on things look very different. Yes, we should be safe, but Allardyce has shown no ability to bring out Plan B when necessary. He’s kept us up, but at some cost. Like many others I have almost reached the end of the road. I get no excitement from seeing my team play. Even when they win, I don’t pump my fist in the air like I used to. Maybe it’s my age. but I think it goes deeper than that. I want my team to inspire, to entertain, to play proper football. We know they can do it, but at times they seem to be afraid to, presumably because if they do they will be criticised by the manager when they get back into the dressing room.

Some people have emailed me to say this poll shouldn’t have been carried out now. Well, I respect that viewpoint, but some of us felt it was about time the owners were made well aware of the views of what seems to be the overwhelming majority of fans.

NOTE: The poll was conducted by using the Survey Monkey polling software. Although it removes duplicate voting, it is not possible to be 100% certain that every single vote was valid. However, the percentages did not change much following the first 1000 votes. Throughout virtually the whole period the voting was within 1% of a 75-25 result. Only in the last 24 hours, following the defeat at West Bromwich, did the anti Allardyce vote gain an extra per centage point.