Leeds United boss Sam Allardyce pre-West Ham press conference every word on Patrick Bamford, police call, Georginio Rutter assessment, new injury and survival prospects

“I would hope so. I do fear for our life as an old timer now. I fear for our life through social media and what it is bringing to the world. I know there is great stuff like that, but AI, I’ve just heard about 40,000 jobs going from BT. So what are they going to do? Then the next piece of AI comes in and another 30,000 jobs goes, what are they going to do? So for me it’s not a great future, the way we’re looking at the world and what we’re doing with climate change and that so that’s me outside of football talking about that, the worry for my grandchildren. But that’s another matter.”

“I had to flick between that and Sheffield Wednesday and Peterborough because my son rang me up and said there’s this most bizarre game going on over the other side. I had to flick between the two because I had West Ham recorded anyway so it could it could go back to that but I was enthralled a bit by what was happening at Sheffield Wednesday.”

“I don’t know to be honest with you. I have seen him play twice. And obviously as a youngster in the position that we’re in here, it’s a next season scenario for him, what is he going to need to do. He came in in January and I think that he had such a heavy price tag on his shoulders. But I think that when you are young and you come to the Premier League for the first time, you’ve got to settle in and next season would be the big test for him. Because the whole of the Premier League demands much more than ability to be a Premier League player.”

“Yeah. It’s easy - if you have got your mind set the right way. You will run your fastest if I point a gun at you and I am going to shoot you even though you’ve never run that fast before. Or you might just freeze and get shot. Do you like that one?”

“It’s just his body and his career and the fact that we have to handle that with a little bit of care. And I think he is a vital part of what’s going to happen on Sunday and if he can get on the pitch, hopefully, he can stay on the pitch for as long as possible because I see him as a very valuable asset in midfield.”

“It’s slight detail and it’s difficult to explain the slight detail but what the position of your body on the penalty is critical and the hand (of Firpo) doesn’t have to go up and he can just adjust and clear the ball. That’s all it is. So you are onlytalking about maybe six, eight or ten centimeters. If he turns his body around, he can move his feet and he can jump and head the ball away. And it’s that simple. And the other one is just there’s no need to tackle in the box. You have got to stay on your feet everybody dives over a leg or gets a touch and goes down, everybody does it so don’t give them the opportunity. And that based on the fact that we’ve given a penalty away against Manchester City was just disappointing, the only disappointing thing and how costly it became becaause obviously time is running out and games so it’s when you’re responsible for throwing two points away. If the opposition score and they scored a great goal and they score from the skill of their ability like Manchester City, you hold your hands up and go ‘we have done our best to try and stop that. Unfortunately you can’t because they’re so good and so skillful and it’s such a great goal and a great movement. But those are so avoidable for us which is most disappointing for me, personally. It’s hard for the centre halves here because it’s me and I’m a centre half so it is it is the hardest position to play at this football club, with me, is centre half. I talk about it all the time about how important they are., how they have to keep the back door shut and how they have to defend correctly and always be alert to what the opposition’s attack are trying to do and always be always be one step ahead of them that’s the essential part of being a centre half. It’s not about running out the back and running down the middle because you play out which is what a load of rubbish today but it’s about defending and defending properly because if we had more clean sheets we’d already be safe.”

“I think it’s pressure. We all make mistakes, we all will. But it’s how costly are the mistakes? And there’s only one person who can make fewer mistakes than your centre halves and that’s your goalkeeper and that is a fact of life so as a centre half you live on the edge all the time. Because if your mistake costs you a goal or costs you some points it’s yours so that’s why you live on live on the edge all the time when you’re playing in a game. Midfielders, centre forwards can make more mistakes and wait for the next one or whatever it might be but centre halves and and goalkeepers and full backs, full concentration for the whole 90 minutes we play.”

“I think we have to try and find out what we’re going to do against West Ham. And we’re going to have to go there to try and test him as early as we can by how we choose to play. Aware of West Ham, yes. aware of what they might be, yes. But it won’t matter, the system won’t matter what I pick unless there’s players playing their best. Systems are nothing if the players don’t play their best. The system’s not broken. The coach doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s what comes out in spouts of all media, social media and interviews and radio and TV and all that - the manager doesn’t know what he’s doing. Of course he does because the players fail to do it and fail to keep their cool and apply themselves in the correct manner. So what we have to do is test West Ham to see where they are, see whether there’s any legacy from the game on Thursday night and try and take advantage of that, whether it’s in the first 20 minutes, midway or at the end. When the may tire if you are talking about players who played last night, we just have to make sure that we’re in a position to win it or we’re in a winning position going into the last the last ebbs of the game.”

“I think confidence has grown, I think application has been applied. I think that possession could get better. I think we’ve been so up for it and so frantic to try and do well and close the opposition down and make life difficult that when we have actually won the ball back we have still been so hyper that that we haven’t been able to just calm down and control ourselves to play the right ball and the right pass more often. So the difference between those two is something we’ve talked about, about being calmer when we’re on the ball and that movement and picking out better passes and retaining possession better and that will hopefully get us up the pitch to give us more opportunities to score.”

“I think one of the one of the biggest researches we did when we played in Europe was that the Sunday game after the Thursday night and how many teams struggle to get a result and and I think that that’s obviously the case for teams with slightly less a squad than the big boys. So when a Man City plays in the Champions League, who are used to playing in the Champions League and have the squad of 24 international players, it’s not as greater concern to them. But when you have a lesser squad, talented but not quite as talented as them, it always became a factor on how the aftermath of a Thursday night game and playing the Sunday after Europa Cup or Europa League, whatever it’s called now was a worry for me as a manager and a concern. The fact that West Ham lost to Brentford will be a concern for David. That’s why I don’t think he’ll make as many changes as he did in the Brentford game. Beacuse he will want to win.”