Sam Allardyce is more worried about signing players than sellig them this month

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has insisted that only huge cash bids for his players could tempt him to part with them during the January transfer window.

The Hammers are actively looking to bolster their squad as they look to bounce back into the Premier League at the first time of asking, but at the same time there have been rumours that both Carlton Cole and James Tomkins are attracting interest from the Premier League.

“We’ve had no serious bids for either player,” insisted Allardyce following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Derby County. “We had a small, unrealistic approach from Newcastle for Tomkins a few weeks ago that was completely dismissed because of how small the offer was.”

So is the West Ham manager afraid that he may lose one or two of his best players this month?

“Not particularly,” he said. “While they are contracted with us we will continue to say that we want them to stay with us and help us get back to the Premier League and if I am going to lose my best players we are not going to be able to do that.

“I always say to the owners, like I say to everybody else. If you get seven, eight, 10 or even �15million for a player, it is still not as much as a guaranteed �90 million if you get back up,” he explained.

“It is a guaranteed �90 million, even if you get relegated again. You can take the money, but you are gambling losing �40million a year, plus whatever you do in the Premier League, and all the glory that goes with being a Premier League side, so I don’t think we should be interested.”

Allardyce though was quick to qualify those remarks. “Unless the money is so, so big that I can do a lot with it in that period of time and make the squad better if we sold this player and brought in players that would bolster the squad and make us better than if we kept him.

“That would be the only reason to sell somebody.”

Allardyce is more interested in bringing new faces to the club, though so far he has been frustrated in his attempts to prise Jordan Rhodes from Huddersfield and Peter Whittingham from Championship rivals Cardiff City.

“I think we have already started the process of bidding without any success at the moment, either for permanent or loan deals,” admitted Allardyce.

“The co-owners have pressed the button on a lot of potential deals already which I can’t be more pleased about for the way they have supported me, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to clinch one.

“This is a very, very good squad here that has been stretched to the limit and we can’t continue to be like that if we want to get where we want to go.”

Expect more transfer activity in the next couple of days.