West Brom boss Sam Allardyce addresses Robert Snodgrass situation following defeat to Hammers

Snodgrass joined the Baggies on an 18-month deal on January 8.

But while he impressed in the win over Wolves, he didn’t play at the London Stadium after the Hammers struck an agreement with Albion prior to his move.

While Snodgrass had been made available for transfer by Hammers - they did not want him playing against them last night - a match they won 2-1.

The Express & Star understands they initially told Albion they wouldn’t sanction Snodgrass’s transfer until today (January 20). But the Baggies wanted him to play against Wolves and intergrate him into the group earlier.

That led to the clubs coming to an agreement preventing the midfielder from playing last night.

The agreement, though, may constitute a breach of Premier League regulation I7 which states: “No club shall enter into a contract which enables another party to that contract to acquire the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams in league matches.”

When asked about the issue post-match, Allardyce said: “I can’t answer that.

“Before I might say something that gets us, West Ham or anybody in trouble, I’ll wait to see what the Premier League have to say.

“I have got bigger things to worry about than what the Premier League think.

“The players played their very best. Whether Robert Snodgrass played or not, it wouldn’t have made any difference to the two goals we conceded.”

West Ham took the lead in first-half stoppage time at the London stadium through Jarrod Bowen. A fine Matheus Pereira strike pulled the Baggies level before Michail Antonio restored the host’s advantage.

But while the Baggies did everything they could to force an equaliser in the closing stages, they just fell short.

“We could have got something from the game if we had done five seconds of defending properly at the end of the first half,” Allardyce said.

“We just had to deal with a long hopeful ball, punted forward by West Ham down our right-hand side.

“There was nobody within 10 yards of our player who just needed to control it, pass it or clear it down the line to see the first-half out.

“But he heads it back to West Ham. They cross it back into our box and it’s a goal.

“It was a bitter blow after a very resilient and very organised performance in the first-half in which we restricted West Ham to very little.

“We started the second half and took control which resulted in a really good goal from Matheus. We were on the front foot at that stage.

“But when it came to doing a little bit of defending prosperity again, we didn’t do it. It ended up 2-1 which was really disappointing after we had been on top.

“We came back at the end with a spirited effort from the players. But that spirited effort didn’t result in a goal and ultimately resulted in a very disappointing defeat for us.”