West Ham co-chairman David Gold has blamed jet-lag for a social media mistake that suggested he wanted to see Sam Allardyce leave his role as the club's manager.
Having travelled with the club on their preseason tour of New Zealand, Gold favourited a tweet sent to him by a supporter which called for Allardyce to be sacked.
Is today the day we get rid of BFS ?? @davidgold fingers crossed
- stephen (@harris2011_s) July 28, 2014
Allardyce remains under pressure having survived calls last season for him to be replaced, with 'BFS' a derogatory nickname bestowed upon him by unhappy supporters who are not pleased with the style of football adopted by the former Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn boss.
Gold, along with co-chairman David Sullivan, stood by the 59-year-old after a series of postseason meetings but uncertainty still surrounds Allardyce's future following two poor performances which ended in defeat on their tour.
After a 33 hour flight from New Zealand, I was in my car scanning through my tweets and it seems I accidently favourited one (1/3)
- David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014
It has made some of the papers today so I should clarify that I did not and would never deliberately or... 2/3)
- David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014
..intentionally endorse a tweet that questions our manager's position. Lesson: don't use twitter when you're jet lagged! (3/3) dg
- David Gold (@davidgold) July 29, 2014
Allardyce saw his side jeered off the pitch after an unconvincing 2-1 win over 10-man Hull in March, with banners unfurled at later matches urging the board to make a change.
Sullivan also seemed to make Allardyce's position more awkward last week when he revealed the board and the boss were at odds over the future of Ravel Morrison -- with the owners wanting to tie the England under-21 international down on a longer contract despite Allardyce suggesting he does not have a future in his side.
Meanwhile, Enner Valencia is free to complete his move from Pachucha after being granted a work permit.
The Ecuador international striker's presence will be vital after it was confirmed Andy Carroll will require ankle surgery and could miss up to four months.
Valencia scored three goals at the 2014 World Cup.