West Ham United Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Sheriff Fat Sam…

Excuse the bad pun, only fellow indie kids of the 90s will get it.  Anyway, it’s not official in any way, shape or form, but various noises are coming out about Sam Allardyce becoming the next manager of West Ham.  There has been some real movement on the betting markets for example with most bookies looking at evens odds now.  It was certainly a move I advocated with a few games to go and survival a possibility, but is he still the right man?  The answer is a simple yes from me.

There are various to not take to Sam, his football teams rarely over-excite in terms of style and his personality can certainly rub some people the wrong way.  However, I firmly believe that he likes to really re-build any side he manages and looks at a club from the bottom up.  I believe he will look to clean out some of the coaching staff, and sentimentality aside, all but Tony Carr need to be shipped out and ply their trade elsewhere.  Kevin Keen is a top fella and West Ham through and through, but he has been at the forefront of some of our worst times recently and it’s time for a cultural change at the club.

It’s also quite common to cite that Sam is not the ‘West Ham way’-  well, did you enjoy the West Ham way under Zola or Grant?  Me neither, and if we need to bite and kick our way out of the Championship, then so be it.  Allardyce knows how to shut up shop and build from there, if only we had such vision last season.

Most importantly, whoever does take the job, we must give them our backing, let them find out who we are and what we respond to.  An Allardyce out campaign from the start will not do anyone any favours, give him our support and time (not like those Geordies) and let’s see if he can build a legacy.

Irons!!!

Should they stay or should they go?

The clearout will start in a couple of weeks, so who represents the foundations which we should build from and who are the rotten core that are preventing us from doing so? 

The players who will go, even if though we many not want them to are;

Parker, Cole, Green, possibly Ba and Hitlzpserger

The players who are off anyway are;

Upson, Dyer, Jacobsen, Illunga, Faubert – plus Keane, Obinna and Bridge who were here on loan

Additional players who can do one are;
Kovac and Piquoinne for sure.  Sears, Hines and Stanislas?  The last two could possibly shine a bit more in the Championship, but in my mind, no huge great loss if they go.  We’ve all been waiting for Freddie Sears to come good and he is Hammers through and through, but I’m just not convinced he is good enough.  A possible squad player for another season.

The players we build with;

Noble, Collison and Tomkins.  These three can really make their mark next season and I’d be surprised if any of them made big noises about leaving.  Some offers may come in for Noble but we should definitely try and hang on to him if we can.  I’d love to add Ba to that list, he will score a hatful in the Championship and a quality goalscorer is the difference between promoted teams and those that are not.  Hopefully O'Neill can come back and do a job for us as well.

The rest;

Reid and Barrera?  For some reason, I think Reid could succeed in the Championship and should get a chance.  Barrera I’m not sure was meant to be a Hammer, so ship him off to some Spanish outpost as soon as possible.

Boa-Morte – apparently, a very popular player at the training ground, his aggression could be useful and I’d be tempted to keep him for another season.

Gabbidon – imagine he has had enough, but again would be worth a contract extension as could do well.
Spector – another likely to go, but again, I’d keep him around, can do a job in midfield and fill in at the back when required.

Da Costa – keep, with the right management, could come really good, provided he stays out of trouble!

And who to get in?  Well, some player exchanges could be in order.  If Parker goes to Spurs, then Alan Hutton and some cash would solve our right back problem.  Green to Villa could see Richard Dunne come to us – a leader like him is exactly what we need.   Followed up with a left back, a right winger and a couple of forwards and we’ll be back up there before you can say bouncebackability!

Avram Grant sacked

Grant has now been sacked - apparently, Gold and Sullivan asked Dave Whelan for a room to do at the JJB, which he no doubt gave with a smile on his face and have sacked him.  As I said in my previous post, I could not believe he would be at Upton Park next week.  Now we know that he won't.  Bye bye Avram, don't ever come back...

Down and out in East London

It was typical West Ham that they gave us some hope until the very death before reverting to type.  But now the fact is clear, and this was not about today's game, this has been about the whole season.  In terms of belief, I'm a bit of liberal when it comes to the Hammers.  I didn't want to rush and sack Grant in January when it looked all over, though I did comes to terms with the idea.  The culture of sacking managers continually abhors me and for anyone who talks of the West Ham way, sacking your manager is certainly not it.  But in reality, it was a tough decision our owners should have stepped up and made.

That said, Grant is clearly off, if he has a shred of deceny he will do it himself.  I'd personally advise for him to not be attending next Sunday, a happy send off he will not receive.  The strange thing about football is that he will be offered another million pound a year contract elsewhere - oh to work in such an industry.  But he can jog on, with numerous failings following him.  It started with the signings in the Summer, with Reid and Barrera not ready for the high bar that the Premier League requires.  It continued with not targetting much needed full backs sooner, keeping the mute Upson as captain and then prioritising cup runs ahead of premier league survival.  That, attached to tactical failings and inconsistency in team selection add up to a manager who is simply not PL standard.

I'm feeling fairly drained and emotional right now, so won't write much more.  But let's be realistic, it's not like we're going to walk away.  We've been teetering on the brink for ages and now the clearout can really begin.  Upson, Dyer, Boa-Morte and more can walk away, and a manager who can marry the nurturing of our youngsters with some Championship League style players will take us through and the board will support them.  In spite of the failings of the board, I still back them, they are not going to walk away and have kept this club from adminstration.  Brady could do with stopping her column if she wants to win respect from the fans, but I have faith in Gold and Sullivan to now be more ruthless in their actions and to turn this ship around.

Have a beer, go for a walk, take a deep breath.......Grant will be a bad memory and we will start in a new era for the club we love.......West Ham UNITED.......

Original West Ham Sign sells for £1600

There was also sorts of excitement at Sotheby''s today, with a big sports auction, including some notable West Ham United items.  The best among them was the original West Ham United signage that featured on the gates at Upton Park in the early 1900's, here they are..

Pretty impressive you'll agree.  Here is the description from the catelogue;

 

The original name plates from the main iron gates to West Ham United`s Boleyn Ground installed circa 1904, the cut iron lettering mounted on two iron back-plates, painted silver on red oxide, the first reading WEST HAM UNITED, the second FOOTBALL CO. LTD., each 168 by 20cm., 66 by 8in. (2) Thames Ironworks FC was founded in 1895 by employees of this shipbuilding yard. Short of funds, the club... More

'The original name plates from the main iron gates to West Ham United`s Boleyn Ground installed circa 1904, the cut iron lettering mounted on two iron back-plates, painted silver on red oxide, the first reading WEST HAM UNITED, the second FOOTBALL CO. LTD., each 168 by 20cm., 66 by 8in. (2) Thames Ironworks FC was founded in 1895 by employees of this shipbuilding yard. Short of funds, the club was wound up in June 1900 and relaunched a month later as a professional club, West Ham United Football Co. Ltd. They moved from their original Memorial Recreation Ground, Canning Town, in 1904 to the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park.'

A great item and someone will no doubt enjoy them for the £1600 the club paid for them, wonder if the club bought them back?

Interesting, also up for sale were a series of Matthew Upson kits, maybe he was having a clearout before moving on in the summer, most of these fetched around £300, including one set which included the patched up Xl sponsorship, nice little rarity that.

Drop Upson for the run in....

We are hurtling towards the big three games that will define our season right now and some big decisions need to be made.  There is certainly a view that if we  get 7 or 9 points from these games, we can stay up, whether Avram Grant has the ability or will to make that happen remains to be seen, but a few off apples need to be removed from the cart for this to happen.

For a long time now, I’ve wondered why Matthew Upson has been our captain in name, when the leadership is so clearly demonstrated by Scott Parker on the pitch.  Upson appears quiet by nature and I rarely see him challenging referee decisions or delivering a hairdryer to his colleagues.  As a player, he blows hot and cold, there have been a couple of really good performances this season, Liverpool at home for example,  but these have been matched with showings that are at best, indifferent, like Liverpool away.  In the past few games, Upson has appeared more susceptible to injury, and it might be that a player who is likely to be having a medical with a different club in a few weeks is exercising caution over his fitness.   That’s the player’s prerogative, but right now, we need every player to be throwing themselves on the line for this club.  I’ve not seen Upson do that as captain before and I’m not convinced I’ll see from a shortly departing Upson in the near future.

So, to the Blackburn game, and one we simply must win.  Here’s the line up (I’m assuming Parker is out)

Green

Bridge – Da Costa – Tomkins – Jacobsen

Boa Morte – Hitzlsperger – Spector – Sears

Ba –Cole

Bench: Boffin, Spence, Gabbidon, Keane, Kovac, Obinna and Piquoinne

Samba of Blackburn is one of my favourite players, the guy is a giant and I wish we had him in our back four.  However, his partner Jones is more of a liability and Ba and Cole could give these two a real game.  Having the two big lads up front will match the physical side of Blackburn’s play.
We really need to win this, and to do so in convincing fashion.  I’ll be happy with 1-0 but a few more goals past them would give the lads a lift as well as help our goal difference.  We can do this, come on you Irons!!!