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nutty nigel

Play it again Sam - Joe Royle

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WEST HAM UNITED have contributed to my growing confusion about

the attitude of club directors by telling manager Sam Allardyce he’s still in a

job, but adding the ultimatum: Play more attractive football next season – and

finish in the top 10. I really do wonder where these people are coming

from.

Sam Allardyce is as honest a manager as they come. He has been

criticised throughout his career for the style of football played by his teams.

But Bolton, who he kept in the top flight against all odds for many seasons, and

Blackburn, who mysteriously sacked him, were soon relegated after he left. At

Newcastle, he simply wasn’t given the chance to settle in and do his job before

being axed. He has done everything he possibly could have done for West Ham

since joining them in June, 2011, winning promotion back to the Premier League

and keeping them there since, finishing 10th and 13th the past two seasons. His

task this last season was made all the tougher because record signing, striker

Andy Carroll, was injured for most of the campaign.

The top seven clubs have been set in stone for many years. The

two Manchesters, City and United, Liverpool and Everton from Merseyside, and the

three Londoners, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. That isn’t about to change.

There is usually a springer, a team that leaps from the pack and threatens that

established group, and last season it was Southampton. In effect, the Hammers’

board is telling Sam that West Ham must be that springer next season. Well, even

if they were to spend £30million on a midfielder and £40 million on a striker

this summer – which they won’t – it would be a tall order.

It is laudable for clubs to be ambitious, but they must also be

realistic. I think Big Sam has been put under unfair pressure by the Hammers

fans and, now, by the board. In fact, I believe he is overdue some credit for

the job he has done as a manager in the Premier League. Sometimes, directors and

fans don’t appreciate just what they’ve got. Best of luck,

Sam.

 

http://directoroffootball.com/play-it-again-sam/

 

Interesting blog with some very good points. I guess it''s one thing to want to be that springer club and yet another to expect to be it. The trouble is that to continually improve in the PL means that there are 8/9 clubs wanting to be next season''s Southampton. It doesn''t affect us now because we are relegated but we had already past the point where just staying up was acceptable.

 

 

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If fans have to suffer bad football they should expect decent finishes in return. I fear for them next season, he might play more attacking football but in the same way Hughton did this year, still within the same rigid dogmatic framework.

They''ll probably sacrifice a lot of defensive resolve for a few more goals and have a similar season to what we had this year. It should have been:

Stay and get us in the top 10 or we''ll sack you and get a different manager who plays better football. They''re asking too much here

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I agree Eddie, we had gone past the just staying up expectation last season (which was ironic) and had done what so many supporters had demanded of the club - splash the cash. The irony I find in that is that we got worse! A clear example that spending a few quid does not guarantee improvement.

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[quote user="lharman7"]"he might play more attacking football but in the same way Hughton did this year"

Really?[/quote]

I get what he was trying to say, Hughton tried to add attacking play to our side with Redmond, RVW, Hooper, Fer and Elmander and even to an extent Olsson brought in to revolutionise our attack. It massively back fired probably because we tried to change it too much and forgot you need the ball to stick up there to be attacking.

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err Hughton did not try to play more attacking footballthose footballers may have had an ''attacking instinct'' but they were brought in by the board and subsequently wrecked by Hughtonas to WHU that is just ''playing to the gallery'', this sort of stuff should be discussed with the board and agreed upon ............ behind closed doorssadly with so much at stake now managers may well simply set out to grind out an average 1 pint a game which will guarantee saftety and £60m in payments - the PL is stagnating football wise and survives on hype and an audience hooked to that hype rather than for any footballing reasons

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Slightly more attacking. Which in his head was do everything the same except maybe stick another striker up front or give one winger a little bit of freedom.

When i say more attacking i mean more attacking from ultra, ultra defensive. We did try to be a tiny bit more adventurous last year than the one before that but all it did was weaken our only half decent aspect, our defense. I reckon Allardyce would take a similar approach

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[quote user="Jimmy Smith"][quote user="lharman7"]"he might play more attacking football but in the same way Hughton did this year"

Really?[/quote]

I get what he was trying to say, Hughton tried to add attacking play to our side with Redmond, RVW, Hooper, Fer and Elmander and even to an extent Olsson brought in to revolutionise our attack. It massively back fired probably because we tried to change it too much and forgot you need the ball to stick up there to be attacking.[/quote]

I agree. He signed attack minded players and just expected them to just produce goals while all along he still tried to coach them into playing a stifled system which totally killed all confidence on which to attack.

I honestly think WHU only need 2 or 3 more players to try unlock some flair in there system.

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[quote user="Darth Catbeard The Old"]Slightly more attacking. Which in his head was do everything the same except maybe stick another striker up front or give one winger a little bit of freedom.

When i say more attacking i mean more attacking from ultra, ultra defensive. We did try to be a tiny bit more adventurous last year than the one before that but all it did was weaken our only half decent aspect, our defense. I reckon Allardyce would take a similar approach[/quote]

Sorry but I disagree on so many levels!

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oh dearit''s the board who indertified, targeted and signed the players, in consultation with the manager and chief scoutthe idea that the manager of Norwich City is given x amount of millions to sign who he wishes is absurd - just as is the idea that he is travelling around Europe watching them and akso carrying out the due dilligence necessaryit goes some way to explain why Becchio was signed BUT NOT used by Hughton

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I don''t think aiming to be in the top 10 is as unreasonable as it seems for clubs who have got promoted and then consolidated.

As NN says the top 7 are pretty much fixed but that does leave 3 other places to go for - this year filled by Southampton, Stoke & Newcastle.

Accepting that the 3 promoted clubs will just be looking to survive, there are 10 teams potentially aiming for these 3 places.

As we saw this year there will be slow starters who effectively rule themselves out (Fulham, Sunderland, WBA and Norwich) so the competition reduces to perhaps 6 teams fighting for those 3 spots - though I don''t think Villa were aiming for anything more than survival this year as well.

So it''s not so unreasonable an aim for a club like West Ham - though I agree the Board are playing to the gallery as well.

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[quote user="City1st"]

it''s the board who indertified, targeted and signed the players, in consultation with the manager and chief scoutthe idea that the manager of Norwich City is given x amount of millions to sign who he wishes is absurd - just as is the idea that he is travelling around Europe watching them and akso carrying out the due dilligence necessaryit goes some way to explain why Becchio was signed BUT NOT used by Hughton

[/quote]Really? I don''t believe that is true. If we had a director of football it might work that way. But we don''t as yet. For your theory to work it would be the directors who would be trolling round Europe identifying the players and carrying out due diligence. And that is a nonsense. That plainly doesn''t happen.A simple example is that of van Wolfswinkel. Hughton was after him when he was manager of Newcastle. Are you saying it was Bowkett and McNally who, quite independently, identified RvW as the striker we needed and it was pure coincidence Hughton had tried to buy him before?And are you saying - this is a rhetorical question, because this IS what you''re saying - that we bought Becchio despite Hughton not wanting him?

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[quote user="City1st"]oh dearit''s the board who indertified, targeted and signed the players, in consultation with the manager and chief scoutthe idea that the manager of Norwich City is given x amount of millions to sign who he wishes is absurd - just as is the idea that he is travelling around Europe watching them and akso carrying out the due dilligence necessaryit goes some way to explain why Becchio was signed BUT NOT used by Hughton

[/quote]

Not really when Neil Warnock was quoted as saying he spoke to Hughton in regards to Steve Morrison and Becchio in the same conversation.

This implies Becchio was a Hughton signing.

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From Colin''s autobiography:

"It was back to the league after that and we went into the Christmas period just off the play-offs. Then we lost to Nottingham Forest and Hull City in quick succession. It wasn’t just the defeats that worried me though, suddenly our best striker and top goalscorer had stopped working. Luciano Becchio had been enjoying a terrific season, but unless you’re Barcelona that causes problems because the player, and his advisers, start thinking about a move. I soon had enough calls from people claiming to be in his camp to know his head was elsewhere. It was clear by early December he wanted to go – before the Chelsea game when he scored and kissed the badge. At that stage he wanted to go to Turkey or China. The Turks were offering to nearly treble his wages so inevitably I get a player coming to see me telling me he’s 29 and this is his big chance to make himself secure for life. I know he’s as good as telling me if I don’t let him go I might not get the best out of him in the rest of the season. But I can’t tell the local press there is a gun to my head. The players all know he wants away, the manager knows, but you can’t blacken his character in public if you are going to sell him as you’ll reduce his value – and there’s always the chance the window will shut and you’ll be left with him and will need him to want to play for you.

So the fans – who love him – moan when you leave him out, and the press ask why, but you can’t say anything. It’s difficult. The issue came to a head when we lost at Barnsley in January and to my eyes Becchio never broke sweat. They were bottom of the table and Yorkshire rivals whose fans love to put one over ‘big’ Leeds. Our fans, for the first time, turned on the team, and me. I made the point of staying out on the pitch until last, and clapping the fans. I got dog’s abuse. I knew after that I had to do something about Becchio so I spoke to his agent on the Monday and told him how disappointed I was at Becchio’s attitude. In reply the agent let slip Becchio had rung him an hour before the game. I was gobsmacked, but I didn’t let on, just asked him a question that ensured he confirmed it. I then asked Becchio if his mind was on the game, he said it was, but when I pointed out he’d been on the phone to his agent an hour before kick-off he had suddenly nothing to say. He couldn’t deny it. So he had to go, but I needed to get a replacement. One player I’ve always admired, especially since a performance for Millwall against my QPR, is Steve Morison. I tried to sign him when QPR went up but Norwich beat us to him. He did well for them in their first season in the Premier League but was now on the bench most weeks. I got in touch with Chris Hughton at Norwich but he insisted he wouldn’t let Morison go until he got a replacement. He was finding that difficult. It was all over the papers that they had had bids rejected for strikers like Celtic’s Gary Hooper. Then they lost in the FA Cup to non-League Luton to top off a bad run in the league and I knew they’d be getting desperate to sign someone. I could have offered Becchio to Chris, but that would have weakened my negotiating position as it would have made it obvious I needed to shift Becchio. So I asked someone else with links to the club to throw his name in the hat. It worked. Becchio had not been on their radar but a 19-goal striker was going to keep the fans happy, and he was a lot cheaper than Hooper. We also got a cash adjustment in our favour, £ 200,000, so the new owners were happy, and after the problems with Becchio so was I."

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="City1st"]

it''s the board who indertified, targeted and signed the players, in consultation with the manager and chief scoutthe idea that the manager of Norwich City is given x amount of millions to sign who he wishes is absurd - just as is the idea that he is travelling around Europe watching them and akso carrying out the due dilligence necessaryit goes some way to explain why Becchio was signed BUT NOT used by Hughton

[/quote]Really? I don''t believe that is true. If we had a director of football it might work that way. But we don''t as yet. For your theory to work it would be the directors who would be trolling round Europe identifying the players and carrying out due diligence. And that is a nonsense. That plainly doesn''t happen.A simple example is that of van Wolfswinkel. Hughton was after him when he was manager of Newcastle. Are you saying it was Bowkett and McNally who, quite independently, identified RvW as the striker we needed and it was pure coincidence Hughton had tried to buy him before?And are you saying - this is a rhetorical question, because this IS what you''re saying - that we bought Becchio despite Hughton not wanting him?[/quote]eh ?There are scouts. That is what scouts do. Reports are given to the board, who with the chief scout and manager decide who to sign. McNally is tasked to complete the signing.I would say I have no idea why you are again making up stuff, but the word ''again'' explains it.

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