Sam Allardyce.

How's he shaping up as manager? You seem to be in a good place but the reason I ask is that someone - and I don't remember who, whether it was on TV or in a blog somewhere - recently made the comment that you've gone all long-ball (i.e. what you'd expect) with Big Sam at the helm. I've seen a couple of your matches and didn't particularly notice the long-ball element but is it a fair observation? What was said was that you'd lost your trade-mark football and were playing boring (efficient ?) football these days. Fair comment or anti-Big-Sam stirring?

Oh, I see this all the time on KUMB etc. Sam was brought in to get us promoted, and he's on target to do that.
There's a lot of withering about the West Ham way, but the West Ham way of recent years has been to lose gutlessly. I can certainly say it's more fun to watch us win ugly than it is to lose, prettily or otherwise.
Some fans need to remember we're not Brazil, I think. Unrealistic expectations. And no, we're not all long ball but we're slogging it out.

OK, so if Sam gets you promotion he's done his job. Does that mean you'd be happy to stay with "slogging it out" football once back in the Premier League or would you prefer to have someone else come in to upgrade the process? There's nowt wrong with "efficient" football - George Graham (with the right players) did well with his "One-nil-to-the-Arsenal" teams and us Gooners were happy enough; back in '70-71 we did The Double using efficient rather than attractive means apparently (it was attractive enough for me at the time). With your history of playing attractive football would you rather get back to that at some stage, I wonder?

Yes I would. He's got us playing with spirit, formulaic or not. And I think heS got a good understanding with the owners. Onward and upwards, eh?

Fingers crossed Beds!

jpr60 wrote:Fingers crossed Beds!

Indeed. And that's another thing - our owners have got their knockers (pun intended) but I suspect that without them, we'd have gone into administration, been docked points, had to sell our players and we'd be propping up League 1 by now, looking at League 2 next season.

That all sounds horribly grim Beds - a bit Leeds if you know what I mean. Better you didn't go there - now that's NOT a nice place to be!

jpr60 wrote:That all sounds horribly grim Beds - a bit Leeds if you know what I mean. Better you didn't go there - now that's NOT a nice place to be!

Exactly. Beware Icelandic chuffs, is what I say.
Incidentally, there seems to me to be a whiff of that era over at QPR. Fernandes and Kia getting into bed together, Fernandes suddenly being able to buy a club after tweeting about wanting West Ham for ages, and now his airline are the club sponsors.

Allardyce is the best thing to happen to club in a long time. No better man than him at getting a team hard to beat, winning mentality, and established in the Premiership. His work with Bolton is so vastly underrated.

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:Allardyce is the best thing to happen to club in a long time. No better man than him at getting a team hard to beat, winning mentality, and established in the Premiership. His work with Bolton is so vastly underrated.

Must be a different forum i've logged into

QBVILLA wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:Allardyce is the best thing to happen to club in a long time. No better man than him at getting a team hard to beat, winning mentality, and established in the Premiership. His work with Bolton is so vastly underrated.

Must be a different forum i've logged into

I'll admit to having changed my view of him. We needed someone with a bit of grr, and as I said, I imagine he and the owners understand each other perfectly. The right man at the right time, maybe?

He's not the messiah.....................

QBVILLA wrote:He's not the messiah.....................

Ooh! Is he a very naughty boy?

Bedshammer wrote:

QBVILLA wrote:He's not the messiah.....................

Ooh! Is he a very naughty boy?

According to 'his' twitter account he is

QBVILLA wrote:

Bedshammer wrote:

QBVILLA wrote:He's not the messiah.....................

Ooh! Is he a very naughty boy?

According to 'his' twitter account he is

Oh, I haven't looked at it lately. Very funny.

QBVILLA wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:Allardyce is the best thing to happen to club in a long time. No better man than him at getting a team hard to beat, winning mentality, and established in the Premiership. His work with Bolton is so vastly underrated.

Must be a different forum i've logged into

I never criticised the man's talent, just thick he's a gigantic bellend. But he's our gigantic bellend at the moment, and he's doing a fine job.