IntenseDebate - acraven123

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Triumph of Substan... · 0 replies · +1 points

I've seen enough of Allaredyce and heard enough to make a judgement. You think that he is solid, a hard man and all the rest of it, I don't and there's no evidence to support it, He's always banging on about stats and when you look at them you find nothing to back up his opinion of himself. Especially in the case of Arsenal.

You show me where he is backed up by facts and I might concede a point. As for the cup half empty, the barrels empty mate.

And to denigrate Hughtons achievement, with very little support from the owner actually is disingenuous. Compared to our situation, he saw it as imperative to keep the seasoned professionals, all we've seen is people leaving.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Triumph of Substan... · 2 replies · +1 points

I made no judgement on those players, but maybe you should take off your Allardyce tinted specs and tell me who the starting 11 are going to be? There are no players for most of the positions, and plenty still to leave. Contrast that to Hughton who persuaded the players to stay at Newcastle.

The coffee smells like this - we have no team and a manager that has never thrown youth into anything, and his only record is to scrape a narrow win in the play offs at the second attempt. Yes Nolan is good, but 1 player ain't going to take us up.

This season ain't gonna be straightforward, and won't necessarily result in us coming up. Blind faith and idol worship ain't gonna replace building a team. And I want to see some evidence that it is happening.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Triumph of Substan... · 2 replies · +1 points

His record is average unless you measure it by his own stats that he makes up.

Example, he has a good record against Arsenal and they always had problems with Bolton. Facts - Allardyce 4 wins, Wenger/Arsenal 9 wins, 7 draws.

Of course you think he'll definitely get us up - but when has he done it directly before. Once with Notts County, failed with Blackpool and was sacked, and Bolton had 2 attempts before scraping through in the play offs.
Win ratios don't support him as 'the best manager in the world' either. His best was at Blackpool funnily enough 43%, then 38% at Notts County and 41% at Bolton and more worryingly the last couple were 33% and 35 % at Newcastle and Blackburn. Only slightly higher than Avram Grant at 31%.

Overrated, lacks intelligence, loudmouth. Talk is cheap and the joke is set to continue.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Triumph of Substan... · 0 replies · +1 points

Hey, this just spells it out whats gone and whats come in.

There's loads of speculation and nothing material. And that is all we have heard from G+S all along speculation with no substance in the transfer market.

As for Allardyce, wrong man for the job. There are so many problems with him its hard to know where to start but you carry on believing his own publicity if it makes you feel safe.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Triumph of Substan... · 19 replies · +1 points

CMS has gone to Leicester.
We have lost:

Kieron Dyer:
Danny Gabbidon:
Jonathan Spector:
Matthew Upson:
Lars Jacobsen:
Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson:
Victor Obinna;
Wayne Bridge:
Robbie Keane:
Thomas Hitzlsperger:
Demba Ba:
Radoslav Kovac:
Manuel Da Costa:
And are still likely to lose Parker and Green.

We have brought in Faye (who played 16 games last year) and Nolan.

I am not optimistic. I have more concerns about our manager than about the OS. His abilities are over hyped mostly by himself, his reputation as a 'hard' man doesn't bear scrutiny and his record is not good, yet there is an almost obsessive faith amongst some of our support. I think he will do more harm than good, but even if he were right, he won't be here long enough for all the money that Sullivan has thrown at him. This time next year could be worse ....

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Big Guns Cherry Pi... · 1 reply · +1 points

We won't be able to compete with Chelsea, Man U, Real Madrid, etc in 'hoovering' up those players. That would be another short term and ultimately unsuccessful exercise. How are we going to pay an army of scouts travelling in Europe? We're not and we'll end up relying on the likes of Silkman.

We need to develop our own, and we need the investment and brains behind transitioning the players - training facilities, methods, competitions, skills, everything. However, our owners are looking for a short term manager who will compile success. By looking for a messiah manager our owners will spend more money and get less and less reward. Allardyce is simply the latest installment, and even if he agreed with this he's not here long enough. We're in for a hard lesson but whether they'll learn it or not is another question.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Big Guns Cherry Pi... · 0 replies · +1 points

That was 4 wins out of 20. 9 wins for Arsenal with 7 draws. But according to the mouth on a stick he is the greatest manager ever and Arsenal have 'trouble' with his teams. He ain't and they don't.

But going back to your previous posting about Manu Utd in the 90s, that is what I am saying we should be doing. Allardyce won't be doing it as he thinks its a waste of time and money (there are plenty of soundbites from him on this) and he won't be here long enough.

BTW it was Pop Robson who developed those players.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Big Guns Cherry Pi... · 0 replies · +1 points

The only plans they've got is a manager who thinks its all peripheral. They've got no one. There are plenty of ex West Ham out there making sure that other teams are successful. G+S should have reached out to those people to bring them here and turn back the years of neglect of the backroom. If they'd done this last year, and said it would take some time then it wouldn't be so bad.
Instead they went for big names and showboating about the money and they've ended up wasting more money. Allardyce will be just the same.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Big Guns Cherry Pi... · 1 reply · +1 points

That's where we are though. And this is about the soul of the club. Tony Carr does teach it like that and does it well. The problem is transitioning the players and developing them in between youth and first team.
If it was me that owned the club then the first thing I would have done is go and study what they are doing abroad. And then invest in this area and get a manager who had a vision. It started being neglected under Redknapp and has never recovered (with a brief respite under Pards).

There are no short cuts - you can't compete with the money, the only way is to develop your own. And the only way to develop your own is to develop the skills and passing, and shooting. Tony Carr has practically kept all of those rich clubs and England going with the players he's churned out. Its more cost effective and its what we used to do.

But G+S seem to think they need to get a sticking plaster manager with a whole expensive entourage to ship in, cause chaos and then leave again and Allardyce is just one more of those.
I am not optimistic.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - The Big Guns Cherry Pi... · 6 replies · +1 points

Its all very well giving it out large and talking positive and upping ourselves, but the facts are he only went up by winning the play offs. He has no real record of taking teams up in the Championship.

My real concern is that in attempting to 'leave his mark' he will decimate the youth team and Tony Carr will retire, yet he will rely on those young players to get us up. And then we'll be in the position of being in the PL with no infrastructure at all, and our shipped in manager disappearing into the sunset to manage England with his whole entourage. It'll be 1 step forwards and 5 steps back.

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