Why playing the ‘West Ham way’ could be harder than ever

Taking a club and turning it away from what is perceived to be a Sam Allardyce brand of football will be no easy task.

West Ham supporters have been hugely critical of a manager who won promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt, and secured three successive seasons in the top flight, finishing no lower than 13th.

And although more often than not the performances would not win any prizes for aesthetics, the 60-year-old’s managerial record suggests he has a formula that works.

The risk with replacing a man with a clear plan, is things can quickly become messy – just ask Bolton, Blackburn and Newcastle fans. Two of the clubs are long relegated from the Premiership, the other held on by the skin of its teeth on the last day of the season.

During Big Sam’s time at West Ham, regular comparisons were drawn between his previous sides, most noteably the Bolton side he lead for almost eight years.

Given that long association with The Trotters, and the band of former players he brought with him, it was always argued negatively that he was trying to replicate his past routine.

However, that past routine included cup semi-finals, a league cup final, and a series of consecutive top eight finishes, with European competition thrown in.

The squad he left behind in April 2007, which included Ivan Campo and Nicolas Anelka, made the last 16 of the UEFA Cup the following season.

Now, eight years and five managers later, the team is mediocre at best, hovering aimlessly in The Championship.

A comment left by a Bolton fan to <a href+”http://foreverwestham.com/2013/08/blog-topics/the-west-ham-and-bolton-wanderers-comparison>a story comparing the two clubs, written in August 2013, made a stark warning to West Ham fans.

Despite agreeing the similarities were apparent, he wrote of how difficult it had been to witness his team try to implement a change to its style of football following a ‘Big Sam’ reign.

The transition to a more aesthetically pleasing style is not easy, he argued, when shifting from a ‘Big Sam’ type of team.

To avoid significant disappointment, West Ham would have to build this planned enhancement into the structure of the club.

And the concern is, not enough enough pre-planning has been done to create a balanced team that can accommodate genuine creativity and flair.

Any new manager will inherit the core squad as is, with wholesale changes limited due to the already depleted numbers.

Stewart Downing aside, no real playmaker has shone in recent seasons. The strikers out injured, on whose return so much hope is hung, are big target men. The defenders are not naturally play-out-of-the-back stylish centre halves.

The squad is shaped for ‘Big Sam football’. Effective. Surviving. Obstinate. Using those players to play a more expansive game could be costly. They’re simply not attuned to playing that way.

Allardyce’s last season at Bolton saw the side finish seventh, with 56 points. The sympathisers would argue he would have achieved the same with his assembled squad had it not been beset by key injuries.

Rumblings of unrest between the board and Allardyce over transfer polices and youth involvement suggest the owners were trying to wrestle control back in a bid to develop a more adaptable situation for an incoming manager.

But more than just bringing in the best possible coach, bringing in the right players to play in a new way for that coach will undoubtedly be a challenge.

Failing to adapt the Allardyce legacy to the expectant future would see a disjointed West Ham moving forward into the Olympic Stadium.

An unsettling period now will forever fuel the sympathisers, and Bolton fans, waiting in the wings to say “we told you so”.