After yesterday’s emphatic win over Nottingham Forest, writer Dean Mears has a look at West Ham’s style of play.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to football, one- you must play with style and two- you must win. Often many try to amalgamate the two into one and often it fails, unless you’re Barcelona. So would West Ham fans settle for scrapping the ‘West Ham way’ and win ugly to make sure there is a return to the Premier League?
The first example I’ll use is Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, they play beautiful football, they pass the ball better than anyone else in the Premier League and Le Prof’s football philosophy should be celebrated, even if most think he needs some giant type players that they have sorely missed since Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira. Yet for all the lovely football Arsenal play, they haven’t lifted one trophy in six years. No amount of wonderful passing play can takeaway this fact, nor can it lead Arsenal fans to forget that fact.
The second example I’ll use is Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, at times the football was so boring you would have thought it was being played at Highbury the ground was so quiet. Yet at the end of season when Jose brought the Premier League to Stamford Bridge, most inside would have forgotten all the terrible games they had seen over the course of the season, because it became irrelevant, they were winners.
The ‘West Ham way’ will only be as good as the players asked to play it, and since the majority of the squad hasn’t changed from the one that was relegated don’t you think it was time the phrase was scrapped? What’s more important, promotion or playing good football? If you’re unsure, ask the finance director. Football can be played beautifully with success and many point out Barcelona as the prime example of this, but don’t forget they’ve spent big as well. They may have brought the likes of Messi and Iniesta through the ranks but they also spent big money on players like Alves, Villa, Fabregas and Sanchez. I don’t see Gold and Sullivan being able to assist Big Sam like that.
Big Sam is famed for the long ball football his Bolton side employed when they arrived in the Premier League and after his failings at Newcastle, would West Ham fans forget their principles and watch West Ham get promoted on the back of a few Carlton Cole flick ons? It remains to be seen, but if Big Sam can’t cure the phobia of Upton Park he might not be around long enough to see the result.
Football is all about the success, the trophies, so forgive me when I say, it’s better off if the West Ham way is forgotten, let’s face it, it hasn’t exactly served West Ham well recently.
What do you think of Dean’s thoughts? Let him know at www.findingrowz.blogspot.com
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