Since the turn of the year, everyone will agree that Upton Park has not been a particularly pleasant place to go and watch or play football. Aside from the derby day victory over Millwall, the growing list of draws and uninspiring displays have put a massive cloud over the East End and with huge amount of negativity coming from the stands and the manager, it is hard to take many positives at the moment.
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Saying that, it is no doubt a time for the longer serving members of the Hammers squad to stand up and be counted; the players who have seen everything the same way that the fans have over the past five or six years. Unfortunately, for one very promising midfielder, the realistic contribution in this tough time during a testing season has been non-existent. Jack Collison arrived at Upton Park when he was a 16-year-old released from Cambridge United when the club folded its youth system, when Tony Carr once again spotted the raw talent of a future international footballer.
Constant impressive displays in the reserve team and occasional substitute appearances for Gianfranco Zola’s first team side lead Collison to earn a long term deal at the club until the end of the 2013 season. With Zola long gone, along with plenty of midfielders, Collison established himself as a key player in the heart of the Hammers side in 2009 and won the Young Hammer of the Year award voted for by both fans and staff.
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Unfortunately however, that is where the fairytale has stuttered slightly for the shy Welsh international as within two weeks of the following campaign kicking off, Collison received news that his father had died in a motorcycle accident while en route to London to watch Jack play against Spurs. Understandably, the news hit the midfielder hard; however he showed incredible courage by leading West Ham out against bitter rivals Millwall just two days later at Upton Park in which he left the field in tears at the final whistle, with crowd trouble making all the headlines.
The Watford-born Hammer then suffered a serious knee injury that looked set to see him miss nine months of Premier League football, as he almost became a forgotten man around the club. The news then got worse after another injury setback during rehabilitation meant that altogether the midfielder missed a staggering 14 months of football. It would be difficult for anyone to come back from over a year away from the game, and it took Collison a long time to get back into the swing of things, with him unable to do anything about the clubs relegation from the Championship last season. But this year could have been a fresh start for the loyal midfielder as he looked to get his career back on track.
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However, the reality is that the 23-year-old has found it difficult to make much of an impact at this level so far this season and it seems he may now be resigned to a substitute role with Sam Allardyce even preferring to play a centre forward on the wing and a centre half in the midfield over selecting Jack. There is no hiding place at West Ham this season and Collison has found that out, with his anonymous role all too easily spotted and his lack of creativity and confidence clear to see. With a fairly large squad now at his disposal, Allardyce will hopefully soon find his best XI and lead the Hammers back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, but also Irons fans hope that Collison can return to his form of two or three years ago and be a part of that and the long term future at Upton Park.
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Collison IN Allardyce OUT
lets get rid of Sam before he gets rid of all the talent
Deane is right. Collinson is not a player to Fat Sam’s liking and we need to get rid of Allardyce before we all forget any ideas of playing football.
Would love to see him as a regular starter – but he’s gotta deliver and he hasn’t for a long time. I cannot rememeber the last decent performance from him… and if he can’t do it in the Championship… then lets hope we don’t need him next season!!
Sorry to agree but we gotta get rid of allardyce. If all the fans can see where its going wrong why can’t he. We have one of the best squads in this league and should be beating the majority every week but when we send out a 4-5-1 formation at home against a team low on confidence and struggle to beat something is wrong. He calls his 4-5-1 4-3-3 but we all know whats going on. He plays not to lose, but not to win and in football you have to be picking up 3 points against the Doncasters of this world
I have been reluctant to criticise BS as he has done well to put us in contention, but as a fan who rates Collison so highly and to see him underachieving in the present set up I have changed my tune. The basic error BS has succombed to is playing long diagonal balls to a player who can not control it properly ie our Carlton and then expecting everything to statistically fall in to place. He has to lean towards the West Ham way before it is too late for him and us. Collison is not alone among the talented players we have that are waiting patiently to play more football like Southampton(top!).
if collision is to go because of his performances then Sam should be first out of the door. only the defence has been constantly achieving.
Jack will always struggle when the ball is smashed over his head to the centre forward, the same reason Baldock is not consistently in the team both are very good technical players but Fat Sam prefers 6ft 8 monsters Dioup / Carew, the last game was shocking hence “We want Di Canio” I would rather stay in that division and watch football than play that rubbish and get promoted !
I’ve felt it wrong to be critical of SA, thinking that with us being in the top two and the championship needing a different type of football to be succesfull at times. However my patience was stretched to the limit when we had immense young talent on the bench Tuesday night in Lansbury, who performed brilliantly in the same league, Morrison who by all accounts is something special and Sam Baldock, who were all ignored for Carew who has obviously seen his best days gone by. The fear of losing is obvious for all to see and I thought Allardyce compounded this rather than take pressure off in his pre and post match interviews. I’m not optomistic about promotion right now and I fear a long hard season next year if we do
Lansbury, who performed brilliantly at this level? When? Must have missed that…. Same old fan from this season!
Doesnt help playing Collison out on the wing, as many have said square pegs in round holes. I rate this brave young man very highly and expect to see him returning to his best form, a la Trevor Brooking or Michael Carrick. Come on Sam, start playing football with our quality players, i dont think you will get your £1m bonus playing long ball.