Since the arrival of Sam Allardyce at West Ham United, fans were reluctant to put their trust in his ability as a manager, with many believing he was the wrong choice, due to his “direct” style of play clearly overtaking the modern day myth of “the West Ham way”. After a successful promotion season from the Championship and a clear statement of intent made with the signings made this transfer window, is it time to accept that he is the right man for the job?
The fastest growing Hammers website is now on Facebook, click the link to be entered into our up and coming competitions http://www.facebook.com/pages/ForeverWestHamcom/200938616608282
For years Big Sam has consistently managed to create teams capable of beating the best, the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have all crumbled to the sheer power of Sam’s teams and his tactical ingenious.
Since his days as Bolton Wanderers manager, fans and managers alike have all slated Big Sam’s style of player, suggesting It’s not the right way to play football, yet he has stuck to what he knows, played to his teams strengths and frequently got the result needed, therefore how can anyone state the way
football should be played when it’s the result that everyone cares about? I always ask the doubters of the direct style of play this question “If your team had the chance to win the league, playing direct football or lose the league playing “Spain” like passing football?” the answer is always the same “win the league playing direct” hence, it’s the result that matters the most.
One thing that has made me question and see where other fans are coming from who believe he isn’t what the club needs, is purely this…Big Sam has always says he bases his tactics around the players he has at his disposal, so at clubs like Blackburn Rovers, Bolton and Newcastle United this was a fair point, but when he joined us we didn’t have too many big, powerful , 6ft plus, stars capable of dominating a game, instead we had a passing team, with a big man upfront. Which brings me to this, why would he then choose to base his West Ham team on using a target man rather than change the system from having one target man, to two poachers? He makes me wonder if he can only manage a certain team, however he is successful with it as he is proving with us.
Looking for experience? Just want to be heard outside of the Boleyn? We are currently looking for writers, drop us an email at foreverwestham@snack-media.com for more details
We all know that Big Sam knows he can get teams playing passing football, just look at how we played at the weekend against Fulham, Yes long balls were often used to find Andy Carroll but honestly tell me one team (other than Liverpool) that would not use his power aerially? Despite this, we did play great football along the floor and it paid off, we played to our strengths and I have nothing but praise for Big Sam’s approach and the players involved.
It’s quite frustrating being a West Ham fan and knowing that not all the fans are behind him, I mean yes it’s fair to say that many of us dream of having the likes of Paolo Di Canio as manager one day, but for right now, there is no one better than Big Sam to help establish us as a Premiership side again. Sam has not only worked with the team all of last year, he achieved success and got us promoted, psychologically this will help with morale and help the core of the club beat in sync, rather than struggle to find that calmness which clubs inherit whenever they hire a new manager and sack the one prior to him.
We have a real squad for once, with the likes of Mathew Jarvis, Andy Carroll, Mohamed Diame, Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan, James Collins, Ricardo Vaz Te and co, I can’t help but think this is going to be a great year for us, although a lot of the praise is rightly deserved for the players, Big Sam will undoubtedly be the unsung hero, he knows his football and with 6 points from the first 3 opening games, I for one think this a great start and things will only get better.
COYI!
Ever dreamt about getting paid for reading about West Ham? Well now you can make dreams a reality http://bit.ly/ffc-foreverwestham-lp
I get bored with this long ball myth. “Long ball” that everyone hates is those ‘hoofs’ from defenders straight from back to front, bypassing midfield with a 50/50 chance of gaining posession. Fans only look for what they want to see,those that have convinced themselves Sam is a long ball merchant pick up the occassions when a defender does play a long ball as examples. Roeder, Grant and various other modern managers played desperate long ball when desperate. Curbs and Fat Sam are poper managers that know how to compete in the premiership, let supports him, we are not Man ity/Chelsea/Man U so lets never start talking of binning a manager that competes in the premierhip on the vague hope we could get Paolo Di Canio who could get us champions league football.
The myth Direct Football is perpetuated by lazy press hacks, bitter Premier managers who get beaten when the naturally expect the points and some of our own less savvy supporters.
Were we playing direct football when David Cross was roaming Upton park and grounds across the country? Of course it wasn’t, we mixed it up and varied our game to great effect.
Big Sam is an experienced manager who I am ecstatic that we have at West Ham. When talk of Big Sam in connection with this club first broke, initially I was horrified as I had always hated him because I felt we as a club were superior to Bolton and it used to kill me that we could never beat them. I then did my research and like a light bulb going off in my head it became instantly clear that Big Sam WAS the manager that we needed at our “Beaten”, “Direction less” Club.
I was ribbed by other supporters about Big Sam being our manager, but deep down I was confident that we had the right man at the club, a Real manager of substance who wasn’t deserving of his reputation and does like flair players within the structure of the team ethic.
George Graham would have scared me because despite his success, his brand of football truly was soul-less.
Anyway getting back to the reason why I disliked him, this must obviously be the reason why the biased press can’t stand him or the so called big club managers and supporters can’t stand him.
I’ve always been an underdog and I’m looking forward to a new resilient and skilful West Ham under Big Sam!
COYI
Spot on Geedoubleu!
Talk of Paolo Di Canio is dangerous because some may start thinking that he is the Messiah but he is one very very wildcard of a manager and needs to settle down before I put ANY trust in him as a manager let alone managing West Ham!
It is getting very boring keep hearing the long ball hoof alegations! When Big Sam took over we were in such a mess our very future was at stake. Not enough credit is given to big Sam and the owners for bringing us through the bad times to the premiership again.we know it wasn’t pretty or at times very attractive but it served a purpose. Now we will see a different team, not only due to the fulham game but due to the exciting and classy squad with strength in depth we have assembled since promotion.
I think these transfers could make BFS especially if we can keep Carroll for the entire season. There is no doubt, the whole team’s performance was mustard on Saturday. We played some good attractive attacking football (in the first half) and tore up Fulham. But I do think it’s a bit premature to start sucking Sam’s and each other’s dicks about this. I do think it also a tad early to ignore his comments about the West Ham way being the losing way or slating the fans when we just weren’t winning at home. He did get us promoted but the very very hard way. I watched numerous matches where we played just Carlton up front when he looked unlikely to score. I still see Tonks being played in the wrong position. I’ve seen some good young prospects get turned out before being given a real chance (But I realise BFS sees much more than I).
I watched against Fulham in the second where we held back and defended our lead when they were there for the taking. Another two goals would have done the GD difference wonders and really had the team flying. I saw Carroll go off and him switch back to Plan A and Cole.
Let’s see how he does in the next 5. He would do himself a favour if he didn’t come across such an arrogant dick as well.
And if Carroll is out for 2-3 games, let’s see Cole and Maiga playing together up front. That might be interesting looking at Maiga when he came on against Villa.
But it is the most optimistic I have been for a while. This is Sam’s season to prove it.
COYI
I’ve always thought that supporters who refer to OUR manager as BFS as disrespectful.
When Big Sam stuck it to some of our vocal supporters who were a little stuck in the past and may I say deluded, he was spot on. We had a situation where we we playing against teams in the Championship who felt coming to Upton Park was their cup final…..but many of our own couldn’t look that deep.
No one’s sucking anyone’s but most supporters (thank god) have the ability to see what others simply can’t…… PROGRESSION!
There is a world of difference between Grant/Zola and Big Sam……..a WORLD of difference!
…I’d like to add that the rebuilding job that Big Sam did after our relegation whilst fighting the exodus of want away players and reduced finances whilst trying to incorporate many free transfer players all designed to hit the ground running was nothing short of miraculous and to gain promotion was the icing on the cake.
For some of our supporters not to be able to see all of this…. Deluded can be the only word to describe them.