As West Ham fans, we have to accept that the debate on Sam Allardyce will continue to divide opinion amongst us for the duration of his tenure at the club. Whilst we all have our opinions (myself included!) on his style of football, team selection, man management and youth policy, we have to accept the reality that Sam will be with us for the foreseeable future as the chairmen look to build on the stability that he has provided in the past two seasons.
That being said, I decided to take a look at the odds for the ‘Next Permanent West Ham Manager’ – out of pure interest, to see who the bookies had as the favourite to succeed Sam when he eventually leaves the club. The only two bookmakers I have found to be offering odds on this market are Stan James and Bet Victor, and whilst their odds are pretty much the same, for the purposes of this article I have taken the odds given on Stan James. The results, in my opinion, were very surprising.
Harry Redknapp – 7/4
Personally, I’m a little surprised to see Harry as such a clear favourite. Ever since he left Tottenham Hotspur, he’s been tenuously linked with a return to West Ham, however there has never been even the slightest indication from either party that it was ever anything more than paper talk. Harry seems happy enough at QPR, where the chairman is showing a lot of faith in him as he continues on his summer clear out mission. Many also see this as Redknapp’s last big pay packet as he edges ever closer to retirement. With Allardyce under contract until 2015, Harry may already be sunning himself on a south coast golf course by the time the job becomes available.
Paolo Di Canio – 8/1
A huge fans favourite, Paolo is one of a few select players in this club’s great history that can be classed as a legend. Passionate, fiery and frighteningly determined, he has earned himself a reputation of being somewhat of a taskmaster in his short career in management, through infamous fall-outs with players and heavy fines for breaches of club discipline. When he left Swindon Town and Allardyce’s contract was running down, there were calls from many fans for his homecoming. As we know, it never happened, and Paolo is in the middle of his continental revolution on Wearside. I truly believe that one day the Italian maverick will be patrolling the touchline at Upton Park (or most probably the OS) – but perhaps not so soon that he is the next manager.
Alan Curbishley – 25/1
Although odds of 25/1 don’t reflect any kind of confidence in Alan Curbishley returning as manager, he is still, surprisingly, third favourite with the bookmakers. Bar the occasional TV appearance with Sky Sports, Curbs has been unemployed since resigning from us in 2008 for ‘a lack of control over transfer policy.’ While the ownership structure has radically changed since then, something tells me that his best days as a manager are behind him and won’t be making a return any time soon.
After Curbishley, there are a whole host of names listed at 33/1. These include Roberto Martinez, Roy Keane, Alex Mcleish, Rafa Benitez and Iain Dowie, previous managers including Glenn Roeder and Avram Grant (please no!) and even the sadistic inclusion of Paul Ince. More realistic names featured at this price include Slaven Bilic, Chris Hughton, Stuart Pearce and Gus Poyet. For an outside bet, current Birmingham manager Lee Clark is available at 66/1. He’s currently nurturing a squad of young talent on one of the tightest budgets in the championship, and may well have grown enough as a manager to be in with a chance in the next few years. Combine that with the two David’s links to Birmingham, and Clark may be worth a punt.
In reality, whilst there may be some value in picking one of the names at a higher price, the market is completely wide open and there is no way of predicting the sequence of events that would lead to a new manager being installed. If I had to put my money on one of them, I’d stick £100 on Roeder, so at least I would have something to smile about if he wormed his way back into the dugout.
Mate bore off ur an idiot – next manager threads are u Jack Sullivans mate and in the same class at school.
HARRY is a icon of relegation.
Don’t want Harry as he snubbed us for Tottenham, also Curb’s has had his chance. We need someone who has the passion for the club and commitment to play good football in the way we know they can. Paolo Di Canio is the only real choice.
Should the two David’s be allowed to make this choice if Big Sam was to leave (perish the thought) after all they got rid of Zola who had just kept the club in the top flight with no money and they got in Avram Grant and promptly got us relegated!!!!
Come on…. are you short of attention….
Or short on attention?
BFS may be a slack jawed, miserable, northerner (ish)….. but he has saved WHU… we are stable and will be top 10 this term.. he is going nowhere.. and nor should he. Look at Wolves.. look at what Redknapp did to every club he has been at… broke the bank and walked off.. he’s a self publicist who I would rather eat my arm than have back.
BFS has us playing great stuff at home… away will improve this term… Viva la Allardyce revolution…. stop this wittering, stop encouraging “real supporters” who never see a game.. push on in the belief we play long ball…
WHU 2:2 Manyoo in the cup… Giggs stupendous long ball to Van Persie… goal of the season if Manyoo score it… long hopeful punt if one of Allardyce’s teams do the same… silly season…
Stop it … just stop it…it’s silly…
Me
This is abit stupid bore off.
I couldn’t agree more – childish threads need to stop. You have no idea .
We have a very goods manager who is hungry for success!
Each year his made big progress and we have a very good team with a great spirt. Something we have lacked for years. Be positive we have the Adidas strips bk whenever we wear there kits we win something. Big Sam can be a great
Forever West Ham’s saddest thread!!!
When do the kids return back to school???
We’ve got the best manager we’ve had in years….
In Sam We Trust
Why are we talking about our next manager when the one we have (along with our chairmen) have saved the club from extinction and further embarrassment! I appreciate that there are some fans that don’t like his ‘long ball’ tactics, but the reality is they would moan and cry whoever manages our club, we do have some pathetic fans!
As for playing long ball football, either these fans hang on to every word printed by the sports media or have no idea that being more direct is not long ball. We play a traditional English style, not long ball like stoke or Wimbledon! Some of us have been arrogant in the past, naively believing that we only play beautiful passing football and looking down our noses at other clubs! It’s rubbish, in the 30 + years I’ve been a fan I’ve seen far worse!
Here’s hoping that Sam gets another contract extension and leads us in to the OS. He deserves that for what he has done for our club
Do yourself, and the team you profess to ‘support’ a favour, and look the word up in the dictionary.
bfs is our manager get off his back hes done very well with a very low budget im not totaly convinced about his style of play but no one can fault his orginisation and hes made us into a hard team to beat
when he gets a bigger budget im sure with better players style will come redkrapp almost bankrupted us
next time qpr are on tv watch out for the amount of coaches redkrapp has round him he needs coaches because he cant coach himself
What’s this thread about ? Look where we were just over 2 yrs ago playing ‘the West Ham way’ to where we are now. We played some very good stuff last yr, esp at home, & everyone was talking about our midfielders – Diame,Jarvis, Noble, Nolan – – so does that make us long ball ? For the record too, lol’d at Liverpool hammering long balls into the box at those 6+ footers Suarez & Borini when they were 2 down at h to Arsenal – nice plan B Brendan ! Leave Sam to get on with rebuilding the side – he’s nobody’s fool and has ticked every box so far…..unnecessary thread.
Why even post an article like this. Nobody cares what the odds are on the next West Ham manager. I for one am enjoying our club under the one we have now
Why not go and support somebody else Josh?
Why on earth would I go and support someone else when I love this club and everything it stands for?
The idea of this article was to generate debate and interest into the future manager of west ham. Whether that manager comes in in 1 year or 10 years, I was simply intrigued as to who was considered the ‘favourite.’ Not at any point in the article did I attack Big Sam, or say that I wanted him to leave. I’m very grateful for everything he has done for the club, and long may the good times under him continue.
If you love this club………..DON’T undermine it!
We’ve had enough NONSENSE in the las few years to fill a lifetime.
THINK………….LONG…………….and HARD about the subject matter, before setting out on posting a thread that has some relevance and really is thought provoking and will start serious debate or approval.The number of negative replies you have recieved must tell you something!
Typical pathetic article.
If you can’t be bothered to SUPPORT West Ham then don’t bother, trust me you wont be missed.
So far a fantastic job done by everyone at West Ham from the two Davids, Karren Brady, the MANAGER and his coaches.
Certainly not deserving of the pile of tripe from this blogger.
Totally agree with first three posters
Make that the first four………
Oops, didn’t realise we’re already on page 2……..agree with views on page 1 as well
You’re an idiot.
Sam is our manager
Why on earth would anyone with half a brain even contemplate talking about something so distabalizing as manager change. When we had a great finish last season, just spent 15 million on a player. We are active in the market looking for quality additions. We have learnt under Sam how not to loose on a regular basis. What more do we want after a couple of seasons. The joint chairmen have worked hard to clear the enormous debt they took on. Whilst the move to Stratford may not be every supporters ideal, if we are to progress as a club we need to generate income, and the extra revenue together with the opportunity for the stadium to be used out of season will I am sure give the club the money to be even more active in future transfer markets. If we become like so many clubs who change their Managers at the drop of a hat, then we will continue to be classed by the other clubs as also rans and West Ham are far better then that. So enough Manager bashing and give the man a fair crack of the whip PLEASE.
Must be suffering from writers block to pen this. It’s not that virtually any of the candidates named are realistic and certainly not remotely more interesting than Big Sam so not even worthy of speculation. Unless the plan goes belly up over the next few years our choices beyond PDC would be far more exciting than those has beens.