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Is relegation a genuine concern for West Ham?

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westhamfansI have to say, I find myself one of the more optimistic of West Ham United’s supporters.  I try to find the good in what the club does, try to get enthusiastic with the players we sign, and support the team no matter what.  However, with a poor start to the season results wise, I find myself getting a bit concerned at this early stage.

I have backed Sam Allardyce with everything he has done at the club, but even I have been left astonished at his error of not signing a striker to challenge Andy Carroll when fit.  It’s blatantly obvious that Modibo Maiga doesn’t fit into the West Ham system, and with Mladen Petric signing on a free transfer, it shows just how desperate we are.

We started the season well, with an excellent victory against Cardiff City – and with a 0-0 draw at Newcastle a fair result, we looked to be set to start the season well.  However, losing 1-0 at home to Stoke City was a sucker punch before the International break.  This game showed how poor our attacking options were against a team who we should be beating.  With the disastrous news that Andy Carroll suffered an injury setback before the game at Southampton, we accepted another 0-0 draw as a good result, despite having the best chance to win the game through James Collins at the end.  But for me, the biggest blow has been the defeat to Everton.  After playing so well in the first half and getting the lead, senior players let us down with rash challenges around the box, allowing Everton back into the game.

After Mark Noble tucked away the penalty, we didn’t need to push forward as much, but yet again, the team lost their heads, and we paid the price for ill-discipline.  We got a good win against Cardiff in the Capital One Cup midweek, but another defeat at Hull City, deserved or not, again highlighted our lack of quality up front.

I am genuinely concerned, but the positive I hang onto is that Sam Allardyce has never got relegated before.  He has kept a struggling Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers team in the Premier League in recent years.  I have faith that Big Sam will turn it around in what is his first real test in the Upton Park hotseat.  Fail and it could be disastrous for the club with the Olympic Stadium move on the horizon.  Let’s keep supporting the team, get behind them when things are tough, and show the players what it means to play for our wonderful club.

COME ON YOU IRONS!!

By Chelmo Hammer

Follow me on Twitter:  @ChelmoHammer

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16 comments

  • Graham says:

    Drop Nolan

  • sibbo says:

    drop the dead wood nolan

  • Dp says:

    Is relegation a genuine concern?? YES! Palace are down and two more to follow. Hull look gd at the mo and other teams have more creative squads. Where is a win coming from? Optimism has no place now. This is real, Sam has misspent massively and no player wants to join us because of his style. Hard season because of the gash start with two losses coming next

    • Kev says:

      Bloody ridiculous.. Let’s sack Sam and get someone else in…who Di Canio? Sam and the owners have turned our club around from an easy touch to a team hard to beat. Ok Carrol not being available and not having a straight replacement is probably an error in judgement but for Christ sake doubting his transfer decisions. Look at who he has brought in since taking over and who he has got rid of. Get behind the man because he knows what he is doing. Chelmo Hammer good article and well put. We all are a bit concerned but it’s early days and your last few words sum it up for all true supporters

      Let’s keep supporting the team, get behind them when things are tough, and show the players what it means to play for our wonderful club. COYI

  • Tony says:

    Agree with all the above BUT also remember it was Sam who spent, wasted £5m on Maiga. A worrying error of judgement as was not having Cole resigned as he would have been fit to start the season to support the team.

  • Bav says:

    I hate the thought of West Han being in a Relegation Battle, but we have 2 hard games coming next, and could find ourselves, in the bottom 3, if we don’t get something out of them !!!
    Big Sam has to play 2 up front, re-signing Cole is a good thing, but you can only see it going one way, 1 up-front.
    I know Nolan hasn’t been great over the last few games, but he always has the potential to pop up and score, remember he dropped a League, and took a pay cut, to join us, and he’s a far better captain than Upson ever was.

  • paraiso says:

    Sam´s lost it, you have to score goals ,if he doesn’t change to two up front, and stop tinkering playing players up front out of position were Down, it´s not all down to injuries ,The effort is there the confidence is not,if he is going to play Morrison he has to play Diame along side him Noble has neither the pace or the presence, were now losing the midfield and starting to put too much pressure on the defence. This is not the premier league of last year most of the weaker teams have improved considerably.I can only see ANOTHER season of struggle.

  • Hammerhead says:

    Good article Chelmo and I agree with your last sentence – we all do really need to get behind the team and show our support. It’s going to be a long hard season for our team and for us as fans but we have too much talent and experience in our squad to get relegated. We should be aiming to be top 10 but right now I’ll settle for top 15. This miht sound too simplistic but If we can take points from Norwich, Fulham, Stoke, Cardiff, Villa and Newcastle plus the bottom 2 of Palace and Sunderland we will be fine.

  • Tom E says:

    We have had a slow start. That is for sure. We must look at Big Sam’s history to determine our future as a club. Never ever been relegated is huge! Have there been mistakes made? Sure. Does that mean we should hit the panic button on October 1st is a bit premature. Let’s get behind the team, including the manager. Andy Caroll will be back soon enough, as will Joe Cole and Stewart Downing. These are top players. We should be fine. So come you Irons fans. Let’s beat Manchester City. If Cardiff can do it then so can we.

  • Hammerface says:

    What I can never understand is how come every west ham fan see the problem but the manager can’t ?!
    1. No one in their right mind would have bought a winger when we had no striker
    2 Nolan is taking up the position that should be ravel’s
    3. If ravel played in Nolan position then we wouldn’t have the complete madness of Diame playing on the wing
    4. Noble has zero pace so can’t be left as defensive CM. why he gives away so many free kicks in dangerous areas because he can’t keep up with pace.
    5. Maiga is as good as stapling jelly to a tree. Should never start another game.
    6. We could have bought Bony and loaned Lakaku for same money as buying an injury prone AC
    7. As bad as Maiga is, and the insistence of giving a place to Nolan, we would have been better off with Nolan playing up front, then ravel could go just behind where he should be, Diame could go back CM where he should be!!

  • Dave says:

    We have not been outplayed by any team so far, but without Carroll causing chaos in the opposition box we have no other effective way of scoring goals in free play. If Andy Carroll does not return and stay fit then i believe we will be in the bottom five all season. Kevin Nolan is totally ineffective without Carroll other than his captaincy skills with which he excels. Ravel looks good but its a big ask to look to him to shoulder all the goal scoring responcibility. Not signing a quality second striker is going to cost us dear i fear.

  • unhappy hammer says:

    so sam has never bean relegated,theres always a first and it looks like it could be this one. I don’t understand what sam is doing,to win a game you have to score goals how are we going to score with one striker that looks like he’s going to be in and out all season. Get rid of dead wood starting with maiga then big sam, these players wages are paid for by the likes of us they should give 110% . Under sam i don’t see were the club is going, yes i do back to the championship. this is going to be another westham season of a relegation battle i had hoped them days had gone.

  • the swindon hammer says:

    when you have an outstanding talent like eliott lee in the reserves banging them in almost every game and we stick with hopeless maiga who not only is useless but confidence shot as well its no wonder we cant score why not go 442 with lee and petric up front we cant do worse than what we are doing at the moment

  • dD Johnston says:

    we can when this idiot of a manager plays one of the best def-midfielder in the prem on the left wing and no decent striker we are in big trouble he don’t know what he’s doing get red of sam quick before it’s to late

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