Sam Allardyce has rather surprisingly admitted in an interview that he will prioritise his side’s Capital One Cup run over their league position. According the Mirror, Allardyce has said “I’d trade a decent league position for a final. Not for a semi or a quarter – only a final place.”
It’s a bold statement, and it’s one that I can’t decide if I support or not. Would I love to see some silverware come to Upton Park? Absolutely; but I was very proud of finishing tenth last season, and had big dreams of improving on that this year (dreams which, admittedly, might now be fading and dying a little.)
As fans with the club’s best interests at heart, what do you think is more important – league position or silverware? And is it a difficult thing to consider given our slightly lacklustre start to the season?
Allardyce wants to create brilliant memories of another epic day at Wembley– but not at the risk of relegation, saying “so as long as we stay as the Premier League I would take a final [at the expense of league position] all day long.” However, that willingness to sacrifice points in the league might sound a bit better coming from a man who has points to drop. West Ham are but two points from the drop zone; we just don’t have that luxury at the moment.
We don’t yet have the depth in squad to excel both in the league and in the cup run. We are a team who have done wonderfully so far in the Capital One Cup – and with a youthful B-side team no less, but we have been less than stellar in the league, having failed to beat Aston Villa, Stoke City, and Hull City(amoung others.)
So, do you agree with Sam? Should we be focusing on the Cup rather than league position; and if we compare ourselves to 2012-2013’s cup winners, will we be able to pull off a Swansea—or will we end up emulating Wigan Athletic?
Wigan are the worrying elephant in the room— they won the FA Cup but sacrificed their league form, and got relegated three days later. Sure that trophy looks great in their case, but they are now a mid-table Championship club, and they don’t look like making a return to the Premier League anytime soon (even if they will be playing in the Europa League. Bizarre.) Will their fans find winning the FA cup worth it?
Swansea City on the other hand managed to very impressively win the League Cup and finish 9th in the league in their second season back in the BPL.
I would love to win a cup, and would love to beat Spurs at White Hart Lane again (to be honest, who wouldn’t) but I really don’t want to witness a relegation fight again this year when we finished so promisingly last year. So for me, I’m not sure how I feel about Big Sam’s bold statement.
Do you agree with Allardyce? Would you sacrifice points/a decent league position for a trophy, or should we be focusing on our league form? Let me know below.
I think we are more than capable of still having a solid season and lets be honest we all want to beat spurs and march on in the cup! 11th -15th and a cup would be a successfull season by all acounts! Coyi
I don’t think its a choice- he already knows we are unlikely to do better than 10th and therefore an excuse already- I am not sure how these things work really- manager makes his choices of players known and owners go and try and get them right- so we let 3 strikers leave and make one loan permanent (in theory therefore we are down 3)- the one we do sign is injured so on paper we have no fit striker beyond Maiga- who was behind at least two of the 3 we let go in pecking order. So we then leave it right to the last day for a freeby – despite saying there is no room in the salaries- when clearly any of the three we targeted would be on significant salaries- we do however buy another winger – as good as he may be it shows a complete mis management. He then opts to go for the cheapest loans deals he can get and re recruit someone he has already stated was not good enough!!
every single whu fan could see the disaster of this yet the Board have backed him- wihtout a giant striker we have to play football (at last) and even then he gets it wrong playing Nolan up front when everyone can see he is a great captain but shit centre forward- thoroughly depressing November and December – lets hope that salary shit disappears come Jan and we actually plan to have a full team including options up front.
what i understood from Sams comments was that he would field younsters against Spurs. maybe i read it wrong?? ….
but he would field a full strength team in the semi. not before.
if so, then i couldnt disagree more with this strategy.
Lets be realistic. All the big names are still in the Capital 1 cup. We are not going to win it. All we do is run the risk of more injuries when we are 15th in the table. Far from a comfortable position. If it were the FA Cup i’d be happier about it. But it’s not and never will be.