There are three reasons why we didn’t take our sweet winning run against Spurs to a 4th in succession…firstly Mark Noble’s inexplicable penalty miss, secondly Sam Allardyce failing to make an attacking change whilst we had the man advantage and lastly James Collins’ sending off.
Last season when we beat Spurs at home Younes Kaboul was sent off and not long after we went 1-0 up and the game from that point on was easy, we took control and ended up winning very comfortably. This time however we didn’t take our chance when Mr Dependable himself Mark Noble missed his first pen in God knows how many years. If Noble had tucked it away it would’ve been a totally different game; one we would’ve won comfortably in my view.
Lord only knows what Sam was thinking by delaying making any kind of tactical change to exploit our man advantage; I’m sure with hindsight our much maligned manager wishes he’d thrown on Mauro Zarate or Mohamed Diame earlier, but by not forcing the issue we let Spurs off the hook and allowed them back into the game. One could even prophesise that with more of an attacking intent shown by the home side James Collins wouldn’t have had to body check Emmanuel Adebayor and we wouldn’t have wound up down to 10 men; I think we all realised when it was 10 a piece if any side were gonna win it, it was going to be them.
The last of the aforementioned reasons we lost the game was James Collins’ sending off, Sam lacked the gut to go for the jugular, however had Collins not got sent off on 60 odd minutes I’m sure we would’ve finally seen the attacking changes we craved whilst we still had our numerical advantage, and who knows maybe they would’ve come off.
Unfortunately these three factors all blended into a cocktail of frustration and bitter defeat; there were some positives though: Aaron Cresswell and Cheikhou Kouyate had excellent debuts and Stewart Downing was a constant threat.
Last season after our hat-trick of wins over Spurs I don’t recall anyone requesting Sam be handed an extension to his contract, so by the same token I think anyone should be calling for his head after our first defeat in four to a side that spent over 100 million on their squad only 12 months ago.
We won our opening day game last season and went onto endure rather than enjoy the season, so similarly just because we lost our opening fixture doesn’t by any means mean we’re in for another season of struggle.
When we can add a fully fit Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho to this team I’m sure we’ll see a marked improvement.
Normal service is resumed! Nothing like mugging west ham off last minute in their cup final!
Yido, did you see the game? You were largely outplayed. And but for a bit of luck, and inept tactics by our manager, you were on your way home in defeat, AGAIN. Enjoy the early season gift. It’ll be the last you get from us this season. £100m spend, and you still look like s..t!
£100m spend is a little bit misleading, no? We had a net spend of just £8m last season, and so far this season we’ve made a profit of £7.5m.
Last season was a fluke – you had arguably your two best performances of the season against a Spurs team in disarray…yet you’ve let it go to your heads. Did we play that well? Nope – but we still beat you. We have a new manager and new tactics that are going to take time to bed in. Once they do and you come to the Lane, normal service will definitely resume and you’ll be going home off the back of a mauling.
£100mil spend is not misleading at all because that’s what you spent! The only reason you can claim to be in credit is because of the transfer fee you received for bale.
without that not only would you be swimming in debt but more questions would be asked on how you spent all that money and are still nowhere near the top four.
Also that you spent all that money on what can only be described as donkeys!
Finally before you gloat too much you may have another new manager and new tactics(yawn,yawn) but you still have the same useless clueless players! COYI!
So many ridiculous points, it’s hard to know where to start!
1. It is misleading – there’s a huge difference between gross spend and net spend.
2. Yes – last season’s spend was balanced largely by the Bale money. That doesn’t apply to this year or any previous year – our net transfer spend is rarely above £10m. Financially, we’re one of the better-run clubs in the league. We don’t have a billionaire funding the club, and our net debt is still very low compared to half the league (yours is higher, for example – http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/may/01/premier-league-club-accounts-debt-wages). So no, without Bale we would absolutely not be swimming in debt – that just allowed us to go out and spend more on transfers than we would normally.
3. “Nowhere near the top four”…despite Spurs finishing in the top four twice in the last four years! When was the last time you finished there, by the way…?
4. All donkeys is hilarious – Eriksen is a better player than literally anyone in your current squad, and that’s by some distance. By the end of this season the same will have been proved of Copoue, Eriksen and Soldado. Also, Chadli and Chiriches may not be the best, but they were £7m each and would still walk into your first team.
5. All facts, regardless of whether they make you yawn. And despite them we still beat you yesterday. As we will do at WHL later this season.
Thanks for the six points this year – and next year, and the year after. Good luck for the season…you’re going to need it. COYS!
All i can say is spurs…. You are filth… Pure scum…. A stinking breed of disillusioned support. At least the WEST HAM know their place. You lot top four? Jokers.
Well said Big Jack … SCUM
I’m still laughing from the fact they had t-shirts printed after beating us three times. Yes it was your cup final irons, and I’m convinced you’ll probably never beat us again!
Same – it actually cheered me up at the time to see how ecstatic they were over one fluke season, and probably that deep down they knew they needed to make the most of it.
They may catch us on off-days (like yesterday), but – like last season – they’ll need to also be at their best to take advantage. A treble won’t ever happen again, though, so I’m glad they enjoyed their moment…
Not as much as I am laughing about you thinking you can win the league …losers
Never beat you again? Are you living on Planet Spud? Even Sir Alan couldn’t sweeten his comments, pun intended, when he said you squandered the £100m. Hahaha.
Jokers.
Why not send your crap comments to a Spurs site .. Yido
Your cup final mate, not ours. Another deluded spud.
Spurs are nobodies cup final. We beat you 3 times last season, any gleam of beating you’s wore off long ago. The way your fans celebrated at the final whistle indicates to me that perhaps after we spanked ya’s 3 times in a row yesterday was YOUR cup final.
Is that why you made T shirts with the three results printed on them?!
Every West Ham fan I know happily agrees that the matches against Spurs are their biggest games of the season. For Spurs, that would be Arsenal (and vice-versa for Arsenal). It is your cup final a lot more than it is ours mate – denying it lying to yourself.
And before your miracle of last season, you only beat us 3 times out of the last 23 attempts, so its clearly YOUR cup final.
We beat you a plenty in those 23 games, and how many cringy t shirts or comemorative mugs did we have made?? None, because we are not as desperate as you.. all the stick you lot are getting today is down to your pathetic cringy celebrations of last season.. You go on about last season as if it’s the biggest achievemnet in your history, well actually it probably is, and yet we finished a whopping 29 points ahead of you.. I know which i’d rather..
anyway…. 1-0 in your cup final…. 1-0 in your cup final.
I love these “if only” posts. If only Noble had scored – if only Collins hadn’t been sent off – if only Allardice knew what he was doing. No mention of what might have happened had Chris Foy not sent Naughton off for denying a clear chance for Nolan to blast the ball over the bar. Ridiculous sending off (as pretty much all the coverage of the game acknowledges). WHU got a huge gift from the ref and you still weren’t good enough.
It was Spurs’ cup final, or something close to it as these days they are well and truly in the shadow of their neighbours Arsenal and also Chelsea, who are in a different class altogether. Enjoy the win (first in 4 games) against a West Ham side hopelessly managed by Allardyce. Spurs didn’t win so much as Big Sam (& 3 or 4 players in claret & blue were not up to Prem standard) lost it.
Very true comments Darragh … BFS is clueless , as are Noble , Nolan and Cole
Yep, we played the Spuds with a poor team selction, poor use of subs and should have buried them. Only Allardyce, their secret weapon, saved them from 4 in a row. Did bfs get voted Spuds best contributor? Should have got a 10.
And before your miracle of last season, you only beat us 3 times out of the last 23 attempts, so its clearly YOUR cup final.
We beat you a plenty in those 23 games, and how many cringy t shirts or comemorative mugs did we have made?? None, because we are not as desperate as you.. all the stick you lot are getting today is down to your pathetic cringy celebrations of last season.. You go on about last season as if it’s the biggest achievemnet in your history, well actually it probably is, and yet we finished a whopping 29 points ahead of you.. I know which i’d rather..
anyway…. 1-0 in your cup final…. 1-0 in your cup final.
Not Spurts cup final eh? How many of them have been on here (a West Ham website, not a Spurts one you note), larging it up? Obsessed much?
It’s called payback for all those cringy t shirts and mugs you desperate saddo’s had made. Also, it’s all you lot could talk about.. Mind you, when you haven’t won anything since 1980 (lol) it’s hardly surprising.
You should have realised that it wouldn’t be long before we owned you again..
Fucking Yiddo mugs, jog!
What’s this about not having a billionaire funding the spuds? Surely you aren’t forgetting Joe Lewis one of the richest men in the UK who has been the main shareholder in the spuds holding company for years. He wanted to buy the Irons some years ago ( his local team ) but was turned down!! I would grant the spuds one .thing … The best ground in the league but this is to be expected when you consider the s..t they put on it every week coyi
.
Further to the downright lie from the spud fan claiming that they are not bankrolled by a billionaire I replied giving the name of multi millionaire Joe Lewis the former east end bookie. The company owning the spuds is Enic jointly owned by Lewis and one Daniel Levy. Get out of that!!!
Who gives a Monkeys who said what???
Nothing changes the fact that we put a stop to the biggest achievement in your history.
The sad T shirts and Mugs will have to be put away..
We beat you 5 ( five ) times on the trot recently and not a shirt or comemorative mug in sight.
We are not as sad.
Still, not all is lost, you still have one more cup final left this season.