It is fair to say that support for Sam Allardyce is growing once again amongst the West Ham faithful following the excellent start to the season for the club. Considering so many apparently wanted him sacked at the end of last season (remember that 77% in favour of him going poll?), the turnaround is quite remarkable.
From the various blogs you read, to the many comments on social media, Big Sam is getting more and more praise from us Hammers. Many supporters have realised that we have ourselves a highly accomplished manager, with tactical know-how in the Premier League and very good man management skills (just look at how quickly the new signings have settled into the set-up at Upton Park). Even those who were on his back for much of last season now appear to accept that they were wrong to demand his dismissal back then.
Allardyce still hasn’t got his own song that gets regularly sung on match days, but I hope that this will finally happen in time, as it would certainly be deserved. To be honest I don’t think anyone could have reasonably asked any more of him during his time with West Ham, certainly in terms of results.
This newfound support has also been reflected in the atmosphere at Upton Park this season. The crowd were the noisiest and most energetic I have heard for quite some time against Manchester City on Saturday right from the off and it really was great to see (and hear of course).
But the big test will be when the club goes into a bad run of form, as they probably will at some point this season. Will the majority then stay supportive of the team and indeed Allardyce?
I hope that a longer-term view will now be taken by most supporters and the realisation that the club are moving in the right direction and accept tha, more or less, Sam is doing a good job.
Last season saw almost open mutiny amongst part of the Upton Park faithful in several games – even on one occasion in a victory over Hull City. Even at the start of the current campaign, a portion of the crowd immediately turned against Big Sam during the 3-1 defeat against Southampton, which I felt was particularly disappointing to hear.
So I would urge Hammers fans to remain faithful to the cause this season, and not to see a repeat of what has been happening in recent times. There is always going to be an element of the support that will not accept Allardyce come what may, but I hope the vast majority can drown out the negative voices and finally show our appreciation of the work he has done. Let’s at least not jump straight on his back as soon as things aren’t going our way.
Absolute crap! Allardyce can get stuffed! We don’t want the arrogant tosser at our club and we will never accept him!
Speak for yourself, Hugh. I think the majority of West Ham fans are not narrow-minded and will accept and agree that he is the right man for the job. The match against City was proof of that, in all of my years of going to the Boleyn, I’ve not felt a buzz like that, at least since the Di Canio days.
Absolutely agree Hugh & I get the Impression he’s kind of had a ‘ gun held to his head ‘ to bring In some exciting talent throughout the close season, through gritted teeth I might add, It just Isn’t Sam’s way, whereas the West Ham way was typified by our performance against Man City. I’ve had the privelage of watching my beloved Irons for over 41 years now & the fight, class & character we showed can only stand us In good stead for the coming months & hopefully a European Tour? It took me back to the 80’s & more recently when we had Carlos Tevez helping us grind out results, so carry on the great work!!! C O Y I !!!!!
Ah! Mr Hugh completely revealed & exposed!
You write and comment as if impartial when in fact you spread division & corrosiveness within this clubs supporters.
No surprise really, if you can’t support the manager of the club and team when we’re doing well, you’d be better off at the spuds where you’d fit in a treat.
Now the majority can see that as far as being a supporter, you’re simply nasty & mean spirited after being proved wrong by our manager.
Sam is doing what hes been told to do or he is out, he had no choice, the scare tactics to him was a long time coming , i still say he is not a good fit for West Ham !!
aint got a clue! he sends the team out and picks the team! 3 wins in 3 and your saying he don’t fit hahahahha
You have to remember the club has been struggling to reduce it’s enormous debt for the past three years, so there’s only been a decent transfer kitty this year. OK, AC was bought, but that was all. With less debt there’s more flexibility for the board and hence they can make Sam stick to his plan, just like he did with Bolton – consolidate then bring in better players – just with West Ham he’s go a much better club to do it with.
Unfortunately BruceD, common sense isn’t something many of our supporters seem to understand. Some of our supporters who claim to have an understanding of the club, finances & where we were as a club just over 3 years ago, have clearly forgotten.
One word sums these supporters up, it’s what 99% of the people within the game have more or less pointed to, our once “knowledgeable” supporters have been made to look a laughing stock as they have come across as……. Deluded!
Deluded, because of the lack of understanding regarding this clubs inch by inch progress after nearly going out of business a few short years ago.
The only way this club will move forward is when these so called supporters are finally able to hold up their hands like honourable men and admit that they were wrong. As a man I have NO problem doing this at home, at work or with family and friends.
What a joke article !!! Sam Allardyce was TOLD he was getting Teddy Sheringham, TOLD to play a more attacking expansive game TOLD he was getting more attacking players ( most brought in by the owners by the way) and TOLD to entertain the rebelling fan base or clear off.
He has done what he was TOLD to do. The man is arrogant and self-opinionated BUT, as long as he sticks to the brief and does the business I will stick with him. COYI !!
Show me the proof!
You’ll be saying that he’s a mannequin next & the team is being managed by little green men from mars!
He was given a budget……Simples!
Its the easily pleased, pay to watch any crap merchants like you that hold clubs back. How the directors and managers love blind loyalty !! Thank god West Ham fans are the type that wont sit back and suffer in silence. The football was beyond dire, as bad as I have seen in over 50 years. This was nothing to do with budgets or “three year plans” or other self-serving ramblings spouted by apologists like you. This was about a man so blinkered and straight-jacketed by a philosophy of defence at all costs, it not only put the new found Premiership status at risk, but alienated a huge swathe of the countrys most loyal fans, me included. The directors are no fools. They knew mutiny when they saw it and acted brilliantly by making sure the players that came in were attack minded, even the full backs. Left to his own devices it would have been more of Ginge knocking 50 yard balls to Carroll or Cole. West Ham fans…salute YOURSELVES for forcing change !! COYI.
Big picture Spence55, Big picture!
You needed to be able to see the Big picture instead of looking at last season in isolation. If you can’t do this, it’s you who will have to grimace every time you hear Big Sam’s name mentioned in the same breath as the teams success. Even if HALF of what you were saying was correct… He wouldn’t still be managing at the club. So from that point what you’re saying doesn’t add up. Deal with it!
…….also IF you are a supporter and follow West Ham you would realise that the same full backs and players that you have mentioned, were scouted by Big Sam for some considerable time. Why? Because he’s the manager!!!
If he was told to do all these things then why the hell are the club paying him so much (13th highest in the world aparently)! In fact why is he even managing our club, why don’t we sack him, teddy can be manager and sullivan can bring in all the players? Of course that’s not going to happen and it takes a special type of idiot to beleive that he is currently doing well simply because control has been taken out of his hands. Do you really think he’s the sort of manager that is happy to be a puppet for the board? Do you really think sullivan identified and bought all of those players? And possibly the most ridiculous statement in the last few months is the boo boys should give themselves a pat on the back for forcing the change hahaha; they are an embarrassment to the club and themselves!
We’re doing well because we have finally managed to get rid of the players bought in to get us out of the championship and the other championship standard players at the club, and replaced them with better quality. We’ve enormous debt and the fat man had had to work with a bang average team until this year, and whatever the morons think he’s done a great job. We’re now playing the west ham way so we’re all happy, yet the reality is we’re still playing the same percentage of long balls as last year? As Sam said fans are happy when that are winning, that is what we really want to see, and it’s easy to fool fools. We’re doing well because we finally have a competitive team and squad for first time in years, and a decent manager to boot! And to think we could’ve had malky or sherwood had the ‘fans’ got their way last season, god forbid
Lots of credit must go to David Sullivan,he went out and did the business in the transfer market,he wanted sakho,he also wanted a higher finish and has ambition
I may have missed the main point of the article? As I feel that the headline about now seeing the big picture is a little misleading.
For the big picture should be although not forgetting our recent past, but acknowledging the progress that has been made and looking forward to the future!
We can all have an opinion on how we have reached where we are now but the most important point is surely that we have a team and a stadium that allows us to look forward to the brightest of futures?!
S&G kept Sam on because he is a capable manager, end of story. Its good business and absolutely necessary whilst we prepare for the OS and beyond. No other manager would have coped with our circumstances last season – he got us safe with games to spare. Those who think we should play pretty even if it means relegation, what bollocks!! Get real!! Anyone who thinks Sam had no input into the new signings is a deluded twit. Some people dont know which side their bread is buttered, cant see the wood for the trees, wouldnt know a good thing unless it fell out the sky, landed on their face and wriggled. Open your eyes FFS. Get behind the club, Get off Sams back and support the team. We havent had it as good as we have now for an eternity, and what we have now wouldnt have happened if not for Sams experience – between the owners and Sam there is a great understanding, they work together to do the best with the resources the club has – this summer they did brilliantly, embrace it, enjoy it and be thankful for it, theres been plenty of times we wished we had it half as good as this. Progress comes from stability, and right now our future is looking as good as its ever been, if not better. COYI
Another blinkered sheep who cant see the difference between blind loyalty and a real LOVE for the club they have supported for years and years.
Blind loyalty!! If you honestly think Sam is that bad then I actually feel sorry for you. Fact is we all love the club, thankfully we have owners who feel the same, but have enough nouse between their ears to see the big picture, and dare is say the blind loyalty to stand by the manager who is now delivering exactly what the naysayers were screaming for last season – one could argue if west ham keep producing what they are currently delivering, then the so called ‘real love’ brigade will start to accept they were wrong, and actually join the ‘blind loyalty’ crew in what we knew all along – of course you can always choose to keep asking for Sam’s head on a plate, whilst talking each and every success up big time with anyone who disagrees, which I have no doubt you are doing anyway – you cant honestly think that this turnaround in fortunes has nothing to do with Sam, that he had no say in new signings and has zero input on tactics, selections and positions, if you do then id say your cheese is sliding off your cracker – so from one fan at least, and as always, COYI.
Pure coincidence that Teddy Sheringham was FORCED on Allardyce by the Davids, the owners then had a MAJOR input in getting attackers in, that the papers were full of “change your style or leave” stories…and lo and behold…we have some attacking play. All down to Sam??? Naivety on a grand scale mate !! Allardyce was/is on a HUGE salary and had no intention of losing his job. He put up with the humiliation of having things done for him and around him to save his few million a year…cant blame him so would I. BFS is now doing what WE have been telling him to do for seasons…pass the bloody ball and attack…tactical genius..eerr……………no…
Well said Cat,thank god the nutters aren’t running the asylum
With all the crap players and injuries we had last year,big Sam worked wonders just keeping us up,now he and the owners have brought in some decent players, Sam is doing a great job,sign him up for 5 more years.
Ill send you Allardyces address Mouldy hammer…you can go round and lick his boots…
Don’t speak to soon, I can see you and many others like you licking his boots soon enough. Going to work on a Monday morning giving it large when you don’t even rate the manager of your team? People must look at you and say “Here comes deluded!”
Baaa…Baaaaaa.Baaaaaaa…………………………..
Hes after the England job now…
I think Sam has done really really well considering the squad he’s had to work for the past 2 seasons. I mean apart from our former loanee Pablo Armero playing for Columbia, we had no other internationals playing for us, so to have achieved mid table finishes for the past 2 seasons with that squad is nothing short of remarkable. I do not know how much of a hand Sam had in brining in these new recruits for this season, but now that he has them well he’s shown us that he can comfortably manage any top club. He even has the ability to manage Man Utd if he had the chance, c’mon folks, he is a top drawer manager and I cannot think of any other manager that would have kept West Ham up had they been in his shoes last season. Now he has the squad he deserves and he deserves to be in the position he is in. He is now the envy of his fellow manager peers. Now onto this Saturday. As folks know, the next game, Stoke City at the Britannia stadium is a notorious and usually bruising encounter. A team which can more often be associated with playing rugby than playing football, being a team that has the unenviable title of the dirtiest and roughest team in the division, being a team that seems to concentrate more on destroying an opponent’s game plan than playing a game plan of its own. One of our strengths with Sakho and Valencia in our team is that the Stoke players probably won’t even be able to catch our two strikers, as if Kompany of Man City couldn’t contain Valencia then I don’t go much on Stoke’s chances. It might pay for Sam to rest Sakho from starting this game, we’ll just have to see how he is after his shoulder injury, as in bringing on our biggest lads, so maybe start Carlton, who at 6 Feet 3 inches, is just as big as and probably heavier than AC, Winston is another 6 feet 3 lad. With the majority of Stokes fans seemingly content with creating a rugby style atmosphere at their Britania stadium with all of their jeering and whistling trying to put their opponents off of their game due to a lack of their own team’s game plan, and if they want a fight then we’ll go in there and we’ll out shout and out sing the lot of them. I am not particularly fond of Mark Hughes either. He could see nothing wrong with Ryan Shawcross rugby tackling Wilfried Bony in the penalty area and he even disputed the resulting penalty awarded when they played Swansea recently. I don’t like teams who focus more on disrupting an opponent’s game plan, mainly because they haven’t got what it takes to develop and win with a game plan of their own. We can also dish it out if we have to and we hold the Premier League record for the team that’s received the most ever yellow cards in a game being 8 against QPR, also incidentally whilst Mark Hughes was their manager. That doesn’t say much for Mark Hughes credentials does it? It means he likes to start fights with other teams while his side cashes in from the resulting mayhem. He seems to revel in producing dirty physical sides that play dirty physical games. Let’s get our dirtiest dozen we can together Sam and hopefully we can keep 11 players on the field whilst we smash our way through and stop them from singing my my Delila. Watch this lot, they like to bring good sides down, as they brought Swansea down, who are a far better side than Stoke will ever be. Stuff their dirty rugby team, stuff their fans and stuff their oaf of a manager. Remember, we’ve fought like hell to get to 4th place. Don’t let this lot at the potteries endanger it, and just focus on this statistic folks in that if we can beat Stoke on Saturday then we’ll be in 3rd place, gulp, yes that’s 3rd position in the Premier League, and if Man Utd beat Man City on Sunday we’ll hang onto that 3rd place. COYI lets fight like hell to keep our position in the division and lets fight like hell to gain and hold 3rd place!!!
In 80 years of supporting our team,having supported the good and not so good managers,I still rate Bfs as a poor fit for the West Ham philosophy and creative structure. For years we have lacked the financial backing enjoyed by the so-called top teams but nevertheless for the most part have punched well above our weight by playing on the ground with speed and acclaimed passing skills. That is why we became known as the Academy or the West Ham way. It was exciting,entertaining,win or lose and that has not been happening under the bfs regime. We were perhaps an 8-man team with out the means to buy the last 3 players that would have enabled us to compete with the best but for the majority of my time supporters have appreciated that and it created a spirit and atmosphere unique in football. Thanks to the knowledgeable and truly dedicated supporters and the David’s we may be coming back to those days so to those unfortunates who are unable to differentiate between blind loyalty and a strong desire and belief to obtain the type of tactics that is inherently the West Ham way just be glad that it is us critics who have made the current team.coyi