April Week 1 - Countdown

[Nigel]

Yes, West Ham had all those players, and they still went down. Admittedly, the players were younger, and not yet quite so good, but they were certainly the nucleus of a Premiership-winning side, and they underperformed, big time. West Ham also had Glenn Roeder at the helm, who is a very nice man.

Very late in the day they asked Saint Trevor to manage the team, but they did this far too late, and for gentlemanly reasons, only even considering this obvious option in dire extremis after Roeder was taken ill at a time when they had been languishing at the foot of the table for most of the season. Only then did we began to see what might and should have been achieved if they had been playing under an inspirational and thoughtful leader.

Sadly, having then unceremoniously dumped Roeder, who had been appointed after Redknapp's characteristically and unwisely outspoken departure, on the sole grounds that he was a) keen and b) cheap, they then hired Alan Pardew on the basis presumably that he was a) keen, b) cheaper than a range of decent options and c) a proven manager for getting teams into the lower play-off places of the second division (Championship, if you must). That is the level he has matched for the past two seasons, but it is not enough to recover the club to where it was.

The problem for West Ham now, is that with the financial gulf between the upper two leagues, and the increasing flavour of a good(ish) second division side, they will struggle to attract a decent manager when Pardew inevitably goes at the end of the season. Someone like Gordon Strachan could turn the club round, surely, but wouldn't he rather go to a 'bigger' club like Portsmouth, or back to Southampton even ? It looks unlikely that anyone sane would want to take on the Upton Park board. Alan Curbishley would be a great choice, too, as a former Hammer himself, but why would he now leave the successful club which he has crafted out of Charlton ?

The idea of these being the 'big' clubs whilst West Ham are the 'minnows' would have been unthinkable only five or six years ago. But that is the effect now on even established first division sides of a few seasons in the lower ones. Just ask Andy about QPR (on second thoughts, maybe better not do that before he's been back to the pub).