I asked a few West Ham fans about the club’s season so far. Most of their reactions were: “It could have been worse.
After a winless run in the league in December plus the embarrassing cup results to Nottingham Forest and Manchester City in early January, I thought this would be another disastrous season like the one we endured under Avram Grant. But a fantastic February has much saved our season. Although we are not mathematically safe, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be playing Championship football next season. But as a Hammers fan I should expect more from my team. We should be aiming for the top half, and not just content with avoiding relegation.
The time has now come to either bring in a new manager or demand that Sam Allardyce completely changes his style of play. Some of the football played this season has been abysmal. No doubt about it. The club doesn’t deserve any money to watch the dross that has been served up at most matches.
It’s all well and good saying we’ve kept several clean sheets this campaign. That’s great, but our position in the league shows that goals matter more, and we simply haven’t scored enough. To have our only top striker in Andy Carroll injured until the New Year and relying on Modibo Maiga and Carlton Cole to fire in the goals is amateurish from an experienced manager in Allardyce.
We have to change our identity as a club, both on and off the pitch ahead of the Olympic Stadium move in 2016. We can’t have this brand of football when we move into the new stadium because no investors or new players are going to crave to join us if we struggle past teams like we did against 1oman Hull City in March.
It’s simple – either the board sack Allardyce and appoint someone that will implement West Ham’s history and traditions, or tell Big Sam he’s got one more chance to show he’s the man to lead us into the future. Overall it’s been a drab season but hopefully lessons have been learnt for next season – whoever is in charge.
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