I’m feeling optimistic about West Ham this season, but let’s see if my optimism holds to my September column. I know people have been saying that we have a tricky start to the campaign, but I think the league is tough anyway regardless of who we got for the first six games.
But I think it’s important to try to get some points on the board within those six games, and it’s just a shame we have who we have in the first two home games. The good thing for the manager is he will get some time won’t he? Well, saying that, you hope he does. He certainly won’t want to be under pressure after the first six games.
What we definitely don’t want to be saying when we get to the end of September is: ‘I wish Moyes was still our manager’, but I don’t think that’ll be the case. Sometimes people can be guilty of obsessing too much about pre-season and the results but from my own experience, pre-season is all about getting yourself fit.
If you can play well in pre-season that’s a bonus but it’s all getting yourself ready for the first few games and hitting the ground running. Just look at what happened the pre-season we had under Avram Grant, we won all our games and then got relegated.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to lose every game that you play pre-season. It’s all about fitness but then the players today keep themselves fit going into pre-season anyway. In my day, that six weeks was just to get us as fit as we can, and even then, the first couple of games, you’re not match fit because you’ve not had proper matches.
With how it panned out with Moyes going at the end of the season and the new manager coming in soon after, he’s had a good chunk of time with the players and I’m sure the players have been on the grass morning and afternoon getting to grips with what he wants and how he wants the team to play.
This would have been embedded quite quickly so I don’t think any of the team won’t know how the manager wants to play, that’s a bonus for sure. But as with all sides, if we can try to get a couple more faces through the door before the transfer window slams shut, that will give us a boost.
But maybe this manager might look at it and maybe the younger players will get an opportunity. That’s the beauty of a new manager coming in, everyone gets a clean slate and if you can show him that you can play to the quality he wants, then he is going to pick you, regardless of who you are as an individual.
So for some, that will have been a blessing in disguise with Moyes going and a new manager coming in. We’re heading into this campaign with no European football to look forward to but you’d like to think that come the end of the season it will work in our favour that we’ve not had to play Thursday/Sunday and that we’re not tired come the business end of the season but only time will tell on that.
The aim for us this campaign is to surely try and get back into Europe, which is always a tough gig because as I always say, before the season starts, you can name six or seven that’ll most likely be above us. Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, maybe Newcastle and Villa – these are the teams that could potentially be above us without even thinking about it.
We’d be needing a couple of them to have poor seasons really for us to get back into Europe, and I didn’t even mention Chelsea in that list either. I’m sure we’ve all looked at the fixtures and said there’s a point there, or we’ll win that one, or there’s nothing there and if we get a point that’ll be a bonus.
I’m hopeful that those games at Christmas and the back end of the season might be the difference for us challenging for the European places if we can get on a good run. But I do think, without a shadow of a doubt, we are still in need of a striker.
If you look at all the top sides, they have two or three strikers that they can put in, and they are the players that win you games. Before a ball is kicked, you’re drawing so if you want to win a game, you need someone who can put the ball in the back of the net so they are the difference.
I think we will get top half again but can we upset the apple cart? Can we perform above average again? Only time will tell. Now we’ve had a compendium of sport since West Ham’s final game of the season in May, including the Euros.
I think that England did incredibly well. The first part of the Euros was understandable, like with all group games, it’s all about qualifying for the knockout stages. For me, the third group game, I think it would’ve been in Southgate’s interest to have played one or two of the fringe players but he didn’t.
In truth, we weathered the storm to get the final, and I think we did as well as could be expected really. Spain were the best side in the tournament. As the tournament was going on, I noticed all the other countries were exactly the same as England and giving their managers stick too, and none of these sides made the final.
As for who I’d like to manage England, I don’t think the England job has to go to an Englishman. It’s got to go to the best person for the job at this particular time. It might be about timing as well, maybe who the FA really, really want is still in a job, in which case they may look at an interim manager to give them a bit more time.
But it’s one of those jobs where if someone offers it to you, you’ve got to take it because of the prestige of it but you have to go into it with your eyes open whoever does get it. It’s very different from club management, that’s the thing with it. You only see the players whenever there’s a camp.
You don’t get to work with them day-in, day-out so you’re governed well by who is playing well at that given time. Then when you bring them all together, you’ve got to make the best of your little time together.
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