Forum | General Discussion

Former Liverpool, Real Madrid and West Ham defender Alvaro Arbeloa showed what a despicable rat he is by tweeting "better late than never" in response to Slaven Bilic's sacking as Hammers manager, Hmmm this from a player who was woefully unfit during his extremely over paid stint at The London Stadium who showed absolutely no effort to help his manager, it can be argued that he was just another of those "Sullivanesque' acquisitions hoisted upon Slaven Billic while he was manager, the list is endless, the biggest and possibly most catastrophic being the signing of Joe Hart on a season's loan from Manchester City!

We always used to use car trading terms when commenting on 'Arry Redknapp deals in the past, well the two Davids, particularly Mr Sullivan are like a kid who goes to one of those old Sarf London garage forecourts and sees a lovely gleaming Jag, the sticker price is incredibly low for such a lot of car, he decides he HAS to have it. His friends caution him by saying the maintenance costs will be stratospheric and that the Jag, beautiful as it looks, is not the vehicle it once was. Too late! The Jag is purchased which means the old efficient but less glamorous car has to go to make room in the garage, but pretty soon the creeping and escalating costs of running the 'glam machine' start to bite, it's no faster in a traffic jam than the car it replaced and costs a bundle more to run. So there he is, stuck with something that glistered and gleamed but was completely the wrong purchase in the first place, and of course the goods cannot be returned because the warranty hadn't been inspected properly, he was seduced by the promise of luxury motoring and ends up having to ride a bike to work because he cannot afford the Jag's up keep, does this analogy make sense? It should do!

As if not wanting to be left out of the picture, the snake known as Dimitri Payet has been swift to put his two €'s worth in via a leading journalist writing for French Media outlet L'Equipe. When asked about Slaven Billic getting the chop he said "nous avons manqué d'ambition après le déménagement et nous avons bientôt commencé à manquer de direction, c'est pourquoi je devais partir quand je l'ai fait, les joueurs ne le respectaient pas". Roughly translated it means:

"We lacked ambition after the move and we soon began to lack direction, that is why I had to leave when I did, the players didn't respect him."

Now captain at Olympic Marseille, Payet conveniently forgets that there were a couple of other reasons he left when he did, and they don't include being home sick! Had he shown some loyalty to the man who plucked him from virtual oblivion and put him on centre stage perhaps things may have ended in a completely different way for Slaven Billic, a good man, and NOT a bad manager, naive in believing that modern day footballers, with very few exceptions, would show any form of lasting loyalty, but never the less his presence graced some wonderful moments which will not be forgotten by fans and indeed his achievements will more than likely be viewed with more admiration with the passing of time.
After all, he had the best win ratio of any of West Ham United's modern day managers! Slaven we salute you,we thank you for the good times while admonishing the past and wish you all the best for the future. - Ed

The inevitable finally happened at West Ham United's only permanent home, their Rush Green training centre, when Prime minister incarnate Karren Brady arrived in a 'smoked out' limo in order that she could deliver the coup de grace to Slaven Billic personally. After two and a half long years the likeable Hammers manager has finally been given the chop, in what was one of football's least kept secrets his departure was a foregone conclusion, it was just a matter of when not if!

Of course there was the small matter of compensation to pay out, but the sum involved is dwarfed by the obscene amount of money that any team no matter how good or bad receives in the glittering illusion that is the Premier League, the fact that David Moyes looks set to take over managerial duties does not come as a great shock as he fits the brief of (a) knowing the Premier League and (b) needing no pay out from his previous team and finally (c) he is desperate to do well knowing that this job is his final visit to the last chance saloon, cock this one up and he becomes 'managerial toast' leaving him completely unemployable by any creditable club.

Moyes' fall from grace is in some ways synonymous with what has happened to West Ham United itself, enormous expectation was denied and the crushed by extenuating circumstances that led to total meltdown, Billic had it with Payet and Moyes got it firstly by not living up to old red nose's grand design at Manchester United and then by flopping in Europe and completing the set by being too honest and unchangeable at Sunderland as he oversaw their relegation. So what makes Moyes such a good candidate? Well essentially anyone who is a good manager is already employed if you rule out the usual suspects, Big Sam, Alan Curbishley or Alan Pardew (strangely all ex-hammers managers) so Moyes seems like a perfect fit but is he?

Moyes can work on a limited budget, something he will have to get used to if he does become the next manager at the 'Toxic Drome', he can organise his defence, something which ex-defenders Billic and Dicks somehow completely forgot, as if they both became afflicted with defensive amnesia as soon as they left the Boleyn, so Moyes should achieve some improvement, judging by the last two home games he would have to be deaf dumb and blind for the defence not to improve under his guidance.

The player pool available to the incoming manager is very good, on paper! If he was brave enough there are sufficient promising players at youth level to really overhaul the squad, there is no need for a massive spend, there are many who believe that Billic's first season success was due to the fact that he WAS prepared to use young and/or fringe players because essentially he had to. As soon as funding issues reared their ugly head in Billic's second season he was given a 'bye' as an excuse for below par performances whereas it was the spirit of the team that was in need of an overhaul, not the players them selves.

It is to be hoped that the new manager has learnt from his past mistakes and will avoid a 'doom, gloom' appraisal of the squad irrespective of what he really thinks, there is no point in adding to the already incredibly negative atmosphere around the club there is enough of that to keep things stoked up ad infinitum, what is needed is a calm and methodical approach, something he IS capable of doing.
It is the lot of football fans to have to endure the slings and arrows of despair in the hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

Fortunes always hiding - Ed

Foot note: Who ever takes over the team they will have little recovery time between their first and second fixtures as West Ham take on Watfors away and then Leicester City at home in the space of 5 days due to Television access as both matches are due to be televised.

Watford FC v West Ham United Barclays Premier League Sunday 19th of November KO: 16:00 Hrs at Vicarage Road
West Ham United v Leicester City Barclays Premier League Friday 24th of November KO: 20:00 Hrs at The London Stadium