Forum | General Discussion

Ahead of this lunch time's Barclays Premier League fixture against relegation threatened Sunderland, West Ham manager Slaven Billic has a couple of pleasant selection head aches. Primarily who does he play at right back, Sam Byram who is now available having been cup tied, or retain Mikael Antonio who performed so well against Blackburn in the 5-1 FA Cup victory? Billic also has to decide whether to give Emmanuel Emenike his first EPL start, or start the incredibly fragile Andy Carroll, as Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho are both unavailable through injury. Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce will have prepared his players diligently in order that they can stifle the team he once managed and then go for a smash and grab raid! It should not be forgotten that Allardyce has history when it comes to 'parking the bus', he also has a certain Jermaine Defoe available who loves nothing more than scoring against the club he abandoned to go and play for north london's second team. Hopefully the contest will be devoid of unnecessary and unsavoury chants about Sam Allardyce or particularly Adam Johnson, in these circumstances it is far better to let the football do the talking! - Ed

To read some of the comments trawled out about Sam Allardyce by his sycophantic pals in the media ahead of his Sunderland team's visit to the Boleyn Ground for this Saturday's early 12;45 kick off, one could be forgiven if one thought that Big Sam was a saviour who rode in and rescued a "club that was on it's knees" single handedly! There is no mention of the massive salary he received or the fact that he was backed financially by the board on numerous occasions for several dubious purchases. Allardyce did bring Adrian to the club and a few others, he did get the club promoted at the first attempt albeit by the skin of it's teeth, and kept the club up in the promised land that is the Barclays Premier League, but he never took to the fans and the fans never took to him, the words 'super sam allardyce' never rang out at the Boleyn nor any where else come to think about. The fact is Big Sam did what he was paid to do, end of, he isn't owed any great respect although the Boleyn faithful will know it is always better to let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to returning players/managers in order not to give them any extra motivation to get a result! Allardyce should be treated just like any other visiting manager no better and no worse. The press will be out in force and would dearly love to portray West Ham fans as deluded, whereas it is they who clearly are. The sad thing is, there are so many of them, about as many as you can get around a large swimming pool in a gratis Algarve holiday home! - Ed