Forum | General Discussion

I don't seem to hear his name mentioned much. Yet was apparently previously On Liverpool's and Tottenham's shortlists. Highly experienced player, managed Ajax for several years. Speaks better English than most English people! Would anybody like him as our new manager?

no i don't mean we should become a rudderless ship with no one at the helm but with the modern approach being a 'coach' rather than a manager appointed and then those above him buying the players and telling him to make the best out of what he's given sort of thing, is this the way forward for us perhaps? i'm opening this up for debate as there is much to ponder in my opinion such as if so who would fit the bill as a first team coach, picking the team, tactics etc but leaving the rest up to the board and also is our board good enough to buy players alone? allardyce is an old school manager, getting his hands in all the pies so to speak or at least thats the way i believe he wants to manage. pelligrini and even rogers apparently don't decide on players, its up to the board and he in turn is tasked with getting the best out of them. is this even a good approach? does it then undermine the 'coach' or does it free him from some of the stresses he doesnt need? i don't think its worked at liverpool if as i hear thats the case there because rogers has ended up working with players he can't fit into his philosophy. i guess if the man is appointed knowing exactly what the scenario is regarding his role then he can have no complaints down the line. poyet complained about this all the time yet i am sure he was aware when he went into his job no? speaking of poyet what happened to him as a contender? not long ago there was clamour for him to replace sam….

One of my main themes last season (before this website did a Burton) was the untapped brilliant potential to be found in the Championship. The pessimistic amongst you would always fire back with "unproven, never experienced the premier league, too risky". My argument always was that the risk between a young hungry British talent, on reasonable wages and a relatively low signing fee was the same or lower than a foreign older mercenary on higher wages also untested in the Premiership. The worse that could happen is that it didn't work, or conversely - that it did, and the player can be sold for more money later.

The chairmen at the start of this season seemed to buy into this and issued statements to the affect that we were going to build a younger squad with potential. I think this policy needs to continue - regardless of who the manager is next season. Indeed, it should be written into the manager's contract that this is what is going to happen and reinforce the West Ham tradition as an academy for young footballers. (Don't you feel pangs of jealousy when you see Southampton, Tottenham and now Aston Villa fielding their youngsters, and it working? I do.)

So anyway, last year I got Aaron Cresswell right (but he was a pretty obvious one if you saw Ipswich beat us 5-0 in the championship). I also got Jordan Rhodes, Tom Ince and Nathan Redmond wrong. Another one I think I did get right - but Sam never plays him - is Diego Poyet. I think he is outstanding. And with only 2 games to go this season and with Song, Noble and Nolan all struggling I just cannot understand what Poyet has done to not get a game. He is potentially better than all of them, seriously!

We already have Reece Burke and Reece Oxford coming through, and I hope that continues. Sad to see Lletget go. He will probably be a massive hit back in the States now. Stephen Hendrie (LB) is joining in the summer from Scotland and he looks good too.

This year, I would urge the Chairmen (or whoever it is buying our players nowadays) to look at the following urgently.
Sam Byram - RB from Leeds. Outstanding potential. Could be as good as Cresswell, and a must if Jenkinson leaves. (Compare his wages to Glenn Johnson!!)
Will Hughes - CAM from Derby. Just missed out on promotion. (We surely all agree we need a replacement for Nolan?)
Lewis Dunk _ CB from Brighton.
If Jamaal Lascelles (CB from Forest) wasn't already on loan from Newcastle I would have him in a instant.

Allardyce is going, latest reports are saying he knocked back the chance of signing a two year deal and thank God for that because the majority of fans have had enough of the lifeless fat man. But if the owners think letting the fat man go and getting McLaren is the way to go for a club that is looking to build, then quite frankly they have lost their bleeding minds. Klopp was always an unrealistic target, after years of building what he has at Dortmund he would most likely want to go to a club with a bit of money and where he isn't forced to sell a whole crop of his best players every year. Benitez is also unrealistic, the man is a top 4 manager and at this stage of his career I don't think he has the need or desire to take on another long term project like West Ham would be. Bielsa has gone off the boil in France, Moyes is happy in Spain and who on earth know what Bilic is thinking. He would probably take the job of offered to him but for the owners he seems like a last resort. Then there are reports linking us with Howe, no disrespect to the man but we should be looking for someone with a lot more experience than he has, a brand name manager of you will. Howe is not it, not yet at least. So we have been linked with those 6 managers, from one extreme to another and not confident about any. For a team on the up, with the Olympic stadium move coming, and the potential of playing Europa league football next season, should it be this difficult??