Scott Parker has been chosen as the Hammer of the Year but he is the wrong choice and his triumph just illustrates that democracy is a ridiculous way of determining a meritocracy. Why?
Well, to begin, Parker has only started 31 games this season and only completed 21 of those. Now, I suppose, in a season where Giggs gets Player of the Year despite only starting 11 Premiership games, this may be considered by some to be reasonable, but it isn't in my book. Upson has started 41 games, Ilunga 39, Green 43 and Neill 37. Needless to say, none of these four have been withdrawn early anywhere near as often as Parker. So, in terms of minutes on the pitch, Parker is the wrong choice. And making it out there in the first place, and then staying on the pitch for the 90 minutes, is a pre-requisite of being able to influence a game. Parker's 21 completed games in a season of 44 games is not good enough for a nominee, never mind winner, of Hammer of the Year.
Then there is the question of performances. Now I am not denigrating Parker's ability but I have to question whether he was our most EFFECTIVE player this season. One stat that undermines his claims is the return of just one goal all season. Now I accept that he is the "holding" midfield player but that return is not good enough. Our biggest problem this season has been our failure to score enough goals and Parker is a major factor here. Not only has he not scored, he seems to have had an allergic reaction to getting into the box. That puts a much bigger burden of responsibility on the other players to score and their games have suffered as a result. We need Parker to be chipping in with five goals a season - not a huge amount but a par performance for a Premiership midfield player. Parker has been found seriously wanting here.
And I wonder how many "assists" he has too. I bet it's not many you know. I don't have the stats to hand but the goal creators in my mind have been Cole, Bellamy, Di Michele, Noble, Ilunga and Collison. I may be wrong here but I'd have quite a bit of money on Parker having no more than three or four assists all season. If I'm right, that is a pathetic return for a player who is supposed to be England quality. That has been a problem for us this season - our two best midfielders, Parker and Behrami, have offered more defensively than offensively.
Then there is Parker's disciplinary record. He has only completed 21 games but he has still managed to pick up 8 yellow cards and, to be honest, he should have seen red against Wigan. Over a full season, that return would see him picking up two suspensions.
Ilunga, Upson, Green and Cole all had much stronger claims for Hammer of the Year in my book. Democracy? Highly over rated in my opinion. Just ask the people of Iraq!
30 comments:
Parker has been awsome for us this season. if you ever went to the games you would know u plank
Thought Parker was great for us this year. I't's not just Behrami and Cole we missed over the last couple of months. However, HOTY? No way.
Personally I voted for Illunga who, for me edged it - just - over Upson.
By the way, LBM was excellent yesterday. I hope he is still here next season, only thing is, someone needs to remind him it starts again in August and we can't wait for him until April to start playing.
Anon 11.01 I have been to many games this season. I still don't think he deserved it over Illunga or Upson or Green. And what's with the insults
You sir are a f*cking idiot. Not only do you crave attention and believe that your self-important opinion needs afflicting on more than those few unfortunate individuals that know you personally (thus this red top-esque blog whereby all you do is stir the pot) but worse still, because the majority of voters did not agree with your opinion for HOTY you somehow have the audacity to conclude that democracy doesn't work. You obviously fail to understand the word to begin with. Still I'm sure you would be much happier if only your opinion counted you little hitlerite fascist.
if he got the most votes how can he be the wrong choice ???????
Fanno how is it the wrong choice when its decided by the fans?
Its the wrong choice in your books but not the magority.
Parker did get my vote and I went Deano for goal of the season
PhilTheTinkler
Let's be honest now - WHOEVER it was you would have argued it shouldn't have been - despite what you say. It's a way of keeping the blog that little bit contraversial. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy reading, but let's not kid ourselves.
Welcome to democracy. The majority decided so as such it is not 'the wrong choice', it's just not your choice. Hey, I voted for Ilunga, but well done to Scott Parker.
I regularly frequent Hammers blogs, but will be sure to exclude this one from my ever increasing favourites list.
Not just for this incredulous, pithy, little ditty, but for a plethora of verbose, tedious, nonsensical and perpetuating themes.
It seems neither objective, informative or even factual.
I don't suppose you are remotely related to Alan Curbishley are you?
Or alternatively do you go under the surname of Levi?
Suggest you 'convert' to Tottenham and be done with it.
Good Day.
What a stupid post. HOTY is voted on by the supporters and it is their choice. I voted for another player but willingly accept the decision.
I forgot, hammersfan is a so called fan that doesn't go to UP very often but is qualified to give an opinion. based on media reports, sky matches and no doubt links picked up on the internet.
I personaly did not vote for Parker, however your arguements are poor and show you do not understand the postion he plays and his contribution to the team. His job is to cover the back four and play simple passes, not score goals. If not for him we would have conceeded a lot more. He has done that job very well. However I think Ilunga was more deserving for HOTY
You are a total and utter moron. Yes we had a lot of good performers this year but Parker was immense and fully deserves his accodolade.
And how you can say Di Michele was one of our best creators this season just proves how totally invalid your argument is. Anyone who has watched Di Michele this season knows he is a total and utter chancer and quite possibly the worse player playing in the Premiership.
The only 2 games where he played reasonable were Newcastle and Hull at home - and i am objective enough to also give him credit for his part in the Cole goal at Wigan - but he is and always will be dogsh*t.
i think it is amazing how many people here said that they did not vote for parker! i didn't vote for him, he wouldn't have been in my top 4 or 5 for the award. its not that he didnt have a good season, and there is no doubt we have missed him massivly when he has not played, but there is also no doubt that he did not play enough, and he went missing in one or two too many matches when he did play. i think ilunga has been a revelation all season, although there has been a touch of lazyness creeping in the past few weeks. upson, cole and green have been fantastic all season, as has neil(who has also been a good captain this season), so personally i think one of these four deserve to be HOTY
The criticisms are predictable, but these critics keep returning! Only one person has actually addressed the issue of Parker's contribution to the season. Of course I understand the role he plays, and yes some holding midfield players do have a very poor goals scored return (Makalele for one), but they tend to play in teams rich with goalscorers. That is not the case with ourselves. There is a body of opinion that claims Noble suffers when Parker is in the team and I contend that the whole side suffers because of his reluctance to break into the opposition box. He used to score goals and still has the ability to do so and, I am sure, he would cite it as an area of his game that he needs to improve on. The critical point which everyone who has spouted off has failed to address is the 21 games completed stat. That is not immense, that is disappointing.
The Di Michele argument is crass. I don't think the guy should be retained but I think he has had a hand in quite a few of our goals this season. I may be wrong but I think so.
As for arguments in favour of democracy, has anybody been reading the papers lately? There are more morons than intelligent people in this country, so why allow the majority to decide the government - the odds are in favour of a moronic choice!
Dear God, if it is true of the electorate in general, that certainly applies to the electorate frequenting Upton Park! How many of those voting have a coaching qualification?
Why not get the manager to appoint the Hammer of the Year? I think he probably knows more about the all round contribution of the player - on the pitch, in the dressing room, on the training field - than the fans. Give the fans the vote on "Most Popular" but not "Hammer of the Year"!
And back to Parker - he completed less than 50% of the games we played this season and scored only one goal from midfield. Yes, when he played, he generally played well (if we forget Villa and Tottenham at home!), but that should not be enough to get Hammer of the Year. Who did we miss more, Parker or Cole when they were absent? Who is in the England squad, Parker or Cole? I will analyse a few stats and get back to you!
Well said 1247. I also invited nominations yesterday for Hammer of the Year and Swollen Thumb of the Year and NOBODY nominated Parker. And yet, loads are now angry when I call the decision wrong. Like so many sheep!
r u an actually idiot ? parker deserved it he was consistently good and our best player all season capello needs too keep a look on him i think
No I am not an idiot. Address the facts, don't just hurl an insult. Funnily enough, Capello did check out Parker quite a few times. He saw him hustled out of the game completely against Villa and was on hand to see us look utterly toothless at home to Tottenham with Parker and Mullins in centre midfield. Remember West Brom at home? How many chances did we create? Why didn't Parker impose himself on that game?
Well I voted for Green, and then voted in my misses name for Ilunga, I just couldn't make my mind up, but at no point did Parker cross my mind, Don't get me wrong he has played well for us this year (when he's played) but I would have even put Bahrami above Parker this year, But that's just my opinion!!(It would be interesting to see some sort of info showing how many votes each player got)
Your an idiot mate! i have visited and watched people rightly comment on your site, you know f all about our club and i cannot wait for the day that your comments are deemed to be so unproductive and unimportant that they do not belong on any site let alone a Westham site, goodbye you mixed up fool!
So Russell, how long before you return with ANOTHER goodbye post? And what about the debate over Parker?
Anonymous said:
Why are you still on NewsNow???? You talk complete rubbish! You are the most ignorant, pig headed football fan (if you can you that) I have ever seen!
(Edited to remove foul and abusive language.)
Why am I still on News Now? I guess because the blog regularly features as one of the "Top Stories" on the West Ham board. That may well be down to morons who hate the site but who make it popular by repeatedly visiting to post poorly expressed abuse. Think that might be it?
I kind've agree with Hammers fan that he didn't deserve it, he has been solid and is consistently reliable, however i do wonder if people are voting to make sure a different hammer wins it every year and took in account parkers contribution to the team over the years. Nevertheless, well done to him, im happy we didn't sell him and hope to see more from him next season.
Cole, Green, Ilunga and Upson.
If any of those 4 had won it, no-one would have argued. They are the 4 most effective and important players in our line up. Lose any of those 4 and we're half the team.
Parker, Neill, Collison and Behrami.
4 great seasons and 4 good players, but ultimately we can replace these players with competant replacements such as Kovac, Spector, Boa Morte and Dyer etc.
Scott Parker - Good season, probably 5th best!
I've got to say that Parker is an odd choice for me. If he'd played every minute of every game then I could have understood it. Parker is a very good player but others have been better for me. I would have given it to Carlton because his improvement has been incredible. Upson, Green and Ilunga have all been excellent this season. I'm not sure whether all your criticisms of Parker are valiud. He is the 'sitter' in midfield and its not his job to score goals. I'd be looking at our wide men (Boa in particular) and Noble who always seems nervous to go forwards for me.
Hammersfan wrote:
"As for arguments in favour of democracy, has anybody been reading the papers lately?"
That is quite an apt comment coming from you as it appears you are devoid of having an original thought. Going by the way you conduct this blog (garnering interest purely through controversial articles aimed at provoking a response) thus imitating gutter trash journalism, which unsurprisingly is where you assimilate the vast majority of your opinions from (thus repeating and perpetuating ignorant and ill-conceived remarks), instead of drawing on firsthand experience with which to base your opinions.
1744, please explain what aspect of this article is "gutter trash journalism". Whilst you are about it, explain why a number of posters agree with my contention that Parker is not the hammer of the Year.
How about this as a gutter press headline? "BNP voters block Ilunga and Cole as Hammer of the Year" ? Then you might have a point!
I DID vote for Parker. Didnt matter how many games he played.
He was up for it every time.
On the basis of your argument, Tevez would not have got HotY in 2007.
My argument isn't only based on the number of games is it?
And back to Tevez, there is a strong argument that he should not have got the award. He was at least part of the problem in the first place - and look what has happened since! I suspect that the signing of Tevez was the catalyst for all our troubles - that and Ashton's injury.
Statistically, the Hammer of the Year for the Great Escape was Anton. We only won one point when he was out of the side - and that was the 3-3 draw at home to Fulham, not a result a defender would want to be associated with. Had we maintained the same win ratio for games when Ferdinand was not in the team as when he was, we would have finished with 50 points without drawing any games! That is a far higher positive ratio than Tevez's! But you voted for Parker so probably are not aware of details like that! ; }
i've not been to any games this season because i can't afford to, but i've tried to get the live stream as often as i can and from what i've seen Neill has been the biggest candidate for the opposite of hammer of the year. I think his performances have been mediocre and his clumsiness is a liability. Still, he's a hammer and so i'll support him like the rest.
But having a go at SP because he didn't finish all the games he started is a little harsh, when you consider midfielders cover more of the pitch than anyone else and so need subbing when running low on stamina!
Richard, I don't see Lampard or Barry subbed too often, or Carrick for that matter.
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