Who wanted Petrovic and who appointed him exactly? If the guy really was a disastrous appointment, then surely the man who recruited him should be brought to book? If Petrovic is so important that he has to be shown the door because of our poor results, what exactly does Grant do? Isn't he accountable for the performances and results?
You also have to wonder about player power at the club. One poster scoffed at my suggestion that the players were not trying at Anfield because they were looking to engineer a sacking, but does that look so stupid now? The club are apparently dismissing Petrovic because he has failed to win over the dressing room! Win it over? Since when do you have to win over your players? Aren't they paid to do a job for the club? Was the performance at Anfield designed perhaps to send a clear and unequivocal message to Sullivan, Gold and Grant: get rid of the guy we don't like or we will throw every game?
So where does this leave Grant? Looking bloody foolish because Petrovic was his man, and the players have shown that their views count for more than their manager's. That is a dangerous and untenable situation. Who determines the tactics now? Grant knows that the players have more power than he does. Who picks the team? Well Grant can ill afford to upset Scotty Parker and his circle of friends because, as Petrovic found to his cost, if the players don't like you, then you are given your P45.
The move is staggeringly inept in my book. If Di Canio or Dicks suddenly appear, then God help us. Neither has the experience necessary to drag us out of the quagmire we find ourselves in. Maybe, just maybe, Grant is about to move upstairs, leaving a berth for the return of Pardew. That might just make sense.
Perhaps Ray Wilkins has been lined up as the replacement for Petrovic?
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to be argumentative, but why Pards? He was sacked after something like 7 straight defeats, and I believe we didn't score a goal in that stretch. Then he went to Charlton and THEY got relegated. I don't see it.
ReplyDeleteI would much rather see Curbishly come back. It ain't pretty, but if there is any chance for survival with a manager that is currently out of work I'd go with him.
And if I had a choise of DiCanio or Grant at this phase, I'd throw the damned dice with Paolo. We KNOW we're down with Grant. So anything is better than that.
Martin O'Neill isn't worth mentioning because there is no way he'd come.
Just another attempt to fool the fans theyre doing something.
ReplyDeleteGrant will move upstairs to do what? The guy is pointless
What a shambles this club has been reduced to.
ReplyDeleteIt might be the assistant though just think about this, unbeaten pre season BUT!! Petrovic wasnt his no2 untill a few days before the aston villa game but who was running trainingup until the villa game kevin keen and paul groves so why on earth groves chose an assistant who i reckon most people had never heard of over groves or keen
ReplyDeletePre season friendlies are precisely that Fred. Ignore them.
ReplyDeleteDave, Curbishley wouldn't have Tevez to save him this time. We were in a spot of bother when Pardew was sacked; we were dead and buried under Curbishley until that "goal" at Blackburn gave us a present of 3 points! Remember the score when Pardew's Charlton and Curbishley's West Ham went head to head? 4-0! How many of Curbishley's signings are cutting it in the Prem? And how many of Pardew's? Pards spent a fraction of what Curbishley spent and, for the money, unearthed gems in Etherington, Zamora, Reo-Coker, Green, Cole, Collins, Benayoun, Konchesky and Gabbidon. And Harewood is still playing and scoring in the Prem of course!
You talk a lot about the inner workings of the club, i.e. 'Who picks the team', 'Grant can ill afford to upset Scotty Parker and his circle of friends because, as Petrovic found to his cost, if the players don't like you, then you are given your P45' etc, but what do you actually base this on?
ReplyDeleteAre you speaking from a connection that you have with the club? Are you on the inside? Are you familiar with the day-to-day routine of a professional football club? Do you work for WHUFC? Do you even hold a season ticket?
Or is it just pure conjecture on your behalf based on what you read in the papers and what you read on other peoples websites??
I'm David Gold's nephew mate.
ReplyDeleteno dont ignore them because it is a valid point i have never seen us take such a massive dramtic u-turn in performances and im saying that how do we know the team wouldnt of done better without petrovic how do we know that we wouldnt of done better if we just had groves and keen so how do we know petrovic aint to blame for some of grants faults maybe its him having little whispers in grants ears saying keep playing 4-3-3 with cole in the line up
ReplyDelete"Pre season friendlies are precisely that Fred. Ignore them."
ReplyDelete!!!!!!!!
But I hammersfan will use them to show off how good grant is and how bad zola was. I hammersfan used them to insult zola at every opportunity but you ignore then fred!
Astonishing hypocrisy.
No hypocrisy at all. When pre season friendlies are the only indicator, that's what you have to use. When there are better indicators, you move on. Who needs pre season friendlies to take apart Zola's record. Look at what he inherited and look at what he left behind! He is the Gordon Brown of West Ham United!
ReplyDeleteI see your point, HF, but we were relatively solid under Curbs the following year. And Pardew had Tevez but wouldn't play him, although I am not quite sure why I point that out! Depression and exhaustion make you say silly things.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do recall the 4-0 thumping at Charlton. But they went down and we did not. So at the end of the day I think those results are more important.
I never thought about those signings so perhaps my judgment on Pards is rough. Do you believe, or more importantly DID you believe then that Egbert sacked him too quickly? Do you think we would have stayed up under Pardew?
I was pig sick after the Bolton game. Pardew picked a mad team and we were annihilated on a rain sodden night from memory. I had the same sense then as I had watching the Wolves game last season and the Liverpool game on Saturday, that the manager had lost the players. Until that point I was 100% behind him, confident that he would turn things around. We were on 14 points from 16 games going in to the Bolton game, which wasn't exactly disastrous. And I expected to lose at Bolton anways because we always lose to them don't we? But it was the crazy team selection, centred around Dailly as I remember with Yossii and Zammo left on the bench all night - and the utter ineptitude of the performance that did it for me. Tevez started but played like Di Canio on a cold wet night in November - he didn't turn up!
ReplyDeleteBut it was a mistake, he shouldn't have been sacked. I'm convinced he would have turned things around.