Manchester Hammer Comes In From The Cold

(Kev from Manchester went on strike, refusing to read or listen to anything about West Ham after the 3-0 hammering at Bolton. He has now awoken from his end of season hibernation and reflects....)

OK, my strike is over. I did really well and would have made it to the end of the season in ignorance had the TV news headlines last Sunday not flashed up our relegation before I found the remote. Of course it was an almost entirely pointless, self-indulgent act of rage - I say ‘almost’ because I did manage to park West Ham’s woes way in the back of my mind for about three weeks, which made for a few more pleasant weekends that I would have experienced otherwise.

Apropos HF’s articles of analysis: In any sport where scoring is a rarity luck plays a proportionately higher role in the outcome. So, in basketball or rugby union or cricket, a really good team will almost always wipe the floor with a very poor one. It is part of the appeal of football that odds are always narrower than in either of the above sports.

Bad luck, however, is always a hard sell because it is difficult to personalise. It feels more satisfying, and offers a clear focus for one’s rage, if you can identify a living target(s) as opposed to railing at a fuzzy concept - which isn’t to say that mistakes were not made or that too many of the players were a disgrace to the moniker ‘professional’ – but I do believe that a series of random events, dumb fortunes, unlucky breaks, call it what you will – contributed more than to our paltry points total a little more than most fans would grant (ho-ho)

Had we survived I am certain that Grant’s blunderings would have still born bitter fruit. I don’t buy his excuse that he was not sufficiently well supported. He’s just not a very good manager- many suspected that was the case when he was at Portsmouth but were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt as a result of his cup runs, in which obviously luck plays an even bigger role.

I am sure he would make a fine Play Station manager, as would we all, trouble is when it comes to organising flesh and blood something else is called for. It is an alchemy that is more profound than the ability to motivate, communicate, to handle pressure or to assert oneself; it is all of those things and more. The best we can say is we know it when we see it and in Grant it was absent.

As for Gold and Sullivan and Brady; bosses are there to take the big decisions. When they don’t pay off they are accountable and they dropped two clangers; appointing Grant and then failing to sack him. As for mouthing off in the press; I don’t care; if I had paid out £20 million and then watched a bunch of overpaid malingerers go through the motions I’d slag them too and wouldn’t care who knew.

Also it’s becoming tiresome to read critics constantly sniggering about how they made their money. I’m just grateful they had it to invest when there was a chance we would be going out of business. Now I know people will say what about Tony Fernandez but we know sod all for sure about him, except that West Ham lie third in his business priorities after airlines and motorcars. He may have been the gift horse but it’s pointless to speculate.

The other big decision of the last year was the Olympic stadium and I think they got that right. It’s added a notional value to the club without which our creditors would be less understanding. I could have this horrendously wrong but I think in the end it will make us a bigger club that Tottenham.

Then there are the players; as you point out our relegation rivals have been by and large fighting for their footballing lives since January and I’m pleased Wolves stayed up; they are a well-run club with a committed manager who showed the required gumption under pressure again and again. Like you I mourn Blackpool – I’d rather Blackburn and their ridiculous chicken farmers took the drop.

What struck me though was how on paper their squads ought not to have been a patch on ours. Now, are footballers like musicians- without a conductor they lack direction and tend to chaos? Or can we reasonably expect chaps who have played what is in essence a simple game all their born days and are, by and large, millionaires many times over, to have it within themselves to compensate for failures of their manager? I just don’t know.

I suppose it is all in the mix and while we had some good players, the legacy of all the differing transfer policies and purchases and , from what I understand no cogent wage structure - from Curbs onwards rendered the team unmanageable- at least by Grant.

A single crisis - most clubs can cope with but honestly for the last five seasons West Ham have been staggering around like a punch drunk fighter in search of the ropes for respite. Many of our woes were self- inflicted, others – the injuries to Ashton, Hitz and even Collinson; the banking crisis were not. It is scary though that after such a losing streak G&S will soon be called upon to take the decision that will shape the next season - the choice of manager; let’s hope they don’t cock it up.

(Submitted by Kev from Manchester)