Sunday 24 March 2013

Allardyce looking over shoulder as QPR's Redknapp is linked with West Ham return

Well talk about a rabbit out of the hat! With Allardyce still sweating on a new contract, some mischievous sods have suddenly mooted the possibility of 'Arry returning to lead us into the Olympic Stadium.

Allardyce will not like that! For as long as the rumours centred simply on his going, with no realistic alternatives being suggested, he probably felt relatively secure. But the return of 'Arry rings uncomfortably true.

Sure West Ham fans have mixed feelings about 'Arry - he has claimed to be a fan of Spurs as a child since his departure - but, at the end of the day, his record as a manager of West Ham was impressive and his record since departing has been even better.

Crucially, he plays the game the West Ham way. Put him in charge of the present squad and Joe Cole, Vaz Te, Reid, Noble, Diame, Tomkins, Potts and Jarvis would all blossom. You would back him to get the best out of Carlton, Collins and Spence too. That is eleven players, the core of a team and squad.

Some of the Bolton boys might not fit in. Redknapp praises Nolan on the box but has never tried to sign him. He managed Taylor, and once claimed he was good enough for England, but he offloaded him when Pompey were promoted, recognising his limitations as a Premiership player.  O'Brien would probably be retained as a utility defender. Jussi would be OK though; 'Arry has no objections to OAP keepers as he proved at Spurs.

O'Neil may find a home given Redknapp values a trier and Yossi would be welcomed back with open arms.

So, although replacing Allardyce brings with it huge risks - as Newcastle, Bolton and Blackburn have all discovered - Redknapp's pragmatism and imagination might just be able to polish the sow's ear into a silk purse. Give him £20m to spend and he might just produce a team capable of establishing itself in the Prem before pushing on following the move too the Olympic Stadium.

Redknapp probably has a release clause in his contract should QPR go down, and he would love the opportunity of returning as the saviour of the Academy. You can hear him now: "When I was here last we brought through Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Jermaine Defoe and Glen Johnson, the core of the England team for a generation..."

'Arry was replaced by Roeder so his achievements are magnified by what followed, but there's no getting away from the fact that he saved us from what looked like near certain relegation, turned us into a half decent team, brought through youngsters early, played the West Ham way, and added star names like Di Canio and Kanoute. Sure, there were loads of duff signings along the way but we can forgive him those now over a distance of time.

Would I welcome Redknapp back? With open arms! In fact, I would go so far as to say that he is the only man I can think of who would successfully replace Allardyce.

And that's why Doctor Evil may now be starting to sweat on that new contract.

14 comments:

daz said...

talking of noble being a redknapp style player a few interesting stats from this season, i know your a fan but theres a few doubters around

http://www.eplindex.com/29227/ball-retention-and-recycling-mark-noble-compared-arteta-allen-dembele.html

in short, no West Ham player has made more tackles than him ( 95 ), no West Ham player has won more tackles than him ( 71 ), only Stephen N’Zonzi ( 208 ) has won possession of the ball more times than Noble ( 205, and N’Zonzi has started 3 more games ) in the entire Barclays Premier League, only Youssuf Mulumbu at WBA ( every 10:20 ) wins the ball more frequently than Noble ( every 10:29 ) and nobody in the Premier League wins the ball more frequently in the middle third of the pitch than Noble does ( every 18:19 ).

as for passing stats, No player in the premiership passes the ball forward more than Noble does, with 42% of his passes

Noble has made 1333 of west hams 9939 passes

His pass accuracy of 82% is far from world class but decent for our level and

and his PI% Player Influence of 18%(the total amount of accurate player passes to the total passes of accurate team passes) is the highest in the premiership

let me know how does humble pie taste

Chippyhammer said...

I think you're wearing Rosie47 tinted specs.........

Anonymous said...

You must be wearing Rosie47 tinted specs.......

Lord Canning said...

''Play the game the West Ham way''.
That phrase hangs round our necks like a millstone because so few managers have been able to live up to it. Since Greenwood and Lyall, only Bonds, Harry and Pardew have really produced teams to live up to that ideal. I, for one, am firmly a believer in the said philosophy and have often quoted on this site my aversion to the Allardyce way. He even went on record to poo-poo our liking for attacking football by saying it won us nothing but got us relegated. He was wrong, poor team performances got us relegated.
Personally, I would welcome both Harry and Pardew back but there is a proportion of the faithful that wouldn't want Harry back, and the same group will be vocal in their displeasure at any mooted return of Frank Lampard.
Still what's wrong with a big slice of wishful thinking.
I have supported the Hammers since 1961 so feel suitably qualified to compare 'the good, the bad and the ugly' aspects of all our managers since that time.
Also, I would like to say that I was at Stamford Bridge last week and I was embarrassed by the antics of some of our so-called supporters, whose age group would disqualify them from the days when we truly played the game 'the West Ham way'.

Anonymous said...

I sincerely hope not. Great manager. Complete mercenary as a person. Too much water under that bridge! Far far too much.

Anonymous said...

Redknapps a turncoat and would soon bail when a better offer comes along. Don't want him back at my club

USA Dave said...

Rumors with no backbone at all, HF. There is no way the David's will have him. If we stay up, Sam stays.

Anonymous said...

Anyone but Allardyce...

He continues to drive a stake through the heart of our Football.

Anonymous said...

he wouldn't want to be at @ yo-yo club at his time of life....safer bet at QPR

Anonymous said...

He's not an idiot-he wouldn't take a step backward to join whu

Anonymous said...

The only reason qpr aren't a yo-yo club is because they won't be bouncing back up.

Martillo said...

I know it's a matter of faith for every West Ham fan that Roeder was an abject failure, but you are comparing him to Redknapp. Roeder's team got 42 points when they got relegated, the highest points total of any relegated team. 'Arry got the same total of 42 points with essentially the same team but stayed up. Roeder looked lost and 'Arry always looks the part, but given the same job and the same team, they got the same result.

Anonymous said...

12:22 you still expect the biggest yellow belly this side of Alamo to reply did you?

Anonymous said...

We won't be bouncing back up because we won't be going down fuck wit !