Well, typically, this Daniel who sits in judgement overlooks a key fact. Losing mentality or not, Grant's team beat every Championship side they played last season - and with ease. No grinding out of results then, the psychologically destabilised Hammers scored goals for fun, hitting 11 in three homes games against teams in the second tier of English football. The way Nussbaum writes, you would think we were still in the Prem! Of course away games no longer instill us with terror and we no longer live in dread of thumpings - we are playing crap teams!
Apparently Nussbaum is also party to a secret rule change. He claims, "big Sam is on course to lead the club to automatic promotion". Is that so? Funny, I missed the news that 4th place secured you promotion. A play off place yes, but a play off place is the minimum expectation isn't it?
Of course, Nussbaum the Toad also fails to comment on the fact that we have beaten nobody of note thus far and overlooks that the last 180 minutes of football have yielded just one goal - scored from a dubious penalty award. Nor does he recognise that the Pompey game apart, we have not scored more than a single goal in four home games this season, including that humiliating defeat at home to Aldershot.
Daniel may be happy but I am with the fans who are voicing concerns. Our start has been, at best, stuttering. I have seen nothing to suggest that we have truly turned a corner. Nussbaum may be right when he says we will get fitter and stronger as the season goes on, but he may equally be wrong. The season only really starts when we play the likes of Leicester, Southampton, Middlesborough, Derby and Brighton. Only then will we see if Allardyce has done a job or simply done a number on us.
The squad is strong enough to win the title but only if they are allowed to play to their potential. Thus far, at Upton Park, they have played in a corset of Sam's design. He needs to take off the whale bone restraints and let the quality players basque in the glory of goal making and scoring. Then, and only then, will the fans take Doctor Evil to their collective hearts.
Desperate.
ReplyDeleteWe scored 2 goalss against leeds. And what we didn't do last season is beat any of the promoted teams at home. Yesterdays performance wasn't great by any means but we got 3 points and thats what we need to get promoted. Surely performances are a bonus.
ReplyDeleteI thought Leeds scored three actually.
ReplyDeleteA brilliant post, HF.
ReplyDeleteI too am getting sick of all of the tub thumping and back slapping on most of the forums.
I've seen us 4 times this season in the flesh and we've been pretty piss poor I don't mind telling you.
No fluidity or creativity, a lack of width especially on the right hand side, the opposition dominating for long stretches of games at 'fortress Boleyn' - I could go on.
Don't let the points total foo anyone - we are far from the polished article yet!
Cheers HM. We never did fit in that meet. Have to at some point. How's the site going?
ReplyDelete"AVRAM GRANT just won't go away.
ReplyDeleteAfter being relegated with Portsmouth and West Ham, he is now linked with Russian superclub Anzhi Makhachkala.
What is it about Grant? Ah, yes, he has powerful friends.
None more than Pini Zahavi, who you somehow suspect has a finger in the Russian pie. As they always say, it's not what you know."
That's from the sun HF, not me
Hoo lets let Sam do it the West Ham way hey.No pleasing some is there,even though you seem to think as a fan we should be cruising it,we have been broken and scarred and now we are just settlting in you and you're principle are not happy. Crying out loud Hf do you just wait for everyone to comment then leave last comment so you feel you're right always or is it a attention seeking persona.You seem to want so much,when we have been thru so much.Give it a chance hey.Opinions are one thing,actuallity is another. If we don't get behind this team now they won't survive.Patience hey.
ReplyDelete0409 I don't think I have called for Allardyce to do it the West Ham way in this article, I have simply said that I can see no evidence of West Ham having turned a corner. You lot kept saying to get behind the club and everything would be alright under Zola and Grant. Don't worry, be happy might be ok for dope heads but facing up to realities is how to succeed in life. The reality is that we are fourth, not first, after a very easy set of opening fixtures and we have been impotent going forward in our last two games.
ReplyDeleteAnd even Grant had a 100% record against Championship sides!
Stani, if The Sun says it, then it must be true!
ReplyDeleteMy point is, you can't accuse them of being anti Semitic can you? :)
ReplyDeleteI went to KUMB and read that article. 'We are on course for automatic promotion' equates to the statistical fact that all automatically promoted teams average two points per game over the whole season and does not refer to the current league position... but then you kne that didn't you? .... but just ommitted it.
ReplyDeleteI feel confident this squad has the ability to get promoted this season, but, no matter how fanatical a fan one is,it is obvious that we have not seen a dominant, convincing display, in spite of goals scored, this season.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lack of balance, a lack of width, and surprisingly a weak midfield.
A lot of the goals we have scored have been a bit lucky or fluky, very few deliberately created.
On the odd times that we have put the opposition defences under pressure they have looked vulnerable and likely to crack and it has been on those occasions that somehow we have managed to get our goals, so why is it we always seem to be the team under pressure the most?
HF and HM having a cosy back slapping meet up? hahaha can you imagine? scores on the doors? goal less bore draw!
ReplyDeleteFantasy movers and shakers totals for September
ReplyDelete1 Stani Army 61
2 Turd's Out! 51
3 James Van praag 49
4 Hammers Fan 42
Scared of heights HF?
ReplyDelete100% record again championship sides? how many times do you need to say this? Jesus man you don't half go on - you're like a broken record sometimes - we heard you the first time you said it - now it looks like you're going to mention it in every single bloody post.
ReplyDeleteHEADmaster how's the fantasy football going? a great football pundit such as yourself obviously should be flying high in the table and then of course there's your schooling attributes, which should make you good at all the maths calculations such as averages, percentages and such like. Oh! dear - I just looked - you're not doing so well are you?
ReplyDeleteThen what do you want to happen it's early days yet, atleast Sam doesn't seen stand by the sidelines arms crosssed. No it's not been superb, and no we haven't set the place alight, but to think we should be top straight out doesn't warrant anything. This is a tough league, and we still have to gel. Atleast reserve judgement a month or two longer down the line.
ReplyDeleteAVRAM GRANT! Bring him back!!!!
ReplyDeleteSAM, out! out, out, out!
Can't you? Are the Murdochs Jewish? I wouldn't know to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to get some tee shirts printed -
ReplyDelete"HF says RELAX - AVRAM was Better!"
Who wants one? £5 a shirt and all money will be donated equally between two HF's favourite causes M.I.N.D. and S.A.N.E.
1249, unlike you, some people do not read every single post I write! But, did you notice that Avram had a 100% record against Championship sides?
ReplyDeleteAh 1314, the "need time to gel" argument. How long do 11 footballers take to gel then? I can understand the need to get a defence working in harmony but how much gelling is needed to ppass the ball up the field and put it in the bloody onion bag? We expect international teams to "gel" after 3 days training!
ReplyDeleteBert, somebody needs to tell the teams averaging more than 2 points a game that they are doing it wrong. You don't get promoted like that apparently! There's Premiership teams saying, "We didn't get where we are today bu averaging more than two points a game in the Championship." How's Ernie by the way?
ReplyDeleteThanks Scores!
ReplyDeleteTurds you ledge! See what you done HF? You pi**ed off Turds and now's he's on a rampage.
11:41 Thanks Scores - I had no idea I was doing so well & Well done to Stani - it's nice to see someone who can back up his words with actions.
ReplyDeleteStani seeing as HF and Headmaster are planning a nice little tête à tête - do you think we should do the same? or would that just be a bit gay?
ReplyDeleteDG - bless. Obsessed enough with my professional status to want to have a pop because I'm not winning in the fantasy league. Had a problem at school did we, old chap. Get over it, son. Move on - there's a whole world out there waiting for you.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the accolade though. "Great". Nah. Just got an opinion.
Well if that's the case HF you manage the team. It's called players being brought in,maybe some not quite fit yet and others going in and out of the squad. My thinking is to many expect too much too soon. Make a judgement when we play those tougher teams,and i hope you're proved wrong, as I think you will be and hopefully you will be pleased.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be a bit sad now and paste your ratings post Forest FA cup game in January.
ReplyDeleteGreen 5; Jocobsen 6, Reid 6, Gabbidon 4, Ilunga 6; Barerra 5, Kovac 3, Noble 6, Sears 6; Piquionne 5, Obinna 8 Subs: Boa 5
Hardly easing past Championship opposition. 3-2 that ended, 4-1 it ended this season. You do the hard bit...
Hahaaa, cheers Turds. Well there's nothing wrong with a bit of brotherly man love! I did tell HF to organise a 5 a side at power league on here but he was reluctant. That would have been nice. I would have really backed up my words then! Yes HF, I'm not just an ugly face!
ReplyDeleteYou reckon HF will take our opinions a little more seriously should we finish above him Turds? I haven't even watched a full Football League Review programme yet! just our goals...haven't had the time. All this has been through keeping an eye on the scores and the odd snippet of live text commentary. Poor HF's probably there every Saturday evening with pen and pad taking notes!
hahaha problem at school? none at all - got out at 16 and joined the real working world - something I suspect you're still yet to do being in academia. Not that it matters but I'm pretty sure I earn a lot more than the average headmaster, private or otherwise.
ReplyDeletecourse you do, DG, course you do. I'm happy for ya, really I am. Surprised you've got time to have a pop at an internet persona though, what with all that money you're busy making.
ReplyDeleteSo come on then, enlighten me oh esteemed one from the real world, awash with cash; what is your problem with The ol' Headmaster? Is it the tag itself, the image it conjours up, the feeling that the education system that so patently failed you since you couldn't wait to escape at 16 has to pay somehow?
Is it that I have an opinion? That I express it on a regular basis?
Don't get me wrong, it won't change anything for me, or deter or indeed encourage me in terms of volume or thrust of posts but it is intriguing, the kind of way an out of reach bogey is, if you catch my drift.
drivel
ReplyDeleteHeadMaster me old mate - the firm runs itself - I'm in Texas, Frisco at the moment installing the health equipment that we sell around the world - the centre in London has 10 members of staff who run the place while I'm not there - fancy a freebie?
ReplyDeleteWhat I object to is your opinions and your toadying up to HF. What I found out about the education system is that it teaches you think in only one way. Thereby restricting most people in whole brain / out side the box thinking - If you look you'll find most successful entrepreneurs left school with little or no qualifications. School teachers along with bank managers could never cut in the real world because they're too scared to take the real world head on along with the associated risks.