Allardyce or Di Canio?

(Article submitted by Steve Heighton)
 
The big question BFS v PDC . The holder v the pretender. The experience v the new boy . The drab v the flair and so I could continue but I won't . The important thing here is to forget the press and the clamor of isolated fans with hero worship as their main argument rather than any football logic. The main block of true supporters know two things . Sam has so far got the points on the board playing in his style and secondly he makes some shocking decisions that make no sense and he speaks nonsense in his after match statements be it on tv, radio or the club website. 


So point one. Well the truth is we have the points on the board. For whatever reason we have them. At this stage perhaps not enough of them but we are still in a better place than we might have expected  and certainly better than those below us. The general rule of thumb is you must have 3 worse teams than you below you . So if QPR, Reading and Villa are worse than us can they, with Wigan and the Toon , still be worse than us by seven points at the seasons end. I don't trust Reading or Wigan to give up and Villa may squirm out of it although I hope not . This puts us in a relegation position if we don't get more points. We are the typical Jekyl and Hyde and this is solely down to Sam. At home we force the game and pick a team with strike power ( obviously exempting Nancy Cole and his two whole goals) and look good. We play it about better and at a higher tempo until the opposition buckle. A good trend to have and so far its worked. However away from home we are abysmal and again this is down to the manager.

Take Villa , a poor team of kids ready for taking . We could have taken the game to them with Jarvis and Cole flanking Carroll and been brave, and then if we had lost you do it with some pride, but we would more than likely have won. Instead of this Sam chickened out and played for a draw and as expected we got turned over. Not only that, we were shocking . We could hardly pass a ball, it was worse than the lower leagues. So my conclusion of Sam is he is lucky so far and sooner or later will get found out. The Dubai jolly shows what he is about . Sun and frolics rather than hard work at home . 


So why don't I want PDC then ? Well I might at some point and that may be in May . He is pssionate and fiery. None of the players even understand what that means these days. We have really poor players at the moment and a rollicking from Paolo will be water of a duck's back. What is worse, the current squad has no flair. Even Joe is not enough. Matt Jarvis could excite but have we seen it consistently yet ? No. The rest of the squad are just workers and this is just not a Paolo squad. If Sam goes, so will Nolan and Carroll . Carlton and the Piq are useless and Chamakh is a loanee. As Di Canio is a positive attack minded person, this is bad news . The defence at times is steady but no more than that  and again the middle is screaming out for a player with an eye for a pass. Its all toil but no flair. This will ruin Di Canio and will send us on a downward spiral, that is assuming we haven't already got relegated. 


So for me its down to the rest of the season. Whether we like it or not, if we can stay in the Prem, we are happy with that, even with crap football, in which case Sam has earned (and some!) his right to stay .In a second Premier season he may even get it right!  If we go down, then take Di Canio and let's go on a journey or more likely rollercoaster of a ride. At least it will be fun! And so the remainder of the season is crucial for all of us, from Sam down to the tea lady, with a passing reference to us the supporters.

It's never dull being West Ham!!