Somewhere in the middle of that rollercoaster comes the reign of Sam Allardyce. When he was appointed, I was sceptical. The man was known for negative tactics and was costing the club a mint, but in fairness he brought the club straight back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking - even if it wasn't pretty. So Season 1 was a moderate success, albeit most of his signings were poor and he had a tendency to bring back some of his former players.
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| Vaz Te's greatest contribution? His late goal sent us back up to the Premier League |
Season 2 was better. Despite defensive tactics and a shoe-string budget, Big Sam got the Hammers to 10th in the league as the board's request to consolidate their position in the league was met. Season 3 was when things turned sour. The team took a backwards step by finishing 13th and although the side weren't relegated, the fans voiced their concern for Sam's negative tactics and transfer policy as he made some ridiculous decisions. Despite defeating rivals Tottenham three times in a season, he found himself shrouded in controversy. The fallout with youngster Ravel Morrison was strange. Although, it's hard to say who was in the right (going by Morrison's history, it probably was Sam), Ravel accused Sam of trying to bully him into signing with an agent, one that his ex-Bolton players were signed to. On top of this, two good cup runs ended in humiliation. Allardyce had conceded defeat before the match had even started with Nottingham Forest and Man City scoring 11 goals between them to show that even defensive tactics don't guarantee a low-scoring game.
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| Embarrassing was an understatement: Nott'm Forest 5-0 West Ham |
Season 4 is a tricky one. Whoever thought of signing Aaron Cresswell, Diafra Sakho, Cheikou Kouyate, Alex Song (I could go on) done an incredible job. These players really upped the quality of the team, but I don't even think that these players thought they'd be sitting in the top 4 on Christmas Day. Thanks to a nudge from the board, Allardici (as he was known for a brief four months) started to play attacking, flowing football. "Hoof" wasn't in his dictionary. He played a deadly Sakho up front with a troublesome Enner Valencia who was also brought in in the summer. Europe wasn't an unrealistic goal.
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| Diafra Sakho was a revelation before his injury |
However, in classic Sam fashion, he reverted to old ways. Despite his side's great form, he would replace some of his first team starters for his favourite players - Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan. Carroll was great on return, but the team no longer played the same football. Nolan on the other hand, was an inexcusable starter. Right up to the game against Newcastle, he has only shown glimpses of talent. He squandered chances and has been a poor captain - Mark Noble should have the captain's armband like he did at the start of the season in my opinion. On top of this, he changed the tactics. The diamond 4-4-2 would only make cameo appearances, leaving on-form Stewart Downing out of position. All of this made 2015 a year to forget for the Hammers after that great start. From New Year onwards, the club only won three league matches out of a possible 19, all three sides (Hull, Sunderland and Burnley) finished in the bottom five. This run of form in 2015 was still somehow, not the worst. On the last day of the season, we couldn't even beat the most out-of-form side in the league.
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| It all went horribly wrong for Allardyce and West Ham |
So in short, Allardyce won only three league games in 2015 (and one poor win against Bristol City in the cup); he continued to play Kevin Nolan despite his poor form which shows he has his favourites; he continued to leave the likes of Morgan Amalfitano and Nene out of the side, with the latter being a signing of the board; and he failed to keep the attacking ethos that was winning us games at the start of the season. Neutral fans are calling West Ham fans the "worst fans in the Premier League" because we want him out. We are being told by pundits that we will regret the decision, but to those I say - if we can be in the Champions League spots at Christmas, surely that shows our side has enough quality to stay well within the top 10? Spending £30m in the summer and reverting to tactics that simply do not work shows that we have the resources and if we had a manager with tactical know-how, we might actually win games. To those that are saying we don't have the resources, we have to spend £100m, our team's not strong enough - look at Stoke and Swansea City.
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| Evidence that you don't need a Sheikh to be competitive: Garry Monk and Mark Hughes |
I cannot be more grateful for what Sam done in his first two seasons with us and the brief dizzy heights of third position, but all arrows point to new change, new football, new stadium, new players - so there is no point holding onto the deadwood.
Twitter: @mick_demarco
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