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Talking Point

The Consequences of the Board Not Supporting Sam

Guest Post by Brian Jones

So, after such a great first half of the season, what’s gone wrong? Is it Sam or the players? Well, I’m not a Sam fan, and a couple of years ago, I put up a post on here calling for him to go. But I’m going to cut him some slack and shift the focus to the Board, the third part of the equation. If you were Sam, what would you be thinking right now? “I’ve met all the targets I was set, I’ve even tried to promote some free flowing , attacking football, but the buggers don’t love me!”

The online and print media are rife with stories about rifts between Sam and David Sullivan. Sullivan is supposed to have brought in players that Sam didn’t want. Sam was supposed to have stuck two fingers up to Sullivan over whether Nene was fit or not. There is speculation everywhere as to whether the Board are going to replace Sam now or at the end of the season. Some media outlets are convinced Sam is already a dead duck. So what effect does this have on the team? Well, James Tomkins was quoted in the media as saying it doesn’t affect the team and they just get on with the job. I wonder if this is really the case?

Surely all this speculation does have an effect on the team? Don’t they wonder what the future is and don’t they struggle to get really motivated if there is a pall of uncertainty over Sam’s position? Surely one of the roles of the Board is to ensure there is a positive atmosphere at the club, an environment in which everyone feels positive about the future and wants to do their best to bring on higher achievements. Why is Winston Reid stalling on a new contract? Supposedly there have been no bids for him. Is he just waiting to see the way the wind blows?

Right now the role of the Board should be to tell the media, the players and everyone else, that there is no problem, Sam is our man and we are going onwards and upwards and any other clichés they can think of – even if they don’t mean it. Because that would be positive for the club and address all the uncertainty that is there at the moment. If they are not happy with Sam, they should be keeping that to themselves. But all this “we will assess the situation at the end of the year” and the deafening silence about whether Sam is our man or not is helping to create a negative atmosphere at the club. It helps to lead to uncertainty among the players and with Sam himself. His laid back (literally) body language at matches surely speaks for itself. When did he last wear a West Ham tie at a match? Why should he when he doesn’t know if the Board support him or not? Or maybe he does know and realises he is just filling in time?

Whether Sam stays or not, I want the Board to play their role in creating a positive atmosphere in which the players can flourish. I don’t see them doing that right now.

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