Guest Post by Jack C
It may be tiny, but in football terms there is no bigger word.
I can’t imagine a single Hammer would want to swap our fantastic start to the season, though after the Norwich game, there is obvious disappointment at our continued poor home form. I’ve asked myself how we might have started the season had the board kept faith with Sam Allardyce?
Of course, we can only speculate. We’ll never know how he would have approached the Europa League, and in particular the away leg against Astra just days before our opener at the Emirates (though I suspect he would have done the same as Slaven and opted to save his best players). And it’s impossible to know how his transfer policy would have panned out. Downing and Jarvis could have stayed, and you can bet Nolan would still be skipper, albeit with less game time. Would Sam have had the imagination to tempt Payet, Lanzini and Ogbonna? And would Song have re-signed given Sam practically made him a scapegoat for our end of season dip in form? Almost certainly not.
But let’s given him some credit. Overall he brought in some fantastic players since promotion and I think he would have had a few big signings planned. Top of his list would have been an experienced back up keeper, a commanding centre-back (a friend of Scott Dann told me he was approached last season), a winger (who’s to say he wouldn’t have got Victor Moses in anyway?) and a striker (I think he would have possibly taken a chance on Charlie Austin whose game he would have known a lot more about than Slaven).
Whatever he had achieved in the transfer market, there is one thing I think we can all agree on. His team would have played the same way as always: Safety first, with too much reliance on the long ball, hopeful crosses and a refusal to commit too many players on the break. Only once did he give us a great away win to compare to any of Slaven’s three, and that 3-0 at Spurs was based on an enforced team selection that he would never have made willingly.
Still, looking at our opening league fixtures, I think there is an argument to be made that, with Sam in charge, we would now likely be on at least eight points, and maybe 11. Either way we’d be in a solid mid-table place, though we would have all been denied the utter joy of winning those three incredible away games!
(A) Arsenal – We’d have lost here. Sam would have set us up to defend deep, with a lone isolated striker, and once they got their noses in front, that would have been that….again – 0 pts
(H) Leicester – They had a fantastic start and could well have beaten us regardless, but Sam would have known more about them than Slaven and I think we’d have drawn this under him – 1 pt
(H) Bournemouth – I just can’t imagine an Allardyce team making so many schoolboy errors. This game would have been made for his tactics. He would have bullied them with crosses and have known about their pace in advance – 3 pts
(A) Liverpool – We would probably have lost here as Sam just didn’t instil any confidence in his teams on their travels, and without the win at Arsenal the belief would not have been there. Then again, Liverpool are pretty ordinary and a rear-guard action to secure a 0-0 might have been possible – 0 pts (or 1 pt)
(H) Newcastle – Given their awful start to the season I think a win here was always likely, and let’s not forget that we’re a different proposition under the lights at Upton Park (oh how those nights will be missed!) – 3 pts
(A) Man City – Let’s be brutally honest. An Allardyce team and set-up here would have led to only one conclusion, and probably a very harsh one – 0 pts
(H) Norwich – A possible win but they’re a decent team away from home and I recall they would have beaten at home us the year they were relegated but for a special performance from Adrian. I think we’d still have taken just a point, but it would have been a much more boring game! – 1 pt (or 3 pts)
As for our poor home form, I think it’s no co-incidence that the three clubs we have failed to beat would have been relatively unknown to Slaven and presented him with a headache. He has proved the big games hold no fear, having managed at International and Champions League level, with both Arsenal and Liverpool held by or beaten by Besiktas.
This is where he really needed a good number two with knowledge of the Premier League, and the English game generally, to guide him. You can bet that Brian Kidd played an important role in Manuel Pellegrini’s first season at City, as did Sammy Lee in Ronald Koeman’s for Southampton, whilst Ryan Giggs is giving invaluable information to Louis van Gaal. But who did Slaven have? The manager of our ladies team, that’s who! Of course we all love Julian and he’s probably great for team morale, but I can’t imagine he has contributed anything significant tactically. He has as little knowledge about James Wilson or Nathan Redmond as Slaven.
If you’re going to make an appointment with Public relations in mind then someone like Kevin Keen, Iain Dowie or Martin Allen would have been a better choice. The last two were also team-mates of Slaven and understand the way Bournemouth and Norwich set up to a tee.
Hopefully Slaven is a quick learner, and will know more about Sunderland before Saturday than he did those other “lesser” teams. Big Sam would have settled for a point there, even though they are bottom with no win! The great thing about Slaven is that he understands that a draw isn’t really a great result.
Ultimately the big difference between them is that Big Sam would take 4 draws and some clean sheets on the spin and regard it as a decent run. Slaven would take 2 wins and accept 2 losses. There are more points to be had his way – it makes sense.
Without doubt, we would not be sitting third if Big Sam had stayed, and though I’m equally sure he would have ensured we headed into our new era with a sound footing, it would be a rather anti-climactic one. Both we and the Boleyn deserve better than that.