Now back in the UK after my short holiday with the Tenerife Hammers, This week I spoke with Norwich City fan Gary Gowers from www.Norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com
Q1.Which three teams do you tip for relegation this season?
Is hard to see Villa and Sunderland getting out of the brown stuff, which leaves us, Newcastle, West Brom and Bournemouth to scrap over the other spot. On the basis our crap run must come to an end some time soon, I’m going for Bournemouth join them (via a gut feel rather than any logic!).
Q2.How do you rate Slaven Bilic first season as a manager in the Premier league?
Bilic has been brilliant for you hasn’t he, and has dared to take you in a direction that was probably beyond Allardyce’s capabilities. A shrewd move by your board.
Q3.West Ham sit in sixth place in the Premier League having briefly occupied the third spot but what league position can West Ham realistically achieve this season under Bilic?
I’d say you’re capable of sneaking fifth, but do you really want it? The Europa League (as you well know) is something of a curse, so I’d settle for sixth if I were you!
Q4. Excluding Dimtri Payet If you could have any current West Ham player in your team who would you choose?
I’m am old fashioned kind when it comes to football and I admire the very British qualities brought to the West Ham party by James Collins and Mark Noble – both of whom would fit a treat into the current City side.
Q5. Do you understand what the ‘West Ham way is’ and what it means to Hammers fans. Do Norwich have a Canaries way and if so what is it?
Yep, am well versed in the old ‘West Ham way’, which I’d define as the very antithesis of Allardyce-ball. We like to think the ‘Norwich way’ – attractive possession-based passing football – is not dissimilar to your more famous version (albeit we’re struggling to produce any of it at the moment!).
Q6. Which Norwich should West Ham players fear on Saturday?
Tricky question, not least because there is no way of predicting what Alex Neil’s starting XI will be! If he plays and has plenty of the ball, Wes Hoolahan can hurt teams; equally he has days when he’s nonexistent. In truth… your guess is as good as mine. We have some decent players, but we’re hit and (mainly) miss at the moment.
Q7.14 Supporters’ Trusts came together to petition the Government for a public inquiry about West Ham’s occupancy of the Olympic Stadium. Does the fact that West Ham got a good deal bother you personally as a football fan?
The fact you managed to screw an unbelievable deal out of the government and relevant authorities is good for you! I can also see why some perceive the deal as giving you a fortuitous advantage over the rest, but that’s your luck!
Q8.How is Matt Jarvis working out at Norwich? Was he worth the £2.5m you paid for him?
He started off really well when he was on loan but then got injured. He’s yet to recapture his early season form but for £2m+ that was a decent deal for us.
Q9.How do you expect Norwich to set-up against West Ham on Saturday /Team/formation prediction?
Another very difficult one to predict for the reason given in question number 6! Neil has chopped and changed the team almost on a weekly basis to try and counteract the strengths of the opposition but, as a result, we don’t have a best XI. I’m guessing Patrick Bamford will feature somewhere, along with Robbie Brady and Jonny Howson but those aside I wouldn’t know where to begin. Hang on… Russell Martin will probably be in there somewhere (a shoo-in regardless of form). We’ll probably line up in a 4-2-3-1.
Q10.What is your score prediction for Saturday?
Well, the chances of a City clean sheet are up there with Russell Brand hitting on Delia, but I do have an inkling we could finally get a much-needed win. I’ll go 2-1 City (again armed with little by the way of logic).
My thanks to Gary Gowers Twitter: @Gary_Gowers Editor of www.Norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com
This week you get two for the price of one. I also spoke to Fenway Frank and Canary Boy from the Norwich Talk forum
Which three teams do you tip for relegation this season?
C1:Villa, Sunderland Norwich
C2:The current bottom 3 unfortunately, and we are currently in it.
How do you rate Slaven Bilic first season as a manager in the Premier league?
C1: I like him in his interviews, seems to be honest and pretty fair, you seem to be a bit more consistent too.
C2:I like him, he’s done a good job in transitioning you into a team which plays with the ball on the floor from one which, well, didn’t. Obviously you still resort to pumping balls to Carroll when you need to, but who wouldn’t with that beast on the bench.
West Ham sit in sixth place in the Premier League having briefly occupied the third spot but what league position can West Ham realistically achieve this season under Bilic?
C1:6-8th
C2:I think you’ll finish somewhere between 6th and 9th. There are four teams in with a chance of grabbing that 6th place (West Ham, Liverpool, Everton, Southampton) and it really could be any of them.
Excluding Dimtri Payet If you could have any current West Ham player in your team who would you choose?
C1: Is Alex Song still there ?
C2: Sakho, he’s a loose cannon but clearly better than any of our current strikers.
Do you understand what the ‘West Ham way is’ and what it means to Hammers fans. Do Norwich have a Canaries way and if so what is it?
C1:The Norwich way is very similar to the West Ham way, even if Chris Hughton did try quite hard to ruin it.
C2:Like Sir Alex I don’t understand what the ‘West Ham way’ is either. We were traditionally well known for playing good passing football in the 80’s and early 90’s, but we had a good decade of dross after that so I don’t think we can lay claim to it being our way anymore. If West Ham’s ‘way’ is in any way similar to our ‘way’, then I’d argue that yours perhaps went out of the window at some stage too.
Which Norwich should West Ham players fear on Saturday?
C1:Naismith
C2:Sad to say but on current form none of them. We’ve got players with the ability to cause problems for any teams but they just aren’t performing and we’ve got no momentum. Earlier in the season I’d have said that Redmond on the right and Brady on the left would have caused your full backs constant problems, but our manager has started playing centre midfielders out wide so I can’t even say that.
14 Supporters’ Trusts came together to petition the Government for a public inquiry about West Ham’s occupancy of the Olympic Stadium. Does the fact that West Ham got a good deal bother you personally as a football fan?
C1:Yeah, it bothers me a lot, why should you get a free by new stadium when everyone else has to find funding ? Karen Brady really does my head in too !
C2: What bothers me is not the competitive advantage, and who can blame for West Ham for taking it, what bothers me is the ludicrous waste of tax payers money building a stadium without a prior conversion plan. Seb Coe and Boris Johnson have a lot to answer for, the former had some crackpot idea to build a massive “National Athletics Stadium” and that’s why they had to pretty much give the thing away. I know that Barry Hearn is a spiv and was just trying to get some money out of the debacle for Leyton Orient, but he was completely right about the awful planning and would have been valuable as an adviser in the planning stage with his events experience. That stadium is the Tories version of the Millennium Dome. Like I said nothing against West Ham, but it is perhaps also a sign of how London-centric all of our governments are too. What would be the chances of say Middlesbrough ever getting a subsidised stadium for almost nothing. So for me the issue is much bigger than football, it is more about how investment in London is disproportionate to the rest of the country and negligent spending of public funds. West Ham can’t really be blamed for either of those things. Have to ask some serious questions also if Sullivan and Gold now sell the club for a huge profit, why haven’t the government put a claw back clause in to prevent those two (also spivs) from enriching themselves?
How is Matt Jarvis working out at Norwich? Was he worth the £2.5m you paid for him?
C1:He’s been out injured for a while so a bit hard to tell. The jury’s out at the moment but I think he will do well for us if we go down.
C2:Looked decent before his injury actually, hope he can contribute more before the season has finished. I’m sure we’ll get our monies worth out of him by the time he’s finished, especially if that’s involves helping us out of the league below where he’d be a quality player, I suspect that buying him permanently halfway through his loan was partially about freeing up a loan spot to allow us to bring in Bamford. Just doesn’t work out for some players at some clubs, Jarvis and West Ham were obviously just not a good fit
How do you expect Norwich to set-up against West Ham on Saturday /Team/formation prediction?
C1:Who knows? Our manager changes line ups every week at the moment
C2: Probably with a centre midfielder on the right wing, a centre midfielder on the left wing, our best left winger at left back, and our best right winger on the bench. I think you’ll beat us 2-0, we are hopeless at the moment.
What is your score prediction for Saturday?
C1: 1-1
C2: 0-2
My thanks to Fenway Frank and Canary Boy from the Norwich Talk Forum.
And finally, a couple answers that made me laugh from a user calling himself the Gaffer from the Norwich Talk forum
Do you understand what the ‘West Ham way is’ and what it means to Hammers fans?
Is it something to do with a crap song, obnoxious fans and blowing childish little bubbles everywhere?
West Ham sit in sixth place in the Premier League having briefly occupied the third spot but what league position can West Ham realistically achieve this season under Bilic?
The usual late-season collapse and a mid table finish.
14 Supporters’ Trusts came together to petition the Government for a public inquiry about West Ham’s occupancy of the Olympic Stadium. Does the fact that West Ham got a good deal bother you personally as a football fan?
The Olympic Stadium thing bothers me because basically the taxpayer is subsidising one particular football club that gets a financial and competitive advantage as a result. That would bother me for any football club, but when it’s the most obnoxious club in the country it makes it even worse.
My thanks to the Gaffer as well I think.
My prediction is a 2-0 away win which is opposite predicted by Lawro this weekend! Come on you Irons! Sean @Westhamfootball on twitter