Guest Post by Rugby Irons
A couple of you have commented about the club’s finances, in which we have no say. Fair enough. But on the playing side we have plenty to say, and quite right too. However I believe the squad isn’t that bad. Now I say that with everybody being fit (and I felt you all shrug then!) But compared to some comparable clubs (i.e. not the top six) we should be doing better. It’s my opinion we have two major problem areas – injuries, which frankly over the years have always been there and always cost us and secondly mental competence. Now I’m not a Doctor so the injuries are for someone else to deal with, and I do wish the owners would get a grip on this as ultimately it’s costing them far more in table placings than new players. If we had Andy Carroll, Sakho and Antonio all fit every game this season does anyone not really believe we would not be pushing for top 8 minimum?
But it’s the mental side I want to address. We don’t seem to have any mental fortitude. We have thrown away so many points from leading positions its ridiculous. On the pitch we can score and get ahead, home and away, but we just can’t hang on. I fully accept we don’t have a real leader, other than Noble, but the players themselves have to look at themselves or more importantly their head shrink does.
Zlatan has his own personal head shrink and when you consider his success record just as a player in himself, his record is literally second to none. I am told that his influence at United has meant more players are looking at this side of the game and Rashford in particular. So, as in many other sports can we continue to ignore this part of the game? I already said that the overall quality of the squad isn’t that bad it just doesn’t perform to a higher level. I understand some will lay the blame at Slaven’s door, and I do on occasions, but ultimately if they won’t perform what can he do. Well he might consider the same approach himself and get a Psychologist who will inspire him to get amongst them when he needs to.
Now, to be fair, I’m not a psychologist either and so to what levels you can take this I’m not sure but I will say this, this club through its previous managers especially Mr Greenwood have changed the face of football before and taken us to the next level with some fairly average players. If the club had the foresight and perhaps bravery to seriously look at bringing in quality sports psychologists (like, I should add Leicester City did last season through Loughborough University, and Andy Murray did when he finally became a winner), and it worked, West Ham could become so much better. The cost of these head shrinks would easily be covered by a single placing higher up the league .If the team made such a marked improvement and got us back into Europe then this means even more money but if you dare to dream (Leicester did) and we got top four, then who knows what we could achieve.
With the current owners we are just not going to get top class players coming to us until we can offer more than we do now. So this means (again like the Foxes) that the players we do have would have to step up and get to a new level by pulling together as a collective of individuals prepared to work as a team. Let’s face it from last season, Schmeichel aside, we had better players and even now I think we have. We just need to move them to a new level. And I might add that whatever the Under 23’s are doing (and they can come back from behind and hold a lead) is moving in the right direction. Perhaps because they are still in a learning mentality and trying to secure a future, they have more open minds to change and progress. If the first team had the same I still think we have a good enough squad (when fit) to move upwards and onwards. And to make the point clearer , if other clubs do it and we don’t , we’ll be back to becoming the next Sunderland , scraping around the bottom after a stadium move , and eventually getting relegated with nothing to come back up with.
We are now entering a really critical period for West Ham United. The owners are not going to change. We are no longer strangers to our home ground. We have a stable manager. We have a poorer training facility and weak backroom staff but the success of the loanees and under 23’s gives real hope on the playing side for next season. All you can do is dream.