West Ham Till I Die
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Tony Hanna's Musings

The Finest of Margins

On Saturday the disaster that is Optus Sports (from last season the provider of Premier League games in Australia), decided to go into melt down mode and show no games at all. No warning, no refund and no apology. Unable to find a stream that would work and in the knowledge that we were down to ten men and one goal down I shrunk off to bed at half past midnight. I woke the next morning and Optus was up and running again and so promptly watched the 90 second goal package they provided for our game. I just shook my head as the events unfolded and my wife disappeared somewhere else to find something for me to kick. The next hour or so I tuned into WHTID to read the comments as they appeared and there was a lot of disagreement on how we performed. I wondered what side I might be agreeing with once I had watched the full game myself? I kept from commenting on the site as to be honest I didn’t feel I was qualified not having watched more than a minute and a half of the game.

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After watching the ninety second highlights package my main emotion was grievance. Bloody ref, stupid Arnie and how slow is Fonte? Typical West Ham! Why always us? After watching the full game later my overwhelming emotion was pride. I came away proud of our team and proud of our supporters. These games are so often decided by the finest of margins and had the match finished a minute earlier than it did we would all be talking about what a fantastic team effort that was to come from two down with only ten men. It doesn’t stop me thinking Arnie was stupid or how slow is Fonte, but I do think the referees decisions were correct with the two penalties awarded and the sending off. However, the finest of margins came into play with the decisions the referee didn’t give us and the fact that the ones he did give against us often go unpunished at so many other times. Put it this way. If Southampton had been playing at the Theatre of Moans they would never have got all three of those crucial decisions, however right they may have been. I might be wrong, but I do think we will finish above Southampton this season.

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As for Slaven? I have always been an old fashioned supporter who wants to see whoever our manager is do well, a hope that in bad times he will turn things around rather than just get sacked. I still had splinters in the bum long after most West Ham fans had jumped the fence for Big Sam to go. You may all recall just how divisive that topic was, especially on the forums. It wasn’t because I liked his style of football, it was because at that time he was West Ham’s manager. I found Roeder’s weakness irritating and I disliked Zola for his inverted wingers. I never wanted them sacked though. I just wanted them to learn from their mistakes and improve. I have disagreed about some of Bilic’s tactics for some while now and even the players he picks and formations. It does not make me right though, I have no history of managing at the top level, so as long as he is boss he gets my support providing I think he is not totally inept or it is blatant that the players have stopped playing for him. I remember back in the 60’s – the banners in the old Chicken Run calling for Greenwood to go? As a young supporter then I wondered why? Ron was West Ham. The lack of success did not bother me as I just loved our club for better or worse. When I started going to Upton Park I was watching a club that had been playing for over 60 years and we were only on our 4th manager! Whatever people think about our defending, Bilic has still got us to 7th and 11th in the past two seasons and it is far too early to start getting twitchy after just two games this season. If we are in trouble in December then a change may be what we need, but we are not Robinson Crusoe there – many other clubs will be taking the same course of action if expectations are not being met. If we were to change manager now who would / could we get and what real difference would it make? We would still have players that perform poorly at times, there will always be players that will be whipping boys and we will always have players that make mistakes? Any new manager going to fix all that up? Doubt it! But feel free to comment.

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We have less than two weeks to go now before the transfer window is closed. The ongoing situation regarding potential signing William Carvalho has not changed. The bookies have him priced at 1-5 (83%) to join the Hammers with no money for any other outcome than him staying at Sporting Lisbon or signing for us. As I wrote in my article last week this one could go either way. It is a good sign that his odds are holding firm despite the talk of problems in the negotiations, but I would be much more confident if the odds were a bit shorter. There has been further money for Adrian to stay and his odds are now 4/7 (63%) to remain a Hammer with only Crystal Palace and Newcastle tipped as alternative destinations. With the possible arrival of Carvalho, the prices on Jack Wishere and Jota signing have both eased – Wilshere is a 9/2 (18%) chance and Jota is now 5/2 (28%). I am pleased to report that there has been more money for Manuel Lanzini to stay with his odds/chances firming to 2-9 (81%). Robert Snodgrass looks certain to be on his way as the bookies price him up at 10/1 (9%) to stay at the club with Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa and Celtic amongst the clubs showing an interest. I am sure we will be trying to sell the player rather than loan so this one might drag out until the last day.

Elsewhere, the Coutinho saga continues but it has always been my belief (by just reading the way they have been framing the market), that the toss of the coin that it is he will probably stay at Liverpool rather than move to Spain. This is reflected in the firming of the prices for Lanzini to stay at West Ham. The chances of Zlatan Ibrahimovic spending another year with the Moaners look good and with the arrival of Sanchez at Spurs, there has been good money for Kevin Wimmer to move to West Brom. There has also been late money to indicate that Chelsea might be looking at Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez. The bookies updates have given us a good heads up on what has been happening in this transfer window. They don’t get it right all the time but for me they normally provide better information than many ITK’s. However, as I alluded to in one of the earlier articles, as the final days approach the markets will become much more volatile and in many ways unreliable. There are going to be some clubs that miss out on their targets and when desperation sets in anything can happen.

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