Guest Post by Voice of Reason
I had a loose plan to write the next instalment of the Infirm City Firm’s away day jaunts but, following the Watford game, I feel that light hearted trivia can wait as there are far more pressing things going on at our club.
For the first time this season (and the first time since the Avram Grant season) the away support really turned on the club.
Although it was David Moyes’s first game in charge the anger was not directed at him but at the owners mainly, with some abuse thrown at the players and Andy Carroll in particular.
Many of you will be aware that there is an “abusive” flag aimed at the owners which the club tries to stop getting into away grounds. As a result every flag has to be shown to security on the way in, even the notorious and inflammatory Infirm City Firm ensign! Despite this the guys with the flag that the club don’t like got it through and, with a bit of a struggle, hung it on a fence between us and the home fans. This resulted in a “debate” between these guys and the stewards who, incidentally, are West Ham stewards who now attend every away game.
I have to say at this point that we were in the third row from the front near the corner flag so very close to what was going on, so it would be interesting if anyone who was further back felt the level of anger that we did. Not us being angry of course but the general anger amongst the fans. We are far too apathetic to get angry as we have all seen it before.
Anyway, the flag got taken down but not confiscated so it appeared again later – with another similar one – and I guess it will make another appearance on Friday at the Leicester match. I do think that the flag’s owners should be careful as some of the content does, to the untrained eye, appear to be libellous.
The reason for the anger shown to Carroll was due to his repeated stupidity last shown at Burnley when he got himself sent off. He started in the same vein and could possibly have got a red card in the first minute. The only red visible, however, was the blood coming from the Watford defender’s nose and Carroll was fortunate to not even get a yellow card from Andre Marriner, who must be the most lenient referee in this league, but a booking duly came his way later in the first half and it was a surprise he came out in the second half as he looked like a sending off waiting to happen.
He was duly substituted and as he departed the chant of “we stay to the end” started in response to Carroll’s comments recently about fans leaving early.
The main abuse was still directed to the owners and Sullivan, Gold and Brady were all individually the subjects of personal ditties comparing them to an intimate part of a woman’s body. “Sack the Board” was an almost continuous chant which is a tad strange if you take it literally due to the board owning the club.
The only ways there can be a change at the top of the club are:
1. Someone comes in with an offer that Gold and Sullivan find impossible to refuse. The problem with this is that it would almost certainly be from abroad and made by someone with no emotional attachment to the club, or even to football itself. This would only be a business transaction as buying a Premier League football club has one great attraction – every year a couple of media companies give you millions of pounds for just being there. I’m not sure that happens in any other business to that degree.
2. The pressure from the fans becomes so intense that Gold and Sullivan decide that they don’t need the hassle and subsequently bring in a new board of directors. The problem with this is that they would still be the owners, who would want to work for them and, realistically, I couldn’t see Sullivan in particular delegating his business to someone else.
3. David Gold decides to sell his shares to David Sullivan. It changes things at the top but probably makes the situation more inflammatory.
A buyer is probably the most likely option but don’t hold your breath,
Anyway, as they eventually found out at Birmingham, losing the fans completely is the start of the way out and there was a definite change in the reaction of the away fans yesterday who, up until now, had broadly been behind the team and also behind Slaven Bilic. Only recently at Crystal Palace the “Super Slav” song was sung.
The away supporters are those whose commitment to the club is unquestionable, as is their loyalty. You really do need them on your side.
On the playing side? Well, we were disjointed and had no more intensity than previously. We lacked pace, both across the ground and in using the ball but perhaps we just have a slow squad and perhaps, as I have felt for a while now, our squad is not as good as we thought it was.
I don’t go along with those who say we lack investment in players as I reckon we have paid out as much as most other clubs of our size. I do question how wisely that money has been spent, however, as only Zabaletta of the summer signings can really hold his head up – and he was a free transfer. Even he looked poor at Watford although Arnautovic had his best game so far which, in all honestly, was not a difficult achievement given his performances previously.
Tactically, it took about five minutes to see that Joe Hart had been told to clear it long, and diagonally from right to left, in an effort to find Carroll so he could elbow someone and knock it down to nobody. It strikes me as an out of date approach that other teams will find easy to defend against.
I hope David Moyes makes things work, because I always want my team to do well, but I am not over optimistic. Changing managers mid-season is always a risk and Moyes surely got the job as he was about the only one available. He has achieved nothing of note since he left Everton over four years ago and would not get glowing references from either Sociedad or Sunderland fans. The three assistants he has recruited are all very experienced and have all been managers in their own right. I wonder why they are not managers now?
A guy behind me at Watford said that Stuart Pearce should go into the dressing room at half time and give the team a real rollicking. That would scare them to death and sort it out.
If shouting at players made them better footballers Brian Blessed would be England manager and we would stroll the World Cup next year.
For the first time this season – and I know I am not alone in this – I got the feeling that there was every possibility that we will be relegated this year. The team of Di Canio, Cole, Carrick, Defoe etc. got relegated and this team is nowhere near as good as that one.
I hope I am wrong.