Blind Hammer looks at accountability for the upcoming season.
After the troubles of last year, this season will be “make or break” for Gold and Sullivan in their attempts to finally leave a positive legacy.
Pellegrini’s appointment has sparked the biggest investment that West Ham has ever committed. The Board has also relinquished key areas of strategic control. It represents a huge leap of faith.
If we are to believe reports Pellegrini was always Sullivan’s choice to develop West Ham. Pellegrini told Sullivan , after Bilic’s sacking, that he would not be available for 6 months. Moyes in this narrative, no matter what he may have believed, was merely keeping Pellegrini’s seat warm.
Despite complaints Gold and Sullivan have, compared to other clubs, a reasonable record of supporting their Managers. Allardyce described the window which delivered Andy Carroll for a club record fee as his “Dream Transfer Window”. Bilic last summer, received 4 out of the main targets he identified, the Board again breaking West Ham’s transfer record in signing Marko Arnautovic. The chaotic spat with Sporting Lisbon scuppered any chance of signing Calvalho. Yet Sporting’s recent travails on various fronts reinforce their reputation as a difficult club.
Yet the support offered to both Allardyce and Bilic pales in comparison to the investment offered to Pellegrini. Pellegrini alone has wrested strategic control.
According to Pellegrini it was this control which convinced him to come to West Ham.
Speaking to the guardian he explained he was promised full control as well as responsibility”.
“““When I spoke with him (Sullivan) he told me he wants to build a new club…” He wants to give all the responsibility to me. He asked me also to bring a sporting director to the club, said that he will support all that I asked and that’s the way we are working now.”
Pellegrini praised the Board’s ambition after, for the second season running, they broke their transfer record to sign Felipe Anderson. Anderson followed 6 others including Fabián Balbuena, Issa Diop, Lukasz Fabianski, Ryan Fredericks, Jack Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko.
“That demonstrates that David Sullivan wants to build a strong …team Maybe some years ago or last season the supporters were always complaining about the money spent, but when he convinced me to come here one of the reasons was that he told me he was going to bring good players.”
At the moment not just optimism but excitement is high with the Pellegrini project, especially after the Villa friendly. Expectations of not just a top 10 but top 6 places in the PL is now openly discussed.
If we achieve the positive start we all crave it is likely that both Pellegrini and the Board will receive justifiable plaudits. However to borrow a military phrase “even the best laid plans never survive contact with the enemy.”
There is a chance that our start will stutter despite some promising signs. Most foreign players need some time, as Mario showed, to adjust to the peculiar demands of the Premiership. In the end how we finish the season is more important than how we start it. Some patience with the developing project may be required.
There is a danger of negativity from last season impinging on this. Reverses, when encountered over the last 2 seasons at the LS have resulted in immediate anti-Board tirades. If we experience some reverses in the early weeks of the season it would not surprise me if a narrative develops which again attempts to lay responsibility for this with the Board. This is likely despite Pellegrini’s public acknowledgement of control passing to him.
I think most fair minded people will feel that the Board have attempted, this Summer, to up the performance level at West Ham and respond to concerns of amateurism. . If people feel the Board are currently doing a bad job they should say so now and explain what they should do differently.
I, like all other West ham fans, are hoping that we can repeat the shocks we inflicted during Payet’s season of recording victories both at Anfield and the Emirates. My own view is that if, as seems more likely from historical precedents, that we suffer reverses in these fixtures we remain calm. For once we do not immediately seek somebody to blame. Neither the Board nor Pellegrini should receive instant condemnation if there are early problems. Both deserve time to develop the Project. Patience and unity are the keys.
Rome was not built in a day. Pellegrini deserves not drama but a calmer environment to develop his project.
COYI
David Griffith