By ClaretandHugh follower Hammer64

I was okay with the Manuel Pellegrini  appointment a week ago whilst remaining a tad sceptical.

I have admit to being won over – the guy is saying all the right things for me. How good would it be to recognise a West Ham ‘style of play’ (other than desperate defence then try & nick a goal).

And there is no doubt he carries himself with more than a bit of natural dignity too. To have a man leading the club who will be respected by outsiders would be nice too.

There is obviously a ‘but’ lurking here. Two buts in fact. One is the reference in a recent piece he ran in the Cache’s Voice and reproduced in ClaretandHugh where he makes it clear there is a need for decent finance required to bring in decent players.

All the top managers these days know the truth of this – you can’t even survive long term on a shoestring. I think he would have been shrewd enough to get this sorted. We shall see.

The other reservation is that he cannot rebuild this club on his own, and there are other people who will influence whether he creates one that demands respect out of the current mess.

Can he impose his vision on the owners?

Will they work with him to give him what he needs or start undermining him when he challenges their way of doing things?

I still have my doubts and don’t want to get too excited until I have seen some evidence of change. But I am along for the ride and I wasn’t sure I was going to be a few weeks ago.