Believe all you read and you will come to the conclusion that Sam Allardyce is a lame duck manager with no power – and NO I don’t believe it!
Knee jerk reactions are par for the course in football and that is never a sensible reaction!
But events at the Boleyn since the season ended – whilst providing riveting points for discussion and moaning and groaning – have given many plenty to jerk their knees about.
The demand for an attacking coach, the alleged arrival of a head of recruitment (still not here) and the board’s decision to take a firmer grip on the transfer budget has been an endless gossip feast for fans, journalists and of course the ever present Twitter Army.
Many words have been written about boardroom policyand how Sam has lost a mweasure of control in various areas – don’t you believe it.
For there is no indication at all that apart from a South American striker on a free – who may or may not get into the team – little has changed on the transfer front.
And to believe that Sam Allardyce is having no input when the most serious targets have been a defensive midfielder who can play at the back – Jack Colback, Gareth Barry, £10 million central defender Cheikhou Kouyate and now a French left back, Timothee Kolodziejczak –, is ridiculous. Sam looks very involved indeed from where I’m sitting.
The other target was a 19 year old striker in the Carroll mold – M’Baye Niang. So why would we be interested in such a player? I think we know.
Sam Allardyce’s hand remains very much on the summer transfer market rudder – activity always speaks louder than words.
Neither David Sullivan or David Gold have ever said they alone are deciding who will be bought, just that there will be a closer liason between those involved.
Should a head of recruitment arrive then it may be time to re-appraise the situation but as of now I reckon Mr Allardyce is having as much say as ever in who comes into the club – how could it be otherwise?
All the possible targets appear to be typical Allardyce types and there’s no way in the world any board of directors will pay a manager £2 million a year to cut him off at the knees.
I believe the Daves will watch things a little more carefully and do their very best to get value for money but to disable the manager is a quite ridiculous suggestion.
Personally I believe the Sam Allardyce has one more season before we all wave him goodbye.
In the meantime, from what I’ve seen going on in the transfer market so far, it appears to be situation normal.
And as I said on another site, “leopard and spots” .
The more important question is why many Talented players will not join us, not the lack of wage offers if rumours are true, perhaps Fat Sam is like The Lady, “Not for Turning” in fact we know that is most likely the reason. David Sullivan may come to regret how he Bottled it, when it came to spending money to rid us of Sam and his negative attitude, he will Never be a real Hammer, like Jack Collison was and still is!
To be honest I didn’t really expect much to change. The transfers are always going to be a roller coaster ride with it been West Ham, as it is every season. We are linked with everybody going (especially the cheap players) and because we usually leave it so late we end up with the basement picks. I for one would love to see them do their business early and at least they seem to be talking to players, well according to the ITKs on Twitter they are, but who knows. I suppose time will tell as to who they do sign but let us keep our fingers crossed for some good news. I would love to see Ross McCormack (although not proven in the PL I still think he could do a decent job) and Adam Johnson come to West Ham during the summer, but as Hugh says above it’s likely to be “situation normal” and that is a shame because this would be a good chance to start as they mean to go on. I hope that by bringing Teddy in it may give a boost to the squad as well and bring in some further ideas. But let us see what the new season brings! #COYI
Im tempted to agree. I think we are all a little long in the tooth to believe this club is going to tell us the truth this late in the day… or this early in season ticket sales..