No humble pie – just enjoy the Irons and new Sam

By Nigel Kahn

With the fantastic way we have gone about this season West Ham fans have many reasons to be cheerful.

Yet across some social media platforms I am beginning to see fans commenting on how their position on Sam has changed from last season.

That is natural.  Sam has changed to an attacking style Clean sheet football is not on the agenda it seems and more and more fans are saying: “Last season I wanted Sam gone but I’m eating humble pie now” whilst praising the owners for keeping their nerve.

I don’t get that. Last season when those fans wanted Sam out it was with good reason as  for at that time, and for the previous couple of years, the football had been dreadful. The only way out of it for many was for Sam to sling his hook or have it slung.

So there is no reason now for those fans that voted for him to go , or booed his teams off, or held up that banner at West Brom, to feel foolish or that they have to eat their words. Hindsight is a wonderful thing so it is very easy to look back now and say they were wrong, but that is to ignore everything else that was happening at the time.

Imagine if last season was the last on Sam’s contract! Who really believes that he would have got another contract when he walked into the end of season meeting at Dave Sullivan’s house. Last season he did achieved what was asked of him, but the club was in open revolution at  the way he achieved it.

The owners without having to pay him off would have thanked him for his services and bid him farewell. Luckily, or not depends where you sit on the subject, he did have another year left, and waving him goodbye would have cost three million pounds to do so.

Money that was put to good use, by DS, in his transfer dealings that have helped bring in the players to propel us to a position not seen for nearly a generation.

So I say to those fans that feel they are choking on their ‘Sam Out’ stance of last season to choke no more, keep humble pie off the Christmas menu this season and just enjoy the resurgence of West Ham and in a way Big Sam, as I never thought he had it in him.