Manuel Pellegrini’s arrival at West Ham was welcomed as a major coup by a club determined to shake off the awful relegation threatening situations of previous years.
A major managerial ‘face’ he was handed a £100m budget and hopes have been rarely been higher that the club was finally on its way to something big.
However, Sir Trevor Brooking was among those who warned that the full three years of his contract would be required for the Hammers to fulfil the potential hoped for under him.
And as the season has worn on with the club on 43 points and three games left there are some who will undoubtedly be reserving judgement on his first seasons.
Claretandhugh decided to put to the vote whether the first campaign had lived up to the fans expectations and the result was surprisingly tight.
The result came out as something of a cliff hanger with 54.36 per cent of those voting (748) happy and 628 (45.64 pc) disappointed.
That’s West Ham for you. I think it is because we have been so starved of success that any new, exiting development is seized on with such fervour. Instant success is expected. However, things don’t work that way. If you look at the top sides, they have been spending huge amounts continually for a number of years to attain and then continue at the top level. We are not able to do that. Small steps is the way for us it seems. To watch a better style of football and be free of relegation fears quite early this season is a welcome pleasure and relief.
Pellegrini should be judged at the end of his contract. If he has left us in a better shape and place than when he arrived, is that not success? Surely nobody expected us to oust one of the top six in his first season? COYI.
Agree Mooro, look at Chelski and City, the old Arsenal pre Wenger, it took seasons of sustained spending to establish them in their positions, Tottenham did it on the back of the sale of Bale but when quality players cost between 10 – 20 million and they replaced most of their team with his sale and later Modric’s. The chairmen need to take some risk just blow the FFP and buy all the players he needs at most it will be a two window ban like Chelski or Barcahave had, so whats the problem, it can also be appealed if you need to get another window in ?
As mentioned before expectations are subjective, I do wonder what the board set as their expectations to MP for this season? Personally I’m happy with this season. Yes, we might end up around the same place as last couple seasons however we do it differently; last years we have been flirting with relegation and this year we have been flirting with 7th. Had you asked me before the season if contention for 7th would be good enough my answer would be a big YES, so here I find myself happy with the season. We could’ve done a lot better, especially in 2019, but the fact is we then have unrealized potential, which, at the end og the day, is a positive and not a negative in my book.
If we didn’t have such a bad run of injuries and Arnie’s girlie tantrum I think we would be right up there around 7th.
Also some deadwood inherited that won’t be around next year or the year after
Then we can truly judge how effective he’s been.
In the meantime just loving the playing style he has brought in.
Watch Anderson, Diop, Babuleno and Yamo step up next year after a year in the PL
I think we were all hoping that something akin to Leicester’s title winning transformation (albeit a brief one) was what was in store, alas that wasn’t to be this season, but we need to be looking to continue to reshape the squad over the summer and with a few good sales, a few good buys, and a few good freebies, we should be looking for an 8th-10th place finish next season and a 6th-8th finish the year after. That’s realistic given the fact that MP won’t get another £100million shopping purse again.
It’s simple for me. You got the top 6 which investment wise we are miles behind. Then you have Everton and Leicester. I’d argue we should be 9th. So slightly under achieved if you don’t take into consideration all the change, injuries and bad decisions(last two games). If we only have 25 million next year to spend I would expect most / half the teams below us to spend more. MP will do well to tread water next season. Why pay your manager 10 million a year and only give him 25 million budget? Is it 2021 before G&S have to pay tax on the Club sale? We don’t invest enough to expect much more.
Nobody has taken into account the points lost through bad officals
Yes Matty well said.
FYI Hugh this new interface where you have to put in your username and email, I always click the save my name in the browser (I am using chrome) normally for other sites this does save it but I have to add it again each time which is a pain.
Pellegrini is by a mile the best manager we have had since Lyall and probably better than Lyall, if players don’t have it in their make up to be winners like Rice or Zaba no amount of good coaching will make the difference, its impossible to have an entire squad of them but you need enough of them that the reserves know that if they want to break into the squad they will have to step outside their comfort zone and play like winners for 90+ minutes per game, if you analyse our problem like may outside and even inside the top 6 its consistency, inconsistency is common in teams where players feel their positions are relatively safe, they are not stretching themselves and improving they are just treading water, I don’t have the stats but for years now we have been conceding soft goals that come from a lack of focus either by individuals of the team and these have been spread throughout the team no one has been immune although some have been more prone than others to those lapses. It shouldn’t be that difficult to switch on and concentrate for 90 minutes but you have to want to do that, if all the players are switched on like we are often against the top six when mistakes are made the team compensate by stepping up and making saving interceptions etc the team operates as a whole but against those teams around us or below for some reason we do not focus and we give away stupid goals. Its fine to blame MP but the fact we are showing it against the top six and not against the others I would say puts the blame on the players rather than the coaching, this problem predates MP it has been happening for decades, I say back him financially and see the rewards.
I fully agree that we played very well in teh last two games and were unlucky with decisions
However in otehr games we have been lucky e.g. Brighton at home perhaps Antonio didnt keep the ball in before crossing for Arnie, Fulham at home we could have been two down before Chicarito’s hand ball equaliser, Huddersfield we were horrible and I’m not sure that Chicarito could repeat that backheaded winner
So overall I feel that there is a lot of room for improvement and the danger fo complacency is that a run like that of 2019 will see us in a relegation battle once again