It’s only with the benefit of hindsight that reality truly bites but in the case of Manuel Pellegrini the truth is about as bitter as it gets.
Sitting in self isolation can produce all sorts of negative thoughts of course but if there is one truism in football it is that you are only as good as your recruitment.
Pellegrini’s continues to come back and haunt!
Admitting you are wrong is actually pretty easy and I could not have been more so when heralding the arrival of the man as one of the greatest things to happen in Hammers history.
I don’t actually remember many who felt differently on social media but maybe – and it was written about regularly later here and elsewhere – the signings of Wilshere and Sanchez were entirely disgraceful.
How on earth the former Gooner was ever signed to a three year deal is beyond anything seen in this universe or the next whilst the late signing of Sanchez was just awful.
Just look at his stats: Believed to have been signed for a fee worth £3,7 million he has made 17 appearances providing no goals or assists in 13 PL games.
He has managed just five tackles and three interceptions and tackle success rate stands at 60 per cent.
According to www.premierleague.com he has won less than 50 per cent of his individual duels against opposition players.
Wilshere’s contribution for £100,000 a week has has been next to non existent with 14 Premier League appearances over two seasons – no goals and two yellow cards.
These are the outstanding examples of the Pellegrini years but when one looks at the rest there have only – as far as I’m concerned – been two or three who have shown any signs of serious ability l – £25m Pablo Fornals ( it took a while of course) and to a lesser extent Anderson (£35m) along – now and again – Haller (£45m).
Fabianski (£7m) and Diop (£22m) were actually in the process of being signed during his arrival period so maybe he can claim half the credit for their levels of performance.
The others include the aforementioned Wilshere and Sanchez, with Balbuena (£4m), Yarmolenko (£18m), Haller (45m) and Ajeti (£8m) also his players.
So the reality is that a sum of around £170m was spent on players who have demonstrated that managers stand or fall on their recruitment policies.
The arrival of such as Jarrod Bowen shows clearly that there is serious value much closer to home and when football returns lets hope David Moyes has done his homework thoroughly and brings in players at much more sensible prices with the same sort of ability.
Agreed
Obviously some complete duffers in there and you are right of course to criticise Pelle, but I’m sorry this just shows how poor our board is. They should never sanctioned Wilshere and Sanchez nor should they have sanctioned Hugill for Moyes. Anyone with even a mild understanding of the game would have predicted they would all be car crashes. I’m not saying they should be blamed for players like Ajeti who looked an okay punt on paper (young, fairly prolific up to now) and who they could have know little about, but they surely knew what was coming with the others. Yes, you need to be seen to back the new manager but there’s a line and they should have drawn it!!
So they should pick the squad ? 😉
How can anyone argue with that !! Straight an more importantly SPOT ON
Wheelchair was always going to be a genius or disaster signing, unfortunately it was the latter. Sanchez was a last minute panic buy i believe sanctioned to appease the fans. Remember this was work to turn us from being a run of the mill defensive side to an all out attacking side who would concede goals but score more than the concessions. The balance was wrong from the get go and the result was we were left with only the hapless (that is being kind) Masuaku to defend our left flank due to frequent absence of our proper left back, zero chance of resting the excellent, but by then increasingly creaking midfield – with only Nobes and Rice after the departure of the underrated Obiang and refusal to bring our youth talent on. This was Pelli’s legacy which Moyes to be fair, has started to make the needed repairs.
To be fair to Sanchez he has played when selected and although poor he never had a consistent run. Wilshere has been non-existent and his apparent refusal to settle his outrageous contract for non-appearances is a disgrace.
Agree with you here, Hugh. I also championed the arrival of Pellegrini and am also happy to put my hands up and say i was wrong to do so. Can’t quite get on the Moyes bandwagon yet but we’ll be in a better place to judge a few months into next season… whenever that is!
Stay safe