Sam Allardyce has used his London Evening Standard column to address a couple of issues which many people feel may be causing behind-the-scenes friction between himself and David Sullivan.
The first concerns Wilfried Bony and why we didn’t sign him. YAWN! The second sees Sam addressing the subject of Mauro Zarate.
Perhaps he believed the eve of a game against Bony’s team Swansea is the right time to break his silence on why West Ham didn’t sign the striker despite the player not being involved tomorrow because he’s at the African Nations Cup.
He writes: “The first big transfer of this January could be Wilfried Bony’s £30million move from Swansea to Manchester City.
“David Sullivan has said recently that he could have signed him for £8m but that I wanted Andy Carroll.
“My recollection was that, yes, we knew about Bony but we all agreed to go for Carroll — with the caveat that if the deal didn’t work out for any reason, we would switch to Bony.”
He adds that Bony was a bigger risk than Carroll because he was unproven in the Premier League saying: “David likes a gamble, which is no problem at all, and when it pays off it’s great. If you keep going down that route, though, you end up with more failures than successes.”
Quite what is served by airing various versions of a near two year old story is a little beyond me to be honest.
David has had his say and now Sam has responded – can that please be the end of it because all it suggests – whether true or not – is that behind the scenes all is not well.
On the Zarate issue the manager writes the player wanted to go saying: “His chances here had been limited and it came to the situation where he didn’t want to stay here.
“If he had remained, in that frame of mind, it would have been difficult to have got the best out of him, so it was the right thing for everyone that he went out on loan to try and play more often somewhere else.”
The tone is more moderate than when telling the player he wasn’t good enough but there’s no explanation as to why he didn’t get more games – the reason Zarate feels the way he does!.
But it won’t go unnoticed that this could be a manager v chairman situation again, Zarate having been Sullivan organised purchase!
Can we please just get on with the football now.
Fatty simply refuses to EVER be wrong.
Ill never be able to warm to BFS almost everything that comes out of his fat gob irritates me along with most of his substitutions and his dreary tactics
Still waiting for explanation why KN is even on the bench let alone starting line up? That would be a good thing to write in his column and put to rest the most talked about subject by any WHUG fan.
I know the disharmomy between the manager & one of the owners isnt great now,but by the summer it could be beneficial to us.His open disagreements with Sullivan are surely just pushing them apart with every day that passes.Not too many other managers regularly have open arguements with the chairman in the media.I have no issue with Sullivan giving his opinion,he owns the club,he has the right to say whatever he wants.Allardyce is an employee,though he seems to forget this sometimes & see himself as the saviour of our club.Come the summer we could be in a win,win situation.Maybe Allardyce & his negativity will go.Then hopefully if he gets a new club he will then comeback to us to take his trusty chosen few with him.Players that he considers top draw but we know are just dead wood at our progressive club.Let them continue to bicker as far as im concerned,maybe something good will come out of it all,even if it isnt ideal for the moment 😉
I think people are being so over dramatic about big Sams choices and his tactics may I remind everyone that this is our best ever season in the premier league we have ever had and who’s the manager? Sam alladyce me personly think he’s done a good job and ive been very proud of our results and achievements we have got this year keep it up big Sam your doing a good job