They say statistics don’t lie. West Ham are now officially worse than under Avram Grant. And that was a pretty poor era of football which culminated in relegation for the club. I remember it well, like some long-ago endured lengthy childhood illness which always leaves a bad memory in adulthood.
The saving grace for the club now is that there are still at least three worse teams within the Premier League so it is unlikely – however many times the ‘R’ word is used by worried supporters on the Claret and Hugh readers’ comments’ section – to end in relegation.
Julen Lopetegui looks, according to Richard Jolly in the independent.co.uk, an ill-judged appointment (tell us something we don’t know) in his article entitled: “West Ham have got worse since David Moyes left – they are the Premier League’s great underachievers”.
It rankles when outsider journalists can see it clearly, West Ham fans can see it every week on the pitch, this mediocre, chaotic style of football is driving fans away and turning lifelong supporters into beyond-caring football agnostics. Jolly again:” If the hope was that Lopetegui would tap into their traditions of entertaining, he may have instead revived another: of underachieving”.
As we seek to drum up any enthusiasm for watching, and writing about, West Ham’s approaching FA Cup match against Aston Villa on Friday, many are overtly hoping for another huge defeat in order to hasten the demise of Lopetegui.
Which is a sad state of affairs.
I think we are 4/5 players short of a decent team. Left back gk 2 midfielders..and 2 fowards .thanks to moyse/ sully .
Officially worse than Avram Grant, for those of us who remember, that is so far below acceptable it must be changed now. If we stumble on with this, we could go down for several years. Disaster
I never thought I’d ever want this appointment, not in a million years, but there’s one person that could come in a ring the changes West Ham desperately need to make ASAP……
and that’s Jose Mourinho.
I would happily take two seasons in The Championship under a young coach like Carrick or Still and Steidten, use the Academy and clear out the deadwood, if only we could get rid of bloody Sullivan & Brady. Even then it would take years to get rid of their stench from the corridors of the club. They have absolutely no idea how deeply they are despised, not only by West ham fans but everyone in the football industry. They are the ball and chain we can never seem to break free of.
Thom you are absolutely spot on. Even better if it was away from Stratford.
I wanted the move – I bought into the con we could & would compete at the top end regularly through the bunce from Stratford. Reality is we were mugged by the biggest Mike Hunt in all football history. All that was achieved in Europe could have been done at Upton Park.
I know having seen David Kelly, Mitchel Thomas, Louis Boa-Morte, & Radaslav Kovac what the very lowest grade Shite looks like – but being able to drown your sorrows in the Boleyn, The West Ham Supporters Club, Queens, The Regent Hotel, The Wakefield, The Denmark Arms and the Black Lion – all a short (or relatively short for the Black Lion) walk and the dead pan gallows humor of real West Ham fans still made for a blinding day/night out.
Once he flogged Upton Park all those “planning restrictions” suddenly disappeared and the 50 plus million sale went straight into Gold & Sully’s bins. As I said a total Berkley
What a position to be in, hoping to be dumped out of the cup to get the manager sacked,hang your head in shame Mr Sullivan to allow this situation to be created absolute arrogance to ignore the fan’s for your own failings
I think it is the disharmony in the group that worries me. They seem so brow beaten that this guy is still calling the shots and seems to drop players that don’t deserve to be dropped because of issues he has with the player. Paqueta gets picked every week for doing sweet FA. We saw yesterday how Man U seemed to galvanise themselves after a generally dreadful season. I’m not sure I can see our players under this guys leadership doing the same. Obviously the main problem is Sullivan until him and his female sidekick leave and try and get the same sort of people that run Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford in we will keep this revolving door or rage and division amongst the fans.
Having said all that I don’t see us being relegated simply because we have a 7 point buffer but it will be close.
Lopetegui as any manager would find it hard with the squad as it is, however I believe he will turn it around and talks of relegation is rubbish.
Fans need to stick together and stop all these negative comments.
Relegation- no way.
Talks of Potter or Carrick could do better- no way.
Noble (if he wants it) as interim to end of season.
Darkhorse, how do you think the squad, as it is, got this way? The answer is Lopetegui! And if you think he’s going to wave a magic wand, suddenly get on with the players, select a proper starting eleven and have an understandable game plan then you are definitely within a minority of fans that think that. The stats don’t lie! Furthermore, there are several more candidates than just Potter and Carrick to consider.
While Sullivan is at the club we have no future – club needs a new Chairman with some vision and ambition, not this egotistical Dinosaur.
I’m not a season ticket holder ( was for 20 years at Boleyn) but I think this time he’s gone too far and a lot of fans won’t renew for next season. I know a few people who are definitely not.
This scumbag keeps thinking he can dish up this garbage to some of the most loyal fans around and get away with it but, this time I think a lot of the fans will call time.
Getting into the Championship is so easy, we’ve had it good for 3 years with the Volvo in charge, they wanted a Ferrari to reach for the stars, and now they’ve got a clapped out Reliant Robin – rock bottom….
Worrying statistic is that we only need to play the same as we have played in the first half of the season and we will end up with reaching the magical 40 points.
Loppy is on track to keep us out of relegation battle – Sullivan happy – money saved!
The usual ambition has been restored. Sullivan ought to sell he’s out of his depth…
Is there some performance clause in Lopeteguis contract after X number of games ? That’s the only reason other than idiocy that I can think of for him not being sacked already.
A great point, I was thinking this the other day.
How or why isn’t there a performance related clause for dismissal? Ie 20 games and x amount of points, you get a warning and one chance.
We need harder performance related clauses in any contact, players and couch
Hoping for heavy defeat against Villa? Yes I’m one. I look at the bigger picture unlike Sulivan who just thinks of his pockets. Many have said including you that you don’t think we will get relegated, well there are always clubs at the bottom that go on a good run of results towards the end of the season. A couple of teams do that and we are in trouble because we are so far of it at the moment there is no chance we will be one of them with Loppy in charge unless he changes his tactics.
How on earth did David Sullivan become a successful business man? Yes, I know he made his money in the sex industry and went on from there but he seems like a man with his head in the sand. What sort of traits does he have when he can’t see the bleedin’ obvious? Is he recalcitrant, egotistical, stubborn, born a stubby or, as some say in Australia, a stubby short of a sixpack? Or perhaps he is all of the above. Either way he appears to be short of a few brain cells. It beggars belief that he thinks it’s more important to save a bit of money by not paying out the current coach and waving him goodbye and maybe paying compensation to another club to prise a currently succesfull one from them. Even if we survive relegation our club stumbles on in a shambolic state and, of course, every step down the Premier League ladder will earn it less money at season’s end. So Sullivan’s way of saving money really is a false economy in many ways.
I really don’t think we will get relegated,as you pointed out that there are three worse teams than us, what a damning admission and what kind of wake up call is needed for the board to take well overdue action. I don’t see the point of new players being purchased unless they seek to keep Jlo…and there’s the worry. We are without doubt the biggest underachievers in the prem and I don’t see it improving under the current management which has the added downside of our not being attractive to top players.
Unfortunately we are stuck with lopy until the end of the season
I can remember sitting in the west side Upton Park when we had that other idiot avram grant at the helm and anyone that was watching us could see how that was going to end and Sullivan didn’t pull the trigger then
His going to wait till the end of the season and go for potter because he is out of work and another cheap option
I fear that the complacency shown in some of the comments is replicated in the Boardroom. The way we are playing, the disharmony in the changing room, black of form of some key players, injury to Bowen all point to us struggling for the remainder of the season.
Add to the fact that there are more hits than misses by Sullivan (over many years!!), Steidten and Loppy in the transfer market I don’t feel confident we will get the required players this month. The mere fact that not only are we looking to buy in the January window but we absolutely have to buy in January says everything we need to know about our summer dealings.
Lose our next two league games and on presumption some teams below us pick up points and maybe the complacency will disappear.
I can see 1 team worse than us ,Southampton, leicester equal to us and ipswich starting to show the organisation that their manager is capable of. How can we not believe we have a good chance of relegation, the fans can see it the board still have their blinkers on .
Spot on . Those who say we won’t get relegated have their rose coloured glasses on.
Sleep walking into relegation, we don’t have good enough defender’s to keep clean sheets, discipline is poor, team spirit questionable and a clueless manager out of his depth but supported by a incoherent and useless board if that isn’t a recipe for Championship football I don’t know what is! But on the bright side a decent young manager willing to give youth a chance and the shrewd purchase of good up and coming player’s over 23 year’s of age along with some experienced senior player’s could holt this dreadful decline but we’ll need a new Board first! Sullivan needs to go above all else. From a very concerned supporter!