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| Sam Allardyce (Picture from The Guardian) |
You
watch your team put in a sluggish and wasteful performance on a dreary Tuesday
night and see the gap at the top of the league widen to five points.
With
22 minutes left, your in-form striker Sam Baldock – four goals in four games – is
hauled off in favour of Carlton Cole, who is searching for his first league goal
since 10th September.
You
boo this decision, knowing that it will not help Cole, Allardyce or the team in
any way, but you are voicing your discontent in the only way you can. The
game finishes goalless despite numerous chances for your side. The
performance has been of a high quality but no goals have been scored.
And
then the manager goes and insults your intelligence with a throw-away comment
in a post-match interview.
Sam
Allardyce was always going to be put under pressure. Perhaps, because of how he
has instructed his clubs to play in the past, he always will be. It is easy to
dislike Big Sam: his football is direct bordering on aggressive hoof-ball;
despite his reliance on technology and modern science, he rarely comes across
as a particularly intelligent man; he appears to be ambitious but this can
sometimes translate as egocentric, arrogant and oblivious to his own deficiencies.
The
days of West Ham United playing attractive, expansive football are long-gone
but that does not make the square passing around the back-line followed by the
punt upfield any more entertaining to watch.
But,
as Allardyce hints at himself, winning is what really matters in football. If
you don’t play a fluid passing game, then you must at least win the match. And
that, mostly, is what West Ham have been doing this season.
Only
losing three of their fifteen Championship games so far – Cardiff and Ipswich
at home and Southampton away - the Hammers are soaring in a league full of
quality. Last season’s relegation and the disappointment from the last few
seasons appears to be behind them – they are bouncing back.
Of
course, nothing is perfect. The
Olympic Stadium issue is yet to be resolved, with a move away from Boleyn
still a source of much debate between fans and club officials.
On
the pitch, West Ham were embarrassingly knocked out of the League Cup by
Accrington Stanley back in August, while some tame performances this season
have worried fans, especially as their injury
concerns continue to deepen.
Last
night’s performance was promising in terms of the chances created but worrying
in that they failed to score past a side staring relegation in the face. It was
not, by any stretch of the imagination, ‘outstanding’
and to say so makes one wonder what sort of performance would be seen as a disappointment
by the former-Bolton and Blackburn manager.
On
the whole, the season has been a promising one for West Ham and they are on of
the clear favourites to reach the Premier League next season. On the face of
it, Hammers fans should be much cheerier than they appeared last night.
Anger,
pain and displeasure are all relative, though. There are teams in worse positions
than they are, but that will hardly make fans of the claret and blue feel any
more comfortable with a disappointing performance against a poor – albeit resilient
– Bristol City side.
Allardyce
refused to acknowledge the frustration at dropping two points in his post-match
interview with BBC Radio 5Live when he was questioned on the clear dissatisfaction
coming from the stands.
“I
don’t really think the fans reaction is worth talking about” he said. “The
crowd doesn't know better than me.. if they did they'd have my job.”
This
is the sort of comment that can infuriate fans of any club up and down the
country. Instead of solving the problem or at least discussing the issue,
Allardyce brushes the criticism aside. He is by no means under any obligation
to discuss the issue there-and-then in the interview, but to insult the fans with
an irrelevant quip such as this helps nobody.
Many
managers have made the mistake of aggravating their own fans in a minute yet
significant way, most recently Roy
Hodgson at Liverpool and Steve Bruce at
Sunderland. As seen time and time again, it is a dangerous path to take.
Allardyce,
next time, would be better off saying that the next performance will be better
and then move on – do not defend yourself or your team by attacking the fans. It
only serves to antagonise the supporters who can either push you on or push you
out.
