I can't quite help feel we missed a massive opportunity that summer which may not come again for a while and that we needed show a bit more ambition with our signings.
Not the first time and doubt it will be the last - it is a habit we have had with all our owners back to the sixties. As soon as they need to put their hands in their pockets to a large degree to improve the team and move us on a big step they shy away, only difference is that in the past we used to sell our best players to line their pockets.
I do think the owners have limitations on their ability or willingness to spend but I what we have spent is also not bad, not great by a long stretch, but not bad. The problem for me is the way it's been spent, last season was all about squad rather than first team and this season I just think we could maybe have spent a bit more and better. Arto is a luxury signing where as we needed a defensive midfielder, he was also a bit over priced in my view. Last season also Snodgrass ? Ayew? There lacks in my view a connected transfer policy in which we think about how they will fit together and what formation we want before buying. So yes I would have liked more spent ( but don't we always) but if what we spent was spent more coherently we could still have a more balanced team.
For me, last summer's transfer window showed the power of the laws of attraction. Because it was West Ham, people (bloggers, journalists, fans, etc.) discounted the possibility of bigger names moving to the club. Once the rumours started flying, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy ("Who do you want to move to?" "Not West Ham, anyway!"), and once the first "name" turned us down, it was the beginning of the end.
How's Payet getting on now, with his top 4 talent?
Exactly......hovering about 3rd
In France
So as high as they can expect to be when you consider the teams above them?
West Ham are due to a few failings that are well documented where?
I think I know where I would rather be if you are looking for some ambition. Didn't like the way he went about things but I believe he was right to go back to Marseille. ;ok
Until we have owners with real intentions to take us to the next level this will continue to happen imo , Bilic was always a cheap option we always here about the manager or player that got away don't we and always end up with 3rd 4th best
14m net spend all they are doing is just keeping us in the premier league for the next 4 years then they will cash in , i have never understood with our fantastic fan base and the new ground why we have not been sold to a billionaire who wants to make the club another chelsea / man city .
I too dont agree with Payet but when you see Zaza and calleri coming in i suppose you can't see the next level after the move to the ground he was promised .
You are aware that they were both internationals? Hindsight is a lovely thing but it's a fact that when Zaza came he had just played in the Euros. When Payet came he was out in the cold, nowhere near the French national team.
I've said it often enough, it is always easy blasting someone for not spending enough, after all it isn't your own money. Same with team selection. It isn't your job on the line.
A lot of the players we brought in last season were internationals. Feghouli, Nordveith, Ayew, Zaza ... some take time to click, some might simply not take to the PL. And some might be internationals in a weak team but internationals they all are.
Now IF Payet said that he left because we didn't match his intent then either that is not true, as at the time he claims he made up his mind there was no way to know it wouldn't work out or he is disrespecting a lot of countries by claiming their internationals are useless since buying them doesn't show any intent.
That's why I said IF. I believe I read about an interview regarding this subject recently but I am neither sure where it was nor if I am misquoting what I think I read. All I am trying to do is show up some of the arguments being used to beat SB and the Daves as being rather one-sided and since the subject of Payet came up i am using this as an example.
There are millions of people every weekend who think they could do a better job than their team's manager. But the truth is that in a league of 20 teams there needs to be someone at the top and there need to be three teams at the bottom. And while nobody wants their team to be one of these three teams it is not our jobs who are on the line. I think it isn't fair to complain about owners not pumping more of their hard earned cash into the club. Finances are a lot more complicated than just "net spend of X in half a year". PSG will be calculating the cost of signing Neymar over the time of his contract. If that was 5 years (I can't quite remember atm) then that would mean that in 2017/18 they spent some 45m Euros on him. Doesn't sound half as dramatic as 222m, doesn't it? And don't forget that this sum usually includes flexible bonuses. So in fact it might be only 30m.
As we all know, the best managers invariably seek out advice from those more experienced...
You gotta speed it up And then you gotta slow it down 'Cause if you believe that our love can hit the top You gotta play around But soon you will find that there comes a time For making your mind up
Oh and its also good tactics for Eurovision entry ;whistle
An interesting article in the Observer on Sunday, primarily about Man City and how they are 1st in the Prem for goals, 1st for shots on target and 2nd for total number of shots. They provided little graphs to illustrate this and surprisingly West Ham are 11th for goals scored, 9th for shots on target and 11th for total shots.
Its seems we're not as bad going forward as some seem to think
For me during Bilic's reign as manager we have always been very good at scoring goals but concede way too much. Many games are high scoring games for both teams. Previously with Allardyce it was the opposite; we score few but concede few.
Since we've changed formation we've managed to get a bit of steel about us at the back and conceding is no longer a problem. We've changed to a more Allardyce style. In the short term I don't mind this. We can't expect to win games conceding 2-3 a match.
Comments
Not the first time and doubt it will be the last - it is a habit we have had with all our owners back to the sixties. As soon as they need to put their hands in their pockets to a large degree to improve the team and move us on a big step they shy away, only difference is that in the past we used to sell our best players to line their pockets.
West Ham are due to a few failings that are well documented where?
I think I know where I would rather be if you are looking for some ambition. Didn't like the way he went about things but I believe he was right to go back to Marseille. ;ok
14m net spend all they are doing is just keeping us in the premier league for the next 4 years then they will cash in , i have never understood with our fantastic fan base and the new ground why we have not been sold to a billionaire who wants to
make the club another chelsea / man city .
I too dont agree with Payet but when you see Zaza and calleri coming in i suppose
you can't see the next level after the move to the ground he was promised .
I've said it often enough, it is always easy blasting someone for not spending enough, after all it isn't your own money. Same with team selection. It isn't your job on the line.
He simply came to us at the wrong time in his life. He has admitted that the issue was with hm and not the club.
Now IF Payet said that he left because we didn't match his intent then either that is not true, as at the time he claims he made up his mind there was no way to know it wouldn't work out or he is disrespecting a lot of countries by claiming their internationals are useless since buying them doesn't show any intent.
There are millions of people every weekend who think they could do a better job than their team's manager. But the truth is that in a league of 20 teams there needs to be someone at the top and there need to be three teams at the bottom. And while nobody wants their team to be one of these three teams it is not our jobs who are on the line.
I think it isn't fair to complain about owners not pumping more of their hard earned cash into the club. Finances are a lot more complicated than just "net spend of X in half a year". PSG will be calculating the cost of signing Neymar over the time of his contract. If that was 5 years (I can't quite remember atm) then that would mean that in 2017/18 they spent some 45m Euros on him. Doesn't sound half as dramatic as 222m, doesn't it? And don't forget that this sum usually includes flexible bonuses. So in fact it might be only 30m.
You gotta speed it up
And then you gotta slow it down
'Cause if you believe that our love can hit the top
You gotta play around
But soon you will find that there comes a time
For making your mind up
Oh and its also good tactics for Eurovision entry ;whistle
#Ghostly voices whisper will you come and play
(I dont know anymore Bucks Fizz songs so, unless I do some research, you're all safe ;wink )
Congratulations to Kevin Nolan, September's @SkyBetLeagueTwo Manager of the Month!
Good luck to him though, think he can be a decent mamager
Its seems we're not as bad going forward as some seem to think
The thing is, there might be an argument that we aren't even so bad at the back. 3 clean sheets in our last 4 league games since switching formation.
Since going 3-4-3:
Pl: 4
W: 2
L: 1
GF: 5
GA: 3
Since we've changed formation we've managed to get a bit of steel about us at the back and conceding is no longer a problem. We've changed to a more Allardyce style. In the short term I don't mind this. We can't expect to win games conceding 2-3 a match.