Problems for West Ham despite Chelsea win

Dreams fading and dying is literally in the script for West Ham fans, so I can’t help bringing myself back down to earth after our win against Chelsea by pointing out a few concerns.

First things first, our start to the season has been exhilarating and we have a squad with sufficient depth to maintain our form over Christmas and beyond. I don’t want to drag the mood down - I just think there are some potential issues worth noting before they materialise.

Sakho’s Sacrifice

The Senegalese striker will not score as many goals under Slaven Bilic as he did under Sam Allardyce. This doesn’t mean he is giving any less to the team; his work-rate has been incredible since Bilic came in and his relentless running, tracking back and dragging defenders out of position   should not be underestimated.

Diafra Sakho’s willingness to take on this role has been impressive and I don’t think it’s one that his strike partner of last season, Enner Valencia, would have the discipline or the positional intelligence to do. But I don’t think it’s something he, or anyone for that matter, can maintain over the whole season.

"could a hint of envy set in?"

He’ll keep his head down and get on with it whilst we are winning, but he’s in danger of becoming frustrated when we inevitably, like every team does, hit a bad patch. He was a revelation when he came in last season, surpassing everybody’s expectations by winning October’s Premier League Player of the Month and matching a league record of scoring in all six of his first starts.

That was a taste of the high-life for Sakho, and it would be understandable if he were to want that flavour again. At the moment he is putting in all the hard-yards whilst the likes on Manuel Lanzini and Dmitri Payet take the plaudits - could a hint of envy set in?

Payet Reliance

Payet is the best player we’ve had at the club since Carlos Tevez in terms of technical ability, and whilst we have a large and very talented squad, his importance is obvious, widely-documented and is becoming increasingly so.

"the psychological effect could be devastating"

‘Give it to Payet’ is becoming a familiar call on the terraces and, whilst every great team often has a talisman, we need to be wary of over-reliance. I have no doubts that the squad would have enough to get by without Payet if, God forbid, he were to pick up an injury - but I think the psychological effect could be devastating.

The Frenchman was faultless yesterday and, if he keeps this up, Didier Deschamps can’t ignore him for the national team. It seems a little too good to be true that we managed to sign him in the first place and we’ve had such terrible luck with injuries to key men that I can’t help worrying. Let’s pray that he’s an exception.

Slaven Bilic’s ‘philosophy’

The problem being that I can’t see much of one at the moment. It’s great in some ways. A purist like Arsene Wenger or Roberto Martinez might have been too stubborn to turn to an option like Andy Carroll yesterday afternoon, and it was proved how effective that can be.

But we did set up like an away-team, and gave a bit too much respect to Chelsea at times, especially for the first quarter of an hour in the second half when they were already down to ten-men.

"There’s no better feeling than a giant-killing, but we need to maximise points against the lesser teams"

It’s great that Bilic seems to have mastered this counter-attacking style. It’s led to four very memorable wins so far this campaign, but we still need to get our head around how to control the game and take it to the opposition rather than waiting for reactive opportunities to break. That much is clear from our troublesome home form against the lesser teams, particularly Norwich a few weeks ago.

Time will tell on this one. Everton at home will be a very interesting clash to see how we go up against a team of similar stature. There’s no better feeling than a giant-killing, but we need to maximise points against the lesser teams if we are to really stake a claim for Europe.

Man-management

And now the obvious one. Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka have spoken in the past about how Bilic is a top man-manager from their time working with him for the Croatian national team. He will certainly need his players at West Ham to respect him similarly at West Ham.

"the bench was worth around £52m yesterday"

Mauro Zarate has four goals in his last five starts, Michail Antonio had scored four goals in five appearances for Nottingham Forest this season before he joined for £8m. Just a year ago, it would have been inconceivable to think that players with those statistics would not get in the side.

By my estimations, the bench was worth around £52m yesterday. That’s an unprecedented array of talent for a West Ham team. Keeping Sakho happy whilst he is playing might be difficult, let alone some of the big names who won’t get in the team.

Andy Carroll won’t be happy making cameo appearances forever, Mark Noble’s place is at risk with Alex Song on the way back, Enner Valencia will want game time, remember Reece Oxford? The FA Cup can’t come soon enough for us to give us another platform to get these players on the pitch.

Bilic will have to be careful to rotate where appropriate to keep people happy, and that’s easier said than done when those in the first-team have been so impressive that it would be impossible to drop them. The Croat is renowned for treating players with respect, like friends, but as we saw with Morgan Amalfitano, he certainly isn’t a pushover.

" don’t think we’ve sold anybody who we wasn’t comfortable with letting go"

The biggest compliment that I can pay to David Sullivan and David Gold is that every year since we got promoted, I’ve thought “next season, our squad won’t be this good”. But we held onto the likes of Carroll, Winston Reid, now Song and also Mohammed Diame for as long as we wanted to.

I don’t think we’ve sold anybody who we wasn’t comfortable with letting go. That’s great and long may it continue, with other clubs certain to cast an eye towards Payet and Lanzini. But with success comes victims, and Bilic will need to make sure squad members feel valued.

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Hopefully, none of these things manifest into real problems, but there’s nothing to be gained in avoiding them. If early impressions stand for anything, Bilic has the sense and mettle to tackle them head on, and continue leading us

Follow me on Twitter @RichMaher93

Hammers make ambitious bid for Kalou

With rumours circulating that West Ham’s move for Nikica Jelavic may have fizzled out, Sam Allardyce has been quick to turn his attentions to yet another high-profile forward; this time in the form of Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou.

It has emerged that Allardyce has proposed a loan deal for the Ivory Coast international, currently at the African Cup of Nations, in order to help boost his attacking options for the remainder of the promotion campaign.

With offers for lesser-known strikers such as Jordan Rhodes already apparently rejected, it seems a rather ambitious attempt, however it delivers a clear statement of intent to the rest of the league, similarly to how the purchase of Kevin Nolan did in the summer.

Allardyce has not baulked at the prospect of bringing high-profile names to less glamorous clubs in the past, managing to lure Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha and Nicholas Anelka to the Reebok Arena to play for Bolton. Despite West Ham arguably being a bigger club, the lack of Premier League football to offer is likely to repel players of Kalou’s status.

Although it is an admirable effort, which apparently also featured a cheeky enquiry with regards to Florent Malouda, it is highly unlikely to be completed. Although Chelsea would perhaps not be averse to seeing the pair leave, with the arrival of Juan Mata and return of a more mature Daniel Sturridge dramatically reducing the roles of the duo at Stamford Bridge, they are unlikely to accept.

Kalou has rejected a slightly more seductive offer from Olympiakos in the past in comparison to plying his trade in the unforgiving second tier of English football, and with Arsene Wenger a known admirer, he is likely to hold out for a transfer to a team playing at a similar level to his current employers.

A player of Kalou’s mould is certainly needed and would provide a great option to either pair with one of our larger strikers, or to deploy down the wing to add some much need flair, pace and width to our game.

It won’t come as a surprise that Kalou is not likely to join but ‘Big Sam’ must be commended for his efforts and ambition. But with less than a week remaining of the transfer window, it may be time to identify some more realistic targets in order to bolster our front-line.

Follow me on Twitter @RichMaher93

West Ham vs. Blackburn Preview

It’s quite absurd as to how Avram Grant remains in a premier league job. Now, even Osama bin Laden has been terminated before Grant’s contract. The American authorities had searched tirelessly for almost ten years before finally tracking down their target, whilst Grant has been on show at Upton Park for the last nine months, sporting an embarrassing league record of a mere 20% win ratio, must we remind our owners that they have the ability to eliminate him? Perhaps in bin Laden’s killer we have finally found someone more ruthless than the acrimonious Karen Brady.

British football experts continually convince English clubs that they must continually adhere to the manager they have appointed, stating the few obvious case studies of David Moyes, Arsene Wenger and most notably Sir Alex Ferguson as examples of the fruits of long-term leadership. What they fail to recognise in the case of West Ham United is that, instead of appointing a young, enthusiastic, inspiring candidate wielding previous honours and success, such as that of the three names mentioned above, our owners somehow saw it fit to employ the dull, inadequate and recently relegated; Avram Grant.

It seemed rather strange of David Gold, at the time of the appointment, to describe Grant as someone who had “been there, done that and got the T-shirt”, when in fact, his Portsmouth side, albeit with a points deduction, had already sunk into the second tier of English football. In fact, his record with Portsmouth was even worse than it currently is with West Ham, so to blame their relegation on this penalty would be ridiculous. David Sullivan also agreed with his co-owner at the time, claiming; “we have taken our time over this appointment and are certain we have got the right man”. Perhaps this is the perfect statement to epitomise how much our owners actually know about football.

At the time, Gold also added that “the bottom line is the relationship between the manager and the chairman is critical. In our case it’s two chairmen so it’s even more difficult as you need to have a relationship between three people”. It is now evident that what Gold actually meant by this statement is that by handing the position to an innocuous, lifeless excuse of a manager, there was enough room for him, and Sullivan, to squeeze their inflated egos onto the scene.

Prior to the Manchester City game, the frustratingly irritating Sullivan couldn’t resist the attention of opening his mouth once again by announcing that the Hammers only have a “25% chance of staying up” and labelling the players “spoilt”, claiming most of them are more interested in “where they will be next season” than keeping West Ham in the premiership. Sullivan certainly has a warped view of motivation if he believes deeming the players fickle mercenaries will give them the inspiration to battle for some much needed points.

And then, in an act of comical hypocrisy, Sullivan (and Gold) failed to show at the City Of Manchester Stadium, justifying their disloyal absence with the impact of “watching our poor away performances week after week”. If his comments were not rich enough, he went on to compare his motivational skills to that of Winston Churchill. It’s no wonder as to why he was unable to secure the services of an established, dignified manager in Martin O’Neill in January, as he continues to embarrass himself, and thus the club, with these sporadic outbursts.

It’s also worth noting that Sullivan stated; “I do think that a manager needs that fear factor. You look at Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho. The players are a little bit frightened of them”. Obviously he completely ignored this belief when he appointed Grant as, with the omission of his eerily zombie-like demeanour, he would fail to strike fear, or any emotion for that matter, into anyone.

Even Demba Ba admitted that, in the brief February period in which we began to consistently win some games that “we had a new team … and other teams were surprised by us. Now they know how to counter us”. Clearly even Grant’s players recognise that he is tactically inadequate and that, even in the very few games he has won, it was not his ability as a manager but the fact he was able to spring a few new faces upon his opponent, before their traits were identified, assessed and countered by genuinely Premiership-quality managers, and it was back to square one.

Grant has tried to use this hopeless tactic all throughout the season, meaning West Ham have used more players than any other squad in the Premier League. Quite astounding considering the lack of depth in quality we have in some departments. Seeing Grant’s notebook fall apart and flutter around the pitch in Manchester last Sunday was quite symbolic of a man whose plans have completely crumbled. Seeing his hopeless attempt to collect them back together was perhaps even more significant in suggesting the lack of answers he has to the undeniable problems.

Seeing the emotion and joy on the faces of Norwich fans on Monday evening, following their promotion, sparked wonderful, nostalgic memories of our play-off success in 2005. However, it also provoked the epiphany of the immense value of premiership status, and the fact that at the moment, we are sickeningly throwing it away. Surely, whether he completes this demolition of another premiership club or not, Grant will be fired and disappear into the wilderness, as bin Laden did all those years ago. Inevitably he will never again have the chance to manage a premiership club, not that he was ever capable or worthy of doing so in the first place.

Grant’s career will be reflected on in bewilderment, as it was effectively based on absolutely nothing. However, I still believe that the team will remain in the premier league due to fortuitous fixtures, the incompetence of those around us and the personal brilliance of the likes of Scott Parker. That will leave us with yet another summer rebuilding job which must be done correctly this time. Where it leaves Grant is debatable, with a football director’s role rumoured to be lined up at Chelsea, he could unbelievably stroll into yet another lucrative contract. Grant’s secret is certainly beyond me, it’s certainly not his charisma or his ability, but as long as he’s nowhere near West Ham United next season, I’ll be a happier man, and so will 34,000 others.

Could the end be near for the deceitful Arsene Wenger and his hopeless Gunners

The stubborn Mr. Arsene Wenger today stressed how Arsenal wouldn’t “panic into spending big”. Is this sensible in today’s inflated market or just another excuse for a disappointing summer with a severe lack of signings? The Gunners are in danger of slipping out of England’s elite sides as the likes of Aston Villa, Manchester City and their bitter, north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur traditionally attempt to “gatecrash the top four”. With Tottenham making the breakthrough during the most recent campaign, at the expense of Liverpool, both them and City are showing little signs of slowing down in terms of spending and unless Arsenal react it won’t be long until they’re overtaken as well.

Wenger could certainly be accused of sporting an oversized ego in times of late with his constant dismissal of the transfer market. Acquiring youngsters at a young age and blending them carefully into a squad of capable footballers is an admirable plan and one which keeps the club financially sound (a certain priority in these worrying economical times for football). However, this does involve poaching young players from other professional clubs, a particularly controversial action. How stealing young prospects from clubs who employ scouts to complete the gruelling task of choosing a few out of thousands is ethically correct is beyond me and their should be a minimum transfer age.

An example of this is young, Fran Merida. Sneakily plucked from Barcelona’s academy (a similar transfer to that of Cesc Fabregas’) at the tender age of sixteen; he was gullibly enticed by the prospect of the premier league and signed a contract for the deceitful Mr. Wenger. This caused chaos in sporting law and it must have been an extremely stressful period for Merida as two monstrous clubs engaged in legal battle. Eventually Merida’s contract was deemed legitimate and all three parties could move on. This summer, Merida has been released at the age of 20, finding first team opportunities scarce (he made only 6 appearances for Arsenal), he’s now back in Spain with Atletico Madrid practically restarting his career with minimal experience for a player of his age. Surely Merida would have been better off remaining under the expertise of Barcelona? This is just one career that Wenger has arguably hindered.

Of course some moves do work out; step forward Cesc Fabregas. Fabregas is unique in the way he’s a genuine success story from Arsenal‘s bag of stolen goods, he’s matured into a player of superb ability, a club captain and a Spanish international. However, despite an arguably successful period at Arsenal on a personal level for Fabrgeas, the Londoners have only collected one major trophy (the F.A. Cup) during his, remarkably, 7 years at the club. After being promised a key role in a European giant on a number of occasions, Fabregas has become alienated by the club’s transfer policy and lack of immediate ambition and is finally forcing his way out of the club. With a return to his supported club, Barcelona a romantic proposition and the increased likelihood of trophies, no one can blame Fabregas for wanting to leave.

But Arsenal are continually denying him this right. Yes he is under contract and the Gunners have the right to hold out for as much money as they can grab but can’t Wenger see this is another prosperous career he is in danger of ruining? It’s embarrassing for Arsenal and risks destroying a decent relationship previously enjoyed by club and player. What’s the point of uncovering a rough diamond at a young age if you’re not willing to build a sufficient squad around him? Can’t Wenger see it was when he had the steal and determination of the likes of Patrick Viera in his squad that he won trophies? Why does he ignorantly waste opportunities for success by not emulating this and opening his wallet?

It’s clear Arsenal don’t even restrain from spending on experience in order to be the big boys in terms of youth investment. Cristiano Ronaldo recently revealed he “nearly joined Arsenal” and claims the reason he went to Manchester United is because “they gave me a better offer”. What an investment that was, and now Untied have had a number of trophy-rich, successful seasons from him and recouped an astounding eighty million pounds. Maybe if Wenger had dipped a bit deeper it could’ve been Arsenal who had enjoyed such success in recent years.

Admittedly last season was encouraging for Arsenal. Hotly tipped to drop from the top four, they were aided by a dismal display from Liverpool and some very good runs of form themselves. With a genuine shot at the title and the injury to key striker Robin Van Persie a major hindrance to these ambitions, it was obvious fire power was required in January. Nothing. Yet again, in typically arrogant fashion Wenger continued with the squad he had and his side withered away into nothingness as the premier league climaxed. Wenger’s worrying tendency to consider himself as ‘looking out for the club’ must be frustrating for Arsenal fans as they pay extortionate amounts for tickets in the hope of signing some genuine stars, only to find Wenger believes the answer to his undeniable defensive problems is freebie, Notts County veteran, Sol Campbell. How exciting.

Evidently the market of expired contracts is a level above that of recent years on this occasion and Wenger is likely to raid it. With Marouane Chamakh already added to the squad, it’s possible someone like Joe Cole will be acquired free of charge. But with high competition, it remains to be seen whether Arsenal will have the muscle to push the deal through or allow him to slip from their grasps as Ronaldo did all those years ago. I’m sure Arsenal fans would be delighted with the signing of Cole, not only because he’s an outstanding footballer, but also because he’s British. Wenger continually ignores the country’s uncomfortable stance with his exotic squad and at times it appears he restrains from purchasing British talent in an attempt to show he won’t bow down to anyone, unable to accept that perhaps it is he who is in the wrong. But with Campbell and William Gallas on the outgoing list in the department of contract expiries, Arsenal will need to strengthen their squad more than ever before in the defensive sector and if Wenger’s ambitions match that of a club of Arsenal’s stature, a quality goalkeeper is also required.

In my opinion, next season has the ability to make or break Wenger and it’s likely another season with an absence of silverware will see the Arsenal fans finally run out of patience with the Frenchman. If influential players like Gallas and Fabregas move on and are not replaced in addition to extra recruitments due to Wenger’s inexcusable vanity, it won’t be long until the pressure starts mounting. And don’t tell me he “did not see it” coming.