West Ham United appear to be ready to get serious. Football’s most fanciful club are ready to get back to basics and appoint a manager in Sam Allardyce that will offer some structure to a dream turned nightmare that began back in the summer 2006.
They were heady days for West Ham. Beaten narrowly by Liverpool in one of the great FA Cup Finals, they were stood in a position familiar to many - just a couple of world class players away from joining the big boys. And then it happened. Well the couple of world class players bit did.
Alan Pardew stood next to Javier Mascherano and Carlo Tevez in on a sunny day in August not sure of what now to do with Hayden Mullins. It had all gone a little wayward. It was just the beginning. That season was to see West Ham embark on a joyride that would gatecrash other teams around them by picking off their best players.
It is often said that teams need an ’English base’ in the Premier League when money is thrown at them to get to the top in double quick time and West Ham followed that particular rule to the letter. Robert Green arrived from Norwich City, Lee Bowyer arrived ’home’ from Newcastle to great fanfare and with Mathew Upson a big money addition from Birmingham in the January, the Hammers had themselves an English spine that club could build on for years to come. An investment in football’s top tier you might say.
And five years on it has become a soccer train-wreck.
The highlights of this period in West Ham history will centre on the Mascherano/Tevez affair that cost the club millions in fines and lost so much goodwill in the game. The ‘evil agents’ once again feel the brunt of the public’s ire.
Yet, a little closer look at history sheds new light on what went wrong. Indeed, the poor acquisition of English players on no doubt crippling wages appear to be what has tormented the club through the years that followed. It was certainly not ’the Carlos Tevez affair’ that put West Ham in the championship.
Tevez has put right his reputation in English football. The move to Manchester was a success on two fronts and he had largely redeemed himself by putting in performances that prolonged the Hammers’ inevitable decline.
Javier Mascherano took longer to rebuild his image. He joined Tevez as a Champions League winner in 2011.
The English spine of the side has fared poorly in comparison.
It is a lesson learned that investments can go up and down. West Ham paid a high price for the Argentines and sold low. As for the others in this summer? You can have them all for free as they head a spectacular list of bargain bin Bosman’s that hang like a dark Icelandic volcanic ash cloud over a great club.
Claret and Blue No Fee Five-a-side
Robert Green; Matthew Upson; Lucas Neill; Lee Bowyer; Keiron Dyer.
No comments:
Post a Comment