G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season
flyingV 7:53 Sun Aug 31

Other articles by flyingV ...

Three games in and we've already got a taste of just what the "new" West Ham have in store for us this season.

I'm no fan of Allardyce, and I can't wait for his inevitable replacement which will hopefully come sooner rather than later.

But putting that aside, for me the disarray we saw on the pitch yesterday can also be attributed to our owners' bizarre public vote of confidence meeting at the end of last years campaign.

What the fuck was the point of that little charade? The way it was presented in the media was that Allardyce was certain to lose his job and this board was rife with posts speculating on who our new manager would be. Instead of putting this to bed straight away, these rumours were left to grow momentum within a ridiculous one week "decision period" which culminated in what seemed to be a U-turn whereby BFS was allowed to keep his position on the basis that he provide more entertainment for the fans.

This was stupid for a number of reasons. Firstly, you now had an even angrier support who almost unanimously wanted rid of the manager and had allowed excitement to build over the potential replacement. Had a statement been put out clarifying the purpose of the meeting then this could have been quashed early on.
Instead, what we had was fans that had started to envisage life beyond the Dudley Dinosaur and had had it stolen from them. Rightly or wrongly, you now had fans feeling cheated at the prospect of putting up with another year of shit and the net result of that is an even more poisonous atmosphere at home games with 30,000 people telling the manager to "Fuck Off"

Secondly, expecting Allardyce to adapt his style is another delusion that surely even G&S can see is destined for failure? This is a man whose footballing principles are well-known and haven't wavered throughout his time in the game. I loathe his tactics but the reason people hire the man is because these tactics have brought him a relative level of "success" (although his definition is probably different from mine...) To expect him to surrender these as an ultimatum to remain in his job is ludicrous - when you hire BFS, you buy into what he gives you. IF you don't like it, you get someone else in. Also, you've now given the man the ultimate excuse for when things go wrong. This is the man who never takes responsibilities for his teams failures on the pitch and you've given him the perfect get-out clause if it all goes tits up this season.

The timing of that whole circus last year, not to mention the way G&S went about it, set us up in the worst way possible for this coming season. A crowd that hate the manager more than ever, a manager forced to work outside his comfort zone who knows he has bosses that have considered replacing him, and a man in a win-win situation who knows that G&S want to avoid paying him compensation but also has a ready-made excuse for when it all goes wrong.

Look at Southampton yesterday. A starting 11 who I would have trouble naming (I've got penners for that) but were well drilled, clever and took us apart. In contrast, we have a confused squad who reach the final third but are scared of doing anything dynamic going forward. We will string a few slow sideways passes together before Adrian gets it back.

The owners bottled it. I hope we don't have another disaster on our hands come December.

Lets hope I'm wrong and we turn this around, this is one of the strongest squads on paper we've had in years. But I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway - SPLAT, you cunt, etc etc... bring it on.

Texas Iron 4:51 Tue Sep 2
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

David...

Flogging Dirty Pics & Dildos...bit different to Running aPrem Club...

Moncurs Putting Iron 11:04 Tue Sep 2
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

No splats from me. Great article, well thought out.

kirok1 10:22 Tue Sep 2
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Trouble is that there's no clear idea from us fans either. I hate the fuckwit but plenty still defend him, using his own excuses.
With the recent transfers some say they're down to DS but Sam says he's in charge.
It leaves DG's comments up in the air as he thanks the transfer team and DS but doesn't mention BFS.
If it's DS, BFS will say they were not what he wanted and tactics changes were forced on him. If they're BFS moves, it's down to him.
Tactics haven't noticeably changed and false dawns are still followed by collapse. Piss poor performances by even more of the same. Brady totters out to tell us we are all deluded and should be thankful for what we have.
The football is dire and if you include the results from last season the form is pathetic. Yet fans are split. He is not likely to integrate the new players as he will keep playing the same way. Koeman said they knew how we'd play. Every-fucking-body does!
Yet still we argue over how much time the Dudley Dickhead should get.
Until we all want the fat fuckwit out, why should the board be any less split than we are?

DP 8:49 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Could use the Diame money to get rid of sam and get Bilic in!

Far Cough 8:14 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Is Texas Iron calling SOMEONE ELSE old and doddery?

David L 8:12 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Very hard to believe that these idiots are actually successful in business, although I guess the circles that G and S move in (if you'll pardon the expression) are not exactly like meetings between say Barclays and GlaxoSmithKline are they?

i-Ron 12:18 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

The last sentence about the styles of play is spot on.

Southampton knew exactly how to attack. We didn't. They looked uncomfortable. We looked a little confused going forwards. There's nothing natural or flowing about any Sam Allardyce side. It's rigid. Two wide men hugging the touchlines. One up top. One in the hole.

Willtell 12:11 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

I'd guess DS doesn't exercise his majority rights because he has been equal partners with Gold for so long that he still treats him as an equal.

I would also guess that BFS's days are extremely numbered and I would also guess that DS has started the search for a successor to BFS. The availability or otherwise of suitable candidates will decide when BFS goes as much as anything else...

hammer 74 11:44 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Maybe because he doesn't want to?

Texas Iron 11:43 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Old Doddery Goldo...Mr 442 is THE Problem...& supported by Know-Nothing About Football Baroness Brady of Stoke Newington...

How come Sullivan doesn't exercise his majority ownership voting rights and replace BFS...

JGW1 10:13 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Agree whole heartedly with Alf below. Us armchair warriors have an advantage that we get a nice aerial, side on view for 90 minutes. Watch the next game and play 'triangles' in your head. This simply involves you looking infield from whatever defender or midfielder has possession to spot the space that a colleague SHOULD be moving into to receive a pass.

Then do the same in any other premier league game and spot the difference. Most of the work in this relatively simple game is done OFF the ball. The best teams simply give their colleagues the most options to move the ball to a team mate in space. Of course it helps to have high levels of control and passing ability but an element of that is simply learned behaviour.

Willtell 9:10 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Quite right terry...

terry-h 12:25 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Having seen Koeman's post match comments, he is obviously contemptuous of Allardyce's normal style and tactics. He's a class act and Southampton are lucky to have him in charge of rebuilding their squad. In reply to the fitness issue comparison between the two sides, he denied any fitness exercises are given any particular emphasis on the training ground. Rather he concentrated on his players having plenty of ball possession exercises and this was evident in the match stats of both teams.
So it's the Dutch way versus the Dudley way we are fucking stuck with as long as that fat bastard is in charge.

Roeder-nowhere 12:03 Mon Sep 1
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Said before, apparent to all except G&S but all these signings, Song included are irrelevant if they are not utilised correctly.
Cole is the nearest thing he has to AC-so he plays Cole.
Valencia will ALWAYS look shit for us, forced to
play alone up front with nobody to supply him with that killer pass or through ball that his pace & game relies on.We may as well stick him in goal.
Maiga, as crap as he is was the same-not utilised correctly. Diame likewise is not a fucking winger, why play him there??
What next when all players are fit?? Noble, Nolan,Song, Koyuate ALL midfield? Good players signed.. but the manager nor the owners know how to incorporate them

HenryMc 11:47 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Valencia doesn't look great does he? Hopefully he will be given some time.

dicksie3 11:23 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

If we're in the bottom three and looking fucking pony by October then he'll get the elbow this time...

hornchurchsteve 11:23 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Old man gold is on twitter now saying what a great board they are.
Stupid old fucker.

Willtell 11:22 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

the exile 8:13 Sun Aug 31
"Willtell - we know this is true because BFS alluded to it during the NZ tour."

Yes I know and DS alluded to it too but it doesn't mean the whole story pumped out by the media was as reported. I don't remember exactly but I believe DS said something along the lines of the board challenged BFS over his buying record and boring game plan and that they had considered the sack.

In the meeting BFS maintained that given the financial support to get the right kind of players he would have no trouble playing an attacking game. G&S then thought it out and gave him the opportunity to prove it.

He has failed and frankly, I'm convinced he isn't capable or intelligent enough to do anything but bullshit the players, fans and G&S. But I do think our directors have acted maturely and that it's the press reporting that has made too much of it.

If things continue going badly for the next few weeks I expect Sullivan to sack BFS and be outspoken about it too unless BFS accepts a reduced pay-out and a vow of silence. BFS is a busted flush imho and his days at the top are over...

penners28 11:16 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

I wonder about the mental state of g&s. They MUST be sat in their box thinking "we've just spunked 16.5m on 2 strikers and cole is still playing"

I really hope I am proved wrong, but Valencia does not look like a premier league player.

Buster 11:14 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

I only read this because of the person who posted it, maybe I should read more of these longer posts.

Absolutely spot on.

'Secondly, expecting Allardyce to adapt his style is another delusion that surely even G&S can see is destined for failure? This is a man whose footballing principles are well-known and haven't wavered throughout his time in the game. I loathe his tactics but the reason people hire the man is because these tactics have brought him a relative level of "success" (although his definition is probably different from mine...) To expect him to surrender these as an ultimatum to remain in his job is ludicrous - when you hire BFS, you buy into what he gives you.'

The biggest nail on head paragraph I've ever read on here.

HAMMER MARK 11:06 Sun Aug 31
Re: G&S vote of confidence meeting has jeopardised this season

Spot on Sir Alf

Thats my worry too,in the Summer Sam shouldnt have agreed to this "attractive football" mandate as G&S went ahead and bought players that dont fit the system where Sam can get results,they should have backed him as was and got players in to suit his system...or sacked him

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