I suspect I was not the only West Ham fan to leave the fans forum earlier this month trying hard to recall what I had expected from the evening. An hour of quizzing Sam Allardyce had felt rather flat and fruitless. Reflecting on it a couple of weeks later I wonder whether we actually learnt more than I first thought.
The first lesson to be learnt was that the comments that get posted on Twitter and online forums are not representative of those of the hardcore. 400 fans attended this event, and while many had difficult questions to ask Big Sam, there was none of the antagonism and spite which social media would have you believe is representative of West Ham fans’ attitude to the manager.
I headed to Upton Park that night a big fan of Allardyce, suspecting that I might be a lone voice of support. I was wrong. So when my turn came to ask a question, I deviated from the one I had submitted to the club via email and instead tried to be a little provocative.
My question went something like this:
“It worries me to hear you say you spent the summer chasing Lukaku. He’s too good for West Ham. Couldn’t we have targeted more realistic signings? Isn’t it the job of our scouts to pick up talented players from foreign leagues the way Newcastle and Swansea do? Instead we’re left with Maiga.”
Next lesson learnt: when in a room full of West Ham fans do not suggest that a player – any player – is too good for West Ham. If looks could kill, I’d have been hung from the Bobby Moore statue on Barking Road.
Anyway, I’d handed Sam an easy win. He duly argued that Lukaku was not too good for a club of West Ham’s tradition, blah, blah, blah. But the question did at least prompt a lengthy answer in which he talked of the difficulty of signing a striker and how even players like Christian Benteke and Papa Cisse, once lauded as bargains, can hit a barren run.
Allardyce is quite the politician and is very adept at killing a question. He looks down at the table, talks in that monotone and after a minute you realise he hasn’t really said anything at all. Lots of excuses were made for a poor start to the season – Andy Carroll’s injury being the obvious one – but few new insights were offered.
No-one was expecting a man so full of self confidence as Sam to sit there and reel off a list of his personal failings, but there was a certain dismissiveness and arrogance to some of his answers, which felt contrary to the spirit of the evening.
One fan asked two questions both of which were greeted with the response of “I’ve already answered that”. This wasn’t strictly true and the fan was left feeling foolish for having posed perfectly reasonable questions.
Another reasonable question was why Matt Jarvis, a once-record £11m signing, was being left on the bench. Sam’s response was to point out that he hadn’t cost £11m (it was £10.5m). Far from making the supporter look silly, it left Allardyce appearing pedantic and defensive.
I remain a big supporter of Sam for what he has done with the mess he inherited, but I felt that I had finally answered the question I posed in a blog from May 2011 when he was first appointed manager:
“Whether we learn to love him and he love us remains to be seen.”
I feel it’s safe to say that’s not going to happen.
It turned out Allardyce and Kevin Nolan were just the warm-up act (I forgot to mention that Nolan was there. He didn’t get asked many questions but he did say his new year’s resolution was to score more goals, which seems to me like a good one).
I have had the pleasure of meeting David Gold before, so I already knew what a lovely man he is. An hour spent in his company was a joy.
Bizarrely, he started by effectively listing decisions made by the manager that he disagreed with: Diame playing wide, putting “all our eggs in one basket” by signing Andy Carroll, failing to give Ravel Morrison the chance to play in a more attacking position.
Eventually, one fan replied: “It seems like everyone can see it except Sam.”
Gold didn’t blink: “So are you gonna manage the team, then? Am I gonna manage the team? Should all of us here manage the team?”
His point was clear: I’m a supporter and as a supporter I will happily sit here and tell you those things I disagree with. But that’s very different to actually being able to manage the team myself. The person who knows how to manage the football team is the man in charge.
How lucky we are to have a chairman who will talk so openly and honestly with the fans. Contrast that with the situation at Cardiff where the owner has changed the team’s colours and is on a mission to get rid of a manager the fans love. Or at Hull where the owner’s response to fans resisting a proposal to change the team’s name to Hull Tigers is to say he’s happy for them all to die.
Gold answered every question as thoroughly as he could, and when he couldn’t he made sure there was someone on hand to answer it for him. He spoke with the enthusiasm of a supporter and the knowledge of an experienced football club owner. Many people argue the way forward for football clubs is fan ownership. At West Ham that’s already the case.
So what did I learn? I learnt that David Gold once caught his wife and his best mate having sex in a swimming pool.
I also learnt that I rather like our owners. My only fear is that they might one day sell up to another Carson Yeung. Should that happen, we might just look back on these times and realise how lucky we were.
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