One Word: Professionalism
Billy Blagg 11:10 Mon May 21

Other articles by Billy Blagg ...

It’s odd to think that, in many ways, West Ham have endured yet another torrid year. The fact that the Hammers remained unbeaten for long periods during the season, recording a record number of away wins before stumbling slightly, only to end the whole thing on such a brilliant high with the best football day out many of us have had for a long time, has made it easy to forget the turmoil of February and March.

Think back to the period leading into the home defeat by Reading where a large number of home draws had helped produce a dreadful atmosphere at some of the Boleyn games. The abuse and the calls for the head of Sam Allardyce – and that’s some head let’s not forget - and the growing fractious behaviour between the Manager and the fans, seemed to signal we were heading, yet again, for another Irons-style meltdown.

Some of us thought the criticisms were an over- reaction and ever so slightly ridiculous – I lost count of the number of arguments I had online (and I’m not talking about on WHO either) with supporters stating that the only way to save our season was to sack the boss and try to get in Di Canio, an argument as pointless as it was unlikely – but there was a growing feeling that things were going to end in tears.

Missing out on the automatic promotion places and being consigned to the lottery of the Play-offs only helped cement the concerns and, I won’t lie, I feared we’d blow it against teams ‘up for it’ against the supposed ‘strutting arrogance’ of a side supposedly too big for the league it was forced to play in. But I’d not taken into account the BFS factor and I don’t think I can be blamed for that because, simply, it’s not something I’ve seen too much of over the years at West Ham!

Condensing 10 months into one ‘What If?’ is always dangerous but, IF West Ham had lost out to Blackpool last Saturday – and let’s be honest the men in Tangerine had plenty of good chances to do just that - to say things would have looked very much bleaker could well be something of an understatement.

In a fascinating interview on Radio 5 Live on Sunday, Wally Downes confirmed that West Ham already had two business plans in action; the Premier League one we can now presumably expect to see coming into fruition over the coming months, and the Championship option which would have seen the loss of at least four or five high-wage earners from the playing staff. Don’t look round Guys but I think we just dodged a bullet!

But, with promotion gained, I think it’s time to look again at some of the supposed issues with Sam Allardyce and his ‘style’ and management of West Ham United because for me, there was one thing apparent in his handling of the team, not just all season, but particularly in the chase of Southampton post Reading and, more significantly, in the Play-off’s. That thing is something West Ham teams have lacked a lot in the past and can be summed up in one word: professionalism.

I have nothing but admiration for the way that Allardyce prepared the team for the semi-final against Cardiff – rarely have I seen a Hammers side dominate in such a single-minded manner over 120 minutes. Against Blackpool things were different admittedly, but even so I always felt that the team knew what needed to be done and worked hard to achieve it.

More importantly, when Ince Jnr. threatened to alter the balance of the match after half-time, Allardyce was quick to spot the problem and introduce McCartney. Decisive substitutions? Shouldn't we be waiting 20 minutes to see if it pans out ok? If you want to see what difference that made then watch the game on replay, simply the final turned on that one introduction. Be honest, how many of us can recall the last time a West Ham boss put a defender on to stop the opposition and it actually worked?

So adept is Allardyce at working this way I think his strengths have actually been overlooked by the fans, particularly with his supposed arrogance or inability to accept blame for when things go wrong.

The way I see it is I think Sam expects a certain level of professionalism and trusts the players to deliver that. If they can’t then they will soon be on their way but, if they can then Allardyce will offer them a system that, for the most part, will produce positive results. It may not always be pretty but when Sam’s mortgage – and more importantly – the club’s future depends on it, who can really argue?

When Allardyce takes off a striker when the side are leading 1-0 at home with 10 minutes to go, he expects the player he introduces to help shape the formation required to shut the game down and see the three points won. This is an anathema to West Ham and their fans weaned – not as we are led to believe – on a system of free-flowing football that demands we can go on and score a second and a third but, rather, on the belief that we have to attack because we’ve never been able to bloody defend!

Of course, when the change doesn’t work and we do concede – I’m thinking about the home game against Middlesbrough here – Sam cops the abuse and is accused of being defensive and limited in his coaching. But I’ve come to look at it another way, I think Sam trusts and expects his players to do what he tells them and – although sometimes he’s bound to come a cropper if the opposition score a spectacular equaliser as Boro did that night – for the most part the tactic will bring strong rewards.

Allardyce plays the percentages and when they don’t work he offsets that against the times they do because he knows most times he will come out on top. When Sam’s tactics have worked, the points have accumulated rapidly. Can anyone really say they didn’t get a bit of pleasure from seeing, as an example, West Ham do to Brighton on their own patch what visiting teams have been doing to us for years? Someone said that night in October that Bobby Moore would be spinning in his grave. Personally, I think he’d have sported an ironic smile – he always wanted Ron Greenwood to put a bit of steel in the side and stifle the opposition more (Read the Great Man’s autobiography for details of how he begged Greenwood to employ a hatchet man). I think he and Sam would have hit it off just fine.

For the first time in my memory (which admittedly is fading fast, but still!) West Ham United has become a difficult team to beat. What’s more, if you’d told me I’d ever see a West Ham side win what is, effectively fifteen away games in a season, I’d have a) thought you insane and b) assumed we'd gathered another ‘Class of ’86' and were destroying opposition on the back of attacking, free-flowing football. That this side can frustrate opposition on their home turf, kill a game off and win points from unlikely places is something of a minor miracle.

And can we blame Sam as he stands like the little boy in the Hans Christian Anderson fairy-tale telling everyone the king has no clothes? Of course, he’s going to be confused by a bunch of fans claiming that we’re not playing the ‘West Ham way’ when, since he’s been playing and managing, the Hammers have, for the most part, been an under-achieving, sometime relegation dodging, sometimes not, mid-table at best, claret and blue frustration? No wonder the bloke gets pissed off at us! This season we’ve been given a Rolls Royce and we’ve complained because he didn’t put enough petrol in the tank. I wouldn’t mind so much but most of the people complaining never even saw any of the champagne football so let me tell you, amongst the silky skills and the slick passing there were a helluva lot of defeats at places like Middlesbrough, Forest and Leeds.

I won’t pretend I wasn’t a bit worried last August but Sam Allardyce has completely won me round. I’ve enjoyed this season better than most others in recent memory and if BFS continues to irritate and frustrate the opposition next year then it should be a long time before we bother the Play-off games again.

Sam and his brand of football sit just fine with me and, for the first time in a long while, I’m looking forward to a Premier League season with a little more hope than expectation. Amazing what you can do when you get a Professional in, isn’t it?

Jimmy The Hoover 12:40 Thu May 24
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Spot on Blaggy! Can't wait for next season.

stapes 2:53 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Baggins

You are a 100% spot on IMHO

Capitol Man 2:44 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

I just hope we manage to avoid the wobbly lips next year when we likely lose more games than we win. There's obviously the potential for friction between Sam and some of the support.

In all likelihood a good season for us is a point above the relegation zone. A great season will be six or more above relegation. The trouble is that when this plays out in reality its not much fun to watch.

Unless we have a blinder there will soon be a lot of whining and moaning about the style of football, even if to beat Arsenal, for example, we're going to have to kick things in the air - their players and the ball.

Alex V 2:43 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Didn't see SG's post, well put sir.

Alex V 2:41 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

I agree BB, but as we can't control what other teams do, there's an element of luck if the cracks show on their finishing under pressure in big games.

As someone else said, there was a strong element of luck that Vaz Te was on the pitch to score the winner, as injury forced Sam's hand with the second substitution.

I think we were lucky on Saturday. Good. I also think luck is an incredibly misunderstood factor in sport and life generally.

Coffee 2:29 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

stewie griffin 1:04 Tue May 22

Excellent and accurate post.

stewie griffin 2:28 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Billy Blagg 2:10 Tue May 22

I know we just discussed the fact that we're trying to say the same thing on whomail, but I wanted to clarify on here too!

Never really a fan of the word 'luck', you either take your chances or your don't, you get enough points or you don't - and perhaps, more than 'luck', its about winning 'moments' in matches. It's something that, due to the slower nature of the game, is always more noticeable in Cricket.
When England lost 5-0 in Oz a few years back, to look at the score you'd think it was horrifically one-sided (shut it you antipodean cunts, I know what you;re thinking!!) but in each match in that series, England found themselves in a decent enough position, potentially to go on and win the game. But those moments, those pivotal periods, invariably went the way of the Australians. Sometimes, it was a mark of their greatness, others just that the ball fell the right way for them.

So really I'm back to the 'fine margins' point, which was the main one. I've never known anything like Saturday. We got 86 points, we came 3rd, and yet even the manager himself said '‘It’ll be a dreadful season if we don’t go up through the play-offs.".

To have the difference between 'successful' and 'dreadful' made this most unlike any other game I've seen - and but for those big 'moments' going our way during the 90 minutes, it would have been a very different story this week. Draining!

Billy Blagg 2:20 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Alex, I think the argument might be - and I'm not entirely convinced by this in real terms but it does seem to occur- the 'better' and 'bigger' (note inverted commas!) the team in terms of spending power, organisation, players available etc the more they tend to get away with things like this. If Dobbie really did get chances like that on target 99 out of 100 he'd probably be playing for Arsenal (I know you could argue one day he will but still...). Saturday reminded me of a cup game where the Prem teams gets the run-around from the underdog and still comes out on top by taking the few chances they have while the other team seems to snatch and make the wrong decisions at vital times with theirs.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but I just thought we always looked like we'd win on Saturday. Oddly enough I got the same feeling from Chelsea in the evening.

Alex V 2:11 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

When a player like Dobbie, technically superb imo, completely scuffs a close-range chance that 99 times out of 100 I'd expect him to at least get on target, that is extremely good luck from our point of view. Can't see another way of taking it...

Billy Blagg 2:10 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

stewie griffin 1:04 Tue May 22 and others
Just to make it clear, I agree 'luck ' and 'margins' indeed. We don't even have to look too much further in London to see another shining example. Chelsea owner spends billions hiring and firing managers and buying players to win the CL and eventually manages it with player's mate interim boss who leaves £50m striker on bench and gets the best from an suspension-hit, ageing team having their worst season in well over a decade. Lucky? You could argue either way.

I know it turned out OK for us, but I still advocate that the way the club is now run on the pitch is a major step-up from previous seasons and that type of 'luck' follows this type of organisation. We can't boss every game like we did against Cardiff. For those disputing the argument I'd just turn it around and say there were only small margins in us picking up many more points last season. Our run of home draws pretty much had us camping in the oppositions territory but failing to convert chances. Stick an in-form opportunitic forward in there - something we played without for much of the season 'cos we didn't have one - and how many of those draws would have been wins?

JAC 2:07 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Exellent piece Mr Blagg....

stewie griffin 2:03 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Sorry, should really have inserted lucky and unlucky into inverted commas - since we have, frequently, referred to our misfortune when we have dropped points as a result of our missed chances. Similarly, plenty have referred to 'curses' and such like when talking about our points tally and its failure to secure promotion.

The point I was trying to make - of which you are only too aware - is that these things even out.
On another day, we could easily have lost that game, and whilst I'm delighted for Fat Lad as much as I am for anyone else at the club that it went in our favour, the mood would be markedly different.

, 1:49 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

How are we lucky when the other team fails to sometimes even connect let alone put the ball on target.

As far as I'm concerned the game was evenly balanced but we took our chances better and they were chances we made.

Blackpool had chances which resulted from crass errors, one of which which led to their goal, where both Cole and Collison [ twice ] gave the ball away to the opposition.

Too often this season at home we have failed to score when we have not made enough chances or the opposing keeper has had a good game. That being the case we have not banged on about how lucky the other team was but have instead concentrated, rightly, on our need to convert chances.

The plain fact is that on Saturday we worked their keeper more than they did ours.

Moncurs Putting Iron 1:22 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

This appears to be the Thinking Hammers thread.

*Sits out on edge observing*

stewie griffin 1:04 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Funny old world. Agree with most of what you say, Blagg, and its a cracking read but its really all about two words for me - 'fine margins' - or maybe in one word 'luck'.



Over the course of the season, our points tally would normally have seen us promoted. We could easily have been described as UNLUCKY. If we'd won one more game, we'd have gone up instantly, we missed out by the finest of margins.



On Saturday, we were outplayed, tactically outthought, and generally second best. If Blackpool had their shooting boots on, the whole tone of these last few days would have been different. You're dead right we dodged a bullet. We were LUCKY, and scraped through by the finest of margins. (For the record, I couldn't give a shit that we were fortunate on the day, fuck 'em)



Strangely enough, the turning point for me was the moment of inspiration provided by the person who HAS taken the most unwarranted stick, Kevin Nolan. Whilst George was more effective in shutting down Ince, as Nagel points out, it was hardly a masterstroke and Taylor getting skinned all afternoon by Ince was something that most of the deluded on here saw coming a mile off. If that made us more solid and McCartney/aylors interplay gave us width, it was Nolan's spectacular, and brilliant, volley that saw us visibly grow in confidence as an attacking force.



Of course, none of this matters. We're back where we belong, and the play offs rather than automatic promotion gave the club as a whole the opportunity to unite. It really couldn't have panned out any better, and is the best thing that could happen for the relationship between BFS and the fans. I'm delighted for Allardyce and he deserves all the credit he gets, but there's a danger of making too much of one man; there were many others who deserve praise in equal measure.

SnarestoneIron 12:58 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Lovejoy 12:48 Tue May 22

Faubert was not an assute substitution - it was due to injury. Not saying it was a key moment, but it was not like the McCartney substitution.

Ironically, I think if Demel had not got injured, Vaz Te may not have been on the pitch to score the winner. He had a poor game, and I think Maynard would have been brought on. As it was, Sam had to keep a sub in his pocket in case it went to extra time, and we needed him.

Funny old thing, fate.

Lovejoy 12:48 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Great point about the McCartney substitution being a key factor.

Also thought Faubert replacing Demel worked for us as well. Matt Phillips had the run on Demel but once Faubert was on he couldn't beat him for pace.

Northern Sold 12:44 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

I thought this was all about one word.... fuckin' damn sight more than one

Here's my one word for the season..... Deluded

nerd 12:43 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Dowie was Redknapp player , he bought him back, as was Newell, Jones and Chapman etc. Under Redknapp we were only Good 97 - 01 really . The rest of the time we did hoof it loads to stay in the league or pass it sideways.

North Bank 12:41 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

Billy what a fantastic read and I concur wholeheartedly, when BFS arrived I thought to myself "this will be interesting", but seeing as he'd ben successful elsewhere I decided to buy into it, like you fighting his corner against those that were screaming "football purist" at any setback. Intersting that those naysayers are now the noisiest in their celebration of saturday's victory.

If further proof were needed at how BFS has given this Club a much more professional outlook then you needed to have heard Matty Taylor on Talksport this morning. I sat there thinking that we were lucky to have BFS at the Club and how much of a gamble, yet masterstroke by S&G in appointing him.

I'm under no illusions that next season will be a very difficult one, but look forward to it safe in the knowledge that there aren't many better than BFS for managing the situation

Man Alive! 12:38 Tue May 22
Re: One Word: Professionalism

BFS is paid to be a competent, professional manager. And he is that - just not as soccer-savvy as some fans would like. If he WAS more soccer-savvy, WH would have won the league instead of scraping through. Having said all that, he's the best type of manager for WH in the PL - if WH want to stay up on a limited budget. BFS is much better at not losing and performing against the odds than he is at winning and performing with the odds - it showed in the Championship and it'll show in the PL. Hammer-fans, if you think he gets up YOUR nose, think what he'll do to the other teams! Tomkins will be player of the PL next year - all thanks to BFS.

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