The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
Mr Polite 1:16 Fri May 25
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At the beginning of the season the target was clear, owners, manager, players and fans all were all together in targeting promotion. Now the season is over we have attained that goal and have had many ups and downs on the way. Here are the Positives and Negatives from the season as I saw them, please feel free to agree, disagree or add your own.
Positives:
We went up. That was the be all and end all for many fans and although not one of them I can’t deny that getting back into the top tier is the biggest positive of all. Target achieved.
The Playoff final was a most brilliant day out. Many would want to go up as champions but winning the playoff final really is the most exciting way to get promoted.
Tied in with the previous paragraph another huge positive was the fans. Away days we went in our thousands giving most other teams their highest attendance of the season. The Final summed it up really when you looked around and saw the mass of Claret and Blue, Loud, Proud and followed the team loyally. Home attendances too were brilliant considering we were in the second tier and the football at times wasn’t to everyones taste.
Beating Millwall
Some very good new signings. Vaz Te being the pick of the bunch but Faye, Diop, McCartney, Baldock and Maynard can all hold their heads up and say they did pretty well. Even Kevin Nolan who came in for criticism, started to look like he was worth the money towards the end of the season. Of course some signings don’t work out and others don’t do as well as you’d want or expect but all in all I think Sam’s signings have been pretty good.
A core of players that were in the relegated team of last season stood up to be counted which was a huge positive. Most notably Mark Noble, James Tomkins and Rob Green. Add to that Carlton Cole finding form late on and a great season for Winston Winston Reid and it gives optimism for the new season.
One of Sams big strengths is organisation and that became clear straight away. Our defence and the work rate of players as a unit was a big difference and something unusual to see in a West Ham team.
Some of the football we played was excellent and really exciting. Brighton at home, a number of away games plus the playoff semi finals showed that we have the talent and the ability within the squad to play some good football. That again gives optimism for next season.
Sullivan and to a lesser extent gold keeping their traps shut more often. This was something Something Sam stipulated before taking the job and I think it was a good thing for him to insist on. As much as I like hearing about the club, they did need to reign it in a bit and well played sam for making them do that.
The debuts of 3 Academy players as well as one other on the bench. Dan Potts and Rob Hall did well with their chances and I have no doubt if there wasn’t the pathetic 5 sub rule we’d have seen more of them or others. Something that comes across from talking to the academy players and staff is how much more interest Sam takes in the Academy players than a lot of previous managers.
Sam refusing an open top bus parade offered to him because he believes that is an honour that should be reserved for Champions. It was good to see perspective offered by the boss.
Our Away form was brilliant. Record amount of wins and the football was often better on our trips away from Upton Park.
Negatives:
I guess even when you take into account the great day last weekend the fact we couldn’t win what is a pretty poor league has to go down as a negative, although not as big a negative as it could have been. It would have been nice to been Champions.
Some real silly points dropped especially at home and we seemed to struggle when teams came and parked the bus. Teams were happy with a draw when they played us at Upton Park and we struggled to deal with being the big scalp. Lots of times we seemed bereft of ideas and very easy to play against.
A number of times Sam seemed to talk before he thought. Blaming fans for poor performances, belittling our history a number of times he didn’t do much to warm himself to the fans. Now I like a man who is his own man and doesn’t take crap from people, I like a manager to be confident but I think it is fair to say Sam took it to extremes a couple of times and could have done more to get the fans on his side and behind the team more. That isn’t suggesting the fans weren’t blameless, but he should know what crowds are like and I feel he and the club could have acted better.
There has been a lot made about the long ball that we have or haven’t played. Whether you agree with it or not the fact is the style we adopted for much of the season has bored a lot of fans. Some can understand it, some enjoy it and others think we could have played better football and still got good results and feel that the fact when we did play good football at times and more often than not got good results proves that to be the case. Whatever your view the cold hard fact is a lot of fans were bored with a large amount of our games and whether that includes you or not it still has to be a negative.
Summary:
After last weekend many negatives can be easily brushed aside and forgotten as the big positive is that we were promoted. If we weren’t then it’s likely people (Me) would have been more critical on a number of things but like most football fans I’m fickle. What has gone is now in the History books and we can look forward to a season of Premier League football when the debates of positive and negative things will start all over again.
With very few if any Premier League teams coming to Upton Park to park the bus and be happy with a draw Sam doesn’t have to have the tactical brains to overcome that which Is why I don’t think optimism for better football and an exciting season isn’t misplaced. A bit of strengthening of the squad and we can all look forward to a Positive season to come… with some Negatives I’m sure….
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread over the season, even when I haven’t agreed with you, it’s been nice to have a football related debate on here. Also thanks to Pee Wee who covered the thread on the couple of occasions I couldn’t do it.
Thanks for reading
Mr Polite
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Replies - Newest Posts First ( Show In Chronological Order)
Scraper
5:42 Tue May 29
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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I'll be honest here:
Bore-list (regarding the football played):
1. Alan Curbishley, who almost got me turned off football completely.
...............................................
2. Glen Roeder, nuff said.
3. ZOLA, going nowhere.
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Ozziehammer
3:01 Tue May 29
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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Apart from promotion the biggest positive , in the main the new signings , the development of Reid and stability in the club despite relegation; Sam deserves huge credit here.
The biggest negative , the constant long boot from the keeper; it has to stop or we will be straight back. Near the end of the season we looked good because we played the ball out then in the final they controlled midfield, why? because they played the short ball out of defence ; almost every time. Had we done that we would have pissed it in, instead of falling in.CAN'T DO THIS IN THE PREM SAM
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Pig__Destroyer
12:19 Sat May 26
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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Just came out, with icicles hanging off my testicles, it was a great relief to get away from the heat today
also I'm a bit pissed
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Foe Bear
12:17 Sat May 26
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Get out of the fridge then LOL
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Pig__Destroyer
12:14 Sat May 26
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I am chilled
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Foe Bear
12:12 Sat May 26
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Chill out, Pig son?
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Pig__Destroyer
12:10 Sat May 26
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Nyeeurrghh eaurgh Joey
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Foe Bear
12:10 Sat May 26
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All negatives have been FORGOTTEN now we have gained PROMOTION.
Elastic.
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Pig__Destroyer
12:07 Sat May 26
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So you're saying there haven't been any negatives this season?
Spastic.
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Foe Bear
12:06 Sat May 26
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Promoted and you cunts are still looking for negatives. FUCK OFF
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Sydney_Iron
12:01 Sat May 26
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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Pig__Destroyer 11:42 Fri May 25
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Texas Iron
11:58 Fri May 25
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gph 8:19 Fri May 25
Go Rechargeable...!!!
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Pig__Destroyer
11:42 Fri May 25
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An enjoyable read Mr P thank you
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Texas Iron
11:09 Fri May 25
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2 Big Negatives...
Not Beating Soton at Home...
Losing to Reading Home & Away...
Would have been Champs if we'd won any 2 of those games
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gph
8:19 Fri May 25
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Batteries are a wonderful invention... on the other hand, they are expensive.
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northbankboy68
8:14 Fri May 25
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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Relative to Big Sam....
Positives - I am sure that Winston Reid's increased confidence and competence was largely attributable to the guidance of Big Sam.
Also - some inspired signings - McCartney and Vaz especially.
Also, keeping the faith with Carlton whose form was bang on in the last few games.
Negatives - the only one for me - not managing to break that massive string of home draws at the critical point in the season.
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Eric.C.
5:50 Fri May 25
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Positive : I think Fat Sam deserves credit for the massive changes made at the start of the season(26 players out 19 players in)and managing to get them playing like a proper team especially away. The Forest away game still sticks in my mind and the expression on Mclaren's face at the end was a joy to behold.
Negative: The unbelievably bad performance at Ipswich which made me depressed for days.
Thanks Mr P and also Pee Wee for entertaining analysis of Fat Sam's shortcomings.
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Mr Polite
5:13 Fri May 25
Re: The Positive and Negative Thread - A season Review
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The more good football is played the less I'll moan about how boring we are to watch. The last few games of the season (final aside) we played some decent stuff, up until then we were mostly dull to watch.
It seemed towards the end the manager finally realised what a number had said for a while that we can play decent stuff AND win.
Long may it continue, but if it goes back to how it was you will be pleased to know I'll be moaning just as much as before. Like I said in the OP I think that is less likely in the prem.
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,
3:58 Fri May 25
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What stands out over the season of pos/neg threads is the way that the author has gradually drawn back from his "long ball" nagging.
For most of us the season has been a success and the football has been much as expected with the changed squad gradually adapting to the BFS way of playing.
The thing that BFS did that most impressed me was explaining that some of our fans are deluded.
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Mad Dog
3:49 Fri May 25
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"Also thanks to Pee Wee who covered the thread on the couple of occasions I couldn’t do it."
ag ag ag
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Texas Iron
2:58 Fri May 25
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I'd agree with those Polite...
My biggest negative was not being able to watch every game on TV...had to rely on Streams...RAdio...and miss many...
Looking forward to next season...
In Allardyce We Trust...he knows how to keep teams up...!!!
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