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Banjo 9:29 Sat Aug 23
BFS opens his big mouth again.

Yet another example BFS of contradicting Sullivan. Come on David, show him the door.

C&P SSN.

Sam Allardyce has admitted West Ham will need to produce something special if they are to finish any higher than 10th in the Premier League.

The Hammers endured an inconsistent 2013-14 campaign as they laboured to 13th, but co-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold believe Allardyce is the right man to have them challenging for European football this season.

Sullivan has lofty ambitions for the club, insisting they should be aiming for the top six rather than a solid mid-table finish.

Back in May, he said: "I don't want to just aim for the top 10. We should be aiming for the top six. I want to be looking down the table not up it next season."

But Allardyce has tempered expectations of a first top-six finish since 1999, and he believes repeating of their top-half finish two years ago is the limit of what the club can hope for.

"We're trying to build a team that gets where we want to go," he said.

"Let's not forget that year one was a massive overachievement which built expectation. Finishing 10th in your first year (after promotion) is a major success, and there's a backlash to that success always in the game - not just at West Ham, but wherever you are.

"Do fans think you should finish 11th? No, they think you should finish ninth, eighth or seventh. You've always got to live with the expectation but we have to stay real and say that if we have a very good season, we can finish better than 10th.

"We'll be around 10th or 11th in the Premier League I think. That's somewhere we want to try and achieve; it's year three for us - it's not year one or two - we should be looking more to establish ourselves rather than hopefully worrying about relegation."

Allardyce has been backed in the transfer market this summer and has brought in seven new faces, including big deals for Enner Valencia and Cheikhou Kouyate.

But the 59-year-old reckons budget and financial clout are the main factors as to what a club can realistically aim to achieve.

'Across the board, you generally finish around where your wage budget lies," he said.

"If you've got the biggest wage budget then you're more than likely to finish in and around the top four, generally. And then you've got your 10th or above, then you've got below 10th and then you've got the bottom end.

"Over the last five or 10 years, most teams finish around where their wage budget is. There are obviously some anomalies in that - some teams one season can have a particularly good season and some teams have a particularly poor season."

Sullivan's statement could be seen to put pressure on Allardyce's position if the Hammers do not make an early impression, but Allardyce added: "In terms of what the chairmen and the fans expect, all that's fine.

"We can all say that and I want the same, but the reality is we know how to get there - whether we'll get there is another factor on various anomalies as we go through the season.

"For instance, this week - and it's only game two - we may only have one centre-half fit and that's the last thing you want when you're going into a new season when you're talking about the same problems you had last December. Already we're feeling the pinches on the value of the team and the selection process that make or break your season."

Brucies_Star_Prize 9:24 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

I really want to be angry at what he's said in this article but I can't find anything that's remotely enraging!

Capitol Man 9:04 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

To be fair last season was driven as much as anything by the injury problems. We put all our eggs in one injury-prone basket, then has a load of players out.

It drove a need to go back to basics and scrape points together.

Having said that we were very poor at the end and should have been better.

I'm happy to wait and see how things go in the next few months.

dicksie3 8:56 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

I feel a bit more optimistic now though...

The manager can't hide from the facts; the Opts stats proved that we were the most dullest side in the top-flight last season...

Still, we've started this season off well and Saturday's performance away to Palace is the best I've seen from us in a long time...

I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow night now and Saturday's game at home to Southampton...

Mate 8:50 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

terry-h 10:26 Mon Aug 25
Post match it's as if it had all been planned.

Well.... first goal was typical Sam tactic of getting to the second ball after Noble's shot was blocked. Second goal was the result of Sam moaning at Downing last week to take more shots at goal. (source = Downing) and the third goal was another typical Sam tactic of dead ball kick into the area and second ball goal for Cole.

Sam has his obvious faults but everything went right for him on Saturday. Nolan getting injured was a stroke of luck but the team still had a tactical plan.

ajc123 3:31 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Get it all in perspective too. Palace have lost their manager, bought no one and are first on the list of everyone for relegation. This was a normal day at the office for any mid table team. It shows you how shite its been for a long time.

Willtell 12:40 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Lily Hammer 10:15
I agree. All the time the team does well BFS deserves credit for it. But don't kid yourself mate. If Nolan wasn't injured Zarate would not have started and the game and the result may well have been different.

It's just so typical though that BFS claims it as a "tactical" win when we all know it was just luck that Zarate started. Was it BFS's decision to play a more attacking game and to employ an attacking coach? No it was DS's.

Was it BFS decision to sign 7 squad players. Would BFS have signed Zarate who is small and skilful rather than another big lump up front, without prompting from DS? I doubt it very much.

That's why I have trouble swallowing his claim that this game was a success for his tactics....

SurfaceAgentX2Zero 11:06 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Is it just possible that another player had obstructed his view?

terry-h 10:26 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

When Zarate scored his goal, I'm sure Allardyce turned to his mate McDonald to check what had happened and who scored.
Post match it's as if it had all been planned.

dicksie3 10:17 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

I've been pleased with our first two displays this season - especially Palace on Saturday, obviously...

Just hope we keep it going...

Lily Hammer 10:15 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Will

His tactics were spot on. As far as I'm concerned, he's welcome to big up his bollocks on this occasion. All said and done, he has bigged himself and the players up after a very good day atthe office.

So what?

Willtell 10:12 Mon Aug 25
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Lily Hammer 5:47 Sun Aug 24
I never saw any of what you said Lily. All I saw on Sky was BFS bigging up HIS tactics. No mention of the team.

OK then how about this then after telling us all our expectation levels were too high before the match? -
"It gives me optimism and if they continue to finish like they did on Saturday then that's only going to give me more optimism because we're going to be a very, very good side and be in a very good position in the league."

easthammer 8:22 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

If you watched both Sky and BBC last night there was subtle differences in the after match interviews given by BFS

On Sky BFS bigs up the tactics on the BBC he bigged up the performance of the players.

As for the cp article above I agree with him mid table is realistic this year anything better will be a surprise. But hopefully he will achieve that by playing more attractively than last year. Not yet convinced but yesterday was a step in the right direction

Dapablo 7:55 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

As Nolan got injured early in the week the manager obviously trained the team to include Zarate in the role he adopted.


,,or he just ignored the injury didn't do any training and got lucky, yep.

whu 7:17 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

he said 'we played like this a lot last season...'

did we fuck

Lily Hammer 5:47 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Willtell 5:36 Sun Aug 24

He wasn't al I this, I that. He was all we this and we that. He said we had a plan to patiently wear them down, and he praised the players on managing to do this and to get in behind try to their two banks of four, whish isn't easy. He also praised the goal scorers showing quality in front of goal, which quite rightly was all that was missing last week.

So when he clearly made more of a point of praising the players, why the fuck do you paint the false picture of him just bigging himself up?

Willtell 5:36 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

I don't see a lot wrong with this but listening to his after match interview where he claimed we won because of HIS tactical plan just amazed me. Zarate made all the difference for providing a new dimension to the team and got us started with a class goal.

If BFS had left Nolan out to play Zarate in his position then I'd give him credit but he didn't did he? He only left Nolan out because of injury.

BFS loves taking credit when it goes right but it's never his fault when it goes wrong. The man's a classless wanker but if he keeps getting wins I'll put up with him...

Sloppy Giuseppe 5:18 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Norwaytips - re: Nolan and it being strange that opposition fans rate him? Not really at all to be honest. They only tend to see him during MOTD highlights or fantasy league points for his poaching ability (which I have to admit is decent). They don't see him slowly plodding around the pitch, rarely getting involved, blowing out of his arse after 20 minutes. Just think back to his two petulant red cards last season and ask if that is a player that you feel warrants the captain's armband.

For me, I see no reason to start him unless we are playing Carroll up top as they seem to have a fantastic understanding. That isn't going to happen for a while and I think BFS now has a dilemma after Zarate's performance yesterday. If he installs Nolan in place of him against Saints it'll prove that he's too obstinate for his own good. I'd be gutted but not shocked!

bell 11:01 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Darby.. Would the yid keeper just have got out of the way then?
Very nice of him.
It was at a good height for a keeper, hence Caulker 'saving' it.

But unless you can see in the future, I guess that doesn't fit your agenda.

franksfat&slow&wank 10:51 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Hopefully fat mans eyes been opened after yesterday

Darby_ 10:48 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

The WHO bandwagon isn't the world, bell.

Maybe that's why other fans rate him. They see things like the fact that he would have scored a goal against Spurs if it wasn't for a handball, whereas some people on here seem to have blocked the memory out because it doesn't fit their agenda.

bell 10:28 Sun Aug 24
Re: BFS opens his big mouth again.

Norway... The Kevin Nolan who the world could see isn't working for us, and was undroppable by his mate, who was injured yesterday and forced our manager to do something different, which, I'm sure was just a coincidence, worked and we played some good football.
That one Yeah?

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