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Eric Hitchmoe 5:14 Fri May 29
The Roeder Years
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Cast your mind back to the summer of 2001. West Ham were seeking a new manager after Harry Redknapp had been given the boot by Uncle Terrence and were linked with the likes of Steve McClaren (an exciting prospect back then) Alan Curbishley and George Graham. In the end, everyone remembers where they were when they found out Glenn Roeder had been given the job.
Roeder initially boosted the squad by signing David James, Tomas Repka, Lauren Courtois, Don Hutchison and Vladimir Labant, whilst maintaining several key players. After a shaky start (including back-to-back away defeats of 5-0 & 7-1 to Everton and Blackburn respectfully) we finished a very respectable 7th. That season also saw league victories over Chelsea and away at Old Trafford. The players said they all enjoyed playing for Glenn, Joe Cole in particular he was the best coach he’d ever worked with.
So at what point in the summer of 2002 did it all go wrong? In came Gary Breen (who was linked with Inter Milan if I remember rightly) and Edouard Cisse and apart from a few fringe players, nobody of real significant stature left. We got spanked up on Tyneside the opening game on a Monday night, then threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Arsenal. Some say after Kanoute missed a penalty to put us 3-0 up we never recovered (from both that game and our season) and it was all downhill from there. We didn’t win at home until late January, for fuck sake.
That season still lives long in the memory. I remember being 4-0 down to Leeds at home by half time and hundreds of fans walking out. The place was toxic and it was all aimed at Roeder (with the ‘Brown Out’ protests happening after the games). By the time we played Middlesbrough in April (after which he collapsed) he was being booed every time he stood up from dug out.
Allardyce never got that much collective abuse, nor did Grant. So what was it about Glenn Roeder that the fans despised so much? For me, it was the fact that he repeatedly said the phrase “I can take the pressure, I’ve got broad shoulders”, when clearly he fucking couldn’t. His failure to play Di Canio for personal reason was to the detriment of the team and effectively killed our chances of survival. Oh, and that fucking jacket…
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Replies - Newest Posts First ( Show In Chronological Order)
Chi-townHammer
4:31 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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I thought that the prevailing wisdom on Repka was that he was shit, because he always had to cover for the constantly out of position Dailly.
Or was it the other way around?
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Alfs
3:57 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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Roeder was a ridiculous appointment. The footballing equivalent of John Major. A grey, uninspiring, rodent type. 5 million for Don Hutchinson! Says it all.
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SDKFZ 222
3:32 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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I remember Dailly being given the runaround at our place when he played for Derby, more than once he ended up on his backside after being twisted into knots (how prophetic was that?)
... And then Redknapp later went out and spunked some of the Rio money on him, I couldn't believe it. For the pair of donkeys Song and Dailly we could have had a thoroughbred Tihinen!
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Willtell
12:45 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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How about relegation Rodger who for the first time in his career didn't relegate us...?
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MrCrowmanSir
12:29 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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I remember laughing when we signed Daily, he'd already been relegated with 2 or 3 other teams in his career.
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Willtell
12:25 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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True Eric oh so sadly true!
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Eric Hitchmoe
12:03 Tue Jun 2
Re: The Roeder Years
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Somehow I had less contempt for Avram Grant than I did for Roeder. I suppose it was the fact that when he was being interviewed after a drubbing he would at least try to inject some wry humour into the equasion, albeit the man was clearly fucking clueless.
But with Roeder came this arrogance and that monotone voice, like an amalgamation of Stephen Hawking and a Dalek. People let him off to lightly, saying he was out of his depth. I know he didn't get any help from the board and I have sympathy there, but the man was being rewarded handsomely for a job he was fucking abysmal at. And he reeled out the same, bullish statements after every game whilst looking like he was on the verge of tears and ended up making himself seriously ill (possibly unrelated, who knows). And I don't know I'm so angry, he was hardly going to quit that gig was he?
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mallard
11:49 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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lord_knob 11:20 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
That Avram list just made me throw up in my mouth
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Beyond Reason
11:32 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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True - though with new signings Hitzelsperger and Reid, plus Parker and Noble in midfield and a string of albeit meaningless pre-season wins, it took till at least late August for it to sink in! The customary pretty good but too late signing was of course Demba.
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lord_knob
11:20 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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I'm gratified to read that others realise that Repka was a total liability. It blows my mind that some people think he was great.
The mindless fouls and lack of composure were so damaging, but it was still too subtle for some to see. Repka and Dailly (and Breen) in the centre of defence was an absolute disaster area. Those three made Ian Pearce look like Rio Ferdinand.
Unable to shift Repka because of his huge wage, Pardew wisely shunted him out to RB where he could do less damage. Getting a decent season and a half out of Repka was probably one of Pardew's greatest achievements.
Agree that Harry wasted the Rio money and that was a major contributing factor. You might even argue that Mannygate was the point where things started to go into reverse
Relegations are usually the result of several years of poor decisons. Our last one certainly was. Eggy and Duxbury did huge, irreversible damage way before Gold & Sullivan employed Avram.
But whereas Roeder had DiCanio, Carrick, Cole, Defoe, Sinclair, Kanoute, Lomas, Johnson, etc
Avram went down with one of the weakest EVER top flight WHU sides / squads: Kovac; Obinna; Da Costa; Piquionne; Boa Morte; Hines; Stanislas; Sears; Cole' Upson; Spector; Barerra; Faubert; Bridge; Keane and a crocked Dyer and Gabbidon.
Jesus. It gave me the fear typing that list. And they'll be many more that I've forgotten.
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MrCrowmanSir
9:34 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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I always thought that it was as much Redknapp's poor signings as well as Roeder's. 2 poor transfer windows as well as losing Rio and Lampard.
It was Harry who brought in Daily, Song, Camara with the Rio money. I vaguely remember that Southgate was available at the time, don't know if we tried to get him but he went to Middlesboro.
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Eddie B
11:55 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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God, that's painful to watch.
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Grumpster
11:41 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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No shit, Van Persie???
I was even thinking of Van Nistelrooy while typing it. My mind obviously wanted to go for the easier name to spell!
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Eric Hitchmoe
11:36 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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My old boss at the time was on a coporate do at Bolton - the game that effectively put us down. He was chatting to Sam Allardyce after the game in one of the lounges and Sam said (and this is just as I heard it) "I've always had a lot of time for West Ham fans as they turn up in big numbers. Shame you've got a cunt for a manager though!" Obviously Glenn had upset BFS somewhere along the line but that did amuse me.
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Eggbert Nobacon
11:32 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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might want to try that again grump
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Grumpster
11:31 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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I mean I'm laughing now at Van Persie absolutely ripping him apart, but it was proper embarrassing at the time that he was actually a professional footballer.
No idea what he was like as a man so won't go as far as calling him a cunt, but definitely in my top 5 worst West Ham players I've ever seen play regularly for us.
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Eggbert Nobacon
11:26 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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sorry but here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90pzpTG8tgk
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El Scorchio
11:24 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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breen pretty much got a goal and 5 assists in that cup match.
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Grumpster
11:13 Mon Jun 1
Re: The Roeder Years
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I was at Old Trafford and was dissolusioned enough when I saw the useless cunts Breen and Minto in the team together again to place a fiver on them to beat us 6-0.
Remember it well as we were so fucking bad at the time that the odds were only 5 to 1.
Never did collect the winnings and still have the ticket at home in memory of another whooping at OT.
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