That's your impression, but it isn't supported by the pesky facts.
Does the fact that he repeatedly blamed players in post match interviews not count as pesky facts? Words straight from his own mouth don't count as pesky facts?
I do think he has a tendency to blame things out of his control (missed chances, poor defending, crowd negativity, referee etc), but I'm sure he has also shown times when he does accept responsibility.
if a player misses a sitter, or gives away a bad pass to let a player in to score, how is referring to that 'blaming' as opposed to 'ruing'?
How many times have people on here pointed out poor refereeing decisions recently?
Is it OK for fans, but not managers?
I take it anyone on here praising our performances of late by referring to injuries is also 'blaming' them in that case.
As Slav pointed out after the Soton game, it was the players that got us back in to the game, but the corollary is that they were the ones who got us in to the mess in the first place.
Think the problem with Sam a lot of the time is the way he "words" things. He's old school in that area. He comes across that way in his book, he tends to use "I" instead of "we" a lot. He also has a lot of confidence in his own ability (not a bad trait to have) plus he just seems to be a "Speak my mind, say what I like, like what I bloomin well say" type of bloke to a point........
Trouble is, whatever he said about WHU during his reign or even after he went, so many got so precious about some of his quotes. All the while the media were quoting his book and it was being serialised then I wondered what the full chapter/subject looked like and it's no surprise they took the "shock" pieces and ran with them.
When you read the entire book and see the context a lot clearly of some stuff, he hardly ever slaughtered anyone at the club. He see's it as black and white, results, points, promotion and stay up, that appears to have been his list of goals, so that's what he did. He talks about the play-off win as one of his finest achievements and he also says we over achieved massively in the first season, which didn't help with the expectation in the following seasons (that I agree with 100%).
He didn't help himself in the begining, with some of the things he said, no doubt had he worded those things better, it could've been a slightly better relationship with some of the fans, however I'll always believe that no matter what he did or said, even if he told them they were the worlds greatest fans everyday, there was a group that refused to 'take to him' in any shape or form, they'd already made their minds up and had their agenda from the minute he was appointed.
Look at the match day squad for our first game back in the PL vs Aston Villa
Jussi Jaaskelainen George McCartney (O'Brien 71) Guy Demel Winston Reid James Collins Mohamed Diame Kevin Nolan (Tomkins 73) Matt Taylor Mark Noble Carlton Cole (Maiga 81) Ricardo Vaz Te
Substitutes Stephen Henderson Nicky Maynard James Tomkins (Nolan 73) Alou Diarra Joey O'Brien (McCartney 71) Modibo Maiga (Cole 81)
Look at the team we have now.....
Adrian Tomkins Reid Collins Cresswell Kouyate Noble Carroll Sakho
The spine was all built or made better during the Sam era and has now been complimented with the likes of.....
Obiang Payet Antonio
(and that's not including loans of Jenks, Song, Moses and Lanzini in both pre and post era's)
From day 1 for me, he will always was and will always be, a means to an end.
my answer would be probably more on the side of yes, but still not 100% convinced bilic is the answer yet, yes hes brought well and we are playing some good stuff but tactically he still as room for improvement imo so time will tell
Corresponding fixtures comparison (I have replaced the three promoted sides of Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich with the three relegated sides of the previous season, with Bournemouth being Hull because Hull finished highest within the bottom three, and AFCB won the Championship etc):
2014/15; 2015/16
Arsenal 3-0 West Ham; Arsenal 0-2 West Ham West Ham 2-0 Leicester; West Ham 1-2 Leicester West Ham 3-0 Hull; West Ham 3-4 Bournemouth Liverpool 2-0 West Ham; Liverpool 0-3 West Ham West Ham 1-0 Newcastle; West Ham 2-0 Newcastle Man City 2-0 West Ham; Man City 1-2 West Ham West Ham 2-0 QPR; West Ham 2-2 Norwich Sunderland 1-1 West Ham; Sunderland 2-2 West Ham Crystal Palace 1-3 West Ham; Crystal Palace 1-3 West Ham West Ham 0-1 Chelsea; West Ham 2-1 Chelsea Burnley 1-3 West Ham; Watford 2-0 West Ham West Ham 1-2 Everton; West Ham 1-1 Everton Tottenham 2-2 West Ham; Tottenham 4-1 West Ham West Ham 1-1 WBA; West Ham 1-1 WBA Man Utd 2-1 West Ham; Man Utd 0-0 West Ham West Ham 1-1 Stoke; West Ham 0-0 Stoke Swansea 1-1 West Ham; Swansea 0-0 West Ham Aston Villa 1-0 West Ham; Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham West Ham 1-3 Southampton; West Ham 2-1 Southampton
2014/15 total points = 23 2015/16 total points = 29
So Slav is doing six points better than Sam from the same games. So all this "we're worse off than at this stage last season" is rubbish, because we're 2 wins better off.
So it's looking good as long as Slav avoids a disastrous second half of the season.
given that the owners didn't do anything in the Jan 15 transfer window to back up the excellent start we had to last season (which kind of tells me they were ready to part with him at the end of his contract anyway) and the players themselves were diabolical (to the extent they could barely pass to each other), then it was probably the right decision not to renew his contract
Grey - I always like to go by corresponding fixtures, as opposed to 'number of games'.
You could play Watford, Newcastle, WBA, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Villa in your first six games of the season, take 12 points + and then next season start with Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea, taking 3 points.
I know they're extremes, but comparing those set of fixtures would be completely unfair.
Comments
"I suppose I look to blame somebody"
That sums it up to me, he always looked to blame someone and never accepted responsibility for bad results or performances himself.
Interview:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35202176
That's your impression, but it isn't supported by the pesky facts.
We'll have to disagree on this one.
Well, they would if that is what he had done.
You think that's what he did, but I don't believe you'd find a lot of evidence for it.
It's one of those things that people 'know' without it actually being true.
So yes, we will have to disagree.
How is that 'blame'?
if a player misses a sitter, or gives away a bad pass to let a player in to score, how is referring to that 'blaming' as opposed to 'ruing'?
How many times have people on here pointed out poor refereeing decisions recently?
Is it OK for fans, but not managers?
I take it anyone on here praising our performances of late by referring to injuries is also 'blaming' them in that case.
As Slav pointed out after the Soton game, it was the players that got us back in to the game, but the corollary is that they were the ones who got us in to the mess in the first place.
Trouble is, whatever he said about WHU during his reign or even after he went, so many got so precious about some of his quotes. All the while the media were quoting his book and it was being serialised then I wondered what the full chapter/subject looked like and it's no surprise they took the "shock" pieces and ran with them.
When you read the entire book and see the context a lot clearly of some stuff, he hardly ever slaughtered anyone at the club. He see's it as black and white, results, points, promotion and stay up, that appears to have been his list of goals, so that's what he did. He talks about the play-off win as one of his finest achievements and he also says we over achieved massively in the first season, which didn't help with the expectation in the following seasons (that I agree with 100%).
He didn't help himself in the begining, with some of the things he said, no doubt had he worded those things better, it could've been a slightly better relationship with some of the fans, however I'll always believe that no matter what he did or said, even if he told them they were the worlds greatest fans everyday, there was a group that refused to 'take to him' in any shape or form, they'd already made their minds up and had their agenda from the minute he was appointed.
Look at the match day squad for our first game back in the PL vs Aston Villa
Jussi Jaaskelainen
George McCartney (O'Brien 71)
Guy Demel
Winston Reid
James Collins
Mohamed Diame
Kevin Nolan (Tomkins 73)
Matt Taylor
Mark Noble
Carlton Cole (Maiga 81)
Ricardo Vaz Te
Substitutes
Stephen Henderson
Nicky Maynard
James Tomkins (Nolan 73)
Alou Diarra
Joey O'Brien (McCartney 71)
Modibo Maiga (Cole 81)
Look at the team we have now.....
Adrian
Tomkins
Reid
Collins
Cresswell
Kouyate
Noble
Carroll
Sakho
The spine was all built or made better during the Sam era and has now been complimented with the likes of.....
Obiang
Payet
Antonio
(and that's not including loans of Jenks, Song, Moses and Lanzini in both pre and post era's)
From day 1 for me, he will always was and will always be, a means to an end.
;ok
Now, at the half way point and based on what you've witnessed so far, was the decision to part with Sam the correct one?
2014/15; 2015/16
Arsenal 3-0 West Ham; Arsenal 0-2 West Ham
West Ham 2-0 Leicester; West Ham 1-2 Leicester
West Ham 3-0 Hull; West Ham 3-4 Bournemouth
Liverpool 2-0 West Ham; Liverpool 0-3 West Ham
West Ham 1-0 Newcastle; West Ham 2-0 Newcastle
Man City 2-0 West Ham; Man City 1-2 West Ham
West Ham 2-0 QPR; West Ham 2-2 Norwich
Sunderland 1-1 West Ham; Sunderland 2-2 West Ham
Crystal Palace 1-3 West Ham; Crystal Palace 1-3 West Ham
West Ham 0-1 Chelsea; West Ham 2-1 Chelsea
Burnley 1-3 West Ham; Watford 2-0 West Ham
West Ham 1-2 Everton; West Ham 1-1 Everton
Tottenham 2-2 West Ham; Tottenham 4-1 West Ham
West Ham 1-1 WBA; West Ham 1-1 WBA
Man Utd 2-1 West Ham; Man Utd 0-0 West Ham
West Ham 1-1 Stoke; West Ham 0-0 Stoke
Swansea 1-1 West Ham; Swansea 0-0 West Ham
Aston Villa 1-0 West Ham; Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham
West Ham 1-3 Southampton; West Ham 2-1 Southampton
2014/15 total points = 23
2015/16 total points = 29
So Slav is doing six points better than Sam from the same games. So all this "we're worse off than at this stage last season" is rubbish, because we're 2 wins better off.
So it's looking good as long as Slav avoids a disastrous second half of the season.
It's not exactly rubbish, though, is it?
It's simply how one chooses to look at things.
After the first 19 games last season we had 31 points, this year it is 29.
That's easily as valid a comparison as yours.
As to whether it was the right decision, I'd say more that it wasn't (at least so far) the wrong one.
Also because there is no way we won't beat last years haul of 47 points, so it was a step in the right direction
Can we move on now?
;devil
Go to your room.
Then all of a sudden they "find" £35m in the summer.
No emphasis on youth
Actually a decent squad ;nonono
Doesn't feel like West Ham anymore ;weep
You could play Watford, Newcastle, WBA, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Villa in your first six games of the season, take 12 points + and then next season start with Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea, taking 3 points.
I know they're extremes, but comparing those set of fixtures would be completely unfair.
I see your point, but the halfway stage is, for me, a reasonable marker, since you have played every team once (albeit H and A will be different.).
You could argue that adjusting for promoted/relegated teams is not particularly scientific...