Slaven Bilic named as West Ham Manager (09.06.15)

SuzanneClaret

;lol

grey_til_I_dye

That's true, Austin. I'd never really thought of Homer as lazy before... ;wink ;whistle

TwistandShout

Slizzy, is Richard Keys ( ;doh ) still doing the comparison to last season? Time to drop him a tweet?

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

You read my mind Twist......

Was thinking of that earlier, funny enough he seems to have stopped talking about it...he's focusing on the US led European super league right now.

Lukerz

I can see now why the Besiktas fans gave him a legends send off.

Vorselaarhammer

I just love the fact that we have a manager that brings on a striker when we are defending a lead.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Defend from the front.

Actually Carroll is very useful at his defensive duties

SuzanneClaret

Well it's what we did on Wednesday.

A lot of Spud goals come directly from play out of their defense, in particular Alderweireld. On Wednesday every time he had the ball Emenike was right up on him.

Defending from the front ;wahoo

OldCastleSwift

Found this is my gallery from April last year ;biggrin



And he did ;wahoo

grey_til_I_dye

Interesting article on Slav by John Hartson here:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36048540

MrsGrey

Ooh, nice stats ;biggrin

TwistandShout

I love you Slav ;bowdown

TwistandShout

SuzanneClaret said:

Careful what you wish for...

Init ;lol

OldCastleSwift

;carew

SuzanneClaret

;carew

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Turning out to be a great appointment and absolutely no risk at all.

May he be around for years to come, broken records all over the shop and had we got a fair rub of the green wed be 3rd at least.

Fantastic football, great entertainment tough to beat and only two really poor performances all season, every other game we've had a chance.

;ok

grey_til_I_dye

Slizzy

Don't get the 'no risk at all' bit.

There clearly was an element of risk in appointing him, shown not least by the owners' preference for several other managers ahead of him.

As it turns out, he's done brilliantly, but that couldn't be guaranteed prior to his appointment.

You can't use subsequent facts to negate previous positions.

Yeoldhammer

We will see next year. Have seen many managers have a great year followed by a flop

Lukerz

He had a lot of things going for him, but given he had only ever managed in Croatia and Turkey, it was a risk, certainly when you consider who his predecessor was. Although, you could argue there was no step down on the run of form we were on.

His time in the PL as a player has probably helped.

But, like all things, next season is the big one. Plenty of one-season wonders in players and management, and next season will feel like we're away from home every week due to the new stadium.

baracks_a_hammer

Yeoldhammer said:

We will see next year. Have seen many managers have a great year followed by a flop

This is an extremely valid point - he will be under a lot of pressure next season as the expectation levels will be raised. He will also, I would have thought, be heavily backed again in terms of player additions.

I would imagine the Dave's would be targeting him with min top 6 finish, maybe more

Yeoldhammer

I don't think they will target a top 6. I imagine they will look at top 8 especially if we get into Europe.

SuzanneClaret

Also, he might want to go to Everton should they decide they no longer require the services of Ol Roberto....

Huttonhammer

Has anyone thought how different being on this site has been this season? Talk about top six etc is quite strange after many years of struggle.

A lot is down to Slaven but great credit is due to the two Daves.

I don't really feel the need to post much nowadays as I am very happy the way things are.

I could never imagine this situation this time last year.

Well done the manager and the club.

Also a final word on Mark Noble. You have been amazing and I was wrong . I am happy you have been able to show just how good you really are by playing in a good side for a change!!

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

grey_til_I_dye said:

Slizzy

Don't get the 'no risk at all' bit.

There clearly was an element of risk in appointing him, shown not least by the owners' preference for several other managers ahead of him.

As it turns out, he's done brilliantly, but that couldn't be guaranteed prior to his appointment.

You can't use subsequent facts to negate previous positions.

That's what I meant....it turns out there has been no risk at all.

Go back to the first couple of pages of this thread, some thought there was a HUGE risk.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Slaven_A_Laugh_Lukerz said:

He had a lot of things going for him, but given he had only ever managed in Croatia and Turkey, it was a risk, certainly when you consider who his predecessor was. Although, you could argue there was no step down on the run of form we were on.

His time in the PL as a player has probably helped.

You were one of the ones who thought he'd be a huge risk.

I'm not sure 20 years apart in the PL made the difference, buying a couple of players that habe worked very well plus some loans and the Dave's spending more in a window than ever before was more of a factor.

I said I'd judge him over a couple of seasons and I still will, he's raisded the bar for sure but just because of this season I don't exepct anything next season, still got to invest if we want to improve....

;ok

grey_til_I_dye

Slizzy

Think we are coming at this from different understandings of the term 'risk'.

For me, prior to his appointment, there was clearly a 'risk' that it might not have worked out.

If you run between moving cars when crossing the road, you take a risk. The fact that you get to the other side safely doesn't mean there was no risk when you set out.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Hutton, I did wonder the other day about the number of posts on this site....it could be that when the base is split it generates more discussion, debate etc...

Could be me, but matchday threads seem to be down quite a bit.....which is strange as there is so much more positives to talk about.

SuzanneClaret

No

Human nature dictates that more people will complain than compliment.

Those of us that are happy to chat about all of it will always find something to say ;biggrin

The haters need fule for their fire.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

There is that...

Ravel49