Astra - Home - Thursday 25th August - Europa League 2nd Leg

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  • Pearces_Left_FootPearces_Left_Foot
    Our squad was not ready mainly because of Euro 2016 /The Oylmpics/ and they got injured if none of those things had happened we would have had plenty of players for the European games but hey that's life at West Ham it worked out pretty well last season
  • Slaven_Cups_His_BeardSlaven_Cups_His_Beard
    edited August 2016
    Slaven_A_Laugh_Lukerz said:

    Herb - not really a headless chicken mate.

    All my points are concerns I brought up weeks ago (no striker, low net spend, first XI not improved etc).

    I then commented on how flat we were v Chelsea, Astra (a) and Bournemouth and how I was concerned with our level of intensity.

    Thing is Luke, with all due respect weren't you saying the same at this time last year?

    And regarding Bllic doing some punditry then it has little to with anything

    ;ok
  • tomkinsworldclasstomkinsworldclass
    Aslef, good memory ;bowdown Just goes to show how important planning is and trying to tie up the right kind of deals. Although I'm much happier we signed Masuaku than Santon.
  • Slaven_Cups_His_BeardSlaven_Cups_His_Beard
    OldCastleSwift said:

    As daft as it sounds, I actually feel a bit like the season is over already. Was really hoping for a decent Europa run. Now it feels like we're competing for 8th place in the league and not a lot else.

    Blimey.....

    Let's hope they create another competition to help keep us going

    ;wink

    Yes it's disappointing and I wanted Europe groups last year, perhaps more than this year for some reason. I didn't think we'd get out of the groups in either year but it would be a good learning curve for us. Next small step and all that.

    But there isn't a lot you can do with 9 key players missing at the same time, even though on paper you'd expect that team to win or go through.
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    I see a few people on here are not too disappointed to be out of Europe as it will mean we finish further up the league. Here are my issues with this:

    1) The reward for finishing higher up the league is Europe. Aside from cash it is the incentive.

    2) West Ham had and hopefully still have a huge opportunity. We are supposedly the 13th biggest brand in football now. This is due to our stadium, league standings etc but it is also because of the attention we've recently received due to being on TV more often, having Payet splashed all over Europe during the Euros in his West Ham kit. Europe would have allowed us to continue on this ride for longer and the brand would have been much stronger for it.

    3) Reece Oxford. Why only Oxford? Well previously I stated that a lot of players who would have had European game time may get vey little game time if any at all this season. People will be unhappy. Oxford maybe the unhappiest. If we don't play him why would he stay?

    4) keeping our best players and attracting great talent. Who knows what will happen with Payet now and in regards to attracting talent, well we've seen that people aren't exactly jumping at the chance of joining us. Having a European cup run would have made the club a lot more of an exciting prospect to join. Spurs regularly being in the Europa league easily attracted good talent. The brand would have grown and people would have come.

    5) I now believe we will go backwards this year. I don't see us finishing 7th again as I believe Chelsea and Liverpool will be better. I don't think we will get this opportunity again for a couple of years.

    Sorry for being so negative. In the same way people didn't want to move to the OS. I believe moving forward is always best for our club and that doesn't mean not making the Europa league main competition.
  • Pearces_Left_FootPearces_Left_Foot
    Sweepy I get your points I think 7th is possible as Southampton and Leicester will be worse this year and have European football. Its disappointing but we are moving forward as a club I think the league cup/Fa cup runs are important for the youngsters to game time this. I look at our squad now and its better than last years IMO . This time last year we had exactly the same feeling and Slav gave us our best season in a long time keep the faith this is West Ham we never do it the easy way but I can see us having a good season again
  • OutcastLondonerOutcastLondoner
    It's a shame we've lost a chance to give Oxford, Burke and Fletcher regular games. Let's hope we get a cup run and Bilic can work them in.
  • Pearces_Left_FootPearces_Left_Foot
    http://www.claretandhugh.info/leroy-unimpressed-but-points-to-reasons-why/
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    I forgot point 6:

    I'm nearly 40 and I'd for once like to see my team in Europe (proper)

  • ASLEFshruggedASLEFshrugged
    sweepy - according to Brand Finance website we're 14th with a value of $274m (up from $209m) behind Everton in 13th on $279m (up from $228m). If our value's gone up because of the new stadium and league standing then we've not gained much compared to Everton still in their old stadium and finishing 11th.

    However you might be right with the TV thing, Everton reached both cup semi finals so got a lot of airtime.
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    ;ok

    I'm just gutted. European tour is a no.
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    Would have been nice to have played this lot:

    Group K: Southampton, Inter Milan, Sparta Prague & Hapoel Beer Sheva
  • SuzanneClaretSuzanneClaret
    ;weep Milan

    I love Milan - I have friends in Milan I could have stayed with.
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    ;weep
  • MunichHammerMunichHammer
    Sweepy, that would never have happened. Two teams from the same country can't play in the same group.
  • sweepy23sweepy23
    Munich, I was referring to the fact that it would have been nice to have been there instead of Southampton. They pipped us at the end of the season. ;ok
  • Pearces_Left_FootPearces_Left_Foot
    edited August 2016
    Group E: Plzen, Roma, Austria Vienna, FC Astra Giurgiu ;puzzled
  • SwissironSwissiron
    baracks_a_hammer said:

    Who else thinks that Slav could have done without doing the euro punditry. The prem season is long enough and ours was destined to be longer again in 16/17 - everyone needs time to recharge the batteries - either he should have taken some complete rest or started planning for the hectic season ahead - a prem league manager has enough on their plate without other distractions?

    excellent point, I've wondered about this before.

    Has anyone (quiz question) seen anyone doing punditry on the telly who was AT THE SAME TIME a successful manager of a well performing football club?

    Time to rechardge your glases and the next subject will be on late nineteenth century Romantic poetry
  • FortuneseekerFortuneseeker
    edited August 2016
    Didn't post last night as it was all too raw and it would have just been a volley of vitriol. So we failed yet again and this season we were going to go for it, hate to see a performance where we weren't!

    Didn't know last night whether to ;lol or ;weep. It was abject & extremely disappointing performance. I could go on but if they can't be bothered then I don't see why I should be (but we all know I will). Not so super sold us short it's ok saying he can't control things on the pitch but he picked the team and failed to get them up for the match. The owners although they didn't guarantee us a marquee striker have failed to deliver, Zaza is not one, fourth choice at Juventus!. Slav has got his man (Tore) but is he going to repay the faith. Can't see why people think we will finish higher than last year as it was a freak season and the big teams will bring about some normality again and as has been said earlier a high position brings Europe and we haven't got a squad to cope. We have lost a large revenue stream with being eliminated so heres to a Top 4 finish or a Cup win, as we haven't got the distraction of Europe, to ease some of the pain, no excuses time will tell?
  • McHammerMcHammer
    edited August 2016
    Pearces_Left_Foot said:

    Group E: Plzen, Roma, Austria Vienna, FC Astra Giurgiu ;puzzled

    That 3rd team means nothing to me!
  • grey_til_I_dyegrey_til_I_dye
    Oh!
  • FortuneseekerFortuneseeker
    McHammer what have you got against Austrians? I just wish the fourth team meant nothing to me! ;angry
  • McHammerMcHammer
    I'm just oblivious to them.

    Haha i hear ya!
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    baracks_a_hammer said:

    Who else thinks that Slav could have done without doing the euro punditry. The prem season is long enough and ours was destined to be longer again in 16/17 - everyone needs time to recharge the batteries - either he should have taken some complete rest or started planning for the hectic season ahead - a prem league manager has enough on their plate without other distractions?

    Totally disagree. You say he should either rested or worked full time. He had a month and a half between season end and start of pre season and spent two weeks being a pundit in Paris (with wife and family in attendance)

  • MarkNobleLocalHeroMarkNobleLocalHero
    edited August 2016
    I thought at the time and still do that we missed Noble badly. That IMO was Slavens big mistake.
  • claretandblueskyclaretandbluesky
    I would have loved to have got through but just think we don't have the team to compete if not fielding out first 11, as Astra have proven two years on the trot now.

    I also feel that the Europa league is organised in a really dysfunctional way. My first gripe is the league format that most teams will find difficult to manage with respective league commitments, why not have a two leg knock out competition?

    The idea that teams eliminated from the Champions league can just get in at the latter stage is also nonsense and adds nothing to the competition, leaving teams who have ambitiously given everything to the tournament having a new challenge half way through. I don't mind the league format with the Champions league as the squads can mostly cope with it but not at Europa level.

  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    McHammer said:

    Pearces_Left_Foot said:

    Group E: Plzen, Roma, Austria Vienna, FC Astra Giurgiu ;puzzled

    That 3rd team means nothing to me!
    This needs a second outing ;clap
  • Slaven_Cups_His_BeardSlaven_Cups_His_Beard
    I'm with IH

    Not literally, on the Slav TV stuff and all that
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    Slavs said he had a knock. Not sure who to believe at the moment. ;hmm
  • MrsGreyMrsGrey
    edited August 2016
    easthammer said:

    I thought at the time and still do that we missed Noble badly. That IMO was Slavens big mistake.

    In the pre-match interview, Slav said that Noble wasn't injured per se but had been 'feeling something' for a while and implied that it was a medical decision - to play him would be risk injury, when instead his body needed to not play, to recover from whatever it was that had been niggling.

    So it wasn't a straightforward 'rest/play' decision - the physical condition of the player meant that it would be best to not play him ;ok
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