It is beyond reasonable doubt that Sam Allardyce is a good football manager. Famously, his teams are difficult to beat and, particularly at Bolton and Notts County, he has enjoyed unprecedented success. He has a 30-40% win rate at every club he has managed, and has experienced promotion on more than one occasion. Last season, West Ham were at their most flimsy, pathetically easy to beat even with a two goal head start, and we now need a manager who can get us back to the Premiership within two years. So the right man has been put in charge then? Far, far from it.
Yes, Allardyce is a good manager. But Pol Pot was a pretty decent mobiliser of troops. Simon Cowell is a very successful music exec. Margaret Thatcher could get an industry privatised in the blink of an eye. The point being, sometimes success is not for the greater good, and this is what West Ham's owners, two men who I am increasingly becoming convinced are ruining the club, have forgotten.
For all Big Sam's success, no club he has ever left has been worse off for it. At Blackpool and Notts County, promotion pushes were replaced by mid-table mediocrity. Hardly a disaster. Bolton are now proving that mid-table Premier League finishes can be achieved playing attractive, passing football rather than long ball and fouling. Newcastle went down with the team Allardyce created, but came roaring back under Chris Houghton, a man who I can't believe was not offered the Upton Park job. Aside from the fact he would commit himself to the right style of play and would have been just as likely to win promotion, I bet he wouldn't have asked for £1 million a year.
But wages are far from Allardyce's biggest fault. This honour, unquestionably, goes to a style of football that is set resolutely in the football dark ages. In a week where modern, passing, probing, possession football has been so wonderfully exhibited by Barcelona (and to a lesser extent, Swansea), seeing West Ham make such a backwards move is nothing short of mortifying. Like it or not, we are one of those awkward clubs that believes it has the divine right to see the right kind of football played, and Allardyce is not a purveyor of that style. Long ball, cheap free-kicks and an overly physical style will not go down well at West Ham, even if it brings success, and although our new manager has expressed his desire to keep our passing style, I just don't believe him.
Recent history suggests I may well be right in my suspicions. At Newcastle, Allardyce took over a team that liked overly attacking football. He did not supply this. Strikers like Alan Smith were bought and converted into dirty midfielders. Not pretty. This style was not just ugly on the eye, Newcastle also slipped from 5th to 18th in the disciplinary table under Allardyce. The fans made their voices heard, and the St James' Park average attendance fell by 3,000 compared to the season before. If footballing profit can be defined by bums on seats, Sam Allardyce is the proverbial thumb tack. At a time when we desperately need a large influx of fans to fill our new stadium, why employ a manager who makes it his business not to entertain?
Avram Grant was the worst manager in the history of West Ham United. Six months ago, I would have hailed Allardyce as our great white hope to stave off relegation, by fair means or foul. But having gone down, we had a chance to rebuild the club in a progressive, forward-thinking manner. I.e. under Chris Houghton, or another young, ambitious coach. Bournemouth, Swansea, Norwich, Doncaster, even sodding Stevenage, have proven that this strategy has long-term benefits. Today's news is a backwards step that may well change my perception of what it is to be a West Ham fan. Yes, we may achieve promotion. But it will cost our footballing soul.
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