Footblog

5 reasons why West Ham don't owe Sheffield United a penny

1. They're suing the wrong people. Sheffield United's beef is with the Premier League, not West Ham. It was them who failed to dock the club points and only impose a fine. Suing West Ham for damages is like a murder victim's family suing the murderer for getting out early for good behaviour. Utterly irrational.
2. Playing the stiffs... against Man Utd. They only have themselves to blame for relegation. Sending out a weakened team against Man Utd, for instance, was suicidal - especially given West Ham took six points off United that season, proving conclusively that a team down the bottom can still do the big boys. It's not good enough to only try against sides outside the top four and blame others when you fail.
3.  Dodgy deals of their own. Sheffield United won only one of their last five - against Watford - who coincidentally weren't playing former Sheffield United striker Steve Kabba in that game due to a shady "gentlemen's agreement" between the two sides that he couldn't play. As Martin Samuel points out with more eloquence than I could ever muster, "who is to say that those three points for Sheffield United were any more, or less, significant than any match won by West Ham, with or without Tévez?"
4. Tevez didn't keep West Ham up single-handedly. Only a mug would argue that Tevez made no impact on West Ham's late survival run-in. But by the same token, it could be argued he cost the team plenty of points at the start of the season as well.  He played no less than 16 times in the Premier League before finally scoring a free-kick against Spurs in March. Was the impact another striker could have made in those games taken into account by Henry Winter and chums at the arbitration panel? The year before the club's second highest scoring striker (which was what Tevez was in 2006-7) had racked up 10 goals, compared to Tevez's 7. He arguably cost us points overall.
5. The appointment of Bryan Robson. Immediately after Sheffield United's relegation and the resignation of Colin Warnock, the club appointed Bryan Robson, a man who had relegated every single club (Middlesbrough, Bradford and West Brom) he had managed previously. Any club serious about playing in the top flight wouldn't have appointed Knobbo. Your honour, I rest my case.

One rule for referees, another for the players

Who's been the first person to break the respect for referees campaign? Keith Hackett.

Mark Halsey makes a single mistake by wrongly sending off John Terry, and finds himself busted down to Division Two for this Saturday's match between Chester and Shrewsbury.

When a player makes a cock-up (like Tottenham's "shot-stopper" Gomes did last night) he gets an arm around his shoulder from the manager. When a ref makes a mistake, he gets demoted three divisions by his.

Respect? Right ho.

Be a (smaller) part of it at West Ham

Could anything sum up the current fire sale at West Ham any better than these two banner ads from the official site.

Here's how it looked on August 30:

And here's how it looks today:

Note the poorly Photoshopped shadow of a man standing just behind Mark Noble. Probably safe to assume that was Anton Ferdinand, George McCartney, Freddie Ljungberg, Bobby Zamora, John Pantsil, Alan Curbishley, Mervyn Day...

Death of a "great" football club

Syd King 1901 - 1932
Charlie Paynter 1932 - 1950
Ted Fenton 1950 - 1961
Ron Greenwood  1961 - 1974
John Lyall 1974 - 1989
Lou Macari 1989 - 1990
Billy Bonds 1990 - 1994
Harry Redknapp 1994 - 2001
Glenn Roeder 2001 - 2003
Alan Pardew 2003 - 2006
Alan Curbishley 2006 - 2008

Eight West Ham managers for the entire 20th century; four already in the 21st, and soon to be a fifth. Although whoever takes over from Alan Curbishley won't be what the great Ron Greenwood or John Lyall would call a manager.

"The selection of players is critical to the job of manager and I had an agreement with the club that I alone would determine the composition of the squad," said Alan Curbishley, after he admirably handed in his resignation today, having seen two first-team players - his players - sold behind his back.

West Ham, clearly, no longer have call for a football manager. Then again, West Ham is clearly no longer a football club. It's a merchant bank, buying and (nowadays largely) selling assets when they reach an acceptable market value, with no regard for what effect it has on such fripperies as the team, morale or the manager. But then it was taken over by an Icelandic banker - what did we expect?

"I started my West Ham career when I left school in 1974 and have remained a lifelong fan.I have been incredibly proud to manage such a great club."

We've been proud to have you Curbs. But this is a great club no more.