West Ham are complete failures! Let's all laugh at 'em!

[hisroyalgingerness]

I'm trying to remember a successful West Ham manager so that I could say that Grant is no "suchabody"...the way you'd look at a Bolton manager and say "he's no Allardyce-type dude" or at Newcastle and go "he's not like a Keegan-messiah".

I'm actually genuinely struggling.

Alf Ramsey?

[Lord Kangana]

Sir Trev.

And they probably believe that aswell.

[boltonboris]

Looks like it's Avram Grant. Brilliant. They just keep giving

Good appointment, that

[H. Pedersen]

Looks like it's Avram Grant. Brilliant. They just keep giving

Good appointment, that

Agreed. I think Grant is one of the most underrated managers around.

[Prufrock]

Aye, wouldn't be mocking 'em yet, he'll do alright. Unfortunately.

[fozzy]

Yep, pleased with Grant.

[Tombwfc]

I'd stay say he was fairly unproven, certainly in the league. Chelsea it would've been hard not to win the vast majority of his games, and at Pompey it would've been hard not lose most of them. West Ham will be somewhere in between that, so it'll be interesting.

O'Hara is nailed on to go there now though.

[Gary the Enfield]

Yep, pleased with Grant.

Looks like a done deal according to Sky Sports

[fozzy]

Yep, pleased with Grant.

Looks like a done deal according to Sky Sports

The coming season will be a lot trickier, definitely. No Hull or Pompey chaos, Brum and Sunderland have money to burn. I reckon Stoke will get found out, though.

[Gary the Enfield]

Yep, pleased with Grant.

Looks like a done deal according to Sky Sports

The coming season will be a lot trickier, definitely. No Hull or Pompey chaos, Brum and Sunderland have money to burn. I reckon Stoke will get found out, though.

Let's hope so. Hopefully the Baggies will implode and Cardiff/ Blackpool makes the three.

[bobo the clown]

Looks like it's Avram Grant. Brilliant. They just keep giving

Good appointment, that

Agreed. I think Grant is one of the most underrated managers around.

Do Thai keyboards work differently ? Coz over here that's come out as if you think Grant's underrated.

He's a big mouthed arrogant shite with an ability for self delusion which makes him an absolute shoe-in for the post of Wet Spam manager. No sense of reality, whatsoever and, while some way below 'Appy 'Arry, has an ability to spend money which doesn't exist which would scare me to death if he were involved with us.

[Tombwfc]

To be fair, the bit about him spending money isn't really right, Pompey were well in the shit before he came.

Players Grant has bought ever:

Nicolas Anelka - £15mil
Branislav Ivanovic - £9mil
Franco Di-Santo - £3mil
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2mil

Ricardo Rocha - Free
Dusko Tosic - Free
Quincy - Loan
Jamie O'Hara - Loan

.... and it'd be pretty suprising if he had any real say in who Chelsea bought, considering he was just doing a caretaker job. Bosingwa for example, was clearly signed with Scolari in mind.

I do agree that he isn't underrated though. Winning matches with a good team and losing matches would suggest he's pretty average. Decent record in the cups, but that's about it.

[thebish]

To be fair, the bit about him spending money isn't really right, Pompey were well in the shit before he came.

Players Grant has bought ever:

Nicolas Anelka - £15mil
Branislav Ivanovic - £9mil
Franco Di-Santo - £3mil
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2mil

Ricardo Rocha - Free
Dusko Tosic - Free
Quincy - Loan
Jamie O'Hara - Loan

.... and it'd be pretty suprising if he had any real say in who Chelsea bought, considering he was just doing a caretaker job. Bosingwa for example, was clearly signed with Scolari in mind.

I do agree that he isn't underrated though. Winning matches with a good team and losing matches would suggest he's pretty average. Decent record in the cups, but that's about it.

it'll be interesting... Given that there is quite a bit of interest over a number of Portsmouth players - you could say that he took a decent squad of players at Portsmouth - who were obviously capable of decent performances - and got them abjectly relegated - they'd still have been bottom without the 9pts deduction...

[Lord Kangana]

Looks like it's Avram Grant. Brilliant. They just keep giving

Good appointment, that

Agreed. I think Grant is one of the most underrated managers around.

Do Thai keyboards work differently ? Coz over here that's come out as if you think Grant's underrated.

He's a big mouthed arrogant shite with an ability for self delusion which makes him an absolute shoe-in for the post of Wet Spam manager. No sense of reality, whatsoever and, while some way below 'Appy 'Arry, has an ability to spend money which doesn't exist which would scare me to death if he were involved with us.

So, just to be clear about this Bobo, you're sitting on the fence seeing what he can do at a club with neither a great deal nor a dearth of money, then?

[Prufrock]

To be fair, the bit about him spending money isn't really right, Pompey were well in the shit before he came.

Players Grant has bought ever:

Nicolas Anelka - £15mil
Branislav Ivanovic - £9mil
Franco Di-Santo - £3mil
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2mil

Ricardo Rocha - Free
Dusko Tosic - Free
Quincy - Loan
Jamie O'Hara - Loan

.... and it'd be pretty suprising if he had any real say in who Chelsea bought, considering he was just doing a caretaker job. Bosingwa for example, was clearly signed with Scolari in mind.

I do agree that he isn't underrated though. Winning matches with a good team and losing matches would suggest he's pretty average. Decent record in the cups, but that's about it.

it'll be interesting... Given that there is quite a bit of interest over a number of Portsmouth players - you could say that he took a decent squad of players at Portsmouth - who were obviously capable of decent performances - and got them abjectly relegated - they'd still have been bottom without the 9pts deduction...

Were they? Obviously? A decent cup run, and a couple of league games, but everyone plays well at points. They got relegated because they had shit players. It's rarely otherwise. They had a couple of good ones, couple of decent ones, and a mountain of shite. For every David James there is a Mark Williamson, or a Hayden Mullins. Their best defender can't defend. Their best midfielder isn't theirs, and of their strikers, two are decent, nothing more (sorry Aruna!) and one is a sprinter in football boots. Tommy Smith is Mr Championship, and fecking Danny Webber. The only players who would be guaranteed to get in our team, and this is without factoring in Sean Davis, would be O'Hara, who isn't theirs or Boateng, and maybe Belhadj. The other way round Steinsson, Cahill, possibly Knight, Muamba, Lee and Davies would all walk into their team. They went down because their players weren't good enough, I'm not sure how that's 'obviously' not the case.

All that said, Tom says Grant has only ever bought that list of players (in England obviously), but wasn't he director of football there twice? How much did he know about what was going on? I quite like him, though his 9 point whinging was really annoying, and I think he'd do alright at Spam.

[thebish]

To be fair, the bit about him spending money isn't really right, Pompey were well in the shit before he came.

Players Grant has bought ever:

Nicolas Anelka - £15mil
Branislav Ivanovic - £9mil
Franco Di-Santo - £3mil
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2mil

Ricardo Rocha - Free
Dusko Tosic - Free
Quincy - Loan
Jamie O'Hara - Loan

.... and it'd be pretty suprising if he had any real say in who Chelsea bought, considering he was just doing a caretaker job. Bosingwa for example, was clearly signed with Scolari in mind.

I do agree that he isn't underrated though. Winning matches with a good team and losing matches would suggest he's pretty average. Decent record in the cups, but that's about it.

it'll be interesting... Given that there is quite a bit of interest over a number of Portsmouth players - you could say that he took a decent squad of players at Portsmouth - who were obviously capable of decent performances - and got them abjectly relegated - they'd still have been bottom without the 9pts deduction...

Were they? Obviously? A decent cup run, and a couple of league games, but everyone plays well at points. They got relegated because they had shit players. It's rarely otherwise. They had a couple of good ones, couple of decent ones, and a mountain of shite. For every David James there is a Mark Williamson, or a Hayden Mullins. Their best defender can't defend. Their best midfielder isn't theirs, and of their strikers, two are decent, nothing more (sorry Aruna!) and one is a sprinter in football boots. Tommy Smith is Mr Championship, and fecking Danny Webber. The only players who would be guaranteed to get in our team, and this is without factoring in Sean Davis, would be O'Hara, who isn't theirs or Boateng, and maybe Belhadj. The other way round Steinsson, Cahill, possibly Knight, Muamba, Lee and Davies would all walk into their team. They went down because their players weren't good enough, I'm not sure how that's 'obviously' not the case.

All that said, Tom says Grant has only ever bought that list of players (in England obviously), but wasn't he director of football there twice? How much did he know about what was going on? I quite like him, though his 9 point whinging was really annoying, and I think he'd do alright at Spam.

I said they were obviously capable of decent performances - which they were - and (I'd contend - perhaps controversially) - if your players are capable of outplaying Spurs in a Cup semi-final (and fairly impressively fighting back against us when 2-0 down and not much to play for - leaving us desperately hanging on for a draw..) - then they can't be universally shite - and then it's a question of management as to why they could not perform to such a standard in the league.

but - as I said - it will be interesting to see...

[bobo the clown]

Looks like it's Avram Grant. Brilliant. They just keep giving

Good appointment, that

Agreed. I think Grant is one of the most underrated managers around.

Do Thai keyboards work differently ? Coz over here that's come out as if you think Grant's underrated.

He's a big mouthed arrogant shite with an ability for self delusion which makes him an absolute shoe-in for the post of Wet Spam manager. No sense of reality, whatsoever and, while some way below 'Appy 'Arry, has an ability to spend money which doesn't exist which would scare me to death if he were involved with us.

So, just to be clear about this Bobo, you're sitting on the fence seeing what he can do at a club with neither a great deal nor a dearth of money, then?

Yeah, sorry LK, it's a weakness of mine.

Except this Wet Spam are supposed to be borasic ... to the point that they're asking players to take a pay cut. Though they seem to be interested in any number of £8m, £10m, £12m players ... BEFORE they have a manager who can then say who he's interested in.

Confused ? ... You will be !!

This lot could find Grant's biggest asset is that he's done it all before, so will know what to expect.

... oh, & can yoi imagine him putting up with the David's interferences ??

[Lord Kangana]

I'm looking forward to it. As I say, I've laid my marker at 18 months. I'm sticking by it for the mo, with a good honeymoon first season, followed by mehness and out the door in a shower of money shots and grot mags.

[Prufrock]

To be fair, the bit about him spending money isn't really right, Pompey were well in the shit before he came.

Players Grant has bought ever:

Nicolas Anelka - £15mil
Branislav Ivanovic - £9mil
Franco Di-Santo - £3mil
Jose Bosingwa - £16.2mil

Ricardo Rocha - Free
Dusko Tosic - Free
Quincy - Loan
Jamie O'Hara - Loan

.... and it'd be pretty suprising if he had any real say in who Chelsea bought, considering he was just doing a caretaker job. Bosingwa for example, was clearly signed with Scolari in mind.

I do agree that he isn't underrated though. Winning matches with a good team and losing matches would suggest he's pretty average. Decent record in the cups, but that's about it.

it'll be interesting... Given that there is quite a bit of interest over a number of Portsmouth players - you could say that he took a decent squad of players at Portsmouth - who were obviously capable of decent performances - and got them abjectly relegated - they'd still have been bottom without the 9pts deduction...

Were they? Obviously? A decent cup run, and a couple of league games, but everyone plays well at points. They got relegated because they had shit players. It's rarely otherwise. They had a couple of good ones, couple of decent ones, and a mountain of shite. For every David James there is a Mark Williamson, or a Hayden Mullins. Their best defender can't defend. Their best midfielder isn't theirs, and of their strikers, two are decent, nothing more (sorry Aruna!) and one is a sprinter in football boots. Tommy Smith is Mr Championship, and fecking Danny Webber. The only players who would be guaranteed to get in our team, and this is without factoring in Sean Davis, would be O'Hara, who isn't theirs or Boateng, and maybe Belhadj. The other way round Steinsson, Cahill, possibly Knight, Muamba, Lee and Davies would all walk into their team. They went down because their players weren't good enough, I'm not sure how that's 'obviously' not the case.

All that said, Tom says Grant has only ever bought that list of players (in England obviously), but wasn't he director of football there twice? How much did he know about what was going on? I quite like him, though his 9 point whinging was really annoying, and I think he'd do alright at Spam.

I said they were obviously capable of decent performances - which they were - and (I'd contend - perhaps controversially) - if your players are capable of outplaying Spurs in a Cup semi-final (and fairly impressively fighting back against us when 2-0 down and not much to play for - leaving us desperately hanging on for a draw..) - then they can't be universally shite - and then it's a question of management as to why they could not perform to such a standard in the league.

but - as I said - it will be interesting to see...

That's like picking the one game Derby won against Newcastle and saying they were good enough to stay up, and went down due to poor management, not because the players were awful. You could equally contend that the Semi-final was a brilliant piece of management as he managed for one game to get his group of poor players to play above themselves. The weight of evidence over the course of the season, over more than one manager suggests the players just weren't good enough. Good players under a poor manager would be expected to play well much more often, despite the manager, (see Bwfc under one Megson, Gary).

[thebish]

That's like picking the one game Derby won against Newcastle and saying they were good enough to stay up, and went down due to poor management, not because the players were awful. You could equally contend that the Semi-final was a brilliant piece of management as he managed for one game to get his group of poor players to play above themselves. The weight of evidence over the course of the season, over more than one manager suggests the players just weren't good enough. Good players under a poor manager would be expected to play well much more often, despite the manager, (see Bwfc under one Megson, Gary).

yeah - you could - hence my uncertainty - and my contention that it will be interesting to see how it breaks...