A closer look at West Ham’s managerial shortlist…
All the talk of Sam Allardyce’s potential replacement appears to be picking up some serious pace at the moment.
Having slumped to a pathetic 2-1 away defeat to bottom of the table Leicester City last Saturday, Allardyce’s future looks more and more likely to be away from the Boleyn Ground.
It’s no secret that the board are considering potential successors this summer, and several names are being thrown around as the fans and media alike speculate who really is the right man to successfully guide us in to the top six of the Premier League and, of course, our new home at the Olympic Stadium.
But who are the owners really looking at and who is capable of taking us to the proverbial next level. It’s increasingly looking like it’s not going to be Sam Allardyce, that’s for sure.
The Evening Standard’s Ken Dyer reported yesterday that there are indeed five managers on Gold and Sullivan’s radar. So here’s a look at who they are and what they could bring to club.
Click on Allardyce to reveal
Marcelo Bielsa
Not many of us know much about the Marseille boss, but just Googling his name during research for this article tells us all we need to know about Argentine.
The initial feeling is that if he were to replace Allardyce then we’d be in for a pretty interesting time under his stewardship.
An article written by Grantland.com earlier this week starts off like this…
“Marcelo Bielsa’s teams are just different. If you’re watching a game with the Argentine manning the sidelines, it’s obvious within minutes.”
That’s because, according to the article, “his side run more and they run differently than any other team in the world.” Blimey.
What does stand out is the following sentence, which stands out more than any other…
“Bielsa has influenced managers from Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola to Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino.”
Hello! The reality is that his teams man mark the hell out of their opponents. They pride themselves on pressing for an entire 90 minutes, which is something we’re not too used to under Allardyce. This is echoed by Zonal Marking on Twitter the other night…
Marseille going man-to-man to such an extent that I'm not sure they really have a formation
— Michael Cox (@Zonal_Marking) April 5, 2015
But there’s a trend in Biesla’s managerial career that immediately rings alarm bells…
“Ultimately, Marseille were brilliant for two-thirds of Sunday’s game before finally fading away. It’s reminiscent of their revolutionary Argentine manager’s career: Come out on fire, blow people away with your energy, and then flame out in a blaze of glory before reaching the finish line.”
Ah. That sounds a lot like the season we’re having at the moment.
Still, he’s managed some decent sides in the past, including national teams Chile and Argentina…
So that’s pretty much, in a nutshell, what we might expect to see under Bielsa.
Rafa Benitez
We all know what the Spaniard is about purely because of his achievements in the Premier League with Liverpool and Chelsea.
He masterminded the greatest comeback in Champions League final history in 2005, when Liverpool overturned a 3-0 half-time deficit against AC Milan to win their fifth European cup on penalties. Then, as Chelsea’s ‘interim’ boss, he lifted the Europa League in 2013.
So we know he’s capable of guiding teams to glory on the biggest stage possible.
But what about his managerial style? His Wikipedia page goes a little something like this…
“He is often praised for his tactical acumen, particularly in European ties, setting his team up to exploit opposition weaknesses.”
It also describes the Benitez as “a firm believer of zonal marking and squad rotation.” Though it also states that “his squads are renowned for their defensive nature and low number of goals scored against them.”
Defensive. Nature. Not again!?
Anyway, regardless of all that, Benitez has the reputation and the experience to attract some pretty big names to the club and, should we achieve Europa League qualification, at least we’d stand a change of progressing to the group stages for once.
Slaven Bilic
Slaven Bilic’s name has been linked with the Upton Park hot-seat since last summer. As a former player, some fans see him as the most ideal man to take us in to the Olympic Stadium.
Bilic impressed as manager of Croatia in the past, and is doing a fairly decent job at Besiktas at the moment, but does he have what it takes to manage in the Premier League?
No one really knows that and, despite his time in International management, he’s still pretty inexperienced at club level.
His managerial record currently looks like this…
Not bad, but not a great to of longevity at club level, despite decent win percentages.
His Wikipedia page, quite weirdly, states that he uses music to encourage players to do better.
Well, that’s alright then.
Though he once said this…
“With the greatest respect to women, football is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Fair one.
Steve McClaren
Ah, our favourite Wally with a Brolly is doing alright over at Derby, isn’t he? They’ve struggled with a poor run of form in recent weeks, but they’re still in with a chance of promotion back to the Premier League.
The way in which McClaren has improved the Rams since taking over in September 2013 has had him linked with a number of jobs in the Premier League, including Newcastle.
Aside from dodgy accents, stupid umbrellas and a seemingly unpopular reputation, McClaren actually is a pretty decent and successful manager. He guided Middlesbrough to League Cup glory in 2004 and won the Eredivisie with FC Twente in 2010. Fair play.
But would he be a good fit at the club? Well, Jason Burt of The Telegraph wrote last month about exactly what clubs get with the former England man…
Either way, let’s hope puts on an accent if he does end up as our manager. Imagine McClaren putting on a cockney accent. How good would that be!?
David Moyes
First of all, it’s worth noting that I find it hard to think of reason why Moyes would leave Spain so soon after arriving.
His time at Manchester United was a complete disaster and will forever overshadow the fantastic job he did with little money at Everton over a ten year period.
If you believe the reports, Moyes is actually Gold and Sullivan’s first choice. Whether he should be or, more importantly, whether they’d get him, is a completely different matter.
He’s not doing too badly over in Spain, either. That, coupled with his overall managerial record, suggests he wouldn’t be a complete disaster should he decide to return to the Premier League…
Though his record does mirror that of a ‘safe’ manager, just as much as his career achievements do. He’s never going to steer a team to Premier League glory, which we’ve already seen at Man United, and his Everton tenure showed that he’s not going to win silverware, even if he did establish them as a regular top six club.
Moyes would, quite simply, be a safe appointment that would see us established further in the Premier League and, perhaps, challenging for a top six spot.
The right man for the job? Probably not. But it all depends on how ambitious the owners are and, quite frankly, how big a risk they’re willing to take.