It seems strange to talk about replacements for Sam Allardyce when he still has his ample frame in the managers chair.
But lately, three candidates have appeared to be in a race on their own to be West Hams next manager, if you believe what you read in tomorrows chip paper.
Those three candidates are David Moyes, Gus Poyet and Ronald Koeman. Now David Moyes we all know about. Magnificent at Everton. The complete opposite at Manchester United. There is no doubt that Everton are a big club, and David Moyes was constantly in the top six or seven but, moving to Manchester United was perhaps a step too far for him.
Anybody who took over from Sir Alex Ferguson was always going to face a monumental task of keeping the trophy cabinet stocked up. But maybe a move to a mid-table side, like West Ham, would suit him better. Whether he would want to manage another club so soon after his departure from United remains to be seen, but I would think it would be similar to falling off a bike, when you do, the best thing to do is to get back on again as soon as possible. His style of management can be somewhat defensive but when his teams go forward, they do so quickly and efficiently.
During his time at Everton he was likened to George Graham at Arsenal, often getting one goal and then shutting up shop. Whether he would be welcome at West Ham remains to be seen.
The second candidate is Gus Poyet of Sunderland. He cut his managerial teeth with a four year spell at Brighton, which included winning the League One title in 2011. His start to his Sunderland managerial career wasn’t exactly great but finished with a great run of results which saw his team win away at both Chelsea and United to secure their Premier league status for another year.
But it’s the increasing amount of gossip I’m hearing and reading linking us with Dutch legend Ronald Koeman that really gets me excited.
With a playing career that includes two European cups, five Dutch league titles, three Dutch cups, four Spanish league titles, one Spanish cup and a Euro ’88 winners medal with Holland, he is, indeed, well used to success.
After a spell as assistant manager of Barcelona in 1998, he secured his first full managers position at Dutch club Vitesse, where he managed to get the team into a UEFA cup spot with very little cash to spend. In 2001 he was appointed manager of Dutch giants Ajax where he won the league and cup in his first year and won the league again in 2004. He left to join Portuguese legends Benfica and lasted just one season after winning the Portuguese Super Cup. Then followed a season at his former club PSV, where he won the title by one goal over rivals AZ and Ajax.
After PSV he took the managers job at Valencia where he won the team’s 1st Copa del Rey since 1999, but disappointing results in the league led to his premature departure. After a brief spell at AZ he moved to Feyenoord, where he remains today.
He has massive experience, both as a player and a manager, and has made no secret of his desire to come and manage in the Premier league one day. This could be all the incentive West ham need to try and appoint a manager the fans have been crying out for.
He likes to play the ball on ground, some would say, the West ham way. But whether the two Davids have the guts to do something about it remains to be seen. As the saying goes ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’.
Well, we are clearly broken, we need fixing and Ronald Koeman is the man with the tool box good enough to fix us.
