Filed under: West Ham, Championship, Football
Hands up if you believe that West Ham United would now be in the Championship if Sam Allardyce had replaced Avram Grant in January rather than after their relegation from the Premier League.What, no-one?
Exactly.
Before the team has kicked a ball under his leadership, Big Sam has made an audacious statement with his capture of Kevin Nolan from Newcastle United. Among other things, it says clearly that West Ham will not be bullied in midfield this season, and that there is at least one head that will not drop if the team concedes a goal. Last season the total was, on average, around zero.
The value of Nolan was clear when Joey Barton tweeted in alarm at the Scouser's departure from Tyneside: "great player, leader, captain, trainer." Scott Parker apart (and he was not, officially at least, West Ham captain) it is hard to think of a Hammer who approached that description last season.
Some will worry that the former Bolton players are beginning to arrive in numbers, with Ricardo Gardner said to be on the point of joining Nolan and Abdoulaye Faye at Upton Park. But these are all players who will give West Ham qualities that they need, and which the best West Ham teams have seldom been without. Julian Dicks, anyone? Billy Bonds?
No, Big Sam is setting out to make West Ham hard to beat at the very least, and has brought in a player in Nolan who has a ferocious will to win. As we always expected him to.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/06/17/nolan-west-ham-championship-football/
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