It was widely expected by everybody, except Sam Allardyce, that the manager’s job at Goodison Park was about to become vacant.
Sam was adamant that plans had already been put in place for next season and that, after a chat with his chairman, no doubt to tell him what a great job he was doing, he was going on holiday.
One simple rule of management he overlooked was that which says that future plans should not be made until job security has been assured.
Having shot himself in the foot by continuing to play boring football at a club where he had said he felt he belonged and one which was giving him the chance to show that he wasn’t just football’s answer to Red Adair, he immediately reverted to type and proved that his one overriding talent is being able to save teams from being relegated.
Never once in his career has he even remotely resembled a manager who could compete at the top end of the table!
Unfortunately for Sam, Everton don’t wish to be involved at his end of the table any more.
David Moyes, on the other hand, proved us slightly wrong. He actually kept West Ham in the Premier League with relative ease. Their 13th place finish was not what either the fans or the owners were expecting at the outset of the season, but it was a big improvement on where they were when Slaven Bilić left.
West Ham are now a club for whom a top ten finish is almost a necessity. With the new stadium and a reasonably large investment in new players needing to be repaid, managers like Moyes are not quite what the doctor would order.
In fact, he actually had the team playing quite attractive football in some games but always erred on the side of caution when playing 50-50 games or against teams whereby he was expected to lose.
He was also a victim of that old “good cop, bad cop” act with David Gold giving him the thumbs up whilst, almost simultaneously, David Sullivan was entertaining Paulo Fonseca in an attempt to lure him to London to replace Moyes. This was just another case of right and left hands being complete strangers to each other!
West Ham fans want a manager who approaches all games as games they can win and tries to do so as often as possible.
Of course they will find it very difficult to turn the “big six” into a “big seven” as they don’t have the same financial clout or history as some of them, but it is not an impossible task. The club’s direction in the Premier League will very much be dictated by who they next appoint as manager.
At present, the favourite would appear to be Manuel Pellegrini, who holds the record number of points ever achieved by Real Madrid and has won the Premier League twice with Manchester City. He also led Malaga into the Champion’s League and reached the quarter finals, so he could be a very good appointment for The Hammers.
There is also the possibility that he would be able to convince Yaya Touré to join him having managed him before!
So two of England’s favourite old clubs parted company with two of Britains not-so-favourite old managers. They will, no doubt, be replaced by foreign coaches and Allardyce and Moyes will take sabbaticals until called upon by some unfashionable clubs to save them from relegation. Such is the lot of old-fashioned and, supposedy, out-of-touch British bosses.