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Let’s be brutally honest here. Before 3rd June 2010, no self-respecting West Ham fan would have believed, even in their darkest moments, that Sam Allardyce would ever have occupied the seat once graced by the likes of Ron Greenwood and John Lyall.

3rd June 2010 - in my opinion the blackest day in West Ham’s history - changed all that though. Enter Avram the Terrible. The incompetent. The buffoon. I make no apology, as a West Ham supporter for more years than I care to remember, for suggesting to many of my friends that they backed us for relegation when Grant was foisted on us. In my view, and that of many thousands of others I suspect, that appointment guaranteed relegation.

Sadly it proved to be the case and, because up in the boardroom the dynamic duo managed to mis-handle his replacement mid-season, a manager already hopelessly out of his depth also became a lame duck. A toxic combination indeed. The inevitable relegation followed and, in true football tradition, a miserable failure walked away, presumably trousering a decent wedge for the remaining three years of his contract.

So fast forward to 1st June 2011. Sam Allardyce, to many of us the Antichrist, the complete antithesis of everything West Ham’s history post-Greenwood has stood for, is announced as our new manager. Instead of provoking civil unrest and mass season ticket boycotts, which would surely have been the case pre-Grant, there was a grudging acceptance that at least we had gone with a manager who had a pedigree of sorts. This is the man to knock our underperformers into shape we said. And I think most of us meant it as well.

Initial signs were, at least in my view, encouraging. Most, if not all, of the players he brought in were recognised as decent material suited for a season of slog in the Championship. Underperforming - and presumably highly-paid - players like Matthew Upson and Pablo Barrera were shown the door and I for one felt we were heading in the right direction. Early results generally bore this out and our hastily-assembled team was soon being tipped to make an immediate return to the top flight.

But gradually the wheels started to fall off. It soon became apparent, particularly at Upton Park, that teams who got men in numbers behind the ball caused us serious problems. To most of us from our vantage points up in the stands or sitting in the comfort of our armchairs the reason was glaringly obvious. Our midfield had no pace, apart from Faubert. Nor did it have any guile or imagination.

Sadly it appears that Jack Collison, who might have been expected to provide both, isn’t the same player following his injury. Faubert’s pace was too often let down by poor distribution, Nolan who looked so effective at Newcastle, didn’t have Joey Barton to do his running and looked, at times, a shadow of last season’s player. David Bentley unfortunately got injured and contributed nothing and Henri Lansbury has appeared to be out of favour most of the time.

I had hoped Allardyce would have recognised this himself. Perhaps he hasn’t identified the problems, which would be very worrying. Of course he may have identified them but doesn’t care because, as many believe, Sam doesn’t do midfield, or wasn’t able to bring in the right solutions within his January budget. Whatever the reason, we have spectacularly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and although not the whole problem, Allardyce is undoubtedly part of it.

So do we stick or twist? My gut feeling is to stick. I say this not because I have become a fan of Sam but because I lack any confidence in the ability of the Porn Brothers upstairs to get their next appointment right. Their list of appointees at Birmingham reads a bit like a who’s who of managerial wannabees who have never done it at the top level, with the possible exception of Trevor Francis who took Sheffield Wednesday to two domestic Cup Finals.

So unfortunately the emotional roller coaster of supporting West Ham goes on. The Grant appointment was so obviously going to end where it did so relegation itself, when it happened, wasn’t the body blow it otherwise might have been. My despairing mind had already factored that in when he walked through the door. Allardyce’s appointment actually got me to look at the new season with renewed optimism but, with hindsight, that probably says more about Avram Grant and his reign than it does about anything else.

Of course we may still go up. In my view the quality in the Championship is pretty dire. We haven’t exactly been pulling up trees and we’re third which speaks volumes for the rest. So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t prevail in the play offs. If we do then Allardyce, we assume, will be the man leading us back into the Premier League. If we don’t go up it looks like he’s been assured his job is safe but will he, knowing he isn’t flavour of the month with the fans, maybe walk?

One thing’s for sure. Next year promises to be yet another eventful season for us Hammers.

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