A cohesive strategy? It's like the Addams family!

David Sullivan bought Paulista. Brady blocked Lambert, Sam bought a load of dross and tried to get them all to sign for his favourite agent.

Gold messed up on FFP and Sam thought the world was wrong even when results were proving him wrong every week. I think the Addams family were more functional at times last season. The end was predictable and none of them looked at themselves very much, as a result this rag-tag bunch nearly fell out. To solve next season they took most of Sam's toys away.

They have curbed his relationships with agents, chosen his tactics, chosen some of his players and brought people in to buy players. In fact there is very little of Sam left, he is now more figurehead than leader; more a place for the buck to stop than someone that owns it.

I am no Sam fan but they have set him up to fail, ignoring that by deduction they have set up "the club" up to fail.

He has no transfer power, and is almost certainly having to second guess himself to choose tactics. Players are arriving from the stratosphere and he has to fit them into somebody else's system. We have a recruitment guy, that will have to use whatever budget left over by the two David’s meddling, and an attacking coach "part time" who hasn't quite finished his badges.

Only at West Ham is this considered a cohesive strategy that may work. I can’t imagine any other team coming up with a plan that consists of sidelining the manager and delegating most of his role out to various people.

The Gods will have to smile on us to get something like a clear team strategy out of that mess. I can’t see how that many part time chefs can make anything but a complete stew of it. Nobody in charge, nobody deciding transfer, tactics, nobody can take the club forward without at least looking over their shoulder at least five times.

The question becomes, who thinks that sounds like a cohesive strategy? The top tier at West Ham, that's who. One has to ask oneself - why?

They couldn't quite bring themselves to pay Allardyce off, however if this chaos costs more than two places then we will be worse off than the £3.5million his demise would have cost. Where I stand it seems like a very expensive option being as the chances of success are so slim.

It’s a really messy mix of ego, fear, greed and stupidity and the fall guy has been chosen. I hate Sam. Loathe the bloke, if he had done a half-decent job free from blind greed and ego we wouldn't be in this mess. However this current scenario makes me wonder why he is still here?

He doesn't like the fans, some of us don’t like him. He must need the money badly, or be convinced he can lead this little confederation of egos and self interests forward. If he manages it he will have earned my respect. However I think more likely he will have earned my sympathy when he fails, as he has been set up to do.

I am not sure why you would set your own manager and therefore team up to fail? I am not sure in these days of vast wealth for each place it sounds sensible. I am not sure anything about how our top tier is currently set up IS sensible. I am sure that it’s an awful fudge, driven by all sorts of motives, excluding what’s best for West Ham.

I am told season ticket sales have recovered, but that is because we are all mugs and addicts and all too used to our club being run badly. Other teams are going into the season with a manager the club believes in, an understanding of club culture pervades the set-up and budgets are set with the season’s goals in mind.

Our manager is on very thin ice; our culture has been abused and is being wrangled over by the pragmatic 'no such thing as a West Ham way' Sam and the ever more unhappy Davids. He is there because we couldn't get a manager within the budget that we have. That means our already disabled manager doesn't even have a budget to succeed.

All in all, I cannot conceive of a way that this messy, compromised team that lacks unity or direction or anyone capable of setting a coherent agenda won't fail.

Sam, you cannot win, everyone but you knows that. But then we all worked out Maiga wasn't a target man a bit quicker than you as well, didn't we. Your thick skin might be the only thing that gives this mad, mad plan a chance. I wish you well, and you have my sympathy. When you fail, for once you'll be 100 per cent right when you say it isn't your fault.

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