Don't sack Zola

[Chuck D]

I don't recall a half a season in 19-20th place under Fonzie.

Fair play to Grant for the cup run, but, in the league, his record is inferior.

We were certainly in the bottom three for plenty of last season.

If Grant had inherited a squad as good as Zola did, maybe his record would look better?

http://www.westhamstats.info/westham.ph ... ue_2009-10

[prophet:marginal]

Yeah, maybe

And maybe Zola, if he hadn't been sacked wouldn't have spent the entire first half of the season in the drop zone, even with the players presently at our disposal.

He clearly got more out of Cole and Ilunga.

We may under him have scored more or shut more out.

[Chuck D]

Ilunga was awful last season, and Cole not great in the latter part of the season.

Maybe Zola would have had us sixth? Where he was convinced Diamanti, Savio and Jimenez were gonna take us last year?

We won once away from home, and were pretty **** all season.

The revisionism on here cracks me up.

Merry Christmas.

[AJ]

loads of club want him dont they?

[ShanghaiHammer]

^ Haven't been many clubs willing to take on the midget as yet...

[The Fear]

Both managers are sh*t

VIOLA!

[Up the Junction]

Ilunga was awful last season.

Ilunga played two games after Christmas last season (and played no more than a half in each).

The revisionism on here cracks me up

...

[Chuck D]

Utj

Ilunga played in 18 games for us last season, the timing of those games is irrelevant.

Can you recall a good game? 18 matches was enough to see that he wasn't the player of the year before (when he needed to impress to earn a contract).

Perhaps he didn't play much after Xmas cos he'd been **** before it?

Hardly "got the best out of" is it?

I'm sure you'll agree.

[btajim - mcfc]

loads of club want him dont they?

That's a fair point. If Managers like Gary Megson and Glenn Roeder can get work then Zola must be in with a shout somewhere.

I always thought Zola was an odd choice but Avram Grant has achieved worse results this season. If he can be replaced with someone who can genuinely do a better job and turn your season around then he needs to come in - but only for the right reasons.

[WHamZam]

Avram has achieved some better results than Zola, too, for sure. I can`t remember anything under GZ that could compare to 4-0 over Man Utd or 1-0 over THFC.

[Bobby Orangeboom]

That's a fair point. If Managers like Gary Megson and Glenn Roeder can get work then Zola must be in with a shout somewhere.

I always thought Zola was an odd choice but Avram Grant has achieved worse results this season. If he can be replaced with someone who can genuinely do a better job and turn your season around then he needs to come in - but only for the right reasons.

Any Manager that can beat Man United 4-0 after making 8 changes to our Team from the previous League Game that we won & can beat T*ttingham, is alright in my book..

[Bobby Orangeboom]

Utj

Ilunga played in 18 games for us last season, the timing of those games is irrelevant.

Can you recall a good game? 18 matches was enough to see that he wasn't the player of the year before (when he needed to impress to earn a contract).

Perhaps he didn't play much after Xmas cos he'd been sh*t before it?

Hardly "got the best out of" is it?

I'm sure you'll agree.

He was fcukign awful last Year in those 18 Games, awful, & he's been argubly fcukign worse in the Games he's played this Year....

[prophet:marginal]

Ilunga was awful last season, and Cole not great in the latter part of the season.

Both were better last season.

Go suck a humbug.

[Chuck D]

I see Grant got the best out Cole today...two goals in a league game is something Cole has failed to do under three other West Ham managers.

What a good manager eh?

[prophet:marginal]

I see Grant got the best out Cole today...two goals in a league game is something Cole has failed to do under three other West Ham managers.

What a good manager eh?

Great.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Actually Chuck, I'd like to personally thank Utuhu and Hughes one for a nice little set up for the first and a great knockdown for the second...

[btajim - mcfc]

Any Manager that can beat Man United 4-0 after making 8 changes to our Team from the previous League Game that we won & can beat T*ttingham, is alright in my book..

I was buzzing for West Ham that night - but the Carling Cup run has effectively given Grant more time. Imagine if you'd been knocked out by Colchester United in the 2nd round. Grant's Cup exploits with Pompey also made him look a little better than he was. They went down with him in charge.

Good result for West Ham today and I hope it's the catalyst for a good second half of the season.

[szola]

Grant and Hughes were the people's fav to take over from Zola iirc.
Grant's team 19th, Hughes' 18th.

[theflafson]

Hughes got sacked from City cause of too many draws.
He now took a pretty solid team from last season and given them the highest amount of draws in the league this season.
We have less draws than them but we have more wins (as odd as it may sound)

[prophet:marginal]

For the sake of balance, though, Zola's record up to this point last season vs Grant's present record is

20th place:
Zola - never
Grant - 14 weeks

19th place:
Zola - 5 weeks
Grant - 3 weeks

From then onwards, Zola was 18th for a single week of the season.

Perhaps of more salient note is that, if you ignore what was a later points deduction, by this point, Portsmouth had won one more game, scored more goals and conceded fewer.

Lets hope Grant improves - he isn't going to be sacked - but I still believe that, if Zola had conjured up Grant's run of results, he'd have been fired.