Effra sees a lot of changes at West Ham that aren’t actually changing anything.
It’s amazing how quickly the beginning of Curblishley’s regime has come to resemble the end of Pardew’s tenure: big wins against top clubs followed by self-imposed home defeats against mid-table opposition, question-marks about the players’ motivations, and a crowd seriously divided about the Argentineans.
Those of us who weren’t convinced that Pardew was the problem have less to wonder at than some, but I doubt even the most pessimistic of us had Pardew leading a resurgent Charlton to within two points of us by the turn of the year. For the first time this season, I really think that relegation is the most likely outcome to this farcical and shameful soap-opera.
The news that Ashton is not coming back anytime soon takes away the one thing that we had all merrily assumed would whisk us out of the mess. And now we’re facing up to reality we better admit that there’s a reasonable chance that Anton is going down and we don’t have cover in central defence. Beyond sheer bad luck, the cast of villains is endless. Brown’s greed, Joorabchian’s reckless ambition, Pardew’s self-indulgence, Reo-Coker’s sulky manoeuvring for a move, the players gambling and falling out with each other, the Ice Men’s ruthlessness, and the concurrent debacle at Charlton have conspired to produce a script that nobody could have concocted.
Even the fact that for the first time in West Ham’s history serious money is available in the transfer window isn’t going to save things because beyond another ludicrous turn of events there just isn’t a plausible striker who can be bought. Probably the best that we can hope for in this transfer window is to get rid some of the trouble-makers and sort out the Argentinean problem. It’s hard not to warm to Tevez’ skill but I just can’t see how he can be integrated into this team without Ashton. Watching him score goals on Youtube and then singing his name when the game has barely started really doesn’t help.
If West Ham have got any chance, we have to try to give the players who are wearing the shirt some confidence. However much they’d let us down we stood together with them and the manager in the Blackburn game and it made a difference.
Now we’ve got to do it again because the fantasies are over, and our support is about all that’s left that could keep West Ham in the Premiership.