Wallace

Agreed and I hope the club has learned from this. There were a few rumours at the time that other clubs were watching him so they did their usual in tying him down to a long term contract to maximise the sale value. It was a terrible decision in retrospect and hopefully they will pay more attention to the personality of a player when considering the deals offered to young players in the future.

Their history is comparatively recent compared to other clubs - mostly down to their success from the mid 1970s to 1990. They won a few league titles before then but there was no sustained period of success until the 1970s.

I would be disappointed if we just used the youngsters and squad players because I don't think they are good enough whatever Pardew says. I would hope that he mixes the teams up a bit as I think the youngsters develop more with playing alongside experienced players. The senior players have all talked about wanting to play in Europe so surely not playing them at all and getting knocked out as a result would be something of an own goal. I am sure that Cabaye and Ben Arfa would want to play in the Bordeaux game. If we were to play our strongest team then I would be very confident about qualifying from the group - with the kids I would be doubtful.

I am glad he is not our problem anymore but I do have a soft spot for him. I also went to a couple of talk-ins he did and he seemed to find something to say to everyone who queued up for autographs and photos and no-one was turned away. It is not very often you see that happen. I think Twitter is the worst thing for him as it has given him a platform to voice his opinions on everything and he seems to love/crave the attention he gets from it. With us he seemed to keep his head and concentrate on the football whereas now he seems to have involved himself in so many other activities that it is almost impossible to ignore him. He is a complicated person who never quite knows when enough is enough and so ends up crossing the line on too many occasions in both word and deed. I hope he does well in Marseilles - if he is doing well on the pitch, he will probably be better off it. He is also right about our game there - one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced - though that fire had us worried for a few minutes but also bemused by the lack of concern from all surrounding it.

Absolutely. I've lost count of the number of times I have heard pundits talk about the top 6 from last season and include Liverpool in that but not us.

Also did Allardyce even play Carroll when he was here. I seem to remember he was out on loan to Preston yet he claims to have some responsibility for discovering him even though he had made his debut before his arrival. I am sure it was only after Keegan arrived that he started to get the odd subs appearance. Seeing as half of the London media are West Ham fans, if Carroll does well, his achievements will be exaggerated. Love the lad - want him to do well - but I just loathe Allardyce and so want West Ham relegated.

That's what I thought but if he thinks he is underperforming then perhaps he should have given him more than 10 minutes on the pitch in pre-season.

How many qualify from the group now? Didn't it used to be 3 when we were last in the UEFA Cup?

This. He is a better footballer than that. Interesting how many West Ham players the agent Mark Curtis now has on his books as well as the manager. Hadn't realised that Matt Jarvis was one of his. He's managed to sign up a couple of the young ones there as well - no doubt due to Nolan's influence.

I agree to some extent, but ultimately the goal is to finish up as high as possible, and 5th is therefore better than 8th. Last season was a great achievement. Obviously our lack of movement is very much against that goal, but the prize and the end of it all, is league positions & cups, and we achieved our best league position since proper ages ago. Exactly, if you're going to ask questions like "why bother finishing 5th" you may as well admit that football is basically pointless. There are many achievements in football beyond getting into the Champions League. We did extremely well last season and had a great time, to dismiss that because of a poor transfer window is idiotic. Absolutely. Why bother finishing 5th? Fkn hell. Luckily nobody has asked that, certainly not me. Nice attempt though, both of you. What were you asking then? You said "Ultimately what good has finishing 5th last season done us?", and went on to say that we might as well have finished 8th for the good it has done us. 5th made all the difference. It was a flat out fantastic season, and gave me an unbelievable amount of pride coming above the likes of Chelsea, and yes, Liverpool and Sunderland. For someone often having a go at the balance sheet brigade, you seem to take a very businesslike approach to what constitutes an achievement. I have never said it doesn't constitute a great achievement. You've hastily erected a rather pitiful straw man. I'm asking what difference it has made for the club going forward, over a hypothetical finish of 8th. What have we done to progress as a club that we couldn't have done had we finished 8th? Here's a tip: Cisse aside we signed all of the current brilliant first team off the back of finishing 12th. Some not even that. By finishing 5th, I reckon the group of our key players truely believe together they can build on what we have. Finishing a hypothetical 8th, I think they would have been pushing for moves. Think people are seriously underplaying how big an achievement it is that we've kept everyone together when you see our rivals have lost the likes of van der Vaart, Modric, van Persie, Song, etc. Can't have been that big an achievement seeing as the Club said they had not received any bids for them.

More likely that transfer fees will go up and we don't even want to pay them now. Maybe you're right, I could be proved to be a fool but I think it will work out because all the signs over the past two seasons have said it's been working Players wage demands will go up as will agents fees - always happens when the TV revenue increases. Maybe it would have made sense to tie players up on long-term deals on the current rates.

The problem with waiting to January is usually that there is no value in that window. We got lucky with Cisse last year but if we are in a position where we desperately need a striker in January, clubs are bound to inflate their prices because of that.

Are there any other Premier League clubs like ourselves who are just not being mentioned at all today?

Totally agree, we're much better off just forgetting the whole soap opera. It is finished now. Don't think he will ever get the opportunity to come back here again. If he does well this season, Liverpool will want more money and by the end of his next contract, he will be too old for us.

Hasn't be been injured for something like the last 3 years?

What about Dummett? Wasn't he supposed to be the up and coming left back?

Find it irritating that Pardew is always telling us we have to be grateful to Ashley. Does any other manager constantly tell their supporters to be grateful to their owner? It just makes Ashley sound like some immature egocentric who has to be told how much he is loved all the time. If we are nice to him then he might be nice back.

How desperate must you be to throw so much money at a player who does not want to play for you. If Carroll doesn't want to move to West Ham, they should just leave it. Just as Liverpool fans believe that he underperformed for them because he really wanted to stay with us, surely it would be the same with West Ham? They already said they couldn't afford him any more because of the transfer deals they have done in the last couple of weeks and before that they said they would be spending all of their transfer budget on him and couldn't afford any other players for the forseeable future if they got him. If that is true, then they are idiots for even attempting to sign him. I really want him back here so I hope he refuses to go anywhere else so Liverpool have no choice but to accept our offer. And I really think Allardyce will stunt his development as it will be all long ball stuff and AC is a better player than that. I think the way Rodgers is treating him is appalling though.

Just think the club should be more honest with its ambitions. It is nonsense to talk of challenging for the Champions League considering the pressure that will be on a small squad with extra games and a dependence on not picking up injuries when the squad has not really been strengthened and is in fact weaker in one or two areas. They ended last season talking about our exciting transfer targets so it is no wonder that people are disappointed at this stage.

I don't hear Everton, Liverpool, Spurs or infact any other club constantly go on about how much they are worried about a bid coming in for one of their better players. If it happens, it happens - just don't keep reminding everyone about it. It just sounds like we are trying to encourage bids rather than deter them. It is the same for every club and if the player wants to leave, they will normally get their way. If you want to keep the player and they are not that bothered about moving, then you turn the offer down. Other clubs seem to manage this but they make it always sound as if we have no choice but to sell once we receive an offer.

I personally think finishing 7th/8th would be a great feat this season but would not be surprised if we finished lower. Chelsea will be above us and maybe Everton/Liverpool and of course those Mackems think they are going to storm the top 6 now!! Say we finish 7th then we will have already lost £1.5m because of the lower placing. Would spending an extra £1m help us to finish higher? I don't want or expect us to spend, spend, spend but we were obviously prepared to spend £15m earlier in the season had our offers been accepted. They keep telling us how they have all these players scouted and ready to move on to if they fail to land their preferred target but that does not seem to be the case. I obviously don't want them to sign players for the sake of it but I cannot believe there is seemingly never any willingness to compromise on our part whilst at the same time expecting everyone else to do so. I am also not sure whether the prices will drop next year as other clubs will be very aware of the new TV deal and will probably ask for more money for their players as will agents for salaries and commission.

Feel a bit sorry for Pardew as the board do not seem to be backing him but yet again he will have to be the one to front up to the criticism and try and deflect any flak away from Ashley and Llambias. And all that talk of having a Plan B, C etc if they can't land their first choice seems to be rather hollow now. I hope he stops this talk of challenging for the Top 4 as unless they are misleading everyone and there are signings lined up, I just don't see how we can repeat what we did last year.

Might get it done by the close of the Summer 2013 window.

I'd be sceptical of any contingency plans we might have should a bid come in for Cabaye considering our lack of success in the transfer market this Summer. Presumably if we have a replacement in mind that club would also want us to pay a premium price and I don't suppose we would agree to that. I guess if Tiote was to go, you could say Anita was his replacement but I don't know who would replace Cabaye from our current squad now that Guthrie has left.

He's had no pre-season so it will be a while before he actually plays for anyone regardless of who signs him.