Match Thread vs West Ham (A) sponsored by Kaspars Gorkss

[RedRum]

He was one of our best players IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP and has won 2 championship titles in the last 3 years so with respect - you're talking out of your ass. Even if he doesn't start he is a useful 3rd choice that won't cost the earth.

According to this, if Wolves had stayed up, Gorkss was set to go there permanently on £25,000 p/w.

Presumably this is what he earns at Reading, if so "won't cost the earth" doesn't seem like an accurate description.
I can now see why NA played him today: put him in the shop window (probably didn't work that well though).

No way is Gorkss on that. We signed him on a shoe-string budget when TSI was not even heard of to Reading fans. Yes, he probably took a pay rise as all players when we got promoted, but that will be decreased again now.

[Mike Hunt]

He was one of our best players IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP and has won 2 championship titles in the last 3 years so with respect - you're talking out of your ass. Even if he doesn't start he is a useful 3rd choice that won't cost the earth.

Talking out of my ass? How old are you?

I will agree that he could be a good 3rd choice defender, a year older, he's slower now than he was 18 months ago. A year down the line and he is way past his best. Nah......new blood please

I don't think my age has anything to do with you talking bollox but since you asked it's 32.

Holy shit, 32? Sorry, but I would have pinned you as 19

[handbags_harris]

Well that was all a bit inevitable wasn't it? Season summed up in one game really. Desperate in defence, despite the obvious happening and everything, literally everything good about West Ham going through Andy Carroll. I don't suppose Carroll will have had a more productive game and was a bit unlucky not to have notched himself but he's never been the most potent striker in the Premier League.

Despite the obvious defensive deficiencies which will almost always crop up when you play as expansive a style as Adkins teams play, there can only be a sense of cautious optimism for next season. I just hope our fans can accept that the Adkins style of play will inevitably lead to around 50 goals conceded next season, but I can see us scoring around 60-70. I have total faith in Adkins for the simple reason 4 promotions in 7 seasons as a manager suggests he has what it takes, but of course there will be a lot of comings and goings. A lot depends on who we bring in to replace the attritional players we seem to have a dearth of and replace those players with personnel who are more comfortable and capable of unlocking defences.

And we can add Kevin Nolan to the following select list for season 12/13:-

Theo Walcott
Jordi Gomez
Santi Cazorla

Which begs the question, is that a record for number of hat-tricks scored against us in one season?

[P!ssed Off]

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wol ... rs-gorkss/

According to this, if Wolves had stayed up, Gorkss was set to go there permanently on £25,000 p/w.

Presumably this is what he earns at Reading, if so "won't cost the earth" doesn't seem like an accurate description.
I can now see why NA played him today: put him in the shop window (probably didn't work that well though).

As an asset, I think we might be able to sell Gorkss for ~£250k, but I would shift him for less or free, to get him off the wage bill.
25K p/w (if that's correct) with one year left on his contract, is a cost of over £1.25 million.

If we shift him we'll have £1.25 million+ to get in a 3rd choice cb (to spend on transfer and 1 years at least wages). We could get in a promising cb from L1 or L2 for ~£250k (like Morrision cost) on £5-10k per week. At the end of the first year, we'll have spent less money (than if we'd kept Gorkss), have an asset of real value (as opposed to a player leaving on a free), be better set for the long term (as opposed to a short term fix). It is also possible that on the pitch the player we bring in will perform as good as Gorkss would have.

Personally, at cb next season I'd like to see a partnership of Mariappa and Morrison, with a new young signing from L1/L2 and possibly Michael Hector (he's been good out on loan) competing for 3rd choice and putting pressure on the 2 starters.

No way is he earning £25k pw. And no way would Wolves be in the position to pay that either. Don't believe that at all sorry.

It would seem an excessive amount, but seeing as Pearce was supposedly after £35k p/w AND and we signed Gorkss straight after he was a key part of a Championship winning team AND he most likely got a wage bump after our promotion, £25k p/w might not be far off the mark.

[P!ssed Off]

Fact is, we've been playing older/experienced players in defence the last few years (Griffin, Harte, Zurab, Gorkss) to chase short term glory.
But we've seen this season that short term glory in the Championship will not get you far in the Premiership.

We've finally got the chance to build a long term cb partnership that could take us far, we have to take this opportunity.
In the first season of the Sonko/Ivar partnership, Sonko was 23 and Ivar was 27. This partnership took us to glory and would have lasted longer if not for Sonko's injury.

Start of next season: Mariappa = 26, Morrison = 22. There's no reason why this partnership could not last 5+ years, taking us to the Premiership and possibly keep us there.

[handbags_harris]

Just like to point out that, I think, today is Sam Allardyce's first win as a manager over Reading. It only took 19 years for him to do that.

Also, the fickle and quite frankly bizarre nature of the West Ham fan is to whinge, bitch and moan about Allardyce's style not being "the West Ham way" yet unrepentantly laud the playing qualities of a player Allardyce brings in to enable them to play the long ball more effectively. Seriously, make your mind up you bunch of mugs

[Ian Royal]

No BFTG thread?

Here's my thoughts from what I could pick up from a terrible view of the pitch.

WTF was Gorkss playing for?
The game was: Mediocre->Shit->/HT/Great->Mediocre->Shit

Obviously McCarthy dropped a clanger, but we know he doesn't have the best kicking and yet we persisted in passing back to him under pressure when West Ham had obviously got a game plan to chase him down. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

What I could see was that Guthrie looked quality again. We didn't quite have the final ball again. Blackman was passable. Gorkss picked up where he left off and was diabolical. West Ham are thugs.

Thank fuk this season is over.

[bobby1413]

How many actually made the trip for this?

[scumbag]

FWIW i heard just after we signed Gorkss he was on 25k.

Anyone BFTG and can give us a rough estimate on how our boycott went?

[Will95]

FWIW i heard just after we signed Gorkss he was on 25k.

Anyone BFTG and can give us a rough estimate on how our boycott went?

500, 600 went would be my guess?

[AthleticoSpizz]

just out of interest

Was Kaspers our only centre back today?

[floyd__streete]

Points per game under Brian this season: 0.79
Points per game under Nigel this season: 0.625

Very underwhelmed by Nigel's 8 games in charge. The 'experimentation period' spin which has been put on it should ensure we have a strong start to next season I think if Nigel doesn't take us str8 back up he'll probably pay with his job.

Bizarre stuff again today. Gorkss Really Couldn't he have just picked up the phone to Brian or Neil Warnock to find out how capable Kaspars is in the Premier League. Disastrous performance from the back 5 who were all very very poor. The first goal we conceded was just shocking, f@rt-@rsing around with the ball in our own 18 yard box.....we don't have the players to play like Barcelona, Nige

For 15-20 mins after getting it back to 2-2 we played some decent stuff and were completely wasteful with possession and some half chances. But with our defence you always expect Reading to concede at any time. Morrison, for instance, has played 7 of Adkins 8 games in charge despite playing consistently appalingly in just about all of them.

[winchester_royal]

Well that was all a bit inevitable wasn't it? Season summed up in one game really. Desperate in defence, despite the obvious happening and everything, literally everything good about West Ham going through Andy Carroll. I don't suppose Carroll will have had a more productive game and was a bit unlucky not to have notched himself but he's never been the most potent striker in the Premier League.

Despite the obvious defensive deficiencies which will almost always crop up when you play as expansive a style as Adkins teams play, there can only be a sense of cautious optimism for next season. I just hope our fans can accept that the Adkins style of play will inevitably lead to around 50 goals conceded next season, but I can see us scoring around 60-70. I have total faith in Adkins for the simple reason 4 promotions in 7 seasons as a manager suggests he has what it takes, but of course there will be a lot of comings and goings. A lot depends on who we bring in to replace the attritional players we seem to have a dearth of and replace those players with personnel who are more comfortable and capable of unlocking defences.

And we can add Kevin Nolan to the following select list for season 12/13:-

Theo Walcott
Jordi Gomez
Santi Cazorla

Which begs the question, is that a record for number of hat-tricks scored against us in one season?

Top summary, whatever happens over the summer I doubt next season will be dull..

[winchester_royal]

P.S. Dare I say that it is a sign of 'progression' that on a day when many consider us to have been poor/average/underwhelming we scored 2 against a team that has beaten top teams at home this season, and had 17 shots on goal

[old woman]

Little bit fed up with the experimentation especially when we still had a chance of staying up.
All due respect to Gorkss after last season but why was he there today?

[AthleticoSpizz]

because the manager picked him.

Are we all doubting Nigel Adkins already?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Little bit fed up with the experimentation especially when we still had a chance of staying up.
All due respect to Gorkss after last season but why was he there today?

The only chance Adkins has to see him play for the team.

Still, not many players can say they've been relegated twice in one season, for two different teams.

[Kingsley Junior]

I personally enjoyed the majority of the game today and am very optimistic about next season based on what I've seen under Adkins so far. Today, I thought we started well up until the first goal, then got a bit lost up til half time. Second half, we came out very brightly and I thought we were excellent for 30 minutes, just lacking the right final ball on a few occasions and didn't score a third when we were well on top. Unfortunately that cost us, but I will be interested to see their third goal back again cos myself and those around me were convinced we should have had a freekick seconds earlier for a high challenge that went unpunished. I actually think we were better today than we were last season when we won 4-2. I was at both games, and I felt we were battered for 40 minutes that day before going on a goal spree, and we could have had several today.

We look shakey at the back, as anyone who was also at Fulham will attest to, but we look so much better in possession than we did under our previous manager, who I was a big fan of regardless. It's early days and a bit late for this season obviously, but I am really, really confident for next season. I don't see all that much quality in the Championnship, just a competitive league of average teams. If we play like we did today and at Fulham and defend a little bit steadier against teams without England international bullying strikers and Brian Ruiz, then things are very bright.

[Kingsley Junior]

P.S. Dare I say that it is a sign of 'progression' that on a day when many consider us to have been poor/average/underwhelming we scored 2 against a team that has beaten top teams at home this season, and had 17 shots on goal

I'd say it is even more of a sign of 'progression' that we could easily have scored 3, 4 or 5 against that team during our dominant spell.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Day out in Yeovil >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> day out in East London

i can sort of share the sentiment, but have you been to Yeovil, its a ropey old place.