Four Four Two on lack of planning at West Ham

Interesting piece on West Ham in Four Four Two looking at the lack of strategic planning at West Ham. Writer Seb Stafford-Bloor comments: "In the absence of a more considered culture, they appear to have become overly reactionary, with organisational energies sapped by the need to firefight this never-shortening list of issues. There is always either an unhappy player, a crippling squad shortage, or a logistical or PR battle which needs plotting. Progressive clubs tend to radiate calm, logical order, whereas West Ham seem to exist in mild chaos. There is always some kind of drama."

Stafford-Bloor makes some pertinent comments about the leaking of transfer targets, short-term loan deals and the bungled search for a striker last summer, though he's wrong in saying that only Antonio and Winston Reid would be sold at a profit. Cresswell, Kouyate, Obiang, Lanzini and even Carroll (if that Chinese bid was true) might be sold at a profit.

Another point to come out of the article is that the writer has only ever sat in the WHU press box and it's in the worst part of the ground, on the upper tier of the Betway Stand: "The stadium's press box sits high up, almost in the atmosphere, affording a view so detached it's almost voyeuristic. But it's a revealing perspective: it shows the gaps between the tiers and the incongruous details which were likely never considered during the planning phase." With hindsight, the new stadium would surely have received less bad press if the press box had been in a lower tier or in the unified East Stand.

To see the whole feature click on the link, it's worth a read.