Seeing the rather sickening sight of Keiron Dyer have his leg shattered from behind certainly wasn’t a video nasty – or replay nasty – compared to, say, Henrik Larsson’s leg splitting horribly in two, or the aberrant picture’s of Dave Buust’s tibia making a unwanted appearance, much to the disgust of Peter Schmeichael.
Nethertheless, we can now watch the long montages on Sky Sports News of newly-transferred Hammers coming a cropper in their debut appearances. The Curse Of New West Ham Players seems to be coming spookily true.
One football curse which is nothing more than an urban myth is the Manager Of The Month award. The legend goes that the gaffer whose strength of will over the last four-and-a-half weeks has put their team in a commanding league position, or marshaled their players in to a better-than-expected performance, usually collects his Barclays-emblazoned trophy, keeps a hand firmly clutched to the token bottle of champagne, and promptly lets things slip the following month. Their team drops back in to the obscurity of mid-table and the murmurings amongst the fans resumes.
It’s all in the mind though; Kevin Pullein of the Guardian points out that runs of form can indeed occur in monthly patches, and that said winning streaks are seldom repeated across the rest of the season.
Fortunately for Dennis Wise and Leeds United, things can’t really get any worse. That’s no fault of their own, obviously, but I can’t really remember the time a manager has scooped the prize with their team bottom of the league the entirety of the month they earned it for.
Wise described the award as “a little tap on the back saying ‘we do apologise’ from the Football League.” You can’t help feel sorry for him, either – and this is coming from someone whose loyalties are split between Chelsea (sworn enemies of
They’ll easily be back though – Sunderland pulled off an amazing assault on The Championship under the cold steel nerve of Roy Keane, and the way things have gone this month, Leeds are on for at least a playoff place. Unless the curse is true.
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