Are West Ham fans right to boo their own team?

Sam Allardyce was confused that West Ham fans booed despite a 2-1 win over Hull City that should mean the Hammers stay in the Premier League another year, but should he be that surprised that the fans vented their anger?

No. (That's the simple answer).

And here's why...

Yes, fans pay a lot of money to see the game and want to be entertained. No one really wants to be entertained if their team still loses, but we're willing to accept this every now and then. But ultimately they want to see passion, effort and progress.

West Ham fans have seen none of that this year. Allardyce blamed injuries and suspensions at the start of the season, and to some extent he was proved right when he won Manager of the Month for February after 4 straight wins. But even in those 4 wins, West Ham have played some terrible football all season and really look like they have no idea how to break a team down.

Banging long balls to Andy Carroll or Carlton Cole and hoping Kevin Nolan gets the scraps isn't what West Ham fans want to see - and no it's nothing to do with the Academy, Bobby Moore and winning the World Cup - it's not what any fan wants to see. A full back smashing the ball upfield to a target man is an option if you're trying to mix it up, but it shouldn't be the first option.

West Ham have wingers who can't beat a man and get to the byline, which means they just lump balls into the box when they get a chance hoping for a second chance opportunity. James Collins, James Tomkins and Winston Reid can defend, they just have no idea what to do with the ball when they get it, hence more long straight balls.

And this is why fans boo the team, and especially Allardyce. He recruits players that can only really play this way. He hasn't improved the team he set up to get back into the Premier League. When Ravel Morrison looked like he may provide some spark of creativity, he was shipped off to QPR. Youth team players have no chance under Allardyce as he seems to just bothered about staying up, not improving.

And I think that's why he gets booed. No one wants to just stay up playing the way Allardyce wants West Ham (and Bolton and Newcastle before that) to play.

They want to see exciting players, good football and passion. None of these were evident last night (or any night for the last few seasons) as they struggled to beat 10-man Hull, who frankly deserved all 3 points.

Yes, West Ham should be in the Premier League next year, but unless Big Sam can convince the owners he is making progress they may have a new manager.

A breakdown of what QPR were paying players

You may have seen that QPR paid 78 million pounds in wages last year, which was more than Borussia Dortmund - but let that sink in for a minute.... that's well over $100 million dollars, and by well over, I actually mean $130 million.

Think about that for a second. I'll do this in pounds, but it's more than half again if you want the dollar conversion (1=1.65, but this isn't a maths or currency website!).

Let's say there is a squad of 30 players (most of who were very average players at QPR last year) each earning an average of 50,000 pounds a week.

That's 50,000 x 30 players x 52 weeks of the year.

That totals 78 million pounds.

Are you kidding me?

Not one of those players was worth 50,000 pounds a week - $80,000 a week is more than what the majority of MLS players earn in a year. And most of them couldn't have been worse than Armand Traore, Jose Bosingwa, Bobby Zamora or Stephane Mbia.

Looking at that whole squad from 2012/13, maybe Loic Remy and Julio Cesar (possibly Chris Samba) could expect more than 50,000 a week, but none of the others could. And the fact is QPR paid 30 players an AVERAGE of 50 grand. There are only 25 players on that list too (although I bet they paid for Joey Barton and Djibril Cisse to go on loan).

I am guessing the most a ticket can be at Loftus Road is 50 quid, so if a fan goes to 20 home games (19 league, 1 cup) then that's 1000 pounds from the average punter. A programme, beer and pie maybe, but not much more. Do the maths, or don't. It takes 50 fans a whole season to pay one player's wages for a week. 50 fans a SEASON, for 1 PLAYER for 1 WEEK!

TV and sponsorship may pay almost all the bills these days, but it's no surprise QPR are 177 million pounds in debt.

They won't be the only ones to go broke if this stupidity continues.

Stay out of the Championship - it's all a bit weird!

Reading v QPR - should have been a decent game between two teams relegated from the Premier League last year.

I don't know how I wrote that sentence. Was trying to justify this clip. 

The quality of writing on this site is just getting worse!

Who will escape the Championship?

Forest are my pick, but QPR could go the way of Wolves

Season starts this weekend as teams vie to get into the Premier League

Picking a winner of the Championship is a little like picking a needle out of a haystack (something I can't imagine anyone has ever done, and if they did, it must have been a really slow week).

The season starts Saturday, and runs until May 3, 2014. It's a brutal 46 game slog, and is a really tough test to get into the Premier League.

The teams that went down (QPR, Wigan and Reading) all have a good chance of going back up, but who knows what players Harry Redknapp will have at QPR, and how long his patience will last. He always says he's not a wheeler-dealer, but he'll have to be to get Rangers to bounce straight back - or I could see them going the way of Portsmouth.

Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Bolton, Blackburn and Birmingham are all reminders of how easy it is not only to fall into England's second tier, but how hard it is to get out. Look at Wolves, they are now in the third tier after successive relegations, and Portsmouth are realizing that just finding players is harder than discovering   

My pick is for Nottingham Forest to contend this year. They seem a little more stable than they were, and have made a couple of good signings for the Championship level. 

But then I know about as much as Tony Fernandes about football. He will fit in perfectly with fans of the Championship, as none of them have any idea if their team will be top or bottom.