Alan Pardew will not be the only one connected with West Ham United who will be wishing the clock could be turned back to happier times at the Premier League outfit.
As relegation looms for the Hammers – Nuno’s side suffered a heartbreaking loss against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night to leave them seven points adrift – the next man in charge may find himself having to emulate what Alan Pardew did during his Upton Park reign from 2003 to 2006.
Pardew took West Ham United back to the big time via the play-offs, then secured an immediate top-half finish while reaching an FA Cup final.
If Nuno Espirito Santo is in danger of becoming the worst Hammers manager of the 21st Century – his win rate is actually lower than Avram Grant’s was when they were relegated in 2011 – then Pardew is probably battling for top spot with David Moyes and Sam Allardyce.
Pardew was responsible for bringing in a host of modern-day favourites at Upton Park as well. Bobby Zamora, Marlon Harewood, Hayden Mullins, Carlton Cole, Yossi Benayoun, Danny Gabbidon and Matty Etherington, for instance.
And how this current iteration could do with a James Collins of their own.
Alan Pardew says West Ham United are crying out for a James Collins
While Collins remembers his Winston Reid partnership with a huge amount of fondness, it was alongside Gabbidon that the Welsh giant first made his name in claret and blue. A double deal with Cardiff City worth a reported £3.5 million. In terms of pound-for-pound value, you will struggle to find better in the Hammers’ recent history.
“Big James Collins, he would do! James would do well [in this current West Ham team],” Pardew tells talkSPORT. “One of my best signings at West Ham, James Collins. Lovely lad.”
A real meat and potatoes throwback of a centre-half, one suspects that the 6ft 2ins Newport-born powerhouse would have helped solve a potentially relegation-causing penchant for conceding set-piece goals.
Nicolas Dominguez, one of the smallest players on the pitch, managed to equalise for Forest at the London Stadium on Tuesday. No team has conceded more from dead-ball situations this term than Nuno’s beleaguered outfit.
Collins explains how that Carlos Tevez-inspired escape happened
Speaking to the Clutch Nine podcast recently, Collins admitted that Carlos Tevez was the posterboy of 2007’s Great Escape.
But if West Ham are to repeat that feat and go on a season-saving run between now and the end of May – which looks unlikely – any fightback will have to start in defence.
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The defeat which sends West Ham down?
“We won 20 points [sic, 21, starting] in March! Around Christmas, if you are bottom of the table, the press says you are gone. But as a group of players, we never felt we were out of it. We were a good team with a great captain in Lucas Neill. Really good characters who never thought we were down.
“[The current Hammers team] have got to try and nick a result.
“We just didn’t believe we were down. We went to the Emirates that year, in the final nine games. Arsenal had 35 shots on goal, and we won 1-0. It was one of those games. I have to give [goalkeeper Rob Green] Greeny a shout. He had the game of his life, and Bobby Zamora scored a great goal.
“Just a real hunger. Even our best player, our flair player, Yossi Benayoun, was on the line heading [clearances away]. That real desire not to go down; we knew what relegation would have meant for the football club.
“Just an incredible run. Carlos Tevez started scoring, we went to Old Trafford on the last day of the season [and won 1-0].
“It was backs-against-the-wall football, boys who played their best stuff when the chips were down, just going for it. Looking back now, it was an incredible situation to get out of.”
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