Don’t you just wish time could stand still for just a few days as you take in and celebrate something really momentus, something you’ve wished for all your life?
Just allow yourself time to live the moment, because it may never come around again. Yes, I mean West Ham’s stunning win at Manchester United on Sunday. After a season of almost unimaginable pain, there we were, basking in the sun at Old Trafford to witness only the seventh time in 98 years that West Ham have won a league game there.
A lovely day was had by all the travelling fans. Our mates Mark and Stuart, lads who have travelled Europe these past few years with David Moyes’ team, so they know more than most what has been wantonly squandered by the West Ham hierarchy, discovered it was hotter in Manchester than London and it is possibly to sit out on a pub sun-deck ‘up north‘ without four layers of clothing.
Now these games mean a little more to me than most. I might’ve mentioned before that I’ve lived and worked in the Manchester area for 40 years and have been force fed the Fergie era of relentless success.
It’s hard to take at times, particularly as my work meant that I spent far too much time in and around Old Trafford. I don’t actually hate them, but I’ve ever allowed anything red into my house. That’ll show them!
So Old Trafford is by far my most visited ground for West Ham away games, year after year, decade after decade. Invariably dragging my long-suffering son with me.
West Ham have won a league match at Old Trafford now just seven times in 98 years. Due to work commitments, I’ve missed the two most recent, the Tevez game 19 years ago in 2007 and the Jermain Defoe winner in 2001.
So I never go to these matches expecting anything, there have been so many disappointments. Those last 20 minutes or so under the cosh I watched in frozen silence. We’d played well, scored an excellent 30-pass first goal by Tomas Soucek (Soucek again, Soucek again is becoming quite a theme song for him now) and punished a woeful Man Utd defence when Mo Kudus and Aaron Wan-Bissaka broke away to set up Jarrod Bowen for the second.
I’ve seen it all go up in smoke more times than I care to remember. But this, this amazing time, we hung on and I’d finally seen West Ham win a league game at the Theatre of Dreams. I’m in my mid-seventies now. It’s been a long time coming.
Those are the moments I’d like frozen in time, just to milk it all in. The previous wins, for your interest came in 1976, a 2-0 win with goals from Trevor Brooking and Billy Jennings, and previously in 1963 when Martin Britt scored the winner. You have to go back to the 1920s for a 3-2 and a 3-0 victory, Vic Watson scoring on both occasions.
And just to bore you all further, we have only done the double over Manchester United five times now: 1926/27, 1928/29, 1976/77, 2006/07 and now this season. And to finally end the history lesson, Graham Potter and Alan Curbishley are the only West Ham managers to win at Arsenal and Manchester United in the same season.
I think I’ve made my point. These moments don’t come around too often. Unfortunately most of us were barely back on the train before the grifters and club mouthpieces were listing who would be sold—as well as the four given free transfers—and how much we will be in debt this year and next. They do love bringing everyone down to earth.
But they could not wipe away the memory of that celebration, and the reception the team were given. In particular Aaron Cresswell, Vlad Coufal and Lucasz Fabianski, three heroes of the Moyes era who told ahead of the game their contracts will not be renewed, along with Danny Ings.
Cresswell and Coufal were excellent, and you see the emotion. Along with Soucek. Who insisted that Fabianski also took his bow in a lovely little cameo which did not go unnoticed by our fans. Coufal sitting on the pitch in a deserted stadium afterwards will take on an iconic status, a lonely figure who has given everything for this club.
The fact that a couple of days later, along with his wife Hana, they were proud parents as son Niclas joined the West Ham Academy just underlined what mixed emotions must have been going through Vlad’s mind after the triumph at Old Trafford.
The timing was horrible, but it’s a tough business now and being released comes to all players sooner or later. There’s no place for emotions, it’s a cruel twist but we all now know why he wants to stay in London, where he almost joined Fulham recently. I’m sure we all wish him well, and Cresswell and Fabianski too. Great servants all, and I would not be surprised if Cresswell and Coufal end up staying in the Premier League.
And that brings me round yet again to Soucek, who introduced another little Hammer into the world last week. Maybe his new born son Daniel will also one day end up in the West Ham Academy.
So to his dad, well Soucek once again underlined his importance to the club, once again splitting the fan base on his qualities. But now it’s nine goals this season from the Czech national captain; you wonder how we would replace that.
Soucek has just stated his case. Told he would be sold and dropped, he reacted with a string of outstanding performances, scoring what should have been the winner at Brighton and then Sunday’s close range finish at Old Trafford. The away support just love him and if Potter does end up selling the 30 year-old, he will need one hell of a replacement. How many Premier League midfielders can match his goals tally?
But if you want to be cynical about things, the fact that we are told how much of a financial mess we are in, getting rid of out of contract players is the easy bit. The four who have been axed account for about £250,000 a week in wages. They are the easy target.
Selling the amount of players Potter seems to want is another matter. Clubs will try to bully us, agents with work tirelessly to maintain the wages and future contracts of their clients and everyone knows we are desperate for new blood - and that won’t come cheap. Virtually everyone we are linked with has plenty of other clubs interested, and we are not in Europe and in the bottom half of the Premier League.
I have this sneaking suspicion that we will lose half a dozen and sign about the same amount. That was a pretty decent performance at Old Trafford, with what seems to be Potter’s style and demands getting through at last.
We could have drawn at Liverpool, but for another poor refereeing decision. We should have beaten Southampton and Brighton, with just a little more fortune we could be comfortably in mid-table and the pressure would be off Potter.
So let’s see what the final two games bring. I’ll cling onto my magical moment in time for just a few more days.
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