Supporting West Ham is personal, isn’t it? You want to look on the bright side, you want to see your family heritage sustained and grow.
So at the end of this dreadful season, I introduced my ten year-old granddaughter to West Ham. The fact that we lost at home—again—didn’t matter. Me and my son watched her reactions. She’d been pestering to come with us to matches, but she was as bored and disappointed as the rest of us with that turgid first-half.
But the second half was different. She was on her feat singing, shouting, chanting with the grown-up and upset with the referee and Nottingham Forest players ‘throwing themselves to the ground all the time.’
I caught my son’s eye as we watched her with growing amusement. We knew she’d ‘got it.’ She’d stopped calling us West Ham, it was the Irons by then. We had three generations there. My old fella, who first took me to Upton Park in 1958, would have been proud.
I’m not expecting miracles. She’s still very young. It’s a long journey for her from Manchester, as she grows up she’ll have friends and other hobbies, I don’t expect to see her with us very much. But we know she’s a Hammer now, she won’t be going to Old Trafford on the Etihad and singing their songs. She’ll always have that ‘first game’ experience in her memory.
A life of misery awaits her I was told, maybe. But she’s part of us now. My grandad (who I never knew) was at Wembley in 1923. Claudia is a fifth-generation Walker now following West Ham. Of course it’s easy to dismiss my over-emotional reaction, but don’t spoil it for me, everyone. Not yet.
And this week, of all weeks, I couldn’t help but think back to 1965 when dad, me and my brother went to Wembley to see West Ham’s finest hour, the Cup Winners Cup win over TSV Munich 1860. Alan Sealey’s two goals with close on 90,000 West Ham fans there to see it.
It was an unsurpassed, treasured moment. Our club can be accused of many things, but the club website and Rob Pritchard’s excellent programme do a lot of stuff very well. The feature with Brian Dear, our top scorer in that run to Wembley, the tear-jerking farewell interviews with Aaron Cresswell, Vladimir Coufal and Lukasz Fabianski were excellent.
The memories again. I was there when Dear scored those five goals against West Brom, a period when the club were unplayable at times. I was there when we put seven past Leeds, six past Fulham, five against Chelsea, scored four at Spurs. Dear shared in all that, an era we may well never see again.
So we move on. We isolate our anger and frustrations at how our club is being run and we cling to the heritage that our families have created. Not allowing that to be effected by the actions of managers, chairman, players or board members. We are the custodians of this club, not them.
An owner born a Cardiff fan, a vice chair from Arsenal, a major share holder from Prague, an American... what do they really know or understand about the East End, east London, the families we all hail from one way or another? It’s why we do it, it’s why we bring our children into this mad house, to protect our heritage.
It’s that time of year again when we talk of legacy, history, family ties that stretch back decades - for some, 100 years or more. And we are again looking towards an uncertain future.
This time next year we will be approaching ten years since we left Upton Park. Many went grudgingly, others believing it was the only way forward to the next level and world class team and stadium we were promised.
Statistics will tell us that over 30,000 season tickets have not been renewed in that time; there will be a few more this summer.
It’s not fair to blame that ‘churn’ solely on the club or the legacy that has been created. People move on, people pass away, the expense, the uncertain travelling, work commitments have an impact. Some discover that the arrival of wives, children, mortgages—not always in that order—get in the way of a decent booze up.
But many have packed it in because they hate the London Stadium.
Patience with a stagnating board - the David Sullivan/Karren Brady regime - growns. The inertia that has followed the death of David Gold and the failure to shift those shares, the lack of any perceived improvement since Daniel Kretinsky arrived. The constant talk of buy-outs, takeovers, changes at the top—or lack of any of that—has made fans weary and cynical.
We are approaching two years since we won a European trophy in Prague. This week sees us celebrating our greatest ever day when we won the Cup Winners Cup at Wembley 60 years ago. It’s still 45 years since we won a domestic trophy.
Some have had enough. There’s always talk of fans walking away and the club will always put a brave face on it and point to a season ticket waiting list. You leave, we will replace you. But the fact they were offering fans two extra season tickets if they renewed early suggests there is not as many waiting for a ticket as they’d like you to believe.
There have been more than a few well-known ‘faces’ and ‘names’ who said they won’t be back next season. Old timers who have had enough, these past couple of years seeing what was achieved in Prague utterly wasted by the club’s hierarchy.
There are plenty of empty seats these days, thousands again on Sunday, when once again the club announced a 62,000+ gate. New fans will take up those seats, as sadly the old hands drift away.
I understand that feeling of betrayal over the London Stadium and this passing, dreadful season. We are seeing the slow death of a fine side. A year ago we were taking Bayer Leverkusen to the limit, then the best team in Europe.
Then there was Prague. By next season we will see only eight of that match day squad in the Czech capital still with the club. Maybe even fewer if Emerson, Lucas Paqueta, Nayef Aguerd and Tomas Soucek depart. And we are still in debt.
Welcome to my world, our world, Claudia. I pray things improve for you, that Graham Potter - four wins in 18 games - remembers how to put a proper squad together. But I’m not holding my breath. Victory at Ipswich, anyone?
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