Fans may question if they were lured from Upton Park under false pretences after West Ham confirmed a complete change of stance over the big London Stadium move.
Believe it or not this summer brings up a decade since West Ham left their beloved Boleyn Ground home of 113 years to move to the former Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
While the Hammers were actually migrating closer to their original home in making the move three miles down the road, the London Stadium has never really felt like “home” for most supporters.
And not just because “anchor tenants” West Ham don’t even own their “home” ground.
West Ham change sporting ambition promised before London Stadium move
The issues run a lot deeper than that and can be charted back to a series of broken promises and pledges made by the club on luring fans from Upton Park to the bowl-shaped arena ahead of the emotional move back in 2016.
Seeing the Boleyn razed to the ground to make way for flats only added to the bitter aftertaste which accompanied the London Stadium switch, a move beset by a litany of problems from in-fighting to stewarding, and grievances over the distance from the stands to the pitch and the chasms between the upper and lower tiers themselves.
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A graphic asking West Ham fans if: Will replacing the "wall" between home and away fans with a clear plastic barrier make a difference?
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Despite a long list of problems, West Ham’s unpopular vice-chair Karren Brady declared it ‘the most successful football stadium migration in history’.
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While many West Ham fans have walked away from attending games since leaving Upton Park, those who have remained were sold the vision that the move was necessary to compete with the Premier League and European elite.
Hammers supporters are far from delusional.
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So talk from the club’s top brass of the 62,500 seater stadium helping West Ham reach the holy grail of the Champions League and challenge for major honours was always taken with a large pinch of salt.
They were nonetheless some of the carrots dangled to supporters to sell the stadium move when many were unsure.
There have been European campaigns, a record Premier League points total and even the club’s only major trophy of the last 46 years since West Ham moved to the London Stadium.
Despite flirting with qualification for the Champions League, though, the Hammers are yet to dine at European football’s top table.
West Ham scrap Champions League and Premier League pipe-dreams
And challenging anywhere near the top end of the table has perhaps never been as far away as it is right now with West Ham fighting to stay in the Premier League while filing club record £104m losses.
Now West Ham have confirmed a complete change of stance over the London Stadium move.
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Hammers fans have engaged in a season-long campaign of protests against the club’s current board, with the ultimate aim of forcing them to sell up to more ambitious owners.
West Ham’s Fan Advisory Board have held a number of meetings with club officials, including Brady.
That culminated in a summit meeting at the end of last month where Hammers fans demanded answers and action plans on a host of key issues regarding how the club is run.
West Ham fans protest with a banner targeting David Sullivan and Karren Brady
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Now West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Committee have published some key learnings from the meeting, including what Brady and co said in response to the club’s ‘sporting ambition’.
And it is fair to say the goalposts haven’t just been moved – the entire field of play has changed, just as it is when the stadium has to be converted for athletics events.
Because challenging for top honours and qualifying for the Champions League – which can go as low as fifth or sixth place since the competition’s expansion – is no longer the aim for West Ham.
Instead the club has admitted it now sees success as consistent European qualification and top 10 finishes with ‘strong domestic cup finishes’.
Supporters asked Brady and club officials present whether West Ham’s ambitions had changed since the move to the London Stadium with particular reference to ‘David Sullivan and David Gold’s promised ambitions of Premier League titles and Champions League football’.
The answer given by the club was that its objective is now regular European qualification and top-10 finishes in the Premier League rather than specifically targeting to win the title and/or achieve Champions League qualification.
That’s despite the likes of Newcastle and Aston Villa managing the feat in recent seasons.
West Ham also stated it wants to target the FA Cup and League Cup.
West Ham’s FAB has stated it did not receive a clear explanation as to why the messaging around Premier League title winning and Champions League ambition has changed since the stadium move.
While the new modest target is clearly more realistic, it is not lost on supporters that the London Stadium move ‘fundamentally reshaped the club’ forever.
As a result the FAB stated that ‘supporters deserve clarity about what the long-term sporting ambition actually is’.
“The conclusion is that the club now frames success as consistent European qualification and top-10 finishes with strong domestic cup finishes, not winning the Premier League and/or being in Champions League contention,” WHUISC’s report states.
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