This is my 1st ever article that appeared on the PFA website back in the summer of 2010, I recently discovered it while clearing out my old laptop.
perhaps it encapsulates the real west ham way in that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. iI hope you enjoy reading it.
THE DEMISE AND FALL OF WEST HAM UTD (2010)
In the past few seasons the trials and tribulations of west ham seem to have been planned out by script writers for East enders ,with a cliff hanger at the end of most seasons .
Ever since we dispensed with Harry Redknapp’s services we have lurched from one near disaster to another, I remember when Redknapp was sacked thinking a bit harsh but he had seemingly taken the club as far as he could (3 top 10 finishes in a row before avoiding relegation with 42 points the season he was sacked), where the board went wrong was not in his dismissal but not having his replacement lined up ,in the end glen Roeder was promoted to manager by default and so triggering the start of the demise, within 2 years west ham are (bravely ) relegated as if written by the scriptwriters with the record amount of points any team went down with ,not only that but at this years world cup 5 possible England players ( James, Johnson, Carrick, J Cole and Defoe) all appeared for the hammers that season, the board then lied to the fans in saying that we shouldn’t panic and we would only need to sell 3 players to balance the books ,half the squad was gone by Christmas, and with Paul Inces star falling the scriptwriters deliver us Jermain Defoe our new pantomime villain.
The first season in the championship gives us more ups and downs than the big dipper at Blackpool ,
Roeder dispatched after 3 games ,Brooking back temporarily (only losing once) while we wait for Alan Pardew to be released by Reading after a trip to the high court. We make the playoffs where we lose in the final to a crystal palace team who were bottom at Christmas were managed by an ex hammer ,and fan, in Ian Dowie but also only made the playoffs on the last day of the season when (scriptwriters at work again) Brian Deane equalised with the last touch of the game for west ham away at Wigan , knocking Wigan out of the playoffs letting in crystal palace, who dispatch us in a very dull game, still always next season.
Pardew first full season is dull, dull, dull , but we scrape into the playoffs ,there the gods ,or the scriptwriters, are smiling on us ,back to the premiership at last.
In the Premiership the sun is always smiling, the football seems to be more entertaining ,and the best players in the world turn up on your doorstep every two weeks, life is good ,and as if to prove this after signing Dean Ashton in January we end up with an end of season knees up back in Cardiff for the 3rd year running only this time it’s the fa cup final v Liverpool ,a game we could enjoy more than the previous two trips to Cardiff as the existance of the club was not riding on it. Unbelievably with only just injury time left (cue the typewriter) Steven Gerrard scores probably one of the greatest cup goals and the FA cup is cruelly ripped from our grasp ,still we still have Europe to look forward too next season..
As season 06/07 approaches all seems good in the east end garden , yet the dark clouds are beginning to gather ,little did we know this was not a storm ,it was more like hurricane Katrina , yet it began with what we hammers fans thought was the coup of the season . On transfer deadline day west ham parade Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at Upton park . Two world class players what could go wrong. Well how about illegal contracts , the club being sold , not to Tevezs agent who couldn’t raise the funds we were told , but to two Icelandics , lies told to tribunals to avoid points deduction settling on a 5 million pound fine. On top of this Pardew is sacked to be replaced by our long lost son Alan Curbishly. We are now in the eye of the hurricane yet in the pouring rain of Manchester west ham manage to avoid relegation with a win at already champions united, who else but Tevez scores the goal ,west ham stay up ,Sheffield united are relegated in their own topsey turvey game where an ex player scores a last minute penalty to condemn them ,and as if the scriptwriters were working a double shift ,keeping his new team ,Wigan ,in the prem, and just to top it all off he (David Unsworth) is a former hammer as well ,but in staying up west ham have sold their sole to the devil and undone the previous 110 years of history ,west ham are know probably the most hated team in the premiership, we used to be one of the so called second favourite teams of fans ,liked for our loyalty to managers and for (trying) to play football the correct way yet not succeeding ,oh and for producing the core of the world cup 66 team.
Some would say the Icelandic's got what they deserved (bankruptcy ) they had to hand the club over to a bank (which itself is bankrupt)and leave with nothing ,yet they have been replaced by two men who may be west ham fans but they have continued to make us even more of a laughing stock with their constant public spouting's and the way they dismissed Franco Zola ,the Chelsea legend who despite having the worst managerial record in my time following the hammers (middle 1970s) still managed to keep the fans on his side .
Hopefully the hurricane has blown away ,the scriptwriters have been sacked, and we can get off the ride as im starting to feel sick . As a new season approaches I feel optimistic about the future ,then again I have felt that way before and with the two David's running the show i think it will still be a bumpy ride.
