Thursday 11 December 2014

Olas V Swansea, Whats Entertainment



We want entertaining football, was the cry by many of the disillusioned last season, fed up with the its all about the point football served up by BFS and his players, but what is Entertaining football, who deems a game entertaining and surely it is an individual taste, some may have thought that winning is entertainment enough. George Best believed that football should be entertaining and he did his best to do just that, none so than his cameo at Fulham where he teamed up Rodney Marsh, the two of them were like the Morecambe and Wise of football in one game tackling each other as Fulham put on a show V Hereford, luckily the Big Match Cameras were there to witness so im sure youll find it on You tube, but what about at West Ham, we have been lucky to have been blessed with some of the best, Brooking, Devonshire, Ward, Mcavennie, Di Canio just off the top of my head but as I said, Entertainment is subjective, I’m sure many will say Bonds thundering around was just as entertaining as Brooking gliding across the park, though Billy was my hero as a kid, I never thought of him as Entertaining. What of our Modern day squad, do we have an individual entertainer, because I couldn’t pick 1 individual out, Valencia may be at a push, Downing is having the season of his Career if you ask me, but as a team together, I cant believe anyone could say we haven’t been entertained this season so far, either at the Boleyn or on the road. I Cant believe im actually saying that a Sam Allardyce team has entertained me, and I can’t lie, I’m loving coming to games, looking forward to the next game as soon as the current one has finished. I would like to say long may it continue but people may see that as a stamp of approval of Sam to continue in the job past May, while at the moment I’m still in the “Shake his hand and say thanks but no thanks” camp, if Sam Delivers the the FA Cup final, or European football, then hell may possibly have frozen and he would of deserved another contract, just 1 year though, I wouldn’t go over board.
The Jam sang about That’s Entertainment, but that was perhaps a look at working class life in a sarcastic way, but what if Paul Weller was a West Ham fan and has been inspired to write the song about what he had witnessed over the years at the Boleyn or on our travels around the country. For years we have been entertained watching West Ham and long may it continue, and so I give you the West Ham version,(by me), of The Jams That’s Entertainment, it may work better if you check the song out first on you tube or were ever you get your music from. I hope it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-H0uIH5HHQ



The Boleyn Ground packed with singing supporters
Bubbles sung on terraces of concrete
Night time games under the lights
Brooking plays a pass without even thinking
That's entertainment, that's entertainment
The sound of grass being trampled by boots
an Inter-city train and a smashed up phone box
Thick woolly scarves and a 2 team bobble hat
lights going out as Lampard scores
I said
that’s entertainment that’s entertainment

draws for the cup made on a Mondays
pissing down with rain in Oldham on Valentines
watching the goals from behind a pillar
a Pop Robson hat trick while doing the Millwall
i say
that’s entertainment that’s entertainment

waking up at 6am on a Saturday morning
Queing at the turnstyles while trying to bunk in
A Julien Dicks tackle as he goes in hard
walking out the ground and thinking about the next game

that’s entertainment that’s entertainment

walking up Green street while smoking cigarettes
Nathans pie n mash and bags of stale Peanuts
a hot Pukka pie and Bovril like tarmac
Boxing Day at Upton park and wishing we’re not away
that’s entertainment that’s entertainment

Frankie and Cottee combining at Chelsea
Billy and Johnny embracing at Wembley
bringing the cups back on roofs of buses
saying goodbye to Bobby while standing at the gates

that’s entertainment that’s entertainment

Olas v Newcastle

A recent study claimed the Boleyn was the one of if not the quietest ground in the Premier league, now I do find that hard to believe, I realise it's not the wall of noise that we had back in the old days when terracing wrapped around the stadium but I can't believe we are quieter than Arsenal, and considering the study was done this season I still struggle to see how that outcome was reached. This season has been refreshing in the difference in the performances compared to last season, the crowd has been a buzz from before kick offs let alone during the games, and it has been a joy coming to games. Even in defeat this season 3 out of the 4 defeats have been by the odd goal in games where justifiably you could argue West Ham didn't deserve to lose. I'm often asked what I know think of BFS and the change he has brought about,infact it's such a change it's as if he's going through a male menopause. I normally just say I think Big Sam has been kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a carbon copy who looks the same, speaks the same, but Footballing wise is the complete opposite to what he used to be.
Back to us fans and what the future make up of us will be. It's no big surprise that the local supporter is a dying breed if not virtually extinct, I'm not sure how many in the ground today were born in West Ham or the surrounding environs but it will be a significant minority, with the move as well, opening up the ability of getting in to games much easier with the 20,000 extra seats available, the rise of football tourism will only continue. West Ham already has a healthy amount of foreign support attending here, but majority of them are supporters of the club, the reason I mention this is on Monday I met with a company that are looking to set up a business to enable fans from abroad, predominately Chinese at first, to experience football in the company of other fans, so they get the authentic football experience, basically the host fan will act as a tour guide for the day. I went mainly out of curiosity, I'm not a great lover of football tourists, especially after the Argentina v Croatia game held at this very ground recently were the majority around me seemed more interested in getting selfies with Messi in the background than they did watching the game, but perhaps I could be of use as a so called host. After the meeting I must admit I'm not convinced, my initial scepticism was not eased. West Ham are not a club the Chinese take great interest in and I got the feeling that the ones using this service wouldn't actually enjoy a pint in the Boleyn, pie mash in Nathan's before legging it into the ground just as the teams walk out. They'd want something different, which considering they would be paying for this service is no surprise, but as I pointed out, it wouldn't be the authentic experience if it was fine dinning and a chance to meet Tony Cottee. Perhaps I am a dinosaur clinging to a bygone day, being by passed by modern football, but nearly everyone my age I speak to agrees that football was better in the eighties than it ever has been since the premier league was Born, but yet we still come. The move will see the end of football as we all know it, but the thought of having thousands of Chinese with no affection for the club, grabbing selfies in front of the Statue of Bobby in its new position in champions place outside the OS, fills me with dread. A bit of me realises that's not the modern PC outlook to have these days, but that's just the way I feel, genuinely worried about what will become of us once the end has come.
Still I could bring my fears up at the next SAB meeting as despite the wholesale sacking of all previous 120 members, and with only 65 spaces up for grabs, the club still saw fit to allow 1 half of the 2 SAB members that voted no to the OS back in, so I suppose I must be doing something right.