OLAS V CITY, LIFE AT SPURS

Six years ago this very week this club was facing the prospect of implosion, our chairmen of the time, the second richest man in Icelandic was bankrupt, the club had been past to a bank, that was also bankrupt, as a sort of debt repayment but to get their money they had to sell, as so, ridding in like white knights on their Steeds, messers Sullivan and Gold came to the clubs rescue.
I can't argue, nor will I, that the club is in a better shape than it was six years ago in those dark days but let's be honest, could it of been much worse, Well it could of, and it did get worse.
Those that inhabit the twilight world of Facebook or Twitter would of seen stream after stream of supporters declaring their thanks and undying love to the Daves, those that don't apparently are not true fans according to some and Wo betide any fan that dare sing from a different hymn sheet.
Problem I find that while I can understand those emotions, I just don't share them, and I feel inclined more often to remind everyone they have not only done good things, they have also overseen a regime that has in my eyes, totally removed any club to fan loyalty.
Time after time the club has stiffed match attending fans in different ways, season ticket holder discount was firstly tried to be avoided, then they finally admitted it, but offered an alternative way but then Gold virtually accused all those taking the 20% of impacting on that seasons transfer budget. Classy that, then Disabled ticket holders were given a 100% price rise, but when this broke they thankfully back tracked to just a 50% price rise. Clever really, because if they did the 50% first imagine the outcry would of been just as loud, but they made it look like they were listening by back tracking. When they had their partnership with Viagogo, the club regularly disposed of unsold tickets at cheaper than face value prices, a good thing you may think, but not when the undercut those that had bought in advance or again the season ticket holders.

The OS CONsultation, The badge change that was pushed through in a close season and done without a real majority of fans backing, but they wanted it, so they manipulated it.
They way they sacked Zola after constant undermining him, appointment of Avram Grant, a manager so so poor that it meant Sam Allardyce, a manager whose culture was so alien to this club was welcomed as a new Hero by some.
They love a buzzword, or strap sentence "Moore than a football club" is one, another the club have is is Affordable football for all, Yet ticket prices have steadily risen through the seasons they have been here to the point that tickets for today's visitors, Man City, are face value a fiver short of £100. Still at least no need to advertise to "come see city's superstars" for this game nor I bet will any tickets be given to community groups for a fiver as they did a couple of years ago, when unable to sell them at the £55 price many others paid that night.

Then we fast forward to the OS migration policy that totally ignored a fans service except it was done on who payed the most money in season 2015-16,not who had been attending for the longest time.
How is that loyalty to fans, not just any fans but those that for the past how ever many years have kept coming, kept paying.
I'll tell you who I thank for saving this club, the fans that stood bye West Ham during the 17 years they were funding another club.
I will though say that David Sullivan has probably assembled the best premier league squad we've ever had and it seems that our success will continue into the new franchise next season, Payet is a joy to watch, Lanzini will be a big Star are just two of the whole squad that have put the pride back into the club. On the pitch, which is the main reason we are here the club is finally on the up and I have faith in him that it will continue. Just seems a shame that West Ham as we once loved it has been buried on the way.

It seems to be a bad time to be a musician in your late 60's as there dropping like 9 pins this year, but none more so than David Bowie. I know he's not a West Ham fan but I'm sure Many of you out there liked or even loved his music. Personally I liked his stuff in the very early 80s as I grew up, but then from my late teens, mainly from some of the clubs I was frequenting like the Marquee club on the Charing Cross Road I grew to love his early output, suffragette city, man who sold the world, changes, Ziggy Stardust, but my personal favourite was Life on Mars, and in keeping with my strange habit of rewriting songs I thought I'd have a crack at that song, though rather than look at the Hammers I thought better to look at our Friends from the North (London).
So with Life on Mars tune in your head, I hope you can all sing along to0. Hear Bowies here

It's a god-awful cross to bare
With fans in constant despair
Their family are telling them "No"
And their wives have told them to go
All their friends are nowhere to be seen
As they go to watch their broken team
takes the seat with the clearest view
But they watch on a giant screen
And the game is a saddening bore
For they've lived it ten times or more
As they sit in their seats so still
And they attempt to focus on

See Spurs losing to the West Ham
Oh man!
Look at those stupid men go
Their the freakiest show
Listen to the Spurs Fans ringing up the radio show
Winging!
Wonder if they'll ever know
Their support is a joke
Is there life at SPURS

Their history is but a dream
Should be Mickey Mouse on the ball
Now the fans are crying again
'Cause bale won't come back to them
Like mice in their lily-white shirts
From Edmonton to the Norfolk Broads
The Y word is out of bounds
As they act like a bunch of clowns
But the club is a saddening bore
'Cause we've seen it ten times or more
It's about to be heard again
As all we can focus on

See Spurs losing to the West Ham
Oh man!
Look at those stupid men go
Their the freakiest show
Listen to the Spurs Fans ringing up the radio show
Winging!
Wonder if they'll ever know
Their Club is a joke
Is there life at SPURS

NO MOORE HERO'S

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick
That made his ears burn

Whatever happened to dear old Lenny?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?


In 1977 the Stranglers released the song “No more Heroes”, the song bemoaned the loss of strong figures at that time in culture, and pointed at their heroes and why no one else, in their eyes was coming through. Perhaps its an age thing, as I look now at the team we have, currently riding high in the league and I wonder, what has happened to the Heroes.
As a kid growing up in the 70/80s, it seems the team was littered with them, Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds, Hurst, Peters, Trevor Brooking, Pop Robson, David Cross, Phil Parkes, Frank Lampard Snr, Alvin Martin, Ray Stewart. Later on we added to that in, Frank Mcavennie Julian Dicks, Ludo Miklosko. Others of course came along, but I’m talking about real Heroes, the type of player you would pay money to see, the type of player you would pay to see talk about his days at a theatre. I look around the current team; in fact, I look around at the players we have had in the last 10 years, and apart from Mark Noble, I’m just not seeing Heroes.

My kids don’t follow the hammers so I can’t say who they adore, but when I look back at the team around that 70/80s period, so many had been at the club or stayed at the club for a long time, there wasn’t the constant conveyor belt of players, teams grew over a period. I can’t remember ever west Ham signing 5 players at a time and the fact players didn’t move about and generally stayed at clubs increased the affinity between the players and fans, of the list above 10 had testimonial games, some even had 2. Mark Noble is due a testimonial either this season or next but who else will get there. James Tomkins maybe, but is he a hero? Not for me a good player yes, but not a hero, as heroes don’t roll around outside nightclubs kicking policeman and getting arrested do they.
Saying that, as I think back to my all-time Hero, George Best, its well documented the scrapes he went through and was no angel, so that shouldn’t be held against James Tomkins. Perhaps its down to ability then, JT is a good Premier league defender, but he’s no Rio, and how many other clubs fans do you hear saying, “I’d have Tomkins”. Don’t get me wrong, im not saying JT is a rubbish player but do the kids of today or even us older fans look at him in the same light as we did/do Alvin.

The reason for my wondering about this subject is I regularly go to the Hammers Heroes shows held in Southend and at Hornchurch and also the excellent Ex-Hammer forums in Romford, where I sit and listen and generally laugh as the old timers reminisce about what many of us to be the glory days of the club, and I look at the current squad and those of the last 10 years and wonder, who in 20 years’ time will we be listening to, who would you want to listen to, too be more honest. Scott Parker, 3 time Hammer of the year, then leaves to go to Spurs, that went well. Reo-Coker telling us about his great game at Highbury, spilling the beans on Pardew’s demise, and his for that instance. No, not for me, I care not one jot what he would have to say, and I can’t think of others that maybe I would. Perhaps it is an age thing, but with players kissing badges one week, then moving onto to so called bigger clubs the next they don’t stay long enough to get and keep that Hero status.

Who knows, perhaps the Ex Hammer heroes of the future are this squad, that could well be the surprise package of the season, after not just 3 away wins, but 3 wins against supposedly 3 of the best teams with home records in the country that is no flash in the pan. You can’t ignore the Leicester and Bournemouth defeats but when looked at there was a pattern there. Both of those teams chased us down from their front, squeezed the room around our players, none of the other teams we have played, and beat, have done that. They let us play our game probably believing we would be more worried about them than they are about us. Big mistake, Billic is showing his tactical class in those away wins and also showing a great ability to lighten up the press conferences. From the parking of the bus but not having the handbrake on, to the winning those 3 games is like walking into a pub full of girls, Absolute magic. Im asked at times how happy I am that BFS has gone, at the beginning it was happiness, now though this may be early doors, I feel vindicated in taking the stance I did. I always knew that his way was the wrong way to achieve the results, and abit like Cloughie when he walked onto the Leeds training ground for the first time proclaiming they should throw their medals in the bin as they won them through cheating, in that Don Revie’s type of football was not the right way to play, and so Allardyce’s football, points accumulating, is the wrong way to play.

Lastly I visited the sales centre at the Olympic stadium to hopefully choose my seat, It didn’t go to planned. I wanted club 66, all sold out, nothing at all around that area either, in band 1 just the back rows are left, in fact, in band 2, just the back rows were left. The meeting descended into farce with the bloke who kindly took me in with him, Grouping its called, not getting a seat either. He complained, I complained to someone in the club on his behalf, the sales manager talked about me to another salesman that was overheard, and I got called a mentalist, obviously by some one who has read my output, but im guessing doesn’t agree with it. Anyway ive looked up Mentalist and what it means, wiki says this,
“Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship,mind control, memory feats and rapid mathematics. Mentalists are sometimes categorised as psychic entertainers, although that category also contains non-mentalist performers such as psychic readers and bizarrists.”
I actually wouldn’t mind being a mentalist now after reading that, but if you go on the internet you can read a detailed report with unseen images that the club wouldn’t want you to see at www.whu365.blogspot.co.uk
Many thanks for reading and may the good times last

OLAS V Leicester City

One game is all it took for the club and fans it seems to be rejoined as one, Billic appointment had some sections wondering where The owners ambition was, worried about his lack of premiership experience was one excuse often levelled at him by some section of the fans, who it seems ignored his international experience and yet in his 1st premier league game he does more for the feel good factor around the club than his predecessor ever mustered during his tenure.
I know it's early days and 1 game does not make a season but it's an impressive start and surely the club can only grow off the confidence the victory brought about especially considering that with Leicester City and then Bournemouth coming to town I really do expect to see us sitting in top spot with 9 points before we head to Anfield. Now Anfield, that is a place I would love to be this season at the end of August but while I will be only 30 miles away, I'll be preparing for my godfather duties to my beautiful niece the next day, can you imagine the place if we could finally do the Scousers on their own turf for the 1st time in my and many others lifetime, bearing in mind I'm never someone likely to get carried away when it comes to West Ham, which has evolved in me after year upon year of the crash and burn seasons we generally have, I can honestly see us doing the Scousers and imagine that.
I stopped typing the above sentence as I was imagining that victory and the celebrations after, but just to show that the realist in me is still there, I still can't see us finishing above 9th spot but for me every season Is not about the destination, it's about how we get there.
For me finishing 9th is no different to 17th, the outcome is still the same, not relegated. There would be no fitting tribute to the old ground than to win a trophy in its last stand

Seeing Julian back at the club is also great, a couple of years ago I remember seeing him at one of the great EX hammer forums in Romford and during the Q&A session he spoke with great sense in how he saw football should be played, and it seemed to me he was influenced by the great man that signed him ,John Lyall.
Lyall for me was/is the greatest manager we ever had, not just because of the trophies we won, but the fact he was immersed within the club, 1st as a supporter, then player, coach and finally Manager. He had time for anyone and everyone and I still remember when I met him as an 11 year old, I was mascot for the day against Wrexham on the last day of the season 1981, he himself took my mum and I to his office, where we got to chat for what seem ages. The mark of the man came through when I remarked that Clive Thomas was out of order for sending him off at Wembley, he just said that its best left in the past & there was no bad feeling. He then took me to the dressing room where he introduced me to the days team. The fact he relegated the club twice is rightly overlooked and its a shame it did end the way it did but I will never forget that 10 minutes I spent with the man.
In fact when you look at the managers JD played under at West Ham Lyall Macari Bonds and then Redknapp, for me two of the best managers the club have had that I have seen, and my hero as a kid, Bonds. It will be interesting to find out who he says played a bigger part on his career. I think it was Ron Saunders at Birmingham that gave him his chance before he joined us still as a teenager, though his time spent under Lyall was not the best era for the club. Next up Macari, who to be honest, the only player I've ever heard say a good thing about him was Stuart Slater. Bonds quickly followed and remember the 2 of them played together briefly but looking back, it was Bonds that sold him reputedly frustrated by his discipline problems though the deal bore all the hallmarks of Redknapp pulling the strings. Yet he returned a year later, this time under Harry, and if we are honest, the football under Harry was the best we played while Julien was at the club, even achieving 3 top 10 finishes in a row, the only time ever in the clubs history that had been achieved.
It is just great to see him sitting in the dugout and I just hope he can show the players why the fans love him so much and perhaps help them to embrace the club in the same way he did.
I must admit that Billic was my no1 choice, I always thought the Klopp and Benetiz attempts were just the owners setting the bar unrealistically too high, I'm all for ambition but come on, leave Dortmund then join us, big backward step for a manager of the quality of Klopp. As for Benetiz, I liked him, he did well at Liverpool and Chelsea but I never saw him settling for DS buying the players, but I guess we will never know what the outcome would of been.
On the whole, it's great being a West Ham fan at the moment, so long may it continue.