By Paul McCailey
The terms ‘Tradition’ and ‘The West Ham Way’ have been bandied around an awful lot over the past few years, particularly since Big Sam took over. Opinion on him is still split – Tony McDonald’s article of 16.9.13 on this very blog is a good example of this – but one comment that is often made by West Ham ‘commentators’ is that, under Big Sam, we look the most solid and defensively sound as we have ever done.
This has got me reflecting on the quality of teams and players we have had over the years. As I am in my mid thirties, the earliest team I can remember is the ‘Boys of 86’ which I suppose was the first season I really got interested in football. Most of my fondest memories came in the late 1990s under Redknapp with the exciting prospects of players such as Ferdinand, Lampard, Cole et al coming through the academy coupled with excellent buys like Di Canio and Sinclair. The country was raving about these players! Surely this was it – keep these players together, add some others, and we were going to be challenging for the highest European honours….. well, we all know what happened there! Relegation in 2003 and again in 2011.
But of course this was not the first time we had been graced with a team of talented players – 1986 with Parkes, Martin, McAvennie and Cottee giving us our highest league finish ever; the 1970s with Brooking, Bonds and Devonshire, taking us to 2 FA Cups and defeated European Cup-Winners Cup final, and before them, the glory years of the 1960s, with domestic, European and world success in consecutive years.
But on a closer look, teams with those players in during the 1960s and 70s – with many (if not regular) international players in them – could never put consistent performances together to maintain challenges over a league season. While we may be one of the ‘elite’ 7 or 8 teams never to have dropped below the second tier of English football, we are also the only one of that group never to have won the title. We have been consistently mid-table over the past 50 years, finishing somewhere between 8th and 17th, with only 3 top six finishes in the top division since 1960. We have also been relegated on 4 occasions, with close shaves on several others. The ‘glory years’ of mid-60s to mid-70s saw the side only make 3 top-ten finishes, and spent the latter half of that decade fighting relegation and losing – despite Bonds, Brooking and Devonshire.
The only occasions I have seen those sides play has been on video; but from talking to people who lived through that and watched the side in those days it seems that there were a number of reasons why we never pushed on and challenged for titles. The board at those times seem to crop up with bad decisions – not investing after 1986, appointing Roeder after Redknapp and often selling our best players! Defensive naivety is another – yes, we had Moore, Bonds, Martin, Dicks, Ferdinand, but these were perhaps never part of strong units. Under Redknapp – a period I can comment on from experience – we were always, as has been the ‘West Ham Way’, on the offensive, playing exciting football and looking to get forward. The result was some excellent results, but also games like the 5-4 against Bradford or the 4-4 draw against Charlton. At the time it seemed obvious that we needed to tighten things up a bit, but it wasn’t done. Redknapp’s later teams on the South Coast or North London kept that attacking ethos – but they seemed more solid at the back, too. It seemed that we were so intent on playing ‘the West Ham Way’ that we weren’t able to tweak and improve it. Other sides, be that the Liverpool of the 1970s and 80s, or even Arsenal in the 1990s, were able to combine flowing football with solid defenses and consistency – perhaps something we never could. We also seemed to get bullied by more physical teams (notably Allardyce’s Bolton side) who managed to stop us playing and then complained about how awful the opposition were despite the fact they’d beaten us.
As a result, we have settled for mediocrity providing we were entertained. So we narrowly beat a team like Bradford at home 5-4? Well, it’s West Ham, isn’t it? Knocked out of the cup to a Championship team? Well, we get bullied by those sort of teams, don’t we? Had a great performance against Man U? Yeah, well we raise our game against the big boys, don’t we? Never mind we haven’t beaten Liverpool for decades and also get spanked by Man U just as often as we nearly get a result.
As a consequence, I think my point is this: we have for too long accepted (albeit with a fair amount of moaning) that we won’t be a top, top side; that we might get a good cup run if we’re lucky; that we in a ‘good’ year might challenge for a top 6, but not top 3 or 4, spot. To me, comparing our history to, for example, Liverpool since the 50s or 60s, or in more recent years Tottenham, shows a club bereft of serious ambition to capitalise on one of the best supported clubs in the country, with the financial influence of the City of London on it’s doorstep, and a capacity to produce some of the most technically gifted footballers our country has seen. Where we have started to show ambition it has been mismanaged and fallen foul of a global economic meltdown which – we should not underestimate – almost put our club out of business or at the very least ‘done a Leeds or Portsmouth’.
But where are we now? Are we destined to remain in mid-table mediocrity, flirting with relegation? I am optimistic. We are still in a challenging situation financially, but under Gold and Sullivan I believe we have chairmen who have the best interests of the club at heart, have ambition, and are willing to put their money where their mouths are – though admittedly not at the same level as billionaire foreigners. We have a manager who is not the long-ball servant served by his reputation, but a manager who is experienced and who has ensured we are tough and resilient.
Of course there have been question marks over the past month – lack of a plan B, lack of a second striker, only 6 shots on target in 4 games – and if we suffer a continuing problem with injuries our hopes of a top ten finish this year might vanish – but you can never see a team with Allardyce at the helm being relegated, can you? I believe we might have a painful year this year, but I also believe looking ahead that the future is rosy: a solid squad with a good mix of youth and experience, with some good youngsters coming through; a move to the Olympic Stadium which has finally won over the majority of fans; a debt that is planned to have gone in a few years; but above all a board who we can trust not to sell our best players or youngest stars, who have already looked to build on the team year on year, and one that seems to have something no other West Ham board has had before – ambition.
So who knows? Perhaps in 10 years’ time we can start to write a new history that our children and grandchildren can be proud of, not of glorious failure and underachievement, but one of success and silverware.
And we might even play some entertaining football, too…