Guest Post by Nigel Kahn
As we wind our way into Christmas the pantomime season is beginning and where better to see my first show than at one of if not the greatest theatre in the country, The Boleyn Ground. A fair sized audience were in attendance to see a stellar cast of performers complete with Villains, Returning Hero’s and the Dashing prince. In-between the performance an attempt at a game of football broke out between Argentina and Croatia, two teams gifted in their own way with skill power and pace.
While of course it appears that the introduction is to be tongue in cheek actually to me it was all most like being at a pantomime. The prince of football in attendance being Lionel Messi, cheered from the first moment his name was called out, every time he received the ball the crowd around where I was rose in anticipation willing him to beat five men and put the ball in the goal. The Villain came in the guise of Eric Llamella, a second half substitute who was roundly booed not just when he came onto the pitch but every time he touched the ball and then we have the returning hero, Carlos Tevez. The most expensive player in West Ham’s history, back on the pitch he once graced, roared on by those in the crowd that remember his efforts in the Claret and blue shirt of West Ham.
Friendly internationals are generally are not the most entertaining of games but with this fixture the chance to pass up on seeing Messi playing at the Boleyn, well it was just too good to miss, the game though, to me, looked like a side show, the crowd was not your usual West Ham crowd for a start, I reckon most of those round me hardly ever attended football games. Every time Messi went to take a corner in front of us, they ran forward with their camera phones out, some even turning their back to the pitch to get a selfie with Messi in the background.
I must admit I do despair at the road football is going, luckily West Ham is not afflicted yet with a mass of football tourists, there for the occasion and not watching the game, though once the move to the Olympic Stadium has taken place I imagine the influx will be substantial. If this is the future then I can see me having no part of it, call me a dinosaur, a football snob I don’t care, I walked out the ground feeling I had been to a pantomime, perhaps if I had been sitting with the large group of Argentinian fans in the chicken run I may have had a different experience as they looked to have enjoyed the game for what it was, from the parts I could see, was a good game of football. Messi in flight is a joy to behold, and the technical abilities of Arguero and Di Maria look second to none.
Saying that though the Croatians played very well, neat interchanging passing , looking to breakfast on the counter, they were not second class at all and considering they were missing their heart beat in Modric were unlucky to lose the game in my opinion. I suppose looking back the two pluses of the night were that Karren Brady’s claim of world class players at West Ham has finally come true and without the need of moving, West Ham last night finally cracked the old question “How do we get more of the local community to come”. The answer is Don’t have West Ham playing there!
