West Ham Till I Die
Comments
Guest Post

A Foreigner's View

Guest Post by RoHammer

A Foreigner’s View…
by RoHammer

I’ve been considering submitting an article on here for a while now but somehow the usual “topics of the day” never seemed good enough. The Big Sam discussion has been done to death, transfer speculation is…well, just that, speculation… and while I love me a bit of tactical debate, that will always be difficult to pull off what with all the internet managers around these days (myself included). We all know we could do a better job than Sam though am I right?! wink

On a more serious note though, there was a wonderful debate on here in the last couple of days with some great contribution from our senior members (who have seen it all). Now, I always enjoy reading Dan’s articles with all the historic info and such partly (but not solely) because I didn’t get to see it myself. Truth be told, most of what I know about WHU I have learned on here which in itself is a credit to the site and its contributors. But it all makes me wonder, what do West Ham fans really want going forward? Do we cling to the trappings of our past which, despite the odd cup win, has been decidedly mediocre…or do we strive for more? Are we content with being the perennial “also-rans”?

People go on about how we use to be everyone’s “second team” but personally I struggle to take that as a compliment…more like a veiled insult at times. I can see how our historic “style” could make us popular but I wonder if the fact that we were very generous with giving away points wasn’t part of it as well. How important is “style” exactly and does it supersede getting the 3 points? In a hypothetical scenario, would we prefer winning most of our games with 1-0 or losing them 3-4 (let’s take relegation off the table for this exercise and assume it wouldn’t be a danger as we’d still get enough points to survive)? Is entertainment the be all end all for West Ham fans… and if so, when do we stop putting our individual desire for entertainment ahead of what is best for our club? And isn’t that rather selfish and short sighted?

I have noticed people going so far as to say they would accept relegation if only they would see the team play a certain “west ham way”… but how many stop to think what that would mean for the club? The fans will be there whatever division we play in of that I have no doubt…but do we not deserve our day in the sun? Do we not want our team to be successful and fight it out with the best (both domestically and in Europe as well)?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating “long ball” football here…far from it in fact. I am advocating successful football whatever that may mean…if “tiki-taka” works in a given game then great, but if we need to grind out a result and defend a 1-0 lead then I can accept that too. I am advocating adaptability and doing what you have to in order to succeed. As a side note, since it’s an ever so popular debate… who will be our next manager will have a great bearing to where we are headed… with 4 games to go, we will find out soon enough.

…I’ll wrap it up here…this piece has become longer than expected which shouldn’t be a surprise to those who know me on WHTID but still…enough questions for one day. Who knows, maybe I’ll turn this into a series about the identity of WHU and its fans past and present…im sure many of our older members will have a lot to contribute. Being relatively new to this esteemed group and supporting West Ham from abroad, there are certainly many things I have yet to learn or understand. It might even benefit some of our younger readers who knows?!

Thanks for reading folks…

About us

West Ham Till I Die is a website and blog designed for supporters of West Ham United to discuss the club, its fortunes and prospects. It is operated and hosted by West Ham season ticket holder, LBC radio presenter and political commentator Iain Dale.

More info

Follow us

Contact us

Iain Dale, WHTID, PO Box 663, Tunbridge Wells, TN9 9RZ

Visit iaindale.com, Iain Dale’s personal website & blog.

Get in touch

Copyright © 2024 Iain Dale Limited.