There is no hiding from it! It has been a bitterly disappointing second half to our season but let us get some perspective as we near the end of the season!
Too many negative articles have been written about the club we love or our manager in recent weeks so time for a positive one with just two games remaining!
This week Talksport produced a table of most improved teams from last season based on points after 36 games and West Ham came out in second place after earning 10 extra points than the same time when compared to last year. Only Swansea have achieved a better improvement picking up 20 extra points after 36 games. We currently sit in 10th place in the Premier League just 3 points behind Stoke who have an inferior goal difference so ninth place is still achievable.
We shouldn’t forget after 15 games this season we were third in the Premier League for the briefest of times on 8th December last year and we still found ourselves in fourth place and a potential Champions League spot in the Premier League on Christmas day.
Many of our Summer signings have been fantatsic. Sakho, purchased for £2.5m was the Premier League bargain buy of the summer scoring 12 goals and winning top scorer award at last week’s players awards. Aaron Cresswell snatched from Ipswich for £3.75m has been immense and a worthy winner of the Hammer of the year award along side two other awards he picked up last week. Kouyate, Valencia and Jenkinson all deserve a mention too.
Reid, Noble and Tomkins have all signed long term contracts committing their foreseeable future to the club.
We beat both Liverpool and Manchester City at home this season!
We have a neutral goal difference at the moment, a feat not achieved for many seasons by West Ham at this point in the season and we could well end up with a positive goal difference by the end of the season.
Our tally of 47 points is our best total in the Premier League for six years when we achieved 51 points in the 2008/2009 season equaling Spurs that term but losing out to them on a negative goal difference of -3.
We still have an excellent chance that we will qualify for the Europa league through the Premier League Fair Play table. If this happens it will be our first time in Europe in 15 years that’s if you count West Ham’s involvement in the UEFA Intertoto Cup and brief spell in the EUFA cup.
Also for the first time in a long time we haven’t even mentioned the R word. The possibility of relegation never entered our heads all season.
There you go, a whole article without mentioning the managerial situation.
I know we like to moan as West Ham fans, it is part of who we are but I still feel the club is moving forward and is capable of great things in the future.
For the optimists among us we are at the start of something great.