It could and should have been so different, our moving into the London Stadium should have been the curtain raiser for a club going places, bringing European football to East London, letting Payet dazzle a sell-out crowd of 60.000 people with his ball-caressing panache and finesse against a team from Rome or Vienna.
But alas, it’s all gone a bit sour, hasn’t it ?
I’m not even talking about the defeat at Man City, their squad is an assembly line of the finest players the league has to offer and with our injury ravaged squad we were always going to struggle there. At the end of the day we showed a bit of spirit by actually scoring against them when they were basically outplaying us at will.
I can’t put my finger on it, but something at the club just doesn’t feel right at the moment and the dreaded P-word may just have something to do with it I reckon.
I keep reading assertions from the club hierarchy that Payet is happy at the club, that we have received no offers for him and that we wouldn’t sell him anyway.
After the International breakup he should be back in the squad and available to play against Watford.That may all be true.
But knowing the role Payet does play for us, both on and off the pitch, the silence about his whereabouts is deafening.
On one hand he has been in training apparently while others are saying he’s been labouring a bit from a slight knock.
He was risked neither for the vital Euro qualifer turned disaster against Astra nor the away game at Man City.
Considering Payet’s significance for our club I find it increasingly odd that we don’t get to read any kind of update or story about Payet on the OS, seeing pics of Payet joking with his teammates in training. An interview previewing our season and Payet’s expectations from it. At the very least I’d expect Payet to be watching our games from the dugout or the stands while travelling with the team. I have an uneasy feeling about this, especially as time is running out on spending any potential transfer fee we might be getting for Payet on a player resembling anything like an adequate replacement for him.
Make no mistake: There are various issues bubbling under the surface at West Ham – some louder than others. There was the Antonio at RB experiment. The Bacca transfer saga that lasted all summer. The move to the London Stadium of course bringing with it the first matchday experience for many fans and the final realisation that the Boleyn was gone, never forgotten and unlikely to ever be matched in terms of love and adoration from the Hammers faithful.
We are still mulling over the sitting/standing issue at the new place, we also seem to have security concerns which have not been properly contested yet, but which could lead to tears, bloodshed and chaos when Tottenham, Chelsea or Liverpool are in the house.
And don’t forget the question of how to get to and away from the new stadium on matchdays, distance between seats and the pitch, the overall atmosphere and a general feeling of identity loss among parts of our fanbase having to cope with a new stadium, new matchday routines, a new crest – all of which makes this one hell of a transitional season for club, players, managers and fans alike. This means that reasonably minor issues become magnified as there are just a lot of changes to digest at our club all at the same time, so this is a very dangerous situation for us to be in. Things could go downhill for us in our new home quickly if we are not careful.
The club need to address any stadium issues arising as quickly and thoroughly as they possibly can while Bilic needs to get the team back on track again sharpish.
Bilic, I’m sure, must feel a hefty dose of pressure already. After his amazing first season at the helm at West Ham it seemed as if he could do no wrong. His punditry during the Euros only helped cementing that glorious image of a young, innovative, down-to-earth manager who had people eating out of his palms simply by talking a lot of sense in a very assured and honest manner. And now ? Out of Europe before the group stages again – and against the same opponents to boot! Having to juggle the squad around for games due to various injuries suffered by established players and new signings as well. Top of the injury table. The already mentioned Antonio at RB experiment failure.
The honeymoon period, as mentioned by several people already, is well and truly over but that’s the nature of honeymoons, innit ? They all end eventually once the plane touches down on an airfield near home. So now it’s down to the nitty-gritty of everyday life, training and games in the Premier League. It’s not all doom and gloom of course. We have made some great signings, Simone Zaza being only the latest of them. Finally a proper striker that appears well suited for English football.
We have quality throughout the squad, we may add to it in the next few days and hopefully we will indeed keep Payet.
In either case we need to prepare ourselves for the harsh reality that Payet may not be destined to remain a Hammer long-term which isn’t the end of the world of course, the club though needs to prepare itself and get the next line of players in early which in fairness they seem to do – and in Lanzini we may already have the heir apparent to Payet at the club.
West Ham have a lot of issues on their plate right now and how they deal with them on and off the pitch will determine how the atmosphere at home games this season may change, for better or worse. On a side note I had another bizarre encounter due to my wearing of a West Ham basecap at an away game of my local Hamburg team.
I was approached by a geezer on Friday evening speaking to me in German, I seem to remember it was about taxpayers paying for our new stadium and the usual accusations followed by plenty of banter about German and English football, Brexit and the prospects of Hamburg SV in the Bundesliga..
It turned out he was a Hamburg expat who has been living in and around London for the past 30 years. With him was his son who was actually speaking German with an English accent. Why were they in Hamburg ? Well, to visit relatives and because they still had season tickets at Hamburg SV who were due to play Ingolstadt the day after in the first game of the 2016/17 Bundesliga season. But that’s not all, he also has a season ticket at Arsenal (say no more), but also has a soft spot for Leyton Orient and Partick Thistle (Glasgow). Before you think too badly of the man, he runs a local football club near High Wycombe where he lives these days, a small club called Penn-Tylers Green and he is basically a total football nut which is why I could sympathise with him.
Once again showing my West Ham colours has sparked off a lovely conversation and our chat on Friday evening was somehow far more entertaining than the game we were watching (my team won 3:1).
The next few days before the transfer window finally shuts (up) will be quite telling for us – and make no mistake: We need some good news big time at West Ham and fast!
Will we finally get rid of Valencia ? Will we keep Payet for at least the next four or five months ? Can we sign another striker like Bony or Remy ?
And who else will leave us in search of more gametime on loan elsewhere ?
Let’s hope the answers will prove to be good news for West Ham. And let’s also remember that we started our final Boleyn season in similarly (bad) fashion before giving us a season to remember forever. Time to leave the crap early season days behind us and start afresh.
The future, I believe, is still very much claret and blue! COYI !!!