It was only a week ago that I was writing an article that called for patience amongst fans. A request for those that had already become too accustomed to last year’s expansive football to sit tight and hold off on the negativity for just a little while longer. Unfortunately, those that would have struggled to take on board the opinions and thoughts put forward last week will now have a wry smile etched on their face, claiming to have foreseen the demise of Slaven Bilic and West Ham before the season even kicked-off.
There’s no escaping the fact that the defeat to FC Astra Giurgiu in Thursday’s Europa League tie was unacceptable. Pointing out that we are missing several key creative players after a Premier League game is understandable, but I’d fully expect our second string, even third string, to put up more of a fight than we witnessed at the London Stadium.
The game was incredibly difficult to watch, with a distinctly sour atmosphere growing as time went on making things even more uncomfortable. I know a lot of us were desperate for some European football this season and it almost feels like the players let themselves down after working so hard last year. I really don’t want this to be taken as the “at least we can focus on the league now” cliché, but getting knocked out by the same opponents in last year’s competition didn’t exactly do us any harm, did it?
I like to consider myself as someone who doesn’t get carried away by either negatives or positives in life. No matter how bad things get, you can always find something to ease the pain and no matter how great life seems, there could always be a nasty surprise waiting around the corner. I must admit though, as our game against Manchester City got closer, I was beginning to fear for the worst.
City have quickly adapted to Pep Guardiola’s style of play and although they’re only a few Champions League qualifiers and Premier League games into the season, they look like a different side to the last few seasons. If we’d put in a similar display to the one we saw in the first half against Astra Giurgiu, 5-0 was actually a realistic possibility. That fear was most certainly prevalent after just 20 minutes but mid-way through the second half, it turned into a game that we could have nicked a draw from. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Now although we had some great results against the big teams of the Premier League last season, these first three games were always going to be tough. Even before we were dealt a series of cruel injury blows, I was expecting four points at most. We might be out of the Europa League and still struggling to play some of the football everyone is after but to only be a couple of minutes away from my pre-season expectations means we’re far from being in the state of emergency a lot of fans are claiming.
As strange as it might seem to say it, I feel like some fans are happier when the club is struggling. I appreciate that deep down everyone wants the club they follow to do well but that isn’t to say some fans love a good moan. It’s as if West Ham losing or failing to perform has some of cathartic effect on their lives. Those defeatists that can never envisage something positive happening at West Ham and just as things seemed like they were on the up, they were quietly hoping for things to revert to what we’re used to.
That small minority might have got what they had hoped for but I don’t think that will be the case for long. As I previously mentioned, I’m quite good at picking out the positives when times get tough but if truth be told, times aren’t even that tough and it really isn’t difficult to find a few positives. We’ve got several of our top performers coming back into the fold after the international break, a new signing who looks like he can provide what we’re after and eight Premier League games that we can go into being confident that we can get the right result in each and every one of them.
I’m not naïve and I’m not expecting us to turn into the West Ham from the early parts of last season in the blink of an eye but at least we have several winnable games to get us back on track and help give those players who need match fitness some minutes. I honestly hope there aren’t too many West Ham fans out there that can be labelled as defeatists. We’re a spirited bunch who have been through some tough times and know how important it is to support our players through thick and thin. We can be passionate and there’s nothing wrong with having a moan and complaining when someone misses an open goal or puts in a dire performance, but persistently looking for the negatives doesn’t benefit anyone.
You never know, come the end of the season those who get some strange satisfaction out of our great club struggling might be the happiest of all. I for one can’t see it happening and I’m sure most of you feel the same.
COYI!