Hope all you Hammers out there had a lovely Christmas and I need to begin by also wishing some of you a quick recovery after getting struck down by flu in similar fashion as I did about a week ago. It’s not nice to live on a diet of peppermint tea, lozenges and bits of toast, but surely our Boxing Day win in Wales should have helped the process of getting back on our collective feet massively here.
Never in doubt that victory over Swansea – right ? Crisis ? What crisis ? I think we can now reasonably expect a slightly calmer ride throughout the next few fixtures and while we will be without a few players due to the African Cup of Nations we will also play some games now against Premier League teams that are not exactly setting the league alight at this point, so we should be able to further consolidate our midtable position. That’s what three wins in a row can do for you, they make you shoot up the table in no time and even more important: They give you what is nigh on impossible to buy or simply talk into your dressing room: CONFIDENCE!
Finally we have that confidence back in our team now and I honestly don’t give a monkey’s if it needed the odd dire performance against some weak opposition in Burnley, Hull and Swansea. You can only beat what’s in front of you on the pitch and that’s just what we did. It nearly was a third clean sheet in a row too and I feel slightly sorry that Randolph had to concede a late goal he had absolutely no chance of keeping out. Before that he had made several decent stops and impressive key saves to keep our lead intact and Swansea’s confidence low throughout the game. All in all Randolph was my MOTM because it was his solid and calm performance between the sticks that was key to us being as comfortable in a game as we’ve been all season.Our defense looked a lot more settled too as a result of it.
All the other lads did their bit too and I won’t be mentioning every single one here, but after some harsh criticism hurled at him in recent weeks and months my special mention goes to our resident Viking, Norwegian Good, Mr.Havard Nordtveit. With more gametime under his belt he seems to be getting his swagger back and I’m so happy for him that finally other fans are beginning to see his value to the team too. He is no Zidane of course, he will not get you off your seat with mesmerising dribbles past four players, back heel flicks and nutmegs galore, but he is a solid defender who can read a game, make a tackle, intercept a ball or two and play the ball out comfortably.
Like with the rest of the team all confidence was gone from him entirely and he looked scared to even touch the ball out of fear of yet another misplaced pass or conceding another penalty. Nordtveit is proof of how vital a commodity confidence is in football and as a team it’ll see you overcome stronger opposition on any given day as long as you have enough of it. It was also good to see Kouyate shine in midfield again, Carroll being a nuisance for Swansea all game (while getting another 90 minutes or so unscathed) and also F&F (Feghouli and Fernandes) having some immediate impact on the game when they came on.
And how good is it to finally see Bilic smiling again! When I arrived in London just in time for the game at Liverpool away he was apparently quite close to getting the tin tack.
Four games later and he seems to be a lot safer in the Stratford saddle and as you all know I’d love Bilic to stick around for another season or ten if possible.
I still firmly believe that he deserves more support from the board in the upcoming transfer windows and once that happens we could be in for some more seasons of magic like the one we had with him in our final season at the Boleyn.
Bilic in my view is the one thing capable of uniting the fanbase at this point. London Stadium won’t be able to provide that as a significant number of fans (myself included) simply are unhappy with it in terms of being a suitable center for our matchday experience for home games. Also the board won’t be able to to get the fans to rally behind them as they have been drawing criticism (and rightly so) on several fronts, ranging from various stadium migration related issues to underspending in the transfer window and generally disrespecting and casting aside our traditions and history as a proud club in East London.
Linked to this uncertainty surrounding our fanbase, we keep hearing rumblings about Red Bull being interested in buying a Premier League club and in that situation it is very easy for a lazy journo at The Sun to have a bit of a punt in suggesting that West Ham are a prime candidate. Nevermind that a sum of £200 million will be unlikely to convince our board to even pick up the phone, contemplating a sale of the club. The rumour has been strongly rebuked in due course, but it’s still worthwhile to prepare ourselves in this respect. Are we all really buying into the notion of our board that Sullivan&Gold will keep the club and pass it on to their kids ?
I’m not buying that. Gold may be a genuine fan deep down inside, but he also cares about money. Which applies even more to Sullivan and Brady. So the question of selling the club is not really a matter of IF but rather one of WHEN, to WHOM and for HOW MUCH. It’s a tough one really deciding at this point which owner might be a suitable one and which one is likely to be the final nail in our coffin in terms of having any kind of identity left.
People mentioned to me how happy they were that West Ham was still in the hands of British owners. I never quite got that point because nationality or even being from the local area doesn’t make you immune from making terrible decisions. So in that respect I’d rather have Chinese owners if they are less likely to make the wrong move(s).
In the case of Red Bull there is a very distinct modus operandi whenever they acquire a new franchise, be that in football or Ice Hockey.
They totally exploit the club to grow their brand while throwing vast amounts of money at their club in order to protect said brand. If they really managed to get their hands on us I very much doubt they’d be interested to keep anything at West Ham as it is right now. That is simply not what they do. They would try to buy the stadium sponsorship which is fine by me, London Stadium or Red Bull Bowl doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
They would also put their bull on the club’s shirt, again, not a problem for me, however, they would also put the bull on the crest, maybe even ditching the Hammers altogether, and while the league would probably stop them renaming us Red Bull Stratford, we could easily end up as RB London Hammers.
Moreover, forget about West Ham playing in claret and blue anymore, in footballing terms they are much happier with white shirts and red shorts apparently.
All of which would result in me losing interest straight away.
Then again I am far from happy with our current owners at this point. I am only just hanging on while Bilic remains calling the shots in the dugout. The proof in the pudding will be the upcoming transfer window. There will be quite a clearout with Zaza, Tore and Arbeloa pretty much out of the door already. Surely we need another defender in January, preferably a proper out and out RB. And a solid, experienced and reliable striker. I don’t care if it’s Bacca or another, but if we want quality we need to pay for it.
I hope against hope our owners will begin to spend some money to make sure we improve rather than standing still as a squad, being overtaken by other clubs where the owners put their money where their mouths are. 2017 surely will be another very interesting year at our club and I’m sure this Blog will continue to monitor and discuss all the ups and downs at what at this point is still (only just) our club.
May 2017 be a healthy, good and kind year to all of you! COYI!