Guest Post by Thomas Klein
I was sitting on the Stansted Airport coach heading to London, quietly reading a magazine. Then, as I looked out of the window to my left, bang! There it was, without any warning. A vast structure of a stadium with large letters on top which read WEST HAM UNITED. The stadium almost immediately disappeared behind houses, but I could hardly contain my excitement. We had arrived in London!
My wife and I are both English teachers in our native Czech Republic, so we naturally love everything British and we love London. We have been to this amazing city a good few times and always enjoy coming back for a visit. My wife and I both have West Ham United in our systems, I have been a keen Hammer since my boyhood hero Ludo Mikloško joined the club, while my wife spent some time as an au-pair in a West Ham supporting family. Admittedly, she is not as passionate about football as me, still she keeps an eye on things West Ham, especially Michail Antonio´s sixpack…
So here we were in London again, and having secured a pair of tickets for the Chelsea game, West Ham was to play a major part in our holiday, just like the last time, in August 2015, when we had stayed in the Boleyn Ground stadium hotel inside the main stand for a few days. I had taken the stadium tour and also attended the game against Leicester City. That was the time of my life! This time, we decided to bring along our little Hammer, seven-year-old Sebastian, for his West Ham baptism. Seba is just as football-crazy as me, he wears claret-and-blue at every training of his football team. He also does his best to turn all his classmates into Hammers, including his teacher.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Russ for kindly arranging our tickets for the Chelsea match and keeping us great company throughout the match, together with Voice of Reason. Cheers, guys!
As we arrived a few days before Monday´s match, Seba and I were eager to sample the new stadium on a tour. The walk up to the stadium is spectacular, the sheer size of the structure is just overwhelming. It is standing there like a giant crown with the Orbit tower as its sceptre by its side. It is nice to see all the club related details, the huge West Ham badges, the claret-and-blue ornaments or the player murals around the outside wall.
The stadium tour took us through the VIP hospitality area, then out to the main stand for a great view of the pitch (and that awful gap), back inside to the home changing room with players´ shirts, media rooms and through the tunnel onto the edge of the pitch. The layout of the tour is fairly similar to the Boleyn tour (including a lack of a trophy cabinet). There were a lot of photo opportunities and we both enjoyed the tour. Everything about the stadium is large, super modern, super comfortable, flashy and neat, You can sense the 21st century all around you. There is a lot of West Ham detail around, from massive photos of current players on the walls to plenty of badges and claret-and-blue colour.
It is a very impressive stadium we are renting here. So what was it that I was missing? Perhaps the history, the character, the wear and tear of everyday use. The Boleyn Ground breathed history and character, if only those walls could tell the stories… The creaky, carpeted stairways were replaced with elevators, framed shirts of old time heroes with flashy photos of the current players, a knowledgeable tour guide with stories to tell with an interactive audio guide.
And then it was the match day. I fondly remember the claret-and-blue festival of Upton Park area, the hustle and bustle, the sizzling of food stalls, the calls of fanzine and official programme vendors, the flags and scarves flying from the independent souvenir stands, the chants coming out of the Boleyn pub, the claret-and-blue crowd drifting to and fro. None of this was evident outside the London Stadium.
The match was what it was. In fact, there were a number of similarities with that Leicester City match – in both cases we came up short against the champions (bar a miracle this season), lacking intensity and penetration, and only managed a consolation goal towards the end, neither of them was celebrated by the scorer (Payet/Lanzini). Despite the loss to Chelsea, Seba and I enjoyed the experience, it was our first West Ham match together, and Seba´s favourite player scored just as well (and I don´t mean Costa). It was also nice to meet some WHTID legends, such as Dan Coker (and his dad and sister), Liddy or Safe Hands, during the break.
All in all, I happily admit I had been in favour of the move to the new stadium as a way forward. I am not sure any more. My persuasion is fading. We are still a midtable club with midtable players and midtable transfer funds. This is clear to see for everyone and it was clear on the pitch against Chelsea, we were nowhere near them in terms of quality or depth of squad. There is, however, a discrepancy between the current status of the club and the apparent top 4-6 ambition of the Board which was suggested as the main motive behind the move to a larger and super modern stadium. We should have either quietly remained an honest midtable club and stayed at the Boleyn Ground, in our comfort zone, settled, with our familiar match day rituals, or the owners should consider selling up to someone with money to match the ambition and grandeur of the stadium. For now, we are stuck in the middle.
As for me, I would personally hate West Ham to become another plastic club for plastic fans from China or Thailand. I love the fact that each of us has a genuine reason for following West Ham United (well, that statement comes from a Czech guy, I hear you say, but when I converted, West Ham were a Second Division club). I would be happy with an honest, hard-working, passionate brand of football and midtable stability. After all, aren’t we all honest, hard-working, passionate fans to go with it? But I wonder what West Ham my lad Seba will one day take his child to watch. COYI.