Blind Hammer argues that despite our recent signings there may still be a need for patience next season.
Football is an emotionally extreme business. This is why we love it, we may face the despair of defeat but we also experience the joy of success. Compare the contrasting emotions last season at the London Stadium after depressing and inept performances against Manchester City, to the ecstasy of beating Chelsea, earlier in the season, and Tottenham late in the season. In a way the magic of football is that the anguish of defeat makes the happy delirium of victory all that much sweeter.
Football thrives on this emotion. The Board criticism and negativity on West Ham Till I Die comments sections and other forums so prevalent a couple of weeks ago have now been transformed into assertions here and elsewhere that the Board has “played a blinder”. Now there is a new positivity approaching the new season.
However all this positivity could evaporate if we lose our first three games away in August, which is not beyond the realms of possibility. The fact will be that even if this happens we could have a good season, despite the need to start out with three away games in a row.
Our new signings have Premier league success behind them. Which should make the task of settling in easier. Despite this past PL experience, some settling in and gelling may be required. Even Scott Parker took a little time to settle in before producing world class performances. The credentials of Zabaleta, Hart, Arnautovic and Hernandez will not guaranteed that all will hit the ground running at 100%. The first Hart mistake will start a narrative about whether he still has what it takes, Zabaleta may face questions about his age, Arnautovic is already experiencing queries about his commitment and work rate and Hernandez will have to thrive in a team which has, for the most part played with one up front rather than the two he is apparently best suited to. In addition injuries to Antonio et al will mean that it will be some time before we can put out our strongest team.
All clubs experience the highs and lows of emotions. However the issue for West Ham is more sensitive and tricky. We still have the problem of negativity surrounding the move to the London Stadium. It is clear that a section of our fan base will never ever forgive the Board for leaving Upton Park and the negativity surrounding this instantly emerges as soon as results take a turn for the worst or transfers seem slow in arriving. It seems that only winning a trophy or again qualifying for Europe will ever quell this negativity.
All this matters because we materially affect the quality of player’s performances with the quality of our support. The club has, as I reported in a recent post, revealed how some players need emotional and psychological support in dealing with criticism not just from the terraces but from the ever burgeoning arena of the blogosphere and social media.
The extent a crowd can influence games was revealed to me not at West Ham but another club. As a young man I lived in Liverpool between 1973 and 1978. Whilst remaining a true Hammer throughout these years I did stand on the Kop every other week, and Liverpool during this period became temporarily my second team, unless of course they were playing West Ham. The legendary support the Kop gave Liverpool in those years was extraordinary. It is now apparently consigned to history and the Liverpool crowd is nowadays as critical as any other. However in those years the extent to which the Kop could influence games was something I have never witnessed before or since. The support was unbelievably positive. If Liverpool went, on the rare occasion, a goal down, the support became louder. If they went 2 goals down the support got even louder. When Liverpool played St Etienne, in 1977 they were playing a shocker. They lost the first leg 1-0, a margin of defeat which could easily have been more. Despite Kevin Keegan scoring on the return leg, Dominique Bathenay spectacularly put the classy French side ahead again and their superiority seemed assured. Liverpool seemed down and out, requiring 2 to overcome the French away goal. The Kop had other ideas, and roared the team on to eventual victory. First Kennedy equalised the scores before “super sub” David Fairclough scored the winner with 6 minutes to go to send the Kop into delirium. It was for me definitely the Kop that won it that night. I could see in those days. Well enough to see the players faces. Even whilst winning the St Etienne players were clearly being unnerved by the Kop, whilst the Liverpool players seemed to grow and gain strength from this support as the game progressed.
Now I have been similarly witness to fantastic comebacks by West Ham, feeding on support from the crowd, I will never forget the Trevor Brooking inspired comeback to ultimate victory against Eintrecht Frankfurt. However, whilst our crowd can reach the heights, we can also turn on players. During this past era of the 70s I never heard the Kop turn on a single Liverpool player, no matter what mistakes they made. Instead they made them feel 10 feet tall. This unconditional and fervent support was Liverpool’s secret weapon during the 70s. .
Unconditional support like this is probably unrealistic nowadays. People pay incredibly more for their match tickets compared to the 70s and this must increase the sense of grievance when a team does not perform. This unconditional support has vanished at Liverpool as much as anywhere else.
However this upcoming season for West Ham is critical in a number of ways. Upton Park is no more and like it or not we have to make the London Stadium our fortress. Speculating on various disasters or the need to move on to another location will not help the team one jot in settling in. The Board have to my mind, delivered on what they promised at the start of the transfer window. We have, as supporters, just as critical a role to play. When our new look team takes the pitch against Huddersfield. For our first game we need to make them feel they are at home and can thrive on our support. Huddersfield will not be easy and expectations of a victory will be high for us. Our team has struggled with this expectation against so called lesser teams in the past. . Huddersfield will feel like they are at Wembley again in a massive stadium and may well raise their game as a result, as others did last season. Our job will be to make this task as difficult as possible for Huddersfield, no matter how well they are playing, and easy as possible for our team, however limited the levels of their performance. Encouragement nearly always works better than the stick of criticism.
COYI
David Griffith