Inept, poor, lackluster, shambolic, spineless, pathetic – choose any adjective with a negative connotation and it should fit West Ham’s performance at Swansea. Bear in mind that this is a Swansea rummaging around the basement of the table, desperate for any point to escape relegation – so not exactly powerhouse opposition.
But there is an awful lot going on and going wrong at West Ham this season – and when your paper-thin squad gets reduced further by illnesses and injuries you shouldn’t be surprised to see a team with their backs to the wall struggling to play anything resembling Premier League quality football.
Like in so many other games this season though, just like under Bilic during his bad run, a lot of the players look disinterested, as if the game (which should be the highlight and focus of the week and the centerpiece of their professional pride) is nothing but a distraction of their everyday routine. I can sympathise that it’s probably not wall to wall fun to be a West Ham player at the moment, but they are professionals and should act accordingly.
Also it looks like Moyes’s honeymoon is finally over. I have been an advocate of finding a manager and then giving him a long term deal to lay a foundation for a long term strategy and gameplan for the entire club. I have my doubts though if Moyes is the right man to succeed with this particular bunch of players. I always try to find positives to talk about in my column when it comes to West Ham, but like the team I’m struggling.
Rice was the best player on the pitch yesterday and when a 19 year old is the only player coming out of a game with any professional dignity it’s a worrying sign.
Our league position is still perilous, we may still have a three point cushion, but have destroyed our goal difference in the last two games which can be a relegation clincher at the end of the season. If we have to lose we cannot afford to concede a shipload like we tend to do. We don’t just lose, we capitulate, waving white flags all over the shop.
The entire club is in turmoil, from top to bottom, and I am sick and tired of hearing claims that the fans are putting a millstone of negativity around the club’s neck, affecting the players.
Pardon my French, but this is hogwash. The fans so far have been remarkably patient and unwaveringly positive and supportive, especially the travelling parties creating a fantastic atmosphere for our away games. I don’t remember too many occasions when the team actually repaid the away supporters with a great performance on the pitch.
The fans have done their bit, it’s about time the players, the manager and yes, the bloody board gave something back – and I am not talking about letters promising all kinds of things, beer shelves or flags of former Hammers legends being draped all over the concourse. Those are minor issues that should have been sorted the moment we moved into the new place.
Every week another thing happens that easily opens up the board for more criticism. Reid going down the way he did of course was a freak injury, a stroke of bad luck and by the looks of it he could now be out for the rest of the season and beyond. This is significant because we just recently happened to allow Fonte to leave to China, getting in some funds to balance the books.
Sorry, but surely the priority this transfer window should have been to add to our squad in preparation for the relegation battle, not make it weaker. What was the point in letting so many players leave ? And what if we get relegated ? Expect plenty of transfer requests to arrive on Sullivan’s desk within days after the final game.
Talking of relegation I would be sad, angry, disappointed, distraught, but probably not for long.
It would be much harder for me to watch games of course in terms of finding internet streams for Championship games, but that’s not really the main issue. The issue is that once you’re down there it’s incredibly hard to get back up again, especially in the current circumstances. We could easily do a Leeds, a Forest or a Bolton.
Would I be happy to see the Daves take a financial hit in case of relegation ?
Well, not really. They are so rich that a financial hit for them is very relative. They could still keep their Bentleys including chauffeur, their crystal panthers at home would be safe and they could also still afford two warm meals a day.
But West Ham, fans and club, would suffer going down and I don’t want West Ham to suffer. Parachute payments alone won’t guarantee anything anymore.
The board may well be gone in a few years, but the fans would still be there in the Championship in their droves and that’s why I can sympathise with any fan who still feels the desire and need to march.
The frustration and anger simply needs to go somewhere. Is a march the best way to let off steam ? I don’t know. Will it help the club ? Maybe not.
Is it better instead to vent your anger at home games inside the stadium with chants and banners ? Probably not, it may affect the players, but can they honestly play any worse than they did in recent weeks and for most of the season ? And that was with solid support from the West Ham faithful throughout.
As you can gather from my ramblings, I don’t have any answers really and even if I had it wouldn’t matter really as the decision makers are elsewhere and they seem to think their decisions have been spot on and they are the best people really to make this club a success. If you define success by just staying up in the Premier League even that task becomes quite tricky with every game we fail to win.
It’s gonna be a tense remainder of the season and not for the faint of heart. You reap what you sow and it could be argued we have sown little and sown badly in recent years.
A Championship team as anchor tenant in the Olympic Stadium. A bizarre thought. But then again our club are the masters of the bizarre and we make the surreal possible.
COYI!!!
PS: Not much else to report on a personal level. All lower level football in Hamburg got postponed due to the weather conditions. Hamburg only drew against Mainz, edging ever closer to relegation, getting a goal disallowed after VAR ruled it offside. And my brother is off on rehab in a place in the middle of nowhere near Mölln, the Eulenspiegel town. Eulenspiegel was a legendary trickster exposing vices many hundred years ago.
Tricksters aren’t a thing of the past though, some of them are still alive and kicking, running football clubs…