We won’t go down. We won’t get to 7th. The season is now likely to peter out or even end in a damp squib. The Everton game was one of the most painful to watch this season and there has been quite a bit of competition in that respect. It’s baffling how professional footballers can look like complete strangers on the pitch at times, despite training almost every day.
Right from the start the West Ham players were second best to their Everton counterparts in almost every single way, be that effort, distance covered, successful passes, pace, shots on goals, headers/tackles won in midfield, you get the picture.
It’s a bad sign when even a diehard West Ham nut like myself is staring at the game clock in the corner of the screen with more than ten minutes still to go and urging time to go faster to bring the match to a much appreciated end.
Everton were like a ruthless cat, playing games with a defenceless three-legged mouse suffering from arthritis and shortness of breath, before getting bored and killing it in casual and professional fashion.
That mouse, unfortunately, was us.
As usual this season, our first half performance was a shambles, leaving the team with yet another mountain to climb in the second half. It got ever so slightly better after the interval, but that wasn’t a massive surprise with the bar of skill and effort having hardly left the ground in the first 45 minutes.
Indeed I can only really applaud the performances of Fabianksi and Rice, maybe Ogbonna, on the day. The rest were scoring marks somewhere between mediocre, shambolic and did-he-actually-play ?
The starting XI looked utterly confusing to begin with – I know there were issues with certain players suffering from jet lag after playing international football a few days ago.
Anderson had a minor ankle issue apparently while Mark Noble was grieving the death of his grandmother, having missed training as a result.
I’m not sure those two players would have helped us enough to get even a draw against Everton, but they surely would have given us that little bit extra and at least make us compete. Either way, once again the team didn’t turn up when there was a massive chance for us to stake a serious claim in the late season battle for 7th place.
It’s worth to begin mulling over what might happen this summer. Surely there will have to be changes to the squad and I wouldn’t expect just some minor adjustments there either.
Quite a few players will leave, including one or two we might prefer to keep, but our finances seem to dictate that we might have to cash in on certain players with decent value, should there be offers on the table which are too good to turn down.
I feel though it’ll be vital to keep Pellegrini onside as much as possible.
So you really want the gaffer to have a major say in any player transaction taking place and not rub him the wrong way by interfering with his efforts to build a squad according to his playing style and footballing philosophy.
By now I reckon he will have a more realistic idea about what he can expect from our board in terms of transfer funds (and what’s pie in the sky territory), but Husillos and Pellegrini have already shown they can unearth a bargain or two with their knowledge of especially the South American market and their finger on the pulse of the top flight in Spain. So they don’t necessarily need pots of money in order to improve our team, however, they clearly need another well funded transfer window to build on last summer’s business.
As a club we have rarely done that in our past, building further after laying a solid foundation. With West Ham it’s usually one step forward, then two back again and start over at square one. I still believe, and quite strongly, that Pellegrini is a great manager and it’d be foolish to let him go at this early stage when we are still very much at the start of the journey/the project and nowhere near the end.
It’ll be my birthday later this week and if I can have just one West Ham related wish it would be to see another quality transfer window for us in the summer. Not necessarily one where we spend another 80 million quid. But surely it has to be more than 25 million. It has to be said, when watching our games from the comfort of my armchair, that the stadium does look impressive, fantastic even, especially under the lights. It looks like a big club should be playing games in there, one that plays great football and tries to perform for 90 minutes in every single game – and I don’t mean the away side!
From my experience, West Ham fans are an extremly realistic and loyal bunch. We don’t expect miracles or ask for the moon and stars, we know our dreams have a tendency to fade and die, but we also have a finely adjusted sense/antenna telling us if we are being done up like a kipper or not.
That’s not gonna wash in the long run. If the board expect 50.000 fans, give or take, to renew their season tickets despite some hefty hikes in asking prices in some bands or for young fans/kids especially, then the board need to do their job properly as well.
Quick word on the blog. I was glad to read Iain’s parish notice that he will keep the blog alive and kicking, so this is not going to be one of my last ever columns on here as initially feared when I started writing this article, however, the future of the blog very much depends on how our community deals with certain unsavoury or unpleasant elements such as abuse, bullying or trolling. Or losing authors.
My view is that we seem to go through a cycle sometimes of regular authors packing it in (or taking their articles elsewhere) and that obviously makes it hard to put out a new article every single day. However, I reckon rather than closing down the blog completely, our readers can live with less articles for a certain period until new contributors and guest authors come on board which I’m 100% certain is always going to happen eventually.
We have lost a number of esteemed authors in the past, but this blog has always bounced back, going strong regardless. Like mentioned by others before, the blog has also helped to assemble a great community of people, a forum that works well in a number of ways and on several levels. It works for those who simply like to exchange views and banter on our club online.
It has also helped to answer vital questions for overseas fans travelling to games on rare occasions or even facilitated matters with regard to sorting out tickets, transport or even accommodation.
Some fans have found comfort in kind words and advice from fellow fans when going through rough times on a personal level. Genuine friendships have been formed, crossing borders, nationalities, creeds, even political views.
For some this community has indeed become something almost qualifying as a second family. Surely that alone is valuable enough to keep the site going and put up with the occasional lack of new content, the odd troll showing up, spreading bile or even authors feeling underappreciated or overcriticised.
I for one would be very sad to see this blog disappear. And I believe, no, I am 100% certain that I am not alone in feeling this way.
West Ham have started a new journey into uncharted territory with the move to London Stadium and the hiring of Pellegrini. This blog should and will continue to be along for the ride for many years to come, chronicling the ups and downs of this club we all love. May both club and WHTID continue to grow and prosper. COYI!!!
Hamburg Update:
Quick personal update as I had the most amazing news last Friday, just as this site was in a state of limbo. I had driven my brother to his local hospital for another of those regular tests he will have to endure for the rest of his life after fighting (and surviving) cancer of his oesophagus about a year ago.
Friday was the day of his scheduled gastroscopy and, thank God, they found no remaining traces of cancer whatsoever. After anesthesia he was in no condition to drive, obviously, so I picked him up afterwards as well. And naturally I was over the moon when he told me the good news.
He will have to undergo another MRI screening later this week, in order to kick any remaining shred of doubt into touch, but things are surely looking a lot better than they did about a year ago when his life was very much hanging by a thread. So there is increased hope now that I will be able to take him (maybe joined by his wife and kid) to London later this year for a long weekend and maybe a home game as well.
He has been to London before (and Upton Park too, but not the London Stadium), however, it’d be the first time in London for my sis-in-law and my nephew.
As for the football, the two big Hamburg clubs each played in goalless draws which didn’t exactly enhance their promotion chances.
Condordia’s first team didn’t play (it was cup weekend – and they were out already).
The U23s won their cup game in extra time and have now qualified for the semi-finals.
Yesterday I watched the Cordi Women’s team win 8:0 away at the bottom team of the league. The ladies remain in second place, but are unlikely to catch the table-toppers as those have a vastly superior goal difference and are unlikely to drop points in the remaining fixtures.
So the girls will have to go the extra mile and try to win promotion by way of winning a series of playoff games.