Given there’s not going to be any football for at least three weeks – and I suspect more like a few months – so that leads me to think how we can possibly survive. No, I don’t mean we’re all going to die and we’re all doomed (a la Corporal Jones. Younger reads nay need to google him), I mean how can this site survive when there’s no football to discuss? Well, we do it for a couple of months at the end of every season, I suppose, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. However, this somehow feels different. I am serious when I say the shutdown could last for many months. People I talk to in government reckon the peak might not be reached until June or July. This is going to affect all our lives, and people will react to it all in very different ways. I know from my radio show that it’s already affecting some people’s mental health and is adding to many people’s feelings of anxiety. I know this site has become a bit of a community over the years, especially among people who comment regularly. So I think WHTID can be of help in keeping us all sane as we wonder what the future holds.
What I do not want is for the site to become a discussion zone about Coronavirus itself. This is not the place for that. Fine, discuss it as it affects West Ham, football and even sport in general, but please let’s avoid long-winded discussions about conspiracy theories, the medical aide of it or the government’s response or lack of it. I’m not being censorious, I promise, but that sort of stuff belongs elsewhere.
What the site needs over the next few weeks or months is a revival of the Guest Post. I’m going to try to post more myself, but I really want there to be a new article each day on the site. I’ve recruited a new writer, Michael Lee, who will post every other Wednesday, but as you can imagine there are going to be a lot of gaps in the schedule. I know Dan Coker will step up to the plate as he always does. GoatyGav has Tuesdays covered and I’m hoping Nigel will do an article each Thursday. I’d love HamburgHammer to continue to cover Mondays. Gary Hyams has become an appreciated regular too but that still leaves at least a couple of weekly slots to cover. We need to figure out what Jeff Gayle and David Hautzig can write about too, given there won’t be any matches to preview or report on.
Many years ago we did a feature called HOW I BECAME A HAMMER. Perhaps we should revive that, and you can call relate how you came to support the Mighty Irons.
Or you could write about THE BEST WEST HAM GAME I HAVE EVER SEEN. Or perhaps MY MOST MEMORABLE WEST HAM EXPERIENCE.
So if any of you would like to write Guest Posts please just email your article to me via the Contact Box at the top of the page and I’ll stack them up.