Thursday 1st October
It is interesting to see comments at times from those who think I’ve mellowed with time, not as angry as in the past about the owners or the stadium. Today is 10 years since I printed out this leaflet, it was the start of my push to try to get fans to come together in opposition to the move. I started by creating two Facebook groups one in favour, one against. Reason for that was I didn’t have a way of gauging where the fans were in this regard.
Early indication by the growth of each group was that for every 1 fan in favour 8 were against, so this spurred me on to try conveying to fans why the move was wrong. 10 years is a long time to be constantly angry at the owners of the club and to be truthful, I think that that now is too late to be protesting and constantly complaining. For me no matter who the owner is, we will still be in Stratford, we will still be in that stadium with the long walks, the stop-go boards, the overpriced slop for food. Unable to buy a scarf unless it’s a half n half from a dodgy street seller or its overpriced from the club shop.
I was angry about all above years ago, I’m tired of being angry. That is why it may seem I’ve mellowed on the ownership and the stadium. I’ll leave it to those who were nowhere to be seen when it actually could have achieved something to do the shouting and GSBOUT hashtags.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in the ‘board out’ camp but I just don’t need to constantly reinforce it to get people to listen to the podcast or watch a youtube channel or follow me on twitter.
10 and a half years ago I just loved going football with my mates. Sometimes I wish it could have stayed that way.
Friday 2nd October
Vlad the defender is finally announced as the Hammers sign Soucek’s Czech mate. Luckily on here with Toddy and Czech Hammer we get pointers to the type of player he is. £6 million for a 28-year-old is not a big fee so even if we get just a couple of seasons out of him it seems a good deal.
One thing I have long complained about is the transfer dealings of West Ham and the short-termism of many of the players we have signed under the Daves ownership. Coufal is another player that can only be viewed as a short term signing. The type of signing that across the past 10 years and more have taken West Ham FC, the owners and the fans to the relationship it has now.
At some point the model has to change. Moyes said himself he wants to go down the sign young players model. I know finances are tight but personally, I’d rather have spent all the money we had on signing Rhian Brewster from Liverpool than what we are doing now.
Even with Coufal, our defence will still be the week link, so I would rather we went out to get extra goalscoring options to try to counteract the fact we will concede goals. Brewster has a great future and the £25 million Sheffield United spent may be doubled if Brewster continues the goalscoring feats that he has achieved through his young career. Yes it’s a gamble but for a player his age, 20, it’s a gamble worth taking. Brewster was brought up in Chadwell Heath as well so it would have given him the option of coming home, a move I’m sure he would have taken.
Sunday 4th October
The club breathes a sigh of relief as the defeat of Leicester City in such a convincing manner it may take some of the heat away from the off-field theatrics, well for a day at least. Tomorrow is Transfer deadline day and let us hope the club can pull some rabbits out the hat to strengthen. The defeat of Leicester shows that when we are the underdog we can “punch above our weight” to coin a phrase. West Ham at the moment remind me of my golf game. I’ve parred or birdied every hole on my local course, the problem is never in the same round.
Monday 5th October
Oh, well my thoughts yesterday about the club pulling some rabbits out the hat didn’t quite come off. The thinning out of the squad starts off the conspiracy theorists about the owners preparing to sell the club. Lots of chatter up until the 11 pm deadline of possible incomings but the usual excuse, we tried and failed is the order of the night. I spent 2 hours podcasting then 3 hours on Irons United transfer show on Youtube. 5 hours of absolutely nothing, but I had fun doing it. What else you going to do on Monday night.
Tuesday 6th October
Tip for you all. If you’re going to go on Talksport and call the owners liars make sure you have the facts to hand to back it up. Calling people liars on there is different to ranting on Twitter, Facebook or even on here in the comments section. West Ham superfan Barry Cox, (Jim White’s description not mine) was on to try to get across to Jim Whitewash and Simon Jordan just why the fans are angry and why the owners should go.
I listened to the 15 minutes and you have to be armed with the facts and figures to back up what you are saying. Whitewash and Simon Jordan together are professionals in the media, and they will be able to take your argument apart. Barry at one point claimed that Gold and Sully were good at making money, I did chuckle because the club’s a financial mess at the moment due to their ownership, I wouldn’t call that good at making money.
Barry brought up the often-used claim by the Daves that the owners hadn’t taken a penny out of the club, he then pointed out the 20 million that had been paid to them in interest and loan repayments. He’s not wrong but it ignores that they put in 30 million in the summer to run the cash flow, so by putting that 30 million back in they have technically nullified the 20 taken out.
Barry praised the owners for the signings of Anderson and Haller. He said he thought that was positive, showed ambition, which it did. So in the space of a year what has changed Baz into the flag bearer of the board out. Is it the money they haven’t spent? But White and Jordan just got him to praise the owners for spending in the last 2 years. Is it lack of ambition? Haller was signed just over a year ago. He praised that as showing ambition.
See what happened? They tied him up in his own knots.
Jordan put it to him that it all boils down to the stadium move. “No, to a degree yes”, was his reply. He brought up Leicester’s and Villa’s transfer dealings during COVID. Jordan pointed out that had been funded by Leicester’s ability to sell players for a profit – abig profit. Sold Mahrez for £60 million, bought Maddison for £28 million. Baz missed out on pointing out there is West Ham’s problem and why we are in the current mess is due to the money wasted on transfers and wages on players who are at the top of the age range rather than young enough to have resale value if we want to move them on. This is our undoing. He should have put that at the door of the Daves, then White and Jordan would have had to concede.
Baz’s parting shot mystified me. He said he hadn’t been to a game since walking out the stadium when Spurs scored their 3rd goal and wouldn’t go back until the owners had gone.
Spurs scored their 3rd goal on the 49th minute.
Now people are free to make their own decisions on how they support the club. We all have our thresholds when at a game on what we are prepared to watch, but it seems it’s
back the team, not the regime, unless we are 3 down to Spurs.
When I listen to fans like that, it’s when I find myself at odds with the GSB out brigade I am GSB out because of they destroyed a way of life I had going to football while claiming they were going to deliver a team of World beaters, which if you took the time to research you would find it was a pipe dream, unachievable using their own financial projections, not because on the pitch the team they buy is unpredictable, because that has been the West Ham way of playing for the 40 odd years I’ve been watching them.
Wednesday 7th October
The clubs email me to offer me 10% interest on my Season Ticket refund if I allow them to convert it to club cash, a pretty decent offer to be honest. I would be happy just converting the refund to CC without the interest so it just goes to show you…….How the worm has turned.
Off the field, the club has treated match attending fans as an annoyance at best and used as we are there to be milked of cash and if we didn’t like then there’s a 50,000 queue to take my place.
The club seems now need my money so much they are offering me an interest rate better than the Daves get.
I just hope the club will still recognise us the same way when the old normal is back and the new normal is a memory, I doubt it though but we live in hope.
#BRADYOUT.