West Ham Till I Die
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Nigel Kahn’s Column

Help Or Hindrance

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This week the argument that West Ham is performing so well this season as opposed to other seasons because of no fans are in the ground reared its head, again, after Talksport’s roving reporter, and West Ham fan, “The Moose”, Ian Abrahams, claimed our win against Sheffield United came about because of it.

The Moose was derided by many in social media land but is there any legs in this argument? In my opinion, no, there are no legs in the argument. I do accept there can be a correlation between the fans on the pitch and the performance of the players during a game, but I can’t see that being replicated across a whole season and I think it detracts from the great work being done by David Moyes and his coaching team along with the players’ hard work and effort they put in.

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What not having fans in the ground does affect is that home advantage is not a big factor as it is in a normal season across the whole of the premier league. Last season there were 380 home games played which resulted in 172 home wins. That is a percentage of 45% while away from home and the same amount of games played there were 116 away wins, a 30% away win ratio.

This season so far there have been 247 home games resulting in only 88 home wins, that’s 35% of games played won by the home team. A 10% drop in home wins in one season more defines for me the lack of fans in the stadium and the effect on the game fans can have. It is possible that lack of fans is not hurting the home teams, but is actually helping the away team in that they are not being pressurised by 30 to 50 thousand fans screaming abuse at them. The home advantage this season is no advantage and virtually makes the stadiums into neutral venues.

In West Ham’s regard, we have won exactly 50% of our home and away games and as this season will possibly go down as one of the most successful seasons the club has had not only in the premier league but also in any top-flight season it is hard to compare this season to recent others especially at the London stadium.

If we look back to points-wise our most successful in the PL then in 2015/16 season we won 9 of our 19 home games and won only 7 Away.

Under BFS we won only 10 away premier league games in three whole seasons combined. Last season under David Moyes, we only won 1 of his 9 away games.

Despite having one of the best away day fanbase in the country, we have never been blessed with a great away day team to follow, until the one season we cant follow them. It is not just West Ham this season as only Man City & Liverpool in the top 10 teams have won more home games than away. Man United’s so-called Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford, holds no such fear as it used to with them only winning 5 of their 12 games played there. Perhaps the fact we are playing them soon there may help us to finally win for the first time since 2007.

This for me is the real factor of not having fans in the ground but it will be interesting to see next season as hopefully fans will again be in attendance so we can then see if we are the hindrance many in the media think we are.

Of course, we as a fanbase still have our divisions though, I must admit to being a bit worn out by the constant negativity that goes on around the club and its fanbase. It seems like Brexit you have to be either in one camp or another. You all know my feelings in regards to the owners and hopefully watched my Video a couple of weeks ago on why I remain Board Out. The video though wasn’t a rallying call to others to join the fight, and drive them out, it was just me explaining why.

I fully understand that there are many fans though that support the board and are happy with the way they have run the club. I think nothing less of them for that unless they write for a certain other website and personally criticise an ex-player who gives his point of view that is different to their stance.

A short podcast this week but towards the end, you can hear the frank exchange of views between the author of that article and his co-presenters on the podcast.

Many may have seen the Rio Ferdinand podcast with Ravel Morrison interview, going over some of the contentious issues throughout his career. Ravel was the boy superstar who was in the same United Youth team as Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba and was looked at as being the star of the team.

His time at West Ham was controversial, yet it seems Ravel blames Allardyce for the way his time with us finished, and to me seems to fail to acknowledge his part in his downfall and specifically going missing over Xmas 2013 to the point no-one knew where he was still next when our next game was played.

It is always a shame when such a talented footballer seemingly wastes his talent and while these days the young players are privileged and well rewarded at a younger age than years ago, I still look back at his time at the club fondly, his talent stood out and perhaps it is that reason I feel disappointed for him and in him.

I think Fergie hit the nail on the head when saying he was “just beaten by his background”. I hope that he will find a club and get back to obviously what he enjoys most, Playing football.

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