For supporters, management, the board and players alike, there is the opportunity to embrace a new era at West Ham from the top down.
The demise of the Sullivan – Brady era means that pretty universally, fans have a degree of optimism – and even, dare we say ‘hope’ that they’d not expected following May’s relegation.
But being the largest club in the division has its price: Every other side wants a piece of West Ham United.
After the dejection of last season, hope is back at West Ham
Being the fallen Premier League big boys and arguably the largest side ever to play in the second tier, West Ham’s team have targets on their backs. At least, that’s the claim from livscore.com, who sum up the coming challenge succinctly:
“Between Hermansen’s direct acknowledgment of the pressure, [Former skipper Kevin] Nolan’s blunt outside view that the whole league is coming for them, Nuno’s insistence on respecting every fixture, and Bowen’s refusal to let the squad coast on reputation, West Ham’s own message matches what’s coming from the rest of the division: every Championship club circling this season with West Ham on the calendar sees it as the standout date.
The scale of the club, the size of the crowd, and the quality still on the pitch mean that for all other clubs, facing West Ham this year won’t feel like just another midweek away day. It’ll feel like the biggest game of their season.”
Forty six cup finals await then. Daunting? Or an opportunity to put right the relegation disaster that this squad of players should have been good enough to see off last season? Probably both. But a good start and three points this afternoon – however they’re accomplished – will help to steady the nerves and fortify the spirit of the travelling fans and thousands watching from home.
Largest stadium to have featured in the second tier maybe, but largest club? The old argument of not being able to tangibly measure massiveness aside, way more successful clubs have been down even since it was rebranded as the championship, including the club we stole our colours from.
As a child growing up in the Leeds United heartland of North Herts, where no one supported nearest team Luton (Stevenage Town as they were then had their pitch dug up by the owners) ….. it was lovely to see Leeds, relegated twice.
Whilst there’s no doubt that West Ham’s Season ticket numbers will set a record as the largest club, we can only dream about the list of trophies and achievements that Leeds once had
West Ham are “arguably the largest side ever to play in the second tier”? I know that we would say that, wouldn’t we, but let’s not forget that the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City have all been relgated to the “second tier” (not necessarily the Championship), many of them in my lifetime.
Arsenal not been relegated for over 100 years.
To be fair, Man City and Chelsea weren’t all that big at the time they were relegated!
I know we are expected to believe that football only started with the Premier League but one of my happiest childhood memories, growing up in the Man Utd heartland of Buckinghamshire, is Man Utd getting relegated. Although West Ham are massive, since Man Utd had recently won the European Cup, I would suggest that they may have been slightly bigger.