Former Hammers Steve Lomas and Tony Gale have urged protesters to halt their protests until the end of the season to ensure West Ham’s survival.
Speaking to Sun newspaper Lomas said: “Knowing what I know about unrest, my appeal as an ex-captain is: Until the end of the season, get behind the club, get behind the manager, get behind the players and then they can voice their opinions. You look at the next two fixtures and think there won’t be any points.
“Then the Southampton game isn’t a six-pointer, it almost becomes a nine-pointer. Southampton should be an inspiration, where they were after that 9-0 defeat. The Southampton fans stuck behind their team. The last thing we need is demonstrations at home, because indirectly the fans will be hurting the club. I remember the demonstrations they had outside Maine Road. You’re coming in and having to walk through it. In a perverse sort of way, maybe the unrest helped me to get into the team.
“But did it help Man City that people didn’t like Peter Swales? No it didn’t, because Frannie Lee came in and made a balls of it.
“Always be careful what you wish for. I’m sure David Gold and David Sullivan will admit they’ve made mistakes but I don’t think it’s out of malice.
“They don’t want the club struggling and anybody who thinks they do is an idiot.”
And Tony Gale who played more than 370 games in his ten years for West Ham backeed Lomas’ sentiments and called on fans to back boss David Moyes.
“The away end is where you feel the vibe and get the real sense of what fans are thinking. I understand their frustrations but I can also see the adverse effect it has on the team. I played when the whole bond scheme drama was going on in the early 1990s. There were boos, we were aware of things going on in the crowd. Going back to that won’t help. And we can’t have a repeat of what happened in the infamous Burnley game when Moyes was manager last time.”
Gale said: “After that the board spent around £150million on players and brought in a so-called high-profile manager.
“But in no way should fans think this is the way to behave. Moyes and the players need the supporters behind them.
“Players these days have zero loyalty. If West Ham go down, the dressing room will be empty pretty quickly.
“In my day if we went down with a club there was more of a mentality that it was our job to get them back up.”
Our players would need to blind and deaf not to be aware of the protests and the negative comments in the press about the board.
It all increases the risk of relegation and will not bring back Upton Park or necessarily bring us better owners!
I understand the players (Lomas & Gale) saying what they are saying however If you speak to Phil parkes he would say to protest, he hates the board by all accounts! However we’ve been rubbish without the protesting so don’t think it makes much of a difference. As along as it’s not in the ground that’s the main thing.The players should be able to get on with it. Even with the protests the fans are behind the team..
Unfortunately Steve and Tony not all of our players are of the same mind set and the ‘game’ has changed drastically in the last year’s for the worst in my opinion and don’t have the same passion and conviction to the cause of WHU as you and many more before had
absolutely agree with galey on this one. ive been supporting west ham since we last won the fa cup. in that time ive seen a fair few relegation battles and as special as us hammers fans are, we are often architects of our own downfall. we need to get behind moyes and the boys until the final whistle of the last game of the season in may. if we are relegated we should all boycott the home games next season. realistically, that is the only way you can put serious pressure on the board to leave. they will only leave if they start losing money.
I’m sure the West Ham protesters are taking no pleasure in running down the connections to their team,after all some of these people have been supporters have been fans for half a century or more.For me the only way to stop protests is to take away the people they are protesting about.THE BOARD.