By CandH’s top blogger Allen Cummings

You’re not West Ham anymore!”

That’s a chant we’ve all heard on numerous occasions since we moved to the London Stadium back in 2016. Away fans were only too keen to feast on, and gloat over, what they saw as the resentment of some West Ham fans at the move away from their beloved Boleyn.

They revelled in what they saw as rubbing salt into an all too obvious wound – and there is no denying it stung at the time. But such has been the transformation in the team, and with it the fortunes of the Hammers – “You’re not West Ham anymore” is no longer an insult – it’s a compliment!

We’re definitely NOT the West Ham I have supported over the past 60 plus years, through thick and thin (mainly thin), good, bad and definitely sometimes embarrassing.

We’re a million miles away from the club who all too frequently at this stage of the season were looking nervously around us, from an all-too-familiar bottom half of the table position, with the fear of relegation a very real possibility.

Last season David Moyes took our club from a subject of ridicule in season 2019-20 to a magnificent sixth place in the Premier League – and with that a passport back into Europe.

A flash-in-the-pan claimed the cynics. How wrong they were as this season we have once again been permanent residents in the top half of the table, elbowing out some of the so-called big clubs, and at the same time sending out a clear message to the rest of Europe the Hammers are a true force to be reckoned with.

Moyes had his critics when first appointed in 2017, and despite saving us from relegation at the end of that season, wasn’t given universal approval when being re-appointed after the disastrous reign of Manual Pellegrini. Even now there are those who seem to begrudge him the praise and respect he deserves for what he has achieved.

John Lyall, probably our most respected manager of recent times, certainly our most successful with two FA Cup Final victories to his name, had the foundations set down by his illustrious predecessor Ron Greenwood, when lifting the cup in 1975.

For Moyes it has been a far greater task to undertake, with confidence at rock bottom and ambition rarely something spoken of with any real conviction when he came in. Of course Moyes and his team are yet to win a trophy – but the potential has never been greater than right now.

How many of those away fans singing “You’re not West Ham any more” would love to be where we are today?