In 2017 West Ham Joint Chairman was asked to define what the next level is for West Ham.
Speaking to Claret and Hugh Associate Editor Sean Whetstone on the MooreThanJustAPodcast Hammers podcast Gold said:“To me it is growth, to me, it is forever improving, we are going forward and the best and easy way to do that is to say where did we finish up in the league or did we win or how far did we get in the cup.
What we mean by the next level is that we want to be challenging at the highest level, nobody knows where that is, it is a moving item, we want to do better, we want to challenge at the highest level.
West Ham United has been the fourth largest football club in London and it has been like that since I was a boy, go back 50 years.
I remember when we had a lengthy period in the fifties in the old second division, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, they were much bigger clubs than us, they were all in the so-called first division which is now the Premier League.”
This season West Ham can proudly say they are currently the second team in London in the Premier League table only behind Chelsea by 5 points.
The Hammers sit in sixth place above Spurs and Arsenal needing only a point to secure sixth place and second highest placed London in the Premier League.
I disagree with the comment that “back in the day” Chelsea were seen as a bigger club than West Ham. When I started watching football Arsenal and Spurs were the big London clubs. West Ham and Chelsea were the next level down which is probably why in those days it always seemed we had more rivalry with Chelsea than either Spurs or Arsenal.
Obviously Roman Abramovich’s arrival changed Chelsea’s status in the game considerably and they can probably now claim to be London’s premier club.
It matter not a jot to me, if West Ham were not like the others. You see West Ham to me , was like the area we grew up in, ok we may not money, but we are happy, we enjoyed life the best way we could. When we got promote to Div1 it was like a light coming on, gradually the start of showing no respect to us started. Tottenham because of winning the double felt we were the roughens from the East End, no not got a terrible chip on my shoulder, they really used to ram it hard , you lot are a nothing team. Arsenal showed respect, so did the old Chelsea supporters, Fulham they just got on with the game, the 1975 final was the proof , I don’t think either side wanted to win, more so because our beloved Bobby was on their side. But times like the Thames flowed on, we still got that Tottenham hate us stuff, you’ve only to see how the Olympic park was badly wanted by Spurs, so to nullify that cheeky lot from East London. Mind you Leyton Orient are still ruffled by us, as they fill we look down on them. But nothing is as bad as us and the Tottenham
I remember a couple of years before leaving school, a teacher happen to mention football, and suddenly he said well any other boy in here today supports any other team?
One boy at the back, was the quietest , put up his hand and when asked what London team , expecting the O’s naturally, but he said 😡🤯Tottenham , god you could hear a mouse nibbling at cheese , it was that quiet. Funny he come to school a week later with a black eye!!!