West Ham’s torrid conflict between the board- David Sullivan and Karren Brady principally- and tens of thousands of aggrieved fans has caught the attention of national media this week as the vote of no confidence in the West Ham board was made very public. One of the most surprising-aired comments on Claret and Hugh’s readers comments is that “fans” would willingly accept relegation if it hastened the departure of the current leadership.
Which I must admit I find astounding. Whatever your opinion of the current ownership, surely you want the best for your club and the players who, for the most part give their all each week. Relegation, as I’ve now witnessed twice as an ‘active’ supporter, is depressing, destabilising and catastrophic for the club regardless of ownership.
Sides are broken up, the endless departure of expensively collected squads is heartbreaking. The best get sold, the decent ones leave anyway and the West Ham side becomes unrecognisable. A load of questionable-quality loanees, a few youth team players and if you’re very lucky one or two senior players from the relegated side remain to try and muddle through that first distressing few weeks away from the top flight.
The grind of Championship football is more physical, less skilful and there is no hiding place. And it is of a worse quality than ever Moyes, Lopetegui or Potter served up. Week after week. Month after month.
Well I remember sitting in Upton Park against sides like Rotherham or Watford in the championship with dreadful, dull football in front of 15,000 bored fans who could, at least, get a half time cup of tea without queueing. But that was all there was to look forward to.
And the prospect of ‘doing a Leeds’ is always the danger for poorly organised relegated sides, who could easily find themselves facing relegation in consecutive years and landing in the third or fourth tier of English football.
So, have your own opinions as to the ownership and the way the club is run. But don’t think, ever, that those who argue vociferously ‘that relegation is a price worth paying’ have the best interests of West Ham United, or most of its loyal fans around the world – currently four million plus – at heart.
We as fans are rightly concerned that relegation could very well happen this season and all that goes with it.And clearly it’s the board from a business sense you would think Sullivan
wants to sell up selling players and very little on replacements third wealthiest club in the premiership second highest attendance and a huge fan base and add to that the small rent we pay for the stadium.And if the ground held 80,000 we would still fill it the board are not going to change Levy has been sacked through fan unrest we need the same with Sullivan and crew the board have been lying to us from the moment they took control of the club.
A fan for 76 years so seen it all today found out a relative of mine was the Manager who started the anthem bubbles.
Does anyone remember the post horn played at home games and why Sullivan wears that stupid coat and hat.
Exactly right relegation is a total disaster as the players flood out and the risk of getting stuck in the championship or even getting relegated again.
Takes years to recover from, probably with a Allardyce phase of grinding football.
Has to avoided at all costs hence why what Sullivan did in the window was such a disaster because that’s what’s being risked.
No centre forward, didn’t replace all the useless midfield with only 2 signings and still questions over all the centre backs.
Nobody wants relegation Martin, though the way we are being run it is this season a possibility, we had a very good 3 0 win against Forest but Forest even when playing well create very few chances. It remains to be seen if we can build on this and we all hope that we can but that is hope imho with very little certainty. For a couple of seasons under Moyes we were solid and had some confidence what we are calling out for is a strategy that we don’t deviate too much from that involves building a high energy team that attacks well and defends well. We should have been making hay while we had European football but instead went backwards fast as soon as Rice was sold, a bit like with Payet we were over dependent on a single player. To be not so requires a long term view such as Brighton’s, Bournemouth and Brentford’s put the structures in place to nurture young talent, players that are developed ourselves are the most cost effective business model and very good recruiting at the right ages outside of the team to make the model sustainable, then add a coach with a long term commitment. If Potter can get it right that could be him he seems a good coach though on strategy he still has questions to answer, at the end of the season Glasner is available and he looks like he plays a style that would give us that.
As for the board I have stuck with this club through thick and very thin for all of my life, had a season ticket and gave it up, they have been mostly mismanaging the football side of the club ever since they let Allardyce (rightly go) lots of broken promises and from what we can gather interference with managers.
The only thing I like about them is that they are not prone to knee jerk decisions when firing managers even though in Avram Grant’s case they should have, thank god they learned their lesson with Lopetegui.
In terms of relegation you are describing your perspective and am sure its shared by others, its a long rebuild process 5 – 10 years which is why I say none of us want it but if it does result in the right business owners coming in and that’s a risk then if it has to be I would accept it. I don’t support the club because we are in the PL I support them because they are the local team from where I grew up and have always supported them so to me relegation or not is irrelevant and I have never minded being in the Championship.
I wouldn’t want relegation , I didn’t want potter , but I hope he proves me wrong, I’m personally fed up with all the politics, when we were winning the conference cup , everything seemed hunky dory, we have a downturn and the sulphur pits of hell loom, I’m a west ham supporter always will be wherever we play . If we played in the local scouts league I’d support them, too many negative waves floating about.
Yeah I agree I don’t remember 15,000 but that said they were not packed houses.
I don’t think relegation would be good but saying having to sit there watching dull boring football. With the exception of our last game that’s exactly what we have had to endure for the last 9 months. Hopefully the boycotts and protests will have an affect and will get some sort of transition to a properly run club
If there are no buyers coming forward to take over the club as a Premiership club what makes these people think there would be anyone doing so if we were a Championship club?
i would follow westham in the national league if it meant getting rid of the clowns, and we would still get more than 15,000 there
Do us a favour and go and support a national league team because you clearly don’t want what’s best for West Ham.
What power do FAB really have if they only represent 25,000 out of 4 million? That said, who should hold the board accountable? Apparently somebody needs to.
Thank you Martin. You absolutely nailed it. I’ve been reading comments from so called fans saying they hope we get relegated, hope we lose etc. one so called fan commented that he wished we’d lost to Forest. Recently I read a comment from someone in this very forum saying that Fullkrug getting injured was a positive because it would help with the bad press on Sullivan. Something along those lines anyway. I find it very hard to understand this kind of toxic mentality. How could any real fan want to see their team relegated or even lose a game or be happy that one of our players gets injured?
Martin, if any supporter of the club says this they have lost their marbles! Yes the board are not great but relegation, as you have said in a round about way in your blog is something that the club may take years to recover from. I would say to those supporters get real and just keep fighting for the changes you want, but don’t say it comes with relegation. I have said in this transfer window without new players coming in that is what would happen. Now we have had that so get behind the team and make sure we stay up.
I absolutely agree Martin, I started watching West Ham in 1967 seen us relegated three times in the last century and twice this. It’s heartbreaking when it happens and I would never wish that feeling on any fans (except for Spurs and Manure of course 😈) the club is bigger than BS, they will go and hopefully someone better will come in but wishing for relegation never. Ask the fans of Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City or the host of former premier league clubs in League 1. I know where they would rather be.
Keep in mind also that the board have borrowed against future Premier League, not Championship, revenue. Relegation would be financially disastrous
Agreed.
15,000?! More like 30,000+! We’re not Crystal Palace whose fans disappear in the Championship!
We’d get crowds of over 40/45,000 in the Championship with cheaper prices and old school fans coming back once the tourists have gone. Higher still if we challenge for promotion.
One thing you can’t knock is the loyalty of our fans, which is why the 15,000 figure baffles me.
I remember the League Match 5 December 1987 versus Southampton 14,975 crowd. How’s that for you?
I also went to league cup games in the eighties where the crowd was less than 10k
15k at Upton Park in the Championship. I think you’re memory might be a bit
Hopefully the fans and the board can sit down and iron out their differences unite and help the team progress towards a successful future. COYI we have to Unite it’s the only way.