Get in my son!
Vastly relieved Irons vice chairman David Gold is “looking up” again after the win over Swansea City.
Speaking exclusively to ClaretandHugh immediately after the game he said: “That was a massive result – absolutely massive and now I can stop looking over my shoulder.
“Swansea has been the team we have had to keep out eyes on. To beat them and go eight points clear of them with just six games left is a fabulous result.
“Next week it’s Sunderland who haven’t scored a goal in seven games so whilst we offer them total respect we expect to get something.”
He added: “Today’s was an awful game although Lanzini, Collins and Byram in particular were very good. The man of the match was their goalkeeper so that speaks for itself.”
And he added; “Our crowd were quite magnificent and rose to the occasion as they always do. Whenever they were needed they responded. They were fantastic.
“Now I’m looking up and I think 10th place is obtainable. My feeling tonight can be best described as one of vast relief.”
You and most of us feeling relieved David, I spoke to plenty of other Irons on my journey from Richmond to Stratford and all of us were nervous before the game, thank god we played better than they did COYI !!!
Yes, that was the lowest point of the season and worst hurdle cleared. Now we can look up, and yes, with the stadium the club now has available for home matches, the time is long overdue for West Ham United FC to be put on the map. I don’t think many could argue that an area with a football club that represents such a huge percentage of the Capitol’s population, with the exception of Millwall FC, making it around the entire eastern half &/or of around 4 million people, that the area has been starved of so much success, especially since so much money started to be thrown at this game, making it now, more than ever before, a results based business. There was never anywhere near the same pressure in the game 30 & more years ago as to what there is now. Football used to be real fun without all of the stress and worries that the modern game now has to endure. I mean, when the Football League ran 92 clubs in 4 divisions with 24 clubs each in divisions 3 & 4, and 22 clubs each in divisions 1 & 2 with just 2 points for a win, goal average & not goal difference, and until the 1960s – no substitutes, with just the 1 sub being allowed from around the mid-60s on. The atmosphere at matches and the areas surrounding the club on match days was of a much more relaxed experience. Before 1961, the maximum wage was no more than £20 per week. I remember well, that as being a West Ham supporter in the 1960s in a 1st division with 22 clubs & 42 games to the season, 2 points for a win with only the 2 clubs finishing last & 2nd last being relegated, there was never this constant pressure of relegation if one’s club were not in the top half of the table. Players used to play without pressure and were free to experiment more and develop their skills more without the fear of a new, good idea going wrong, because if, as it sometimes did occasionally go wrong, well with 21 other clubs & only a possible 2 points lost from an error, it just felt so much more relaxed and was good light hearted fun. I am not saying that there aren’t a lot of positives from today’s modern game, and the players are not exploited and underpaid like they used to be, no, far from it, but by heavens, I think the pressure of the modern game has become immense, just too immense indeed. With the rising of fitness levels and speed play now being coached into the game, then I have 1 idea of how to slow down this pressure a bit. One answer could be bigger stadiums being built, and the re-sizing of the playing surfaces to the maximum area allowed in the rules, being 120 metres in length & 90 metres wide. West Ham’s stadium could easily house a playing area of that size. That would certainly slow things down a bit and with increased medical scans & surveillance, probably create super human football athletes that could sprint with the ball and run as fast as Usaine Bolt, and that playing in an area that size would certainly bring the fans in the stadium closer with cheaper safe standing closer to the playing action and would probably allow for stadiums with capacities of up to 200,000 fans. We are half way to that level now. How about just getting on with it by recommending to the FA that the playing area the maximum 120 x 90 metres be allowed, with stadiums being able to house 200,000? It is happening already and there doesn’t seem like there is anything that anyone can do to stop it.
Never mind looking up, look for a new manager or we will be fighting relegation again next year, if Leeds don’t get promotion try for Gary Monk…
Hmmm..he struggled at Swansea. Is that the best we can do? It may well be. That’s the problem when potential managers are looking at the mess the club has got itself into this season. They are thinking did Bilic really choose those players? Was he forced to take some of them by the owners? Could they not have got better quality players if the owners had closed the deals more efficiently? And if you get a second rate manager the best players turn up their noses. How do you escape that cycle & start to get a top manager & a few top players…
Well Hammer64, a top player has to be attracted to a club, being a top club. I mean Lukaku didn’t want to come hear, nor did Bony. Why? The club has already started to become attractive from only this year, by playing its matches at the London Stadium, and for some good (not great) players who did come here, it was because of the level Slaven Bilic is at. Having previously been a successful manager of an entire country (Croatia) and a Turkish club that played in the Champions league, Slaven is top notch. West Ham have moved on from the old End End. I look at the current managerial options & I don’t see anyone that can match Slaven. When you say top players, you mean game changing players like Messi, Bale, Ronaldo, Robben, Neymar, Suarez. There are many clubs who couldn’t attract that level of player. The London stadium can house 80,000 during music concerts. It will become that figure for football matches in the near future. That’s more than Man Utd can house. And London, being the nation’s capitol, will become more of an attraction for great players than Manchester or Liverpool. Spurs maybe have the jump on West Ham, as their manager really is one of the best and will soon house around the same, no, I think it will be more than our stadium can house. West Ham will eventually become as attractive to the same financial backers & institutions that back Arsenal, Spurs & Chelsea. The reputation has to be earned & slowly built. I mean I liked the old East End, but those days are now gone, so if this what West Ham United FC want? By changing their peer group? Then that can slowly happen. Its changing us all eh?