In a exhibition – if one were needed – that ‘things ain’t what they used to be’, in the pre-match Newcastle v West Ham United build-up show, millions were subjected to the most one-sided of programmes where West Ham were slated, criticised and vilified by every pundit.
Call me old fashioned but I always used to believe in the independence of broadcasters. Maybe it is because I grew up in the days when the BBC would bend over backwards not to be seen supporting one side over another be it politics, sport, whatever.
Indeed, Jamie Carragher and Theo Walcott seemed to be on slating-West-Ham-performance-related pay. It was so lop-sided I switched over. The studio ‘experts’ had West Ham down to lose by something approaching ten goals to two. I can’t honestly remember, it was so dreary.
Maybe that is why growing numbers of young people are deserting live TV for YouTube channels: I got so much more out of the build up show on YouTube last night- which did actually manage to make me laugh.
Now of course, we as West Ham fans probably shared many of the pundit expectations but I’d still expect this to be delivered from a neutral standpoint. In particular, Skysports own tweet/x is now ageing very badly- complete with the words from Dave Jones to Theo Walcott just before kick off:
“Can you make a quick case for West Ham?” asked Jones: Walcott’s reply: “Er no, there you go, how quick is that?” .
A quick canter round the ‘usual suspects’ in punditry revealed:
Jamie Carragher : West Ham would get ‘rolled over’.
Paul Merson “3-0 Newcastle’.
Chris Sutton: I don’t see them getting any joy at St James’ Park this time, either. Alexander Isak looked back to his best when Newcastle beat Forest last time out, and they should be too strong for West Ham too.
And the best – Rodney Marsh’s tweet :”West Ham have zero chance to win tonight’.
And just in case someone raises it: I’m not forgetting myself in this procession of woeful predictions: Loss, 0-2, hopefully not an avalanche!
Just goes to show, I’m as good a predictor as Paul Merson and Jamie Carragher, Who’d have thought it?
Well done you “Bubble Blowers” I’m Black n White through and through,( have been since God was a lad ) I thought our lot just about shaded the first half,even though we were 1-0 down,but we got a lesson in how to win a game of football in the second half. I believe our manager was guilty of some very iffy decisions as none of his subs made a positive contribution to our disappointing performance. That’s not to distract from how your lot played but you know how frustrating it can be. IMO West Ham are a proper football club supported by proper fans,.. Good luck for the rest of the season,I hope your team have turned a corner,I just wish it hadn’t been at our expense 😖
Fair play to Ray Winstone on talkSPORT on Monday morning who said “….I think West Ham will get something from tonight’s game”
Sorry Martin. No merit in bashing the pundits on this occasion as the form guide strongly suggested a Newcastle win
we ALL predicted that we’d get rolled over. if anyone had an opposing view of what the result was going to be they would have been either:
1. not having seen us play this season at all
2: delusional
3. unaware of what football is, or
4. a Spuds fan on a wind-up
This great result for Westham was ‘ out of the blue ‘ , but I hope it’s not a ‘ once in a blue moon ‘ event . The Arsenal match will be perhaps ‘ the proof of the pudding ‘ .
Martin, sadly C&H have been just as bad as the pundits with your predictions for last night and prayers for the manager to get the boot. We all hoped he’d make a quicker impression than he has but let’s try getting behind him after the encouraging performance at Newcastle.