BubblyMickey has a soft spot for West Ham, but is willing to see the club go down for the greater good.
It was a weekend of resurgence for many clubs. Blackburn and Tottenham got built on their UEFA cup progress by getting back on the winning trail in the Premiership after indifferent starts. Arsenal won their third consecutive league match as they are finally getting the results to match their talent.
For West Ham, however, a season that started with the kind of media hype and promise that most clubs will never experience has gone horribly wrong.
Tevezcherano had women and children crying bloody murder in the streets as supporters of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and even Chelsea wondered how the hell they were beaten to the punch. West Ham were supposedly ready to reclaim their position amongst the Big Clubs with the arrival of potentially world class players, talks of a takeover and 100M pound spending budget and a highly rated manager who could hardly contain his excitement for the future.
But a few weeks of football later, the club has gone five matches without a goal, three consecutive losses, the team looks disrupted and they’ve been eliminated from Europe at the first hurdle. This weekend’s loss to Reading leaves many supporters’ patience is at an end (fansite kumb.com is down, possibly due to an influx of enraged visitors) and Alan Pardew may no longer be quite as confident of his ability to stand up against would-be investors.
Personally, I’m glad they’re struggling and I hope it continues. Not because of any petty rivalry or bias, but because the reasons for West Ham’s pre-season excitement – the “permanently signed” Argies, the dodgy Iranian, the potential Chelskification – all epitomize the rather unfortunate way football is going. Gone is honest success built from a brilliant manager or carefully developed players. In their place, players brought to clubs simply as a shop window for the big boys and transfer fees going into the pockets of private investors rather than the sport itself.
Despite whatever half-hearted regulations UEFA puts in place, he only way to discourage such behaviour would for it to fail.
So, apologies to the suffering West Ham massive, but the sacrifice of your club’s success is one that football will thank you for in years to come.