Core blimey! The West Ham fan with a Moore bombshell

NOW that West Ham have left Upton Park — never the Boleyn Ground, which is a branding exercise and no more — there seems to be a lot of talk about what an asset a football club is to the surrounding community.

This is coming as quite the surprise to those who have had to listen to cant about the Olympic Stadium, and how West Ham are bringing no value to the deal.

There have even been suggestions that West Ham should help the affected businesses, such as Nathan’s Pie and Mash. You know, the way Tottenham and Arsenal helped the firms that stood in the way of their progress, with Compulsory Purchase Orders.

So what is it? Have West Ham kept alive a corner of east London, and will now help do the same for the Olympic Park — or is the local community utterly immune to having a thriving football club on its doorstep, and West Ham’s presence inconsequential? Because you can’t have it both ways.

Anyway, happy days and all that. The best team I ever saw over there was Dinamo Tbilisi in the quarterfinal of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1981. They had knocked Liverpool out of the European Cup the previous season, 4- 2 on aggregate, but somehow it had not registered that this was one of Europe’s great sides.

The game hadn’t long started when a series of one-touch passes ended with Aleksandr Chivadze picking up the ball inside his own half, surging through the middle and hitting a shot from 30 yards that utterly defeated the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, Phil Parkes. And Chivadze was their centre half. West Ham lost 4-1 and it could have been 24-1. Tbilisi went on to win the tournament.

Of course, it’s hard to be wholly thrilled watching your team get pulverised, so my favourite game would have to be April 14, 1976 — West Ham 3 Eintracht Frankfurt 1. Another European Cup - Winners’ Cup tie, the semi-final this time, and 2-1 down from the first leg. It never stopped raining, the pitch was a bog, but Trevor Brooking floated across it, scored twice and West Ham won 3-1. So, farewell Upton Park. There wasn’t a terrace I haven’t stood on — even the away end after turning up late and following a claret- and- blue scarf through the wrong turnstile when we played Aston Villa — not a stand I haven’t sat in, and we did have some laughs. There used to be a bloke who had season tickets behind my dad. He used to eat apples, talk and curse the players at the same time, so he’d inadvertently spit the bits into your hair. His claim was that he had never missed a home game since the war.

One day, a few around us were reminiscing about Bobby Moore (left). As a kid I was all ears. ‘I’ll tell you about Bobby Moore…’ said our old-timer, and we all went quiet, waiting for this pearl of wisdom and insight, polished by the experience of observation through the years.

‘You know the one problem with Bobby Moore?’ he said, munching. ‘He couldn’t pass.’

Very knowledgeable crowd, West Ham. Some of them.