Time now for West Ham fans to bury hatchet with owners
Hclub’s impressive pursuit of a Champions League place should bring an end to long-running feud
Historic tweets are usually dredged up to cause embarrassment. But there is one from David Gold that might be, well, pure gold for a far more positive reaction by the end of this season. “There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be playing in the Champions League in the next five years,” the West Ham United cochairman declared… in September 2016 when they moved to the London Stadium.
Five years on and September 2021 is looming, which is when the first group games of next season’s Champions League will kick off. With seven fixtures remaining, West Ham are fourth, ahead of Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Even reeling off the clubs below them gives a sense of the scale of their achievement. Stay where they are and, incredibly, Gold’s claim will come true. The adaptation of Handel’s Zadok the Priest, the Champions League theme tune, may soon be wafting over Westfield shopping centre.
This time last year, West Ham were fretting about “points per game”, curtailment and whether they had enough to stave off relegation. It was more about the Championship than the Champions League.
They finished 16th on 39 points and came out of a transfer window in which the fans – and players, according to
captain Mark Noble’s tweets – were furious about the sale of Grady Diangana. For the fans, that was compounded when hope of a big signing in central defence was followed by the arrival of Craig Dawson on loan from relegated Watford. As ever, the anger was directed at the board, or, more specifically, Gold, co-chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady, who had sold Upton Park and taken West Ham to the soulless Olympic Stadium with the promise of something better only to end up like this.
There is no point going over some of the toxic moments and mistakes made over the past five years – hiring Manuel Pellegrini, anyone? – and certainly the “GSB” (Gold, Sullivan, Brady) axis has made serious errors and been the focus of ferocious and, at times, justifiable criticism. “We said goodbye to our history for nothing,” as one fan wrote.
But it also means that, whatever happens now, they deserve praise. The key, of course, was bringing back David Moyes as manager and recognising the error of not retaining him after he had kept them up last time. Rectifying it by returning to Moyes following the expensive Pellegrini error takes courage. From both parties.
Fans will argue that
GSB struck lucky – and they did, as they acknowledge – but you also make your own luck, and while there is an argument as to how sustainable West Ham’s position is after this season, whether the club have the right infrastructure, strategy and planning in place, the fact is they are up there and deserve to be, having played thrilling football.
Moyes has put standards in place. Little things such as taking the players and their wives out for meals during the gap between lockdowns, but at the same time being very clear on discipline and imposing hefty fines on those late for training. West Ham are no soft touch under Moyes, who has also organised them superbly on the pitch.
Talk to West Ham insiders and they are clear: there is team spirit, belief, momentum, a bit of luck with injuries, which all teams need – up until recently at least – and far better buying. Maybe that is because Sullivan, in particular, has stepped back a little and, if he has, then credit to him. After all, Sullivan is 72 and Gold 84.
There is another, odd factor: the absence of fans. West Ham’s home form – in that empty 60,000-seat bowl – has been exceptional. In fact, only Manchester City have gained more points at home. With 31 points from 16 games, West Ham are ahead of Manchester United (27) and everyone else. On away form, they are only joint eighth. What does this mean? Maybe no crowd helps, but no one is going to say that. In front of full houses, West Ham may have done even better. But it is ironic that the club’s owners dreamt of having the biggest crowds in London only to have their best season in the Premier League without any supporters at all.
The hope has to be that when the fans do return next season the relationship between them and the owners has improved and that some of the previous poison has been drawn. There will be many West Ham supporters who just want GSB out and they can reel off a list of legitimate arguments as to why, including the poor match-day experience, from the price of a pint to sitting in a converted athletics stadium, the frustration that commercialisation has come first, and unfulfilled promises. “A world-class stadium with a world-class team,” Brady claimed, and even if West Ham finish in the top four, they are short of fulfilling that promise. But while this Champions League challenge lasts, the credit has to be acknowledged and shared.
Yes, it belongs to Moyes and his coaching team – the manager of the season after Pep Guardiola – and to the players. But a little of that reflected glory also, finally, has to go to the owners.
After all, no one else expected that tweet from David Gold to do anything but come back to haunt him.