Millwall fans might disagree but I think it's hard to dislike West Ham. History just courses through their claret and blue veins.
Standing on ground named after Henry VIII's queen, the club is a totem of London's football heritage as the team of the East End, the spiritual heart of the capital. Alf Garnett, the original Alfie Bunker, supported them, the skipper and hat-trick hero of England's only World Cup win were Hammers men and they were the last lower division side to win the FA Cup, gloriously against Arsenal in 1980. More recently their academy has produced the likes of Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
As a kid I stood on Upton Park's terraces 30 years ago, not seeing much, hearing some colourful words for the first time and cheering the away team as it
happened. The club had attached to them that most infamous hooligan gang the ICF, and they still cause some bother, but the good fans chant that old ditty about bubbles plus there's Jonathan Spector, as decent and honest a player as I have ever met.
I'm wary of the latest Upton Park takeover. After similar new dawns, the club has lurched from one relegation crisis to another in recent years and the new owners, David Gold & David Sullivan, made their dosh (money in East End parlance) in sleaze - Gold the owner of sex shops and Sullivan a porn baron. Birmingham City yo-yoed under their rule, and have only really come good since they left. While in charge at St. Andrews their leggy chief exec Karren Brady, now also ensconced at Upton Park, banned journalists they did not like from the press box, breaking the gentleman's agreement that the fourth estate must be left free to report.
To be fair the pair have the Hammers in their blood and Gold even played for them as a youth. But their money is nowhere near that of the playboys/speculators running the elite clubs and Sullivan used his first press conference to appeal for more investors to help slay a deficit of £110m ($180m). "Most English people can't carry those debts," he said.
With the club above the drop zone on goal difference alone, cuts must be on their way with stadium naming rights, a trimming of the wage bill and reduced contracts. "Every stone you turn is a negative to the cashflow and viability of the club," said Sullivan ominously, although Spec and Gianfranco Zola should not worry just yet.
Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes may yet invest, but unless another A
rab playboy jets in, it is hard to see how West Ham can spend their way to EPL stability. Sullivan hinted at their get-out-of-jail-free card - taking over the looming white elephant of London's Olympic Stadium for a song and pocketing the proceeds of selling the Boleyn Ground.
But that future venue has a running track, the last thing football fans want. Fortune's always hiding as their song says, but at least these guys seem to know that:
“It's nice to get the club back in the hands of east Londoners," said Sullivan. "We know what we have done makes no financial sense, but it's West Ham."
Standing on ground named after Henry VIII's queen, the club is a totem of London's football heritage as the team of the East End, the spiritual heart of the capital. Alf Garnett, the original Alfie Bunker, supported them, the skipper and hat-trick hero of England's only World Cup win were Hammers men and they were the last lower division side to win the FA Cup, gloriously against Arsenal in 1980. More recently their academy has produced the likes of Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
As a kid I stood on Upton Park's terraces 30 years ago, not seeing much, hearing some colourful words for the first time and cheering the away team as it
happened. The club had attached to them that most infamous hooligan gang the ICF, and they still cause some bother, but the good fans chant that old ditty about bubbles plus there's Jonathan Spector, as decent and honest a player as I have ever met.I'm wary of the latest Upton Park takeover. After similar new dawns, the club has lurched from one relegation crisis to another in recent years and the new owners, David Gold & David Sullivan, made their dosh (money in East End parlance) in sleaze - Gold the owner of sex shops and Sullivan a porn baron. Birmingham City yo-yoed under their rule, and have only really come good since they left. While in charge at St. Andrews their leggy chief exec Karren Brady, now also ensconced at Upton Park, banned journalists they did not like from the press box, breaking the gentleman's agreement that the fourth estate must be left free to report.
To be fair the pair have the Hammers in their blood and Gold even played for them as a youth. But their money is nowhere near that of the playboys/speculators running the elite clubs and Sullivan used his first press conference to appeal for more investors to help slay a deficit of £110m ($180m). "Most English people can't carry those debts," he said.
With the club above the drop zone on goal difference alone, cuts must be on their way with stadium naming rights, a trimming of the wage bill and reduced contracts. "Every stone you turn is a negative to the cashflow and viability of the club," said Sullivan ominously, although Spec and Gianfranco Zola should not worry just yet.
Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes may yet invest, but unless another A
rab playboy jets in, it is hard to see how West Ham can spend their way to EPL stability. Sullivan hinted at their get-out-of-jail-free card - taking over the looming white elephant of London's Olympic Stadium for a song and pocketing the proceeds of selling the Boleyn Ground.But that future venue has a running track, the last thing football fans want. Fortune's always hiding as their song says, but at least these guys seem to know that:
“It's nice to get the club back in the hands of east Londoners," said Sullivan. "We know what we have done makes no financial sense, but it's West Ham."
-Sean O'Conor, London
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