An article written by another West Ham fan that I thought was good & interesting. Couldn't put it better myself. This is my fourth relegation in my lifetime.
I believe that many fans of clubs that are relegated from the Premiership get so upset because they have lost sight of what supporting their club means and are actually in love with the Premiership.
The events of the last few days, have highlighted perfectly, how Football has changed to a large degree over the last 20 years and gone from being a sport for the working classes to a brand for the corporate investors.
The marketing boys and girls at SKY and the rest have for years tried to brainwash a whole generation of football fans into believing that the Premiership is where it’s at and little else matters.
In addition to being told that the Premiership is the best league in the world (when in reality it is the best paid league in the world), we are preached to relentlessly and reminded constantly that the Champions League is the icing on the cake and the pinnacle of club football.
SKY, along with other television and media companies and their pundits try to persuade the fans from clubs not involved in European competitions like us, Burnley, Scunthorpe and everyone else, that we should support the Man United’s and the Chelsea’s when they play against the ‘foreign teams’. Many fans fall for it and the TV ratings get a boost, meaning income soars due to advertising revenues.
By all means watch whatever football matches you like, but don’t ever get fooled into cheering for the ‘English Team’ just because they are English.
Appreciate the top players, the Messi’s, the Ronaldo’s etc…They are, after all experts in trying to play the beautiful game the way it should be played. And all teams need to have aspiration to emulate the best. Being a West Ham Fan or a fan of any other club for that matter, should also mean that you are a fan of the beautiful game of football itself.
What is it that is so bad about being relegated from the Premiership?
For many you wouldn’t be far wrong if you thought that it was the prospect of simply not being in ‘the Premiership’. Oh the disgrace, having to slum it with the likes of Leeds and Crystal Palace etc…and other clubs that are no longer quite what they once were.
I believe that some are just upset, because they won’t see the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United playing at Upton Park next year (unless it’s in the Cup). Is it because they’ll miss the ‘star players’ of those clubs or the so called ‘glamour’ that they possess.
Undoubtedly the skill level of some of the top players at the top clubs is far superior to that usually on display in the Championship. Also, with the notable exceptions of teams like Wigan, Bolton and the like, the ‘big teams’ bring a lot of away fans and help to make the atmosphere at the Boleyn.
Believe you me though, next season at the Boleyn, the atmosphere for games against Millwall, Cardiff, Leeds and several others will be better than anything we usually get in the Premiership. I for one, and I know there are several others on here are looking forward to that.
Whether you like it or not, whether you are young or old, top flight football in this country is rotten in many ways. As it currently stands, you’ve got a historically mediocre club like Chelsea enjoying success, which is all down to being bankrolled by the Russian. You’ve got another club with a bit more history in Man City being bankrolled by the Arabs. You’ve got Arsenal trying to hang on to their status by fielding teams packed with foreigners and Liverpool trying desperately to convince their fans and the rest of the country that they can be great once more. In Man United you’ve got the undisputed champions of the last 10 years, seeing their reign slowly coming under threat, but still being just a bit too good for the rest this season. We’ve also had our beloved neighbours, spend fortunes to achieve a limited amount of success. Quarter Finals of the Champions League is not to be sniffed at, but even with all that expenditure, still along way off of having a realistic chance of winning the thing.
You’ve got some of these clubs, buying ‘average’ players for £20 odd million and paying them £100k plus a week. You’ve got others, such as Terry, Lampard, Rooney etc… on £200k a week. That’s £10 Million a year!
When we played Chelsea the other week our entire squad was conservatively valued by many at being worth £30-£40m. Chelsea brought on one sub in Torres who cost £50m! How can any team like West Ham compete over the course of a season with such an uneven playing field.
We have to cope with ‘slimeball’ agents touting around second rate players with no love or knowledge of the clubs history and traditions, who expect to trouser £50k a week for the privilege of ‘playing’ for us. Frankly the whole situation stinks. The Premiership in my eyes stinks, it’s just that so many hold their nose and choose to ignore the stench.
I’m not bitter whatsoever about relegation. I think the club needed to be relegated. It gives us a chance to get rid of some of the overpaid and under performing deadwood in the squad and also it will mean that some of the “I Love the Premiership” fans will disappear.
Coming back to West Ham…..
I don’t particularly care who the next manager is of West Ham, providing they understand the suffering and lack of any real success us fans have been made to endure over the years. Providing they know what the majority of the real fans want…….Attractive football whenever and wherever possible, Effective football when the needs arise and above all, a team that consists of….
Players that are passionate, Players that give 100% each week, Players that appreciate how privileged they are to be professional footballers and Players that understand that they may well earn more in a week than the fans paying to watch them earn in a year, or even several years.
West Ham fans don’t expect success. We hope and pray for it. We want to have our own heroes to show the rest of the footballing world that there are still owners, coaching staff, players and especially supporters that still believe football is a working class game and that it isn’t all about big money signings earning obscene amounts of wages, many of whom couldn’t care less about the club they play for or the supporters that pay to watch them.
Of course we all want to be back in the premiership as quickly as we can. We would all love to be challenging for European places instead of fighting a relegation battle every season. We are not good enough at the moment though and this has been proven by our relegation.
We now need to sort out and address the fundamental problems at our club and not just hope to paper over them to gain a quick return to the premiership and a resumption of our struggles at the bottom. A quick fix is not required, major surgery is.
So to all those crying after relegation and the prospect of playing in the Championship, I say dry your eyes, man up and never forget what it means to be a Hammer.
