West Ham United’s impending relegation is the result of years of mismanagement and slow decline. The patchwork football club, in the 60k makeshift stadium overtaken by dozens of better run, historically smaller clubs with barely half that.
Run with idiotic, short term thinking, by a chairman who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Loyal fans cast aside and treated with total disdain. No plan off the pitch, a confused mess on it, born from a total lack of professionalism and planning.
Fighting relegation most seasons, despite regularly spending hundreds of millions (via payday loans) on old players recommended by the owners’ mates. A few memorable seasons with David Moyes papering over the huge cracks in the poorly hidden running track.
A decade after we left the Boleyn Ground, WHU has never felt more lost. You’ll see few highlight reels from the club for the upcoming anniversary: for the most part, it’s been a torrid decade in the bowl.
If relegation rids us of Sullivan, so be it. But with 100m of debt (how?) and double that owed in player purchases, it could be a long, long time before we’re at this level again. We’re about to find out just how many clubs we’ve fallen behind.
#whufc #NomoreBS
When Tottenham fans were singing that West Ham would never win again and that we were going to get relegated, they were on 27 points and we were on 14.
Four months later, they haven’t won a single PL game, we’ve beaten them, and overtaken them in the league.
Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.
Anthony Bourdain