Not fit to wear the shirt?
I think last night's game against Wolves may well have been the worst West Ham performance (in the context) I've ever seen, in all my time supporting. Wolves are really not a very good team, but we made them look like a league above us. Which they may well be before too long -- I would have to say that we don't deserve to stay up. We were shaky and error-prone at the back, frantic and ineffective in midfield, and toothlessly incompetent in attack. Several players actively disgraced themselves, and really only Daprela, Parker and the substitute Franco emerged with any credit at all. The team as a whole was utterly lacking in cohesion, coordination and confidence. Ho hum.
Having performed so badly in that match, it's difficult to see us getting anything at all from the last seven games. Of course, even so we will only be relegated if either Hull or Burnley manage to find 4 points from their own remaining programme -- which might well not happen. But I get the feeling that our new owners, David Sullivan and David Gold might not actually be too sad if we do go down -- it'll give them the opportunity for a good clear-out of expensive staff, and to set the club's finances on a bit more of a secure footing.
A rare chink of good news this morning, though, is that we seem to be close to a deal on moving to the Olympic stadium after 2012. Without a larger ground (the Boleyn holds only 36,000) we will never be able to compete with our bigger rivals. The Olympic stadium will hold at least 60,000 -- similar to the Emirates. It may seem madly optimistic to be talking about that in the same breath as relegation, but it's a couple of years away; we might be back up by then! Anyway, you can see from Newcastle's example that large attendances are possible in the Championship if you have a large and loyal fanbase. And the Olympic stadium is a lot easier to reach for the massive East London diaspora -- Essex is full of West Ham fans, who will be able to walk there from the mainline station at Stratford, rather than the present tortuous journey. So we shall (hopefully) see!
Having performed so badly in that match, it's difficult to see us getting anything at all from the last seven games. Of course, even so we will only be relegated if either Hull or Burnley manage to find 4 points from their own remaining programme -- which might well not happen. But I get the feeling that our new owners, David Sullivan and David Gold might not actually be too sad if we do go down -- it'll give them the opportunity for a good clear-out of expensive staff, and to set the club's finances on a bit more of a secure footing.
A rare chink of good news this morning, though, is that we seem to be close to a deal on moving to the Olympic stadium after 2012. Without a larger ground (the Boleyn holds only 36,000) we will never be able to compete with our bigger rivals. The Olympic stadium will hold at least 60,000 -- similar to the Emirates. It may seem madly optimistic to be talking about that in the same breath as relegation, but it's a couple of years away; we might be back up by then! Anyway, you can see from Newcastle's example that large attendances are possible in the Championship if you have a large and loyal fanbase. And the Olympic stadium is a lot easier to reach for the massive East London diaspora -- Essex is full of West Ham fans, who will be able to walk there from the mainline station at Stratford, rather than the present tortuous journey. So we shall (hopefully) see!