I’ll be straight up honest about it; I’m absolutely devastated West Ham have been relegated this year. A club with such a rich history, for whom some of the best English players have played for has dropped again. The last time they were relegated in 2003, I didn’t really have much of an appreciation for other clubs outside my own, and it’s in the last six years since the club has been promoted back to the top flight that I’ve begun to appreciate The Hammers. However with this relegation on Sunday, and the prospect of playing Championship football again paired with the difficulties the club has faced over the last couple of years, is there the possibility that the club is going to fall apart?
With the team West Ham have got, it baffles me how they’ve managed to get into such an incomprehensible mess this year. By all intents and purposes, the team they have can easily settle for mid table, with a look at pushing for a top eight finish. The core of the problem in my opinion has been the constant plaguing of injury to the drive of West Ham’s play; Scott Parker. His partnership with Mark Noble has been a huge highlight in an otherwise poor season for the Hammers, on top of this he has an uncanny knack of firing the rest of the team up when they absolutely need to be told to pull their socks up – if you haven’t already read about it, find Carlton Cole’s account of his half time team talk when they were 3-0 down to West Brom and came back to draw the game.
I can only hope that like Newcastle in 2009, most if not all of the top quality playing staff will remain at the club and they’ll bounce straight back. I’m sure that the players have been reassured by the guys in the boardroom that the intent is to hit right back against this little hiccup and be back with the best in England within twelve months.
On the other hand however, Hammers fans must also weigh up the possibility that their first team might not want to slog it out for fourty-six games in the second tier of English football; there may be other teams in the Premiership who will offer better money ambition than The Irons can over the next year. Football is a fickle sport, and footballers are the most fickle kind; are the likes of Rob Green, fantastic keeper as he is, and West Ham through and through, going to want to ply his trade in a league where the England manager seldom visits? I wholeheartedly hope that the first team they made up this year stays and they come straight back up, but like I’ve said; the fans need to be just a touch wary.
I remember eons ago when my beloved Leeds were relegated, assurances were given from one Alan Smith that he would never leave the club and fight until the end, and within two months what do you know, he’s kissing that red badge I loathe so much.
Whilst I have said I respect West Ham and the club itself, one thing I absolutely cannot fathom is the immediate sacking of Avram Grant. If there’s one thing this current board have handled badly it’s dealing with their Jabba the Hutt doppelganger manager; a mere hour after the game that finally sent them down and with permission from Dave Whelan to use a room at the DW, Gold and Sullivan hurriedly dismissed of the Israeli without a moment’s hesitation. I for one think this is a terribly bad move by the owners; it’s documented that Grant manages to form decent bonds with his players, and therefore is able to command a degree of respect from them the way others can’t.