A few seasons ago I watched West Ham beat Roma in a pre-season friendly and like many fans believed that our club had the potential to be world-beaters. Gianfranco Zola is no doubt world class, and he has done much to spruce up the current West Ham motley crew and have them playing the free flowing football that we Upton Park fans insist on, but is it enough?
Being in Barcelona while Barca were playing Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter final, I bought a ticket to the match. I have only ever been to Upton Park's 35,000 capacity stadium, and a few away matches in grounds not much bigger, so when being confronted with 90,000 chanting fans in a packed stadium it hit me like a sledgehammer in the gonads; it was a great experience - the atmosphere not the sledgehammer.
Barcelona passed the ball around the field fearlessly, with pinpoint accuracy, unbelievable imagination and absolute conviction - it was a master class in football. It was awesome to watch, and yet disheartening in that it highlighted the distance West Ham have to go if they really want to be among the best in Europe. There are echoes around the West Ham faithful, of the team in the near future fighting it out for one of the Champions League places on offer, the prize for finishing in 4th position in the English Premier League, yet even if they some how found the firepower to catapult themselves into this elite league, after watching Barcelona take Munich apart, making them look like an overweight and comical Sunday league team, beer bellies and all, what chance would West Ham have had in the Noucamp that evening? It would have been car crash TV!
I fear West Ham are possibly chasing an empty dream and need a reality check. Already we are punching above our weight, and, without real investment in a new stadium and at least 60 million on players, we will forever be stuck in Premier League mid table mediocrity, mere cannon fodder for the league’s top four.
Hotshot C
26 comments:
Champions League is, I fear, an impossible dream mate. I've done the Nou Camp tour with my son. The idiot wore a Real Madrid Beckham shirt and not a West Ham shirt. So I have a mock up photo of him lifting up the European Cup in a Real shirt and not a West Ham kit - pillock!
I have been to an Inter - Roma game in the San Siro. That was an amazing experience!
Whoshot speeks out? whos that when its at home
Hotshot is an ex Mordant Orger, banned for having an opinion at odds with the Orthodoxy. O'Brien sent him to Room 101.
whats mordant org then. soz m8
Chat forum, westhamfans.org. Look in, you might enjoy it. I used to before anybody with a brain was banned. Now it tends to be fairly bland or offensive - crap like "Are the ICF still the top firm?" How sad! Hotshot was one of the more provocative characters on the site before he was banished.
Evening Fanno, how goes it bruv, `tis I, Sir OS of Pete, What`s new with you???
I thought I`d pop in & point out I`ve almost won my bet with you, Hull are staying up me thinks, & I can almost taste victory, oh ye of little faith!!! lol,
So what are your views on Europe next season, mine are I don`t want it, I think it`s too soon for such an endeavour, we lack the strength in depth that is needed for that many games, I thought we done o.k yesterday with our second string team, although that may be a little unfair, when they pull the top on they become the best we have available, but it does highlight the lack in depth no???
Anyway,
COYFutureBuildingIrons
Hi Pete, the bet was sort of null and void given I didn't get to the game. Sadly! Good to see you looking in. We must try to meet up for a drink at some point, I miss the banter. No bitterness, it is pretty sterile over at the Org now isn't it? Real shame that the so many characters have been forced out / defected. Who is Orange Boy? Dutch perhaps?
Can`t be, because Dutch would still be Dutch No???
I sometimes look in, I think everyone does, I enjoyed being an under cover Spud yesterday, & being gracious in victory, I must`ve stood out a mile because they`re weren`t be gracious, lol
So who is Orange Boy. . .
I would imagine it is someone from Orange county, in America, what say ye
No one is saying we are going to go to Barca and turn them over on their own patch but you never achieve anything if you never aim for anything. Every young kid who starts playing the game dreams of scoring the winner for their favourite club in a big final. They dont dream of grinding out a nil all draw in a midtable meaningless game.
We are fortunate that we have some fantastic young talent and we are now in a financial position where we can hang on to them but that will only take us so far.
These players have to know that they can achieve their playing ambitions at the club.
Players like Noble, Collison, Savio, Junior and Tomkins (to name but a few) have the footballing world at their feet and we have to show them that the club is willing to match their ambition.
Zola signing a 4 year deal is a massive step for the club and shows that we are looking to push on.
This clubs greatest success was in the European Cup Winners Cup but a generation of fans were not even alive during that. A decent run in the Europa League would go along way to repay the faith shown by those fans who have more memories of the dark days of Terry Brown, the Bond Scheme, Relegation and Glenn Roeder than they have of West Ham cutting a swagger through Europe dazzling fans with their football.
Lets push on and claim 7th and go on to do ourselve proud in Europe just so we can rub spuds fans noses in it!
The future is bright! The future is Claret & Blue!
Na, Dutch hasn't posted for a while and this Orange Boy guy knows too much to be a newbie. I did wonder if it was del (orange pun would make sense) hacked off at how far the site had fallen. Marty thinks not. The banning of Marty just shows how neurotic Nev has become. There was never any link between Marty and myself and Nev knows that based on computer id numbers (whatever they are called), he just can't stand any opposition. What's the point of a forum on that basis? Look at the **** I've been taking from Spurs and Liverpool fans on here over the past week! Just adds to the fun!
Love the sentiment Celtic. Sadly, I think yesterday's result will cost us - all those injuries will make victories very difficult between now and the end of the season.
I wondered why 'The Massacre Of The Innocents' was used, Doh, how thick am I, lol
You recognised the picture mate, many wouldn't!
Hammersfan I grew up in the south of Ireland where the only other Hammers fan I knew was my dad. I used to sit in front of the tc on saturdays watching the vidi-printer trying to catch a glimpse of a WestHam scoreline. Then on sunday I would be allowed to telephone my cousins in Romford who would tell me about the game if they had been to Upton Park or read me the newspaper report if it was an away game.
I went to my first WestHam game when I was 7, my dad finished work ans we drove to Rosslare and got the ferry to fishguard and then drove all the way to london, my dad caught a few hours kip on my aunts couch before we went to the ground. We beat spurs 4-1 and I got a brand new Avco jersey as a present from my aunt.
5 hours after the game we were on the way back to the ferry with my dad telling me stories of watching Brooking, Moore and Pop Robson when he was a season ticket holder in the 70s. I would never have survived as a Hammers fan without his stories and a great deal of optimism.
I have since travelled 10's of thousands of miles to see West Ham play and I have never lost the belief that the club can achieve great things.
Great to have you on board Celtic. Why not email through an article on your adventures following West Ham from the land of the Shamrock? Would be good to post on here.
You sad man, get over it the Org is continuing without you and your inventions so just move on. We certainly have and even though it went through a quiet time posters are now returning after discovering that the cancer has been removed.
Anonymous, is this aimed at Hotshot, or me, or both of us? Do you not realise just how silly this sort of post makes you sound? Vicious, nasty, call it what you will. I was surprised how mordant the org was this weekend actually, given a game against Tottenham. The level of debate / discussion / writing has nose dived - that is beyond dispute. To read some of the cheap "sick in the head" comments from Neville is desperately sad. No wit, no humour, no satire - just nastiness. Sadly, the site is obsessed with the Ghosts of Christmas Past and with the sorts of comments that you make here, there is little prospect that things will improve. Saltbush has now gone, upset by censorship. Do you think I would be allowed to post an attack on Neville on that site in the way that you are at liberty to insult me on here? The forum would be locked and removed very quickly wouldn't it? What does that say? If everybody has to sing from a hymn sheet, there is no discussion. If there is no discussion, there is no forum. Without wit, there is no entertainment either. Tell me, when did you last feel anger when reading the site and when did you last laugh out loud? That used to happen. Now everything is so bland or obnoxiously thuggish. Irons said of my mordant org post that it was "sad but very funny" - that is exactly what the org now lacks.
Never seen hotshot write a sentence correctly, never mind paragraphs and punctuation. Funny how you know so much about him given that you admitted to never having heard of him on "mordants.org".
Still making up your aliases I see.
There's only one person with an obsession and that is clearly you. You and your inventions did your best to ruin the site but it is recovering and will continue to do so gladly without you and your sick mind. The level of posts might be down but how much time was spent just reading through your personal little battles. Seems like you have just carried on where you left of with your blog and all you can do now is provoke pathetic responses from opposing supporters rather than your own.
LOL Anonymous, why not leave a name? Did it never occur to you that Hotshot was playing a part? This may or may not be the original Hotshot, I have no idea. He emailed me, claiming to be Hotshot and volunteered the article which I think is rather good and worthy of being carried. If you have something of worth to say, drop me a line and attach the article. You can use a different handle if you are afraid of upsetting the Klan. I had no idea who Hotshot then and I have no idea who the "real" Hotshot is now. If they are one and the same, then he seems like an interesting and entertaining guy. Do you really believe all this alias business? Read Animal Farm - everything is the fault of Snowball, every enemy is an agent of Snowball. It is called demonisation my friend and it is a typical ploy of fascist dictatorships! To the second Anonymous (or the same one?), more vicious but witless posting. The site isn't recovering, the site is mordant. As for posts from rival fans on here, yes, I am not afraid of a contrary point of view.
For Nev or his croney, saying that the article wasn't written by Hotshot C and that he was illiterate, firstly did it never occour to you that people visiting 'moron.org' with any level of intelligence had to dumb themselves down and put in the typo and ignore all rules grammar - otherwise they would be set upon by the illiterate racist thugs that frequent the site... Ok two articles that Hotshot put in that only he would remember: one on transfer deadline day saying the team had bought all these wonderful players, and was a hokse, and the one of curbs being tied up and doused & false fed ribena to put some sense into his alcohol filled brain....
LOL Love the spelling of hoax mate. Would go right over orgers' heads!
Salty the perv, should fit in well with the rest of the losers on here.
Either Hotshot did it deliberately, or he suffers from momentary lapses of punctuation & grammer... :-) .... And for nev or his croney, it was always poetic seeing the thugs on 'moron.org' talk about this week's team formation or the ICF etc with perfect English, the articles would have been totally wasted otherwise...:-) Hotshot C
celtic hammer: more power to ya son,what an uplifting post,you epotomise what being west ham is.was lucky meself, old man born in district of west ham,nan lived in east ham when i was a boy, you can guess the rest!
Anonymous, I should keep yourself anonymous or you may find yourself the subject of a law suit. There's banter and there is completely beyond the line, and you have crossed that line big time with your comment about Salty. I don't know the guy but that insult is utterly unacceptable without concrete proof. Grow up eh? And why do you keep visiting to make these comments if you hate the site and the contributors so much?
Post a Comment