Ok, so it is nothing official, it's just that we have a Spanish West Ham fan who supports Sociedad, so it seems reasonable that we adopt his mob as our Spanish team. Sociedad are a bunch of Basques, so, like ourselves are not exactly West End Boys. The home stadium seats just over 32,000 so that makes them a similar size club to the Hammers. Mind you the name means Royal Society of Football and there aint much royal about West Ham is there?
Real Sociedad have also enjoyed a little more success in the Spanish domestic game than we have managed! They've won La Liga three times and been runners up three times. The Copa del Rey has been lifted twice and the Supercopa de Espana once. Like us, however, you have to go back to the 1980s for their last major honour, and, like us, they have fallen on hard times of late, only winning promotion back to the top division last season.
Famous players include John Aldridge and a certain Xabi Alonso!
The team are based in San Sebastian and I can personally testify to the beauty of that city! How about a trip out to San Sebastian to see a game at some point? Sounds like a plan to me! Anybody else up for it? Ryanair flights would be cheap and we have somebody local who can show us around!
we already have ties with the Official Barcelona Suuporters club, who are often seen at Upton Park, wearing barca shirts but with a West ham badge
ReplyDeleteWatching the champions league final in '99 I think it was, at the nou camp, and spotted a West Ham flag in the crowd. It made my day! Think it may have been these guys:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barcelonahammerassociation.com/
Both claret and blue teams, not a bad association to have....and they don't play bad footy either!
English:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barcelonahammerassociation.com/index%20angles.html
It was meant more as a link for this site. But twinning with Barcelona is a bit like Dagenham twinning itself with Paris! Yes we share colours, but not much else! I've been to the Nou Camp! You might as well compare a two up two down in Green Street (with outside loo!) with Buckingham bleedin' Palace! I feel more comfortable linking with the chippy Basques than the posing Catalans personally!
ReplyDeleteGod you pr@t so you like eta and the ira do ya?
ReplyDeleteWhat a strange question. So everybody who lives in the Basque territories of Northern Spain and South Eastern France are members of Eta are they? And every Irishman is a memeber of the IRA? What a strange image you have of the world!
ReplyDeleteI lived in guernica for 3 years and I would say that everyone was an eta supporter, and there were several Irish bars there too, which showed a lot of solidarity to both organisations. All goes back to the second world war
ReplyDeleteI live near Valencia so why not back them? Better than backing Northern Monkeys.
ReplyDeletedidn't you know that hf? of course every Irishman is in the IRA every Basque is ETA every Muslim is a terrorist the list is endless the one I like which is actually true is every Englishman is an immigrant or descended from an immigrant
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you so much for writing an article dedicated to my team! I must say that I'm not from San Sebastian. Well, I'm from Vitoria, a city below San Sebastian, my city's team is Deportivo Alaves, perhaps you know it from the UEFA Final in 2001 against Livepool, but now Alaves is in the 2 B Division, the same as the Football League One in England. Vitoria is maybe as wonderful as San Sebastian without a shadow of doubt, trust me!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing you have written some lines about Real Sociedad, I'm really pleased!
On the other hand, when I had gone to the match that day, I saw some stickers of Barcelona Hammers stucked in the toilets of the stadium. It was surprising to find them!
And referring to ETA.. As you don't live in the Basque Country, you mightn't know perfectly in which situation we are. It's true that some people in the big cities support ETA and other kinds of terrorism. I think more in San Sebastian and Bilbao than in Vitoria. But the most part of the people want to finish with the terrorism. In villages or small towns as Gernika, there are the most people who support ETA, that's true. In Gernika is understandable to happen this, because as you probably know, the nazies with their Kondor Legion of SS (with the permission of Franco) bombed this village when people where buying in markets (as Camden Town but smaller), so a lot of people died after this happening.
Go on with the blog frientd! It's worth it!
* I didn't understand very well a question you made in the text :S : "Mind you the name means Royal Society of Football and there aint much royal about West Ham is there?"
When I lived in Bilbao in 1990, Real Sociedad had three English Players.
ReplyDeleteKevin Richardson, John Aldridge and Dalian Atkinson, I think John Toshack was the manager about that time too.
They were a good team in those days and played in a much more robust 'English' manner than other Spanish teams, except possibly Bilbao, who being Basque, always seemed to play in a more northern European fashion.
Just thought you'd like to know...JC
JC, when I stayed in Bilbo, it was spelt as in Baggins! The old town is impressive isn't it?
ReplyDeletehf it would be polite to answer ikeRNitr0
ReplyDeleteReal Sociedad won two Ligas, in 80-81 and 81-82
ReplyDelete