Official Site Confirms Avram's Absence

I would cut and paste the full article but you can't do that on the Official Shite. The article is very circumspect and talks about respect for traditions, heritage and religious obligations. I wonder how many of us, when we read the words "tradition", "heritage" and "obligations" thought of Ron Greenwood and John Lyall. Can you imagine either of them excusing themselves from attending a crucial game?

The site talks about traditions going back thousands of years. How many of us thought, as we read this, of the tens of thousands of West Ham fans whose happiness is so tied up with the club, whose religion is West Ham United? This match may decide our fate at the end of the season, defeat at Stoke may send us down. But other things are more important to Avram obviously.

Apparently Avram will "pick and prepare the side as usual and fully ensure that all are ready for the match at the weekend". How exactly? What if a player shows up injured on the morning of the match? Will Avram leave instructions on how to use substitutions minute by minute according to what is happening in the game?

There's no need for us to worry though because the Three Stooges are in the dugout: Petrovic, Groves and Keen. Who needs an Emperor when you have a Triumvirate? Who needs the Jewish Grant when we have a Holy Trinity? Surely three heads are better than one?

The club obviously has to be very careful in what it says but you have to wonder why this wasn't addressed when the fixture list came out. I am sure the Premier League could have been maneuvered into rescheduling the game out of the same respect that we are showing for Jewish traditions. A failure to do so would have exposed the powers that be to charges of insensitivity and even prejudice and discrimination. "You never ask Christians to play or manage on Christmas Day so how dare you ask Jews to work on Yom Kippur?"

So why didn't that happen? How late was it before Grant spotted the clash and notified the club? The date of Yom Kippur was set when the fixture list came out. A quick call would probably have shifted the game to the next day.

And why did the newspapers break this story before the club announced it? Who told the journalists exactly? I know the Official Shite only wants to deal in good news stories, but should we be learning that our manager will miss a game via the Daily Star? What has been going on behind the scenes in the interim? Were attempts made to change Grant's mind?

I truly believe Grant's position becomes untenable on Saturday. If we lose, the fans will be furious he wasn't there. If we win, the fans will see him as an albatross around the neck of the club and will want him gone. This is one holy mess that should never, ever have happened.