posted Sep 6, 2008

Well said AT, I couldn't afree more. These posts truly reflect the nature of the British game and the quality of its fans. Well done to all of you. I agree with most of what has been said here, but like some I can't help thinking that something is missing now. Something is not right and I think that something is that the money moguls who own and manipulate whu, do not feel the same way we do. To them it is not about the long haul, it is not about loyalty and it is not about family values. It is about money and only money. I too remember the days of defending whu against supporters of Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Man. Utd, the North v South banter and the pleasure of reminding everyone that WHU won the FA Cup in 64, the European Cup Winners Cup in 65 and the World Cup in 66. I also recall that Leeds game and if I remember right that was just part of an amazing week or so. Didn't they score about 18 goals in 3 games or something? Maybe my memory is not that good but there have been great times.
A regular visitor to Upton Park as a youngster and now an expatriate living in the USA, and having followed WHU since 1964, I still check their results every Saturday. When they are up, I am up, when they are down I am down. I believe that what has happened to Curbishley and Keegan this week is a pointer to what is wrong with the English game right now. This is not a working mans game anymore, it is a huge business, and the values of each will always be different. I hope for better times at WHU soon, but the impending departure of Dean Ashton does not bode well for the short term, and so it looks like our faith will be further tested for a while yet. Hang in there people, the club is worth it even if the manipulators are not.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 6, 2008

CHARLES, speak for yourself. I do look back with some fondness on the past but I'm quite happy to embrace the present. I just don't think that a blatant disregard or in fact a disdain for the loyalty of long term fans by the board means that everything that happens now is good. I also pointed out some of the reasons why the past wasn't a wholly great time and I think that the introduction of a more family friendly environment as been for the good of the game. It certainly means it can't sit apart from the rest of society as it used to. Technically correct on the sack/quit issue but a pretty good case to be made for constructive dismissal I would have said.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 6, 2008

AT2 - your article brought tears to my eyes. I started following the boys in claret and blue in the mid 60s due to my brothers' influence. I don't think I really understood what it meant at the time, but I have never wavered in my support, even when my personal heroes left (Peters to Spurs, Moore to Fulham, Curbs to Birmingham, the dismissals of Lyall, and then Bonds, 'Arry's wheeling and dealing with the Brown board, the Scottish debacle, Rio to Leeds), even when we were relegated, promoted, won cup finals, lost cup finals. I have felt very disillusioned with things this week. Curbs was given a 5-year contract, and yes, he has made mistakes, but then every manager does. The whole idea of the Director of Football is alien to me, but I understand the need for a more businesslike way of going about things.

I was disappointed when Pardew was sacked - not the West Ham way - but understood the reasons for it. Now Curbs has gone. Whether he was the right man for the job has been a long debate for quite a while on these boards. It's the history of our club that is now in question. To me that's more important than the manager. We had a proud history of few managers who the Board stood by until recent years. I just hope and pray that we are not going to be a selling club, or betray our history further by bringing in so many overseas players that our own Academy suffers. I am not against overseas players by any means, but part of the reason I love West Ham is the way we have nurtured our own and brought them through, even when they have left, I have still followed their careers (Curbs at Brum, Cottee at Everton, even Ince at ManU).

All I want now is for things to settle down and for the West Ham I have loved for so long, to regroup and go on to better things - maybe the team will pull together now, and the new manager will reap the rewards from the squad that Curbs started to build.

I'm for ever blowing bubbles

COME ON YOU IRONS

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 7, 2008

AT2
40 odd years for me as well. So many good memories. A few bad ones. Funnily enough no indifferent ones tho.
I am 100% behind you on this. My beloved club, the one constant thing I have had in my lifetime is going in a direction that I don't want it to go. Having said that if they disappear tomorrow I will still be West Ham until I die.
I just suppose that I will have to accept that if the people who run the club change values I will have to hang on to mine and continue being the only thing I can in football.....

West Ham til I die.

COYI!!!!!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 7, 2008

Well said AT2. Another old sod of 40 years here. First went to the Boleyn in 67; I remember being passed up to the back of the north bank to sit in the girders with loads of other kids. We beat Derby 3 0 and i was hooked and despite everything that has gone on, always will be. That's why these money grabbing foreigners buy our clubs.....they know that we have unswerving loyalty and even though i often despair at the way the English game is going, i know deep in my heart that i could never turn my back on West Ham.... Unfortunately, so do the money men!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Sep 9, 2008

Nice post AT2, I aint been on here for a while and a mate on another site alerted me to what you said here and I cant agree moore about never forgetting your first love.
I am also part of what we think is a dieing breed of old dinosaurs about to become extinct but I also think there is a new lot coming along. The place aint what it used to be but we are all ‘‘WH till we die!’’ COYI !

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Oct 27, 2008

Well said AT

er ..do you want me to go back to the fifties for you

We must have a party to celebrate my fiftieth season supporting em



I must be mad but then you have to be ....don't you?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted 5 Weeks Ago

add comment | complain about this comment

posted 4 Weeks Ago

AT2

add comment | complain about this comment

posted 4 Weeks Ago

Gotta be another 5 stars nice one AT

add comment | complain about this comment