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OneAll
10:30 Fri Sep 11
Re: Done
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I've had time to calm down lol gsb can still get fucked but I'll be supporting the lads as normal this season , for some reason I have a positive feeling now
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Jose+
11:18 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Weird to think that the nineties was as good as it was ever going to get.
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zebthecat
11:13 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Glenn Rodent 5:03 Tue Sep 8
Yep.
Money has completely skewed the game.
There was no such thing as the "Big Four" when I was growing up. Sure Liverpool and Arsenal to an extent but it was open to notionally smaller clubs with fantastic management (e.g. Forest, Ipswich) to smash the grip of the better supported and richer teams.
The advent of the Premier League, Sky money and owners with deep pockets (Roman Abramovic was the trailblazer) have, between them, destroyed that dynamic.
At least the PL is not as bad as La Liga which is effectively a TV money supported duopoly.
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Jose+
10:53 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Glenn Rodent 5:03 Tue Sep 8
A view I share. Cannot fault this assessment.
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JayeMPee
10:44 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Good post Rodent, the game is sick thanks to Sky and the obscene money they generate. I have ditched Sky for many of the reasons you list, I have also ditched my membership at West Ham and will only renew when the vile scum have disappeared!
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muskie
10:08 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Top post Rodent. Couldn't agree more.
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whu4eva
5:39 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Glenn Rodent 5:03 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
100%... The game is fucked
I'm in australia and AFL do it very well.
The salary cap is what makes it amazing. Most clubs have very similar home strips so wearing a strip from 2/3/4 years ago doesn't look out of place
If there was an international salary cap, there would be more could be invested into grassroots, the game and everything would be cheaper / more accessible.
No way on earth it would happen and ultimately the tax man is always happy with the extortionate wages and FIFA / FA can justify their stupid salaries also
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Glenn Rodent
5:03 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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I completely get all of the comments and I share the sadness and frustration.
But my disappointment goes even beyond West Ham. I am just disillusioned with football generally. Football now is a celebrity circus that is full of self centered parasites that are completely cut off from the reality of real life. Money is killing the game for me.
Some thoughts that swirl around my head -
£99.95 for the new England shirt (that will be out of date in 12-24 months).
Seeing players with so much money and power and greed that they hold clubs to ransom or can down tools use, or just sit on their contract and do the minimum or even just sit there and do nothing - Bale, Messi, Sanchez, Pogba, Ozil, Neymar.
Seeing average players or even poor players earning over £100k per week that can't even make their first XI - Phil Jones, Sebastian Haller as examples. And they don't really give a shot.
Seeing players doing more on social media than they do on the pitch. Spoilt players, brats who no longer see football as their everything.
It is all about celebrity status or political stand points rather than about the football. When I see players posing in Mykonos or LA, players showing huge disrespect such as Phil Foden, Mason Greenwood, Yaya Toure, etc.
Seeing the Soccer Saturday panel getting binned due to political correctness, playing and coaches taking the knee before games, Watching Soccer Aid and witnessing z list celebrities who are there for social status purposes, watching women and men mixed teams for nothing more than politcal correctness.
Seeing the likes of Alex Scott and some female DJ nobody as the panel. All of this political correctness makes me wanna heave.
Football culture has gone for me. Upton Park under the lights replaced by popcorn buckets and tourists.
Players who prefer making mojos, selfish and tweets rather than spilling blood on the pitch.
I have no current football heroes. I have no passion for the modern game just the historic love and nostalgia of my wonderful club.
My Dad took me to games when I was a little boy, and I remember the excitement and butterflies of walking down Green Street. Seeing my heroes, players I looked up to. Real football, real passion, real people, real life.
What will my son see and feel when he starts going to games? - Nothing because our club is just a cash cow and the game is dead.
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Any Old Iron
2:59 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Hello Mrs. Jones 1:00 Sun Sep 6
You mate, are a fucking cretin. Of course it was better under the Cearns. As you point out we won 3 FA cups during their ownership. But we also won the ECWC and got to another ECWC final and a League cup final.
In the last 40 years, under three different hierachies, we've come close to winning a cup just once.
What you wrote is absolute bollocks.
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Fifth Column
2:43 Tue Sep 8
Re: Done
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Two left feet
"Heads up everyone, players and owners come and go but the club will always be there"
Honestly, I don't think that's true anymore. At "home" matches I don't feel I'm following my club in the way it's existed in the past. Going to home matches it didn't matter we were usually shit because we were different, unique in our own way.
Today, we are shit in a shit identikit stadium with thousands of tourists and fuckwits talking about their fantasy teams throughout the match. Yes there were a few fuckwits at the Boleyn but not like now.
I supported the move because I could see it had the potential genuinely to turn us into a higher performing team. Sadly I didn't fully understand the combination of both incompetence and greed that the owners were to demonstrate. The club may not be dead, as we knew it, but it's very very close to dying.
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Mike Oxsaw
7:55 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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These are painful reads. The bottom line is that the board can't monetize what is being described here, so it's of no use to them.
Their eyes are already firmly on the new breed of happy-clappy shop-visiting customer. Those, they CAN monetize.
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Fifth Column
7:40 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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Also, var has sucked the enjoyment out of matches. Sheffield United away being the prime example.
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Fifth Column
7:36 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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I've got four season tickets.
Was going to renew three almost just out of habit.
After what's happened I've decided to use my club cash to renew by youngest child's season ticket and none of the others. Its more as a place holder in case I get the urge to go at any point. My two teenagers who are old enough to remember Upton Park don't enjoy home games much and don't care. It's giving up my priority points for away matches that hurts but we're not able to go away due yo covid and after 37 years of going to matches I just can't be asked. I could have handled being shit at Upton Park or being great at Stratford. Being shit at Stratford has no redeeming features. I may start buying ST again for me and the teens if we get bought out by someone who's not incompetent and greedy.
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Willtell
7:25 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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It’s a shame really that so many disgruntled fans are done with WH. I guess I am too living abroad. However I reckon that when tickets go on sale there will be 60,000 mugs clamouring to be a lucky one....
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crotty32
6:29 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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That is very hard to read,I respect your decision and wish you all the best.Will anyone at the club listen to those who have whufc in their heart and please realise that you are letting the best walk away.
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one iron
1:44 Mon Sep 7
Re: Done
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This will be my 63rd season,38 years never missed a match home and away,but after soul searching this will be my last,i will always be a hammer,when the rats fuck off,i will come back.The fans at this club are top class and deserve alot more.the board and some of the people dont give a shit about our club,please try and get people to join hammers united. season 21/22 i will watch corinthian casuals.you are all welcome to comeover.,and enjoy your football again moving from our home killed me ,and when dennis died that s what told me go watch your boys,and thats what i will do 21/22 season..Thanks to all who have been by my side,long live the fans of westham united.
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Stowie.40
3:10 Sun Sep 6
Re: Done
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I haven’t been to a game since Sakho scored the last min winner against Swansea when Billic was there. I do miss it, not the stadium but just the going out. Been going since the late 80’s I think I’ve probably only really enjoyed 4/5 seasons.
We’ve had better sides but the cup final season under Pardew is by far my most enjoyable. For that year I absolutely loved that side and every player in it for that season.
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Mad Dog
3:04 Sun Sep 6
Re: Done
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I agree with HAZ. Football for me hasnt been the same since standing went.
Once they put seats in at the boleyn and had the gap between the east and west stands and the pitch it was never the same.
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twoleftfeet
1:19 Sun Sep 6
Re: Done
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I’m a veteran of 45 years service.
In that time I have seen more bad than good, I have seen good players sold and bad replacements brought in. I have seen some terrible managers but also one or two good ones. I have seen relegations, defeats to lower league clubs, heavy defeats in semi finals but also experienced the highs of a 3rd place finish and the season under Bilic.
I have seen good owners, average owners and downright terrible owners. I have seen the ground I love turned into flats and replaced by a stadium fit for athletics.
But I am still here and I’ll always be here, it’s in the DNA.
Just like my dreams they fade and die but we are all eternal optimists who still fully expect that one day we will win the champions league....it’s what keeps us going.
Heads up everyone, players and owners come and go but the club will always be there 👍
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Crassus
1:19 Sun Sep 6
Re: Done
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Jonesy
Yeah I get all that but you are confusing following the club and results upon the pitch
West Ham was special, it was ours and our area, we had an affiliation, a knowing, a no need to mention it bond of togetherness
The side had it's moments, we have had the odd player, doubtless at some point we will have those again
What has gone is the 'club' and what it meant to so many, First there was the anger, then simmering resentment, then sadness and the final most damning emotion - apathy
Better to have had and lost than never had at all I guess and what we had was far far more important than clubs that won multiple titles
Let it go, it has gone
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