There are no two ways about it, it's been a thoroughly miserable and very frustrating, even embarrassing, season. One which i'm sure all West Ham supporters are pleased to see the back of, if only it wasn't for the fact we are now in Division One.
Despite the best efforts of the media to deride West Ham fan's at every possible opportunity, whether through accusations of racism or that to them we were the cause of Glenn Roeder's stroke, we know that both the team and the fans went down fighting and with a great deal of pride. But now we have to deal with the consequences of relegation at many differing levels and the media believe we are facing an exodus of our talented players, yet the bookies have us as 5/1 favourites to be promoted. So what's the score?One thing you learn as a supporter of West Ham, is, don't believe anything unless it has actually happened and there is irrefutable proof . I really don't know whether the Fleet street hacks have some problem with the people running the club or just the fans, but when it comes to reporting on West Ham , there seems to be more lies than with any other club. I will state now, that i am not going to whinge like a Gooner, Spurs fan or surrey Manc about how our club and the supporters are misrepresented. No. All i am going to say, is that with regards to the fans, the reason they don't like us is because more often than not, West Ham fans are better informed and more intelligent than the media. KUMB being a prime example. However, i will suggest that our "reading between the lines" can lead to a great deal of paranoia.
I know that a journalists basic job is to get a story at any cost, but the media have really been up to some dirty tricks this season. Apparently we are all racist (the Lee Bowyer transfer), vandals (Roeder's"brick through the window" incident), very old quotes from both Di Canio and Kanoute have been re-hashed and the latest "informed and intelligent" story on the back of all of the daily newspapers, is the apparent mass exodus about to happen at the club. They are all guessing at the amount of money the club has to retrieve from releasing players in order to make up for the lack of premiership revenue, and yet the club and the fans will not be taken in by such obvious scare mongering. The press don't care how hurtful their comments are, as though West Ham fans won't read their material. They could be right, well, if we do we rarely believe a word of it anyway.
The media seem to be acting as though, the fact that West Ham need to release players and cut down the size of their squad, is only relevant to our club, despite nearly every team in the Premier league having to do the same sooner or later. Primarily, all clubs need to reduce their wage bill. That is the most significant drain on resources at a football club by far. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that a player such as Paolo Di Canio, on £35k+ per week, however good he is, is no longer affordable by a club in Division 1. The time has come for every club to start refusing to capitulate to the ridiculous wage demands of players and their agents. The clubs can tell players, "fine, go and be unemployed, we and most of the other clubs can no longer afford you". Whether its Di Canio, Bowyer, Wiltord or others.
Maybe the time is coming that clubs can once again start using those players that want to be with a club for a long period and actually begin to feel loyal to that club and their supporters. Who knows, perhaps there may be some genuine statements among those players in the West Ham first team who have said that they want to stay with the club? Maybe this is an appreciation of the fact that they are in a comfortable situation, with a crowd that likes them and they could do without the hassle of a transfer? Maybe the grass is no longer greener? On the other hand....
West Ham fans read between the lines and we feel that most of these statements are as good as "come and get me plea's". Cynical lot aren't we? As i said earlier though, don't believe any player has left until you see them in another teams shirt. Paul Ince included.
Yes it is a bad time for football, but there is an awful lot of good that will come out of the current recession. By letting Paolo go, I am sure that the club can now use a much lower threshold on players wages. Also, a club in our position can no longer afford "deadwood" players and 6 or 7 of those have been released recently. I really don't think that many West Ham fans are going to be upset about Gary Breen, Scott Minto, Raimond Van Der Gouw, Clive Delaney, John Moncur or even Nigel Winterburn and Edouard Cisse leaving the club. Thankfully, none of these players would now be first choice players and their contracts have finished.
We still have a squad of 22 players, some of whom have been deemed by the media as almost certainties to leave. However, West Ham have the advantage of being blessed with one of the top five youth academy's in the country. If you think that West Ham are in a bad way for going down, what would have the scenario been had Bolton gone down? They have virtually no youth team prospects, a host of foreign loan players who wouldn't play in Division One and from whom they would not make any profit by being sold.
West Ham fans know that they are going to have to be realistic about what the squad may look like come August. A couple of big names for us will have to go, maybe only one if we don't sign anyone new during the summer, but i really don't think that our first team is going to be as decimated as was first portrayed by our friends in Fleet Street.
The biggest issue West Ham fans are concerned with is what is to happen with Glenn Roeder? Because if the media were honest (some hope), West Ham's season was over by November and that was down to a manager who was incapable of getting the best out of Premier league quality players by playing them out of position, with little tactical awareness and little respect from the players. I am sorry if this seems disrespectful or hurtful at a time of need for Glenn and his family, but someone being ill does not detract from whether they were good at their job or not, and no, my opinion won't cause Mr.Roeder to have another stroke. We have not seen any evidence so far that Glenn is a good manager (3 teams, 2 relegations). I hope he can get us back on course. I hope he can prove me wrong and be the best coach the club has had since John Lyall, and I for one will give him that chance.
What I cannot abide is the Media silence surrounding Roeder and their fear of upsetting anyone. None of them will say that the main reason we were relegated was because of Roeder's inability as a manager. They prefer an unsupported theory of under performance of players and a lack of support by the fans. Sorry guys but it's the managers job to motivate those players to perform to the best of their abilities. Are the fans to be blamed for no home wins until January? Most other teams supporters would have complained much earlier, Manchester United fans complain about Alex Ferguson, Liverpool about Houllier and Spurs about Hoddle if they lose only one match - as opposed to the West Ham fans still singing at St Andrews after we had been relegated.
The club's admission in the programme for the Chelsea match at Upton Park, that they had made mistakes this season was just about the biggest understatement possible. There was no specific references but I am sure that their point of reference was having not given Glenn Roeder the money to buy players, rather than apologising that his appointment as manager was a mistake and that had he been given the money for such players at the time we would have still gone down through mismanagement. Things did get better, but it was far too late. Just as not spending £5 million on players cost the club maybe £20 million in relegation, so, not getting rid of Roeder, if we are not in the top two teams in Division One by the end of November, will cost us what is left of our excellent squad - including the youngsters.
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