KUMB member 'Lyall Out' remembers former manager John Lyall, eight years to the day since he died unexpectedly at the age of just 66...
I remember a hand painted 'Lyall Out' banner hanging by the North Bank Bar during his last season. This used to really stick in my throat.To me, John Lyall was West Ham, as I’d grown up with his teams. It was horrible when the whole ground turned on him after we lost 5-2 to Barnsley in the League Cup. For someone like me who idolised the bloke, that game was hard to take.
I remember the chanting and the arguments at the time but I can also recall the frustration that hung around the place as each season we failed to recapture the form of 85-86.
In his last season in charge he had the basis of a good team but what didn’t help his cause was the new signings failed to perform consistently that season, with David Kelly a notable disappointment as a replacement for Tony Cottee. Though even in that final 1988-89-relegation season, we reached the quarter finals in both cup competitions and finished the season strongly.
We gave a tremendous effort up at Liverpool in that final game, drawing 1-1 at half time; back then, I’d never seen us even score a goal up at Anfield before. But I also remember the away fans giving him grief up at Anfield, about the proposed Slater substitution, and I was amazed to see him change his mind.
Even so, I was still expecting the club to regroup during the summer and that we'd get promoted again under Lyall. To prove this point, this was something he later achieved with Ipswich Town, so I don’t doubt he’d have achieved further success with us.
If a change was going to come back then, then a rather more dignified removal from team management should have resulted in a General Manager position being re-created within the club. Ron Greenwood had already created such a position before him, without the board’s knowledge, and even Ron regarded John as the best coach he’d ever worked with. It would have been seen as the “West Ham Way” of doing things.
But for the board, as a result of relegation, attention was focused on Lyall’s decision to go and break the bank to re-sign Frank McAvennie. Maybe it was a case of the heart ruling the head with that signing, but the whole Boleyn Ground ground had sung McAvennie’s name and I think he did it for the fans as much as it was for the team.
That decision - as much as relegation - helped usher him out of the door. Money, at the end of the day, always talks. Season 85/86 had raised everyone’s expectations so much, that going back to being good old West Ham wasn’t enough any more. The seeds of modern football had begun to be sown, even before the Premier League raised the profile and upped the stakes.
In Steve Blowers book “Nearly Reached The Sky”, this move upstairs is mentioned but it also refers to the board's desire to bring in Harry Redknapp as his replacement. I’m not sure if there was a problem about Lyall and Redknapp being able to work together, and excuse me being vague as I haven’t got the book in front of me so I can’t quote it. I wasn’t aware there was any problem between them, but talk about chalk and cheese in professional ethics.
Alan Dickens once said that during contract negotiations, Lyall treated West Ham's money like his own and wasn’t going to give it away - whereas with Redknapp, we know he also treated club funds like his own but in an entirely different manner.
Anyway, after showing Lyall the door, Martin Cearns made a complete balls up of approaching Redknapp - so much so that it was considered illegal and Bournemouth were up in arms and seriously miffed. So this left a rather bemused looking West Ham board to appoint Lou Macari.
Incomparable: John Angus Lyall, 1940-2006
Even with his failings, the Lyall years still remain the most successful in our history and he achieved this success by trying to play football the right way. As a club we had a swagger about us, an attitude. You could puff your chest out with pride because we were unlike so many other clubs who changed the mangers.
We were West Ham fans, and our club was run by West Ham men. We were members of an extended family, and when “Same old West Ham, taking the piss” rang out from the terraces, it could be about matters on or off the pitch.
I was both shocked and sad when I heard the news of Lyall’s sacking on the radio. I can still remember where I was in my car at the time I heard it announced. I only got to speak to him once, and that was at a book signing at the old book shop just round the corner from the ground.
While in the queue, people were sticking their heads around the shop door, wishing him well and apologising for the club sacking him. The old dear working there said “Oh, aint that nice of em John.” To which he just smiled and said something along the lines of “they’re the best.” An example of why he refused the offer of a pay-off testimonial when Len Cearns sacked him.
Whenever things used to go wrong on the pitch after Lyall’s departure, and those around me in the Chicken Run were moaning, I’d always start up an ironic" LYALL OUT" chant just to remind everyone that nothing had changed, we weren't any better and that nobody had benefited from the poor treatment given to a true West Ham legend.
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