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My first European experience was the Intertoto Cup as I was not alive for any European campaign that came before (bar the Anglo-Italian Cup, but as a six-year-old I don’t think my parents would have let me travel) and the last before this season was travelling to Palermo for our ill-fated 2006-07 UEFA Cup campaign.

I made the trips to Andorra and Malta to see games that were not the best performances for our football club but to me it was as if the game was secondary to a holiday to exotic footballing locations. Those who travel abroad to watch games in Germany or Italy for example would not necessarily think of a principality in the Pyrenees or south of Sicily to obtain their footballing fix.

When else would there be a chance to visit these locations for the purpose you were out there for, surround by fellow Hammers who have travelled far and wide? From the Russian Hammers (via the Czech Republic) in the camp site overlooking the pitch in Andorra to the very mixed crowd out in Matla, the adventure has been embraced.

Along the way little memories will stay with me - like the cab driver in Malta after the game who escaped the traffic queue down the wrong side of the road and then dirt roads whilst loudly playing 'It’s My Life' by Bon Jovi, or the bar in Andorra that got my beer tab badly wrong and undercharged me by quite a lot.

Not related to the match itself, but I would have never have been there if this football club of ours had not qualified for the Europa League via the back door.

WHU qualifying for the Europa League through the fair play league now looks ironic with the spate of red cards we have been obtaining but I still think the European adventure has been worthwhile, to the fans, to this point. It was with great disappointment I saw the following as taken from an article published on the club's website after the 2-2 draw against FC Astra Giurgiu on Thursday 30th July:

With the Barclays Premier League season to start at Arsenal less than 72 hours after the second leg in Romania, Bilic concluded by confirming that he will think carefully before choosing which players will make the 1,200 mile round-trip to Giurgiu. "It was the same plan, no matter what the result is, that the majority of the players who will start against Arsenal will not participate in that game," he explained. "We would like to do both, but the Premier League was and is the priority for us."

Having read those comments, it made me wonder what is the whole point then of our season then? To try and win a trophy or at least compete or finish as high in the league as you can so you are afforded more prize money at the end of the season? I don’t see it as either one or the other.

From time to time you get threads in the KUMB Forums along the lines of asking what you would prefer to see, relegation and win a cup or stay up or England winning the world cup or a WHU FA cup win. Apart from it all being "if my auntie had" situations I do not see for the life of me why you should limit your ambitions. If we actually gave the Europa League a fair go and got knocked out then so be it. If that meant we are cream-crackered towards the end of the season for playing too many games then so be it.

People want to see youngsters given a chance in the first team and with the Premier League being the be all and end all apparently, when do you give those youngsters a chance? No disrespect to Joey O’Brien as an example but the old, worn out saying of 'Premier League experience' would mean you play Joey at right back against Arsenal (if fit) instead of someone like Reece Oxford or anyone else from the youth sides because they lack this experience.

How are they going to get that first team experience if you don’t try them? If you don’t play them in the league, then when do you? There is a competition where if you get through the qualifiers then you have a minimum of six more games to play. We are already in it (for now) so this should be seen as a bonus, not a millstone round our necks, distracting us from our 'priority'.



Besides, this priority our manager speaks of, does it get to a point in the forthcoming league campaign where we might look like we are going to qualify for European competition? If that’s the case then what do we do? It’s the priority above all else so it would be a rich irony. Something the fans have embraced and have gone so long without but for the club's excellent pricing of the home games, looks like it could hardly care.

Sure you have to cover the games on the media platforms but the talk has always been about pre-season schedule disruption and trying to balance being in more than three competitions in the same season. The ultimate ambition of the owners is to obtain 'Champions' League qualification. That could be either straight in or qualifiers. That’s still an extra competition, but what then of the priority?

It is a real chicken and egg situation which is tied into investment into the playing staff and ambition at the club. The move to the new stadium is meant to be a launch pad to greater achievements - but wouldn’t one of those achievements be a strong Europa League campaign in the season before you enter that stadium?

End of the day, our Europa League campaign could very well end this coming Thursday on the banks of the Danube - and who knows when we will qualify again for European competition? The owners and our current manager hope as soon as possible, as long as it does not distract from the priority of winning lots of money for finishing 11th rather than 12th.




To follow West Ham United is not for the glory of winning trophies and trinkets every season. As I said to a Chelsea supporting friend (she has supported them all her life…) supporting this club is a family birth right, handed down through the generations as if it is an antique heirloom. It might be a ropey reproduction off a factory production line from China or it might be the real deal but that’s half the fun not knowing.

I just hope those who travel to the game this Thursday have a blast and we all have the opportunity to watch a fourth and final qualifying round game at the Boleyn this season. I don’t want this European excursion to end any time soon, even if it is seen as a distraction.

* You may find Paul on twitter at @P_Tizzle31.

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