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It’s been a week of memories, legends and heroes. Stark, sad reminders maybe of what West Ham once were.

And then, of course, there’s been the those who have left, those who may be leaving and those that can’t take the hint. It always seems that what goes on off the pitch at our club overshadows, annoyingly, everything else.




Febuary, in particular the 24th, always seems to underline our greatness, what we once were. It’s all been about Bobby, Billy and John (sorry, I couldn’t find an Abraham but we did have a Martin, and if you don’t understand that I can’t help you).

February 24th, as you’ve all known and seen now, marks the anniversary of Bobby Moore’s passing, 33 years ago at just 51. He once was the face of West Ham, the memory of our greatest era of the 1960s. I wonder who you think is the face of West Ham now, someone who is known country-wide, inside and outside of the football industry?

On that same 24 February date was the day John Lyall, arguably our finest manager, was born in 1940. He passed away on 18 April, 2006, five days before we reached our fifth FA Cup Final by beating Middlesbrough at Villa Park. Lyall’s great mentor Ron Greenwood had passed away only a couple of months earlier, 9 February. It really is a terrible month for our club.

And of course, that significant 24th date marks the birth of the wonderful Clyde Best and Billy Bonds' first game as West Ham manager, a 1-1 draw against Blackburn, 36 years ago. Billy resigned in August ’94, after 799 games as a player and 227 as a manager. That’s 1,026 games at our club, our longest servant who we lost in November.

So it’s a date that resonates with West Ham fans of all ages, all generations. The sort of fans who respectfully paid tribute to a more modern day legend Ludo Miklosko, last Saturday ahead of the draw with Bournemouth.

Not quite from near Moscow but we all get the drift and the song. Sadly we also all realise that our heroic goalkeeping legend is suffering from terminal cancer, and the beautiful banners and giant photo of the Czech star that adorned the BML was a fitting tribute.

We do know how to lionise our heroes and legends, praise to the Ironworks boys and my colleagues in the BML (you can just see my crew holding up the top of the giant banner of Ludo’s face).

Also worth recording that the Hammers United team decided not to hand out those ‘no more BS’ red cards on Saturday out of respect to Ludo and the tribute.




But even on a special day like last Saturday, you couldn’t keep our rulers out of the frame for long. In answer to my earlier question about the current ‘face’ of West Ham, I asked a handful of non-football folk, who know nothing of our club and history, who they first thought of when West Ham are mentioned. The answer, unanimously was Karren Brady, because they’d seen her on the TV.

And all around the weekend game there was noise and chatter about whether Baroness K would be quitting the club. It rose to a crescendo on social media. Even from the usual mouthpieces, and then the denial that the club knew anything about it. Yea, right.

It’s a rumour that’s been buzzing for months, and I hate to say this, but raises the hopes of many before seeing them crash.

With prospect of relegation and the end of the season approaching, a FAB meeting this week and the dreaded release, finally, of the club accounts, you can see a multitude of escape routes for her. My guess is that Brady is not the sort of person to be pushed aside, if she goes it will be on her terms and with the dignity she expects.

Let’s face it, her long-established colleague Tara Warren has already gone and walked straight into a new job with the Football Regulators, a body first set up by the previous government and brought into law by the current incumbents.

A Bill the good lady fought hard to stop from her seat in the House of Lords, and now a new body with a former member of her West Ham staff involved. I leave that one for you all to work out!

This apart, social media and many fans accounts have been at full throttle this week with more rumours than they can handle. Material that I could not dare to repeat here or elsewhere on KUMB.

What does still surprise me is the way social media thinks they can expand any rumour, when MSM does not. mDo they realise that the written word online or in newspapers, is still publishing, and subject to the same laws of the land? I’ll leave you all with that one too! Be careful out there.




But back to my original theme, the legends and heroes of our past. They are held in great esteem and rightly so. But I wonder who, if any, from our current crop players from the last few years or so, will be held in the same esteem in 30 years time?

Some, I’m told, could easily be forgotten in a fortnight. Let’s take that European trophy-winning squad of almost three years ago now, and don’t throw Declan Rice at me, he’s only been around for a couple of years by comparison and will never become a true West Ham legend, even if he’s only the second captain of a European trophy winning team in our history.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved him when he was with us, but not now. And when he did his best on Sunday to gift a goal to Spurs, laughably our rivals for relegation now it seems, I came close to putting my boot through the TV screen.

Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek may well eventually qualify. 30 years hence, I’m not sure. But in Jarrod Bowen, we have a genuine candidate.

His goals and assists is now the highest of our Premier League years, that’s since 1992 for us old timers. Jarrod has carried this club for as long as I can remember in the current decade, a great servant, a constant threat on the pitch and a great ambassador, ‘face’ of the club if you like.

So when he has an off day, and there have been some, he does not deserve the abuse that has come his way of late. Nobody is above criticism, whether you know what you are talking about or not. One or two of you out there need to have hard look at yourselves. The problem isn’t Jarrod Bowen.

As for legends, we may have produced a couple of Ferdinands, a couple of Coles, a Carrick—who I believe should have been our manager by now, and the odd Tevez, Payet and Di Canio has passed through our club.

I don’t see any of them as legends. But I see it in Jarrod Bowen. So get off his back.

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