And just like that, the ‘close season’ is about to end, we’ve entered the final month of the metrological summer (thank the Lord) and our national winter game is gearing up for a new season ahead. How time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.
Not being tortured by see-sawing results, suffering the highs and lows of wildly swinging emotions, clinging desperately to the hope we might still avoid the dreaded drop only to face the stark reality on the last day of the season we were no longer a Premier League club.I certainly won’t miss the 2025/26 season one little bit. I enjoyed the World Cup - more than I thought I would. Delighted the best team in the competition finally won the day, but I never bought into the optimism of the likes of Alan Shearer, Micha Richards, Gary Neville and Ian Wright that England could actually be winners.
For me Wayne Rooney’s level-headed assessments and plain talking throughout said it all. The legend of the Boys of ’66 lives on!
So it’s out with the old and in with the new. The 2011/12 season was the last time we were faced with having to battle our way out of the second tier of English football. On that occasion we did it via the playoffs.
Enjoyable as it turned out – and this season two extra places are available should that route be necessary again. But surely automatic promotion has to be the preferred route of choice for Nuno Espirito Santo and his team. It’s certainly mine – I’d happily forgo a trip to Wembley if it meant finishing first or second in the Championship.
One thing is for sure - the next nine months of combat won’t be easy. There were claims from some last season that relegation might be a good thing for the club. Provide the shake-up we needed, the opportunity to reform, regroup and be stronger. Nice in theory if it works – but there’s no guarantee attached.
Some of our fanbase might still be clinging to the thought we’re a big club in a small pond and that alone will be good enough to see us through. It won’t! We’ll have to work twice as hard at everything we do because sure as hell those so-called smaller clubs like Charlton Athletic, Lincoln City, Portsmouth, Bristol City and others will raise their game when the opportunity arises to claim our particular scalp.
We’re told a remarkable 50,000 season tickets have been sold, a record for any club outside the top tier I believe, so support for the team at the London Stadium shouldn’t be an issue. If the team and ultimately the results respond to that remarkable show of faith we will be well on our way to getting the job done.
The fans have clearly signed up for the fight – we have to hope the players are up for the job ahead too. Just who those players will be has yet to be confirmed of course.
We already know Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville definitely won’t be amongst them – but £85m and £55m respectively for the pair was surely too good to turn down by anyone’s standard. Who else departs before the 1 September deadline remains to be seen.
Incomers are of course what should concern us more. Certain names have been banded around but we’re still waiting for the official promo videos to pop up on our devices. At least we haven’t been bombarded with names and faces from far and wide – players we’ve never really had a hope of signing – except in the furtive minds of our numerus ITK sites – fed by desperate agents pushing their boys.
For now anyway we can forget shopping at the football equivalent of Harrods, we’re literally not in that league any more – if we ever were! But if Nuno is serious about taking us straight back up he must know he has to shop somewhere before the month is out.
Of course it wouldn’t be West Ham if there wasn’t a sub-plot to the football going on. Right now the sub-plot is a massive one with reports that Amanda Staveley is heading a consortium who have reached an agreement with Vanessa Gold to buy that family’s shares. Which throws up the issue of how Daniel Kretinsky will react.
When David Sullivan said he was stepping away, the focus fell on Kretinsky and many fans were cheering for him as our new leader. Now Staveley has surfaced, the direction of the cheering appears to be changing.
But all the while I can’t get it out of my head that David Sullivan still has 38% of the club’s shares. Like the mythical troll who disappeared from sight under a bridge I worry about him reappearing again to cast a shadow on the proceedings. But hey-ho, we’ll have to cross that bridge if and when we come to it.
While the ownership saga is likely to continue at least for another 60 days or so apparently, the season proper begins in less than two weeks at Turf Moor, Burnley. Not forgetting of course the visit of Portsmouth in the Carabao Cup.
50,000 fans, including those of Pompey, clearly haven’t forgotten – setting a new record for the competition’s first round tie. It will be a widely anticipated date, in the sunshine no doubt, and at 3pm of all things. A victory and a performance to go with it would be the perfect pre-cursor to the season ahead.
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