We know what we are...
- Tuesday, 19th September 2023
- Paul Walker
It will be just 75 days from that amazing night in Prague, champions of Europe, to this week’s return to UEFA competition.
What did David Moyes ever do for us?
- Tuesday, 12th September 2023
- Paul Walker
It’s coming up to six years since David Moyes first crossed our paths. Love or loath him, it’s been the most divisive, controversial managerial appointment for many a decade.
An Irrational Hatred of David Moyes
- Monday, 4th September 2023
- Paul Walker
That trek into the Bedfordshire unknown brought it all back for some. Robert Banks' famous cult book 'An Irrational Hatred of Luton' sprung to mind, still as painfully funny now as it was then, first published 28 years ago.
Days like these
- Tuesday, 29th August 2023
- Paul Walker
You’d be forgiven for pinching yourself, wouldn’t you - because West Ham don’t really do months like this, do they?
A window of discontent, again - or is it?
- Thursday, 24th August 2023
- Paul Walker
It’s taken a bit of time - too long, to be fair - but these last few days of our torturous transfer window have been a bit more like it.
Thanks for the memories, Lucas
- Tuesday, 15th August 2023
- Paul Walker
Transfer windows are an emotional nightmare; you win some, you lose some. But I know one thing, I’m going to miss Lucas Paqueta far more than Declan Rice.
The circus is back in town
- Tuesday, 1st August 2023
- Paul Walker
Right, Mr.Chairman, I’ve been away - not quite as spicy a holiday as yours, but hey ho, some 74-year-olds have all the luck - so how’s this ‘take back control’ of transfers going? Smoothly, I hope.
He loves us more than you
- Wednesday, 19th July 2023
- Paul Walker
I have to say, I’ve struggled a bit these past few days as Declan Rice has completed his record breaking move to Arsenal, which is annoying.
Rice was out of our league
- Wednesday, 5th July 2023
- Paul Walker
He’s gone, the biggest transfer fee received in West Ham’s history, but the feeling is of overwhelming sadness. Spin it how you like, but we have been diminished.
Euphoria - for one week only
- Tuesday, 13th June 2023
- Paul Walker
You want to hold onto these moments of euphoria for as long as you can, before the reality of modern football reality comes crashing in.
One more game, one more game Declan Rice
- Saturday, 3rd June 2023
- Paul Walker
Whatever the song, whatever the pleadings from West Ham fans, Declan Rice will lead out his team in the Europa Conference League final in Prague for the last time.
History in the making
- Wednesday, 31st May 2023
- Paul Walker
Well, it’s finally over, this stressful Premier League season - and I doubt you will find anyone who mourns its passing.
They think it’s all over: it had better be!
- Wednesday, 24th May 2023
- Paul Walker
Here we are, safe from relegation, on our way to Prague for our first European final in 47 years and amused bystanders as Leeds, Everton and Leicester fight for their lives.
Holding out for a hero
- Saturday, 20th May 2023
- Paul Walker
We've been searching for heroes for a while now, well here they are in abundance, the heroes of Alkmaar, the boys of 2023 who have given the modern generation of West Ham fans something to be proud of.
Europe and from one extreme to another
- Wednesday, 17th May 2023
- Paul Walker
We really are getting the highs and lows this week. Maybe we could be reaching a European final, but the certainty is that we will see Declan Rice in the claret and blue at the London Stadium for the last time.
Why are we disunited United?
- Tuesday, 9th May 2023
- Paul Walker
It’s too much to expect, isn’t it, that we go into the biggest week of our season showing a united front. Everybody pulling in the right direction, no dissention, no leaks, no briefings, no speculation over the manager and our captain.
The painful view of reality
- Friday, 5th May 2023
- Paul Walker
When reality in football hits you between the eyes it hurts, especially when you are not really expecting it.
A comedy of errors that’s no laughing matter
- Tuesday, 2nd May 2023
- Paul Walker
So what have we become? How many of us spent the aftermath of Saturday’s disaster at Selhurst Park praying that Brentford clawed their way back to beat Nottingham Forest?
Hands up if you know what a penalty is
- Thursday, 27th April 2023
- Paul Walker
At least we know that the kids are all right, but that’s about all in a crushing few days that has plunged us back into the doom and gloom days.
Memories are made of this
- Thursday, 20th April 2023
- Paul Walker
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve had my fill of the abuse and negativity surrounding David Moyes and his future at West Ham.
The Moyes-trap: soccer’s never ending saga
- Monday, 10th April 2023
- Paul Walker
We are caught in it, the everyday, anyway. Any hour debating about David Moyes’ future, relentless and mind numbing.
West Ham In Europe: Where It All Began
- Monday, 20th March 2023
- Paul Walker
It's where it all began for West Ham United, 59 years ago. On a ferry to Ostend for the very first match in European competition for us back in 1964.
We're going down with a European cup
- Friday, 17th March 2023
- Paul Walker
I must admit to being amused by the black humour of our fans who have been singing this little ditty for a while now.
Another fine boardroom mess
- Wednesday, 8th March 2023
- Paul Walker
So here we are again, very rich people playing with the future of OUR club for their own financial advantage.
More dust, more blurred vision
- Monday, 6th March 2023
- Paul Walker
It takes much longer these days for the dust to settle after yet another shocking defeat - if it does at all.
Bobby Moore: only our memories remain
- Wednesday, 22nd February 2023
- Paul Walker
Bobby Moore left us 30 years ago, the memories still vivid for many, his place in our history enshrined forever.
Relegation will be on you, David Sullivan
- Monday, 20th February 2023
- Paul Walker
Never get involved in any sort of West Ham debate when you are angry, I say - but this is the exception. And I doubt any Hammers fan is not still angry.
Happy birthday Ken Brown, a true West Ham legend
- Thursday, 16th February 2023
- Paul Walker
Ken Brown was Bobby Moore’s sidekick, the tough-as-old-boots centre-half who played alongside the great man throughout West Ham’s great 1960s era.
Kretinsky in stadium talks
- Monday, 13th February 2023
- Paul Walker
Danny Kretinsky is in the building, the man who would be king of West Ham.
Time for a ceasefire
- Wednesday, 8th February 2023
- Paul Walker
Maybe it's about time we called a truce. This war of words over David Moyes' future has gone on long enough.
We pay your benefits, you know
- Friday, 3rd February 2023
- Paul Walker
You have to wonder whether the great and entitled Manchester United sit around in their Old Trafford luxury, thinking up ways to make the football public hate them more than they already do. But, hey ho, I doubt they really care.
The end of an era
- Thursday, 26th January 2023
- Paul Walker
When West Ham stride out at Pride Park to face Derby in the FA Cup next week, it will be 271 days since Frankfurt. From a European semi-final to the brink of the Championship, in a few months.
That was the week we could do without
- Friday, 20th January 2023
- Paul Walker
They say a week is a long time in politics. Well, they can't have been around West Ham at the moment.
The circus is back in town
- Monday, 16th January 2023
- Paul Walker
You do wonder whether Mark Noble regrets that Boleyn pitch speech when he claimed West Ham were no longer a circus.
Too early for 'Hammer of the Year' calls
- Tuesday, 10th January 2023
- Paul Walker
I know I will regret this, but here goes. There is no way on earth, at the moment, that Said Benrahma should become the Hammer of the Year.
Moyes abuse is not the West Ham way
- Friday, 30th December 2022
- Paul Walker
It seems we are heading towards the inevitable, such is the relentless clamour for change. We can’t keep losing matches like this.
Bittersweet memories from the two Lionels
- Tuesday, 20th December 2022
- Paul Walker
Lionel Scaloni. Yes, I know, the name haunts us all, but it would be churlish in the extreme not to offer our congratulations to our former right-back after becoming the first man with West Ham history to manage a side to World Cup glory.
Can Geoff Hurst be England’s lucky charm?
- Friday, 9th December 2022
- Paul Walker
It's Geoff Hurst's birthday and England are in another World Cup quarter finals - are the stars aligned in the quest to emulate 1966?
2023, the wind of change
- Friday, 2nd December 2022
- Paul Walker
Declan Rice is going, he wants to play with his pals in the Champions League. Who’d have guessed, I mean he’s only been saying the same thing for months.
Those were the days, my friend
- Wednesday, 30th November 2022
- Paul Walker
Would Ron Greenwood have survived as West Ham manager in today's toxic football world and its demands for instant success?
Well it would be him , wouldn't it?
- Tuesday, 29th November 2022
- Paul Walker
It’s always about Declan, isn’t it? Whenever internationals come around, that’s all you hear about. This World Cup has been no different, even if a lot worse.
Geoff Hurst, 1966 and all that
- Tuesday, 15th November 2022
- Paul Walker
Sir Geoff Hurst and Mark Noble, two West Ham legends from the opposite ends of the past 60 plus years just about salvaged my sanity these last couple of weeks.
The jeering of Tomas Soucek: a new low
- Tuesday, 8th November 2022
- Paul Walker
Amidst all the anger, venom and abuse that besmirched that dreadful day on Sunday when fans turned on David Moyes in their droves, one thing stuck with me.
Tears or fears for the boys of '22
- Saturday, 5th November 2022
- Paul Walker
Well, who would have guessed it? Carlton Cole is just a big softie at heart. But maybe he summed it up for us all after our boys brigade's European heroics.
Bubble and strife for Moyes
- Tuesday, 1st November 2022
- Paul Walker
Right, tin hat time. David Moyes is the best West Ham manager since John Lyall and with his win ratio statistically, you can argue he is the best we've ever had.
Charlie is not m'darling for fans these days
- Monday, 24th October 2022
- Paul Walker
It was not my intention, but recounting the unfortunate incident at Southampton last week involving my good self and one of our motor-mouthed youngsters has resulted in a hornets' nest of anger from our supporters.
A sorry tale of great expectations
- Friday, 21st October 2022
- Paul Walker
We are beginning to feel sorry for ourselves, aren’t we? As this season of such great promise for progress slips agonisingly away from us.
It's just like watching West Ham
- Saturday, 15th October 2022
- Paul Walker
The dust may have settled on another impressive European night for West Ham, even if the cordite still hasn’t.
A different train of thought
- Monday, 3rd October 2022
- Paul Walker
Well that was different, wasn’t it? I mean a decent, winning performance, playing on a Saturday, with minimal Moyes baiting. This could catch on.
Return of the Nobes
- Thursday, 22nd September 2022
- Paul Walker
Mark Noble is back. I doubt there’s a single West Ham fan out there who isn’t delighted that our former skipper is returning to the club as Sporting Director.
Which way do we go?
- Thursday, 22nd September 2022
- Paul Walker
So the witch hunt is in full swing. Get David Moyes out, the stubborn old dinosaur should pack his bags. Be off with you. That seems to be the theme.
Homage to the great unwashed
- Tuesday, 13th September 2022
- Paul Walker
So they’ve given us the collective ball back, all that nonsense about not being trusted not to sing rude songs has gone out of the window.
VAR-cical: now the Premier League must regain trust
- Monday, 5th September 2022
- Paul Walker
It takes something for Dermot Gallagher to become an irrelevance, such has become the total condemnation of the scandal of Chelsea, VAR and all that sail in the discredited system solely set-up to deny West Ham goals.
The world at our feet
- Monday, 29th August 2022
- Paul Walker
The world has turned in West Ham United's favour - just a bit - as our club moved towards the biggest changes in its history.
The real price of failure
- Wednesday, 24th August 2022
- Paul Walker
Just how did we get to this point in West Ham time? A little more than 100 days since ten thousand or more of us were in Frankfurt for a European semi final, we find ourselves biting our nails and fearful of being kicked out of Europe.
Time to hold our nerve?
- Friday, 12th August 2022
- Paul Walker
You pay your money, you make your choice. Is it patience or tin hat time? Are you calm and trusting David Moyes to get it right, or are you stressed to the eyeballs?
Cornet is not enough
- Saturday, 6th August 2022
- Paul Walker
If you stick around long enough, eventually the transfer jigsaw at West Ham falls into place. The key moment is seeing your manager at a press conference with a face resembling ‘a monkey’s smacked arse’ as my old fella used to say.
The same as it ever was
- Thursday, 4th August 2022
- Paul Walker
It can only be West Ham, surely? Here we are on the brink of a new season after the best two back-to-back league campaigns in our history, and with soon to be £100m spent - but not, of course, without the usual mayhem in the transfer market. Well, it is us.
Let’s go round again
- Friday, 22nd July 2022
- Paul Walker
Here we are again - the same place, same time of year, same issues, same blame game. The same fans in blind panic again.
Summertime blues? Let's hope not
- Tuesday, 24th May 2022
- Paul Walker
It’s going to be a long hot summer like no other in West Ham’s history. But will it be a summer of love - or a summer of discontent?
A Mark of respect
- Monday, 16th May 2022
- Paul Walker
From Mark Noble’s pre-match tears to the cuddle with Pep and the emotions of the long goodbye as our skipper took pride of place in West Ham’s lap of honour, pretty much everything went right in an unforgettable last home game of the season at the London Stadium.
Noble intentions
- Friday, 13th May 2022
- Paul Walker
So here we are, in the final days of a memorable season fighting it out with Manchester United for a place in the Europa League.
Fool if you think it’s over
- Saturday, 7th May 2022
- Paul Walker
The dream is over, the heartbreak palpable in the retreat of the claret and blue army from Frankfurt. So near, but so far.
European glory - and the 'Two Bob' Cup
- Tuesday, 26th April 2022
- Paul Walker
Alan Sealey, one of our all time great heroes, would have been 80 last week - the man whose two goals at Wembley won the European crown for West Ham on the greatest night in the club’s history, 57 years ago next month.
On the brink of history
- Thursday, 21st April 2022
- Paul Walker
We’re at the sharp end now of one of the greatest seasons in our history, seven - maybe eight - games to go and like many out there, I couldn’t be happier with this team and this manager.
All hail the Kings of Lyon
- Friday, 15th April 2022
- Paul Walker
It was one of those crazy, crazy, crazy nights, we all will remember where we were, how we celebrated, how many tears that were shed.
Everton’s loss is our change for the good
- Monday, 4th April 2022
- Paul Walker
This is not a long gloat, promise. I reserve those only for Spurs, a prerequisite of the job surely, you wouldn’t want it otherwise.
Boats and planes, but no trains
- Wednesday, 23rd March 2022
- Paul Walker
Right, here’s yet another full-on moan about the third world train service everyone outside London is subjected to these days. In particular football fans!
Positive thinking, West Ham style
- Tuesday, 22nd March 2022
- Paul Walker
This really shouldn’t need saying, but let’s try to find some positives after the anguish of being beaten by the Spuds. We are in a European last eight for the first time since 1981, for heaven’s sake.
Was this our greatest escape?
- Monday, 14th March 2022
- Paul Walker
Andriy Yarmolenko has gone from fears to tears, with - it is now clear - more than just a little help from his friends.
History in the making
- Monday, 7th March 2022
- Paul Walker
You shouldn't let history pass you by, certainly when you are a West Ham fan and we are talking Europe.
Yarmolenko: once a Hammer always a Hammer
- Thursday, 24th February 2022
- Paul Walker
As the untold horror of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolds, of course it will not escape any of us that we have Andriy Yarmolenko in our ranks.
Bobby Moore, gone but never forgotten
- Thursday, 24th February 2022
- Paul Walker
The memories never fade away, but you have to be in your late fifties now to have seen Bobby Moore play for West Ham.
The same old song
- Monday, 21st February 2022
- Paul Walker
It didn’t take long, did it? West Ham so quickly turns into Toxic United, and here we are still enjoying the best season for 30 years.
When the train doesn’t take the strain
- Wednesday, 16th February 2022
- Paul Walker
Our away support have always had my deepest admiration. I’ve travelled around with them for too many years to have no doubt they are the greatest supporters.
While the cat’s away, will Zouma play?
- Thursday, 10th February 2022
- Paul Walker
It’s fair to say that I finally lost patience with the Kurt Zouma witch-hunt when a wife beater stepped up to the high moral ground. Admittedly it’s a pretty low bar to negotiate.
Don’t panic!
- Wednesday, 2nd February 2022
- Paul Walker
Now this is going to hurt. But it has to be said.
A wasted window of opportunity
- Wednesday, 2nd February 2022
- Paul Walker
In the end the feeling is one of sadness, bitter disappointment and the reality that we have been down this route before.
Running into a red wall
- Monday, 24th January 2022
- Paul Walker
It’s been coming for a while for West Ham fans, when frustrating reality hits the wall of unrealistic expectations.
The cup that cheers - sometimes
- Tuesday, 11th January 2022
- Paul Walker
You can virtually tell the age of our fans by the way they react to a cup draw that sees us set for a clash with a non-league or lower division club.
Wishing on a dream
- Tuesday, 4th January 2022
- Paul Walker
First things first. It’s the time of year that gongs are handed out, so David Moyes deserves one for his transformation of West Ham United.
Two years of Moyes: many reasons to be cheerful
- Wednesday, 29th December 2021
- Paul Walker
It’s that time of year isn’t it? When you should really want to be happy about things - not withstanding this hideous pandemic - and our football team gives us that escape.
Heroes all: the Boys of '21
- Thursday, 23rd December 2021
- Paul Walker
'Disappointed' doesn’t cover it. 'Angry', or 'gutted' come closer. And to lose to that bunch of self-important, entitled, delusional, patronising irritants... Ok, I’ll stop there, you get the message.
Why are we paying the penalty?
- Monday, 13th December 2021
- Paul Walker
Don’t you just love a conspiracy theory? They are always best when it is the little club suffering and the big boys benefitting.
Rise of the class of 21
- Sunday, 12th December 2021
- Paul Walker
Never has a defeat in Europe been greeted with such optimism. Was this our very own Class of '21 moment, will we look back on a dead rubber Europa League match as a pivotal time in our history?
Happy birthday Sir Geoff: the legend we gave to England
- Wednesday, 8th December 2021
- Paul Walker
There are heroes and legends - and then there is Sir Geoff Hurst. West Ham United’s greatest living goalscorer, the player we gave to the nation, is 80 this week.
Geoff Hurst’s birthday heartbreak
- Tuesday, 7th December 2021
- Paul Walker
Sir Geoff Hurst is 80 on Wednesday, a day that marks the 50th anniversary of one of West Ham’s most famous and disappointing moments in our history.
And now you’re gonna believe us
- Monday, 6th December 2021
- Paul Walker
Another stunning victory, this time against the champions of Europe, and still the tawdry, dismissive reaction from the pundits... it's more like pulling teeth.
The cold hard facts of closing the gulf
- Tuesday, 30th November 2021
- Paul Walker
There has been a brush with cold reality as far as West Ham is concerned these past few days. With the accent on the cold bit!
Definitely, no longer maybe, a giant step forward
- Friday, 26th November 2021
- Paul Walker
To corrupt a Liam Gallagher vocal, we are seeing things we never thought we would see. Not maybe, but definitely.
Days when we are massive - and days when we are not
- Monday, 22nd November 2021
- Paul Walker
It was going to happen, wasn’t it? Sooner or later, losing our third game of the season, and it’s almost December. Blimey, is this what a crisis looks like in David Moyes’ brave new world.
Danny boy is more than just gas, gas, gas
- Thursday, 11th November 2021
- Paul Walker
In his homeland his nickname is the Czech Sphinx, because he’s inscrutable and silent. Here he’s a man of mystery who could change the course of West Ham’s future forever.
Let the good times roll
- Monday, 8th November 2021
- Paul Walker
It’s just not going to happen: I refuse to allow the Liverpool Lip to steal this magical moment from me and every other West Ham fan.
One thousand up for Moyes and a reason to believe
- Monday, 1st November 2021
- Paul Walker
It's fair to say that, in the dark times, David Moyes probably though he would never make it to 1,000 games as a manager.
The changing face of West Ham
- Thursday, 28th October 2021
- Paul Walker
This club of ours has changed. If the football world - not just us - were unsure about that before, they most certainly are not now.
Can Moyes' magic do the trick?
- Tuesday, 26th October 2021
- Paul Walker
So how do we stop Declan Rice leaving West Ham United?
Having the time of our lives
- Friday, 22nd October 2021
- Paul Walker
Maybe it's time for a little perspective as our heroes march on in their conquest of Europe... but there’s not much chance of that at the moment!
The leaving of Liverpool: how times have changed
- Monday, 18th October 2021
- Paul Walker
It's not just Jarrod Bowen who's on fire these days, it seems. West Ham are too. This is different, this new West Ham we are now seeing that David Moyes has been banging on about.
Any more Arabian knights out there?
- Monday, 11th October 2021
- Paul Walker
So here we are, with another controversial mega-rich addition to the football playground, already busting at the seams with the unscrupulous and the morally corrupt.
Not so home sweet home
- Monday, 4th October 2021
- Paul Walker
Reset, deep breath, and take stock after the sort of programme aspiring top six clubs take in their stride. It's what West Ham must master if they are to truly progress.
I am the resurrection
- Wednesday, 29th September 2021
- Paul Walker
Someone, somewhere is going to suggest a book about West Ham United, soon. The Moyes years and how a has-been reinvented himself and turned a football circus into a remarkable and unlikely success story.
A sour end to a fantastic day
- Sunday, 26th September 2021
- Paul Walker
The repercussions from West Ham's magnificent victory at Leeds could well soon over-shadow our tremendous comeback, crowned with a sensational last minute winner from Michail Antonio.
Really saying something...
- Thursday, 23rd September 2021
- Paul Walker
It was something or nothing, wasn't it? West Ham winning at Old Trafford, that is.
The penalty of greater expectation
- Tuesday, 21st September 2021
- Paul Walker
The Mark Noble penalty stunt doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, does it?
David Moyes' Euro mission
- Friday, 17th September 2021
- Paul Walker
For David Moyes you sense West Ham's European campaign is unfinished business and that our manager maybe has something to prove to himself.
Memories are made of this
- Wednesday, 15th September 2021
- Paul Walker
This is West Ham United's ninth season in Europe, 52 matches from 1964 to 2016... one trophy won, once a beaten finalist, once a beaten semi-finalist, once beaten in a quarter-final... Ok, and one Intertoto Cup.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
- Tuesday, 14th September 2021
- Paul Walker
It's been a long time coming, 15 years since West Ham played a match in the competition proper of a European cup. And I believe a few of you still bear the scars of Palermo.
There's no smoke without fire
- Saturday, 4th September 2021
- Paul Walker
The dust may have settled on the best transfer window in living memory for West Ham, while our Dec is no doubt still dancing around in the Hungarian haze of hatred, crowned now without doubt as one of Europe's finest holding midfielders.
Is this a defining window for David Moyes?
- Tuesday, 31st August 2021
- Paul Walker
Well how was it for you? Was it the best West Ham window ever, or do we still need a striker?
Something tells me we're into something good
- Tuesday, 24th August 2021
- Paul Walker
It was a bit special, wasn't it? The sort of performance that makes even the most hardened critics stop in their tracks.
Benrahma: Let's hope a star is born
- Tuesday, 17th August 2021
- Paul Walker
Now if you love football you should always want to see talent achieve its full potential, the cream rising to the top above the mediocre.
Let's go round again - or maybe not
- Tuesday, 17th August 2021
- Paul Walker
So here we go, two more weeks on the carousel that is the West Ham FC transfer merry-go-round.
The long lost summer
- Tuesday, 10th August 2021
- Paul Walker
This should have been something special, a summer of content rather than the warm days of rancour and disenchantment instead.
A sensible solution: what took you so long?
- Monday, 9th August 2021
- Paul Walker
Maybe it took seeing the digital ticketing chaos at Liverpool, maybe it was some of the teething problems some fans experienced at the London Stadium at the weekend, but with the dust barely settled on the first serious experiments with ticketless football, West Ham have seen sense.
PAI may not be perfect, but it's time for change
- Sunday, 8th August 2021
- Paul Walker
It's a simple question really, but not one with a simple answer. Do you trust our board to sell Declan Rice?
Anybody but GSB? It's make your mind up time
- Thursday, 29th July 2021
- Paul Walker
We need to have a debate about what sort of new ownership we really want, don't we? And it's all come in a bit of a rush.
Once in a lifetime: same as it ever was
- Wednesday, 28th July 2021
- Paul Walker
Once in a lifetime - that's what this summer should have been. Or is it just going to be as it ever was in every summer or transfer window we can recall?
Digital disgrace: A ticket to ridicule
- Monday, 19th July 2021
- Paul Walker
It didn't take long, did it, for the smelly stuff to hit the fan over season tickets as the panto season comes early to downtown Stratford.
The Pellegrini disaster
- Tuesday, 13th July 2021
- Paul Walker
Another one gone, more millions thrown down the drain, the Pellegrini legacy continues to hang over West Ham United.
On the brink of history
- Tuesday, 6th July 2021
- Paul Walker
This should be all about Declan Rice, his football, his journey to the brink of history, the kid who we have watched move from boy to man as he has driven West Ham into Europe.
Football, bloody hell!
- Wednesday, 30th June 2021
- Paul Walker
There are times when football just can't help itself. It changes lives, it changes perceptions, it changes a whole nation's mood. And as of about 7pm on Tuesday, it just about killed the myth that Declan Rice wasn't good enough for England.
Gangsters, corruption and transfer windows
- Wednesday, 9th June 2021
- Paul Walker
Let's go round again: here it is, another long-awaited transfer window. I just can't wait, can you?
Just a perfect day
- Tuesday, 25th May 2021
- Paul Walker
We've had the agony of the Great Escape, now we've had the ecstasy of the Greatest Last Day - and I know what I prefer.
Just how bad is our financial crisis?
- Wednesday, 12th May 2021
- Paul Walker
It takes a little time, but eventually the nightmare jigsaw of West Ham's finances fits into place, piece by painful piece.
They think it's all over: well not quite yet
- Tuesday, 11th May 2021
- Paul Walker
Yes, I still believe West Ham are good enough to qualify for Europe. We have not been out of the top five since the end of January. We damned well deserve it.
Buy my club, tuppence a bag
- Thursday, 6th May 2021
- Paul Walker
'What do you want?' 'New owners.' 'When do you want them?' 'Now.' 'Who do you want?' 'Er, can we come back to you on that?'
Just how much do they hate us?
- Wednesday, 28th April 2021
- Paul Walker
Now if you'd have told me a few weeks back that there was no corruption in football and that politicians went into public service to feed the poor rather than purchase gold wallpaper, I'd have gone along with that.
Always against all odds
- Tuesday, 27th April 2021
- Paul Walker
When reality bites, it can be very painful. The home truths of the past few months come flooding in to finally engulf a heroic battle against the odds.
Memories of our youth
- Friday, 23rd April 2021
- Paul Walker
So who was the first West Ham player to win a World Cup winners medal? And before you all shout, it wasn't any of the usual subjects.
They think it's all over...
- Wednesday, 21st April 2021
- Paul Walker
You would hope that this is the end of corrupt, scheming billionaires and the evil spectre of the European Super League. You'll be lucky.
It's about more than Jesse Lingard
- Tuesday, 13th April 2021
- Paul Walker
It's much much more than just the Jesse Lingard show, this amazing season West Ham are thrusting into the nation's conscience.
Creating claret and blue royalty
- Thursday, 8th April 2021
- Paul Walker
Legends come in all shapes and sizes. Legendary teams likewise. It depends on who you are, what you are and what means most for a multitude of reasons.
We are not, we're not really here
- Monday, 22nd March 2021
- Paul Walker
David Moyes has never said we were going to be in Europe, he has never over-promised or given the slightest false hopes.
This time next year we'll be... well, that's anyone's guess
- Wednesday, 10th March 2021
- Paul Walker
I really have tried to be a grown up about this, but West Ham's eagerly-awaited accounts is a wonderful opportunity too obvious to miss. Sorry in advance.
Smiles better
- Tuesday, 9th March 2021
- Paul Walker
You can tell West Ham fans these days by the silly smile on their faces, not the frozen grimace we are normally used to at this stage of a season.
The miracle of lockdown
- Wednesday, 24th February 2021
- Paul Walker
It's a year this coming weekend since the gates of the London Stadium were locked and bolted. How many of us even considered we would be in a Champions League qualification spot 12 months later?
Old wind-ups are the best, Jose!
- Friday, 19th February 2021
- Paul Walker
Now you shouldn't allow yourself to get wound-up, should you. Certainly not by that greying old campaigner Jose Mourinho.
Europe or bust: it's about time
- Tuesday, 16th February 2021
- Paul Walker
Great feeling, wasn't it? Fourth in the Premier League and a Champions League qualification spot, as David Moyes' remarkable side continue to confound the doubters. Europe here we come.
When reality strikes hard
- Thursday, 11th February 2021
- Paul Walker
The dust has settled, we've been beaten in the FA Cup by a club ranked third richest in the world, but still all the old wounds have been opened, the same arguments that continue to split our fan base.
No credit where it is due for West Ham
- Thursday, 4th February 2021
- Paul Walker
We should all be used to it by now. The fact that we are somehow invisible or that we are trapped in some sort of stereotypical world that has been created over decades.
A brave new world, a triumph for the fans
- Friday, 29th January 2021
- Paul Walker
It had been a long time coming, but it is hard not to see the brave new world West Ham United have stepped tentatively into as a triumph for the fans.
Now you've got to believe us
- Friday, 29th January 2021
- Paul Walker
It's been a pretty good week, hasn't it? Just for a while maybe we are discovering how the big boys feel all the time.
Give us a reason to dream
- Sunday, 24th January 2021
- Paul Walker
It must surely be about time that it is officially ok to be proud of our team, our manager, and to allow ourselves to be excited and to dream.
Gone, but not likely to be forgotten
- Monday, 11th January 2021
- Paul Walker
So he's gone; Sebastian Haller will now be wearing the iconic shirt of Ajax from now on. But you can bet that's not the last time we hear his name.
Times change but Dowie pain remains
- Thursday, 7th January 2021
- Paul Walker
It's not going to go away, is it? The constant references to that horrible Iain Dowie own goal the last time we set foot in Stockport.
A few more bricks in the wall
- Monday, 4th January 2021
- Paul Walker
It's too easy to be cynical or unconvinced when things start going right for West Ham. This is my 62nd year following this great club of ours, so I have some experience of false dawns.
The man who wants to change West Ham
- Thursday, 31st December 2020
- Paul Walker
David Moyes took it on the chin, admitted he was wrong and just got on with business. That being to change once and for all the image of West Ham outside the Hammers' bubble.
Time to show some ambition
- Saturday, 12th December 2020
- Paul Walker
One of those mornings, eh, when you wake up and know West Ham can't ruin your weekend with, to be fair, the sort of catastrophe not common under David Moyes these days.
The case for David Moyes
- Wednesday, 2nd December 2020
- Paul Walker
It has been claimed that West Ham have opened talks with David Moyes over a new long term contract, with his current deal ending next summer.
An irrational hatred of West Ham
- Wednesday, 2nd December 2020
- Paul Walker
He can’t disguise it, can he? All that Scouse squeaking and ranting. But just why does Jamie Carragher dislike West Ham United so much?
Wind of change at West Ham
- Monday, 9th November 2020
- Paul Walker
We might have witnessed the perfect political storm across the pond in the USA at the weekend but in 'lil'old downtown Essex, West Ham are seeing another flurry of the wind of change that is breezing through our football club.
Lanzini the legend
- Monday, 19th October 2020
- Paul Walker
It's why we are West Ham, in fact it's what makes us West Ham. Moments like Manuel Lanzini's memorable goal at Spurs, now part of folklore for ever.
Yankee gold may be the only gig in town for DS
- Friday, 25th September 2020
- Paul Walker
Oversexed, overpaid and over here... that's how they used to talk about the Yanks back in the day. I'm not sure about the first bit but they are certainly here looking for football clubs to buy - and they have the money.
Buses and the road to nowhere
- Thursday, 24th September 2020
- Paul Walker
You all know the one about buses, you wait for an hour and three come along at once. Only David Sullivan would be grateful, he needs a whole fleet of them to cope with the amount of people thrown under their wheels in that TalkSport interview.
Is this the end of the old guard?
- Sunday, 13th September 2020
- Paul Walker
West Ham United are approaching a watershed moment, the day that a whole generation have turned their backs on the club.
When will I see you again?
- Thursday, 10th September 2020
- Paul Walker
Another season almost here, can't wait can we? A short, cold summer behind us and once again our owners have taken centre stage. Nothing changes there then.
Declan Rice: A suitable boy
- Tuesday, 1st September 2020
- Paul Walker
It was always going to come down to this, wasn't it? On the back of a season from hell and yet another relegation fight, a summer of predictable discontent from West Ham fans and now we are left waiting to see how the future of our golden boy Declan Rice unfolds.
Home is where the heart is - if not for us
- Friday, 31st July 2020
- Paul Walker
This is not really about West Ham. Well it is and it isn't. It's about Brentford and what you can achieve if you try. And that's why it seriously IS about West Ham.
Option three: About turn, about time
- Wednesday, 29th July 2020
- Paul Walker
It's amazing what a bit of fan power can achieve. After enraging West Ham's fan base with a frankly callous season ticket renewal plan, someone somewhere saw a bit of sense. And all power to them. Praise where praise is due and all that.
Another relegation battle bites the dust
- Thursday, 23rd July 2020
- Paul Walker
Safe... sounds good, doesn't it? And to achieve that one extra point at Old Trafford so we aren't part of Sky's relegation circus on Sunday was the icing on the cake.
Survival? Credit where credit's due
- Sunday, 19th July 2020
- Paul Walker
Sometimes it's good to just feel happy about the Hammers, to celebrate rather than find fault, to be grateful - yes the right word - for what David Moyes and Mark Noble have done for this club, our club.
What are chairman Sullivan's thoughts now?
- Friday, 10th July 2020
- Paul Walker
It was the image of David Sullivan I couldn't get over, as we all watched the unfolding nightmare of the Burnley disaster.
Will David Moyes have the last laugh?
- Saturday, 4th July 2020
- Paul Walker
It didn't take long. First look at the phone the morning after the great night before, celebrating a tremendous double over Chelsea - and the abuse started.
We have all lost something special
- Friday, 19th June 2020
- Paul Walker
This was never going to be easy to write. It was intended to be a rant about Sky TV and behind-closed-doors matches, the usual sort of nonsense you have to put up with from me.
Don't mention the war: the forgotten final
- Thursday, 4th June 2020
- Paul Walker
Eighty years ago this month West Ham won their first-ever national trophy at Wembley, the match dubbed 'the forgotten final'.
The Last Dance for football as we know it?
- Sunday, 31st May 2020
- Paul Walker
First things first: The Last Dance, the story of Michael Jordan's remarkable career, was as good as it gets for quality sports TV during these past painful weeks.
Games without grandads
- Tuesday, 21st April 2020
- Paul Walker
It's taken me a time to get my head around this, a subject I had been dreading, but one I wonder how many other old time West Ham fans had started to contemplate.
Goodbye yellow brick road
- Thursday, 16th April 2020
- Paul Walker
A very different football landscape awaits us when the game finally escapes the grip of this horrible, deadly virus. And heaven knows when that will be.
Get Football Done - but not at any cost
- Tuesday, 14th April 2020
- Paul Walker
Another week, 11,000 plus deaths and another frantic stab at fantasy football from the rulers of our national game.
One rule for the rich - and one rule for the rich
- Monday, 6th April 2020
- Paul Walker
It's got nasty, and it will get nastier still. This embarrassing wrangle about footballers' wages and attempts to force them to take a 30 per cent cut by the Premier League, whose club owners are worth around £80 billion.
Put an end to this disgrace now
- Friday, 27th March 2020
- Paul Walker
The nation stood last night in unison to thank the NHS for their heroic role in fighting this disgusting virus. The Premier League and their TV rulers were no doubt working out which matches to put behind a red button.
Days of wine and - well just wine, actually!
- Sunday, 22nd March 2020
- Paul Walker
So there I was, watching West Ham play Wolves, twice. Yes, I know that should have been last weekend, but stick with me on this.
The pain of a West Ham lost
- Thursday, 20th February 2020
- Paul Walker
It all started with some wonderful memories of Johnny Byrne, and ended with the stark reality of what West Ham United have become.
A decade of shame: from Mido to Sanchez
- Monday, 27th January 2020
- Paul Walker
Where were you 10 years ago around this time? How much can you remember of a few days that has dogged West Ham and our fans ever since?
Just another brick in the wall
- Monday, 20th January 2020
- Paul Walker
Well, it's probably fair to say that won't be the last we see of Hammers United - and that's despite the orchestrated campaign to shut them up.
Back to the future
- Sunday, 29th December 2019
- Paul Walker
We are witnessing the death of the impossible dream. The dream sold to West Ham fans as the way to the next level, Champions League football in five years and all that. So we waved goodbye to Upton Park and prepared for the good times.
Martin Peters: the golden ghost
- Sunday, 22nd December 2019
- Paul Walker
Ok, I'm an old timer, I remember the best. And that means Martin Peters. There will be a lot written about our homegrown hero now, one of the three greatest players ever to play for West Ham.
Going, going... last rites for Pellegrini?
- Friday, 13th December 2019
- Paul Walker
It will be the last rites, won't it? Surely nobody believes now that a win at Southampton will keep Manuel Pellegrini in a job for much longer.
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
- Thursday, 28th November 2019
- Paul Walker
Oh, come on, you lot, I'm not that old. It's a lyric from a Fleetwood Mac song, circa 1987. And it could almost be our theme tune... as well as a chance to use a picture of Stevie Nicks (sorry).
Time to bring on the fat Spanish waiter?
- Monday, 25th November 2019
- Paul Walker
It's surely just a matter of time before this charming man's charmed life at West Ham comes to an end. You can't take two points from 21 and survive for very much longer - barring a miracle that is.
Just where do we go from here?
- Tuesday, 12th November 2019
- Paul Walker
It's the despair that gets you in the end. Minutes, hours, days after the shambles of Burnley, the rank and file West Ham support struggle to comprehend what they have watched.
Where it has all gone wrong? An insight
- Wednesday, 6th November 2019
- Paul Walker
During the current mini-crisis, the most-asked question from bemused fans is "What has gone wrong behind the scenes?"
From hero to villain in 29 days
- Tuesday, 5th November 2019
- Paul Walker
One moment Manuel Pellegrini is the key to our future - and less than a month later, he is an outdated old fossil taking us nowhere.
The lies that tarnished West Ham's good name
- Tuesday, 22nd October 2019
- Paul Walker
It's a stain on the club's character that has never gone away. The transfer scandal that changed the way many fans nationwide felt about West Ham United FC.
Anderson's best is yet to come
- Monday, 14th October 2019
- Paul Walker
Felipe Anderson is our best player. By some distance. And if you don't agree with me, I wonder if you really understand what West Ham United is all about.
Haven't we been here before?
- Friday, 27th September 2019
- Paul Walker
You know, just for a couple of days people were actually taking West Ham seriously. Then we go and produce yet another cup humiliation to go with the dozens and dozens that have littered the last 50 years or more.
Great way to celebrate 400 games, Aaron
- Monday, 23rd September 2019
- Paul Walker
I defy anyone who witnessed Aaron Cresswell’s stunning free-kick against Manchester United not to have felt genuine joy for our much criticised left-back.
Manuel's milestone: a manager not for turning
- Thursday, 19th September 2019
- Paul Walker
Manuel Pellegrini was 66 this week, so it's highly appropriate that he should want to celebrate his 50th match in charge of West Ham United in the right way on Sunday.
Days of wine - if not always roses
- Tuesday, 3rd September 2019
- Paul Walker
West Ham's best four-game start to a league season for seven years, a big new contract for our star midfielder, the club's record signing on fire and only beaten so far by one of the world's best half dozen teams.
A bridge too VAR?
- Tuesday, 13th August 2019
- Paul Walker
So now we have it. Sane, intelligent football fans don’t want VAR even though it is getting decisions right.
Window into a brighter future
- Thursday, 8th August 2019
- Paul Walker
It was Del Boy’s favourite expression. "You know it makes sense", when he was trying to knock out something dodgy from the back of a van. Just for a change, a West Ham transfer window also made sense.
Europe or bust
- Tuesday, 6th August 2019
- Paul Walker
The new season is almost upon us and for West Ham the target is Europe, nothing less. As Declan Rice correctly puts it, anything else is failure.
Seb could be our Changing Man
- Wednesday, 24th July 2019
- Paul Walker
The signing of Sebastien Haller for a club record fee will define owner David Sullivan’s tenure at West Ham.
At last: all quiet on the East End front
- Monday, 15th July 2019
- Paul Walker
It’s probably fair to say that the dust has finally settled on a turbulent few months for the West Ham United Independent Supporters Association (WHUISA).
'Got £25m to spare, boss?' The wacky world of David Sullivan
- Friday, 12th July 2019
- Paul Walker
Its been a busy old week for our co-owner David Sullivan. And we all believed he was going to take a back seat this season!
Where do West Ham Women go from here?
- Monday, 8th July 2019
- Paul Walker
Wembley finalists, respectable mid-table WSL finish and starring roles in a BBC ’reality’ show, West Ham Women did the club proud last season.
National supporters group backs Irons fans in Socios row
- Saturday, 29th June 2019
- Paul Walker
The opposition of West Ham fans to the club’s new controversial link-up with Socios could now be discussed at Premier League level.
We are all West Ham, aren’t we?
- Tuesday, 11th June 2019
- Paul Walker
OK, we have lift off. At last some green shoots of unity amongst the fans’ groups outside the club’s Official Supporters Board.
West Ham’s never ending circle
- Friday, 31st May 2019
- Paul Walker
You must remember The Average White Band, back in the disco days, and Let’s Go Round Again. It could easily be West Ham’s theme song when it comes to handling their fans.
'Save WHUISA' calls
- Tuesday, 28th May 2019
- Paul Walker
The new leadership of WHUISA are facing calls for the recent AGM to be re-run and -potentially - a no confidence vote.
Memories are made of this, dreams cost a little more
- Tuesday, 21st May 2019
- Paul Walker
It’s been a funny old few days. Memories of our illustrious past to warm the hearts of us old timers. The reality of what we will never achieve, underlined by the cruel humiliation of Watford just to rub it in.
Let’s not brush things under the carpet
- Saturday, 11th May 2019
- Paul Walker
West Ham are easy meat for the comedians now, aren’t we? With England having all four finalists in Europe’s top competitions... three from London.
Pressing issues
- Tuesday, 30th April 2019
- Paul Walker
It could only be West Ham. We win superbly at our biggest rivals and the vast range of reactions from our fans just underlines what a bunch of mixed-up kids we really are.
Is this a bloodless coup?
- Tuesday, 23rd April 2019
- Paul Walker
Are we about to see a dramatic twist in the ongoing war of words between the club’s Official Supporters Board and WHUISA, the independent fans’ group that declined to join Lady Brady’s brainchild last summer?
A song and dance that damages our reputation
- Tuesday, 16th April 2019
- Paul Walker
It was only a matter of time, surely, that the appalling 'Running Round Tottenham' song would drag our club‘s name through the dirt yet again, such is the current climate of rightful intolerance towards racist abuse.
Bring on VAR, please
- Monday, 15th April 2019
- Paul Walker
I had never really been a fan of VAR, it just looks like another referee somewhere away from the stadium, able to make mistakes.
Just where are we going?
- Thursday, 11th April 2019
- Paul Walker
I’m going to park my backside on the seats last occupied by Barcelona fans on Saturday evening, knowing that is almost certainly going to be as close as I ever get to Champions League football.
How do you solve a problem like Hernandez?
- Tuesday, 19th March 2019
- Paul Walker
So there you have it, the enigma that is Javier Hernandez; the striker who, when he scores this season, West Ham win.
Did Sullivan say that?
- Friday, 15th March 2019
- Paul Walker
Sometimes it seems a little harsh to drag up things people said in the past; sometimes it does no harm to remind them of what they said.
Suffer little children
- Thursday, 14th March 2019
- Paul Walker
The question surely is - why? Why have West Ham chosen now to drop a controversial season ticket hike onto their fans? Why, after the feelgood factor of the wonderful Billy Bonds tribute, do the club risk alienating their fan base so quickly for no obvious reason?
Away day (claret and) blues
- Monday, 11th March 2019
- Paul Walker
You would hope that the Cardiff debacle would be some sort of watershed, wouldn’t you? That our pitiful away performances would be addressed. Enough is enough, surely.
Billy brings back the spirit of West Ham
- Tuesday, 5th March 2019
- Paul Walker
If Carling could do West Ham matches… well, they would have to go some to improve on the tremendous day we all experienced at the weekend.
Arise Sir Billy
- Saturday, 2nd March 2019
- Paul Walker
It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? But at last Billy Bonds will receive the acclaim and adulation we all know he so richly deserves.
Gizza a job, we’re the new kids on the block
- Friday, 1st March 2019
- Paul Walker
Any chance of sweetness and light emerging between West Ham’s new fans board and an established group who do not want to be involved with the new venture, seems as far away as ever.
One rule for the rich
- Thursday, 28th February 2019
- Paul Walker
A penny for Manuel Lanzini’s thoughts as he watched Bernardo Silva dive Manchester City to victory over our boys this week.
What a difference a year makes - or does it?
- Wednesday, 20th February 2019
- Paul Walker
What were you doing this time a year ago?
Declan Rice: Irish blood, English heart
- Tuesday, 19th February 2019
- Paul Walker
Declan Rice has done nothing wrong. He has nothing to apologise for or be ashamed of, he has broken no rules. Neither has his family, West Ham, or even = and it hurts to say this - his agent.
The price we pay
- Saturday, 2nd February 2019
- Paul Walker
I want to tell you a story… and it’s never likely to be as funny as when Max Bygraves said it back in those old black and white TV days.
Maybe, maybe it’s not always their fault...but then again!
- Friday, 1st February 2019
- Paul Walker
It’s tin hat time again for our wondrous owners. Right in the firing line from enraged fans after a largely non-existent transfer window.
Gone in just 11 days of unrest
- Thursday, 31st January 2019
- Paul Walker
We’ve lost something special, haven’t we? Something we all witnessed being slowly built by Manuel Pellegrini.
Are we heading for a no-deal disaster?
- Sunday, 20th January 2019
- Paul Walker
I suppose this is our Brexit moment. You know the one. When we put our trust in people not to make an almighty cock-up of our lives and futures.
So it is all about Marko...
- Friday, 18th January 2019
- Paul Walker
This week should have all be about us, shouldn’t it? About our team, who had produced the best performance under manager Manuel Pellegrini, the best since we left the old gaff.
It always has to be about Marko…
- Sunday, 6th January 2019
- Paul Walker
Marko Arnautovic crossed a line in the Cup tie win over Birmingham, an inexcusable line of respect for a manager that all footballers will understand.
Thanks Nobes, we are all softies in the end…
- Thursday, 3rd January 2019
- Paul Walker
Now I have been waiting all through the holiday break to have my ten cents-worth on a whole host of West Ham issues.
Pellegrini’s Claret and Blue Army
- Monday, 17th December 2018
- Paul Walker
It was a day to remember, surely, when West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini was inducted into the Claret and Blue Army.
West Ham’s Noble intent
- Friday, 14th December 2018
- Paul Walker
Some say it’s easy to criticise West Ham..and I’ve done my fair share… but it should also be easy for praise when it is merited. Like now.
How well are we playing the generation game?
- Monday, 10th December 2018
- Paul Walker
I’d like to talk about legacy. The West Ham United we will pass onto our kids. The ones who have never been inside the Boleyn Ground but will have the much-maligned London Stadium as their home.
West Ham may be a club for turning
- Thursday, 6th December 2018
- Paul Walker
Now I have been warned not to use the words 'turning point'. Something about not tempting fate and having to buy the half-time booze if I dared. A fate worse that death that, in the Bobby Moore lower concourse.
It can only be us, can’t it?
- Friday, 16th November 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s all so West Ham, isn’t it? We are too obvious, too true to form, too predictable. Too often part of a painfully embarrassing soap opera that just delights everyone but us.
Let’s act like a big club
- Thursday, 8th November 2018
- Paul Walker
We want to be big time, don’t we? So now is the moment for our Board to start acting that way, and that means handling in the correct manner the two difficult contract issues at the opposite ends of our squad.
More of the same, please
- Tuesday, 6th November 2018
- Paul Walker
We’re getting there, aren’t we? Bit by bit, inch by inch, the West Ham we all view as the great unpredictables, who don’t know the meaning of the word consistent, are beginning to look the part.
Haven’t we been here before?
- Friday, 2nd November 2018
- Paul Walker
Here we go again. it’s Burnley next and we are still running on the pitch, fans are still fighting inside and outside the stadium, and we are getting flares thrown now, too.
Just how do you put this horror into words?
- Tuesday, 30th October 2018
- Paul Walker
Sometimes words are just not enough, sometimes they become meaningless, sometimes there are too many of them. Sometimes the shock is so profound you are stunned into silence.
Don’t look back in anger, look to the resurrection
- Monday, 1st October 2018
- Paul Walker
If Manuel Pellegrini starts whistling ‘I am the Resurrection‘ around Rush Green this week, you will know he picked up more than just his love for attacking football from his time in Manchester.
Murphy’s law - or is he just helping a mate?
- Tuesday, 25th September 2018
- Paul Walker
The Declan Rice contract saga is getting nastier and nastier - and just who he ends up playing international football for, much the same.
Getting away from it all for a change
- Thursday, 20th September 2018
- Paul Walker
West Ham have won just 27 of their 117 Premier League away games since they returned to the top flight under Big Sam.
For the love of the green shirt, or the greenback?
- Thursday, 6th September 2018
- Paul Walker
Gordon Strachan got it about right. The clue is in the Christian name, he said, when debating Declan Rice’s international future.
So this is what you get for £100m and a ‘next level ‘manager
- Tuesday, 4th September 2018
- Paul Walker
Blimey, you could almost hear the panic buttons being pressed throughout the West Ham world after the latest debacle. None more so, maybe, than inside our beloved owners’ boardroom.
The big time, Pellegrini style
- Tuesday, 28th August 2018
- Paul Walker
I have a confession to make. When Manuel Pellegrini was installed as West Ham manager, I was not that sold on the idea.
Time Is Not On Our Side, Manuel
- Tuesday, 21st August 2018
- Paul Walker
Manuel Pellegrini has only been around five minutes managing West Ham , but he’s already stuck between a rock and hard place.
Manuel's magical mystery tour
- Tuesday, 14th August 2018
- Paul Walker
OK, everyone finished? I do hope we have seen the end of the ritual blood letting that has followed Sunday’s miserable defeat at Anfield, the ground where they have an offside law all of their own.
Revolution not evolution this time around
- Thursday, 9th August 2018
- Paul Walker
Well, it’s over. The most momentous transfer window in West Ham’s history overseen by a ‘next level’ new manager and a major shareholder and board who have changed fans’ perception of them for ever.
A constructive summer
- Monday, 6th August 2018
- Paul Walker
It grieves me to say this, and I’m sure many of you out there in the Irons nation will see my point, but one person has come out of this summer of love with a smile on his face, and that’s our beloved owner David Sullivan.
Keep calm and think of Everton
- Tuesday, 17th July 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s been some week, eh? Finishing on World Cup Final day by breaking our transfer record for the third time in a year and second time in weeks.
England, my England, where did you go?
- Thursday, 5th July 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s coming home, I keep being told. And there was a time I couldn’t have cared one way or the other, such had been my disconnection with England and the unedifying circus that surrounded our national team.
Sullivan’s biggest gamble yet
- Monday, 21st May 2018
- Paul Walker
As gambles go, bringing in Manuel Pellegrini is pretty high up there as far as West Ham owner David Sullivan is concerned.
Now let's see what you are made of Mr.Sullivan
- Wednesday, 16th May 2018
- Paul Walker
Not really been your day, mate, has it? Not even your last few months really. But let’s just concentrate of the week in hand.
So hard to say sorry?
- Thursday, 10th May 2018
- Paul Walker
I’ve come round to thinking that David Moyes deserves an apology for the way he has been treated at our club.
A circus of betrayal
- Wednesday, 2nd May 2018
- Paul Walker
It was almost two years ago that Mark Noble stood on the Boleyn turf in the pouring rain and declared that his beloved West Ham was no longer being run like a circus. I wonder how he feels now?
Should Moyes have ‘ducked’ the Rice issue?
- Monday, 23rd April 2018
- Paul Walker
Was that the watershed moment that defined David Moyes' tenure as manager of West Ham, as we struggle desperately, painfully, towards Premier League survival?
Moving in the right direction?
- Friday, 20th April 2018
- Paul Walker
No such thing as a quiet week in downtown Stratford, is there? Is David Moyes going to be employed by us next season, will he even consider working with a director of football, or is it all a nasty myth?
Stick your blue flag...
- Tuesday, 10th April 2018
- Paul Walker
There you go. Just for a change it’s only about the football. I know it’s hard to believe in our season of despair, but it only takes sticking it up Chelsea to bring about a show of much needed unity.
Money can’t buy you love
- Tuesday, 3rd April 2018
- Paul Walker
So where did it all go wrong, David? There you were, perched up above your own Directors’ Box, looking like an extra in a Peaky Blinders episode with that new cap, and peering over the glass barricade while wondering just why you are so, so disliked.
Is this the way it could have been?
- Monday, 19th March 2018
- Paul Walker
Surely it could have been better than this? Just how did it get to a stage when our fan base was so fractured and split that you wondered how many felt they didn’t want to be part of it any more.
Is this enough from the board?
- Tuesday, 27th February 2018
- Paul Walker
So we have seen the whites of their eyes, certainly not the colour of their money but we do know where they draw the line in the sand over discussions with angry fans.
Moyes winning the 100 days war
- Tuesday, 13th February 2018
- Paul Walker
There’s revolution in the air and David Sullivan and his board are finding that it is coming at them from more than one direction.
A change is gonna come, whenever you like!
- Tuesday, 6th February 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s over isn’t it? Our hated West Ham board, they must now know that deep down. The start of the end game is with us.
Window into a very worrying culture at West Ham
- Thursday, 1st February 2018
- Paul Walker
After a wretched transfer window, you probably thought it couldn’t get any worse… step up Tony Henry.
Welcome to the mad house, Joao
- Wednesday, 31st January 2018
- Paul Walker
Remember football? That’s the stuff we watch when it can be fitted in amongst all the moaning and gnashing of teeth about the way West Ham is being run (or not) and the people who run it.
Memories of days like these
- Thursday, 18th January 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s about time to be positive… and yes, I know that’s the last thing you expected to hear from me after such a long time being a cynical old bugger where West Ham are concerned.
A year to forget...
- Monday, 1st January 2018
- Paul Walker
It’s now over, the worst year I can recall in West Ham’s history. I don’t know about you lot, but I couldn’t wish 2017 further away!
Match of the Day - or is it the Muppet show?
- Wednesday, 27th December 2017
- Paul Walker
The question is, after another weekend of claret and blue fury, do we at West Ham have a persecution complex or does everybody just hate us?
Not fit for purpose
- Friday, 22nd December 2017
- Paul Walker
So Manuel Lanzini will be watching with us tomorrow, no doubt shuffling about on the bench clutching professional footballers’ latest accessory of choice, a hot water bottle.
Put a sock in it, Mr Sullivan
- Monday, 11th December 2017
- Paul Walker
Privately, David Sullivan surely realises what a lucky, lucky boy he is after that remarkable, far-reaching interview he gave to the Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg ahead of the magnificent victory over Chelsea.
Repeat, repeat, repeat
- Monday, 4th December 2017
- Paul Walker
Two games on the road, as different as chalk and cheese - and that is the real problem facing David Moyes as he tries to turn West Ham into a proper, competitive, football team again.
Khan and the blame game
- Friday, 1st December 2017
- Paul Walker
Here we go again, get prepared everyone for West Ham to be given another public kicking over the nightmare that is the London Stadium.
Will the real David Moyes please step forward?
- Tuesday, 14th November 2017
- Paul Walker
I know David Moyes is a good manager. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, week after week. This guy knows what he is doing.
That’s the way to do it, West Ham - outfoxed again
- Monday, 30th October 2017
- Paul Walker
First things first - I like Slaven Bilic. I liked him as a player and I liked him as a manager who understood West Ham, who had charm and charisma and wears his heart on his sleeve.
500 days and counting: where do we go from here?
- Monday, 23rd October 2017
- Paul Walker
We have just passed the 500 days mark since we left our beloved Boleyn. Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it, and those vivid memories of the last game played at Upton Park.
They shoot horses, don’t they?
- Monday, 23rd October 2017
- Paul Walker
I think Neil Ashton on Sky at the weekend got it just about right. When will Slaven Bilic be put out of his misery?
The paper that backs 'Franco’s club' has the nerve to call us racists?
- Wednesday, 18th October 2017
- Paul Walker
So Spanish sports paper Marca has branded West Ham fans as racists. The hypocrisy is stunning, from a paper who have been in the pocket of ’Franco’s club‘ for more than seven decades.
You’ll never play for England... again
- Tuesday, 17th October 2017
- Paul Walker
One thing’s for certain, big Andy, you can book your holidays next year in June because you will be nowhere near England’s World Cup squad in Moscow.
Is this really how people see West Ham?
- Tuesday, 10th October 2017
- Paul Walker
I’d hoped for a quite fortnight, no chance of West Ham losing a match because it was the international break, and there was plenty of time for a short holiday for myself, family and friends to help consume as much of the Kent wine harvest as possible. We did OK, thank you!
Agony of the long dance of death
- Monday, 25th September 2017
- Paul Walker
IT had to be THEM, didn’t it, the club we all dislike the most who were able to drive another nail into Slaven Bilic’s coffin.
What have you done today to make us feel proud?
- Monday, 11th September 2017
- Paul Walker
When I was a kid, pretty much up until now really, Bobby Moore was my idol, a hero who was the face around the world of West Ham United.
Not another long goodbye…
- Tuesday, 29th August 2017
- Paul Walker
We’ve all been here before, haven’t we? Slaven Bilic is on the naughty step again and Lord Sully has the raging hump. Is this just another tedious chapter in the long, long goodbye for yet another manager?
When will we see you again?
- Tuesday, 15th August 2017
- Paul Walker
So the athletics have gone, taking the most corrupt sport on the planet with them. But when, seriously, will have their circus of cheating and drug taking at the London Stadium again?
Maybe the hardest bit is yet to come
- Monday, 31st July 2017
- Paul Walker
So far so good, this has been the best transfer window in years at West Ham, but David Sullivan probably knows the toughest bit is yet to come.
The long and the short of the transfer circus
- Friday, 28th July 2017
- Paul Walker
Short-termism is the new buzz word, and even our gloriously stocky leader David Sullivan admits it’s not the way he would want to do business.
Why should we not be worried?
- Monday, 10th July 2017
- Paul Walker
Maybe I am just too cynical, maybe I have been following and commenting on football for too long now not to be able to see anything positive about my club.
Give us a clue, what’s the plan?
- Monday, 3rd July 2017
- Paul Walker
Like it or not at West Ham of late, there’s always been a plan, a golden vision on the skyline that was supposed to propel our club to the land of plenty.
The first brick in the wall
- Sunday, 28th May 2017
- Paul Walker
With apologise to Pink Floyd, our new signing Pablo Zabaleta is not another brick in the wall, he is the first of a significant rebuilding process.
50 years since he signed for West Ham
- Friday, 12th May 2017
- Paul Walker
There are important landmarks in any club’s history…and then there’s the day Billy Bonds arrived at West Ham. They don’t come much more important than that.
One magic moment in time changes everything
- Monday, 8th May 2017
- Paul Walker
It wasn’t just any old goal, was it? That gem from our very own little pearl, Manuel Lanzini. It has changed the course of our immediate history and maybe seasons to come.
Antonio - our summer of discontent
- Friday, 28th April 2017
- Paul Walker
We all knew this was coming, West Ham always have a transfer saga to while away the summer months - and this year, it’s going to be Michail Antonio.
This is how to lose your job, Slav
- Monday, 17th April 2017
- Paul Walker
If this miserable, painful season finally does for Slaven Bilic as our manager, it won’t have anything to do with signings, the new stadium, the board or even the long-debated move from the Boleyn.
Who do you think you are kidding, gentlemen?
- Tuesday, 11th April 2017
- Paul Walker
West Ham were so quick to try to squash any newspaper story suggesting they are trying to find new investment. You just know there is more to it, don’t you? So suggestions that our owners are searching for new investment are "utterly false" should be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Fifty years ago today, Ron Greenwood showed us how to play
- Thursday, 6th April 2017
- Paul Walker
It was the Beatles’ fault really with all the current fuss about the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt.Pepper.
How did it ever get this crazy?
- Tuesday, 4th April 2017
- Paul Walker
Where do I start? How on earth did West Ham go from the beginning of a brave new world to this mess, this circus?
Twitter terrorists victorious
- Friday, 17th March 2017
- Paul Walker
So the faceless, clueless twitter twerps have got their scapegoat. Mark Noble has been sent away for a break to take him out of the firing line.
Bilic finding there’s no case for the defence
- Monday, 13th March 2017
- Paul Walker
Deep down you sense that David Sullivan is not totally convinced about Slaven Bilic’s longevity as West Ham manager.
The myth of reaching the Champions League
- Friday, 10th March 2017
- Paul Walker
The numbers are in...make of them what you want, be they Budgets or West Ham balance sheets. All can be interpreted to mean anything you like.
Here we go again, and again, and again
- Monday, 27th February 2017
- Paul Walker
Now stop me if you have heard this one before. Guess what? Yes, we are scouring Europe and our own backyard in Brexit land for a right back, oh, and a striker. Blimey, I would never have thought.
In Slaven we trust
- Wednesday, 8th February 2017
- Paul Walker
If anyone had any doubts that Slaven Bilic has the backing of West Ham fans and our team, these past few days should have dispelled them.
With friends like these Slav, who needs enemies?
- Saturday, 4th February 2017
- Paul Walker
Slaven Bilic must wonder what he did in a previous life to deserve all this hassle and stress. Maybe he should ask Glenn Hoddle, who was once an expert on such things!
Dimi who?
- Friday, 13th January 2017
- Paul Walker
So our little French darling has got just what he wants, having pushed Slaven Bilic into a corner by stepping way beyond the line of acceptable, professional behaviour.
Silence is golden, but maybe our fans have found their voice
- Monday, 9th January 2017
- Paul Walker
For heaven’s sake, let’s have some quiet out there. Silence from the corridors of power, or Sullivan towers, take your choice.
Losing the love that binds on a horrible night
- Sunday, 8th January 2017
- Paul Walker
Shocked, hurt, embarrassed, shattered, isolated…just some of the emotions that flooded through me and many more folk I bet, during the disaster of Friday’s FA Cup mauling by Manchester City.
What do we want? A world-class board
- Thursday, 22nd December 2016
- Paul Walker
I have agonised over this article for a while, not sure whether it was just going to be about me, me, me (and nobody cares about that) or whether it was going to be about the West Ham family.
So, how long has Slaven Bilic really got?
- Monday, 19th December 2016
- Paul Walker
Now if you were of a suspicious disposition, someone who believes in conspiracies or who just doesn’t trust a word football‘s powerful people say, then you might think there was a campaign to undermine Slaven Bilic from within the club.
Diafra Sakho, he scores when he wants
- Friday, 18th November 2016
- Paul Walker
So, it looks like we are going to see the lesser-spotted Diafra Sakho back in action any time soon, but don’t hold your breath, the club have been saying Andy Carroll is on his way back for weeks!
The cost of goals in David Sullivan’s world
- Wednesday, 9th November 2016
- Paul Walker
Are we all ready? Surely we can’t wait… just around the corner is another trip to the twice-a-year, David Sullivan transfer theme park.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth
- Thursday, 3rd November 2016
- Paul Walker
We are getting there, aren’t we…towards the truth.
The Wrath of Khan could do us all a favour
- Thursday, 3rd November 2016
- Paul Walker
So somebody wants answers, frankly it’s about time because we should all be seriously fed up with the way West Ham is getting the blame for everything from the black death to the great train robbery.
Are we feeling just a bit too sorry for ourselves?
- Tuesday, 18th October 2016
- Paul Walker
First things first. Sometime recently I got my football team back. They’d got lost along the way from the Boleyn to Stratford, and I‘d missed them.
Shooting the messenger is missing the point
- Friday, 7th October 2016
- Paul Walker
I’m tempted to suggest that the one thing we should not be doing at present is shooting the messenger…particularly if Simone Zaza is pulling the trigger, because he’d miss!
Unmanageable, un-policeable, unfathomable - and we should be hailing un-matchable Dimi
- Monday, 3rd October 2016
- Paul Walker
David Sullivan’s ability to talk his way into a corner is pretty well known, be it transfer boasting, or claiming that we have a world-class stadium in Stratford. Which we haven't.
We are West Ham, we are bigger than this - aren’t we?
- Wednesday, 14th September 2016
- Paul Walker
I’m going to a football match on Saturday, and really, really looking forward to it. It probably won’t figure highly on MOTD, but so what, I can’t wait.
Cracking that glass ceiling
- Sunday, 4th September 2016
- Paul Walker
West Ham’s owners are entitled to be happy with their biggest transfer window bonanza, more players, more money spent and all the hype they can muster - even if only a handful were through the door before the Europa League bolted.
Our last stand
- Tuesday, 23rd August 2016
- Paul Walker
If it sounds like a stitch-up, if it smells like a stitch-up, then you can be damned sure that it is a stich-up.That’s my view of the on-going row about standing at the London Stadium.
Stand up, sit down: if you tolerate this, you’ll tolerate anything!
- Thursday, 11th August 2016
- Paul Walker
It wouldn’t be West Ham, would it, without an almighty row to herald the most important and historic season of our history.
Hammers lost their bottle - but it's been a fantastic season
- Tuesday, 17th May 2016
- Paul Walker
Wow. We've been beaten twice, hailed as legends, fans branded as thugs and blown our chances of automatic European qualification…and it’s down to Manchester United to save us. All I can say is, don’t hold your breath folks.
Robbed..and it hurts like hell
- Wednesday, 20th April 2016
- Paul Walker
We are being robbed, aren't we? Robbed of the best season of our lives. Systematically mugged off at every turn.
Whoops! So happy to be wrong
- Tuesday, 5th April 2016
- Paul Walker
Well you could have knocked me down with a feather.
Is this hypocrisy?
- Monday, 4th April 2016
- Paul Walker
Now I thought long and hard about this piece, because I know it goes right against the grain of the general West Ham opinion over the Cheikhou Kouyate situation.
Just a perfect day... with Grant Holt nowhere to be seen
- Tuesday, 29th March 2016
- Paul Walker
It was just that, wasn't it? A perfect day for Mark Noble shared with the West Ham family, an emotional occasion that will live long in the memory.
Why always us? Or am I just paranoid
- Monday, 21st March 2016
- Paul Walker
Consider, if you dare, what would happen if the disgraceful refereeing decisions that have overwhelmed West Ham these past two matches had happened to Manchester United.
The best is yet to come, but let’s forget Premier League records
- Wednesday, 9th March 2016
- Paul Walker
It’s started already hasn't it? We are happily being told that Slaven’s outstanding team with their string of brilliant results are on the brink of the best season in our history.
Seeing is believing
- Monday, 7th March 2016
- Paul Walker
I suppose I wanted to see it with my own eyes, the phenomenon that is Slaven Bilic, the manager who is turning West Ham into a Champions League club.
Farewell to the Boleyn is for us, not Manchester United
- Monday, 7th March 2016
- Paul Walker
Right, isn’t it about time our club made a decision about our farewell to the Boleyn celebrations, and stuck to it come what may?
Thanks Jack and good luck…once a Hammer, always a Hammer
- Saturday, 13th February 2016
- Paul Walker
Jack Collison’s retirement announcement was not a shock, but it is extremely sad all the same. And West Ham should be eternally grateful to the 27 year-old.
We think you understand now!
- Tuesday, 26th January 2016
- Paul Walker
It’s all happened in a bit of a rush, hasn’t it? You have to wonder whether the Davids and Karren write their own scripts these days!
Hard-to-beat flair team - the new West Ham way
- Wednesday, 6th January 2016
- Paul Walker
Damned with faint praise, but we eventually got there, even if it took a little time. Finally there has been some serious, considered views on our season in the wake of the momentous victory over an admittedly spineless Liverpool.
Not just a lucky man
- Thursday, 31st December 2015
- Paul Walker
The remarkable recovery against Southampton may well have been the watershed moment, when Slaven Bilic felt that he had proved he could hack it in the Premier League.
Vive la difference
- Tuesday, 15th December 2015
- Paul Walker
So exactly what is the difference now as West Ham struggle through their worst injury crisis since…well, last season…but do it with a smile on our faces?
Come on folks, do keep up!
- Thursday, 12th November 2015
- Paul Walker
James McCarthy should have been sent off. There you go, I've said it again.
'Dirty' Everton - and the referee from Wigan
- Tuesday, 10th November 2015
- Paul Walker
The shocking tackle that has sidelined Dimitri Payet for three months is bad enough for any hint of a sympathetic hearing for Everton to be strangled at birth.
More than OK so far, Slav - but now for the great unwashed
- Thursday, 8th October 2015
- Paul Walker
Yep, love this season so far. A bright, new young manager who 'gets' West Ham. Away wins to die for and a team who always look like they can get out of the mire however many daft mistakes cost us crucial goals.
Moving on up
- Wednesday, 2nd September 2015
- Paul Walker
Before our very eyes in the amazing last hours of the transfer window, we watched ourselves moving to a different level.
The best away win EVER…
- Monday, 31st August 2015
- Paul Walker
Right, I believe it. We have won at Anfield, frankly I never thought I would ever see the day. For those of us of a certain vintage and for yours truly who spent 20 years of his working life in Liverpool, it is something just a touch special.
Are you watching, Allardyce?
- Monday, 10th August 2015
- Paul Walker
Sometimes you just have to take a step back, forget all the bickering about transfers, money, new stadiums and attention-seeking owners, and just soak up the very special feeling than comes from an amazing victory nobody thought possible.
It’s a council house….don’t blame us for the Olympic financial cock-up
- Monday, 22nd June 2015
- Paul Walker
I don’t know about you lot out there, but I am getting sick to death of West Ham United being slaughtered every time someone mentions the conversion of the Olympic Stadium and the cost to the nation‘s taxpayers.
Crazy Sundays and our brave new world
- Friday, 19th June 2015
- Paul Walker
I’ve been away. You can tell, can’t you?
Thanks for the memories, which only my generation can remember
- Friday, 1st May 2015
- Paul Walker
Let's all take a break from the blood-letting and feuding over the future of Sam Allardyce just for a while and make sure we pay a fitting tribute to legends from our past who actually won things.
Brady still calling the tune
- Friday, 24th April 2015
- Paul Walker
At last, someone from our beloved leadership has said something, anything, to ease some of the troubled waters.
Frozen in time
- Sunday, 12th April 2015
- Paul Walker
West Ham are suffering from football inertia of the very worst kind… frozen in time just waiting, begging almost, for something to happen.
When we were kings of Europe: a distant memory not forgotten
- Friday, 20th March 2015
- Paul Walker
It would have been very nice to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our greatest-ever achievement with a return to Europe.
There are no winners here
- Monday, 2nd March 2015
- Paul Walker
Shuffling away from the Boleyn on Saturday and heading for a mid-afternoon livener--the best thing about lunchtime kick-offs because the results and performance always seem to be rubbish--surely everyone was left with the feeling that the current situation at the club is doing no one any good.
Do you know the way to shame Jose?
- Thursday, 26th February 2015
- Paul Walker
That master manipulator Jose Mourinho is at our place next week, hope everyone gives him a rousing welcome!
The long goodbye
- Friday, 20th February 2015
- Paul Walker
If this is the beginning of the long goodbye, then we know it has already been painful, abusive, lacking in class and dignity and with a touch of mob rule.
Was anyone reading the rules?
- Friday, 6th February 2015
- Paul Walker
So, here we are again, with our name tarnished by another brush with officialdom, this time world governing body, FIFA.
Peace and goodwill? You must be joking!
- Tuesday, 30th December 2014
- Paul Walker
So we were expecting it to be all peace and light at Boleyn Towers amongst our bickering hierarchy, season of goodwill and all that. Yea, right, and pigs might fly.
Reasons to be cheerful
- Thursday, 11th December 2014
- Paul Walker
Pretty good, that feeling when we were third in the Premier League. It may have lasted only for about 30 hours, but it was special all the same.
Reasons to believe
- Thursday, 4th December 2014
- Paul Walker
I don’t know about you lot out there in the West Ham nation, but I am not really sure how to handle this current situation as an Irons fan.
The truth - according to Big Sam
- Monday, 1st December 2014
- Paul Walker
It could not have been clearer, could it? When Gary Lineker confronted Big Sam with that question about style and money on Match of the Day.
Not stuck on the Toffees
- Saturday, 29th November 2014
- Paul Walker
Whatever happens with the FA and their charge that followed the scenes at Everton last weekend, you sense that this is going to be something that rumbles on and on.
Remember, remember Dean Ashton
- Friday, 21st November 2014
- Paul Walker
It has been a week to remember when internationals made my heart race, when England meant something to me and when the memory of Bobby Moore in his glorious pomp dominated the land. The James Bond of football, stirred but never shaken.
Fact - or fiction?
- Monday, 17th November 2014
- Paul Walker
It’s all been going too well, hasn’t it? Our best start to a season in years, but problems are never far away. So what are we to do with our troubled players, the ones that may be sold, want to be sold, could leave or just cannot get into the side?
Barcelona, we’re coming for you: a learning curve to make you proud
- Monday, 3rd November 2014
- Paul Walker
They say you learn something ever day in life…well, we certainly do every weekend if you follow West Ham around the country.
Red nose stuck in our business again
- Sunday, 26th October 2014
- Paul Walker
Blimey, I thought we had all heard the last from the red-nosed old scrote, but sadly Alex Ferguson continues to haunt us from the grave of his managerial career.
United we stand, divided we fall
- Monday, 20th October 2014
- Paul Walker
Nothing disappointed me more of late than seeing how disunited our great club had become. We seem to have been at war with ourselves over everything from Big Sam to the Olympic Stadium move.
Caught up in the friendly fire
- Friday, 3rd October 2014
- Paul Walker
Pet hate time…the amount of abuse our fans dish out to former West Ham players and managers.
Call off the dogs
- Monday, 22nd September 2014
- Paul Walker
There are defining moments in every manager's career, and Saturday’s stunning victory over a Liverpool club that has become too cocky for their own good will go down as one such moment for Sam Allardyce.
Home of the brave...
- Wednesday, 17th September 2014
- Paul Walker
Well, if this is the brave new world we have been craving, bring it on, even if I wonder whether my blood pressure can stand the strain.
Everton haven’t won a pre-season game, we have
- Tuesday, 12th August 2014
- Paul Walker
New players, check. Youth being given a chance, check. More attacking approach and new systems, check. Big Sam smiles at us more…well, you can’t have everything can you?
Play nicely, everyone...
- Friday, 1st August 2014
- Paul Walker
Good grief, I’ve only been away for a few weeks, have I missed much down at the Boleyn? Too right I have. Some of it you just couldn’t make up!
Badge of convenience
- Wednesday, 18th June 2014
- Paul Walker
It’s getting serious now. We are going to get a new badge, somehow, some way, because that is clearly what our owners and board want.
Tales of the expected
- Saturday, 10th May 2014
- Paul Walker
Nobody by now can have any doubt that the stories about Sam Allardyce’s likely exit from the club any time soon are as kosher as you can get in this crazy football industry.
Days of Cups and glory
- Friday, 2nd May 2014
- Paul Walker
The boys of ‘64 were my team. Ever football fan has one, the players that first made them fall in love with their club, the team they idolised and whose pictures covered their bedroom wall.
The real West Ham way - if you can remember
- Tuesday, 22nd April 2014
- Paul Walker
It’s becoming something of a cliché now - the West Ham way - as if it doesn’t, or didn‘t exist. As if it is some dream from our past.
The boys of '64: true legends, they won things!
- Friday, 18th April 2014
- Paul Walker
West Ham’s history-making 1964 FA Cup winners will be honoured at the Boleyn on Saturday to mark the pending 50th anniversary of our club’s first major trophy triumph.
Calm down, calm down Stevie G
- Wednesday, 9th April 2014
- Paul Walker
It felt like old times at the Boleyn on Sunday, I left the ground feeling proud of my team even though we had played well and still lost to one of the big boys.
The forgotten legacy?
- Wednesday, 2nd April 2014
- Paul Walker
The fear is growing that West Ham are going to allow one of the most significant dates in our history to drift awy with barely a passing glance.
The gulf that will never go away
- Thursday, 27th March 2014
- Paul Walker
Well, here we are again, right back at the beginning with the same unbridgeable divide with our manager seemingly as wide, if not wider, than ever.
From negative to speechless - well, almost!
- Monday, 24th March 2014
- Paul Walker
Depressing, hideous, an abuse of our loyalty and support..and those are only the printable views on Saturday’s quit shocking display against Manchester United.
Sleepwalking to disaster
- Wednesday, 19th March 2014
- Paul Walker
Is it just me who fears we are sleepwalking towards a disaster that will make a mockery of all the self-congratulation that we have had to endure after managing one decent month of results in a dreadfully disappointing season?
Ravel: rebel or just an innocent victim?
- Monday, 17th February 2014
- Paul Walker
Am I surprised that Ravel Morrison’s time at the Boleyn is going to end with him departing under a cloud? Not one bit. Am I gutted it is ending amid so much acrimony? You bet.
Reality Finally Kicks In
- Tuesday, 11th February 2014
- Paul Walker
It all came as a bit of a shock in the end, something you always knew was going to happen but up until now it had been a rather remote, distant dream.
Flores, we are all 'tired' of you and your disgusting cheating
- Thursday, 6th February 2014
- Paul Walker
So Cheating Chico Flores is “tired” of the abuse he has suffered from West Ham fans. Bless...
Carroll caught in the FA’s Webb
- Wednesday, 5th February 2014
- Paul Walker
You sensed it was only going to end one way, however much we all hoped and prayed that Andy Carroll was going to have his red card overturned.
Us cheats, Jose, well you should know
- Friday, 31st January 2014
- Paul Walker
There cannot be many bigger hypocrites around in football than the ego-maniac manager of Chelsea, Jose Mourinho.
Ravel to a rival? No chance
- Friday, 17th January 2014
- Paul Walker
How we handle the Ravel Morrison situation could define our season… and he most certainly should not be sold to any of our rivals in the relegation dogfight.
There’s only one Mark Noble
- Monday, 13th January 2014
- Paul Walker
We haven’t had too many days to remember this season - apart from every time we play Spurs - so Saturday’s outstanding performance at Cardiff will live long in the memory.
Strong leadership needed
- Thursday, 2nd January 2014
- Paul Walker
As the shocking aftermath of the shambles at Craven Cottage slowly sinks in, the need for strong, positive leadership was never needed more.
Sam gives Sullivan reasons to believe
- Thursday, 19th December 2013
- Paul Walker
David Sullivan got the sort of result and performance he no doubt feels justify his claims that if West Ham were looking for a new manager, Sam Allardyce would be the sort of person they would want in a mounting relegation crisis.
Brave or pig headed?
- Tuesday, 17th December 2013
- Paul Walker
Big Sam Allardyce finished another woeful Saturday knowing he was the last man standing in the sack race at the bottom of the Premier League.
The smell of relegation
- Wednesday, 4th December 2013
- Paul Walker
That nasty stench of inevitability is enveloping our club. If we keep going the way we are we will be relegated and there will be a new manager in place before the start of next season, one way or another.
Are you Tottenham in disguise?
- Thursday, 21st November 2013
- Paul Walker
Good Lord, not again. It’s about time we had some protection from our nobility, especially when they think they know something about football.
What a difference a month makes
- Wednesday, 20th November 2013
- Paul Walker
Big Sam always knew it would come to this. One month ago he was being hailed a tactical genius, now the knives are out.
Come home Defoe, (almost) all is forgiven
- Wednesday, 6th November 2013
- Paul Walker
Big Sam should be preparing for the worst and formulating plans for the rest of the season that assumes Andy Carroll will not be involved.
Just like watching Barca and Bayern (well almost)…now play it again, Sam!
- Tuesday, 8th October 2013
- Paul Walker
Well Big Sam always said he was good enough to manage Barcelona, and now we have all got a first-hand look at just what the tough old grouch was on about!
Unravelling a prodigy
- Friday, 27th September 2013
- Paul Walker
Nothing would delight me more this season, apart that from us staying in the Premier League, than to see Ravel Morrison crack it at the very top level.
At least we are not Sunderland
- Monday, 23rd September 2013
- Paul Walker
Five games into the Premier League campaign and we are struggling. No it’s not a crisis yet, and the time now is for calm, patience and strong nerve.
Fair play? You must be joking, Michel!
- Thursday, 5th September 2013
- Paul Walker
Now the dust has settled on the transfer window, we can start looking for who to blame for the shambles of the final day of deals as far as West Ham are concerned.
RIP Phil Woosnam: a unique player and teacher
- Monday, 22nd July 2013
- Paul Walker
Phil Woosnam passed away in the States this weekend at 80, a man who became a huge name in football after he left West Ham…but to those of a certain claret and blue vintage, he was a legend who had a massive impact on the transformation of our club in the 1960s.
All calm on the West Ham front... for a change
- Friday, 31st May 2013
- Paul Walker
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve had a brilliant couple of weeks, no tension, no high blood pressure, no sleepless nights. Not even a mild nervous breakdown.
Stand up Sit down at the Olympic stadium
- Sunday, 19th May 2013
- Paul Walker
So the Olympic Stadium survey has been completed and shows vast support for West Ham’s move to Stratford. Surprised by the finding? No, neither was I.
When the chips are down...
- Wednesday, 24th April 2013
- Paul Walker
Well, we are almost there. And no, I refuse to accept that we are totally safe from the drop until the mathematics really do add up.
Are we just the new ‘bitters’?
- Tuesday, 19th March 2013
- Paul Walker
Recent events have left me wondering whether we have produced a generation of 30-something fans so deprived of success over the last three decades, that they have become bitter and twisted about everything and everybody.
And we managed to upset Tony Pulis...
- Monday, 4th March 2013
- Paul Walker
Now that wasn’t too bad was it? A trip to the dreaded Britannia stadium and all it’s charms…and the best bit was upsetting one-eyed Tony Pulis.
Fixtures shambles is driving me mad
- Tuesday, 26th February 2013
- Paul Walker
I don’t know about you, but I am getting pig sick with the continued chopping and changing to our fixture list.
Viva Bobby Moore: Paul Walker
- Sunday, 24th February 2013
- Paul Walker
KUMB columnist Paul Walker was lucky enough to meet his hero, Bobby Moore, on three occasions...
Shooting ourselves in the foot
- Monday, 18th February 2013
- Paul Walker
So we have a pending relegation crisis, a managerial crisis and the return of the dark cloud that is the Sheffield United crisis. Forgive me, but haven’t we been this way before?
Shooting the messenger
- Tuesday, 22nd January 2013
- Paul Walker
So Big Sam has been ‘done’ by the FA for misconduct, isn’t that a surprise? And once again they have shot the messenger rather than tried to tackle the real problem.
Away the lads... at a price
- Wednesday, 9th January 2013
- Paul Walker
Before I start this condemnation of Manchester United’s pricing policy for away fans... it is only fair to mention that it cost Manchester City fans £49 to watch their side draw 0-0 at the Boleyn in November.
Welcome home, Joe, you have been missed
- Friday, 4th January 2013
- Paul Walker
Forgive me for being all misty-eyed for a moment, but one of the lost generation is coming home, and he couldn’t be more welcome in my eyes.
2013 - We have a problem
- Tuesday, 1st January 2013
- Paul Walker
Way back in 1970, the Apollo 13 commander, James Lovell spawned the famous “Houston, we have a problem” when his spacecraft was hit by an explosion. Everybody got back to the States OK, but it was touch and go for a while.
Wonders will never cease: Carlton is indestructable
- Thursday, 27th December 2012
- Paul Walker
Ok Carlton Cole, now is the time to go out and give Reading hell to justify all the fuss about your unjust red card against Everton last weekend.
Consistency ruined
- Thursday, 27th December 2012
- Paul Walker
Anthony Taylor did his best to ruin my Christmas… Carlton Cole’s too… and the FA compounded the problem with their long-winded reaction to big Sam’s appeal against that shocking red card that probably cost us victory against Everton last weekend.
Stamford Bridge to Upton Park…stick your blue flag!
- Monday, 3rd December 2012
- Paul Walker
The dust may have settled, all the talk is about Chelsea’s madhouse, but I implore you all to remember the day we stuffed the most arrogant of European champions out of sight. Remember, remember the first of December.
Gives us a smile, Sam
- Tuesday, 13th November 2012
- Paul Walker
Well, it‘s fair to say I hadn‘t really seen this coming. And I bet that goes for a large amount of Irons fans.
Dangers of perception
- Monday, 29th October 2012
- Paul Walker
"Perception" is one of Sam Allardyce’s favourite words. He reckons he has suffered from an unfair perception about his style of play, and he's probably right...
Work in process
- Monday, 8th October 2012
- Paul Walker
So now we know, at last we have an idea of just where we are and what level of improvement we are making under Sam Allardyce.
Times they are a’changing
- Friday, 14th September 2012
- Paul Walker
The Olympics are gone, consigned to a vivid memory of a triumph, a London one and in particular an east London triumph, as we all knew they would be.
Sympathy? You must be joking
- Wednesday, 30th May 2012
- Paul Walker
I must admit, I never thought there would come the day when I felt sorry for Sheffield United or Tottenham.
Re-birth of the claret and blue... now get it right this time
- Wednesday, 23rd May 2012
- Paul Walker
It’s taken me a few days to get my fuzzy head around it all, I am sure you all understand(!) but the sheer joy, relief and elation of Wembley and promotion deserved to be savoured before thinking about next season’s relegation battle.
Memories are made of this
- Friday, 11th May 2012
- Paul Walker
So it’s Blackpool we will face at Wembley in the Play-Off Final, and I suppose most of our fans will be happier with that than another collision with Birmingham, a side we have beaten only once in six meetings over the past two seasons.
Crushed hope
- Thursday, 19th April 2012
- Paul Walker
They say it’s always the hope that gets you in the end, and that was exactly what happened at Ashton Gate this week when we blew yet another chance to hang onto a faint opportunity of automatic promotion.
Right state of mind
- Thursday, 12th April 2012
- Paul Walker
OK, so it’s not absolutely certain yet, but it looks like we are going down the dreaded play-off route if we want to get back into the top flight.
Surprise, surprise, here comes Two Phones!
- Monday, 9th April 2012
- Paul Walker
What surprises me as our seasons heads to it’s conclusion is that I am surprised that Sam Allardyce seems so surprised by his treatment by fans and the media.
Just who are you insulting?
- Thursday, 22nd March 2012
- Paul Walker
So Tony Mowbray thinks we believe we are “insulted” by having to play in the Championship. I’ve got news for him, we only feel insulted by the people who have got us here in the first place.
My faith restored
- Tuesday, 20th March 2012
- Paul Walker
Sometimes watching at the Boleyn this season, I have been left wondering whether we are all in this together, and fully understand the financial implications of failure to win promotion.
So what do you really want?
- Monday, 19th March 2012
- Paul Walker
Ok, so let’s get things straight once and for all as we face the final ten games of this relentlessly demanding season.
Boo sucks!
- Monday, 27th February 2012
- Paul Walker
Amazing, isn’t it, how things come back to bite you on the bum when you are least expecting it.
Miracles do happen... In triplicate
- Thursday, 23rd February 2012
- Paul Walker
Never have I been a pint half full sort, it comes from following West Ham all my life. So I’m always the one urging folk not to get carried away.
Questions, questions, questions
- Friday, 17th February 2012
- Paul Walker
The more this protracted, tiresome Olympic stadium debate continues, the more worrying questions it throws up.
Ernie Gregory remembered
- Sunday, 22nd January 2012
- Paul Walker
They really don’t make them like Ernie Gregory any more. Gone are the days when a man stays with his first club for over 50 years.
So we can stay at the Boleyn
- Monday, 16th January 2012
- Paul Walker
So now we know. If our owners do not go for the Olympic Stadium option, we won’t leave the Boleyn and will aim to redevelop our 108-year-old home.
Let's just forget pointless awards
- Wednesday, 21st December 2011
- Paul Walker
Surely it’s about time that we abandoned the announcement of the Man of the Match award while the game is still in progress, and even consider dumping such futile nonsense all-together.
Away day delight
- Sunday, 20th November 2011
- Paul Walker
Take a bow, West Ham’s travelling army, you were brilliant at Coventry on what was a great day out… all apart from that first 45 minutes, that is!
Some slack and less stick please
- Tuesday, 8th November 2011
- Paul Walker
I never thought it would come to this, but I find myself saying that we really really do need to cut Big Sam some slack and get off the backs of our team.
Come on Lee, give it a rest!
- Wednesday, 28th September 2011
- Paul Walker
I suppose we always knew it would be Lee Bowyer who was going to score again…for a West Ham fan he has an unhealthy desire to make us look stupid.
Our club has changed
- Friday, 9th September 2011
- Paul Walker
Sam Allardyce has been in control - and I mean real control - of our club for little over four months, and West Ham has changed dramatically and probably for ever.
We're 'big fat Sam’s claret and blue army' - and we might win away games
- Thursday, 2nd June 2011
- Paul Walker
After two terrible seasons of incompetence on the pitch and misery for the fans, times just have to be a’ changing.
The end - or a new beginning?
- Tuesday, 24th May 2011
- Paul Walker
The end of the world was supposed to be at the weekend. For West Ham fans it came a week earlier as Premier League football disappeared as quickly as Millwall’s daft plane stunt.
Front up - and shut up
- Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
- Paul Walker
David Sullivan really should start doing his job. He should lead from the front at away games, front up when the going gets tough and learn to shut up.
Well done Scott, you deserve it
- Saturday, 23rd April 2011
- Paul Walker
Anybody who has witnessed Scott Parker carrying West Ham this season, and the way he has forced himself back into the England side, knows the Footballer of the Year award is fully merited.
Not getting any easier, is it?
- Sunday, 17th April 2011
- Paul Walker
So it’s come to this. Five games left, two that Avram Grant does not believe we can win and three more that the rest of us doubt we can win.
Scott Parker: our sympathies
- Wednesday, 23rd March 2011
- Paul Walker
I heard someone say after the Spurs game that Scott Parker looked like he was crying at the end of the match... now we know why.
Sour grapes, of course, and without a drink to numb the pain
- Monday, 14th March 2011
- Paul Walker
You know what’s coming, you are going to be mugged, but you know there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
The performance we have been waiting for
- Monday, 28th February 2011
- Paul Walker
At last, West Ham produced the kind of display that could change a few minds about what division we will be playing in next season.
The hope gets you...
- Thursday, 10th February 2011
- Paul Walker
They say that it’s the hope that kills you in the end, and supporting West Ham is beginning to feel like that.
The wrong end of things (again)
- Monday, 24th January 2011
- Paul Walker
Ok, this is going to be a partisan, angry, twisted, bitter, frustrated rant - pretty much par for the course and sure to hit a raw nerve amongst Irons fans. But is it just me who feels we are getting the rough end of things from all levels of football authority since the Tevez saga?
Yet more of a circus
- Tuesday, 18th January 2011
- Paul Walker
You couldn’t make it up…sadly though at West Ham you don’t have to, because every day seems to bring more shambolic nonsense.
Always a circus…
- Saturday, 15th January 2011
- Paul Walker
Is it just me who hates transfer windows? The uncertainty, the constant flicking onto Sky Sports News, the expectation and the constant disappointment.
Thankful for small mercies
- Sunday, 19th December 2010
- Paul Walker
Those 2,000 hardy souls who did get to Blackburn at least saw spirit, effort and a point from a game few expected to survive the shocking weather.
Grant... what improvement?
- Tuesday, 14th December 2010
- Paul Walker
Surely anyone who witnessed the predictable defeat by Manchester City now knows that nothing will improve the situation under the current management.
Grant: a stay of execution?
- Thursday, 2nd December 2010
- Paul Walker
Two wins in four days and how the mood has changed, particularily with that stunning victory over Manchester United.
Hillsborough and other stories
- Wednesday, 24th November 2010
- Paul Walker
KUMB welcomes Paul Walker to the team as he looks ahead to next week's Carling Cup quarter final clash with Manchester United...