West Ham fans can’t sack the board so let’s focus on helping us stay up
Hammers supporter was embarrassed by chaos at Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Burnley which saw fans storm the pitch
Sponsored by
THIS is a very hard article to write and one that I wasn’t sure I should do.
Such is the divide within the club that, whatever my stance, there is likely to be a negative response.
Yesterday’s match showed up our club and was a very embarrassing episode to say the least.
Sadly I felt that this was always likely to happen if we conceded first because after the march was “negotiated to be called off” some fans still wanted to voice their anger.
We played quite well in the first half but the minute that first goal went in we were never getting back in the game.
Even the Burnley players knew that and have since said!
The pitch invasions and the lack of stewarding have achieved nothing but make the current situation even worse.
The stewarding at the stadium is an absolute joke, how these people kept entering the pitch without challenge and being able to confront the players is pathetic and thankfully nothing more serious happened as a result.
The situation at the club is toxic and has been caused by many “failed ambitions”, terrible PR, awful performances from players, poor managerial decisions and a divided fan base.
Each one of us has a different opinion on what the main problem is but we can all agree that this isn’t the West Ham that we all love.
LATEST WEST HAM NEWS
We have never been world beaters, we have never lived up to our own expectations, we don’t often like our current board, managers have always made the wrong decisions and players have often let us down.
But one thing that has always remained is our loyal and passionate support and the feel of being part of a West Ham family. This is sadly on the decline like all else.
As fans we cannot control anything that the club does as much as some of us may have tried.
The only thing we can do is give our passionate and loyal support to the team for those 90 minutes.
If we do this the players, manager and board cannot hide behind the excuse of what happened yesterday.
We have to stay in the Premier League.
If we get relegated it would be disastrous. Players would leave, our attendances would drop dramatically and we could end up being like a Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday or Nottingham Forest and take years to get back up again.
This is unthinkable and awful in comparison to the dream we were sold when we moved to this stadium.
If fans wish to protest after the 90 minutes, stay behind and do that.
If we are mathematically safe by the Everton home game on the last day of the season then of course there are ways to use that match as a way of sending a message to the board within reason.
Pitch invasions isn’t one but until we are safe - if we ever are - we need to focus all our support to getting out of this mess.
It seems to me that some fans are more interested in supporting “Board out” then the 11 players in the shirt.
If we go down we will be even further away from change than we are now.
The board ought to acknowledge fan unrest and not attend the Southampton match.
This will help the players focus and also go some way to showing that the board acknowledge current frustrations.
We also need a statement about how they then intend to address the problems in the summer.
Let’s face it, at the moment we can’t “Sack the board” even if some would want to.
There are no obvious buyers otherwise they would make themselves known and capitalise on the current anti-board feeling.
As fans we must remember the thing that makes being a West Ham supporter great and stay united (it IS in our name).
We must do our best to create a passionate and positive atmosphere and then when safe tackle the current problems further!
A heavy investment in players in the summer is the only way the board can now save their reputation and this MUST happen.