Come on we’ve all pondered it for a fleeting moment or two when yet another last second winner for the opposition goes in, or when we watch one of top names depart for destinations still within the realms of the M25.
We support a club that through all its romance and whimsy are essentially the kings of glorious failure.
I know this is a rather depressing concept to be writing about; the idea stemmed from Tuesday night, I was working and wasn’t aware of the Ipswich score; I saw fellow Hammers at Liverpool street and pondered whether or not to ask them the final score. I thought better of it; got home went to Championship results on Ceefax page 317 and waited patiently till the page displayed we’d lost 1-0 and of all people Lee Bowyer carried on where he left off in last season’s League Cup semi 2nd leg by scoring against us from a set piece.
I literally at that moment thought to myself ‘Typical West Ham’ Whether it’s phenomenal last second equalisers in cup finals to conceding a stoppage time N’Zogbia winner in the penultimate game of last season’s diabolical campaign. You can always count on West Ham to implode in the most spectacular of fashions
I suppose the flip side is you could say that West Ham’s uncanny ability to constantly be in the firing line means that supporting the club has been so exciting in recent years. Losing and winning play-off finals, staying up on the final day (at Old Trafford of all places), losing cup finals in the most heart-breaking of circumstances, successful relegation fights and ultimately an unsuccessful one. Perhaps that is the price we all must pay if we are to constantly be in the thick of all the action.
Without all the lows could we enjoy and savour the (very rare) highs?
So is this ‘curse’ something we should all embrace? Is this perpetual failure at the last now become synonymous with the image of West Ham United? Would we sacrifice the aforementioned play off finals, cup semi’s/finals (our defeat to the Brum last season still haunts me especially given how inept Arsenal were in that final) and the thrills and spills of relegation dog-fights to be a club like Everton for example who may not be the most exciting club to follow but will always be safe and away from the lurid headlines to seem to follow us around.
In a perfect world supporting West Ham would be exciting in the way that supporting a club like Man United is exciting. Instead of losing cup finals in spectacular fashion we’d triumph in spectacular fashion. Instead of escaping relegation on the final day, we’d win the league on the final day…who knows maybe one day a City style takeover will propel to the top table of the English game.
For now enjoy the ride and perhaps this curse of which I write is in fact our salvation.
Perhaps if we learn to embrace it one of these days it will reward us…Fortune’s always hiding…
