West Ham were by far the worst team in the Premier League last season, winning just seven games throughout the whole campaign. Avram Grant could not have done any more in helping the Hammers to relegation and should have been sacked in January when Martin O’Neill was lined up as his replacement before it was leaked to the press.
The football was terrible to watch each week and a lack of passion and commitment was obvious throughout the majority of the squad. Relegation however has been a positive learning curve for the remaining squad players, owners and fans. Lessons have thankfully been learnt at Upton Park and the club will only benefit from the changes that have been made.
Goals win games
The first lesson that has been rectified to a degree was the lack of goals. Carlton Cole has never been and will never be a prolific striker and Freddie Piquionne and Victor Obinna failed to make much of an impact at all. Robbie Keane seemed to forget what a goal looked like which left Demba Ba to be the only player that could put the ball away after his January arrival, but that was too little too late.
33 goals in 38 games is unacceptable and narrow defeats were a regular occurrence for the Irons who made sufficient chances throughout the season. Over the summer the owners and new manager, Sam Allardyce realised the obvious problem and signed John Carew and Sam Baldock to add fire power, as well as attacking midfielder Kevin Nolan. Astonishingly the Hammers have already scored more goals in the first third of this season than the whole of the last campaign and that has been the catalyst to their good form.
A lack of loyalty from some players
Another lesson learnt was probably more for the supporters than it was for the club and that was the lack of player loyalty. The East End club gave chances to players when other teams wouldn’t and perhaps assumed that the players would repay the faith shown in them. But that wasn’t the case; Thomas Hitzlsperger was out injured for the majority of the season and then jumped ship in the summer after relegation. Demba Ba was asked to stay on at Upton Park after the Hammers were the only club willing to give him a chance in January, but he turned it down. Other out of contract players such as Mathew Upson did not sign new deals and left the squad very thin on numbers when pre-season arrived.
Perhaps I was naive when I felt that maybe Ba and Hitzlsperger would stay until January at least to give something back to the club that gave them a chance, perhaps, but only in football would that lack of loyalty be accepted.
The fans will always stick with the team
One thing that the rest of the Premier League learnt about the Hammers was that no matter how bad it got, the fans would always follow them wherever they went. Home attendances were consistently competitive and the away following would sell out 90% of the time. The trip to the DW Stadium on the penultimate week of the season sums it up perfectly. Anything less than two wins from two games would see them relegated and for a club that had only won twice away from home in 18 months, not likely. But 5,000 travelling fans sold out the away end in the North West and sang and cheered throughout the whole 90 minutes and the following three hour train journey home, even after relegation was confirmed.
Yes Blackpool fans may have done the same, but it was a first for them, they hadn’t been to Old Trafford, the Emirates and Anfield all in the same season in the top flight, they hadn’t expected anything more than relegation back in August. West Ham did.
A cup run did not help the league form
Another aspect that the Hammers will have learnt from last season is that a cup run does not always help your confidence and form in the league. Birmingham City were a prime example of that but they played just one extra game than West Ham last year and they won that at Wembley
The London club were one game away from Wembley twice last season after losing in the Carling Cup semi final and the FA Cup quarter final, both to late goals. That heartache of last gasp cup defeat, twice heavily dented the confidence of the West Ham squad that failed to recover from either result. A chance for a club like West Ham to get to Wembley is a huge achievement and would have brought the players and fans together for a joyous occasion, but it was cruelly snatched away.
The owners have shown their colours
The final lesson learnt is one definitely, solely for Hammers fans and it is that the clubs owners David Gold and David Sullivan are definitely putting their money where their mouths are. The two David’s are often seen in the press, speaking their minds on all things West Ham, and at first it took a while for the supporters to get behind them. But this summer and the realisation of relegation has brought the fans and owners together to get behind the manager and the team at all times.
For a club that was in unbelievable amounts of debt when bought by the former Birmingham City chairmen, to now spending money freely as a Championship club with the signings of Kevin Nolan, Sam Baldock, Matty Taylor etc, is a real achievement. They are pumping their own money into the club and they are very unlikely to see a return on that, making it a very selfless act and one that should definitely be praised.
Currently sitting in the top two of the Championship, West Ham have a great chance at returning to the top flight at the first attempt and will be bigger and stronger for the year away.
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