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Dominic Thiem, Chelsea Fan
Am Sonntag beginnt das große ATP-Finale in der O2-Arena in London! Der Österreicher Dominic Thiem, die Nummer 5 der Tennis-Weltrangliste, ist auch 2019 – zum vierten Mal in Serie – dabei und spielt sein erstes Match am Sonntag gegen Roger Federer. In einem aktuellen Artikel in der Times outet sich Thiem als Fußballfan. Ein guter Grund, dem österreichischen Tennis-Star, der heuer (gemeinsam mit Djokovic) die meisten Titel auf der Tour gewonnen hat, diesmal den Titel “HANSE DER WOCHE” zu verleihen!
Die Times berichtet, dass sich Dominic Thiem nicht nur deshalb freut, im ATP – Finale zu spielen, weil das ein großartiger Abschluss der heurigen, wohl bisher besten Saison des 26-jährigen Österreichers ist, sondern auch, weil das Finale in London stattfindet:
“Dominic Thiem is delighted to return to London, not only because he has qualified for the ATP Finals for the fourth consecutive year. The player who is often seen in the locker room wearing a Chelsea shirt with “Thieminho” printed on the back always enjoys a visit to the city of his beloved Blues, which often will include a trip to Stamford Bridge.
“I will for ever be with Chelsea,” Thiem, 26, says. “You never leave a football club once you choose it.”
Dominic Thiem, Chelsea-Fan, mit einer richtigen Ansage über die Treue zum Klub, bei dem man bleibt, wenn man sich einmal für ihn entschieden hat – das ist diesmal mein „HANSE DER WOCHE“.
Hoffen wir, dass Dominic von Chelseas 2:0 Sieg gegen Crystal Palace inspiriert wird und sein Match in London an diesem Wochenende ebenso gewinnt wie seine “Blues”! Er hat heuer 5 ATP-Turniere gewonnen (darunter das “Austria-Double” Kitzbühel und Wien) und sechs seiner neun Duelle gegen Top 10-Spieler gewinnen können. Thiems Ziel ist nun das erstmalige Erreichen des Halbfinales bei den vom 10. bis 17. November in der O2-Arena stattfindenden ATP Finals.
Thiem spielt in der “Gruppe Björn Borg” gegen Federer, Djokovic und Berrettini. Nur der Italiener Matteo Berrettini (23) liegt als Achter in der ATP-Weltrangliste hinter Thiem; Novak Djokovic (32) ist Weltranglisten-Zweiter, Roger Federer (38) Dritter hinter dem Führenden Rafael Nadal (33).
Der 26-jährige Thiem müsste nach seinen Spielen am Sonntag, Dienstag und Donnerstag zumindest zwei der drei Gruppengegner besiegt haben, um in das Halbfinale der ersten Zwei aus den Gruppen “Borg” und “Andre Agassi” am Samstag (2:00, 8:00 pm GMT) zu kommen. Das Finale wird dann am Sonntag um 6:00 pm (GMT) gespielt.
In der Rubrik “HANSE DER WOCHE” (benannt nach Rapid-Legende Hans Krankl) wird regelmäßig ein Akteur aus der weiten Welt des Fußballs vor den Vorhang gebeten, um vom RAPIDHAMMER der Akklamation durch die werte Leserschaft empfohlen zu werden. Den “HANSE DER WOCHE” erhielten unter anderen:
Doderer-Experte und Fußballfan Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler: https://rapidhammer.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/wissenschaftler-des-jahres-ist-rapid-fan-und-premier-league-liebhaber/
Paul Gludovatz (“Ab und zu ein gutes Buch lesen”) https://rapidhammer.wordpress.com/2
Back to London for Newcastle
RAPIDHAMMER was back in town, but his presence was not enough to help the Hammers beat Newcastle at the London Stadium.
I walked to the stadium from Stratford where I had got via the Jubilee Line this afternoon. I had been in central London in the morning with my spouse Eva. She didn’t go to the game because it was my mate Alfred who I was going with this weekend. I had parted company with her near Covent Garden, walked down to Aldwych to catch a bus from there to Shoreditch where I had to store the parcels from our shopping in the Seven Dials neighbourhood, and then I took the Overground to get to Stratford from there.
I changed for the Jubilee Line at Canada Water, and then I had to make my way to the ground by feet of course. As Alfred would arrive late, because he had been to Oxford in the morning, I was walking on my own on that cold and rainy day, buying a match day programme, having a talk on the phone with Paul, who didn’t go that day, and exchanging sms with Sam who didn’t go either.
Crossing one of the water ways around the stadium I seized a view of the ground with a lot of trees in the foreground (above) which reminded me of the installation “ForForest” in Klagenfurt’s Wörtersee Stadion – but there the trees had been on the pitch, not in front of the stadium!
I treated myself to a visit to the West Ham Store. My purchases were the new home and away shirts and a red short, not to forget a small can with soap water for blowing bubbles! I bought two white away shirts, one as a present for my son Johannes who likes to play football in a cup winning shirt like this, I’m sure of that!
Finally I made up my way to the seat in sector A, as always!
But it wasn’t as it had been on my last four visits to the London Stadium, when Eva and I had witnessed all but wins over Burnley, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Southampton! There was an army brass band playing and a minute of silence was held afterwards for the British soldiers., and almost as silent as within this one minute the stadium was throughout the first half. The Irons started into the game much to slow, couldn’t string hardly any dangerous attack together and were 0-2 behind at the interval.
They began to play a little better in the second half, but it didn’t take long and a free kick was directly converted into substitute goalkeeper Roberto’s goal. West Ham finally started a rally, pulled two back before injury time, but they were unable to score a third goal which would have meant to get a draw from that game. But it wasn’t to be, and Alfred again saw West Ham lose as he unfortunately always does on his visits to east London! I really like Alfred, and we have watched a lot of good games together in the past when we went to Rapid Vienna, but he never should be at West Ham again! Oh Eva, why didn’t you come to the ground with me this afternoon?
After the game all of us met up in a rooftop restaurant in Shoreditch, enjoyed the evening and forgot about the football! It was a beautiful weekend with two beautiful concerts, good Indian food (twice) and two wonderful services – one in Westminster Abbey on the All Saints’ Day, and the other one on Sunday afternoon at Hillsong Church in a theatre near Tottenham Court Road.
Come on you Irons, (maybe) bounce back next weekend against Burnley away!
Nobelpreis und noch ein Preis für Peter Handke
HANSE DER WOCHE. Ein Fußballfan hat den Nobelpreis für Literatur erhalten. “Fußball und Intelligenz schließen einander nicht aus”, sagte ich einmal, und ebenso ist die Sprachkunst des österreichischen Nobelpreisträgers mit der Begeisterung für Fußball vereinbar.
Fußballspiele nennt Peter Handke “gute Oasen des Schauens”, und in der ZEIT erzählt er unter anderem begeistert davon, wie beim Begräbnis seines Schwiegervaters die ganze Familie gemeinsam Fußball gespielt habe. (Die Zeit vom 17.10.2019; Bild unten)
Der großartige, sprachmächtige Autor, ein Revolutionär der Sprache, der oft auch so zart und subtil, aber immer klar und nicht verwaschen formuliert, sagt über das Schreiben:
“Schreiben war für mich immer so etwas wie Hochstapelei, ein unerhörter Tabubruch, eine stille Frechheit.”
Auch das Einrichten eines Blogs, das Schreiben von Posts, dieses Teilhabenlassen an den eigenen Tagebucheintragungen, dieses öffentliche Sich-wichtig-Nehmen und das Hinauslehnen in eine unbekannte Welt, das ist wohl genauso eine “stille Frechheit”.
Handkes Roman “Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter” ist kein Buch über Fußball. Aber für den Autor, der ein guter Linksaußen mit Angst vor Kopfbällen war und gerne Fußballspiele anschaut (im Stadion oder in den Kneipen des Pariser Vorortes Chauville, wo er wohnt), ist Fußball immer wichtig gewesen: als Oase und wohl auch als “Realitätsmodell” (vgl. Klaus Theweleit, Tor zur Welt – Fußball als Realitätsmodell). Fußball und Literatur-Nobelpreis schließen einander also keinesfalls aus.
Und daher ist der Nobelpreis für Peter Handke eine gute Gelegenheit, den vom RAPIDHAMMER einst ins Leben gerufenen “HANSE DER WOCHE” endlich wieder zu vergeben – an Peter Handke!
Ebenso wie der Nobelpreis wird wohl auch der von mir verliehene Preis “HANSE DER WOCHE” bei meinen Lesern Diskussionen über P.H.’s Haltung während des Jugoslawienkriegs mit sich bringen.
Handkes Schmerz und Wut über den Zerfall Jugoslawiens ließen ihn literarisch Partei für Serbien ergreifen und auch eine Ansprache beim Begräbnis von Slobodan Milosevic halten. Dieser Umstand hat zu viel Kritik an der heurigen Wahl des Nobelpreis-Komitees geführt. In dieser Auseinandersetzung habe ich Verständnis – auch – für Handkes Position. Die Frage, ob man ihm deshalb den Literatur-Nobelpreis zu unrecht verliehen habe, beantworte ich, klar P.H.s Partei ergreifend, mit einem ausdrücklichen Nein.
Peter Handke hat den Nobelpreis verdient. Und sicher auch den “HANSE DER WOCHE”!
In der Rubrik “HANSE DER WOCHE” (benannt nach Rapid-Legende Hans Krankl) wird regelmäßig ein Akteur aus der weiten Welt des Fußballs vor den Vorhang gebeten, um vom RAPIDHAMMER der Akklamation durch die werte Leserschaft empfohlen zu werden. Den “HANSE DER WOCHE” erhielten unter anderen:
Doderer-Experte und Fußballfan Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler: https://rapidhammer.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/wissenschaftler-des-jahres-ist-rapid-fan-und-premier-league-liebhaber/
Paul Gludovatz (“Ab und zu ein gutes Buch lesen”) https://rapidhammer.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/ab-und-zu-ein-kluges-buch-lesen/
West Ham nach Runde 6 auf Platz 5
Punktegleich mit dem Dritten Leicester und dem Vierten Arsenal liegt West Ham auf dem fünften Platz, das Torverhältnis ist mit +1 positiv und seit drei Spielen ist West Ham sogar ohne Gegentor! Nun geht es für die Hammers und zur selben Zeit auch für den SK Rapid um den Aufstieg in die nächste Cuprunde!
Obwohl am Sonntag gegen Manchester United Manuel Lanzini verletzt fehlte, gewann West Ham völlig verdient gegen Manchester United 2:0 (Tore: Yarmolenko, Cresswell).
Am Mittwoch geht es für West Ham im Ligacup gegen Oxford United weiter. Zur selben Zeit wird der RAPIDHAMMER – nach dem aktiven Sport beim “Nightrun” am Dienstag – am Abend im Allianz Stadion zuschauen.
Rapid gegen Salzburg im ÖFB-Cup: Ich wünsch mir einen Sieg, wie er im Februar 2019 in der Liga gelungen ist!
Es wird aber nach der Rotation der Salzburger am Wochenende die stärkste Elf von Red Bull auflaufen. Wenn das nur gut geht …! Ein Sieg für den SK Rapid im “vorgezogenen Cupfinale” wäre jedenfalls eine Riesensensation!
Come on you Irons
… and you boys in green !!!
Victory for the Forest
I usually hate international breaks. In football I am a “club over country” guy, and therefore I’m not looking forward to international games so much as other football fans may do. But this international break feels different for some reasons.
First because we went into it on a high, with West Ham mustering back to back wins in the League, and the Irons are undefeated in four games now (including the League Cup). Therefore this time we aren’t eagerly awaiting the end of the international break because our club were in desperate need of securing more points to get out of the lower ranks of the table. West Ham now comfortably sit in 7th with seven points out of four games, and they have almost evened out the the poor goal difference that resulted from the heavy loss to the champions in the first game of the season. Therefore everybody can relax, have an eye on the outcome of the Euro qualifiers, and look forward to the Monday evening game against Aston Villa.
And also very important for my positive mood was that I was tasting victory with my hometown club Rapid Vienna before the international break too, in one of the most exciting and important games of the season: The green-whites won the first Vienna derby of this year, defeating FK Austria Wien 3-1.
Those results make it much easier to tolerate this break with no games of our beloved clubs within two weeks.
Unbelievable things can happen on a football pitch
But there is also a different – and much longer – kind of break for league football this autumn in a certain stadium located in Austria’s southern province of Carinthia. Yeah, there are more unbelievable things which can happen on a football pitch these days than a shock victory of an underdog from time to time! Or would you have ever thought that a modern football ground could be transformed into a forest?
That’s exactly what’s taking place for seven weeks now in the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria! An art installation consisting of 299 trees was opened to the public in Austria’s most beautiful stadium last Sunday. The installation called “For Forest” can now be watched for free every day, forcing football out of the stadium until October 27th.
The project was conceived by Swiss artist Klaus Littmann (pictured below) who saw a pencil drawing, “The Unending Attraction of Nature” by Austrian painter Max Peintner (above, forforest.net), more than 30 years ago – and finally was able to turn this artist’s striking dystopia into a much disputed, controversial reality together with landscape architect Enzo Enea.
About time for this art installation, but wrong timing for the footy
Peintner’s pencil drawing originates from the 1970s and is a statement against the threat to our natural environment by imagining a time when forests will exist only as exhibition objects. Austria’s largest public art installation seems to come at the right time when the implications of climate change become more and more obvious. But its realisation also means that Carinthian football club Wolfsberger AC which have qualified for the Europa League for the first time in their history will not be able to play their group games in their federal province of Carinthia. They have to shift their matches against Borussia Mönchengladbach, AS Roma and Turkish outfit Basaksehir to the Styrian capital Graz.
The Wörthersee Stadium, which is named after the adjacent beautiful lake, is home ground to second tier club Austria Klagenfurt. They now have to play their games on the training pitch of the stadium, as long as mixed woodland is occupying the original stadium, before it will be transferred to a place somewhere nearby where it will keep growing as a memorial forest. The adapted training venue can host 2500 – 3000 spectators, hence Austria Klagenfurt have lost the opportunity to attract much more spectators to their upcoming ÖFB (Austrian Football Association Cup) game against first division outfit Sturm Graz!
With multiple functionality, conflicts are inevitable
Nevertheless in my opinion the realisation of this art project is a brilliant idea. I have had a lot of discussions with friends, some of them heavily criticising the installation which temporarily prevents the ground from being used properly. But according to its building permit the Wörthersee Stadium is not only to be used for sports, it is a multifunctional arena which also hosts concerts and other events throughout the year. And without this multi-purpose-use the stadium never would be viable.
As West Ham fans we already know that in a stadium which isn’t meant for football only, conflicts of use do emerge from time to time, as it was the case two years ago when West Ham had to start their season with three away games because of the athletics. In Klagenfurt without doubt it would have been better to let the installation take place earlier in the year to avoid a conflict with the Europa League. But on the other hand the recent conflict of use is an other evidence to demonstrate that Carinthia and Austria need this 30,000 football stadium.
The ground has been built for the European Championship 2008 and often been dubbed a “white elephant” since. It is used from time to time for games of Austria’s national side (Austria beat Germany there 2-1 in June 2018!) and has hosted the Austrian cup final several times. The Europa League would have been a perfect fit, but let’s hope Wolfsberg or even Austria Klagenfurt qualify for Europe in years to come and then get the stadium filled again with 29,900 football fans instead of 299 trees.
I’m a fan of the “For Forest” project, as I already said. I know the Wörthersee Stadium quite well and have been to it quite often, not only to watch football games but also because of my profession as lawyer representing the City of Klagenfurt in the environmental impact assessment and the construction law procedures. Our law firm also have organised a Symposium on sports law there for some years. And after having been there supporting Rapid Vienna together with Austria’s loudest and most enthusiastic supporters, though without success twice within three years, now I wonder how it will feel to visit a very quiet Stadium, watch the trees from the terraces and hear the rustle of leaves instead of the chants of the football fans. Victory for the forest this time …
A victory for the Greens at last?
Well, you may know that my hometown club Rapid Vienna’s colours are green and white, and they call themselves “the Greens”. Unfortunately Rapid have already been defeated twice in the Austrian cup final in the Wörthersee Stadium by Red Bull Salzburg. So for once I could be relishing in the rare sight of the “greens” having occupied the pitch, celebrating their victory, though they aren’t wearing shirts and shorts of this colour but green leaves. Could that be a good omen for the next game in this year’s ÖFB Cup when Rapid meet Salzburg in the second round on the 25th of September?
Anyway, let’s hope league football will make a glorious comeback after the international break, and “claret and blue” as well as “green and white” will delight us with beautiful goals and cracking victories on the football pitch next weekend! But until then, why not have a debate on what you think about “For Forest”, the controversial art installation on the Klagenfurt pitch?
Discuss!
Allez ‘aller!
Seb Haller is a West Ham Player
After the Maxi Gomez transfer had broken down, Frankfurt striker Sebastien Haller emerged as one of West Ham’s prime transfer targets, and now has been signed on Wednesday!
“We don’t believe the Hammers will get Haller”, many football fans thought, with West Ham not playing in Europe this season and with an asking price which would be in excess of EUR 40m.
But in Pellegrini and Husillos we trust, as I wrote in my previous post! Today Frenchman Sebastien Haller was officially presented as West Ham’s new record signing!
Haller said: “For me I can guarantee that I will give 100% for the club because the club has given me this confidence and I will try to give it back every day in every game.”
He reinforces West Ham’s forward line following the departures of strikers Lucas Perez, Marko Arnautovic and Andy Carroll this summer.
Haller will join up with the rest of the West Ham squad when they return from the pre-season Premier League Asia Trophy in China.
“He is at the perfect moment for us, like many of the players who have arrived at the club in the past 12 months – young, with his best years still ahead of him, yet with good experience and proven at the highest level,” said West Ham director of football Mario Husillos.
Haller joins forward Pablo Fornals as well as goalkeepers David Martin and Roberto as West Ham’s other summer signings.
A big welcome from me to Seb Haller! Let’s hope he will be as successful in claret and blue as West Ham’s latest Frenchman (Dmitri Payet) has been! And let’s hope he will stay some years longer at London Stadium than Payet has!
If West Ham could also strengthen the squad in defence, the club will be prepared to aim for a European spot and maybe some silverware in the cups next season. With MP at the helm, we can be sure that West Ham have got a manager who is capable of getting the players he needs for his “Pellegrini revolution”!
Although, while I’m writing this, West Ham have gone behind 1-3 to Manchester City in a preseason game in China (which the Irons eventually lost 1-4). A timely reminder that we shouldn’t let us be taken away, we’re still West Ham, and fortune’s might be hiding again next season … even with more world class players in the team than we had in previous years or decades!
Btw, my personal season is getting under way today with my first live game of the summer: First Vienna FC vs. Union Berlin at Stadium “Hohe Warte” in Vienna.
Come on you Irons!
West Ham‘s new number 7
But Irons still in desperate search of a hitman
With Marko Arnautovic having departed to Chinese side SIPG Shanghai under highly annoying circumstances (on which I don’t want to waste words anymore) West Ham have immediately got a new number 7 in Andriy Yarmolenko.
Prior to West Ham’s first game of pre-season in Austria, Andriy said:
“I’m changing because it is my number in the national team and also because it is a lucky number for me and I hope it makes me play well for West Ham.”
Having been out for much of last season due to injury the Ukrainian added: “Maybe a little bit I am like a new signing!”
If he keeps fit, Yarmolenko could partly fill the gap that Arnie’s departure has opened in West Ham’s squad. But with Andriy being a winger it will be necessary to quickly also find other offensive options to guarantee that West Ham will reach their goals: finishing within the first third of the Premier League table, and to do that with offensive and entertaining football. Manager Manuel Pellegrini’s first transfer target Maxi Gomez unfortunately could not be signed, and therefore the search for a new striker has to continue.
With forward Andy Carroll released in the summer after another injury-affected season, also his squad number was handed to a new player in the 3-2 win over Austrian Bundesliga side SCR Altach, with Chicharito sporting the shirt no. 9. It is to be seen though if the Mexican will keep this squad number, as a new center forward might get it, and it is not a certainty at all that Chicharito will remain at West Ham.
Frenchman Sebastien Haller (pic) playing for German side Eintracht Frankfurt and having netted 15 times in the Bundesliga last season, is rumoured to be West Ham’s new striker target. He is said to be at the centre of a €40 million bid from the club, but he has no get out-clause in his contract and the German outfit will be reluctant to let Haller leave, as with Luka Jovic one of their stars has already joined Real Madrid and another one, Ante Rebic, could leave for Inter Milan.
West Ham’s shocking scoring record
West Ham is desperate to sign a really prolific front man after years in which the Hammers’ scoring record has been on low tide. A survey published by ClaretandHugh ( click here ) showed that West Ham are the only Premier League team to not have a league top scorer in excess of twenty goals this century.
The last player to score more than 20 goals in a season for West Ham, believe it or not, was Tony Cottee (pic). The striker who just has turned 54 on July 11, scored 22 goals in the 1986/87 season. The season before, Frank McAvennie scored even more goals, hitting the net 26 times in the First Division when the “boys of 86” achieved West Ham’s all time best finish in the top flight! Together Cottee/McAvennie scored 46 league goals that season when the Hammers came a close third behind Liverpool and Everton winning 26 of their 42 games.
Long time gone … but in Pellegrini we trust! And in his director of sports, Mario Husillos, who hopefully will engineer an other transfer – like the one that brought new midfielder Pablo Fornals to West Ham United recently!
Pablo Fornals who won the European U21 championship 2019 with Spain at the London Stadium
There seems to be some doubt though at West Ham that the Argentinian director of sports will be able to bring arguments weighty enough to lure Haller from Frankfurt to the London Stadium: media reports emerged that in this transfer case additional help by other agents, Willie McKay or Kia Joorabchian, had been called into action to help completing the deal.
Kia is still well known at West Ham: he acted as the “owner” of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano when the two Argentinians were transferred to West Ham in 2006 (with an illegal “third party clause” in their contracts which cost the Hammers dearly), and in recent times he is said to have been involved in the transfer of Felipe Anderson. Well, let’s hope the Irons will get their striker with a good deal in the end!
Come on you Irons!
Article also published with West Ham Till I Die
Winning Start for West Ham
Carlos Sanchez, Michail Antonio and Issa Diop were on target for West Ham United as they got their pre-season campaign off to a good start with a 3-2 win over Austrian outfit SCR Altach.
Goalkeepers Roberto and David Martin made debuts, while Winston Reid and Andriy Yarmolenko made successful returns from injury.
Watch the highlights here.
Rumpelstiltskin
Der Pflichtsieg gegen Slowenien kostete Arnie ordentlich Nerven!
EM-Qualifikation, Klagenfurt: Österreich v Slowenien 1:0 (0:0); Tor: Burgstaller (74.)
New Shirt 2019/20
Only looking back to the the past or another step forward?
For me West Ham’s 2019-20 home kit is a special voyage into the past, because the original shirt which has inspired Umbro’s new design for the Hammers, was used back in the second half of the seventies. This was the time when I first came across West Ham United.
In these times, when I was attending grammar school in Austria, my schoolmates and I were very much interested in English football. In 1975-76 Liverpool had won the UEFA Cup and then, for six seasons in a row, the “Champions League” of this age was won by English clubs: from 1977 to 1982 Liverpool were winners of the European Cup 3 times, Nottingham Forest won it twice and Aston Villa once! English football hence was the best in Europe and that drew my and my classmates’ attention to the English Football League. Back in these days every Sunday the evening sports show in Austrian TV had some of the goals scored over the weekend in the First Division on the often deep and muddy pitches of the English grounds. And the FA Cup Final could even be watched “live” every year on Austrian TV!
Goalkeepers always in green
The English goalkeepers in these days always wore green shirts, as far as I remember, and so I also got me a green goalkeeper shirt for the matches we played in school (a colour which I had always liked because it is the colour of my favourite Austrian club, Rapid Vienna). Playing in goal myself, I was particularly interested in the English goalkeepers, and it was Phil Parkes of Queens Park Rangers to whom I paid special attention because QPR were a very interesting team then, and one of my close friends, with whom I shared the passion for Rapid Vienna, had already become a loyal supporter of the Hoops.
Claret and blue
But not only blue and white hoops had caught my attention, also these claret shirts with the blue sleeves were something very special for us, because West Ham’s and Aston Villa’s “claret and blue” were colours completely unusual for football shirts in Austria!
Therefore I also kept an eye on West Ham’s results and when the club won the FA Cup in 1975 and reached the 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, also the Hammers became one of the teams to watch! And that brings us back to the new home shirt, because the strip which served as a model for the 2019 claret home shirt (shoulders, upper part of the chest and sleeves in blue) was used from 1976 to 1980 and was first sported in the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final in Bruxelles against Anderlecht in May 1976. I watched this game on TV and I have kept a newspaper cutting of the match report showing then West Ham keeper Mervin Day and a West Ham defender who wore the new shirt.
These days also were the time when I first travelled to England in 1976, repeating that journey in 1977. And then I visited Scotland some years later in 1980 when I already studied at university. But as all of these trips only did take place in July, my hosts could just treat me to a match of cricket and no live football could be watched! But on our trip through Europe with an “interrail ticket” in 1977 we were able to manage getting to Kaiserslautern in Germany to watch our first live game of an English team: QPR played a friendly there on the Betzenberg against 1. FCK. Phil Parkes still played for QPR then.
Phil Parkes to West Ham
When Phil Parkes moved from Loftus Road to Upton Park in 1979 for a transfer fee of £ 565,000, being the most expensive goalkeeper at the time, attention switched from QPR to West Ham more and more, and I can confirm that QPR was not on my radar anymore. And I remember very well to have watched the FA Cup final 1980 when the Hammers won the Cup thanks to Trevor Brooking’s famous header which beat Arsenal: “1-0 to the Cockney boys!”
Popular away kits
The 1976 home shirt was used by the Hammers until 1980, the year of West Ham’s last win of silverware, but as we all know, this shirt was not the one which Trevor Brooking sported on the Wembley pitch against Arsenal in May 1980. In that final both of the teams played in their away kit: the Gunners in yellow shirts and blue shorts (well, and the shorts could really be called “short” these days!), and West Ham in all-white. Therefore it’s no surprise that the new white Umbro away kit inspired by the cup win of 1980 has proved so popular among West Ham’s fans that its pre-orders have hit record numbers since its launch some days ago.
Well, when I started to support my Austrian favourite team, Rapid Vienna, by the end of the sixties, it took them 14 years to repeat their winning of the Austrian championship, albeit they had won it in 1967 and 1968 for the 24th and 25th time in their history. And with West Ham it’s even worse: Now it’s almost forty years since winning the FA Cup in 1980, and even the latest cup final in which West Ham have played dates back to 2006, quite some years already!
Quite a long wait
Fourteen years seemed to be a very long time for a young guy, whereas I now feel that the 14 years since West Ham’s promotion back to the Premier League in 2005 (which was followed by a fantastic season under the tenure of Alan Pardew with the highlight of the cup final against Liverpool) have passed very quickly. But forty years are quite a long period also for an older man, aren’t they? And haven’t older people got the habit to become impatient from time to time? Will there ever be a season when the Irons win some silverware again? Maybe next season, forty years after 1980?
If the shirt can help that task, and inspire the Hammers to return to Wembley glory, as FA Cup-winning defender Alvin Martin is quoted on the official website, then so be it. But more important is who’s at the helm as manager and which business he can do in the summer. Therefore I’m happy with the shirt, but I also say: “In Pellegrini we trust!” Manuel Pellegrini has started to build something special at West Ham and we have already seen a change of mentality of the team in several games throughout the last season.
Let’s hope that the new kits do not only serve as mere reminiscence of former success, but will bring back some silverware to the club in the near future! West Ham have made some big steps forward in the “transition season” of 2018-19. Now the Irons should be ready for the next level if MP is allowed to continue with the way he has begun.
Let the “Pellegrini Regulation” continue! Come on you Irons!
Also published with West Ham till I Die (8/6/2019): https://www.westhamtillidie.com/posts/2019/06/08/the-new-kit-looking-back-to-the-past-or-another-step-forward
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