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.
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!
While I was writing this post, Charlton and Sunderland were just battling it out in the second one of three play-off finals within three days. On the Saturday Newport County and Tranmere Rovers met in the League Two-play-off final with the Rovers earning a spot in League One thanks to a last-gasp extra-time winner, and now the League One-play-off final was to decide which club would win promotion to the Championship next season.
And being the climax of this sequence of play-off games, on Monday the Championship play-off final, this year not being played on a Saturday afternoon but on a bank holiday at 3 p.m., will decide which club will be the third one to be promoted to the Premier League for the 2019-20 season. The venue of all these finals, of course, is the same every year after the play-off finals have returned from their temporary exile in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to New Wembley in 2007.
An English export hit
The play-offs and the extra excitement which they add to the end of the season have been some kind of an English “export product“ to other countries in recent years, though not only to decide promotion and relegation (e.g. like in Germany where on Monday the second leg between 1. FC Union Berlin and VfB Stuttgart will determine upon which of them will be promoted to or remain in the Bundesliga), but also in order to gain the winner a spot in the Europa League. This is the case in Austria for the first time this season.
The Austrian Bundesliga have got a completely new league format in 2018-19, with the twelve clubs being divided into two groups after 22 games and their points tally cut in half (which which seems quite unfair, but should make a premature decision of the title race less likely; although it didn’t prevent Red Bull Salzburg from winning the league for the sixth time in a row!). Within the top group, after ten more games, the Austrian champion and three or four European spots (dependent on the cup winner’s place in the table) are to be decided according to the league ranking, but then the fifth club to play in Europe is selected via the new Europa League qualification play-off.
From lower tier to Europe
This play-off has added incentive and extra excitement to the “relegation group” of the Bundesliga: whereas the club finishing sixth in the table of the lower tier faced straight relegation (there was no play-off to save Wacker Innsbruck, the lowest ranked team, from the drop, like in Germany where a relegation play-off is played), now a play-off semifinal and a two-legged play-off final is going to decide if the club I support in my home town will play in the Europa League or not next term.
Rapid Vienna unexpectedly could not finish in the top half of the Bundesliga after 22 rounds, and – less surprisingly – could not win the Austrian cup final, losing out 0-2 to Red Bull Salzburg on the 1st of May in Austria’s most beautiful stadium in Klagenfurt (pic). Therefore the last opportunity to qualify for Europe now is to win the Europa League play-off semifinal (which consists of only one game played out by winner vs. runner-up of the relegation group) and then to claim victory in the two-legged play-off final against the club finishing fifth in the “championship group”.
Rapid’s opponent in the first game on Tuesday will be SV Mattersburg, and if they proceed to the final they will play on Thursday and Sunday against Sturm Graz (dependent on the results of the last round of the Bundesliga top tier).
A fixture list in the English style
This is going to be a sequence of games which really can be called an “English week” for Rapid: two mid-week-games, providing only one day of rest between the first and the second game, reminding us of the packed fixture list of the English Premier League at Christmas time and New Year. Hopefully only cramps and not more severe injuries will be suffered by players in these upcoming games!
I’ve watched live in the stadium a “domestic play-off” only once so far, this game being the Championship-play-off between West Ham and Blackpool in 2012 (pic). What a joy that was when Ricardo Vaz Te scored the 2-1 in front of the claret and blue part of the Wembley terraces! I had flown over to London just for that game and returned home the next morning and, having booked very short-term, I had not informed any friends that I would be in London that day. But, as it often happens “by chance”, I bumped into Sam Haseltine who ran the football blogger platform “Football United” by then after the game.
Now I very much hope that also my second play-off, this time at home in Austria, will be a success! Rapid Vienna did very well last season in the Europa League. They beat Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow Rangers FC in the group stages (pic), providing me with some late revenge for Gerrard’s goal in the 2006 FA Cup Final.
Now, while I’m finishing this post, Charlton have scored the 2-1 at Wembley, the clock showing the 94th minute. Heartbreak for Sunderland and pure ecstasy for Charlton that are sent back to the Championship by a last-minute winner! I feel sorry for the Black Cats, but this is football, and this is the magic of the play-offs!
The manager who’s celebrating his club’s return to the Championship, is a former West Ham player, and it was Josh Cullen, a West Ham-loanee who knocked off a very quick free kick which lead to Charlton’s last-minute-winner! Lee Bowyer, who once played for the Hammers in midfield in 2003 and from 2006-2009, has guided the Addicks, which have been his first professional club as a player, back to the Championship in his first full season as manager. And Charlton have been the first team winning the third tier play-off final in seventeen years after having gone behind in this match. That’s an other beautiful story, but it’s also hard lines for Sunderland on the other hand! Clubs play roughly 4,500 minutes in a season and then to lose out on promotion in the last minute is absolutely brutal!
A festival of football
Yeah, anything can happen in football – especially if everything is determined by one odd game! That’s the magic of the play-offs and of the other upcoming finals.
On Monday in Germany VfB Stuttgart and Union Berlin (“Eisern Union”, the “Irons” from east Berlin for whom I am going to keep my fingers crossed!) are going to decide upon promotion and relegation from the Bundesliga. On the same day Aston Villa and Derby County play each other in the Championship play-off. And just one day after Rapid Vienna’s first play-off game on the Tuesday, the European festival of English football will begin:
English clubs – regardless of Brexit – play out Champions League and Europa League between themselves on 29 May and 1 June respectively.
Let the finals continue!
PS: Der 1. FC Union steigt mit einem 0-0 (2:2 gesamt) aufgrund der Auswärtstorregel in die deutsche Bundesliga auf. “Eisern Union” rockt jetzt Deutschlands erste Liga:
PPS: Rapid Wien verlor das erste der beiden Play-off-Finali gegen Sturm Graz zu Hause im Allianz Stadion mit 1:2 (nachdem Kapitän Schwab die Hütteldorfer in Führung gebracht hatte, bekam Rapid genau in seiner besten Phase ein Gegentor durch einen Elfmeter, konnte dann am Ende nichts mehr zusetzen und kassierte das1:2 durch ein Eigentor). Das Rückspiel in Graz gewann man zwar mit 1:0, schaffte es aber aufgrund der Auswärtstorregel nicht in die Europa League. Der Sturm-Trainer wurde dennoch wegen Erfolglosigkeit entlassen, Rapid-Trainer Didi Kühbauer bleibt (richtigerweise). Er muss nun mit dem neuen Sportdirektor Zoki Barisic ein neues Team für eine erfolgreichere Saison 2019/20 formen!
Being a supporter from abroad for whom there is no point in buying a season ticket, I can only pick some games per season and every West Ham match which I go to in the London Stadium must be selected carefully.
London Stadium
Flights have to be booked in time (sometimes with Laudamotion, one of the airlines of my Austrian compatriot Niki Lauda who sadly passed away on Tuesday), the trips must be coordinated around other meetings or events which I attend in London, and then I have to hope all goes well and the date of the game isn’t shifted to a conflicted kick-off time. And you know, with West Ham, you never can be sure if you will get any reward for all the bother. But that’s what football and being a football supporter is all about: following your team during good times or bad, and trying to go to as many games as possible.
Only Manchester City and Liverpool have done better
And this season has been a really good one for me and I was very
fortunate with the games I have selected to watch in the London Stadium!
I graced the upper tier of London Stadium’s West Stand in the 2018-19
season on five occasions, being able to watch the games against Wolves,
Burnley, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Southampton. These were not only
more games than in previous seasons, but above all I could celebrate
four wins, and West Ham suffered only one defeat when I was present. I‘m
sure this is my best points ratio since I have supported West Ham! Only
Liverpool (2,55) and Manchester City (2,58) have won more points per
game this season than I have (2,4)!
But first we got our fair share of West Ham’s bad start into the
season (losing out four times in a row for the second year running), as
our first “live game” was the 0-1 defeat to Wolves in September.
I have to admit that this was a game less interesting and exciting than the Proms’ concert #65 which we had attended the night before at the Royal Albert Hall (Stravinsky, Ravel & Berio, conducted by Semyon Bychkov). The Sunday afternoon we spent at Hampstead Heath strolling through the sunny park, walking along the ponds, and enjoying scones at Kenwood House, which was a much more pleasant time than the one we spent 24 hours ago. Only the sunshine had been bright over the LS pitch as well.
Hampstead Heath, Kenwood House
But to add also something on the positive side of this trip (in
addition to the scones at Kenwood Brew House Cafe), we discovered a new
kind of hotel in London, called CitizenM, which we would use for all our
following stays this season.
A new philosophy
But after this fourth league defeat in a row it seemed the players
began to understand the new way of playing that Manuel Pellegrini was
asking of them, and when I had the opportunity to come back to London in
November, our stay consisted not only of an environmental law
conference in the City, an Andrea Bocelli concert in the O2 Arena and a
visit to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London’s Westend, but also of a
thrilling 4-2 win over Burnley in the East London Stadium!
In the game against the Clarets West Ham went in front twice, courtesy to goals of fellow Austrian Marko Arnautovic and of Felipe Anderson, but on both occasions Burnley was able to equalise. Nevertheless Anderson with his second and Chicharito with West Ham’s fourth goal sealed the Iron’s win in this entertaining encounter, showing that this team now had developed a real winning mentality under Manuel Pellegrini. Well, and they had already defeated Manchester United a month ago at the London Stadium (3-1).
London Stadium (2018)
What a wonderful world
We love to come to London in December with the family, soaking up the
British capital’s Christmas atmosphere with carol singing in Christmas
concerts, ice rinks at historic places, street markets and the beautiful
lighting in Regent Street. Hence we had to be in good voice on our
December trip, singing Christmas carols at St-Martin-in-the-Fields in
the evening and “Bubbles” the next day at West Ham, and it became a
joyful afternoon in claret and blue with a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace!
As you know, this game was part of West Ham’s best ever December in
Premier League history! The Hammers were 0-1 behind at halftime, but
after the interval we again saw Chicharito and Anderson score, along
with a beautiful long range shot from Snodgrass. Chicharito’s
fox-in-the-box goal put West Ham in front, and Felipe Anderson scored a
beauty to make it 3-1 with a right footed strike into the far top
corner, a goal which recently became West Ham‘s “goal of the season”:
after some quick build-up play, the Brazilian picked a beautiful shot
over the diving keeper – a strike which proved enough to win West Ham
this game, although there was a bit of “same old West Ham” when the
Eagles pulled one goal back afterwards. That could have led to a
nail-biting finish, but I always had the feeling that a fourth goal for
the Irons was more likely than an equaliser – evidence that I was
getting more and more sure of West Ham’s newly gained winning mentality
under MP. “What a wonderful world”! Also West Ham-wise we could join in
this song performed by Katie Melua in the concert we attended at
Westminster Hall in the evening after the game.
London Stadium, seen from River Lea
Comeback of the West Ham way?
And then it got even better on our next trip to London as we were
there when West Ham celebrated the famous win over Arsenal with Declan
Rice’s first Premier Legue goal! Yeah!!! It was an imperious display of
young Declan in his holding midfield role, with his composed passing and
the scoring of the decisive goal, and Dec grabbed all the newspaper
headlines the other day. The 1-0 win was a totally self-assured,
exciting and entertaining performance of the whole team, with lots of
ball on the ground, reminding us of what was once called „the West Ham
Way“.
Declan Rice (19) scored his first PL goal vs. Arsenal
Well, and Marko Arnautovic’s waving good-bye when the Austrian
striker was subbed throughout the second half was just a side note in
the morning papers, and in the end the transfer to China which Arnie and
his brother had wanted to engineer in January fell through like Theresa
May’s Brexit Deal.
Fortune’s hiding again
My next chance to fly to London didn’t come before the beginning of
May. Therefore I could only watch via telly and the internet what
happened after that brilliant win over Arsenal. This part of the season
(from February to April) reminded us that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”,
and that Manuel Pellegrini would need more than one season to
revolutionise a club whose fans have sung that “fortune’s always hiding”
for ages. The team played inconsistent within this period of my absence
from the London Stadium, they were eliminated from the FA Cup against
much lower opposition and had to be happy that Fulham, after West Ham
had been five games without a win, and later on Huddersfield came to the
London Stadium to help the Irons get back to winning ways. The club had
ranked ninth in the Premier League after the Arsenal win, but they
never were able to climb higher up the table, injuries and dubious
decisions of referees didn’t help, and Pellegrini’s claim to play for
Europe was scuppered by a series of mixed results which saw West Ham
drop out of the top ten for most of the time.
But the best was yet to come this season. Tottenham’s new stadium had
been finished and Spurs had managed to win all their home games there
prior to West Ham’s first visit to their new ground. Well, I think that
not only I was sure that the Hammers would be the first team to win
there (as they had done 12 years ago in an other London derby when
Arsenal was beaten for the first time at the Emirates).
When Tom Jones, the architect of the Tottenham Stadium, came to a sports facilities conference in Vienna, just some days before the Hammers’ game against Spurs, I let him know that West Ham would be the first team to inflict defeat to the home team for sure, and I even dared to put a bet on West Ham winning this game with Betway. As we all know, I was perfectly right to do so, and Michail Antonio’s beautiful goal from a brilliant Marko Arnautovic pass sealed an historic win!
Goal !!!
Arnie again, at last!
And one week after West Ham had claimed the first-away-team-to-win-at-Tottenham-Hotspur-Stadium-trophy we finally were on our way again from Vienna to the London Stadium for the last home game vs. Southampton, a game in which we would for the first time see the new claret carpet surrounding the pitch, and we would have the rare opportunity to see two Austrians on a Premier League pitch: one in the coaching zone (Saints’ manager Ralph Hasenhuttl) and the other one hopefully playing in the West Ham team, and starting to score again at last!
Marko Arnautovic’s form had improved in the games prior to that
match, but obviously it was mandatory that we came back to the London
Stadium before he hit the back of the net again. On an unexpectedly cold
Saturday afternoon, with bright sunshine alternating with rain several
times, Arnie in fact started scoring again! He put West Ham ahead with
two goals, one in each half of the game, before Fredericks with his
first PL goal sealed a comfortable win for the Hammers. Arnie’s two
goals were his first ones since the beginning of January when he had
scored against Brighton and Birmingham! And for the last minutes of the
game he even wore the captain’s armband again after Mark Noble had been
substituted.
Well, we’ve already heard that MP is planning with Arnie again for
next season, and I hope that the Austrian who has been West Ham’s top
scorer in the last two seasons will be at the club for another year!
Our stay in London lasted for three other days, with a Sunday
highlight of eating the best scones of our lives at “Maison Bertaux” in
Soho, just behind the Palace Theatre, beating the ones at Kenwood House
at the beginning of the season by far! And we came back to Royal Albert
Hall, where we didn’t listen to a concert this time, but participated in
a truly inspiring and motivating LC19 leadership conference on the
Monday and Tuesday together with Christians from 80 countries and all
denominations!
LC19, Royal Albert Hall
And in the end, not only our stay in London, but also West Ham’s
season, ended on a high note: their win at Watford helped them climb up
the table in the last round and finish in the top half of the Premier
League in MP’s first year at the helm!
And next season …
Well, I hope to come back to London, despite Brexit, several times
next term. And by doing so, as our trips to the London Stadium have
turned out to be talismanic for the Irons this season, I hope to
contribute to West Ham performing even better at the next call, and the
“Pellegrini Revolution” will continue!
And prior to the kick-off of the 2019-20 season (on 10 August) it
seems the Hammers want to do me, as well as my compatriot Arnie, a
favour by travelling to Austria and to China in pre-season. But with
West Ham, you know, things aren’t always as good as they seem:
The Austrian pre-season friendly (11 July) will be played in Vorarlberg, which is almost as far away from Vienna as Stratford! And when Arnie will step onto the pitch in China later in July, he will find out that he’s still on West Ham’s and not a Chinese club’s payroll. Well, on the other hand, for me the latter would be something that I’m particularly pleased with!
Die “Pellegrini Revolution” brachte West Ham trotz Fehlstart mit vier Niederlagen in den ersten vier Partien ein “top ten finish” in der Premier League.
Mit einem 4:1-Auswärtssieg bei FA Cup-Finalist Watford samt Arnautovic-Goal konnte sich West Ham auf den 10. Endrang in der PL vorschieben. Den Endstand fixierte Mark Noble mit seinem zweiten Treffer (Elfmeter) in diesem Spiel. Einen weiteren Treffer steuerte ManuelLanzini bei, für den die Saison damit sehr positiv endet, nachdem er sich ja in der WM-Vorbereitung mit Argentinien im Vorjahr schwer verletzt hatte. In der Tabelle überholten die „Hammers“ damit Watford.
Für Marko Arnautovic ging die Premier League-Saison 2018/19 mit zehn Treffern und vier Assists zu Ende.
Arnieist damit auch in dieser Saison – trotz schwächerem Frühjahr – West Ham’s Topscorer vor Felipe Anderson. Der Brasilianer erzielte in seiner ersten Saison bei West Ham 9 Treffer in der Premier League.
Though all eyes being on the title race between Manchester City and Liverpool, for West Ham there‘s still a lot to play for: with a win over Watford, the Irons would move into the top half of the table or could even finish 9th. With a defeat they could slip down to 12th, what would be a disappointing end of season.
Liverpool are bidding to become the first team to overtake the Premier League leaders on the final day, but that requires a slip of champions Manchester City.
The Reds, who host Wolves, are one point behind leaders City, who visit Brighton – with both games on Sunday at 15:00 BST.
It is the eighth Premier League title race to go down to the final day. Champions League finalists Liverpool have not won the league since 1990.
West Ham will have to win away at Watford to overtake the Hornets that will play in the FA Cup final the coming Saturday (5 p.m. BST). And if Leicester lost to Chelsea at home, the Hammers would even leapfrog the Foxes.
West Ham have ended a bad run of three defeats with a 2-2 draw against Leicester – that‘s what will be on record when someone looks up the last third of Manuel Pellegrini‘s first season at West Ham Stats in years to come. It’s just a pity though that there won’t be a footnote to this result stating that West Ham would have won the game if the assistant ref hadn’t got it wrong with Lucas Perez’s second goal! But never mind, now we’ve got two cup finals and a trip to London to look forward to!
With only minutes to go and West Ham 2-1 up against the Foxes, courtesy to goals by Michail Antonio and Lucas Perez, the latter one had latched on Pedro Obiang‘s pass and rounded Leicester’s keeper Kasper Schmeichel to kill the game off with what seemed to be the 3-1 for West Ham, only to be wrongly flagged offside by the linesman. And after that incorrect decision, fortune was hiding again from the Irons when Leicester substitute Barnes put his team level in injury time!
New carpet, old mistakes
Therefore that draw tasted like defeat to the West Ham faithful on a bright sunny Holy Saturday which had brought us a new claret carpet around the pitch of the London Stadium; a carpet which had got caressed by goal scorer Michail Antonio who put West Ham up with a brilliant header in the first half. But in the end the carpet didn’t play a main part and wasn’t so supportive to West Ham’s squad as we had thought it would be, following Slaven Bilic’s remarks about the difficulties the players had with assessing the size of the pitch with the former green carpet under his tenure at London Stadium.
Nevertheless I am already curious about what the ground will look like with its new dress when we are going to be back to London Stadium in two weeks time for the last game of the season against Southampton! And we’re also looking forward to the unveiling of the 2019 Hammer of the Year, who in my opinion will be Declan Rice quite certainly.
But much more certain is that last year’s HOTY will not play any role in this season’s contest: Marko Arnautovic hasn’t scored since his “China saga” in January, and he and the team have been inconsistent (to put it mildly) since Arnie’s premature waving good-bye when he was substituted throughout the second half in West Ham’s win over Arsenal. That was the last game I have watched in the London Stadium so far, and I think I haven’t missed very much during my absence before coming back to Stratford at the beginning of May. Apart from the Liverpool draw, a game which the Hammers would have won if a blatant offside goal for Liverpool had not counted, West Ham have more or less underachieved in most of the games since that famous 1-0 victory over the Gunners with Declan Rice’s first goal for West Ham just two days before his twentieth birthday.
Back in January we had thought that a good cup run was on the cards and that manager Manuel Pellegrini’s pledge to fight for 7th place in the Premiership could be successful. But a lot has gone wrong since, with West Ham tumbling out of the FA Cup against much lower opposition, and they never regained the winning mentality Manuel Pellegrini had seemed to have instilled into the squad back in autumn and December. Well, one of the reasons quite certainly were the usual series of injuries that have plagued the Hammers all season (short and long term), but maybe it was also the club’s handling of Arnie’s transfer request which had a detrimental effect on the squad. And we haven’t got an in-form natural born striker in the team with Andy Carroll injured (again), Chicharito inconsistent or injured too, and Arnie … well, he’s far from being our talisman, as he was last season when his goals kept us up. The “China saga” has turned his head, and no turnaround is in sight so far. West Ham thoroughly miss a forward to score the goals you need to win a game!
Can’t wait for VAR now
Having already spoken about the offside incorrectly given in last weekend’s game and the wrongly ignored offside in Liverpool’s opening goal in the aforementioned draw with the Reds, that leads us to the recently much repeated call for VAR. Being a traditionalist I wasn’t so sure if I was happy with the implementation of the video assistant in the Premier League next season, with all the interruptions of the game and the wait before we will know if a goal is going to stand or not. But in recent weeks, with Manuel Pellegrini rightly saying Manchester United’s penalties in West Ham’s 1-2 loss at Old Trafford a week ago would have been overturned with VAR, and having watched that blatant misjudgment this weekend on TV, also for me VAR now cannot come quick enough. It’s obvious that the referees need assistance and our beautiful game will become more fair with VAR. I think with VAR already implemented in the Champions League and in Germany it‘s overdue in the Premier League now!
So this season will not only be remembered for the beginning of a new area for West Ham United, dubbed the “Pellegrini Revolution“ by me in a former post (maybe a little too early taking into consideration the bumpy ride that followed towards the end of this season!). It will also be the last season without VAR. Well, I now hope and expect that the video assistant having the last word in tricky decisions will help the referees to get right what they have got wrong much too often this season.
An inconsistent campaign
And what has went wrong with West Ham and the “Pellegrini Revolution”, as we will in all likelihood not reach the target of finishing in the top ten of the Premier League? I know many say that we should be happy with mid table security and the fact that despite a really bad start (with 4 games lost in a row) West Ham never was in danger to be dragged into the fight against relegation. But with quite a lot of money spent last summer and a high calibre manager at the helm the Irons should have done better and been much more consistent throughout this campaign! Now I think the gap that has opened between 10th place and the Hammers’ points tally will be too big to be bridged with just three games to play!
I think we will need more steel in midfield next season as Declan Rice and Mark Noble haven’t got enough support in the middle of the park, and we will have to buy a proper striker in summer. Throughout the season I had hoped that the trio of Felipe Anderson, Arnie & Nasri could develop a real threat to our opponents, but due to various facts that never materialised. And also the defence needs improvement as opposition goals have gone in much too easy, not only in recent games! I like Zabaleta and Masuaku going forward and beating their opponents in wing positions, but their crosses frequently lead to nothing and they are beaten themselves much too often in counter attacks. And unfortunately Cresswell and Fredericks haven’t delivered much better either imo. Issa Diop has played very well as a central defender especially in the partnership with “General” Balbuena, but he’s still young and seems to be “overplayed” and out of form recently. Finally MP will have to be more open to develop somekind of “plan B” for certain matches if his “plan A” is not working. I hope he will get a decent transfer kitty, our long term injuries will come back in the summer, and West Ham will be able to offload some of the fringe players and buy wisely; then a new season and a fresh attempt to become a real force in our big claret carpet stadium can start!
Two Cup Finals and a conference ahead
As regards football here in Austria my favourite club Rapid Vienna has done much better in the domestic cup than West Ham have. Sorry, West Ham’s men’s team, I should have said! Because the „honorable ladies“ in claret&blue have sensationally reached the Women’s FA Cup final, West Ham women v Manchester City women in Wembley: only to be played the same day as West Ham’s final home game at the London Stadium! So it won’t be possible that we watch both of these games in London, much to my wife Eva’s pleasure though, as she can avoid a “football overkill” on our trip!
Back to the mighty SK Rapid Wien whose club pastorChristoph Pelczar I have been able to meet recently (in the pic with midfielder Dejan Ljubicic): After a disappointing Bundesliga campaign in which Rapid have not reached the “champions play-off” of the best six clubs in Austria’s new league format, they won a thrilling penalty shoot-out in the cup semis against LASK Linz, and now we’ve got a cup final ahead just days before we fly to London. Fortunately there isn’t a conflict of schedules with this final, so I will be able to watch Rapid on Wednesday and West Ham’s Premier League team on Saturday, and then participate in the LC19 leadership conference in Royal Albert Hall on Monday and Tuesday!
Rapid Vienna take on Red Bull Salzburg on the 1st of May in Klagenfurt, hoping to win their first silverware since 2008! Two years ago Rapid have lost the final against the same opponents at the same venue – now this is an other chance to beat the odds and defeat RBS, the club that have dominated Austrian football for years now. As Rapid is the only club which already has beaten Salzburg in Austria this season, why not do that in the Cup final again?
So I do hope to come to London in high spirits at the beginning of May, and then we’re going to cheer on the West Ham and help them finish the season in good mood, too. I’m sure the LC19 conference will inspire and motivate us then anyway, regardless of the outcome of the football games, though I have some doubts about how it will feel to know that this visit to the UK will be the last one before Brexit comes into effect. Albeit we’ve already thought that of our last stay, back in January !
But you never know with West Ham, and with Great Britain either nowadays …
“Never a dull moment with West Ham United”– das ist ein geflügelter Satz unter den Supporters des Londoner Traditionsklubs.
Dass es mit den Hammers nie langweilig wird, dass da nie etwas nach Plan geht, dass das Wahrscheinliche oft nicht eintritt und dass Hoffnungen und Träume oft zerplatzen wie die Seifenblasen – das hat wahrhaft Tradition und das hat man auch in den Jahren seit der Jahrtausendwende oft genug gesehen:
Mit normalerweise mehr als ausreichenden 42 Punkten sind die Hammers in der Saison 2002/03 dennoch aus der Premier League abgestiegen.
Das Aufstiegs-Play-off 2004 im Millennium Stadion in Cardiff haben sie gegen Crystal Palace 0:1 verloren.
Ein Jahr später schaffte man im selben Stadion gegen Preston North End (1:0) den Aufstieg und legte eine tolle Comeback-Saison 2005/06 in der Premier League hin, belegte den 9. Platz, schlug Arsenal in deren letztem Spiel in Highbury 3:2 und schaffte es mit Manager Alan Pardew nach 26 Jahren wieder ins FA Cup- Finale. Aber im dritten Finale in Folge im Millennium Stadium (2006) kassierte West Ham durch einen Fernschuss von Steven Gerrard praktisch Sekunden vor dem Schlusspfiff den 3:3-Ausgleich und hat das Elferschießen verloren.
Dann wurde die Carlos Tévez-Affäre in der Saison nach dem Cupfinale, als dieser und sein argentinischer Teamkollege Javier Mascherano nach der WM überraschend für West Ham unterschrieben, für den Klub zum Alptraum: Manager Alan Pardew wusste nicht, wie er die beiden Stars in die Mannschaft integrieren sollte, das destabilisierte Team scheiterte im Europacup und verlor ein Match nach dem anderen in der Premier League, bis Pardew durch Alan Curbishley ersetzt und Mascherano an Liverpool abgegeben wurde. Und dabei stellte sich heraus, dass die Verträge der beiden eine unzulässige “third party clause” enthielten, sodass der in der Relegationszone liegende Klub vor einem Punkteabzug zittern musste. Schließlich wurde es zum Gluck nur eine Rekordstrafe von 8,5 Millionen Pfund, es folgte aber ein jahrelanger Schadenersatzprozess gegen Sheffield United, das statt West Ham abgestiegen war und nun mit dem Argument, ohne den im Frühjahr schließlich doch noch groß aufspielenden Carlos Tévez wären die Hammers nicht in der Liga geblieben, Kompensation forderte. (Man einigte sich schließlich auf eine Zahlung von ca. 20 Mio Pfund Schadenersatz an Sheffield Utd, die übrigens erst heuer den Wiederaufstieg in die PL geschafft haben – nach 12 Jahren!
Der Klassenerhalt wurde mit einem “great escape” 2007 doch noch geschafft, aber gleich im Jahr darauf beutelte die internationale Finanzkrise die Irons ganz ordentlich, denn die 2006 als Eigentümer eingestiegenen Isländer um Björgulfur Gudmundsson und Eggert “Eggy” Magnusson gingen bankrott und der finanzielle Niedergang der Eigentümer destabilisierte den Klub auf Jahre, verhinderte Investitionen und führte zum Abschied von Manager Curbishley, gegen dessen Willen Spieler abgegeben werden mussten.
Im August 2006 freute man sich, wieder einen englischen Nationalteamspieler zu haben, als West Ham-Stümerstar Dean Ashton zum ersten Mal ins englische Nationalteam berufen wurde, doch er brach sich im Training den Knöchel und wurde nie mehr der Alte; 2009 wählte der vielversprechende Stürmer mit 26 den Weg in die “Frühpensionierung”.
2010 übernahmen David SullivanandDavid Gold 50 % der Anteile von West Ham von der isländischen Straumur Bank und beendeten die finanziellen Unsicherheiten, ihre Entscheidung, Manager Gianfranco Zola durch Avram Grant zu ersetzen, war aber eineFehlentscheidung: der Israeli brachte die Hammers zwar mit einem 4:0-Sieg über Manchester Utd ins Halbfinale des League Cups – ich sah dann den 2:1 Heimsieg im Semifinale gegen Birmingham (und das Rückspiel wurde “natürlich” 1:3 verloren) -, aber in der Liga ging es bergab und man musste 2011, nach sechs Jahren, wieder in die Championship.
Immerhin gelang diesmal der sofortige Wiederaufstieg mit einem 2:1 Sieg im Play-off in Wembley gegen Blackpool – am 19. Mai 2012 war ich livedabei! – und seither spielt man durchgehend in der Premier League, wenn auch die ersten Jahre bis 2015 unter dem ungeliebten Manager “Big [fat] Sam” Allardyce.
Wenn man sich bei West Ham United in dem oftunbefriedigendverlaufenden “Transfer Window” einmal über eine tolle Neuerwerbung freut, verletzte ich der Spieler garantiert in seinem ersten Spiel oderkurz darauf
Als ein besonderes Beispiel für einenschrecklichen “injury record” ist der Stürmer Any Carroll zu nennen, der an seinen guten Tagen ein toller Mittelstürmer ist, der sich auch nicht zu schade ist, mit seiner Größe hintenauszuhelfen – er war aber in seinen 7 Saisonen seit 2012 mehrverletzt als fit! 2018/19 ist nun definitiv seine letzte Saison bei den Hammers gewesen!
Unter den Eigentümern Sullivan/Gold und Geschäftsführerin Karen Brady entschied sich West Ham, für die Übernahme des in Stratford in Ost-London gelegenen Olympiastadions von 2012 zu bieten und erhielt den Zuschlag, der jedoch bald darauf aus wettbewerbsrechtlichen Gründen wieder widerrufen wurde.
Schließlich erhielt man im März 2013 einen auf 99 Jahre befristeten Mietvertrag, was bedeutete, dass man nach mehr als 100 Jahren den seit 1904 bespielten Boleyn Ground (Upton Park) verlassen musste. Das neue Stadion behielt die Laufbahn für Leichtathletik-Bewerbe, sie wird aber mit einem “retractable seating” verdeckt – dennoch ist das neue Stadion in den Augen er Fans kein “proper football ground” und die ersten Jahre nach der Übersiedlung können sich viele nicht für das “London Stadium” erwärmen.
Vor der Übersiedlung kam für die letzte Saison am Upton Park der ehemalige West Ham-Verteidiger Slaven Bilić als neuer Manager und schaffte in einer hochemotionalen Saison den 7. Platz in der Premier League mit der bisherhöchsten Punktezahl (62), der höchsten Zahl anerzielten Toren (65) und der geringsten Zahl an Niederlagen insgesamt (8) und auswärts (5)in einer PL-Saison. Das letzte Match im Boleyn Ground vlg. Upton Park gewann man mit 3:2 gegen Manchester United! Dann hieß es an einem wirklich geilen Abend, den ich teilweise mit den “Austrian Irons” im Wiener Pub “The Tube Station” verbrachte: “Farewell Boleyn!”
Der Start im mit mehr als 50.000 Zuschauern (statt 34.000 im alten Boleyn Ground) stets ausverkauften neuen Stadion war höchst durchwachsen, Team und Fans brauchten, wie schon erwähnt, sehr lange, um sich zu akklimatisieren. Sogar heftige Fanproteste samt einem angekündigten – kurzfristig dann doch wiederabgesagten – Protestmarsch gegen die Klubführung gab es in der zweiten Saison im London Stadium, als West Ham gegen den Abstieg kämpfte. Slaven Bilic wurde durch David Moyes ersetzt und die Hammers schafften mit Marko “Arnie” Arnautovic, den Moyes erfolgreich zum echten Stürmer umfunktionierte, doch noch den Klassenerhalt! Moyes’ Vertrag wurde aber dennoch nicht verlängert.
Und das war gut so, denn mit Manuel Pellegrini kam ein Manager von wirklichem Format, und das Board rang sich endlich auch zu echten Investitionen in die Mannschaft durch. Typisch, dass dann dieersten vier Ligaspiele unter dem neuen Manager verloren wurden, wichtige Neuerwerbungen lange verletzt waren, der “Hammer of the Year” der Vorsaison, Schlüsselspieler Arnautovic im Jänner nach China wollte und monatelang außer Form war, dass West Ham nach dem Monat mit den meisten gewonnenen Matches seit Bestand der Premier League (Dezember 2018) und einem tollen Sieg gegen Arsenal im Jänner 2019 im FA Cup gegen denDrittligistenWimbledon ausschied. (Dennoch: mit MP als Manager war 2018/19 eine am Ende sehrpositive“transition season”.)
Meinen Lesern fallen sicher noch jede Menge weitere “bubbles” ein, deren Zerplatzen uns immer an den berühmten West Ham-Song erinnert, der sogar anlässlich der Eröffnung der Olympischen Spiele 2012 bei der großartigen Eröffnungszeremonie gesungen wurde (oben).
“Never a dull moment with West Ham”, das wird auch in der kommenden Saison wieder gelten und die Irons werden uns sowohl Freude als auch Seifenblasen und und Enttäuschungen bescheren. Aber mit Manuel Pellegrini am Steuer lebt die Hoffnung, dass die Hammers nach 40 Jahren (FA Cup-Sieg gegen Arsenal 1980) wieder einmal “silverware” gewinnen könnten. Hoffentlich kann der eingeschlagene Weg 2019/20 weitergegangen werden!
Die letzten beiden Folgen dieser Netflix-Serie hatte ich noch nicht gesehen und heute Vormittag endlich Zeit, sie mir anzusehen. Ich sah zwei Filme voller typischer Fußballgefühle.
Die vorletzte Folge schildert das kurze Aufflackern von Hoffnung bei den “supporters” des AFC Sunderland nach einem überraschenden 4:1 gegen Derby County und den danach endgültig besiegelten, herzzerreißenden Abstieg durch eine 1:2 Heimniederlage gegen Burton Albion. Nachdem die Black Cats lange 1:0 geführt hatten, gerieten sie in den letzten Minuten mit 1:2 ins Hintertreffen, schafften schließlich noch in der “injury time” den vermeintlichen Ausgleich – doch der Referee gab den Treffer nicht, und die Relegation war fix!
Der letzte Teil der Staffel ist dann schon dem Neuaufbruch unter dem neuen Eigentümer Darron Gibson gewidmet. Mit einem unerwarteten 3:0-Sieg über Meister Wolves im letzten Saisonspiel an einem wunderschönen sonnigen Sonntag – bereits ohne den entlassenen Manager Chris Coleman – verabschieden sich die Black Cats von ihren treuen Fans, die auch für die League One ihr “season ticket” verlängern!
In der aktuellen Tabelle der dritten englischen Division liegt die Mannschaft aus der nordostenglischen Küstenstadt am Fluss Wear an 3. Stelle – 9 Punkte hinter Luton und 4 hinter Barnsley. Zumindest für eine Qualifikation für das Aufstiegs-Play-off sollte es reichen, vielleicht gelingt unter Manager Jack Ross, der Chris Coleman nachgefolgt ist, heuer der sofortige Wiederaufstieg in die Championship! Ob es darüber eine zweite Staffel auf Netflix geben wird?
Der Song im Vorspann von “Sunderland ‘til I Die” heißt passenderweise “Shipyards” und erzählt von der harten Arbeit der Werftarbeiter und der familiären Verbundenheit von Sänger Martin Longstaff mit einem von ihnen. Ein gefühlvolles Lied von The Lake Poets, die sich vielleicht nach einer Gruppe englischer romantischer Lyriker des 19. Jahrhunderts benannt haben, die sich um William Wordsworth im Lake District von Cumberlandniederließen.
Der in Sunderland geborene Bandleader, Sänger und Gitarrist Martin Longstaff spielt auf seiner akustischen Gitarre wunderschöne, langsame melancholische Lieder wie “Lonely in the City” und ist sicher auch ein “supporter” der “Black Cats“. Wenn der Wiederaufstieg geschafft ist, sollte er seinem “Black & Blue” und den anderen melancholischen Songs ein neues, freudiges Lied hinzufügen. Vielleicht wird das dann die Signation für die zweite Staffel für “Sunderland ‘til I die”!
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 
Also published with West Ham till I Die (8/6/2019): 
And being the climax of this sequence of play-off games, on Monday the Championship play-off final, this year not being played on a Saturday afternoon but on a bank holiday at 3 p.m., will decide which club will be the third one to be promoted to the Premier League for the 2019-20 season. The venue of all these finals, of course, is the same every year after the play-off finals have returned from their temporary exile in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to New Wembley in 2007.
I’ve watched live in the stadium a “domestic play-off” only once so far, this game being the Championship-play-off between West Ham and Blackpool in 2012 (pic). What a joy that was when Ricardo Vaz Te scored the 2-1 in front of the claret and blue part of the Wembley terraces! I had flown over to London just for that game and returned home the next morning and, having booked very short-term, I had not informed any friends that I would be in London that day. But, as it often happens “by chance”, I bumped into Sam Haseltine who ran the football blogger platform “Football United” by then after the game.
Now I very much hope that also my second play-off, this time at home in Austria, will be a success! Rapid Vienna did very well last season in the Europa League. They beat Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow Rangers FC in the group stages (pic), providing me with some late revenge for Gerrard’s goal in the 2006 FA Cup Final.
EXTRA TIME 
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