Declan‘s return
Apart from the FA Community Shield in 2023 when Arsenal in Declan Rice‘s first competitive game for the Gunners beat Manchester City on penalties, no major trophy has been won by West Ham‘s former skipper so far with his new club.
Noch ein Sieg am Sonntag
Was für ein Sonntag! Auch der SK Rapid verwandelte heute – ebenso wie West Ham – einen 0:1-Rückstand in einen vollen Erfolg!
Was für ein wichtiger Sieg! 2:1 (0:1) für Rapid im Spitzenspiel der österreichischen Bundesliga gegen Sturm Graz.
Die Tore: Das 1:1 ein Traumtor durch einen 30-Meter-Freistoß von Matthias Seidl, an dem sich Rapids Mannschaft aufrichtet! Und dann 2:1 – wieder wie bei den Hammers – durch ein Eigentor nach einem Querpass von Rapid-Verteidiger Cvetkovic (oben links) in den Strafraum! Der Wucht von Rapid und deren Support kann der Meister der Vorsaison nichts mehr entgegensetzen.
Nach fünf Niederlagen in Serie ist Rapid durch Siege auswärts in Ried und in St. Pölten (Cup) und nun endlich wieder im Allianz Stadion zurück in der Spur: Platz 2 in der Bundesliga-Tabelle, einen Punkt hinter dem neuen Leader Red Bull Salzburg!
Am Donnerstag folgt das nächste Europacup-Spiel gegen Uni Craiova. Da müssen, wieder vor vollem Haus in Hütteldorf, die ersten Conference League-Punkte her!
Cone on you boys in green!
A well deserved win!
The Irons dealt so well with adversity in this game against Newcastle when they fell behind early, immediately after having hit the post themselves, and then a penalty call was taken back due to a lengthy VAR check. They stayed on the front foot until they were in front 2-1 at half time thanks to Paqueta’s long range shot and an own goal forced by Wan-Bissaka’s cross.
In the second half a third goal by young Freddie Potts, son of former West Ham player and current coach Steve Potts, who made his full debut in West Ham’s starting XI was not given, but in the end it was substitute Tomaś Souček (above) who sealed the win with the Irons’ third goal against Pope, and the spirited Hammers won coming from behind!
There will be “twist and shout” now in the stands when the fans remain there for 90 minutes during their “lock-in protest” 🪧
The Hammers remain in the relegation zone, three points behind 17th-placed Burnley. The challenge now is to build on this win, starting with the visit of relegation rivals Burnley to the London Stadium next week.
“I think slightly we can see today the players looked a bit more confident,” said a cautiously optimistic Nuno. “We’ll be happy to return to London Stadium again next week,” and it has been a while since a West Ham manager has said that and meant it.
West Ham 3 Newcastle 1. Goals: 0-1 Murphy (4‘); 1-1 Paquetá (35’); 2-1 Botman (og, 45’+5); 3-1 Souček (90‘+7).
Match reports: ▶️BBC ▶️The Times ▶️The Telegraph
Video ▶️ Highlights
Video ▶️ Paquetá 1-1
Elsewhere it might be worse
West Ham have lost all of their home games this season so far. Hence if you want to enjoy yourself at Stratford, you have to treat yourself to some sweets at Caffé Concerto on your way to the stadium, because after entering the much disputed “bowl” things usually turn sour soon after kick-off.
But if you look elsewhere you can find a home form which surprisingly seems to be even more bleak, and I don’t speak of Wolves and their 10-match winless start to the Premier League season. In fact the PL’s worst home record of the year can be found at the supposedly magnificent Tottenham Hotspur Stadium!
Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea meant that Thomas Frank‘s Spurs, albeit currently sitting fourth in the PL table, continue a trend that started under their former manager Ange Postecoglou last season: the north Londoners have won just three of their past 19 home Premier League games (four draws and 12 losses), with no current top-flight side winning fewer home matches since 9 November 2024.
According to the BBC, in England’s top four tiers only Southampton have won fewer home games than Spurs in this period. West Ham have also won only three of their home games since 9 November 2024 (3W 5D 9L), but after all, they gave their fans five draws to cheer about 😉 and today the Irons still have the chance to make amends to their record if they muster their first home win since 27 February 2025. A 2-0 win against Leicester was the Irons‘ last victory at Stratford.
Yesterday the Tottenham players were booed off the pitch after their defeat to Chelsea – a normal reaction of a disappointed home crowd. But what is going to happen after West Ham‘s match against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon, no matter what the result will be, will be very unusual: the supporters will remain in the stands for 90 minutes after the game to stage a sit-in protest against owner and chairman David Sullivan and vice-president Karren Brady and the way they run the club.
After a march before the match against Crystal Palace and the boycott of the last home game against Brentford this is another step following the fans‘ vote of no confidence against the Board due to the state the club currently is in. Owners can break a club’s spirit if they don’t care. And a lot of damage has already been done.
Many former regular match attendees and season ticket holders have decided to no longer go to the “bowl” in Stratford and prefer to watch the Irons’ games on television or only attend away games (and recently protest with black balloons there).
My friend Paul Turner (above left, with Barrie and me at Stamford Bridge) is one of the supporters who is in favour of watching our beloved Hammers only away from home – and has therefore witnessed the only win of this season so far, a 3-0 at Nottingham Forest.
Tim Crane, author of several West Ham books and editor of “The West Ham Years”, whom I had the pleasure to meet up with on my last trip to London at “The Cow” (a pub at Stratford, below) is another dedicated Hammer who doesn’t fancy going to Stratford. He told me that he now prefers to watch the games on TV rather than go to the London Stadium. In November his newest book, looking back at all West Ham squads that played at the Boleyn Ground, will be published (“West Ham United – The Upton Park Years 1904-2016”).
“World class football in a world class stadium”, that was promised by Karren Brady when West Ham moved from Upton Park to Stratford in 2016, the same year in which Rapid Vienna opened their newly built ground in Vienna Hütteldorf with a 1-0 win over Chelsea.
Contrary to the Hammers who won their first European trophy since 1965 with their triumph over Fiorentina in the Conference League final in Prague in 2023, Rapid has not been able to add silverware to their collection of titles from former years. Despite also being able to beat Fiorentina, Rapid‘s 1-0 was only the first leg of their European tie against the Italians in August 2023 and Rapid were eliminated by losing the second leg 0-2. Well, and recently, just two weeks ago, the Green-Whites didn’t stand a chance against the Italians in an other European match. On a cold and wet evening at the Weststadion they were deservedly defeated 0-3 by “La Viola” from Florence.
Albeit Rapid’s „Weststadion“ (aka as the Allianz Stadion) has been designed as a football-only-stadium and their “Block West“ are the loudest and most dedicated “Ultras” in Austria, the green-white fans now have been waiting for another win of the Austrian Cup or the championship since 2008 in vain.
So not everything has gone wrong at West Ham since their move away from Upton Park. There have been great European nights at a sold out London Stadium and with the crowd being behind the team a lot of noise can be generated even inside the bowl. But this electrifying atmosphere very much more depends on the performance of the team on the pitch than elsewhere, and things quickly can go very flat at a venue which has been designed for athletics.
Well, I had my doubts about the Olympic Stadium being fit for football from the beginning (as supposedly many others, too). When vice chairman Karren Brady in a meeting of the then Supporters Advisory Board informed us – after I and the other members had signed two NDAs – about the architecture of the stadium I feared that the atmosphere at the new ground could be underwhelming: the downtilt of the stands at the Olympic Stadium is extremely flat, which evidently results in the seats of the upper tier being very far away from the pitch.
Furthermore, the upper tier is separated from the still somewhat makeshift retractable seating in the lower tier by a gap under which the running track is hidden. The bridges which have been built to cross this gap and the broad empty space between lower and upper tier behind the goals (where the lower stands have been moved closer to the pitch in recent years) make a strange look and these things blatantly give evidence of the problems which are faced when converting a stadium meant to be a multi purpose venue into a proper football ground.
West Ham are unable to make significant changes to the stadium without owning it and London mayor Sadiq Khan recently said that the London Stadium is “a fantastic asset to our great city, in terms of not just the football that takes place there, but the things that take place in other periods, whether it’s athletics, whether it’s concerts, whether it’s baseball and so forth”.
But considering some successful European nights and impressive victories over Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and others that took place at the London Stadium since the move away from Upton Park, there are pros too, and the mayor was not completely wrong when he said that “I know from speaking to friends who are West Ham fans, they’ve had a great experience at the London Stadium”.
And, apart from the fact that the atmosphere at London Stadium, due to its architecture and the design of the stands, much more depends on the performances on the pitch than in other venues, the spacious design also has its undeniable advantages, e.g. if you look at the concourse below the stands of the London Stadium where you’ve got enough space for drink and food facilities and queuing for the loo. On the weekend on which I boycotted West Ham I was at QPR‘s Loftus Road instead of going to the London Stadium: there it was impossible to get to the toilet during half-time because the access was completely blocked by the crowds queuing for food and there was absolutely no room to move in front of the Stan Bowles Stand (below).
Another pro of the London Stadium are the transport links, though this advantage is contrasted by the atmosphere outside of the Olympic Stadium which is underwhelming compared to the former walk from Upton Park station to the now lost ground. Ken’s Café in Green Street and the red West Ham Gates in front of the West Stand are gone forever. Albeit the red gates have been preserved, they now are almost invincible at their new place of installation inside the club shop at Stratford – testament to the fact that the tradition of the Club is in danger of getting lost!
Let‘s hope the players today feel their responsibility for the Club and for the supporters who will turn up again at a stadium they never have really taken to. Let’s be optimistic and blowing bubbles inside the bowl once more! Or is a first win under new manager Nuno Espírito Santo just a dream which will fade and die?
As West Ham midfielder Tomáš Souček put it before the game: This tough situation is “an opportunity for the players to show how much they care”. Everyone who wears the shirt this afternoon should say what Souček (who last time out in the defeat at Leeds United became only the ninth West Ham player to reach 200 Premier League appearances) said in an interview prior to the game: “I am the one who can really change it and help the team in this time.”
Come on you Irons!
60 years “Sound of Music”
West Ham has lost again on Friday against one of the newly promoted teams (Leeds 1-2). The Irons have not won a game since 31 August and are in deep trouble. Are there any worse teams in the Premier League than them at the moment? A dreadful return of just four points in total represents West Ham’s joint-worst ever at this stage of a league campaign, with the club replicating that tally in the second tier in 1932-33 and the 1973-74 campaign when they finished bottom. This season has written relegation all over it.
To distract yourself from these bad prospect here is something to delight your heart:
Rapid verliert fünf Mal in Folge
Es war ein optimistischer Saisonstart, wieder einmal ein Neubeginn! Diesmal mit dem erfahrenen Trainer Peter Stöger, der auch schon in Köln und bei Borussia Dortmund sehr erfolgreich tätig war und beim letzten Meistertitel der Wiener Austria am Verteilerkreis in Favoriten wirkte (2012/13).
Nachdem einige Negativserien zu Saisonbeginn beendet werden konnten und man bis 21. September nur Siege – wenn auch meist knapp (ausgenommen ein 4:1 gegen Wattens) – feierte, riss der Erfolgsfaden zunächst mit einem 1:1 mit Last-Minute-Ausgleich des GAK in Graz und dann endgültig mit der Derby-Heimniederlage gegen die Austria (1:3).
Der Oktober brachte seither nur Niederlagen für Grün-Weiß, und nun macht sich in Hütteldorf Frust breit. In der Europa Conference League endete gestern ein nasskalter Abend im Allianz Stadion mit einer 0:3-Niederlage (Gegentore in der 10., 49. und 89. Minute). Der Support vom Block West war wie immer 1A (siehe oben Bilder der Choreo), aber die Elf auf dem Rasen konnte mit der Fiorentina nicht mithalten – von einem magischen Europacup-Abend, den es in der Vergangenheit oft gab, ist man weit, weit, weit entfernt! Die Mannschaft wirkte verunsichert, es fehlte bei mehreren Spielern an der Form und auch der Einsatz und Kampfgeist scheinen durchaus verbesserungsbedürftig. Schließlich gab es auch Pfiffe nach dem Schlusspfiff.
Die letzte Serie von fünf Niederlagen in Folge für Rapid war im Herbst 2017. Die fünf aufeinanderfolgenden Spiele mit Niederlagen waren:
13. September 2017 0:3 gegen den FC Liefering im ÖFB-Cup.
Danach weitere Niederlagen in der Bundesliga gegen Admira Wacker, Sturm Graz und RB Salzburg.
Die fünfte Niederlage in Folge war am 21. Oktober 2017 mit 0:1 gegen den LASK.
Nun sind das Auswärtsspiel gegen SV Ried und dann ebenfalls auswärts gegen den Tabellenführer der 2. Liga in St. Pölten die nächsten Form- und Charaktertests im Oktober für Rapid – und für Peter Stöger vielleicht schon entscheidende Partien für seine Weiterbeschäftigung in Hütteldorf!
Come on you boys in green! See you again in Hütteldorf in November!
“The Greatest Story Ever Told”
Recently I have read Bear Grylls’ book „The Greatest Story Ever Told“ about the life of Jesus Christ which he describes from the perspective of eyewitnesses.
He recounts the story of Jesus’ birth from the perspective of Mother Mary, he writes how various apostles experienced Jesus, and which kind of encounters Mary Magdalene had with Jesus. The book is written in a very lively style and does make us aware of Jesus’ wonderful teachings and life, and the salvation brought about by his death and resurrection. I can really recommend this book.
Diane Keaton Dies Aged 79
Meine Lieblingsschauspielerin Diane Keaton ist im Alter von 79 Jahren in Los Angeles verstorben.
Einige Jahre lang war „Der Stadtneurotiker“ (Annie Hall, 1977) mein Lieblingsfilm. Ein paar Jahre später wurde er dann aus romantischen Gründen durch „Jenseits von Afrika“ (Out of Africa) abgelöst.
In einem vierzig Jahre später gedrehten Film (Hampstead, 2017) spielte Diane Keaton (geboren am 5. Jänner 1946 in Los Angeles) eine alleinstehende Dame, die in meiner Londoner Lieblings-Neighbourhood Hampstead wohnt und einen in einer Baracke auf der Heath lebenden älteren Aussteiger kennenlernt. Als der aus seiner selbst gezimmerten Behausung vertrieben werden soll, organisiert die Dame einen Rechtsanwalt, der tatsächlich das Bleiberecht des Mannes durchsetzt. Am Ende des Films wird Diane Keaton (die im richtigen Leben stets unverheiratet blieb und sich selbst als “oddball” – Sonderling – sah, von anderen aber als “witzig, originell und ehrlich” beschrieben wird) von Brendan Gleeson mit einem Boot von ihrem neuen Haus an der Themse abgeholt.
Nun ist die große Schauspielerin nicht mehr unter uns.
RIP, my thoughts and prayers are with you!
Austria‘s new record goalscorer & record win
The “Schützenfest“ against San Marino not only helped ex-Hammer Marko Arnautovic with four goals leapfrog Toni Polster as Austria‘s new record goalscorer with 45 goals in 128 matches, but also topped Austria‘s so far highest win, a 9-0 victory over Malta in Salzburg in April 1977.
In that game which also was a World Cup qualifier Hans Krankl (below) scored the first four goals (all within the first half) and hit the back of the net again twice in the second half. The other goalscorers were Josef Stering (2) and Johann Pirkner (2). In 1977 Austria qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 20 years. Now Austria has been waiting since 1998, but the prospects of another World Cup are good, Austria has not lost a single point in their group so far!
Video ▶️ Austria vs. Malta 30 April 1977
▶️ Austria vs. San Marino 9 October 2025
Update: After their 0-1 defeat in the away game in Romania, Austria‘s team is still topping their group with two games to go, but qualification could still be missed depending on the results of their last two games. The upcoming matches played from November 15th to 18th are:
Cyprus vs Austria, Bosnia vs Romania; Austria vs Bosnia, Romania vs San Marino.
Vor elf Jahren …
Das alte Rapid-Stadion wurde durch einen Neubau am selben Ort ersetzt. Klappsitze, Tornetze, Rasenstücke und auch Bugholzsessel aus dem VIP-Klub konnte man um symbolische Preise wie z.B. „€ 18,99“ erwerben, um sich zu Hause an das alte “Weststadion” vulgo “St. Hanappi” zu erinnern (siehe oben links)
Der Neubau wurde gedreht, sodass die von mir meist frequentierte Südtribüne nun dem „Block West“ gehört, die „Süd“ wanderte nach Osten und wurde zur „Allianz Tribüne“, wo es im Sommer mit Blick in die Sonne ziemlich südländisch heiß werden kann!
Einer der weithin sichtbaren Flutlichtmasten blieb stehen, ansonsten ist alles neu und schön in Hütteldorf – nur ein neuer Meistertitel konnte im neuen „Weststadion“ = „Allianz Stadion“ noch nicht gefeiert werden. 2008 gab’s zuletzt eine Meisterfeier und „Teller“-Übergabe, da stand noch das Stadion, das der vorletzte Meistertrainer des SK Rapid, Pepi Hickersberger, „St. Hanappi“ getauft hatte, nachdem es vorher in Erinnerung an seinen Planer, den ehemaligen Rapid-Spieler, von „Weststadion“ in „Gerhard-Hanappi-Stadion“ umbenannt worden war.
Wie jede Saison träumten wir auch heuer am Beginn der laufenden Spielzeit davon, dass wir diesmal dominieren und triumphieren würden, doch aktuell ist – schon zu Herbstbeginn – Sand ins Rapid-Getriebe geraten und Peter Stögers neues Team musste nach einem 1:1 gegen den GAK die ersten beiden Niederlagen hinnehmen: just im Derby gegen die Austria (1:3) und dann beim Conference League-Auftakt gegen Lech Posen (1:4), wobei das grün-weiße Team sich bedenklich schwach präsentierte.
Hoffen wir, dass Peter Stöger die richtigen Worte und die richtige Taktik findet, um sein Team wieder auf Kurs zu bringen. Die Zeit, von jedem einzelnen Spieler deutlich mehr zu fordern und eine gewisse Mannschaftsbildung faktisch zu erzwingen, ist genau jetzt, schreibt Michael Mandl in seinem Kommentar auf abseits.at. Das neue Stadion wartet schon allzu lange auf seinen ersten Titel!
EXTRA TIME 
Recent Comments