West Ham United 25/26 relegation thread

[muskie]

Odds slashed from 5/1 to 7/2.

Watch this space.

I think we're fucked.

[Massive Attack]

Only1billybonds

If /when we go down we could be proper fucked.  Our finances will be completely shot and we might not be coming back.  We'll start off with 40k at rhe ground which will be awful.  It will tail off until we're getting 25 or even 20k

Teams in the first season especially will love playing us.

I fear we go down, stay down and possibly go down again.

with no actual assets, this could mean the end of the club.  Coventry went down decades ago and almost ceased to exist due to in no small part the similar situation not owning their ground

I honestly think it would be less than 20,000 possibly closer to 10,000. Who the fuck wants to put up with all the shit currently at West Ham inside that hell hole? People would be well justified for turning their backs on that scenario. 

Ironically the first to fuck off will be all the Tourists mostly interested in the Prem/opposition but the loyal diehard support has already left in it's droves with some remaining. We drop however, I can't imagine many snapping up season tickets or caring all that much to go under the circumstances of what's they've done to the Club. The thought of it is horrendous.

[goose]

Financially I don’t think it’s as bad as people are making out. Parachute payments will help, and the operating costs of the club are pretty low. 
The wage bill isn’t huge vs other PL teams but will need to be trimmed.

Bowen would obviously be sold, Paqueta would fuck off, we’d probably shift the likes of Fullkrug & Todibo on loan.

one or two seasons wouldn’t be terminal but given how poor our recruitment of staff & players is I wouldn’t have any faith in getting promoted.

[Come On You Irons]

nyc.

My point is,what is to fear about relegation? I know it sounds daft but really,what is so special about the premier league from a purely football fans point of view?  So many of us have for years belived that being in the top tier is everything but its all bollox. Sure, thats where the big money is but so what? Look at our club, supposedly in the top 20 of money makers in the game but that means nothing, the overriding feeling among fans is one of misery and its been this way for a while now. Maybe its me but I really don't care in what league we are playing, we'll still be West Ham and the fans love for the cub wont be diminished because we aren't up there with the so called elites. Fuck the elites and fuck the premier league!

 

 

This is a good philosophical point. I suppose the point of being in the top flight is to compete and progress as a football club. The likes of the "three Bs" (Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton) have done this, and Crystal Palace and Newcastle have done this and won their first ever trophy and first trophy for decades respectively. They both ended their trophy droughts whilst we plod along and and now gone 45 years and counting without winning a major domestic trophy.

Of course the above all comes down to one thing. Ownership. All of those five teams above have good, progressive, decent owners and all five club have outperformed us in recent seasons (our win of the third rate European trophy aside).

All are the antithesis of West Ham London since 2010 with WHL being part owned, chaired and controlled by a dodgy former porn baron who's clear MO is to just spend enough to keep the club on the Premier League gravy train and finish at least 17th every season.

There is no more ambition than that. The man is a cancer on the club and a spiv and a liar. He deserves relegation much more than the long suffering core support does.

[Mad Dog]

Only1billybonds

If /when we go down we could be proper fucked.  Our finances will be completely shot and we might not be coming back.  We'll start off with 40k at rhe ground which will be awful.  It will tail off until we're getting 25 or even 20k

Teams in the first season especially will love playing us.

I fear we go down, stay down and possibly go down again.

with no actual assets, this could mean the end of the club.  Coventry went down decades ago and almost ceased to exist due to in no small part the similar situation not owning their ground

[Massive Attack]

Given a choice between all  the razmatazz bollox on offer in the premier league or the more honesty and grit championship football, I know where I'd rather be. Owners want the financial rewards of the prem, football fans will stand by their club regardless of what level they're playing at. Relegation isn't to be feared, if and when it happens, its to be embraced

Not in that Stadium, my friend. It's horrific enough whilst in the Prem let alone the thought of it in the lower divisions....

[nychammer]

nyc.

My point is,what is to fear about relegation? I know it sounds daft but really,what is so special about the premier league from a purely football fans point of view?  So many of us have for years belived that being in the top tier is everything but its all bollox. Sure, thats where the big money is but so what? Look at our club, supposedly in the top 20 of money makers in the game but that means nothing, the overriding feeling among fans is one of misery and its been this way for a while now. Maybe its me but I really don't care in what league we are playing, we'll still be West Ham and the fans love for the cub wont be diminished because we aren't up there with the so called elites. Fuck the elites and fuck the premier league!

I agree with much of what you say regarding not having to be top tier, so long as the match day experience is still largely the same, which at the Boleyn it would have been, but it just wont be in an oversized soulless athletics stadium. Saying that, I left the UK a 15 yrs ago and have only been to LS once since, but was a STH at UP for many years, so maybe I'm wrong.  I do think the away days will be a lot of fun, so there's that at least!!

[only1billybonds]

nyc.

My point is,what is to fear about relegation? I know it sounds daft but really,what is so special about the premier league from a purely football fans point of view?  So many of us have for years belived that being in the top tier is everything but its all bollox. Sure, thats where the big money is but so what? Look at our club, supposedly in the top 20 of money makers in the game but that means nothing, the overriding feeling among fans is one of misery and its been this way for a while now. Maybe its me but I really don't care in what league we are playing, we'll still be West Ham and the fans love for the cub wont be diminished because we aren't up there with the so called elites. Fuck the elites and fuck the premier league!

[nychammer]

Given a choice between all  the razmatazz bollox on offer in the premier league or the more honesty and grit championship football, I know where I'd rather be. Owners want the financial rewards of the prem, football fans will stand by their club regardless of what level they're playing at. Relegation isn't to be feared, if and when it happens, its to be embraced

Would be ok if we have Upton Park, but do you really want to embrace watching us get beat every week in the half empty bowl because it’s as about as intimidating as Mary poppins? I get the decent away days etc but at “home” for what’s left of  the majority it’s going to be fucking shit. 

There’s no “core” of this side that can propel us back. We’re properly poor. The very worst case is coming home to roost. I think if we go down then we go down for a while.

[only1billybonds]

Given a choice between all  the razmatazz bollox on offer in the premier league or the more honesty and grit championship football, I know where I'd rather be. Owners want the financial rewards of the prem, football fans will stand by their club regardless of what level they're playing at. Relegation isn't to be feared, if and when it happens, its to be embraced

[Mike Oxsaw]

Sullivan's basically painted himself into a corner with no way out. He did this all by himself as he gave no authority to anyone else to sign the cheques.

If you fly by the seat of your pants, mortgaging your day-to-day operations against potential future earnings using payday loans, it's no surprise that those future earnings will never, ever materialise if you don't invest wisely in your core business at the appropriate time and hedge against a drop in the general economic situation.

Should have built a team (of equals) around Rice, not expect him to carry the other 10 on the pitch: equally, should have built a team around Payet, for exactly the same reason.

Sullivan wouldn't even consider doing so because it would have meant most transfers needed to build such a "next level" team would go through agents other than his mates.

However, I must confess that, should we drop into the fizzy pop league, I shall raise a sly smile should Sullivan not be able to find a buyer on account of the state he's got the club into.

[Tomshardware]

Classic traits of relegation teams are shipping soft goals and not scoring at the other end.    At the moment I can't see this changing.  What hasn't helped at all is Nuno’s bonkers team selections.   All the more baffling after a half decent performance at Everton.

 

[onsideman]

Basically a quarter of the season gone, so no

[Sir Alf]

Yep, we are gone already it could be argued. Seems insane saying that after 9 games but has anyone seen any grounds, however small, for hope? 

[Eastside surge]

No Southampton, no Ipswich this year and by the time January comes around when yet again we panic buy to get us out of trouble sadly I think this time it will be too late as we’ll be to many points adrift 

[zico]

When we have gone down before bar under Roeder when there was no way that team should have gone down, we were always a few players short.  Even in 2010–11 there was still Parker, Noble, Reid, Gabbidon, problem was they were surrounded by crap.  This time around I just don't see much quaility bar Bowen.  From a few players short we are 8 or 9.  Don't think I've seen a worse centre back pairing in the clubs history and that's the big problem.

[Mad Dog]

Nyc.  And Coventry.  They didn't own their stadium and as a result ended up absolutely fucked for years

[pdcwhu]

Lock this thread please 

[boleyn8420]

The side with the worst defence always gets relegation, so let's look at goal difference  okay bad starting point , we are -13, the worst in the whole division. Even worse than bottom club Wolves. We are fucked and no coming back

[nychammer]

The only thing this club will be worth when it goes down is the TV parachute payments, a crap overpaid squad and whatever revenue the dwindling fan following generates

We don't own the Stadium
We wont fill the Stadium
After 2 years we lose the parachute payments - then we are really fucked
We will struggle to be a viable championship side and the fan base will shrink and die off

We become Charlton Athletic with a shitty empty stadium

THE ABOVE will come to pass if we cant get the current ownership out in the next 2 years and investors who can harness the potential and take us off the self destruction path Sullivan and Brady have our famous old club on now. 

I cant attend the protest but believe me I would if I could. If you can please GO, and everyone must sign the petition, there is no excuse for not doing that much.

[eusebiovic]

Might as well give Igor from Young Frankenstein (Marty Feldman) a run out 

[onsideman]

If anyone wanted a true guage of how far we've gone backwards in the past 2 years then the fact that Mavropanos' injury has now made us weaker defensively is really all you need

[Sir Alf]

Igor will be a great fit for our team which is itself, due to lack of long term planning and switching managers and styles, the footballing equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster where none of the constituent parts fit together. 

[Nutsin]

The Brazilian geezer Igor is in the bottom 1% in Europes top leagues for aerial ability ( winning duels) but converself makes a lot of tackles and interceptions apparently?

Got to be worth a shot and tbh we have little choice if, as expected, Newcastle turn us over

 

 

Let me get this right.

We have no center half’s that can head the fucking ball, no holding midfielder, no midfielder with any pace or legs and an old washed up center forward.

And we’ve needed these for fucking ages. 

On top of that we have both our goal keepers that are glued to their line and can’t command the 6 yard box.


How the fuck does that happen to a professional football club?

[Fauxstralian]

Might as well give Igor from Young Frankenstein (Marty Feldman) a run out 

[Sir Alf]

The Brazilian geezer Igor is in the bottom 1% in Europes top leagues for aerial ability ( winning duels) but converself makes a lot of tackles and interceptions apparently?

Got to be worth a shot and tbh we have little choice if, as expected, Newcastle turn us over