After its 2-0 victory over Newcastle United on Monday, East London’s West Ham United sits in an impressive fifth place in the table after five matches, ahead of such prominent clubs as Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Chelsea. The results have to be reassuring for fans of West Ham, as the club is facing perhaps the most important season in its history. So just what is at stake for the Hammers this season?
The 2015-16 season marks the final campaign that West Ham will play at Upton Park, its home stadium that is formally known as the Boleyn Ground. The connection is that the infamous Queen either owned or resided at the ground, which given the reputation of its proper-hard fans, is one of the less violent things associated with this football club. After this season, the Hammers will play their home fixtures at the Olympic Stadium, which increases the capacity to 54,000 from the 35,016 currently at Upton Park. West Ham defeated many other clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur and tiny Leyton Orient for the sole rights to play their home matches at the stadium. With the tremendous increase in revenue that West Ham is expecting as a result of the shift to the Olympic Stadium for Premier League football, as well as the exorbitant amounts of television money flowing into the Premier League, a drop to the Championship after this season would be a financial catastrophe for the club.
West Ham United is a club located in East London that has a very blue collar reputation. Its passionate, sometimes violent, fans were famously highlighted in the movie “Green Street Hooligans” (which is simply a must-watch if you have not seen it already) in which one of the main characters pronounces “West Ham football is mediocre, but our firm is top-notch and everyone knows it.” Yet in spite of the scary reputation of its fans, the Hammers have a very unique ritual prior to every home match. The blowing of bubbles:
While it is a storied club, West Ham has never won a title in either the First Division or Premier League, though it has won 3 FA Cup titles. Recently, the Irons have been famous for the players that passed through its ranks on the way to a bigger and brighter stage, including Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, and Javier Mascherano, among others. After being relegated following the 2010-11 season, West Ham returned the following season and has remained in the Premier League ever since, finishing 12th last season. So far this season, West Ham has been a mystery wrapped in an enigma. New manager Slaven Bilic, who made 48 appearances for the club as a player, replaced “Big” Sam Allardyce, who had managed the club since June 2011. Prior to joining the club, Bilic’s managerial career highlight was his time as the manager of the Croatian national team, who famously defeated England at Wembley to keep the Three Lions from qualifying for the 2008 European Championships.
Under Bilic, the Hammers won 2-0 at Arsenal on the opening weekend, before losing at home to Bournemouth and Leicester City. All they did to follow up on those two losses was to win against Liverpool at Anfield for the first time in 52 years. No big deal. Monday’s win at Newcastle was a vital boost and shows that West Ham can win the matches it is supposed to instead of just against the Champions League contenders away from home. Their next match is on Saturday away against league leaders Manchester City, who have looked invincible to this point, by winning all 5 matches without conceding a single goal.
It is clear from the personnel moves that West Ham made at the deadline that the club understands how important this season is. On deadline day, the club brought in Alex Song, Victor Moses, Nikica Jelavic and Michail Antonio to boost the squad for this vital campaign. By winning away from home against Arsenal and Liverpool, West Ham has shown that it is capable of playing with any team in the Premier League. What will make the difference between simply staying up and challenging for a place in Europe will be whether it gets the full three points against the struggling clubs. If Bilic can coax that kind of consistency out of his club, with the additions that it has made, this could be a truly historic season as the club prepares to transition into the Olympic Stadium next season. At a minimum, Bilic will have to keep the club up so that it can reap the financial windfall it will gather next season, when it could turn into a major player in the Premier League.
Follow Mike Smith on Twitter @thefootiegent
