It’s quite incredible to believe that this time of year two years ago, West Ham were up in the top half of the table, battling for a place in the Europa League with players like Dimitri Payet leading the line. Now only two years later the club resembles nothing like Slaven Bilic’s 2015-16 team and with the recent rioting that went on in this weekend’s fixture versus Burnley, it seems as if West Ham’s future is not something for the fans to be excited about.
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In case you missed it, this weekend’s game at the London Stadium featuring West Ham and Burnley was pretty uninteresting until the 66th minute, Burnley’s Ashley Barnes fired the Clarets into a 1-0 lead and it was at that moment the West Ham supporters lost their patience, a number of spectators invaded the pitch and one even made West Ham captain Mark Noble so angry that he met him with violence with keeper Joe Hart having to intervene. After the dust had settled things did not get better for the Hammers as Chris Wood doubled Burnley's lead only seconds after resuming play. West Ham fans had had enough and gathered together under the Executive Tier and protested against the board and owners David Sullivan and David Gold. West Ham ended up losing 3-0 at home with even the owners leaving the ground before the full time whistle.
This protest by the West Ham faithful does not come out of thin air, for a long time now supporters have been frustrated with the club’s policies, transfers and investments. West Ham were blossoming in the 2015-16 season which was their last at their beloved Upton Park where the following season they would move to Queen Elizabeth’s Olympic Park, also known as the London Stadium. Their 2016-17 season was a complete disaster with the atmosphere dropping significantly as well as a string of terrible results, West Ham boss Slaven Bilic would though keep his job until last fall when he was replaced by David Moyes who made an impact early on but has been struggling recently with players like Marco Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini not making the best of displays and with the crowd now seeming more focused on protesting the club’s board, the players are not getting the support they need to get themselves out of this pickle they have found themselves in.
It is safe to say that at this moment that the future is dark in East London if things continue the way they have in recent weeks with fans demanding the owners to step aside. The rest of the season is now do or die for West Ham in order to escape relegation and with games left such as away to Chelsea and Arsenal and home to leaders Man City, including vital relegation battle matches against Southampton and Stoke, it does not look good for the Hammers and not only would relegation be a disaster, attendance may drop and for a team with a massive stadia such as the London Stadium, where they do have to pay 2,5 million pounds every season in rent money, administration in the next ten years is definitely not out of the picture.
Post by: Emil Árnason
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