Yes I know, its not exactly the glitz and glamour you'd associate with some other clubs but it's too late to change now, i'm well and truly in love.
This love is probably the main reason that I have a major problem with the way that David Sullivan and his goat-like sidekick David Gold have conducted themselves since they took over West Ham United last month.
In all honesty it's a shame that they have driven me to this outrage after their achievements with my beloved Blues. In 15 years they turned us from a club in the third tier of English football into a Premier League club (then Championship, then Premier League again). Before selling us on for a healthy profit to a wealthy investor who wants to turn the club into a major league contender. They also balanced the books and made us the only top flight club with £0 of debt. So in all they did alright.
But I still hate them.
One thing that always managed to irritate us bluenoses was the uncanny ability to pretend they were trying to make us huge when in all honesty they were running a business. My all time favourite was after Steve Bruce left the club. The first person they offered the job to was Italian World Cup winning gaffer Marcelo Lippi. Wonderful you might think? Not so much. This was one instance in a long line of attempts to impress us fans. Simply make a bid for someone out of our league to impress the fans, knowing full well that the player/manager in question will rebuff the offer but hey, at least they tried.
It now seems the West Ham fans are being lead down the same garden path. The attempts to secure the Olympic Stadium as the future home of the Hammers will not be the last time they let you down so you'll have to get used to it!
Now for the serious bit. When Sullivan and Gold sold Birmingham City, there was a payment issue that caused a rift between the comedy duo and new Blues owner Carson Yeung. By refusing to settle the payments, the ex-owners infuriated Bluenoses everywhere (mainly in the Birmingham area) and any shred of adoration that was left for the pair disappeared.
It now seems that they are trying to undermine the progress of Birmingham every time they make an appearance on telelvision. They are persistent in their claims that West Ham are a bigger club despite having less money and more debt, currently sitting five places and 13 points below the midlanders in the the Premier League and being eliminated from all cup competitions while Birmingham look forward to an FA Cup Quarter-Final on Saturday.
Not only this, but they have begun attempting to steal players from under our noses as if on some sort of childish revenge mission. First there were claims they would attempt to take Joe Hart on loan next season despite his major success this year under the guiding eye of Alex Mcleish. Now Sullivan has decided to announce his intentions to snatch Ecuadorian striker Christian Benitez over the summer.
These are further examples of the false hope they are giving to Hammers fans. They have admitted the club are hugely in debt and cost cutting measures need to be made, so why tell the fans that they will chase a highly rated young goalkeeper and a £10 million striker when they are currently struggling to pay the cleaners. Surely they can't keep up this charade forever? Birmingham will out muscle financially anyway and after both players have spent a successful year developing under Big Eck at Blues, neither would be likely to move on. But hey, as I said before at least they tried.
It would be nice if football club owners could start running a club with the fans and the football in mind rather than just trying to win a popularity contest and make some money. I highly doubt that West Ham will suffer the same fate as Portsmouth under the current owners, but they will have to accept mid table mediocrity for as long as it takes for them to sell the club they "love" for another one that they "love".
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