There is no stereo typical West Ham fan, we come in all shapes, sizes, colour, gender etc etc and yet I sometimes wonder how some come to support West Ham, what makes someone choose to support the club. I mean if your given a free choice what is it about us that people go, "their the team for me".
I had no choice, literally in bred into me as a baby, my 1st football hero as a kid growing wasnt any star player of the mid 70's but my cousin who was a youth player at the club with the likes of Curbs and Alvin Martin. He never made it but I remember sitting round my aunts house while she ironed his kit and hung it up, so you see the club was all around me I knew nothing else, but yet there are many out there who when faced with a choice choose West Ham, a club that has won nothing in over 33 years, a club that at times resembles a circus rather than a football club. This week on a building site I over heard the site manager (villa fan) talking to an East European who was a hammer, he was banging on about Ravel Morrison, I asked where the bloke was from and his boss said he was Rumanian, but he'd been over here for a few years and that he was indeed a hammer, or "one of your lot" as the foreman described him. But that got me thinking, why, why not Man united or Arsenal or Chelsea. Not just him, just look at the west ham Internet sites and you'll find them abundant with fans who live thousands of miles from here but yet talk (type) about how how well we played, who did well, why we should do it differently. And they are not just Ex pats, Aussies, Canadians, Malaysians, even Americans get in on the act though for the life of me I do struggle to to take what they say seriously, after all their football is played with their hands mainly, and the concept of a draw is just not allowed.
What makes someone who lives 3,000 miles aways, watches the games in the morning, has no connection with the area of west ham, support that team. I was brought up in that you supported your local team as they represented your local area. I'm saying that anyone born outside West Ham should not support us, as our support in my lifetime has predominantly been drawn from West Essex as this was the area that many East Enders were moved to after both Wars, and those that have been brought up hammers fans by parents, or grand parents that have moved away. It's the fans that have no emotional or regional tie but for whatever reason, choose to support West Ham, be it they like the colour of our kit, they saw us on the TV on a good day. I'm pretty sure that the bloke that wrote the book, irrational hatred of Luton supports us because we were In the FA cup final in 1975, all you have to do on a matchday is stand outside the Boleyn pub and look at the foreigners taking their pics of the Green st sign to show that the film of the same name inspired more fans from abroad to follow this club
Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising them, (well may be the Americans), I welcome them all, and long may we keep attracting them, (may be not Americans) like it or not come 2016 we will need them to come and keep coming, I just don't think I will ever understand why people from the far flung corners of the world (or Wales) choose to support this two bob tinpot underachieving let down sorry excuse but yet is the greatest football club any fan could choose to support.
The internet may be the greatest invention ever, the way we communicate and share stories with people round the world at the drop of the hat has made the world a smaller place, but also it has allowed the club to communicate with the fans with much ease, either through the official website, facebook and even twitter. It has also created a demand for information by the users, many now no longer seemed satisfied waiting for the club to announce the signings many seem to want to speculate or try to second guess the goings on at the club, and then there are the ITK’s (in the know). King of the ITK is our owners son, a 13 year old boy who time and time again brings embarrassment on the club, or does he, if you read what his dad says about what his boy gets up to, he just passes it of as basically a folly of youth, asking if whether we should sign a convicted rapist is not a folly of youth. The club is like a circus act in the way we project ourselves and the saying no such thing as bad publicity seems to be the mantra at west ham. Its probably just a sign of the times, as we now live in a 24hr digital media world, and the media world needs feeding. I actually think that the amount of media work our owners and manager do is a clever marketing programme in that if we keep being seen by the public it will increase the brand exposure, but then if football is a business what CEO lets their son lose with inside information and then lets him broadcast it to the world. I thought in business you should keep schtum about your dealings, yet at WHU we have more leaks than Thames Water, we couldn’t even keep our new shirts a secret, pics of them were winging around the internet long before the clubs big Unveiling. Personally I preferred the old days when Chairman were unknown figure heads at the club and who like 13 year old owners sons, should be seen and not heard.
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