These are worrying times for West Ham United supporters. Their team sits second from bottom in the Premier League table and there are myriad issues hanging over Upton Park. Financial instability, a long-running injury crisis and prospective FA sanctions all threaten to derail the club’s season.
Boss Gianfranco Zola has denied his team is in crisis. Indeed, they have a game in hand and would leap to 13th if they won it, so the Hammers can hardly be called relegation candidates just yet. They have more quality in their squad than most of the teams that surround them.
However, players win nothing on paper, as Irons fans will tell you. Their talented team, containing Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe, was relegated in 2002/03 with 42 points, a haul that would usually guarantee survival.
The plight of that team helped dispel the myth that teams are ‘too good to go down’, so having the current England goalkeeper (Robert Green) and two other regular squad members (Matthew Upson and Carlton Cole) should not necessarily allow for complacency to creep in. West Ham need points if their odds of premiership survival are to improve.
The team is short in other areas. The injury troubles of Dean Ashton have denied Cole a regular strike partner and the stream of strikers arriving from European clubs has not solved the problem. The centre of midfield needs bolstering.
Unfortunately, the club continues to be more active selling players rather than buying them, so the January transfer window might not provide relief. The resolve to keep hold of Upson in particular will be tested.
West Ham continue to play attractive football under the stewardship of one of the managerial good guys. At the moment Hammers fans would gladly swap style for substance.’