‘Fog’ at West Ham

No stadium represents a better metaphor for hope and impossible dreams than the London Stadium with West Ham United matches. When their passionate fans welcome the players and when Hammers goals are celebrated, hundreds of soap bubbles float with their colors in the air of the stadium, thus honoring the beautiful song ‘I’m forever blowing’ bubbles’ where they show their attachment to the east London club. Against Arsenal, last Saturday, in the capital derby, this time there were no goals to celebrate and, instead, a shout for general complaints about the game of the team coached by the Basque Julen Lopetegui (Aspiazu, 1966), which got the first big fight from East End fans.

It is not a good sign that the very loyal West Ham fans leave their seats before the games are over. This has been happening since the beginning of the season. The stands of the London Stadium were empty after the win against Arsenal (2-5), but it also happened before against Aston Villa (1-2), Manchester City (1-3) and Chelsea (0-3 ) in the last minute of the games, which brings a disturbing image to a club with deep roots and deep feelings.

The dark atmosphere surrounding the ‘hammers’ worsened. Their fans who traveled to Leicester on Tuesday ended up erupting after falling again (3-1) and did not hesitate to express their anger and dissatisfaction. They did it with shouts of dismissal for the coach. ‘You’re getting sack in the morning’, they sang angrily to a pale man. Lopeteguiafter ending another disappointing and very strange match, in which their players launched 31 unsuccessful attacks and 10 shots on goal for Leicester, only to concede a goal and eventually succumb to the debutant ‘foxies’ that Van Nistelrooy.

Bad environment

This open disaffection with the club portends a bad end. LopeteguiHowever, he defended his position and ignored the criticism. “I only care about the next training session,” he said to the owners, deploring the bad luck that afflicts his players, in a situation that does not allow them to combine two good results and a few weeks of peace . With many signings and a squad to assemble, the Spanish coach asked for more time, but he is under pressure and has an ultimatum, a victory on Sunday against Wolverhampton, one of the three teams in the relegation zone.

This atmosphere of nervousness and tension surrounding the ‘hammers’ was palpable in the locker room tunnel, in the match against Arsenal, when Lopetegui and one of the signatories, the French Todibothey discussed openly, to which the whole English press listened. The journey of the Guipuzcoan coach has not started well in a club that has placed great hopes on changing the coach. Despite several good seasons and the European title in the 2022 Conference League, the departure of David Moyessix years later, criticized for his overly defensive tactics, was widely celebrated. In Lopetegui They are looking for a brave coach for a new, more exciting phase, with the model of Aston Villa and Unai Emery reference To look for similarities, even the two clubs dress alike. And maybe that’s why the leaders chose Lopeteguialso winner in Sevilla, like Emeryin addition to having a short but positive experience at Wolverhampton, which he left due to a lack of investment in transfers.

But, far from the similarity that also gives the same results, West Ham does not grow or improve, paying the price of a very difficult schedule, which forced it to play against the English giants of the Premier in its first matches in London Stadium. Everyone has passed him. The signatures of the technical director Tim Steidten ( Füllkrug, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Summerville, Guilherme, Todibo and Guido Rodríguez), with a value of more than 150 million pounds, has not been fixed, and also the scorer Füllkrugsigned for 27.5 million from Borussia Dortmund, has not played so far due to an Achilles tendon problem.

The ‘Black Bubble Protest’

All this heavy investment caused, at the same time, great dissatisfaction among West Ham fans, who saw the prices of their season tickets rise above inflation, and who had to make some concessions which they withdrew, especially among disabled fans and those under 21 years of age. year old, now forced to move to more inaccessible and worse areas of the stadium, causing families and friends to be separated. Complaints were centralized in the Hammers United collective, which on match days in London protested by launching black balloons, with the slogans ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ and ‘Save Our Concessions’, in the so-called Black Bubble Protest.

This discomfort paralleled the poor results and a petition against the changes: “The owners are deceiving us,” they declare. The ‘cocknie’ fandom of the ‘hammers’ is spreading throughout the East End of London, a former working-class area of ​​the English capital now transformed into an artistic and very fashionable neighborhood due to its wide multicultural offering. It is one of the pastimes most closely associated with its club and most felt its colors. You always have to listen to them. Driven by this atmosphere of tension, the president and largest shareholder of the London club, the Welshman David Sullivaneviction may be expedited Lopeteguidespite the dream they both had six months ago.