Lord Mayors Show and West Ham

 Lord Mayor's Show and West Ham

This morning the London streets will once again be alive with the vibrancy and traditional colour that normally accompanies the early stages of November. It's the Lord Mayors Show and we all know what that means or perhaps we don't. For those of a claret and blue allegiance and who spend so many excruciatingly painful moments with our football team, it could only spell either complete disaster or glorious redemption. It'll be a case of after the Lord Mayors Show which is a sure sign that this could be a critical day in the recent history of West Ham United. Will it be a dreadful anti-climax or a new manager? We shall see.

The indications are pointing to the exit door for West Ham's Spanish toreador of a manager Julen Lopetegui who is now entering the end of his first four months in charge of the club. When Lopetegui arrived, most West Ham fans must have thought they'd be celebrating with endless street siestas and fiestas, castanets rattling with some conviction, bullfighters swishing their capes outside the Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford and paellas all around. And don't forget the jellied eels, cockles and whelks for tea. 

After that memorable night in the UEFA Conference Final when David Moyes claret and blue of vivacious vintage, lifted their first European trophy for 57 years, it was widely felt that West Ham were on a road to paradise, that the club would romp to a whole succession of FA Cup victories and,quite possibly, an elusive first ever Premier League trophy. But the latter was dismissed as wishful thinking and probably always will be. 

But Moyes left the club at the end of last season having perhaps overachieved at the club and since then the club has been on an alarming downward spiral. We might have known this would happen. At the moment, West Ham face their most important afternoon in the Premier League. A thumping 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest's City Ground last week was preceded by a heartwarming and auspicious Premier League victory over Manchester United who would subsequently lose their manager Erik Ten Hag as a result of United's 2-1 defeat at West Ham's London Stadium. 

And yet the gloom and doom naysayers would probably have predicted yet more embarrassment had Moyes stayed at the club. There can never be a happy medium for any football team at any stage of the season regardless of who they are and whatever level they play their football. The balance and chemistry has to be right and for West Ham, the test tubes and bunsen burners still look pretty hazardous. Their football is going through the doldrums, that bleak wilderness where everything looks to be going well but then slumps into a depressing despondency when the team leak goals like a kitchen sieve. One minute up, the next face down on the pavement. 

Last Saturday,  and not for the first time, West Ham's crucial defensive midfielder Edson Alvarez was sent off for a criminally rash tackle and you could almost hear the despairing sighs in the Billy Bonds household. Bonds was a seasoned warrior and crusader for West Ham over 40 years ago but you suspect even he would have been horrified at some of the cringe worthy defensive cock ups and horrendous indiscretions at the heart of West Ham's current defence. What Alvarez thought he was doing at Forest last week defies belief and now the back of West Ham's back four will creak and wobble like a loose fence.

A couple of weeks before that forgettable moment in West Ham's latest Premier League fortunes, things went from bad to worse. For much of the season there have been wide open spaces between both defence and attack which certainly couldn't been have filled with putty. The sense of disconnect and negligible communication between Lopetegui's men, has been horribly noticeable. 

But when Mohammad Kudus, the club's magical and mercurial winger, eyeballed his Tottenham counterpart just over a month ago, it felt that as though the joy had been sucked out of West Ham. Kudus, reacting with all the brash petulance of a four year old at nursery, promptly pushed the Tottenham defender Micky Van Der Ven in the face and then kicked Spurs midfielder Pape Matar Sarr quite violently. What on earth would the late and great Bill Nicholson have thought at such madness and impetuosity?

Kudus now faces a lengthy, and what could prove to be costly, ban from the game and the chances are that if things don't pick up for West Ham, then the club could stare collective daggers at the Ghana international. There is an increasing sense of disenchantment at the East London club since it's all the manager's fault and besides, who else should take the responsibility for the sudden decline at West Ham?

For those with older memories, November has never been the most rewarding time for our claret and blue Saturday afternoon cigarette card heroes. You are now taken back to the mid-1970s when Jimmy Armfield's skilful and disciplined Leeds United side took an early lead at Upton Park on a wintry afternoon at Upton Park and never relinquished it. In hindsight, it was an almost traditional occurrence because a majority of West Ham fans always knew the club were locked in a struggle as soon as the body language betrayed them.

At half time the floodlights would sputter on reluctantly and the North Bank residents at Upton Park would regularly illuminate the day with their familiar light show of Benson and Hedges cigarettes. West Ham would never score in a month of Sundays and if the game had been allowed to drag on uncomfortably until midnight, not a single West Ham player would look like scoring against Leeds. So the Hammers supporters resigned themselves to fate and accepted defeat almost submissively without so much as a whimper. 

This afternoon, West Ham face an Everton side who, although labouring precariously themselves near the bottom of the Premier League, have something about them in situations such as this. Under Sean Dyche, they still look like a bunch of hod carriers at a building site at times.Their football is organised but frail, direct and distinctly unpalatable to the purists with a discerning taste for the game. In fact, that dramatic points deduction last season almost cost Everton their place in the Premier League. There was a shoddiness and dreary predictability about their football last season. But to those who fear the worst at times, West Ham could be in for an ugly and rude awakening for the club if Everton sense blood at the London Stadium.

If the club are looking for any semblance of omens, then previous confrontations with Everton could be of immense comfort to West Ham. The famous FA Cup semi final victory for the East End club against Everton in 1980, will always be remembered for the remarkable Frank Lampard senior diving header winner at Elland Road on a warm and sultry night. And then there was the afternoon when Ronnie Goodlass, a sterling and battle- hardened Everton defender, picked up the ball on the half way line at Upton Park and promptly lobbed the ball over the head of a helpless West Ham keeper Mervyn Day.

So it's make or break for those of a claret and blue predilection. West Ham are now in their almost customary state of grim melancholy and malaise. Recent seasons have thrown a smokescreen over the real West Ham since David Moyes, although never associated with the prettier side of the game, still guided the team to another safe top 10 position in the Premier League. European football is just some distant Hollywood fantasy film from many moons ago but Julen Lopetegui will take his technical area at the London Stadium and look at a sea of blue. Everton were once referred to as the Bank of England side but this will be no home banker for humble, always vulnerable West Ham United. We must hope for the best but, hey it's only a game.