Billy Bonds passes

 Billy Bonds passes.

On the weekend when West Ham were once again were humiliated at home and beaten for the fifth time at the London Stadium by Premier League champions Liverpool, West Ham also lost one of their own. After a three match unbeaten run, it looked as though all was well in the world of the Hammers until they were informed that this was not to be the case. It all felt as if all the roses were more fragrant and you could smell the coffee until fate intervened and then it fell apart tragically. Nobody knew how to react or where to look. 

So it was that Billy Bonds, one of the club's red blooded warriors, had died at the age of 79 and the claret and blue punters must have been heartbroken, bereft, inconsolable and crestfallen. For a long time, Bonds had never been in the best of health anyway but nobody could break the spirit of the former West Ham captain. Billy Bonds was indestructible, a wholehearted, indomitable and rugged centre back who would run through brick walls for his team and do his utmost to give everything to the cause. He was the one man who embodied the high standards and values that West Ham had held so dear for so long. 

The sad coincidence was that West Ham were beaten by Liverpool since this had happened before under, admittedly different circumstances but nonetheless the same opposition. When West Ham were relegated for the first time since their promotion to the top flight in 1958 under the shrewd guidance of Ted Fenton, it was the beginning of a new era. Fenton was then advocating the game's finest virtues such as smooth passing, the creation of space, fluid movement on and off the ball and was, essentially, years ahead of his time. 

For the next twenty years West Ham could finally boast their homegrown talent, a side rich in East End promise and a vision for the future. Admittedly, the likes of Malcolm Allison, Noel Cantwell, Dave Sexton and Frank O' Farrell would go on to greener pastures as highly respected coaches and managers with other clubs but then we always knew that West Ham would become a nursery for the great and good within the game. 

And so on the final day of the 1978-79 season, West Ham, struggling for survival in the old First Division, looked over their shoulder of those who had gone before and found themselves hankering after the good old days. Bonds, captain on the day against Liverpool, knew his team had to win in order to retain their top flight status. You were there on the day, cramped together in a small knot on the South Bank at Upton Park with your happy go lucky schoolfriends one of whom was an ardent Liverpool supporter. Sadly, you were resigned to your club's fate and there was nothing any of us could do about that one.

It was 90 minutes later that Bonds and West Ham were relegated to the old Second Division and left the Upton Park pitch with that awful sense of anti climax and severe disappointment that very much comes with the territory as a football supporter. You'd seen the ups and downs, the often painful fluctuations of fortune and now misfortune. There was a hollow sensation in the pit of your stomach until the realisation hit you that your club would be playing the likes of Millwall, Oldham, Preston, Shrewsbury, Leyton Orient and Grimsby. 

But Billy Bonds remained undaunted by the harsh realities of footballing life, a man so single minded in his pursuit of success at any level of the game that nobody was remotely concerned for the club's future. Bonds rolled up his sleeves and wore his heart on them. He was a throwback to the old days when men were men, and battles were there to be won, fearlessly and ferociously. Bonds never accepted defeat in any given scenario, since he was a fighter, scrapping tirelessly for his team, tackling with unflinching determination, refusing to give up and crunching into the opposition as if they were the most wicked of villains. 

Bonds was the personification of everything West Ham represented. There was a controlled aggression about his approach to the game, a man hard but fair, lunging valiantly into the thick of the action and not for a minute worried about his gung ho approach to football. He would slide into attacking forwards as if his life were somehow dependent on it, before lifting up his opposing attacker from the ground with an admirable sense of compassion. He then grinned broadly and smiled amiably. 

It was often said that if a defender was built like a brickhouse and had shoulders like boulders, then that was the template or model for any aspiring team with designs on winning the old First Division. Billy Bonds was somehow impervious to danger or fear because the only thought on his mind was victory and winning Cups hopefully. It was to this end that Bonds began his long and distinguished journey from Charlton Athletic, his first club, to the dizzy heights of the old First Division now known as the Premier League. 

And so back in 1967, West Ham's highly regarded manager Ron Greenwood set his sights on a young, callow defender quite literally wet behind the ears. Bonds seemed to fit the bill quite properly. For the next two decades or so, Billy Bonds became a legend, a moral crusader, always tidy and punctilious off the field and bubbling over with enthusiasm and energy on it. Bonds was the epitome of muscular Christianity, courageous, always adventurous, going beyond the call of duty.  

In 1975, Bonds stepped up the old Wembley steps to receive the FA Cup for West Ham and their opponents Fulham became no more than a footnote in football history, losers in an FA Cup Final and plucky opposition. Five years on and Bonds was back for another bite of the cherry, another attempt to replicate the magnificent achievement that had meant so much to him five years later. In 1980, West Ham, totally unfancied on the day and very much the old Second Division underdogs beat their most illustrious and permanent residents of the old First Division Arsenal. A low, stooping header was enough to bring back the FA Cup to the East End. 

What followed were the fallow years of struggle and reinvention for West Ham. The claret and blue collective were eventually promoted to the top flight and Bonds was almost beside himself with pride. For years, West Ham had rediscovered something of the zest and attacking flair for which the club had been renowned and the years of stability in the First Division came to a grinding halt with frequent relegations and then promotions. 

But then Bonds naturally hung up his playing boots and was appointed manager of the club he had now become totally enamoured of. Bonds chose former playing colleague Harry Redknapp as assistant coach and Redknapp would replace Bonds as boss when the former Charlton Athletic teenager decided to move on. Happily for West Ham, the cordial relationship between both Bonds and West Ham remained intact. Bonds became an off the field ambassador for the club and was rewarded for his unswerving loyalty to the Hammers when West Ham named a stand after him at the new London Stadium. 

There were regular requests for after dinner speeches, questions and answers audiences, charity events and interviews he willingly agreed to take part. Here was a quiet, modest and gracious man, a man who could still talk about the innumerable bruises and long term injuries he'd sustained with the acceptance of somebody who had clearly suffered for his art but never complained about them for a minute. There was never a hint of bitterness at the way he was overlooked by the England hierarchy. Of course we will miss Billy Bonds because he loved the club and the feeling was utterly mutual. Billy Bonds, of course we'll miss you.