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February 2011 seems like an awfully long time ago but it will stick out in the memory of West Ham, the history of the club and maybe some of the supporters will remember it as well.

Seven years ago, the Hammers were first mooted as being the new tenants to the Olympic Stadium built for the London 2012 games. It would take a further three years before co-chairman Karren Brady struck the "deal of the century" to move the team from it's spiritual home of the Boleyn Ground to Stratford.

Not until the summer of 2016 - after £429m of cash - would West Ham would walk out at the London Stadium for the first time in that Europa League tie against NK Domzale, a 3-0 win for the Hammers under Slaven Bilic.

But since then it's certainly been a real struggle to get to grips with their new surroundings.

Back in 2011, Brady, writing in her column for The Sun, wrote a piece looking to the future in 2014 (she was a couple of years out) about what life would be like for the team in their opulent, shiny, new leviathan of a stadium.

Boy oh boy, do some of those words look questionable now. This was all hypothetical of course at the time but looking back on them now, it raises eyebrows.

What Brady said

"I've received so many positive messages. Even Daniel Levy sent me a message of good luck from the Bahamas and I will certainly raise a glass to him today."

(Image: Tom Shaw/Getty Images)

What West Ham got

Certainly no messages from Daniel Levy, who has overseen Spurs' new stadium build and leaving West Ham no doubt looking on with envy at what their bitter rivals are managing to achieve in north London with their new home.

What Brady said

"In a way everything and nothing has changed at the same time."

What West Ham got

Everything has changed. There is nothing else to say.

What Brady said

"We have spent the last three years consulting with supporters and involving them in what you see today - a stunning Olympic Stadium fit for

purpose. We have kept our promises.

"We have delivered exactly what we promised. This is a community stadium on a grand scale and it has set the bar for the world to follow.

(Image: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

What West Ham got

Not what was promised. Temporary stands at first held together with cable ties, technical areas you can have a tennis match in, enormous distances between the front row of the stands and the pitch. Not a stadium fit for football purpose.

What Brady said

"To look at what we have achieved and even contemplate that the Olympic Stadium we know and love could have been demolished is enough to make you shudder.

"We can look back with pride on February 2011 and know that we all did the right thing."

What West Ham got

A stadium that basked in glory for two weeks in 2012 but has since caused nothing but aggravation, absurd costs, constant problems and nothing to be proud of just yet. There have been good moments for sure, but the majority of them have been, well, not so good.

A summary, then

Not even Brady could have envisaged how difficult the move has been from their 112-year-old grand old girl of a home to this fresh-faced, teenage, young-upstart stadium the club will occupy for the next 98 years.

What should have been a brand new start in a glorious new home has been dogged by on-pitch struggles. What fans were promised has turned out to be a long way from that - dogged by crowd trouble, lapse security and outrageous costs spiralling completely out of control.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was roundly mocked when he suggested Spurs take the stadium, knock it down and rebuild it - something the former Icelandic owners of West Ham also considered doing before realising they didn't actually have any money left.

(Image: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty)

West Ham were adamant they could run the London Stadium as a multi-purpose venue and that's one of the main reason they won the tender, to keep the Olympic legacy alive and well in the impressive park. As an athletics venue, the London Stadium is truly world-class, but for football?

The building of the International Quarter in Stratford, along with the already in place monstrous Westfield shopping centre and high-rise tower blocks and the gentrification of West Ham's new surroundings, mean the self-proclaimed "trendiest postcode in London" is in danger of swallowing up the working class football club that currently rents a house there.

Some might say the prawn sandwich brigade are already making their presence felt.

What to do next

West Ham can't go back to Upton Park, not unless they want to buy a plush new two-up two-down house. But they can't leave the London Stadium either. Can you imagine the objection to the club knocking the stadium down just to build it up again?

It's not a football stadium, it's an athletics stadium with a football pitch in the middle of it and for the Hammers to re-discover their identity, they need to move away from E20 but the simple fact is they can't.

So, are we going to have to just like it or lump it for the next 98 years?

Probably.

Maybe Baroness Brady did get it right in that column back in 2011. "In a way, everything has changed..."

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