Kevin Nolan, Mark Noble, Joe Cole and Mohamed Diame inside the Olympic Stadium (Picture: AP Photo)

With the announcement that West Ham have agreed to sell Upton Park, the move to the Olympic Stadium took another huge step to becoming a reality.

The news of the sale to London developer the Galliard Group earlier this month also prompted a fresh round of social media messages from supporters outlining their hope that the move might tempt a billionaire to buy our club and transform us into title contenders – aka Manchester City.

But in the words of the old adage, be careful what you wish for.

West Ham had a brief taste of the high life when those mysterious men from the land of the ice and snow decided to pluck us from obscurity. At the time it seemed as if all our prayers had been answered. But as we know now of course, unlike Mum, we shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Iceland and what a strange period in our history the aftermath of the takeover turned out to be.




On the pitch, we had the Great Escape at Old Trafford and the following year we happily settled for mid-table security under Alan Curbishley, knowing it was only a matter of time before those Icelandic billions had us challenging for a Champions League place.

In March of the 2007-08 season, our owner Björgólfur Guðmundsson was number 1,014 on the list of the world’s wealthiest people compiled by Forbes magazine, which takes an interest in such matters. It reckoned he was worth $1.1 billion. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for a start, at the beginning of the following season our sponsors, XL Airlines, went bust. But worse was to follow as the Icelandic economy went up in more smoke than you get from one of its volcanoes, taking with it our dreams of trips to the Bernabeu and San Siro in search of European glory.

About this time, Forbes revalued Guðmundsson’s net worth slightly – to $0. Be fair, that’s a spectacular decline, even by West Ham’s standards.

Perhaps we were just unlucky. Some billionaires actually manage to hang on to their money long enough to make a significant difference to the fortunes of the club in which they invest.

Roman Abramovich has bought the Champions League for Chelski, and Sheikh Mansour’s dollars have brightened up Manchester City’s trophy cabinet no end over the past few years. But, and I ask this in all seriousness, does this kind of success give the supporters a lasting sense of satisfaction?

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Chelsea’s fortunes were transformed with Roman Abramovich’s money. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

Success is like a drug – the more you have, the more you need. And if the supply suddenly dries up, the withdrawal symptoms can be excruciating. But the real problem with being taken over by a billionaire is that they want an instant return on their investment, and to get it they will happily rip the soul out of your club.

Let’s face it, you don’t support a team like ours because of the glittering prizes. It’s been a long time since a West Ham captain hoisted aloft a significant trophy. And I’m not expecting to win anything any time soon, particularly with a manager who sees cup competitions as nothing more than an annoying distraction from surviving in the Premier League.

So why do we put ourselves through the agony of hoping for the best yet fearing the worst, week in, week out?



Winning is great, but there’s so much more to it than that. Long after results have been forgotten, we remember something that goes much deeper, whether we’ve won or lost.

Give us effort, determination, skill, a pride in the badge, an understanding on the part of the players that wearing the claret and blue really matters, and we go home wanting more.

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