Hammered where it hurts.

Walking towards West Ham’s football ground from Upton Park station with thousands of West Ham fans, I pondered the inescapable feeling that the Upton Park faithful seemed unusually cheerful.  Was it the spring sunshine in East London? Was it the fact that they were more or less safe from relegation? You see from my previous life as a match day steward at among other grounds, Upton Park, West Ham fans have not sounded this cheerful since the days when Paulo Di Canio was serving up G and Ts (that’s genius and tantrums). The locals were supposed to be restless, the fans want Big Sam ‘Allardici’ out, Spurs had ‘form’ and were favourites going into this fixture.  

After a depressing run of results in March where the much coveted prize of Champions League qualification disappeared into the distance, the run-in had offered the chance to put a run together and finish the season on a high. Having stuffed Sunderland 5-1, given West Brom a three goal head start before rallying to salvage a 3-3 draw, seen off Fulham 3-1 and came away from an intimidating Britannia stadium with a 1-0 victory over Stoke. So Spurs understandably went into this match against a West Ham side that had lost their last four matches with confidence.

From the start though, it looked like West Ham wanted it more. Andy Carroll, predictably was giving Michael Dawson and Younes Kaboul a hard time and his team mates were winning the second ball. Giving Stewart Downing a chance to run at the back for by playing a high defensive line when the midfield was not closing down space was organisational folly and while Kaboul tried to be cute with the foul, the red card was inevitable, although the goal that followed was unfortunate as it bounced off Harry Kane. Last week, Mark Hughes Stoke City pushed Spurs hard despite being a man down for a large part of the match. Tim Sherwood’s men, although tried to make a game of it, never gave the impression they could control this game.

Mohammed Diame gave the kind of powerhouse midfield play that Spurs fans hoped to see regularly from Paulinho who was completely overshadowed, even attempting a spectacular bicycle kick that any Brazilian would be proud of. With a release clause of just £3.5 million in his contract, Spurs could do worse than sign him, especially if the big sharks come hunting for the Brazilian with a fat cheque. Hugo Lloris as usual, needed to make too many great saves to keep Spurs in the match for comfort, but while he enjoys being involved in the game and always has a self- congratulatory look after making a save, even he was seriously annoyed by the defending for West Ham’s second goal. The 51st goal conceded, six less than Sunderland.

The outstanding Atletico Madrid coach, Diego Simeone said after masterminding Atletico’s remarkable run to the Champions league final that he was grateful to the players’ mothers for giving birth to players with big balls because of the effort the players put in to repel every Chelsea attack. Emmanuel Adebayor and Paulinho, in the defensive wall set up to block a West Ham free kick seemed desperately keen to protect their own crown jewels, parting like the proverbial Red sea to allow Stewart Downing’s unremarkable free kick to go straight through to the Spurs goal. The match was effectively over despite the players’ game efforts to get a foothold in the game.

Trudging around Upton Park after the match, the spring sunshine a marked contrast from my mood, I looked for a pub to watch Manchester United do their level best to finish below Spurs by losing to Sunderland and offer crumbs of comfort to disgruntled Spurs fans who would have taken finishing above Manchester United at the start of the season. Just not with one third of the premiership as well. Watching the match in the midst of cheerful West Ham fans chatter, it struck me that West Ham fans have rather enjoyed being an irritant to Spurs ambitions in recent years, the dodgy lasagne in 2006 which denied Spurs the chance to finish above Arsenal and qualify for the Champions league. Most fans are still to be convinced of the merits of the Olympic park but they enjoyed giving Spurs a bloody nose over the affair and this season, they have beaten Spurs three times for the first time, having also knocked us out of the league cup.

The end of the season is being played out against the background of continuing speculation on Tim Sherwood’s future and which exotic manager will take over yet another rebuilding job with Frank De Boer the latest flavour of the month. I said in an earlier post that chairman, Daniel Levy needed to get an ‘A’ list manager or an ambitious young coach who will be backed and given time. With the managerial execution at Manchester United and Real Madrid closer than ever to ‘La Decima’ Louis Van Gaal and Carlo Ancelotti are now out of reach. Rafa Benitez is the only other ‘A’ List – ish coach on account of his Champions league win with Liverpool and record at Chelsea and Valencia. So we are left with young ambitious managers. Can Levy unearth the next Diego Simeone, Pep Guardiola or Jürgen Klopp? Managers with a clear footballing philosophy and identity who can do what Tim Sherwood has failed to do despite respectable results and give Spurs an identity that Spurs fans can proudly identify with. We sure hope so.