I once watched West Ham beat Roma in a pre-season friendly and like many fans perhaps believed that the club had the potential to be world beaters. Gianfranco Zola was no doubt world class, and he has done much to spruce up the current West Ham motley crew and have them playing the free flowing football that their fans insist on, and yet after accidently being in Barcelona while they were playing Bayern Munich I bought a ticket to the match. I have only ever been to Upton Park's 35, 000 capacity stadium so straight away the 90,000 capacity hit me like a sledgehammer in the gonads, and yet it was a pleasing experience- the atmosphere not the sledgehammer.
Barcelona passed the ball around all over the field fearlessly and with pin point accuracy and unbelievable imagination and conviction- it was a master class in football. It was awesome to watch and yet deflating in that it highlighted the distance West Ham have to go if they really want to be among the best in Europe. There are pretentions of West Ham fighting it out for the 4th Champions league place on offer, for finishing in 4th position in the English Premier League, and yet even if they some how found the firepower to catapult themselves into this elite league, after watching Barcelona take apart Munich, who are a decent team, and making them look like an overweight and comical sunday league team, beer bellies and all, if West Ham had played Barcelona it would have been carnage. Like watching car crash TV, or an injured zebra being fed to a pack of hungry lions.
I fear West Ham are chasing an empty dream and need a reality check. Already they are punching above their weight, and without real investment in a new stadium and at least 60 million on players, they will forever be stuck in the premier league mid table mediocrity, also known as the also ran's, or top four cannon fodder.
