Copyright GIVEMESPORT
The vast majority of West Ham fans cannot wait to get the hell out of London Stadium when the final whistle blows. And that’s among those who are still around, with many choosing to leave long before the end of what has recently become a miserable experience watching their team masquerade as a Premier League team. But this Sunday, a significant minority of the deeply frustrated fanbase are going to prolong the agony of their day out at Stratford’s ‘Soulless Bowl’ when the home game against Newcastle finally comes to an end. Stage three of an ongoing campaign to protest against West Ham’s chairman David Sullivan and his vice-chair Karren Brady takes the form of a sit-in. And one of those diehards willing to hang around for half an hour at the conclusion of the match is Mike Field. Mike Field: I'm Part of a Dying Breed of Fans Mr Field is 70 years old and a retired sales director from Hampshire. He has travelled here, there, and everywhere following his beloved Hammers. It has been a mainstay of his life since the mid-1960s. He has cried watching West Ham in the past. But at a time when life and watching football for him should be a relaxing pastime, he is instead digging in to make his presence felt as part of what is becoming a sustained campaign against the ingrained hierarchy at one of Europe’s highest revenue-generating clubs. It takes energy and commitment to do but pensioner Field has walked with the anti-board marches and boycotted the home match against Brentford on October 20. From staying away the revolutionaries are staying put this weekend to try to force change as West Ham’s off-field issues mirror those on it with the team second from bottom in the Premier League and having lost every one of their home games this season. Field said: “I am what is now regarded as a ‘legacy’ fan. Possibly a dying breed at Premier League clubs in particular. Those who have the club in there hearts. Long-term fans with emotional investment. “There is now a huge move to attract the ‘tourist’ fans, the day trippers who spend more money on their visits than people like me. West Ham are not alone in that. "At our last meeting with the club I tried to get the point across to Baroness Brady that if West Ham get relegated this season, who does she think will be coming to next season’s home game against Preston North End? The tourists or the legacy fans? “I have supported West Ham since I can remember. One of my first childhood memories is of sitting with my grandad, listening on a transistor radio to the 1964 FA Cup semi-final when we played Manchester United. My grandad insisted we would win, and we did. “That was it for me. I have been around most of Europe to watch them, including Frankfurt twice - once in 1976 and a couple of seasons ago. So I have been there. “I have a grandson now. I’d love West Ham to be part of his life. That’s what we are protesting for, the survival of our football club. I feel there have been broken promises by the West Ham board. The fans have been effectively conned by people who claimed to be like us. “David Sullivan claims to have been a West Ham fan since childhood. His late business partner, David Gold, would tell everyone that he lived on Green Street, opposite our old Upton Park ground. “When we left the Boleyn Ground to move to Stratford we were told it would be a ‘world-class stadium with a world-class team’. Claims we would be in the Champions League. “West Ham fans are realistic. We never thought that moving to the London Stadium would lift us up among the likes of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. But that we could be the best of the rest. That has clearly not happened, and if someone from outside had come in and made these promises and not delivered, we would have at least understood. But when they came from people claiming to be ‘our own’ the frustration runs deep.” Field: West Ham Fans Are 'Fed Up' West Ham’s Fan Advisory Board met with vice-chair Brady last week in another attempt to iron out the growing chasm between the loyal fans and the club’s top brass. Sunday’s sit-in has been sanctioned by the board. Peaceful demonstrators will remain in their seats for half an hour after the final whistle as a show of feeling against the running of the club. “People like me are fed up with the exploitation of loyalty," Field said. "When the Premier League came into being in 1992, ticket prices were around 3% of a worker’s average wage. It’s now around 11%.Player wages have increased by around 2,800% in the same time. "West Ham initially sold season tickets at London Stadium way too cheaply. Fans of other clubs snapped them up so they could get to see their team cheaply once a season while sitting in with us, who go week in, week out. “West Ham have also paid out around £20 million in compensation to the various managers they have employed and who have been sacked. How can you claim competence when you’re doing that?” Nuno Espirito Santo is the third head coach this calendar year. Field said: “Look at teams like Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth. They are much smaller than ours yet far better run. They have coherent plans in place to keep their processes going when a player leaves. They have momentum. West Ham just don’t do that. “[The] Transfer strategy is a mess. We have no real sporting director. Instead, the chairman’s sons whizz around the world trying to do transfer deals. It beggars belief. Everything just seems so short-term and limited, and it has just got to the stage where I need to do something about it. Fan protests in the past at London Stadium have spilled over into violence. Notably, in 2018 when an angry mob surrounded the director's box and Sullivan was led away for his own safety. “We are not a bunch of hooligans looking to smash everything up," Field said. "We just want to make a statement. The game is live on TV and if we have a sit-in, it will embarrass people like Sullivan and Brady.”
