5 years ago today.

[Latters]

It f**king bothers me.

Tevez I have no problem with (although he is undoubtedly a classless little scrote).

But...

• WHU broke the rules to sign two world class players, lied to the PL about it, covered it up, maintained their innocence to delay the process as long as possible, then pled guilty when they knew they were done for..
• The PL took far too long to investigate, allowed Tevez to play on whilst waiting for the hearing, then didn`t cancel the registration of Tevez immediately as directed by the tribunal (allowing him to play at Wigan), then did cancel it and jumped through hoops to allow him to be re-registered, took the word of WHU (self admitted liars) that they had "torn up" the contract, maintained no sort of neutrality at all, turned a blind eye to WHU letting a World Class Argentinian contracted to them for 3 years with no 3rd Party influence (yeah right) go to Man U for £2m.

So, yeah, it bothers me a little...

Rules get broken all the time, from little things like shirt pulling and diving, to stuff like this. I'm not saying its right, but cheating affects games. Man up and let it go. Gerrard's dives against us had just as much of an adverse affect on our season.

All I'm saying is that we were well aware that one of our main relegation contenders had players of this ilk playing for them. We still had our fate in our own hands but we fucked it up again. Us, ourselves. We shouldn't have even had to worry that he wasn't registered because we should have done the job ourselves rather than playing the victims and crying about it.

If it hadn't been us that we're relegated and it was, say, Wign, you'd never have heard another thing about it on here.

 

[Kenilworth]

38 points would have been enough to stay up this year
QPR got 37
Bolton had 36

 

[Latters]

Clearly my post should have said "Wigan" and "were", not "Wign" and "we're".

How come we can't edit posts anymore?

 

[Selly]

Rules get broken all the time, from little things like shirt pulling and diving, to stuff like this. I'm not saying its right, but cheating affects games. Man up and let it go. Gerrard's dives against us had just as much of an adverse affect on our season.

All I'm saying is that we were well aware that one of our main relegation contenders had players of this ilk playing for them. We still had our fate in our own hands but we fucked it up again. Us, ourselves. We shouldn't have even had to worry that he wasn't registered because we should have done the job ourselves rather than playing the victims and crying about it.

If it hadn't been us that we're relegated and it was, say, Wign, you'd never have heard another thing about it on here.

You are quite correct in that we had it in our own hands to make it someone elses problem, and failed. And I will always predicate any discussion with the phrase, "it shouldn`t have been our problem". But it was our problem, so naturally I feel hard done by.

However I disagree with the "man-up" comment. Sport is only "fun" when there is an agreed set of rules that everyopne plays by. The referees is there to apply those rules on the pitch. The FA/PL/FL are there to ensure that the rules are adheared to off the pitch.

Any breach of those rules should be punished severely. Any breach of trust (i.e. lying to the PL) should be dealt with even more harshly. In a game where promotion/relegation gains/costs you £50m, financial fines are pretty meaningless. Points deductions are the only currency teams understand.

10 points isn`t enough for Administration (IMO) - I'd see you relegated 2 divisions.
Attempt to gain an advantage over other people in the league - points deduction
Lie to the governing body - points deduction

You'd soon see teams balance the books & play by the rules...

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I'm still bitter about the tevez incident, but i'm far more bitter about the cowardly away performance at Villa Park, the crap buys in the transfer window, and that ref on the first game of the season.

It would have been a far better story had we just been better and west ham still got sent down.

 

[cahill]

Was one of the worst days of life.

I remember feeling strangely optimistic, as there was no where that we lose on paper one of the easier home games in the Premiership, and even if we did there was absolutely fuck all chance of West Ham beating Man Utd away.

I seem to remember everything that afternoon in horrible slow motion, and when Wigan got that first goal i knew it was not to be our day. One thing i do remember is Jon Stead knocking himself out scoring the equaliser, and getting back up to play. I remember the second's ebbing away in the second half, and knowing that we wouldn't score.

I remember walking out the ground with LS26 Blade, and walking up John Street in absolute fucking shock, before getting a handshake off a Wigan fan, who was being honest when he said that he didn't want us to go down either, and showed great dignity, and respect towards me an inconsolable fan who had just seen my team relegated. We ended up in the Moorfoot where we was met by the former Sweetness, and Mrs LS26 Blade. I didn't say much apart from starting to cry for a few minutes, and when Mrs LS26 and LS26 went, former Sweetness said you might as well go out with the lads and get it out your system.

So that night i went out and got absolutely mullered and caught the last bus home, having an emergency booze snooze and waking up at Oughtibridge and having to walk a couple of miles back to Wadsley in the freezing rain.

All in all a completely fucking wank day.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

It f**king bothers me.

Tevez I have no problem with (although he is undoubtedly a classless little scrote).

But...

• WHU broke the rules to sign two world class players, lied to the PL about it, covered it up, maintained their innocence to delay the process as long as possible, then pled guilty when they knew they were done for..
• The PL took far too long to investigate, allowed Tevez to play on whilst waiting for the hearing, then didn`t cancel the registration of Tevez immediately as directed by the tribunal (allowing him to play at Wigan), then did cancel it and jumped through hoops to allow him to be re-registered, took the word of WHU (self admitted liars) that they had "torn up" the contract, maintained no sort of neutrality at all, turned a blind eye to WHU letting a World Class Argentinian contracted to them for 3 years with no 3rd Party influence (yeah right) go to Man U for £2m.

So, yeah, it bothers me a little...

Well summed up

Agree, well summed up except you forgot the bit about the PL tribunal saying they would usually deduct points but it wouldn't be fair on West Ham's players or fans. That was the icing on the cake for me.

 

[cahill]

Brownie. You cried, for a few minutes, in public, in a pub...and now your squeeze as was, is no longer your squeeze ? One phrase. Man up

 

[Selly]

Agree, well summed up except you forgot the bit about the PL tribunal saying they would usually deduct points but it wouldn't be fair on West Ham's players or fans. That was the icing on the cake for me.

true, I was going at it from the POV of the cheaters, and the POV of the people who should have been ensuring fair play to all clubs.

The tribunal ruling was odd. The reasons they gave were perverse. But they were independant.

The PL were a bunch of shysters who did everything in their power to ensure that a World Class player wasn't "banned" from the last 3 games, then turned a blind eye to what was apparrent to anyone.