UEFA Europa League: Barcelona hit form at the wrong time for West Ham

WEST HAM United’s 2-0 victory over Sevilla was an old fashioned European night, the kind the Boleyn Ground used to host so well on the rare occasions the Hammers qualified for the long departed Cup-Winners’ Cup. In 1975-76, clashes with the likes of Den Haag and Eintracht Frankfurt produced a marvellous, memorable atmosphere and the sound of “bubbles” rang out in the cold East London air. In some ways, the London Stadium, which has been criticised for having a somewhat empty feeling, announced its arrival against Sevilla.

West Ham have enjoyed their European run this season and they now figure among the favourites to lift the Europa League trophy. They have been drawn against Lyon, an underperforming side who have also saved some of their best moments for the competition. Their two-legged win against Porto was an achievement and they actually won five of their six group games.

West Ham have, if anything, punched above their weight this season, but following on from 2020-21, when they finished in sixth position, their performance suggests they have moved up a step in the hierarchy. They should have enough to get past Lyon, but they could then come up against Barcelona, who were sent into Europa exile after failing in the Champions League.

A few months ago, Barcelona would not have kept West Ham boss David Moyes awake at night, but in recent weeks, the club seems to have regained its confidence and found some form. Their 4-0 victory at Real Madrid was a stunning result and demonstrated they are on their way back after a miserable end to 2021. New signings Ferran Torres (Manchester City) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) have settled in well and have scored 15 goals between them.

Barcelona face Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals, no easy draw, but the Blaugrana have not been beaten in the league since early December. Frankfurt are in eighth place in the Bundesliga and have beaten Bayern in Munich, so they will be a tough opponent for Xavi’s team. Curiously, West Ham fans were set upon by their Frankfurt counterparts in Seville, when the Hammers were in town to face Sevilla and the German side playing at Real Betis. It’s not hard to imagine what could happen if West Ham have to travel to the Deutsche Bank Park stadium for a semi-final game.

Barcelona, however, will be determined to win the Europa League to ensure a path back to the Champions League. This is important not only for the financial benefits of being involved in the premier competition, but also to erase the humiliation of their early elimination from the Champions League. As for West Ham, they will be desperate to win something for the first time in 41 years and also rubber-stamp their elevation to European club status.

But there are other contenders and Lyon are also among the clubs that could win the competition this season. RB Leipzig, for all their spectacular progress, have never won a trophy, so you could argue they are due some material success. Similarly, Atalanta, who have joined the Serie A upper bracket in the past couple of years, could also do with some silverware to provide affirmation of their rise. Braga and Rangers are two of the more unfancied sides in the draw, but in this half of the quarter-final draw, any team could go all the way to the final. Rangers have had some good nights in the Europa this season, beating Borussia Dortmund and Red Star Belgrade in the knockout phase. Braga, who beat Monaco in the round of 16, finished second to Red Star in their group. They are currently fourth in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, while Rangers are in a battle to regain the Scottish Premiership title they won in 2021.

The field is wide open, but GOTP’s prediction is a last four of West Ham v Barcelona and Leipzig v Rangers, with the final on May 18 in Sevilla being contested by Barcelona and Leipzig. On the other hand…

Please, let’s have some old fashioned romance in the FA Cup this year

THE THIRD Round of the FA Cup gets underway this weekend, arguably one of the most interesting stages of the competition. It is 150 years since the world’s oldest knockout cup was inaugurated, so the 2022 final is sure to be a special occasion.

The cup was renowned for its romantic tales of bravery, heroic performances and the spirit of the unexpected. That aspect of the competition seems to have been forgotten, giant-killings are hard to come by these days, and it is 42 years since West Ham United became the seventh and most recent second division (now Championship) team to lift the old trophy. The nearest we have got to a cup final upset in recent years must be 2013’s victory by Wigan against Manchester City.

It’s hard enough for teams outside the Premier to get as far as the last eight – in the past five years only three Championship sides (Bournemouth 2021, Swansea and Millwall in 2019), two League One and a non-leaguer (Lincoln) have managed to reach the quarter-finals.

In the past 10 years, 63 of the 80 quarter-finalists have come from the Premier, 12 from the Championship, four from League One and there’s been a solitary non-league club. If you consider that the 1970s provided more surprises – three second division FA Cup winners – then a comparison with that decade may illustrate how the game has changed. The second tier has certainly provided fewer quarter-finalists, 12 versus the 16 between 1970-71 and 1979-80.

Some critics say the Premier clubs are not terribly interested in the FA Cup, but aside from fielding weakened sides – which are still too strong for most opponents – the facts don’t lie. In the past 10 years, the so-called “big six” clubs have filled 14 of 20 cup final places and since West Ham’s 1980 success, those half dozen clubs have won 83% of finals.

The first second division club to win the FA Cup was Notts County in 1894, who had been relegated from the first division in 1893. They beat Bolton Wanderers 4-1 at Goodison Park and Scottish striker Jimmy Logan netted a hat-trick. The media reported that Notts County had deserved their win as they had played “a better class of game throughout”. Logan was something of a journeyman and in his career played for Sunderland, Ayr, Aston Villa, Dundee, Newcastle and Loughborough as well as Notts County. He was also a tragic figure because two years on from his historic treble, he died of pneumonia after the Loughborough team had to travel home from an away game in soaking wet clothing.

Fourteen years later, Wolverhampton Wanderers beat an all-star Newcastle team 3-1 to win the cup. The Geordies were red hot favourites as they had finished fourth in the league, while Wolves were no more than a mid-table team in division two. But they put on a sparkling display at the Crystal Palace in front of 75,000 people which observers of the game described as “strong, relentless and cool”. Wolves has some good players, notably the Olympian and England amateur Kenneth Hunt, who never drew a salary while playing for the club. Newcastle’s team included Bill McCracken, Colin Veitch and Jock Rutherford, all big names in their day. The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Bell, at the presentation ceremony, was full of praise for the two teams and declared that “so healthy a game as football must benefit the body and also the mind, and so must help to give the country men fitted to represent the nation in any sphere of life.”

In 1912, little Barnsley pulled off a major shock when they beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in the final replay at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. The two teams had previously drawn 0-0 at the Crystal Palace. The Barnsley team contained some lovely old period names, such as Wilf Bartop, who was tragically killed in action four days before the end of World War One, George Lillycrop, Harry Tufnell and George Utley. Tufnell, who started his working life as a greengrocer’s assistant, scored the winning goal in the replay with time running out, going on a solo run from the halfway line. Barnsley’s team also had one Robert Glendenning, who went on to manage the Netherlands national team.

West Bromwich Albion became surprise winners in 1931 with arguably one of the best second division teams of all time. Albion won promotion with a team that was an exciting blend of experience and youth. Their run to the final included ties with all their main promotion rivals, Tottenham, Portsmouth and Everton, and in the final they met local rivals Birmingham, who were in the first division. The Blues had legendary goalkeeper Harry Hibbs and prolific scorer Joe Bradford in their line-up. Albion included popular figures like Tommy Magee (“Wee Tommy” to his friends) and striker W.G. Richardson. Albion won 2-1, with Richardson netting both of his side’s goals. “The victory of West Bromwich Albion was the victory of youthful enthusiasm and confidence,” said The Times after the game, which was played in torrential rain. Once in the first division, Albion’s team acclimatised well and finished high in the table for a few seasons.

It wasn’t until 1973 that another second tier side won the FA Cup, Sunderland beating the great Leeds United side of the period 1-0, managed by Don Revie. Bizarrely, although this proved to be one of the great Wembley shocks, many pundits predicted a Sunderland win, based on their run to the final in which they beat Manchester City and Arsenal. Leeds were a tired side and had been chasing the league title and the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. The game has so many moments that have stood the test of time: Jim Montgomery’s double save, Ian Porterfield’s winning goal and Sunderland manager Bob Stokoe running across the lush Wembley turf, an image that has been immortalised outside Sunderland’s stadium in the form of an eye-catching statue. Sunderland were no slouches, though, and as well as Montgomery, an outstanding keeper who was unlucky not to be capped by England, they also had Dave Watson in defence and the richly-talented Dennis Tueart up front. Leeds finished third in the league and were also beaten in the Cup-Winners’ Cup final, losing to AC Milan.

Three years on, Southampton upset the form book by beating an exciting Manchester United team 1-0. The teams could not have been more contrasting; Southampton had experienced players who had found a home on the South Coast in Peter Rodrigues, Peter Osgood, Jim McCalliog alongside home-grown favourites like Mick Channon in their team. United, on the other hand, were in their first season back from a one-year exile in the second division and had captivated audiences everywhere. Southampton, supposedly, were there to make up the numbers. However, Bobby Stokes scored seven minutes from the end and that was enough to win the cup. Stokes was barely seen again and sadly, died at the age of 44. Southampton were one of the favourites to go up in 1976-77, but they had to wait another year before gaining promotion.

West Ham, in 1980, won the FA Cup with a very decent team. Having been relegated in 1978, manager John Lyall had rebuilt his side and in 1979, added Queens Park Rangers’ Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart from Dundee United and Manchester United’s Stuart Pearson to his squad. West Ham’s cup run included some memorable victories against first division teams West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Everton. They went on to beat cup holders Arsenal who were contesting their third consecutive FA Cup final. Trevor Brooking, described as “a man of dignified composure”, scored the only goal of the game with an untypical crouching header. The most controversial moment of a tame final was when West Ham’s teenage midfielder, Paul Allen broke clear on goal but was callously tripped by Arsenal’s Willie Young. Allen, at 17 and 256 days was making history as the youngest player to appear in the Wembley FA Cup final. A year later, the Hammers won the second division and reclaimed their place in the top flight.

Can a Championship team win the FA Cup in the modern game? On average over the past five years, half of the division’s 24 teams fall at the third round and by the sixth round, there’s scarely a team left. As the statistics confirm, the competition is being dominated by the elite clubs, so it really is time for one of those stories that created the magic of the FA Cup. Bring it on.

Hammers cut their losses and manage the pandemic in 2020-21

WEST HAM United certainly missed their fans in 2020-21 as they played almost the entire season’s home games in a near-deserted London Stadium. West Ham’s income from matchday slumped by 98% to a mere half a million pounds. Aside from that expected drama, they still managed to record a rise in revenues, a 38% increase to £ 192.7 million and also reduced their pre-tax losses by 59% to £ 26.9 million.

On the field of play, the 2020-21 campaign was a satisfying one for West Ham, a final placing of sixth and qualification for the UEFA Europa League. The momentum under David Moyes has more or less continued into 2021-22.

West Ham’s revenues are close to breaking the £ 200 million mark which would be a landmark in itself, but also underlines how far away they still are from the elite half dozen in the Premier. In normal times, the Hammers could reasonably anticipate matchday income heading north towards £ 30 million and commercial activity rising above £ 35 million. However, these revenues streams both fell in 2020-21, predictably compromised by the pandemic.

The salvation for West Ham’s financial performance was broadcasting, which increased by 97% to £ 163.1 million and reached a record high in the process. The return of European football should boost the club’s earnings from TV/Media significantly, especially if they remain in the top six of the Premier League.

But the current climate appears to have limited West Ham’s transfer market activity. After two seasons of spending over £ 100 million, their expenditure dropped by 50% to £ 54 million but at the same time, they received £ 57 million from sales. Their net balance was a positive £ 3 million, the first time in a decade that they have not been net spenders. Their biggest signing of the season was Brentford’s Saïd Benrahma, who cost £ 25 million (plus add-ons) when he made his loan period permanent in January 2021. Other major acquisitions included the impressive Czech duo Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal, who both arrived from Slavia Prague, costing a total of £ 20 million.

Despite the loss for the year, West Ham’s wage bill still increased by 1.6% to £ 129.4 million. The club’s salaries have trebled over the course of the decade, but they now represent 67% of income compared to 91% in 2019-20. According to leading football academic Kieran Maguire, the average wage at West Ham is currently £ 60,149 per week.

The gross squad cost is calculated to be £259 million by Maguire, while Transfermarkt currently value West Ham’s playing resources at £ 316 million in the market, with England midfielder Declan Rice valued at £ 67.6 million. According to CIES Football Observatory, West Ham have one of the oldest squads in the Premier League with an average age of over 28. Player trading remains important to the Hammers’ business model and in 2020-21, they made a profit on sales of £ 17.6 million, around 29% lower than the previous season.

West Ham have made a number of strategic moves to counter the economic impact of covid-19. As well as the agreement of players and officials to defer wages, the club launched a £ 30 million rights issue in July 2020 and has also taken a £ 120 million term loan facility from MSD Holdings, the financial arm of the Dell family, of which they have so far drawn £ 55 million. Speculation over the interest rate being charged by MSD has been fuelled over the public knowledge that Southampton were paying 9.14% on a loan from the company. West Ham also have overdraft facilities with Barclays. The club’s net debt reduced from £ 105 million in 2019-20 to £ 89.5 million.

With the fans back in the stadium – hopefully, a situation that will continue in the weeks and months ahead – and a prolonged European run, West Ham’s financial situation should improve in 2021-22. They have already made more than £ 20 million from the Europa League group stage, if they continue to focus firmly on the competition, that figure will continue to rise. And with no silverware in more than 40 years, West Ham are certainly due some real success.