Robert Banks - An Irrational Hatred of Everything: My Continuing Odyssey as a West Ham Fan 2003–2018

W hen Rob asked me to write the foreword for his book, I read the draft with great interest and, to be honest, much sadness. It struck me that Rob is an ordinary bloke with an extraordinary love for West Ham United. But what also came across strongly was that his relationship with the club is strained and very similar to mine these days.

West Ham fans are among the best in the world. They are funny, intelligent and do not suffer fools gladly. Rob says that for him the club changed beyond recognition when John Lyall died in 2006 and I agree with him. Although John had left in 1989, his passing meant that a link with the past had gone for ever. John showed enormous faith in me, persuading the board to pay a world-record fee for a goalkeeper on a nine-year contract that would keep me at the club until I was thirty-eight. Even Manchester United found that too hot a deal to trump. And West Ham was a second-division club at the time, too. It was a statement of intent, the like of which we will never see again.

There have been a number of huge traumas at the club in the last fifteen years. The only thing that comes close to any of them during my playing days was when John told us he was leaving. The way that was handled was terrible, and while we accept that nothing lasts for ever, it was something that changed the club for ever.

The last fifteen years have seen so many calamities that it is hard to know where to start. Rob has chronicled these with his own brand of humour that will help you to remember them without wanting to tear the book up and throw it out of the window!

Rob talks of the West Ham Way and how difficult this is to define. Sam Allardyce could not understand it, but if he had taken a little time to get his head around the fact that West Ham fans can applaud their team off the pitch after a 41 defeat to Dinamo Tbilisi, they are just as entitled to boo a 21 victory over Hull City. But he felt West Ham fans should see things his way, not the other way around.

West Ham fans are no mugs. Yet they have been treated as such for too long now. The present board has made it impossible for me to attend in an official capacity, and I think it unlikely that I will return until they leave. David Gold is a West Ham fan, but I dont believe Sullivan is, whatever he may claim. As for Karren Brady, I think shes just a Karren Brady fan. I feel they set out from day one with the sole intention of moving from the Boleyn, one of the greatest football theatres in the world, to systematically destroy the clubs identity, dressing it up as a huge move forward. Call it my irrational hatred. Its just my opinion.

I can only speak for myself, but I know many of the players I played with loved you, the West Ham fans, and wanted to perform for you every week. Today, things are different. Today, players earn so much they can happily sit on the bench, go out on loan or maybe not even make the squad. In my day you had to play to top up your money and it made you hungry, eager to show up every week. And if someone was hiding they would get a kick up the backside from Bill! That is the major difference and the reason why so many modern players have a poor attitude. Todays West Ham fans deserve better than that.

Football is some way down the pecking order for me these days. Like Rob, I understand perspective. I enjoy going to watch Alan Devonshires national league side Maidenhead. They play football with a smile on their faces, and a hunger and passion that is so sadly lacking in modern professional football.

Rob told me he had intended this book to be positive, but he found it impossible. I see his point, but there is still a positive message that comes across.

I sincerely hope that with the new signings made this summer the team will give the Hammers and their amazing fans something to cheer about. With everything you have been through in the last fifteen years, you certainly deserve it.