Joint-chairmen David Gold pens his exclusive column for whufc.com
Hello everyone,
I was really pleased with the 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
The game was a bit of a struggle; as those types of fixtures often are. You couldn’t help but think after they went down to ten men that it would be easier but that wasn’t the case.
They defended well and parked the bus and you could almost see their ten defenders behind the ball every time we attacked. You ended up thinking it was going to be 0-0 and that would have been an injustice.
In the end a piece of brilliance from Mark Noble was the difference as Michail Antonio nodded his sublime pass into the bottom corner.
The second was a classic breakaway goal. They pushed up chasing the equaliser and Enner Valencia and Cheik Kouyate did brilliantly to capitalise on the chance and put the game beyond them.
We now take our excellent form to Southampton on Saturday. It’s going to be another tough game but we’re on a winning streak and now haven’t lost at home in eleven games, with one defeat in 13 games in all competitions.
It’s quite remarkable from the point of view of being in the Premier League. You’re playing Manchester City, you’re playing Chelsea and Liverpool – great, great football clubs. But we have deserved it. We always thought when players came back from injury we would get over our little slump from before Christmas and that has been the case.
In the past six years I’ve been at West Ham, you go to away games thinking ‘can we get a point’? Now there isn’t one club I go to where I don’t think we’re going to get something.
We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a point at Newcastle but you can’t say that it wasn’t deserved. We will go to Southampton believing that we can get something. We must keep telling ourselves that we are a good side. We’re not sixth in the table because we’re lucky, we’re sixth in the table because we’ve earned it.
Since I arrived in the Premier League, I have always said it is the greatest league in the world, despite the fact that it was dominated by a handful of clubs. Now when you see Leicester City breaking in, Southampton there last year and now we’re there in sixth, not just on goal difference but on merit, it is quite remarkable. All football fans should celebrate the progress clubs like ours are making.
Andy Carroll should be back from injury on Saturday and the physios tell me that Manuel Lanzini and Diafra Sakho are not far behind him. They are not squad players, they are key players for this Club and their return will give us another huge boost.
Tuesday’s game also saw us celebrate our famous Academy with some familiar faces returning to the Boleyn Ground. We should also remember that our current Academy is doing a great job. Every time I visit whufc.com and I see that the U18s have won again or the U21s are unbeaten.
Terry Westley is doing a fantastic job in revamping our Academy and pushing the latest talent into the first-team picture. We’re seeing Reece Oxford and Josh Cullen on the bench for all of the first-team games and I know there are more behind them.
I would like to conclude by thanking the hundreds of Season Ticket Holders, Founders and Priority List members who attended our fans’ forum at the Boleyn Ground on Tuesday. It was great night and I enjoyed listening to and discussing the issues that mattered most to them.
I think we all have a great deal to look forward to and it is fantastic to see that we are all working together to take our special club forward.
David Gold
I was really pleased with the 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
The game was a bit of a struggle; as those types of fixtures often are. You couldn’t help but think after they went down to ten men that it would be easier but that wasn’t the case.
They defended well and parked the bus and you could almost see their ten defenders behind the ball every time we attacked. You ended up thinking it was going to be 0-0 and that would have been an injustice.
In the end a piece of brilliance from Mark Noble was the difference as Michail Antonio nodded his sublime pass into the bottom corner.
The second was a classic breakaway goal. They pushed up chasing the equaliser and Enner Valencia and Cheik Kouyate did brilliantly to capitalise on the chance and put the game beyond them.
We now take our excellent form to Southampton on Saturday. It’s going to be another tough game but we’re on a winning streak and now haven’t lost at home in eleven games, with one defeat in 13 games in all competitions.
It’s quite remarkable from the point of view of being in the Premier League. You’re playing Manchester City, you’re playing Chelsea and Liverpool – great, great football clubs. But we have deserved it. We always thought when players came back from injury we would get over our little slump from before Christmas and that has been the case.
In the past six years I’ve been at West Ham, you go to away games thinking ‘can we get a point’? Now there isn’t one club I go to where I don’t think we’re going to get something.
We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a point at Newcastle but you can’t say that it wasn’t deserved. We will go to Southampton believing that we can get something. We must keep telling ourselves that we are a good side. We’re not sixth in the table because we’re lucky, we’re sixth in the table because we’ve earned it.
Since I arrived in the Premier League, I have always said it is the greatest league in the world, despite the fact that it was dominated by a handful of clubs. Now when you see Leicester City breaking in, Southampton there last year and now we’re there in sixth, not just on goal difference but on merit, it is quite remarkable. All football fans should celebrate the progress clubs like ours are making.
Andy Carroll should be back from injury on Saturday and the physios tell me that Manuel Lanzini and Diafra Sakho are not far behind him. They are not squad players, they are key players for this Club and their return will give us another huge boost.
Tuesday’s game also saw us celebrate our famous Academy with some familiar faces returning to the Boleyn Ground. We should also remember that our current Academy is doing a great job. Every time I visit whufc.com and I see that the U18s have won again or the U21s are unbeaten.
Terry Westley is doing a fantastic job in revamping our Academy and pushing the latest talent into the first-team picture. We’re seeing Reece Oxford and Josh Cullen on the bench for all of the first-team games and I know there are more behind them.
I would like to conclude by thanking the hundreds of Season Ticket Holders, Founders and Priority List members who attended our fans’ forum at the Boleyn Ground on Tuesday. It was great night and I enjoyed listening to and discussing the issues that mattered most to them.
I think we all have a great deal to look forward to and it is fantastic to see that we are all working together to take our special club forward.
David Gold