East London's Draw -- The Dual Role of Loyalty in Hammers' Hearts

The conundrum of Carlton Cole presents itself as an unequivocal piece of evidence to the current status of West Ham United Football Club. On the one hand, Carlton’s tenure at Upton Park demonstrates the loyalty of both team and player, a rarity in today’s footballing world; on the other, however, the situation smacks of desperation in both camps. That the owners would consent to the continued employment of a forward, who, in seven- and-a-half seasons under the tutelage of multiple managers has produced roughly one goal for every 4.5 appearances, while publicly noting their desires to “take the club to the next level” seems counterintuitive at best. Calling him a makeshift solution for Andy Carroll doesn’t change his underwhelming scoring record. To be fair, Carlton, now aged 30, accepts his current role as the fill-in without complaint, starting when he is asked to start, and acting the part of a substitute on the rare occasion when another Hammers forward’s health. Carlton is very much the safe option – a relatively low-money veteran who produces exactly what you expect he would – and in a footballing world where much of the talent willingly swaps colors and crests if a little money is forked across the table, and transfer fees continue to sky-rocket higher than Pete Doherty on the average Saturday night, perhaps the safe option is the best one for a business reported to be 75 million pounds in debt. It certainly helps when the player in question has nowhere else to go, due to his steep wage demands, then crawls back to the East End with his tail between his legs. So for the two Davids, the issue presents itself clearly: sign a talent, foreign or domestic, at an exorbitant fee, gambling on both his projected ability to produce a craterous impact on the world’s toughest league as well as his capacity to blend well with the club’s incumbent faces, or stick with the known quantity, thereby removing the crapshoot, yet also sacrificing the immeasurable upside of a fiery injection into the vein of the squad. Of course, the financial hit of a player may be reduced, in the majority of cases, depending on the signee’s age. Allardyce has employed such a strategy commendably during his time at the club: signing unwanted, aging players for a reduced price might as well be his calling card. One need only look to George McCartney for an example. The 33-year-old started 20 matches on one of the Premier League’s stoutest back lines, yet remains without a club. Big Sam, it appears, manufactures loyalty from these players’ desperation to continue their fading careers. On the flip side of the spectrum, yet with the same idea in mind, a fifteen-year-old prodigy commands a much lighter bankroll than, say, that same player at age eighteen – simply put, the latter is closer to first team-ready, if he’s not already capable, while the former has three more years to ruin his promising career. The younger of the two may deem it fit to ingratiate himself with the coaching staff, to ensure his continued progression hits no snags, while the older player, due to his close proximity to the starting XI, or at least the first team, knows he can play somewhere – if not his current club, then another. Maybe this is part of the reason why Allardyce and Ravel Morrison can hardly stand the sight of one another. The situations outlined above present a strong case for investment in international scouting. When Winston Reid signed as a 22-year-old in the summer of 2010, it was on the back of a match-tying, stoppage-time goal versus Slovakia in the World Cup; even with this goal in mind, Reid still profiled as a rough- around-the-edges youngster on what many had considered the weakest team in that year’s field – what if New Zealand’s, and through association, his, performance had been an outlier, an aberration? But in what can now be seen as Avram Grant’s sole moment of mental clarity in an otherwise-horrific season, the club snatched Reid from FC Midtjylland and, apart from a few shaky performances early in his claret-and-blue life, he has risen to the heights of the lofty expectations bestowed upon him when he agreed to sign for a Premier League club. Would Reid’s name have been known to Premier League clubs if not for the World Cup? Probably; however, would Gold and Sullivan have agreed to a deal for a player from the middling Danish Superliga if he had not been properly scouted, his potential vouched for and his World Cup noted as a sign of things to come? A similar tale looks to be emerging from the San Francisco Bay Area. Sebastian Lletget, the twenty-one-year-old United States U-23 international, has steadily evolved in his time at West Ham, notably appearing in multiple preseason matches this summer, and looks, along with Elliot Lee, to be one of the shining promises of the ever-bright West Ham youth system. Indeed, his first team debut has already come, albeit in the ill-fated FA Cup debacle at Nottingham Forest last January. Lletget was discovered by West Ham scouts – not on a youth team trip to England, mind you, but in California, his home state. He fittingly signed a youth contract, and has been with the club ever since. West Ham’s ability to implant themselves in locations across the globe increases the likelihood of finding hidden gems such as Lletget; the answer to the day-to-day economic struggles of a successful, yet hardly top- drawer Premier League club is an influx of youth. West Ham United, of course, know this to be true. This fact hardly limits itself to scouting. Another aspect which is affected by a larger global presence is fandom, and the rewards which it produces. The obvious product of a larger fanbase is a larger income, which comes in the form of merchandise, worldwide tours, and the resulting increase in sponsorship money; however, the positives of expanding the club’s global brand cut deeper still. Whether English, American, or Chinese, we all love a good competition; we all are able to recognize a beautiful passing sequence when we see one, whether a diehard follower of the game or a disinterested channel-changer on a Saturday afternoon. The overarching themes of loyalty and love which knot fans of the Premier League so tightly to their clubs are much the same the motifs which bind fans of the NFL, or the NBA, to their particular teams, and are the same overall pillars which hold the potential to tie these supporters together as one. Judging by the way Americans have come to accept the game of football in recent years, the emotions appear to be transferrable among the various sports. The eternal hope which nestles in the heart of every fan of every sport is another parallel which transcends national borders: whether a New York Giants fan or a member of West Ham’s claret and blue army, nothing beats the sense of immortality that comes with a victory – FA Cup or Super Bowl, the feelings of achievement are the same. Fans live vicariously through their favorite team, to the point where sometimes that line can be blurred. Look to the free-kick wizard from the West Ham-Tottenham match last Saturday. He shared the pitch with his idols, and “[his] mates loved it!”. While some may deem him a whack-job, his actions captured the essence of the sports fan’s existence – commit to a team, and commit to the set of values embodied by that squad. Happiness is easier found in yourself when you look at how the successes of others have brought happiness to their own lives. What more- accessible example of this exists than the idolization of athletes and the teams on which they play? The curious case of Carlton Cole now becomes less enigmatic: for West Ham, it pays to reward staunchness and grit, as these are the values which its community of supporters holds dearest. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does West Ham United draw these values out of their supporters, or was the club created by loyal and determined people who poured their souls into maintaining this reputation? Perhaps both. Either way, they serve to define the spirit of West Ham, and can be used to the owners’ advantage as the inevitable globalization of the East London brand occurs.

The issue of a “watered-down” product is an important one to address – the “supporters’ groups” of Chelsea and Manchester City are stretched thin by bandwagon fans who can hardly name three members of the starting XI. But do these clubs have such stout beginnings as the Irons? So long as the newly-inducted West Ham faithful are educated on the club’s roots and take its origin as part of the beauty of following the team, so long as that mixture of emotions and tenets which makes West Ham the club that it is remains, the long-held traditions will always remain. With the Olympic Stadium move rising in the Eastern sky, a bright light shining through a partly-cloudy yesterday, all the Irons can do is look forward into a new dawn. Fortunes may be hiding, but who says those bubbles need to fade and die?