Iron Men Page #3

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you have there

the kids can play,

but what about the home,

what about the football game?

The football game for me

is still,

if you want

a proper football game,

then it's Boleyn ground, yeah.

For our supporters,

this is a church.

It's a holy place.

It's a place of religion.

West Ham is that religion

that they support.

They love it here

and it's a huge responsibility

to take that away from them.

People don't like change,

they don't like change

in any way,

shape or form in their lives,

and I do understand

that to change something

and change it for the better

are two different things.

But we are going to change it

for the better

and, actually,

it's not that far.

You can see it from here.

It's really starting

to take shape

and my job is to make it

look and feel

like the home of West Ham.

This is the home of West Ham,

but that's the new home of West

Ham and we're going to bring

all our traditions from here and

we're going to implement them

right into the future

of that stadium over there.

I don't know any one here

anymore, you know?

And that's my one there. 82.

Where is it?

84. 82.

And we moved into this house

when I was born, I guess.

Everyone who was around here

was a West Ham supporter

and we kind of grew up that way.

We used to walk to school

down there.

When I was a kid, it was

all bombed houses along there.

We used to... It was

our playground, in a way.

This is 1.2 miles from Upton

Park, from the Boleyn ground.

So it was hard

not to be a West Ham fan.

I'm claret and blue

through and through.

Everyone else was kind of

a posh club. Tottenham.

I don't know why Tottenham

thought they were posh.

But they are.

They think they are.

Chelsea were

a little bit hip, you know.

Man United were always,

you know,

everyone kind of liked Man

United because of George Best.

I've never really had

a dislike of any other team.

I just liked West Ham so much.

I've never really had

a second team, never.

We had probably the best

diplomat for British football

and for this area.

He was captain for West Ham,

Bobby Moore.

When everyone talks

about this part of East London,

they talk about

thieves and gangsters.

But he kind of changed that,

he kind of brought... an honor

of being from this manor.

We basically grow up

with football here

being the national sport

and as I say, you know,

one of the first things you do

to anybody, you know,

when they're little babies

is if you just roll them a ball,

they'll try

to kick it back to you.

[Ray] It seems quite appropriate

that a team

that won the World Cup in '66

with the help

of a few Man United players,

Nobby Styles, Charlton,

great players...

I was there. Roger Hunt.

I was at that game.

I was sitting and watching

as he stuck his chest out

and raised the World Cup

on English soil

for England and for West Ham.

It seems quite appropriate

that the Olympic Stadium

is claret and blue.

And the way I feel at the moment

is we've got a team that will

play beautiful football there

and have some heart

and some passion.

And when we do sing

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles,

I've got a feeling it might

just echo around there

like it did at Wembley...

when they sang England in 1966.

Go on, you Irons.

Got me little radio,

got me headphones.

See you tonight.

I'll get back about 9:00.

- Yeah. Yeah, no worries.

- Take care.

- See you later.

- Bye.

I've been going over to

Upton Park now about 28 years.

I always call Upton Park

my second home.

[man] How you doing?

- [Matt] Alright, thank you. You?

- Yeah, not bad.

- I'm on the 08:
30, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Hello.

- It's one of those two.

One's a return and one's to go.

[guard] Yeah, the top one there.

Lovely job. Thank you.

Love Upton Park to bits

and it's part of my routine

every other Saturday.

Suddenly stopped doing that.

It is going to be

quite a sad occasion.

It hasn't really sunk in.

I don't think it will until I

leave there on Tuesday night.

My mum actually took me

to my first game.

It was in the late '70s.

I think I was around

eight or nine years old.

I've been lucky enough

to have partial vision

when I was a lot younger,

so I've got a picture of that

and I've got memory of that.

I went with a mate

who lived over the road, Steve.

Both our mums took milk crates

for me and Steve to stand on.

I just remember there being

really massive police horses,

and being a small boy,

a horse then was like, gigantic.

Programs.

Get your fanzine!

Last but one ever issue of OLAS.

The fanzine is called Over Land

and Sea, and that goes back

to a time when West Ham fans

used to sing a song,

"We all follow West Ham

over land and sea,

we all follow West Ham

on to victory."

Total load of bollocks.

We used to follow West Ham

over land and sea,

and it won nothing

over land and sea,

but the song was a great song.

Over Land and Sea

has come out of the song.

Over Land and Sea,

brand-new now.

Only last few left today.

Last few left.

I've been a landmark, ain't I?

People wait by the ladder.

"Where are you?"

By that geezer with the ladder.

Even if they don't know

my name. It's a meeting point.

"Where are you?" "By the geezer

with the ladder."

Penultimate issue, Over Land

and Sea, one more to go.

27 years

and we're off into the sunset.

I decided probably two years ago

that when we move,

that was it for the fanzine.

Over Land and Sea

could be no more.

I had a chat with a few people

and they said,

"No way you'll be able to sell

it at the Olympic stadium."

I can't do that.

"We won't let you sell it,"

blah, blah, blah.

West Ham will throw everything

away when they move there.

It will throw away everything

West Ham has ever stood for.

I think

they're going to destroy

every minute of our history

that we've had,

and I'm struggling with it.

People say it's only a football

match. It's not a f***ing match.

It's a life, isn't it?

It's 20, you know, it's f***ing

40 years of my life.

"It's only a game of football."

It ain't a game of football.

- Alright, mate? How many?

- One.

I am packing in...

everything, you know.

Packing in going.

Packing in the fanzine.

The hole it's going to leave in

my world, is massive, massive.

It is what it is.

Penultimate issue to the clever,

but the last but one

to everyone else.

I'll be here from 10:30,

sitting at my little table.

A few beers, pie and mash.

Proper day out.

How is it is going to affect

the businesses around here?

I mean, the ones like

the pie and mash, the Ribman.

The pub, you know?

What's the pubs going to do?

Hello, mate, thanks very much.

- Cheers, mate. No problem.

- What's happening when you go?

We were hoping to go.

I'm trying to be positive.

But it ain't looking that way.

A lot of people in the area

aren't too happy

about the move,

and it's going to be

a game changer,

but West Ham supporters

like pie and mash.

That's the important bit.

You'll never find another

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