There are many good things about being a West Ham fan (well, perhaps not at the moment), but I have been tasked with stating the five worst things about being a West Ham supporter, so here goes. Feel free to add yours in the comments section at the bottom.

We Could Have Been Good… Maybe

Being a supporter of the last twenty years has taught me one thing about West Ham; they seem to be far more interested in making a quick buck than in the long term success of the club. Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick and Glen Johnson are but a few of the recent exports from Upton Park. With the accolades that these players have gone on to achieve, West Ham could, with the addition of a few extra players to fill in the gaps, have been a side that challenged near the top of the table for many seasons. Having said that, these names make up most of the England side, so perhaps not.

Invariably Badly Run

In the past few decades the club has been disastrously run, with a succession of Chairmen and Owners that don’t seem to have a clue. Terrance Brown forced arguably West Ham’s best manager in a generation, Harry Redknapp, out the Upton Park door. Although the Icelandic consortium fronted by Eggert Magnusson cannot be blamed for the financial crisis that crippled their company and lead to the Hammers very nearly going into administration, they can be blamed for selling both George McCartney and Anton Ferdinand to Sunderland without Alan Curbishley’s say-so, depriving West Ham of another manager. Time will tell on David Gold and David Sullivan’s reign at West Ham, but thus far, it has been anything but perfect, and at times, it seems as if they are better for a sound-bite than an actual decision.

30 Years of Hurt

Supporting West Ham is not about winning trophies, or, on many occasions, it’s not about winning at all, but having not won anything of note since the FA Cup in 1980 (I’m of course not counting the glory in Europe, yes, the 1999 Intertoto Cup) it would be nice to gloat about something. I hope that we can end this run of silverware-less years in 2011 with the League Cup, but I fear that in exchange we will have to sacrifice our Premier League status.

Signings

Some have gone down in football comedy folklore, some are still too raw to mention, but being a West Ham fan around the transfer window is never dull. The trend seemed to start with Harry Redknapp and the Marco Boogers fiasco, which was actually preceded by another comical signing, by Billy Bonds, of Joey Beauchamp. These have since been added to, and the more common feature of contemporary signings seems to be the addition of players who are perennially injured. Never ones to break tradition, West Ham appear to want to continue this trend in January 2011 by looking to sign Steve Sidwell, a player who has been injured for much of the 2010-11 season. Happy days.

Having to listen to fans of other London clubs gloat

In my personal experience, Arsenal and more recently Chelsea fans seem to see themselves as above gloating to a mere West Ham fan about various successes. But worse than being treated like a dishevelled, unshaven, malodorous tramp at a bus stop by disingenuous glory hunters from across the capital, is having to look a Spurs fan in the face this season. After two decades of what is tantamount to an oblivious sense of inflated self-worth, exemplified by my mate’s comment around half a decade ago that; ‘we’d win the league if Ledley King was fit’, now those from White Hart Lane can actually be vindicated when they walk around with a sanctimonious look on their face, and what sickens me most is I no longer have a reply to their incessant ramblings about how good Tottenham are. Bitter? You bet.

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Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all to win at 15/8!