The season when midtable security was change enough - 2012/13 review

On the road: Fans at St James's Park await a rare awayday victory

In a recent interview with the Guardian, BT Retail boss Gavin Patterson had this to say about Sky Sports’s Premier League coverage: “It's very professionally put together. But it leaves me cold.” Such grudging respect isn’t too dissimilar a sentiment to that felt by many West Ham fans during the 2012/13 season: Full marks for achievement, but the edges of our seats remained largely untroubled.

Sam Allardyce isn’t here to defend himself, so let me do it for him in a language he would appreciate: Statistics. The average Premier League finish for a promoted side over the last ten years is fifteenth, so to finish in the top half is a massive achievement. Of the 30 promoted sides during that period, there have only been five instances of first-season top-half finishes – and two of them have been West Ham. In fact, excluding West Ham’s achievements in 2005/06 and 2012/13, six of the last eight play-off winners were relegated in their first season.

Black-and-white stats aside, Upton Park was the scene of several memorable matches: Fulham were stuffed 3-0; an incorrectly disallowed goal was all that stood between victory over defending champions Manchester City; today's 4-2 win against Reading was high on entertainment; and, best of all, Chelsea were defeated at the Boleyn Ground for the first time in ten years after an inspired second-half comeback.

On the road it was a different story. This supporter had the pleasure of watching Big Sam get the better of ex-Hammer Alan Pardew in a 1-0 win at St James’s Park. That was in November, and only one further awayday success followed. For fans treated to a club record number of away wins in the previous season, following West Ham around the country this time provided few loyalty points. Resounding defeats at Swansea, Wigan and Sunderland – not to mention humiliating losses at Tottenham and Arsenal – were those of a team that should have been fighting for its top-tier life.

The reason West Ham never came close to being dragged into a relegation scrap was an unwavering discipline and a strong defence. Against lesser opposition in the Championship, such qualities were found wanting. Remember being 2-0 down within 30 minutes against Birmingham City? Reduced to ten men after 18 minutes against Southampton? That’s not to say that Upton Park suddenly turned into a fortress: leads were squandered on five different occasions (albeit each time against top-seven opposition). But the triumvirate of Jussi Jääskeläinen, Winston Reid and James Collins ensured that only four teams left east London with three points. At the other end of the pitch, Andy Carroll took the best part of the season and a couple of injuries to get going, but when he did he was prolific.

And yet for all of that, nagging question marks remained. The Academy continues to do a roaring trade for the lower leagues but little for West Ham’s first team. No new faces emerged, while even established graduates James Tomkins and Jack Collison were given scant opportunity to impress. The club’s striker recruitment policy continued to baffle: Modibo Maiga and Wellington Paulista were the latest recruits left to rot in the development team. Kevin Nolan notched an impressive tally of goals but otherwise the skipper’s contribution amounted to the square root of fuck all. Meanwhile, any success that should have been credited to Allardyce was undermined by a refusal to grant him a new contract until it was just weeks away from expiring.

The season had two main off-the-pitch talking points. Firstly, the vile chanting by a minority of fans at White Hart Lane, though nothing new, finally got the public condemnation it deserved. Secondly, the Olympic Stadium saga came to a head with the club finally being given the keys to a redeveloped 55,000-seater stadium just up the road.

When we return to Upton Park in August, the Premier League will seem like a slightly different place: Fergie will be gone, Everton will be Moyes-less, 10% of teams will be Welsh and a new BT channel will be televising matches. A little change at Upton Park wouldn’t hurt. But not too much. I’m thinking more of a cup run, than a new manager.

It may be boring to hope for consolidation, but those pesky stats suggest it’s a worthwhile aspiration. Of the 12 teams promoted between 2003 and 2010 who survived for a second season, one in three were relegated, while only one improved on the previous season’s finish by more than one place (Newcastle in 2012 – and we all know what happened to them the season after that). So a season of consolidation it is, then. That fancy new Adidas sportswear is surely change enough.

You've never had it so good

Following West Ham at the moment feels a little like rubbernecking. While we head steadily in the right direction, we're faced with someone else's car crash. Last week we witnessed the continuing descent of Alan Pardew's Newcastle, this week it's Everton fans mourning the departure of David Moyes, while next week we watch Reading make their final bow before dropping out of the Premier League. I don't know about you but I could get used to this.

For the neutral there is little to like about West Ham - and that's before we even get on to the "hoofball" debate (which we won't). George McCartney, Joey O'Brien, Gary O'Neil - even player of the year Winston Reid - are not the sort of players to prompt you to salivate at the prospect of watching West Ham on the box. Aside from a couple of home draws against Man United, we've made the top five teams look depressingly good.

But if you're reading this then you're not a neutral (unless you are, in which case welcome to the blog and please come again). Chances are, like me, you're a West Ham fan who has spent years watching our club flatter to deceive. You watch Demba Ba score twice in the first half to take us to the brink of survival, then you watch Wigan score three goals in the second half to relegate us. If ever there were a true example of "the West Ham way", then that fateful afternoon in May 2011 was it.

I wrote at the start of the season that Sam Allardyce could become West Ham's David Moyes. That may sound a little fanciful now that Moyes is Man United manager, but I would argue that Moyes becoming Man United manager is itself rather fanciful. I stand by my claim. Everything about what Allardyce has done in his two years at West Ham smacks of stability, pragmatism and progress. The sort of things that will turn us into a regular top-half Premier League team.

You've never had it so good? Ok, so those FA Cup victories between 1964 and 1980 were pretty good, as was the 85/86 season. But since 1986, there has never been a better time to be a West Ham fan. There may have been some highs since then, but they were always built on shaky foundations which saw us crashing down to earth with a bump. During this period, we have only once achieved three consecutive top-half finishes (1998-2000). A year later Harry Redknapp had been sacked, Glenn Roeder appointed, and the rest is horrible history.

Perhaps the lesson is that the next failure is just around the corner. But failure is normally a result of bad management and, though they may have their faults, it's hard to argue that our present owners don't know how to run a football club.

Then there's the small matter of moving to a new state-of-the-art stadium in 2016. Some people actually whinge about this. "But what about the view?" It'll have retractable seating. "But we're leaving our roots?" It's two miles up the road. "But isn't it just all about money?" Yes, did you not get the memo that was sent round in 1992?

Like all of you, I would love our club as much in League Two as I do in the Premier League. But I’m bored of the near misses and the false starts. I’m ready for a bit of success. I want the Olympic Stadium, not a stadium that hasn’t been fit for purpose in decades. I want a manager who gets results, rather than talks about results. I want owners who love the club, not owners who pretend to love the club. I want Adidas not Macron. I want fans to have Winston Reid's name on their back, not Bobby Moore's. I want to win things, not to talk about the days when we used to win things. For the first time in a long time, it all seems possible.