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.