In a new column for the new season, West Ham United fan, nostalgist and author Sid Lambert goes back 20 years to relive our Premier League return and push for FA Cup glory during 2005/06…
“Yossi Benayoun? Never heard of him.”
In the world before phone apps, social media and ITKs, the transfer window was a thing of wonder.
Exotic names were as mysterious as they were alluring. Without the world’s information at your fingertips, there was no limit to a player’s potential. Everyone was a prospective world-beater. Even a cursory glance at Football Manager did little to curb your enthusiasm. If the player’s stats were good, it added weight to his growing reputation. If they were bad, it simply meant the researcher had had an off day and overlooked this hidden gem.
They were simpler times. Innocent times. And sometimes, like all fans of a certain vintage, I wonder if we were better off being blissfully ignorant. Letting our hopes reach sky high and letting our own eyes be the sole judge of a player’s ability.
That was certainly my attitude in the pre-season of 2005 when West Ham’s transfer activity reached fever pitch. I’ve lived through some strange summers supporting this Club. There have been some miserable times, such as Mitchell Thomas being our standout signing in 1991. There have been summers which felt like a fever dream, such as Paulo Futre and Florin Răducioiu arriving in 1996. And then there’s the summer of 2005. Four weeks in July which might be the most fruitful in my 38 years as a West Ham fan.
It was an extraordinary era. James Blunt was top of the charts. And if that wasn’t bizarre enough, the England cricket team were in the midst of a titanic (and ultimately victorious) battle with their all-conquering Australian overlords to regain the Ashes. Meanwhile, in deepest east London, something equally unlikely was taking place.
West Ham United were doing good business in the transfer market.
The last few years had been a boom-and-bust cycle of new arrivals. To this day, I’m still scarred by how Harry Redknapp set fire to the £18m we received for Rio Ferdinand. Harry has had the occasional scrape with financial authorities, but in my eyes spending £5m on Titi Camara and Rigobert Song was worthy of a national inquiry.
Alan Pardew’s reign had been a revolving door of signings. Each one felt like the toss of a coin. For every Marlon Harewood, there was a Sergei Rebrov. For every Bobby Zamora, a Darren Powell. But it had been enough to scrape us back to the Premier League, and that’s all that mattered. Barely had the champagne corks popped at the promotion party before the gaffer was sat in front of his fax machine building a squad for survival.
First through the door was Paul Konchesky for £1.5m from Charlton. Every time I’d seen him play, he was solid. And his form for the top flight’s perennial over-achievers had even earned him two England caps.
He was followed later in the day by a double signing from Cardiff. Welsh international centre-backs James Collins and Danny Gabbidon arrived in a £4.5m double swoop. I’d been impressed by both the previous season. Gabbidon was fast, strong and had intelligent positional play. Meanwhile, you could throw a block of cement into the penalty area and Collins would head it away from danger.
Three British signings. Three internationals. So far, so good.
It got even better a week later when Shaka Hislop returned to the Club on a free transfer from Portsmouth. I thought selling him, and spending a small fortune on David James, was one of the key errors in the Glenn Roeder era. Seeing the big man, whose hands were like dinner plates, back between the sticks would bring calm to a backline that had kamikaze tendencies during our promotion push. It seemed a brilliant bit of business.
Then things took a handbrake turn. One day a better historian than me will find something of note to say about Czech striker Petr Mikolanda, who joined from Viktoria Žižkov for an undisclosed fee.
Unfortunately, you’re stuck with me.
He wasn’t very good. Though he and I do share the same amount of Premier League appearances in Claret and Blue, so perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh.
Thankfully, the Mikolanda signing was a curveball in an otherwise consistent stream of player purchases. Which then brings us to Benayoun. Signed for £2.5m from Racing Santander where he was top scorer the previous season. The Israeli midfielder was described as ‘a highly-rated player chased by a number of other leading Premier League clubs, who is sure to become a fan favourite’ by Hammers managing director Paul Aldridge.
And that was all we knew. Remember, these were the early days of YouTube when cat videos, singing llamas and people blogging day trips to local zoos were the main drivers of traffic. There were no podcasts. No data analytics. And the closest you got to insider info was ringing up Clubcall where you’d hear a club narrator talk like he was 20,000 leagues under the sea for 98p per minute.
In fact, the only other information we had was this from Benayoun himself: “I spoke with my good friend Eyal Berkovic, who told me not to hesitate in signing for the Club.”
And that was all I needed. To this day, Berkovic remains the single greatest passer of a football I’ve seen at Upton Park. He would glide across the pitch, gently rolling through ball after inch-perfect through ball to John Hartson, and it was like poetry in motion. If Big John hadn’t lost his temper and used Eyal’s head as a Mitre Delta on that infamous day at Chadwell Heath, I think the playmaker would have become a Club legend.
So, if he was recommending Benayoun become a Hammer, that was all the info I needed. We’d officially signed one of the best players in Europe. I didn’t need any data, scouting reports or statistics. I had Eyal Berkovic’s word for it. And that was good enough.
Thinking about it, maybe I should adopt this attitude now instead of trying to make sense of all the transfer guff these days. Goodness knows how many hours I lose each summer to YouTube compilation videos, incomprehensible data radars and 2,000-word debriefs from football data nerds.
Has anyone got Eyal’s number? I’d like to ask him about El Hadji Malick Diouf…
Sid has a book out: ‘Highs, Lows and Di Canios: The Fans’ Guide to West Ham United in the 90s’. Head into the official West Ham store for a rollercoaster ride through one of the most turbulent decades in Claret & Blue history.
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of West Ham United.
