I laughed out loud when I saw the first ‘Media Watch’ proudly tweeted out by the @Westhamunited, the official West Ham twitter page. It’s only taken three months for the club to rebrand, dress up and disguise its previous ‘The Insider’ page. For those of you who have not read the page, it was a gossip page about the club’s transfer dealings. If it sounds ridiculous, it’s because it really is. It was a platform for the club to gloat about all the marquee signings we were never really going to sign. The club canned the page when fans highlighted its unpopularity in a meeting with Karen Brady at the start of the year. We hoped that would be the last of it, sadly not.
The unprofessionalism, self-glorifying and frankly embarrassing page is back. Enter the ‘Media Watch’ but don’t worry… “The views on this page are taken from the local and national media and do not necessarily reflect the views of West Ham United”. No of course not, instead they just take a collection of all the club’s favourite news articles, compile them in one place, talk about and contribute to the rumours. Then they promote these articles on their website and Twitter feed. That’s always the best way to distance yourself from transfer rumours… right? I appreciate that the club is trying new ways to deliver content on a regular basis, and stay relevant in the ever-changing world of digital and social media. Regurgitating old ideas that the fans have already disapproved is not the way forward.
In the page’s defence, it contains information other than transfer rumours and in its latest edition mentions reports and opinions on the recent Leicester game. It still all just seems a little pointless. I am capable of reading a newspaper and if it doesn’t reflect the views of the club then why even mention it? Come the summer, I’m sure it will return to transfer rumours and continue to take flack from the fans.
It just seems the board never learn despite their best efforts. This is especially concerning considering the number of fans feeling now more disconnected and disillusioned with the club than ever. I was pleased to see the board and Brady in particular taking steps to listen to fans in January, meeting with a number of different fan based publications and YouTubers. However, since then I have seen very few changes or improvements set out in the meeting. Popular fan sites such as West Ham Fan TV and Hammers Chat listed promises to improve queuing times outside the stadium and at the bar, in addition to shelves for drinks in the concourses. I’m yet to see any of these in effect. It’s been a tough season but going forward the club need to reassess their efforts in making this new stadium feel like home. Please, oh please stop with gossip pages and leave that to us!