West Ham Online

Hi there,

I’m not sure how many people who were around in the early days are still
using this forum, but I wanted to share this news in case it’s relevant to
a few. Alex Van de Weyer, who founded this site back in the day, died
unexpectedly last month. He was only 52 and was found at home; he died of
natural causes. He was my partner for many years, and we have a daughter
together.

I think it was in the late 1990s that Alex decided to teach himself PHP
coding to create a West Ham forum. He launched WestHamOnline.com. He wrote
weekly match reports, while I contacted opposition fans with a
questionnaire to create match previews. I remember a column by “Billy
Blagg,” player injury updates, transfer rumours, and fan votes. One
December I even made advent calendar picture posts. There was Steve Potts
in his bedroom full of West Ham merch, plus plenty of other silliness! Alex
V spent huge amounts of time working to make the site a success, coding any
features he thought it needed. His posts were always full of wit and strong
opinions.

Alex was a football stats nerd, and even contacted the club to point out
that Crysencio Summerville could be classed as a home-grown player when
they hadn’t spotted it. This was apparently due to a complex detail
involving birth dates and Covid-era season rules. He was proud of that
spot, and maybe it made a small difference to the club.

Alex later gave up his season ticket and moved out of London, but he still
followed the team with passion. He posted about club strategy on social
media and stayed involved that way. My daughter believes the last message
he read from her was about West Ham being ahead in a recent match. That
feels fitting.

Alex V will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

greenie1 wrote: ↑04 Jan 2026, 22:46 RIP - Alex.
Thank you for creating this site, for which, back in the day, was hilarious. I used to spend more time on here than actually doing any work.

I can’t remember when I signed up, but the day of 9/11, mobile phones weren’t working, news sites had all crashed, WHO was the only site I could get any updates. Seem to recall a poster from Washington DC giving us updates.


 

Alfs wrote: ↑05 Jan 2026, 02:25 Sad news.  Despite founding this site he was treated abysmally by many of the members, so much so, he left.  It was a great shame, though a victory for the trolls.

Thanks, Alex, this site has been a staple of mine for more years than I can remember. 

R.I.P.

Pretty sure I remember he stopped the match report due to the constant abuse and criticism, remember at the time many of us expressed our feelings and cunted those who trolled him, think he went back to doing them but the abuse just got worse so he stopped, real shame tbh, he was good at them and for us expats especially

Actually feeling pretty shit about this today, didn’t know Alex but as WHO,s creator feel in some way I do, gutted for his family and hope the WHO fund will send a wreath and give both our thanks and sorrow at his passing.

As someone else said, what a shit start to the year for us, if 2025 wasn’t bad enough, we have this sad news and a relegation on current form with fuck all to look forward to, a real shame also that Wolves away was perhaps Alex’s last game.