West Ham Online

"Apologies if this has been mentioned before but is anyone watching this series from Robert Banks on YouTube? The latest episode is the start of season 84/85 (My first season following West Ham) where John Lyall almost left to join QPR that summer. Great clips, great music and full of interesting historical Information about West Ham during the Lyall era. Highly recommended. It deserves far more views than it currently gets."

Just going to bump up this thread to say it was 17 years today that we lost our greatest ever manager at the relatively young age of 66. It hard to believe that he was only 49 when he left West Ham in 1989. He seemed a lot older than that.

Yeah just watching the first 2 episodes of season 86/87 I was quite shocked how bad Parkes was. Probably 25 percent of the goals conceded so far were down to him. Alan Dickens had the ability but lacked the confidence to go on and be a great player. It’s a shame he was finished at league football in his late 20s.

"Lyall should have added to the squad. Parkes was shot by then, no back up centre forward and a 70 year old Billy Bonds on the bench. Dickens was superb, shame he went to Chelsea and fucked his career up."

"Yeah I remember the Donkey tag that Tony Adams got in the 80s. To be fair to both, Adams went on to be a brilliant defender and captain during the 90s and David Kelly did quite well and scored lots of goals for Leicester & Newcastle after he left us."

Ahh that was it….I do remember later going to the Arsenal vs West Ham game and the media nicknaming it the donkey derby as it was Adams up against Kelly…..and it lived up to it’s title….

No I don’t think we moved for him until we signed him as Cottee’s replacement in the summer of 88. I think signing Kelly was thought of as a bit of a coup at the time as he was attracting quite a bit of interest from a lot of clubs including Bayern Munich apparently after scoring 60 goals in 2 seasons for Walsall.

It was Cottee I think SOH

Could be wrong but wasn’t David ‘One Leg Shorter then the other’ Kelly the first attempt at replacing McAvennie?

I can’t remember Lyall trying to replace Goddard but when McAvennie left the following season he did try and replace him but Mick Harford & Kerry Dixon both turned us down even though we had fees agreed. That’s when we signed Leroy instead. As per today’s episode we actually had a decent start despite losing some home games and after 15 matches we were in the top 6. I think from next week it starts to go tits up. Have to say though that Phil Parkes was at fault for a lot of the goals we were conceding. The 85/86 season was definitely his last hurrah.

"I think we can be a bit harsh on Lyall. If you read some of the books quite a few of his first choice targets either were or went on to be top players but for various reasons they didn't come, leaving him with third, fourth of fifth choices like Rosenior, McKnight and Kelly, although Leroy did well. To be fair Frank and Wardy were punts and could so easily have gone the other way but I do agree letting the likes of Goddard go and not replacing Parkes didn't help us, but at the same time it wasn't a squad game back then and Goddard was too good to sit on the bench."

"Another great one today, because 85/86 was such a big season you tend to remember most of the goals but today's vid there were goals and results I couldn't recall even though I would have been at a lot of the games. I didn't realise how good Goddard's record was for us."

Clips from today’s episode include the epic 5-3 home win against Chelsea and Billy Bonds returning after 19 months out to a huge reception from the crowd against Preston in the league cup.

"John Lyall was one of the best managers in English football from 1979-1986 but he definitely lost the plot a bit in his last 3 years. Maybe he and the club needed a fresh start and a change earlier than when he did eventually leave/got sacked. As you said, selling Goddard and not replacing him was a bad decision while not looking for a long term replacement for Phil Parkes after the 1986 season was a mistake as well. Of course he did eventually bring in Alan McKnight in 1988 which was certainly a choice! It was nice to see Liam Brady celebrate that goal considering it was against Arsenal. I wonder what their fans thought about that at the time!"

"John Lyall was one of the best managers in English football from 1979-1986 but he definitely lost the plot a bit in his last 3 years. Maybe he and the club needed a fresh start and a change earlier than when he did eventually leave/got sacked. As you said, selling Goddard and not replacing him was a bad decision while not looking for a long term replacement for Phil Parkes after the 1986 season was a mistake as well. Of course he did eventually bring in Alan McKnight in 1988 which was certainly a choice! It was nice to see Liam Brady celebrate that goal considering it was against Arsenal. I wonder what their fans thought about that at the time!"

First game I ever went to was the 5 2 home defeat to the scoucers early September in 86 . I think we were top of the league at the time as well. Parksie and the defence clearly wasn't the same as the previous season. Stewart and Martin became injury prone and we desperately needed a left back . And selling Goddard was a terrible mistake . Only bright spots was the emergence of ince Potts and keen . And the arsenal game 36 years ago today was the most mental atmosphere I've ever seen at a football match . Won 3 1 Liam Brady got booked for jumping into the chicken run after scoring LOL .

"87/88 and 88/89 seasons will be fun. I went to my first match as a schoolboy in late 1987, didn’t see us win a home game until 1989! Didn’t go every game though."

"Agreed Swindon. If Lyall had bought a new keeper, defender and midfielder things would have been different but he just relied on what we had. Missed opportunity"

Just finished watching the first part of the 86/87 season of this. I remember this season really well as it was the first full season review the club released on VHS and I must have watched it about 100 times as a kid. This was around the time when Phil Parkes was starting to look past his prime after a wonderful 7 years. There were a few goals conceded where you would have to question him. Love that header from McAvennie against Man Utd though!

"Sold I've never met him but heard he's a proper decent bloke. I did the stadium tour a few weeks back with my daughter and was hoping it was going to be him that took it. Had to settle for Parks who to be fair is a good egg as well and told some good stories. And before you say it, yes the place is as big a steaming pile of shit no matter which part you go!"

SA... he lives round the corner to us in Leigh on Sea (Eastwood)... seen him around a few times.. also president of our Vets footy league... nice bloke. First time I met Macca was interesting... certainly lived up to his image...

"Northern Sold 3:49 Tue Apr 4 Yeah, David Kelly bagged the other 2 that. We went 3-1 down after scoring first. Just looked it up and I got the season wrong - it was the 88-89 season. As you say, a decent game in what mostly a shit season... although we did do Liverpool 4-1 in the league cup. As for Tony Cottee. He was was my first idol and no one came close again until Dicanio... absolutely sobbed to bits when I heard the news he'd been sold to Everton...in my defense I was only 8 at the time! Remember being behind the goal in the BML when he scored the winner against villa on his home debut after we re-signed him...still one of my favourite goals for sheer elation. Shame he'd lost a yard of pace by then ."

Unfortunately I got to (like many) to see it pan out on the back pages of The Sun......it seemed to me to be sold to us that we were lucky he didn't join Arsenal.......great.

I was gutted when he left in the summer of 88. I didn’t live in London and this was before the days of the Internet so most of my football news either came from Teletext or through Match and Shoot magazines. I seem to be remember seeing him on the front of one of those magazines in the Newsagents in an Everton Shirt and being shocked. Innocent times!

It seems we all had our youth on the terraces in the same era a year or two either side of.....

"Swindon - Yea, same, August 84 Brum at home first game without the old man behind the goal in the South Bank 4-0. I fucking loved Tony Cottee, and still do."