The earliest generally accepted incarnation of West Ham United was founded in 1895 as the Thames Ironworks team by foreman and local league referee Dave Taylor and owner Arnold Hills and was announced in the Thames Ironworks Gazette of June 1895.
West Ham United played on a strictly amateur basis for 1895 at least, with a team featuring a number of works employees including Thomas Freeman (ships fireman), Walter Parks (clerk), Tom Mundy, Walter Tranter and James Lindsay (all boilermakers), William Chapman, George Sage, and William Chamberlain and apprentice riveter Charlie Dove.
The club, Thames Ironworks F.C. were the first ever winners of the West Ham Charity Cup in 1895 contested by clubs in the locality, then won the London League in 1897. West Ham United turned professional in 1898 upon entering the Southern League Second Division, and were promoted to the First Division at the first attempt. The following year West Ham United came second from bottom, but had established themselves as a fully-fledged competitive team. West Ham United comfortably fended off the challenge of local rivals Fulham F.C. in a relegation play-off, 5-1 in late April 1900 and retained their First Division status.
West Ham United initially played in full dark blue kits, as inspired by Mr. Hills, who had been an Oxford University "Blue", but changed the following season by adopting the sky blue shirts and white shorts combination worn through 1897 to 1899. In 1899 West Ham United acquired their now traditional home kit combination of claret shirts and sky blue sleeves in a wager involving Aston Villa F.C. players, who were League Champions at the time.
Following growing disputes over the running and financing of the club in June 1900 Thames Ironworks F.C. was wound up, then almost immediately relaunched on 5 July 1900 as West Ham United F.C. with Syd King as their manager and future manager Charlie Paynter as his assistant. Because of the original "works team" roots and links (still represented upon the club badge), they are still known to this day as 'the Irons' or 'the Hammers' amongst fans and the media.
The reborn West Ham United continued to play their games at the Memorial Ground in Plaistow (funded by Arnold Hills) but moved to a pitch in the Upton Park area when the team officially severed ties with the company (losing their works provisioned offices in the process). After being made groundless in 1901 West Ham United became transient, playing their home games on a number of local teams' grounds until moving to their current home, Upton Park (in the guise of the Boleyn Ground stadium), in 1904.
West Ham's first game in their new home was against local rivals Millwall F.C. (themselves an Ironworks team, albeit for a rival company) drawing a crowd of 10,000 and with West Ham United running out 3-0 winners.
West Ham United F.C. had joined the Western League for the 1901 season in addition to continuing playing in the Southern Division 1. In 1907 West Ham United were crowned the Western League Division 1B Champions, and then defeated 1A champions Fulham 1-0 to become the Western Leagues Overall Champions.
In 1919, still under King's leadership, West Ham United gained entrance to the Football League Second Division and were promoted to Division One in 1923, also making the FA Cup final that year. West Ham United enjoyed mixed success in Division 1 but retained their status for 10 years and reached the FA Cup semifinal in 1927.
In 1932 West Ham United was relegated to Division Two and long term custodian Sydney King was sacked after serving the club in the role of Manager for 32 years, and as a player from 1899 to 1903. He was replaced with his assistant manager Charlie Paynter who himself had been with West Ham in a number of roles since 1897 and who went on to serve the team in this role until 1950 for a total of 480 games.
West Ham United spent most of the next 30 years in this division, first under Paynter and then later under the leadership of former player Ted Fenton. Fenton succeeded in getting the club once again promoted to the top level of English football in 1958 and in helping develop both the initial batch of future West Ham United stars and West Ham's approach to the game.
Ron Greenwood was appointed as Fenton's successor in 1961 and he soon led West Ham United to two major trophies, winning the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965. During the 1966 World Cup, key members of the England national football team were West Ham United players, including the captain, Bobby Moore; Martin Peters (who scored in the final); and Geoff Hurst, who scored the only hat-trick (to date) in a World Cup final. After a difficult start to the 1974-75 season, Greenwood moved himself "upstairs" to become General Manager and without informing the board, appointed his assistant John Lyall as team manager. The result was instant success - the team scored 20 goals in the their first four games combined and won the FA Cup that year.
Lyall then guided West Ham United to another European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1976, though the team lost the match 4-2 to Anderlecht. Greenwood's tenure as General Manager lasted less than three years, as he was appointed to manage England in the wake of Don Revie's resignation in 1977.
In 1978, West Ham United were again relegated to Division Two, but Lyall was retained as manager and led the team to another FA Cup win in 1980. This was notable because no team outside the top division has won the trophy since that time. West Ham were promoted to Division One in 1981, but were relegated again in 1989. This second relegation resulted in John Lyall's sacking, despite the fact that that stay in Division One saw West Ham United achieve their highest-ever placing in the top division, finishing 3rd in 1986.
After Lyall, Lou Macari briefly led West Ham United, though he resigned after less than a single season in order to clear his name of allegations of illegal betting whilst manager of Swindon Town. He was replaced by former player Billy Bonds. In Bonds' first full season (1990-91), West Ham United again secured promotion to Division One. The following season they were again relegated to Division 2, which had been renamed Division One as part of the league realignments surrounding the creation of the English Premier League in 1992. West Ham United spent the 1992-93 season in Division One, finishing second and returning to the Premier League in May 1993.
After the 1993-94 season, Bonds quit and was replaced by Harry Redknapp in August 1994. Redknapp was active in the transfer market, and gained a reputation as a "wheeler-dealer" especially with foreign players being more available following the Bosman ruling. He led West Ham United to fifth place in the 1998-99 season, but missed automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup, and instead qualified as winners of the Intertoto Cup. Despite consolidating the league placings for a handful of seasons, a disagreement with the board of directors during the close of the 2000-01 season, found Redknapp replaced with Glenn Roeder, promoted from youth team coach.
In Roeder's first season West Ham United finished seventh, but West Ham lost by wide margins in several matches (7-1 to Blackburn, 5-0 to Everton and 5-1 to Chelsea) The subsequent season started badly and eventually resulted in relegation. Roeder, who had missed some of the season after being diagnosed with a brain tumour that was treated) was sacked on 24 August 2003, three games into the Championship campaign
Trevor Brooking (who served as manager during Glenn's ill health the previous season) stepped in as interim manager before being replaced by Alan Pardew in October 2003, headhunted from fellow promotion contenders Reading. Pardew led the team to a playoff final, though they were beaten by Crystal Palace. West Ham United stayed in Division One (which at this time became the Championship) for another season, when they again reached the playoff final, but this time won, beating Preston North End 1-0, gaining re-entry to the Premiership.
On their return to the top division, West Ham United finished in 9th place,. The highlight of the 2005-06 season, however, was reaching the FA Cup final, and taking favourites Liverpool to a penalty shootout, after a thrilling three-all draw. Although West Ham United lost the shootout, they gained entry to the UEFA Cup as Liverpool had already qualified for the Champions League through league position.
In August 2006, West Ham United completed a major coup on the last day of the transfer window, after completing the signings of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham United were eventually bought by an Icelandic consortium, led by Eggert Magnússon in November 2006. Manager Alan Pardew was sacked after poor form during the season and was replaced by former Charlton manager Alan Curbishley.
The signings of Mascherano and Tévez were investigated by the Premier League, who were concerned that details of the transfers had been omitted from official records. The club was found guilty and fined 5.5 million pounds in April 2007. However, West Ham United avoided a points deduction which ultimately became critical in their avoidance of relegation at the end of the 2006-07 season. Following on from this event, Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan, supported by other sides facing possible relegation, including Fulham and Sheffield United, threatened legal action.
West Ham United escaped relegation by winning seven of their last nine games, including a 1-0 win over Arsenal, and on the last day of the season defeated newly crowned League Champions Manchester United 1-0 with a goal by Tevez to finish 15th, above the relegation zone. Tevez' contributions were arguably important to the survival of West Ham United in the Premiership as he scored seven goals, five of them crucial, in the last couple of months of the season to enable the team to stay up, notwithstanding his ineffectiveness throughout the early part of the season.
In the 2007-08 season, West Ham United had a reasonably consistent place in the top half of the league table despite a slew of injuries; new signings Craig Bellamy and Kieron Dyer missed most of the campaign. The last game of the season, at the Boleyn Ground, saw West Ham draw 2-2 against Aston Villa; ensuring 10th place, finishing three points ahead of rivals Tottenham Hotspur. It was a five-place improvement on the previous season, and most importantly West Ham United were never under any realistic threat of relegation.
After a row with the board over the sale of defenders Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney to Sunderland FC, manager Alan Curbishley resigned on 3 September 2008. His successor, Gianfranco Zola took over on 11 September 2008 and in so doing became the club's first foreign manager (The Scottish manager Lou Macari was the only other manager not from England), to coach the club and became West Ham's 12th manager. |