The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Adam Levantal.

West Ham have been relegated from the Premier League just three years after winning the Europa Conference League.

But just how costly will the drop be for the Hammers?

Well, with me is the Athletics Senior Football News reporter Matt Slater and West Ham correspondent Rochane Thomas, who, if you are watching on YouTube, you will see he's outside and he's trying to enjoy the sunshine.

Rochaine, how are you emotionally after that?

That's a very good question.

I do not have to answer that question, in honesty.

Still down, worst time being relegated to championship, but we'll get into it.

It's definitely deserved three factors how poor they've been all season.

The thing that people can't see is that you're actually in a paddling pool full of tears at the moment.

That's why you're outside. I jest, of course. There'll be a lot of West Ham fans that are feeling

on the ground today on this bank holiday Monday. So after 14 seasons in the Premier League,

West Ham are going to be a championship club.

You've had a front row seat to the season

and you've documented a lot of it in your inside read for the Athletic.

It's well worth a read for everyone out there.

And we're going to be pulling on a lot of the threads

that you deal with in the article.

But overall, as a season, how bad has it been? It's been an awful season in honesty. And my main take place in season that's been a lack of fighting spirit throughout the whole season. Graham Potter, a very slow start under him. I believe it was one win in the first five league games. And if there's one game that really sticks out of my mind, it was the loss to Chelsea. And this probably was the third or second game in the season. And a young supporter tried to run the pitch and protest. I sure took him away, right? But an elderly fan felt outraged by that, almost to say, like, how dare you take away this young fan? He had every right to protest. And I thought, wow, we're in August. And this is how fans fall already. So it's just been a lack of consistency. And it's been a lot of tension because there's one cup game against Wolverhampton in August as well. And a fan almost clashed with Jayabohne. And again, in the years I've been carving in West Dam, Jared Bowen is very cool. A very cool guy. I rarely ever lose his temper. But he lost his temper in that game and his team has to hold him back. So again, this is in August. And the signs were there that all this wasn't well at West Ham. You really sensed it, did you? And the players were sensing it that this was off key. Yeah, massively. And a lot of fans will tell you that after the opening day lost of Sondland, when you're like, yeah, this is the year we go down. This is the year we go down. Because even in preseason, the performances, I know preseason is all about fitness. But even that early, you could tell the signs were there that this team just doesn't click.

Matt, from your point of view, they've got 39 points and they're going down Westtown.

That's the highest tally to go down since Birmingham and Blackpool 15 years ago.

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