HAMMER HOUSE OF HORRORS

MICHAEL LEE REFLECTS ON WEST HAM’S DISASTROUS 2002-03 SEASON WHICH SAW THEM RELEGATED FROM THE PREMIER LEAGUE...

- MICHAEL LEE

A SLIDING doors moment is a popular term defined as a ‘tiny, seemingly inconsequential moment that can alter the trajectory of future events’.

A 2019 survey claimed that 80 per cent of British people have experienced one, although its very nature means we can only recognise them in hindsight.

For example, most of our friendships are made through circumstances out of our control, however much we would claim otherwise.

Arrive at a destination five minutes before or after you intended and opportunities that seem pre-ordained would not exist. This would seemingly prove that human experience is fragile and largely reliant upon chance.

This applies equally to football, a sport overflowing with ‘what-if’ moments.

Supporters of every club cling onto snapshots of time that insulate them against cold-hearted reality. Better to believe that your team were a fraction away from glory than never in the running at all.

For supporters of West Ham United one season encapsulates the phenomenon. In 2002/03, the club were relegated from the Premier League with 42 points – a tally that has never since been matched by a relegated side in England’s top flight.

The previous year an editorial in the magazine When Saturday Comes lamented the lack of ‘eyebrow-raising relegations’ in the first decade of the Premier League – West Ham’s relegation saw numerous pairs of eyebrows requiring planning permission in a different postcode.

The Telegraph claimed that 42 points gave a team a 98.4 per cent chance of survival, meaning West Ham’s relegation was a two-in-one-hundred occurrence. This statistical anomaly saw one of the most talented squads in the club’s history sold piece-by-piece, mostly to local rivals Chelsea and Tottenham.