Paul Konchesky delivers honest verdict on West Ham’s Olympic Stadium

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Former West Ham United star and lifelong fan Paul Konchesky has delivered a damning verdict on the Olympic Stadium.

General view outside the new stadium

The Hammers departed their beloved Boleyn Ground home of 112 years last summer to move to the 60,000 seater stadium in Stratford.

An astonishing 52,000 season ticket holders – a new West Ham record and a figure that puts them second only to Manchester United – suggested the club’s fans supported the move.

But the stadium has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons for much of the season after trouble with policing, stewarding, infighting and clashes between home and away fans.

The London Stadium, as it is now known, was somewhat bizarrely named Stadium of the Year 2016 recently despite all the issues and the fact many Hammers fans feel the club and atmosphere has lost its soul in the move.

Now Konchesky, who played for his boyhood club between 2005 and 2007 and scored in the 2006 FA Cup final against Liverpool, has delivered his honest verdict on the stadium while appearing as a guest on Sky Sports’ Fantasy Football Club.

“I’d have to say West Ham at the Boleyn Ground when that’s rocking (had the best atmosphere of any ground he played at), and especially in a big derby, the Chelsea’s, the Tottenham’s, Arsenal’s, Millwall’s, there’s no better place to go and play your football,” Konchesky told Fantasy Football Club.

“I am (a West Ham fan) but I just think the atmosphere there, and when them fans got behind you, it was a great place to play.

Lifelong Hammer Paul Konchesky scores in the FA Cup final in 2006

“It (the Olympic Stadium) doesn’t feel right really, (speaking from the perspective of) going as a fan now.

“It don’t feel right sitting in that stadium and not Upton Park. It’s going to take time I think and hopefully they get that atmosphere back.”

There have been moments this season – perhaps most notably the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace – where the new ground has found its voice.

Mind the gap: Many Hammers fans haven’t taken to their new ground

But many supporters are put off by the big gap between the stands and the pitch and feel the atmosphere dissipates unlike the cauldron like noise at the Boleyn.

It is also refreshing to hear an ex Hammer with the club at heart like Konchesky speak openly and honestly about the ground from a fans’ point of view with so many appearing on the club’s official website to sing its praises.