West Ham United have always traditionally played their final pre-season friendly at home against quality opposition.
They didn’t come any bigger than Juventus when West Ham officially opened the London Stadium as their new home back in 2016.
That followed some glamour ties for West Ham over the years at their former home Upton Park against the likes of Roma, Napoli and Werder Bremen.
They are occasions Hammers fans relish, with fans always packing out Upton Park and away supporters keen to visit the famous East End club too.
But there was to be no home pre-season friendly for West Ham in their second campaign in Stratford last season due to the athletics championships which forced the club to play their first four games away from home.
That did not sit well with fans who had been promised West Ham fixtures would always take priority by unpopular vice-chairman Karren Brady.
Consecutive seasons with away Boxing Day fixtures – another popular date in the fixture calendar for any football fan – has also led to speculation the club has a gentleman’s agreement with nearby shopping mall Westfield to request the Hammers play on the road to avoid chaos as shoppers turn out in their thousands for the sales.
West Ham deny any such agreement but new speculation claims the club is having to play hardball and negotiate with the stadium owners to try and secure a prestige home friendly before the season’s start, something that appears unlikely to materialise.
That’s according to Hammers Twitter inside ExWHUemployee who took to Twitter to discuss the situation with fans.
“It’s not definite but last I heard there was issues meaning we couldn’t have a home one but the club were still in negotiations regarding it,” EXWHUemployee said on Twitter.
“It won’t affect the league, just friendlies.”
It’s fair to say Hammers fans have reacted badly to the claim after being told by Brady last season that supporters ‘had not been hoodwinked’ over fixtures at the stadium and that last season was a ‘one-off’.
Here’s a selection of tweets to EXWHUEmployee’s claim, which did not contain swearing!
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