Tony Gale has spoken of his disappointment with recent crowd trouble at the London Stadium.
West Ham United icon Tony Gale has branded the London Stadium a “nightmare for the club,” in an interview with Talksport.
Gale, who played over 300 times for West Ham, wants better security at the Hammers’ new stadium and despite being pleased with Slaven Bilic’s side’s performance in Wednesday night’s 2-1 EFL Cup victory over Chelsea, he feels most people will be talking about the crowd trouble.
Gale, who was at the match on Wednesday told Talksport: “The football was absolutely terrific, West Ham were brilliant last night, they were back to their best.
“But all you can hear this morning is about the crowd trouble, and it’s marred what was a really great game. You could see seats and coins being thrown, both sets of fans were at it without a doubt. You couldn’t say it was all West Ham fans or all Chelsea fans.
“The club have got real problems with the stadium. They’ve inherited a lovely stadium, it really is beautiful, but it’s not a football ground. It wasn’t built with segregation in mind.”
“They’ve got stewards there, but to be fair to them when you’re confronted by hundreds of thugs, are you really going to stand in their way? I know it’s their job, but when people – grown men – are fighting it is really difficult. You need policing there, you definitely need policing in that ground. It’s a nightmare.”
Gale played for West Ham between 1984-1994 before joining Blackburn Rovers for one season, where he won the Premier League title in 1995.
This is not the first time that there has been crowd trouble at the London Stadium this season for West Ham since they left Upton Park at the end of the last campaign.
West Ham narrowly won Wednesday night’s game with goals from Cheikhou Kouyate and Edimilson Fernandes, who put the Hammers 2-0 up, before Gary Cahill pulled one back for Chelsea in second-half stoppage time.
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