This week on The West Ham Syndrome, Andrew and Max are joined by Brian Williams, journalist, author and West Ham supporter of over fifty years, to discuss his two books about the club and what it means to follow the Hammers across a lifetime.

Brian's first book, Nearly Reach the Sky (2015), is part memoir, part history lesson and part farewell to Upton Park. It traces fifty years of following West Ham through the great players, great occasions and great calamities, weaving in the broader story of the East End and what the club has meant to its community. His second, Home from Home (2017), charts West Ham's move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium by comparing the last season at Upton Park with the first at Stratford, a passionate account of what supporters left behind when the club moved.

We talk about how Brian came to support West Ham as a kid growing up in West London, the first letter he ever had published in a football magazine, and Sam Allardyce's time in charge of the club. We also discuss the pre-match rituals that made matchday at Upton Park what it was, whether anything has improved at the London Stadium in the decade since Brian was writing about it and what the future might hold under new ownership.

Both books are available through Biteback Publishing and on Amazon.

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This week on The West Ham Syndrome, Andrew and Max take on the 2026 World Cup and the question West Ham fans have been arguing about for sixty years.

Did West Ham win the 1966 World Cup? All four of England's goals in the final were scored by West Ham players. The moves that produced them were rehearsed at Upton Park under Ron Greenwood. The composure that defined extra time was Bobby Moore's, and Moore's football education started at West Ham when he was twelve years old. Andrew and Max make the case, scrutinise it properly, and try to land somewhere honest.

From there, the episode takes in the full sweep of West Ham at the World Cup, from Harry Hooper in 1954 to the five current Hammers in North America right now. There are signings that worked, signings that didn't, and at least one that ended with a man climbing out of a hotel window.

Andrew and Max each pick their best ever West Ham World Cup XI and defend their selections.

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This week on The West Ham Syndrome, Andrew and Max are joined by Pete May - journalist, author, blogger and lifelong Hammer - for a wide-ranging conversation about three decades of writing West Ham United.

Pete has written five books solely about the club, from Irons in the Soul (2002) and Hammers in the Heart (2005), through to Flying So High: West Ham's Cup Finals (2015), Goodbye to Boleyn (2016), and most recently Massive: The Miracle of Prague (2024). His Hammers in the Heart blog has been running since 2008 and is approaching four million views.

We talk about what compelled Pete to write about the turbulent 2001/02 season, the emotional weight of leaving the Boleyn Ground, and how Prague fits into the broader story of West Ham's identity. Along the way, we get into some of the more eccentric corners of the club's history - including the short-lived West Ham Hotel and the club's own branded Chardonnay wine.

We also touch on David Sullivan's resignation and Monday night's Panorama documentary before getting into Pete's quick-fire answers, where he tells us his favourite West Ham player, best game he's seen live, and what the West Ham way means to him.

Pete's blog and Substack can be found at hammersintheheart.blogspot.com.

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This week, Andrew and Max are joined by journalist and author Christopher Lepkowski to discuss his book The Slum Sport, which tells the story of the 1985-86 football season - the year that came closer to producing a West Ham title than anything before or since.

We explore the extraordinary context of a sport in crisis: the aftermath of Heysel, the Bradford fire, and the total absence of football on television for half a season. Chris explains how Margaret Thatcher's government treated football fans in much the same way it treated the miners, and how Ted Croker famously pushed back in Downing Street. We also get into how the European ban robbed a generation of English players of an education, and why the stirrings of a breakaway Super League were already happening in 85-86.

Then we turn to the West Ham specifics: the story of how Frank McAveney almost signed for Luton, the Stringfellows encounter that tells you everything about the Cottee-McAveney partnership, the 8-1 win over Newcastle, and just how close John Lyall's side came to pulling off something remarkable.

Chris also talks us through the chapter song titles, the players nobody had heard of, and why that season planted the seeds of what would eventually become the Premier League.

The Slum Sport is available now. Search "The Slum Sport" or find Chris on X at @_ChrisLepkowski.

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Well. Here we are.

In what is easily their least enjoyable recording session to date, Andrew and Max sit down to make sense of the unthinkable - West Ham United's relegation to the Championship after a season that was, in truth, a long time coming.

Taking inspiration from A Christmas Carol (the Muppets version, naturally), the lads split this one into three acts. The Ghost of West Ham Past takes us back to January 2010, when David Sullivan and David Gold walked through the door with the proceeds of a Birmingham City sale and a plan that always had more to do with profit than passion. From the stadium deal that lined their pockets while breaking fans' hearts, to the criminal mishandling of David Moyes and the Declan Rice windfall - Andrew and Max unpick exactly how the seeds of this relegation were planted long before a ball was kicked this season.

The Ghost of West Ham Present surveys the wreckage: £350 million spent since the Rice sale, a revolving door of managers, a squad built by committee (if that committee was one man on his phone), and a boardroom that has haemorrhaged its senior leadership faster than the team haemorrhaged points.

And the Ghost of West Ham Future? Sullivan won't sell cheap. Kretinsky lurks. The finances are brutal.

Scrooge, in the end, changes his ways. Whether David Sullivan will do the same is, frankly, less certain.

COYI. Whatever league we're in.

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In 2015, with West Ham's move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium announced, photographer and creative director Joseph Fordham set himself a task: to collect 112 portraits and personal accounts from fans, players and club figures - one for every year West Ham had called Upton Park home.

What followed was 374 days of matchday photography, interviews over email, recorded conversations in the club bar, and one memorable trip to Gloucester to photograph Sir Geoff Hurst. The result was No Place Like Home, a self-funded, self-published book that sold 2,000 copies and captured a moment in time that can never be repeated.

In this episode, Joe joins Andrew and Max to talk through the making of the book - how the idea came to him on a train, how Tony Carr opened a door that led to Sir Geoff Hurst, how David Gold gave up 45 minutes of his time and lit up talking about the old days, and why it took him nearly a decade to look back at the finished product with genuine pride.

We also get into the fanzine that followed - 10 issues of irreverent, offbeat fun produced out of the Truman Brewery - Joe's complicated feelings about the London Stadium and what No Place Like Home has grown into since.

Plus the quickfire round: first game, favourite player, best goal, worst heartbreak and what the West Ham Way really means.

A proper love letter to the Boleyn Ground and the people who made it home.

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We're back! Season 2 of The West Ham Syndrome is here and we're kicking things off with a special episode marking the 20th anniversary of the 2006 FA Cup Final.

On 13 May 2006, West Ham United faced Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in a match now widely regarded as one of the greatest FA Cup finals ever played. We take you through West Ham's road to the final, the context surrounding that season, and every moment of a game that had absolutely everything.

We also take an honest (and slightly painful) look at how close West Ham have come to a final in the twenty years since.

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In this episode of The West Ham Syndrome Podcast, we’re doing something slightly different.

Instead of focusing on matchdays, players, or club politics, we’re heading back to the 1990s to revisit a memorable crossover between West Ham United and the Nickelodeon series Renford Rejects — specifically the Series 3 episode, “Another Italian”.

For many fans, Renford Rejects was part of growing up: a football show aimed at younger audiences that still managed to capture the spirit of the game surprisingly well. In this episode, a prank phone call leads to a dream trial at West Ham’s Chadwell Heath training ground, with Harry Redknapp and a late-90s squad featuring names like Paolo Di Canio and Rio Ferdinand making cameo appearances.

We talk through the episode, reflect on the 90s football culture it represents, touch on the familiar faces who appeared in the series, and consider why moments like this stick in the memory.

A slightly lighter, nostalgic detour — but still very much part of the wider story of West Ham and what it means to grow up with the club.

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