JOHN DILLON: Being a Hammer is about tradition, family, and pride... NOT success
Daily Mail The biggest load of old nonsense in sport is the endlessly-repeated, smart-alec quote: 'Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.'
Well, OK. It is every 43 years.
But as magical and joyful as West Ham United's triumph in the Europa Conference League feels today, nobody follows the Irons for the glory, do they? Nobody is on a mission to see the team dominate football. No one with any sense really expects there to be any more trophies on the way soon. One piece of silverware comes along every couple of generations or so. As it did after Jarrod Bowen's barn-storming winning goal against Fiorentina in Prague on Wednesday night.
When it happens, it's magnificent. It makes lots of big tattooed men weep soppily into their beer. And many others besides. Yet that isn't really what it's all about in the claret-and blue heartland of Essex and east London. No, the main purpose of supporting the Hammers is simply to support the Hammers.
True for the fans of most clubs apart from the mega-rich, perennial silverware harvesters in the North and in other more salubrious sections of the capital, of course. But we all rightly believe our own lot are special.
