Goodbye To Boleyn : West Ham's Final Season at Upton Park and the Big Kick-off at Stratford

"Essex scribe and literary Hammer Pete May writes with humour and eloquence about the most turbulent year of change at the Boleyn since Ken's Café got a tub of Flora." Phill Jupitus West Ham's final season at the Boleyn Ground was always going to be memorable. It featured a new manager in Slaven Bilic, the arrival of a French magician called Dimitri Payet and away wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City - not to mention an unexpected tilt at the top four and an epic last game at the Boleyn against Man United. But a new beginning is around the corner and, as he and his fellow Hammers prepare to swap the gritty East End streets of E13 for the shiny shopping centres of Stratford, lifelong supporter Pete May reflects on the special place the Boleyn Ground has occupied in the hearts of generations of Irons fans. Whether it's the infamous chants of the Bobby Moore Stand, the pre-match fry-ups at Ken's Café or the joys of sticky carpets, rubbish ale and blokes singing on pool tables in the pubs around Upton Park, Pete's memories are sure to resonate with legions of the claret-and-blue army as they say farewell to the Boleyn and enter a new era at the London Stadium. THIS ISN’T A BOOK ABOUT THE ECONOMICS OF STADIUM moves. Instead, what it hopefully captures is a sense of what it was like to be a fan at the Boleyn Ground for that final season and also at the first games at the sparkling new Olympic Stadium. Some chapters look back at my memories of attending games since the 1970s, while in the diary sections on 2015–16 I’ve tried to acknowledge the seasonal rhythms of the football fan, the minutiae of football trivia, the banter, the lucky shirts, the cafés and pubs, the chants, and the unforgettable atmosphere of the final home game against Manchester United.For West Ham fans, the Boleyn Ground was the only home they had ever known. When West Ham first bid in 2012 to move from the Boleyn to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, it all seemed aeons away. The fans continued to visit Ken’s Café, the Boleyn pub, the Central, the Ercan chip shop and myriad other pre- and post-match institutions. Title Page; Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface; 1: My West Ham family; 2: Is that all we bring at home?; 3: Goodbye to Boleyn; 4: We've got Payet!; 5: In Ken's Café we trust; 6: Stick your blue flag up your & 7: A Christmas Carroll; 8: My dad's last game; 9: Je t'aime, Dimitri; 10: Come on you Ironworks; 11: Tottenham Hotspur it's happened again!; 12: More bookings at the Newham Bookshop; 13: Drawing drawing West Ham; 14: Win or lose we're on the booze; 15: Concentrating on the Europa League; 16: The final farewell; 17: We're all going on a European tour; 18: Olympian Hammers. 19: London callingCopyright; Advertisement. The story of West Ham's final season at Upton Park, from the sad farewells to the anticipation of a new future in Stratford.