So Long Green Street Hammers, My End To Reporting On West Ham

January 2020, West Ham had just rehired David Moyes and were in the middle of a relegation battle. I had just moved to Brighton after finishing my Master’s degree in Journalism. The day my partner and I were putting together furniture as the two Pablos, Fornals and Zabaleta fired the club past Gillingham into the next round of the FA Cup.

While the job market was small, I decided to start building my own portfolio. I started looking for sports sites looking for new contributors and writers. Luckily I stumbled across Green Street Hammers. I sent off a proposal and was up and running before the end of the transfer window.

My first article was about a little known midfielder linked with a move to West Ham, his name? Tomas Soucek. I spent ages researching his background and his record at SK Slavia Prague. I found out that he had been rejected by two clubs growing up, but his perseverance at Slavia has seen his rise to prominence.

Soucek’s determination resonated with me after seeing countless job applications come back negative if they came back at all. But now I have been presented with an opportunity I could not say no to. I am looking forward to my new horizons, but it is bittersweet as it means I can no longer continue at Green Street Hammers.

West Ham’s match against Manchester United will be my last covering the Hammers for Green Street Hammers.

When I joined GSH as a contributor, I was introduced to an American, Jeremiah and a Canadian who were to be in charge of me. At first, I was a bit taken back, thinking they can’t know about my beloved ‘soccer team’, how wrong I was. The two showed me just how far West Ham’s reach was and gave me a new appreciation for the team I grew up watching.

Under their tutelage, I learned how to compose articles the GSH way and learnt about that tricky SEO everyone talks about. Jeremisha left the site not long after I joined. Fortunately for me, I was able to step into his shoes. I knew the website had the potential to grow but understood for everyone else; it was a hobby, and they didn’t have the time I had available.

When I joined Adam as a site-expert, due to our locations, we could keep the site up to date 24/7. GSH used to average 50 articles a month, know it reaches 100 per month minimum, which has helped increase its presence in the West Ham community. Hopefully, for positive reasons.

The best parts of my role have been welcoming new contributors to the site and seeing all the fantastic work they produced. It was a privilege to be the first person to read it and interact with all the West Ham fans who follow GSH on Twitter and Facebook (even though the page is bizarrely called West Ham Fans United on FB).

I have loved every letter, word, sentence, paragraph and article I have written, but it is time for me to move on. Moving into News journalism in Brighton is an exciting opportunity, but it would not have been possible to do without GSH.

With the platform GSH has helped me build, I have created some good friendships in the West Ham world, and I look forward to seeing every one of you at the London Stadium next season. Hopefully, to watch the Hammers battle against some Icelandic or Andorran side in European competition.