Brooking tells ‘aggressive’ West Ham fans to stay away

Sir Trevor Brooking has urged frustrated West Ham fans to ‘stay away’ after the club’s match with Burnley descended into ugly scenes London Stadium.

Some supporters invaded the pitch while hundreds of others congregated beneath the directors' box to protest against the board as the London club slumped to a 3-0 Premier League loss to Burnley on Saturday.

Co-chairman David Sullivan was struck by a coin thrown from the crowd before he and other members of the club’s board were advised to leave the stadium as tensions mounted.

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Brooking, a club icon who played for the club between 1966 and 1984 before becoming caretaker manager in 2003, was seen sat in the stands, visibly upset by the chaotic scenes unfolding in front of him.

Fans were due to stage a demonstration ahead of the match, but this was postponed by Newham Council, and Brooking admits that those mounting tensions boiled over during the match.

“I just think that the different supporter groups obviously got frustrated and were going to have the demonstration and then they cancelled it during the week,” he told the BBC on their Sportsweek program.

“It looked as if some of those decided if we went behind that was the time then to show their frustration. But the actual level of aggression was something I couldn’t believe a West Ham fan could get involved in.

“Some of the aggression was so strong – it did go back to the bad old days. I saw a few young families leaving because the youngsters were frightened. That’s not your genuine West Ham fan, and some of the aggression was really strong.

“The stewards were quite young and really couldn’t deal with the aggression that they were faced with.”

The defeat leaves West Ham just three points above the drop zone, and in serious danger of being relegated.

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With five matches remaining at the London Stadium this season, Brooking urged the fans to ‘stay away’ if they cannot shelve their frustrations for the club’s relegation battle.

“The fans, and the fans involved in that, have to understand that and really shelve all those discussions and all those frustrations – just don’t come to the games at the moment until you try and allow the players to get the points to try and stay up, and that is the biggest challenge in the next three weeks.

“There have been a lot of frustrations about spending money and players coming in, and all those sort of things as to whether the stadium is the right place. The fact is we’re at the stadium and it’s nearly the end of the second season, and yes, there’s a debate on investment, but now with five home matches remaining. It looked an advantage. But when you’ve just lost 3-0 and had people coming onto the pitch with a lot of people venting their frustrations towards the directors… that means the next five games at home look pretty bleak. There is no way that the team is going to be able to play and get the points to stay up under that sort of atmosphere – it’s impossible.

“All I will say is that between now and the end of the season, anyone who has got that aggressive frustration to just don’t come to the five home games that are left because we need everyone, all the fans and the team all working together, to try and get sufficient results in the five home games – which we thought were going to be the strength – but yesterday became a massive weakness.”