If any other West Ham has the audacity to say to me that they think the Olympic Stadium is a good idea, then they can jolly well look at this. Even the hardest yob on the terraces could not be moved by this.
The memorial garden is shambolic. A grey, colourless and shockingly minute area flung without thought into a remote corner of the carpark at Coventry Shitty's stadium. What is the point of this? I hear you ask.
Next to this pitiful display reads a plaque stating: "The turf, soil and shale for this memorial garden are provided from Highfield Road, in memory of the Sky Blues supporters who had their ashes scattered at Coventry City's former home." The actual plaque itself fits in with the grey theme shown here and is a horribly imposing piece of granite etched over with adverts for the firm that provided it!! Hardly a fitting tribute.
The same thing is about to happen to Southend United with Sainsbury's being built on Roots Hall.
I wouldn't call myself a Coventry fan, but I am from the Midlands and therefore I was happy when Coventry lifted the 1987 FA Cup. I only ever went to one match at the old Highfield Road stadium when Coventry were playing Manchester United (of all people) there with a dud of a guy from Tamworth that I had a 'thing' for at the time: Darren Morgan (aka 'Brain Dead'). But still, one of the saddest sights I ever saw was the image of the mangled stand at Highfield, contorted like some defeated monster in its death throes on the week the bulldozers moved in.
This is what will happen. And I have to face this twice over the next two years. People who don't understand me will find it hard to give a shit, and I don't blame them, but seeing this awful tribute really 'hammered' home the shape of things to come.
