West Ham United are still trying to make an offensive chant about their new Israeli winger go away, and now one of the club's own supporter outlets has waded into exactly why it will not be so easy to laugh off as "just a football song."
In a column published on the fan site KUMB, the writer takes aim at a chant some away supporters sang about Manor Solomon at Burnley, arguing that even though the lyrics never explicitly mention the Israel-Gaza conflict, everyone inside the ground understood what was being implied. "Everyone knows what it means to read between the lines," the column states. "There is an implicit reference here."
The chant, sung to the tune of Manfred Mann's 1960s hit "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," was not new. It was first aimed at Solomon by Leeds United supporters during his 2024-25 loan spell at Elland Road, prompting Leeds to threaten bans for fans caught singing it. Some West Ham supporters revived essentially the same song at Turf Moor.
The setting was West Ham's Championship opener at Burnley on Sunday, August 16, their first game back in the second tier after 14 years in the Premier League. Solomon, signed from Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month, scored his new club's second goal in the 72nd minute as West Ham led 2-0, only for Burnley's Zian Flemming to score twice late on to salvage a 2-2 draw.
West Ham confirmed in a statement that it was "aware of an offensive and divisive chant, containing an anti-Palestine message, being sung by a section of away supporters" during that match, and said such songs do not reflect the club's values. "Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of the club and we believe in the power of football to unite and bring people together," the statement read, adding that supporters are free to "sing loud and proud" but never in a way that causes offence or division among fellow fans.
The KUMB column pushes the point further, drawing a hypothetical comparison: if a chant about a German, Russian or Polish player carried similarly loaded nationalist undertones, few would pretend the wording was neutral just because it avoided saying so outright. Given that Solomon's nationality and his outspoken pro-Israel social media commentary are widely known among supporters, the writer argues, separating the song from the wider political context is simply not credible.
The column also criticises West Ham's own fans for recycling a Leeds song rather than composing anything original, closing with a blunt appeal to the club's identity: "We are West Ham, we are better than this."
According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli Hammers supporters' club backed the parent club's stance, saying it fully supported West Ham's position and that football should bring people together rather than divide them.
For Solomon, who joined West Ham this summer after West Ham's relegation from the Premier League, the episode means a chant that trailed him through a loan spell in Yorkshire has now followed him across England to a new club and a new division, overshadowing what should have been a promising competitive debut.
