As we enter St Valentine's week, many Hammers will be feeling full of love for everything about West Ham United.
Sitting comfortably in the top half of the top division, and winning plaudits for their expansive style of play, everything is looking rosy for the claret and blues of east London.
Whilst the seeds planted in the championship are now coming to full bloom, there were many who could not see the shoots of recovery slowly sprouting into life.
The same sweet nothings could not have been whispered this time last year.
After the club had suffered relegation 18 months previously, the fans were growing impatient.
Manager Alan Pardew was under increasing pressure, as his team of premiership hopefuls struggled to live up to the expectations of the devoted East End fans.
Pardew's West Ham were outside the play-off places in 7th place, an improvement on the 9th place they were languishing in a couple of weeks before.
The East End natives were restless.
Not only were the points hard to come by, but the Hammers traditional entertaining attacking game was nowhere to be seen.
Pardew had promised to get us promoted that season, his first full season in charge, and many could see we had the players to worry most teams.
He had been shrewd in the transfer market, buying the best upcoming talent the lower divisions had to offer, often at bargain basement prices.
Players such as Nigel Reo Coker and Marlon Harewood were picked up for next to nothing, whilst the exodus of high earners meant bodies needed replacing.
Pardew made some good deals where by when a high earner left, another player coming in was part of the deal, Bobby Zamora and Matty Etherington, both acquired in this manner.
Not to mention the talent that was emerging from West Ham's highly productive youth academy.
Yet it just didn't seem to be working.
Pardew was under the most pressure since he'd arrived at the club.
A vocal minority in the crowd were calling for his head.
He remained strong and showed great belief in himself and his players, but it seemed unless he got West Ham up the table quickly, his days were numbered.
At the time, I was well and truly sat on the fence.
I could see the good work Pardew had done.
He had streamlined the club, from one with a lot of players on fat salaries, to one full of talented hungry youngsters with their best years ahead of them, augmented by the odd experienced head.
He'd shaken up the fitness and backroom sides of the club.
There were plenty of good signs, but it just didn't seem to be working.
It seemed he was the man to take us forwards, but if we couldn't make the play-offs, how could he hope to stay? That just about summed up my feelings at the time.
If we failed to get promotion, I felt Pardew would have to go.
Not that I wanted him to, but the feelings of the fans would surely dictate that.
But, if we were to somehow gain promotion, surely we'd have a great manger for years to come.
He'd have overcome the most pressure perhaps any West Ham manager ever faced, would have his players right behind him, and surely the fans would soon follow.
He'd have been through the mill and out the other side, and would surely be a better manager because of it.
The pressure continued right up to the last day of the season, where West Ham finished in 6th place, the last of the play-off places.
Compared to the pain, suffering and anguish that had gone before, the play-offs were a joy to behold.
After drawing the 1st leg at home to Ipswich, many fans were fairly confident, as we'd beaten Ipswich away in the play-offs the previous year.
A 2-0 win, and a Zamora wonder goal set up a final with Preston.
A typically cagey affair was settled by a Zamora goal.
The Hammers fans were full of joy, and Pardew had lived up to his word and got West Ham back to the premiership.
Now Pardew was in unchartered territory.
Whilst it was hard to point to an unsuccessful signing, all Pardew's players had been signed on a budget of nothing.
He had to make cuts before he could bring anyone in, but with promotion achieved, that was soon to change.
West Ham's notoriously money-grabbing chairman announced he was giving Pardew a budget of £20million for the season to improve the squad.
Pardew proved just as astute with money in his pocket as he had with nothing.
Summer signings of Konchesky, Collins & Gabbidon, and Benayoun showed his nous.
All were areas that need improvement, yet he somehow seemed to find exactly the right player for each role.
Add to that the signing of 2 new keepers(Carroll & Hislop) for no fee and every thing was looking set for the season.
He tried up until the last hour of deadline day to sign a top striker, but fate conspired against him.
So the season started, we went behind in our 1st game back.
Many including myself, worried how we would cope.
We came back to win 3-1, and have been resident in the top half ever since.
So where did it all go right? Well, Alan Pardew must take most of the credit.
Not only in the players he brought to the club, but the way he saw which parts of the club were working well, and revolutionised those that weren't.
He never let the pressure faze him, nor did he waver from what he saw as the right path.
On the fitness side of things, we must be one of the fittest squads in the division.
Psychologically, he has installed the winning mentality.
He doesn't talk negatives, but focuses on the positive side of things.
He's brought a great feeling of togetherness to the playing squad, and all of this has created the sort of spirit and belief that West Ham have in the past struggled to find.
The way we have come from behind to win more points than any other side shows the belief the players have in themselves and each other.
You get the feeling the players on the pitch love playing for West Ham.
The staff he brought in around him deserve almost as much praise.
Certain players have improved before our eyes over the last couple of seasons.
The coaching at the club is obviously of a very high level.
The chairman also deserves a mention.
Not a favourite for many Hammers fans, who hold him responsible for the lack of ambition and selling policy that has been the way of things for the last decade.
Terry Brown has since admitted mistakes were made selling our crown jewels, and has said that were a situation like the Rio transfer to arise again, things would be done differently.
That is it would be the managers decision.
That combined with the money given to Pardew to improve the side has gone a long way to winning back some of his doubters, and suggest West Ham are a club looking forwards with ambition.
Add to that the fact that West Ham are now again lighting up the top division with their brand of stylish attacking football, and it's easy to see why so many Hammers now have a lot of love for Mr Pardew.
It almost seems like fate has brought us this far together.
There were many times when it seemed the relationship was doomed before it had really begun.
Many seemingly insurmountable barriers had to be overcome if the relationship was to have any chance of success.
Yet in the last few roller-coaster weeks of last season fate finally smiled on Alan and his boys.
Now it seems the relationship is a happy one.
Like any lovers who have had their tough times, there will be the odd doubt occasionally when things aren't perfect, the odd memory of when things weren't so rosy.
But when you sit down and look at all that has gone before, we couldn't be happier with our man! Dedicated to the memory of Ron Greenwood.
The man who put us Hammers on the path we've been following for 40 odd years.
His legacy lives on in the attacking entertaining football we play.
R.
I.
P.