Bubbleview

Hammer's new Era? Next game maybe...

2010-08-15T19:36:00.004+02:00

We are all disappointed today. After this promising pre-season, after the new manager stepped in and the new owners bought some - at least - interesting players most of us really thought we are heading to a new more positive era.

And maybe we are, but not against Villa.

Against Villa we did no tonly look average at the best, we looked like we did last year during those games we had no ideas, we had no clue, we had no energy, we played far to slow and we did not play like a team. And once again tried with these long balls towards Cole all isolated up front. When we thought Grant had an idea how to play with pace and width we all looked like the old team, maybe worse.

All players underachieved, but I am most disappointed with Parker. The man who is so good that he is not saleable, the man who is our real captain and the man who should push the rest with his energy and strength was totally unvisible for the first half. You can't expect that he should perform all day all night, but you can expect that he should take some responsibility. Noble tried to, but made the team slower and had very hard times to find addresses to his passes. So while noone turned up for the premier, the midfield was totally ut of order.

Even if we have counted to have Hitz out there, we can't start to cry if he is missing. It's not the loss in itself, it's how we played: alright Villa was good, they had a new youngster calle Albright, but: it took us even 20 minutes before we even had the ball. Embarrasing. Did it seem like the players wanted to be out there? "A new season, hurrah!"?

Green 5 - Made some great and important saves, but seemed also like an liability at times, should have handled their first (offside) goal better. Awful punch! Still: Had some good friends in the posts and crossbar. As always I want him to take better control of his area.

Wintson Reid 4,5 - First game for us ever, first game in the PL - and that with just two-three days with the rest of the team. So it was going to be hard. His first game was not a success, at time our new Danish-New Zeeland friend had problems where to be in his area. Often against two men. Still I thought he showed that the RB position will be his. Young and new in a team that underachieves he still showed some composture. Will be fine with better help from a new CB (da Costa) and Faubert playin a bit further down. Welcome Reid to this hard road to travel....

James Tomkins 3,5 - All players do mistakes, but at the moment young Tomkins seems to do at least one huge mistake every game. Not good enough, even if with painfully no support at all from our Captain.

Matthew Upson 4 - I've said it before: You can't be shy and be a captain, you can not possess the experience Upson do have without taking more responsibility. Did not do many mistakes as a player yesterday, but must show much more guts! It may end by seeing Ben-Haim and Da Costa teaming up soon!

Ilunga 5 - May have been standing on his heels at one of Villa's goals, should maybe have stopped one or two crosses more, and Albright was a pain in the ass for everyone, but was otherwise one of few players that I was not embarrassed by at Villa park. Showed glimpses of his capacity and had energy.

Faubert 4,5 - Not good enough, not good at all... Things may have looked different if he had ran one inch further on Cole's terrific pass and scored 1-1. Instead he lost his stamina.

Noble 5 - Was one of the main reasons why we played so slow as he wanted the ball (more than most) but never seemed to pass directly. Slow, slow, slow and bad passes is not a good combination. At least you can give him credit for his effort.

Scott Parker 4 - As stated earlier: May not have been the worst man out there, but the biggest disappointment. If he continues like this (invisible) for another game I would be happy to get 12 millions for him.

Kovac 4 - Did he manage to pass one ball correctly? Well, we can't blame him as he can't give a piss anymore as he was on his way up to Stoke for his new contract, when he was called back (because of Hitz' injury). Subbed.

LBM 5,5 - Tried, but even if he had one or two passes between him and Ilunga on the left few were the finished article. Tread water. After the game against Man City when he re-kicked his career you would have hoped for something like that again. Have not given up on him for next game though. Subbed.

CC 5,5 - Another hard game as he was far to isolated up front and he did not manage to take control of many balls, admitting that few passes at all reached the target man. One really nice move in the first half where he showed that he is fast, gave LBM a clear goalchance. In the second half he was a bit more into the game, but must be better to pick out his teammates, far to often it was like "him against the world". "What can you do but dribble?" And he failed.

Subs:

Pablo Barrera 5 - Can't judge him after just 45 minutes in PL in this new environment. But those 45 minutes reminded me of Luis Jimenez. But, as I am positive, I saw that Barrera will be far more important for us!

Diamanti 4 - Well the man may be a genius at deadballs, may like noone else be able to see the masterstoke of a pass. And: May have new haircuts for every game. But that is not enough, have to convince us in other areas soon. Or be sold.

Piquionne 6 - Our best man today. Had at least energy and some few ideas during those (too few?) first PL minutes in claret & blue. Liked what I saw, and may be able to play with Cole, not instead of...

Grant:

+ Liked his subs. Fast (compared to Zola) and showed what he disliked. His postinterview showed that he saw the same mistakes that we saw.

- His lineup. Parker, Noble, Kovac in the middle of the park together made us very very slow. He must have been the one to tell Green to show all his goalkicks up towards Cole. It looked like last term. Was da Costa really injured? How come the sleepy players didn't look like Jack Torrance i "The Shining"? It is a new season for God's sake!

If you stay positive you see that we only won one game away from home last year, and that was the first one of the season. So this year this has to be our only loss on away ground!

The Sale ranking list

2010-08-09T14:18:00.005+02:00

So maybe with the exception of Sulejmani, we have no more incoming players. Still I guess we need to get rid of some faces, I suggest in this order (the new players are not included) and what I think we need to sell them (= less is of no interest, more may give a higher ranking). I have no idea what the players different salaries are so I've excluded that in my ranking.... I do however as long as possible want balance in the team.

1. Jon Spector (500 000)

2. Rado Kovac (1,5 mill)

3. Valon Behrami (6 mill)

4. Mat Upson (4 mill)

5. Freddie Sears (2,5 mill)

6. Benni McCarthy (1,5 mill)

--- for me: Stop here: So 16 millions in---

7. Kieron Dyer (1,5 mill)

8. Danny Gabbidon (2 mill)

9. One of the young keepers Stech/Kurucz (3 mill)

10. Diamanti (5 mill)

11. Mark Noble (6,5 mill)

12. Scott Parker (12 mill)

13. Junior Stanislas (3,5 mill)

14. Julien Faubert (6 mill)

15. Herita Illunga (4 mill)

16. James Tomkins (6 mill)

New players (or new contract): Hitz, LBM, Piq, Barrera, TBH, Reid.

Non sellable players with this squad: Green, Cole, da Costa, Daprela, Collison, Hines, Nouble, Edgar, Lee, Spence, Stech/Kurucz.

Of course things can change if we exchange players or buy for instance buy a new world class-striker. (As it looks right now I would NOT sell CC! - and certainly not for Yak) But this ranking is with the squad we possess right now.

What's yours?

Communication and Smart Money?

2010-07-28T15:54:00.003+02:00

Co-chairman David S writes on the OS "I made a promise that I would not sell Scott and I will not, for any amount of money, break that promise to the West Ham supporters”.
And that is less than 24 hour after his co-chairman colleague David G says to the BBC "I don’t think that anybody ever can give a 100 % guarantee about anybody.”… “There is a never never in football, I learnt that many years ago in football”.
Obviously Sullivan never went to that lesson.
Still, that is more of a funny observation than anything else. The moral of both stories is that Parker will stay.

I must say that the symbolic value the Davids have given Scott is huge and so is, according to rumors, the pay they are offering him to sign an extension to his current deal. I should know better than to bite at that kind of rumors but if they are even close the Davids will be guilty of signing players on exactly the kind of money that they have ridiculed ever since they started to comment on West Hams finances.

Previous talk of huge salaries to Ruud v N, and what have you, I've dismissed as publicity stunt bluffs that never ever ran the risk of being called. But this?

Is Parker really a player we could never do without? Is it really wise to use a very very significant part of the money available for wages on Parker? For 5 years? ...or are there some risky clauses in his current contract they want to get out of and are willing to pay some money to do so, while securing a great footballer and winning the fans over? Again, they have previously strongly cracked down on expensive long term deals made by the previous owners, pointing out the big economic risk to the Club that these £50.000+ deals have presented. And those contracts were signed during the champagne-era while this certainly is not!
I can’t see Gollivan making that big of an exception from their own way of running a football club just to secure Parker for an additional 2 years. They are shrewder than that, right?

Who is attracting the most attractive players?

2010-07-24T01:43:00.001+02:00

One should do what one does best and I am fairly good at worrying and being a bit pessimistic. Maybe that’s why I caught on to the Icelandic problems ahead of some optimists, and maybe that’s why I’ll miss out on the first signs of an upturn.

When I finally read the intro and highlights of the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance that was released in June (the whole report is £600!) I couldn't stop myself from worrying about the future of English football in financial terms, which we all know is intimately related to the quality of football.
The report discusses the reasons for the relatively low impact the financial crisis has had on economics of football in general and the English game in particular. This is very encouraging indeed especially as there are quite few economically strained clubs at the moment who are relying on an increasing, or at least not a shrinking, flow of money to sustain their existence. It also says that the English Premier League is one of the most equal of leagues with an internal revenue spread of “only” 6 times between the richest and the less fortunate clubs. As far as I understand the reason for that being the equality in the division of TV-money. It does "bite the hand that feeds it" as "The Swiss Rambler" says in his article on the same subject by pointing out that an unhealthy part of the money made is going to player wages, threatening the financial stability of teams. The Guardian also ran a decent piece on the report.

One of the sentences that made me a bit uneasy was “A key driver to the Premier League’s success is that it’s revenue enables member clubs to attract the world’s best players, who in turn help to boost the leagues popularity”.

But are the teams in the PL attracting the best players in the world presently?
The answer to that one is not easy for anyone to give as the term “world’s best players” is more than a little subjective as well as unclear. How many players falls into this category?
If you’ll accept the votes of the international Journalists 2009, however, the 7 best players in the world all played in Spain. These were, followed by a handful of Premiere League players (although Torres and Fabregas are both linked with a move to Spain).
The 2009 Fifa Pro World XI – a world all star team based on the votes from 50000 professional players - include 5 players from the EPL (Terry, Vidic, Evra, Gerrard, Torres) and 6 from La Liga (Casillas, Alves, Xavi, Iniesta; Ronaldo, Messi).

One can conclude that the fight to be the most attractive league in the world is a two horse race, something that is further emphasized by a “most attracting league” poll done on Fifa.com where La Liga and EPL gets 41 and 36 percent respectively (yes La Liga won the poll), followed by the German Bundesliga with a distant 13 percent.
Another way to look at it may be to see if a top-class player is working in a league outside his own country. All England players in the WC get their wages from EPL clubs whereas 4 in the Spanish team found offers from foreign clubs more pleasing – premiership clubs.
‘Nuff said about this, I think I made my point that there is hardly a solid argument for the thought that England is undisputed when it comes to attracting the best players.

To get back to the original thought – if “A key driver to success” is highly debatable, isn’t there reason to worry?

The Engish cause may recieve unexpected help from.... La Liga! La Liga seem to be in an even worse financial state than the Premiership, reducing the power of the worst competitor, at least that is what Stefan Szymanski, football economics guru at the Cass Business School said in a radio interview. He said that, with the possible exceptions of Real Madrid and Barcelona, all the teams in La Liga are in financial trouble…
All but Madrid and Barca? He must be having a laugh. Barca, the team paying the wages of 5 of the 7 top ranking players in the 2009 Ballon d’Or, revealed in may that their debt was € 489 million, and that was before signing David Villa! I thought that the general consensus, and one of the main reasons for Platini’s initiative to straighten out the finances of football clubs, was that Barca and Madrid are financially unsound.

Now there are obviously other "drivers" to PL-success. The fact that the league has established itself on many foreign markets is one. These foreign markets are so important that the EPL is tipped to soon make more money abroad than domestically.
But are these markets faithful?

We may be right back where we started - what league has the most attractive players?

Just leave (him be)

2010-07-23T17:47:00.005+02:00

Why do the Potters keep on upping their bid for Cole?
It must mean that they feel they are getting signals from G&S that they are getting close or are they just testing our resolve? I certainly can understand the reason for Stoke to want him. He is a very good player to hoist it to when nothing else seems to work, something we did way too much when he was on the pitch last season (making him look bad in the process). That is more than likely the kind of quality Stoke needs as that situation will occur even more often with them.

I read a lot into Cole being used as a “top model” for our new away kit. Flanked by players more or less guaranteed to play for us during the next campaign (Noble, Hitz, Junior) I got lured into looking forward to see Cole get to “gel” with a striking partner with pace.
I have a feeling that, given time, Remy and Cole would make a cracking partnership. I always thought that Coles target playing capacity should be a perfect platform for releasing a pacy striker. Cole had limited success with Bellamy, Sears and Hines, but they really never got a chance to build anything, and Cole seem to need time to get used to changes in the playing environment. Most of last season Cole was played alongside strikers with, let's say, other qualities. The threat a quick striker would present would take some of the defenders off Coles back, making his job a bit easier. Last year the oppositions defenders were allowed to focus on Cole too much, again making him look bad.
Benni or Piquionne are not viable options, but if the Caraglio deals comes through so is Cole I'm afraid. But at least we are doing business in the right order, getting the replacements in before we sell the "original".

I dare you! I double dare you...?

2010-07-21T17:01:00.002+02:00

"The situation with Parker has not changed," said Sullivan. "Villa will not have enough money to tempt us to sell Scott.

"He really is not for sale."

One wonders what Sully is out to do. But even though everything Sully has said so far, including "Everybody is for sale except Parker" tells me that we'd sell Parker if a decent bid came along, in a way this is the best feeling I've had for a while when it comes to keeping Parker.

Economics and economics alone

2010-07-21T09:58:00.006+02:00

Now a few new citations are flying around in the Olympic stadium post 2012 discussion. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, said yesterday during a “how is it going” visit to London that

"We are keen on having an athletics track to remain and I'm confident that they will find the right solution," "We have been assured it will have an athletics track".

However, an OPLC (Olympic Park Legacy Company) official followed up on that comment by saying that

"no final decision" over whether to keep an athletics track beyond 2012 is
taken"

So what does it mean when a IOC president is “keen” on something?
Well that certainly depends on if it would affect an upcoming Olympic games per se or just what happens when the Olympic Circus has moved on.
One way to evaluate such a statement is to try to remember how many times you have seen IOC members, not from the specific country, getting involved in a discussion about what happened to a city or country after the Circus has left. Can’t remember any (bar Beijing maybe)? Me neither. No, the Circus will, as allways, move its focus toward the next Olympic Games and, as is true for any Circus manager, not worry much what the tent site looks like after they have left.

The decisions on who is going to run it after the Games and whether to keep or not to keep the tracks will be based on economics and economics alone.
If the cost/benefit analysis of taking the tracks out say they should stay, they will stay and the talk of the “Olympic Legacy” will get a last outing. If not, Sir Sebastian will have to make do with some smaller venue, maybe better suited to house the 7.500 athletics fans that will come to the annual GP show.

So what is the chances (or risk if you are so inclined) of West Ham moving there?
I’d say the chances are great that we, as I said in this post, will see the first West Ham game there in 2015. Not only on our own merits as I doubt there are any other takers with a concept that is backed by money rather than people. Money talks, and no one else should be bothered to argue with it (Coe/West Ham fans) as they have a very slim chance of winning the discussion.
In March 2011 West Ham will be revealed as the new tenants, or to be formal, there is supposed to be a decision on what the stadium will be used to and who gets to run it. Then we may also have a decision on whether the tracks will remain, but that is still something that may be changed later in the development.

Note: I'm certainly not advocating tracks at any football ground, on the contrary, but Gollivan won't care much what I or other West Ham fans say on this matter. They will be banking on that we will get over it. At least enough to go to the games.

Swiss sums it up

2010-07-13T09:54:00.004+02:00

Well, its better to write your own stuff, but I can not restrain Bubbleview to suggest all it's readers to read another blogg as well, and the article that really wants to sum up West Ham's current economical situation.

Read Swissramble HERE.

I'm not the man to tell if everything is spot on (as a lot of the numbers are from G&S themselves), but at least most of it seems to be in accordance with the truth and is really good reading.

Between the lines

2010-07-09T13:07:00.007+02:00

Avram has been talking as our new manager for the first times.

The latest official statements of our newly appointed manager is in line with every new manager in any team. “Happy to be here”, “relishing the challenge”, it’s a great club” etc. etc.

My favorite platitude is, however, “we want to improve”, which is a reasonable goal for a team avoiding relegation by a hairs breadth.

There are however some grains of information that may be extracted from these interviews and other official produce.
The way he talks about the squad tells us that he by no means takes for granted that there will be any significant additions to it. “If most of the players will make progress we will not need many players” is a statement meant to prepare us for the possible scenario that Hitzlsperger will be the only signing of a “proven” player this window. Or to use Grantish “someone who can play football”.
Late info/rumors points toward Barros adding his £ 5 million worth of talent to our attack but even if these rumors are wrong I guess a signing involving that kind of money may well be in the cards. As far as I can judge he can play football. With him in our books one wonders if Diamanti still will be needed? Also, Gollivan needs to show that they weren’t sh*ting us when they suggested adding additional additions. Also, one or two of the usual suspects will most likely be leaving, more than making up for the money Barros will set us back.

Grant is unusually frank about the necessity to keep Parker. On the OS he says “I can tell you that Scott Parker is important to us . He is a good football player and has quality”. While he is less optimistic about keeping Upson “We will see him when he comes back. Of course we want Matty Upson to stay at the club”.

England’s lack of success in the World Cup, and the un-applauded individual performances obviously boosted our chances to see our England internationals in claret and blue even in the upcoming season. Whether we want them to or not. I (and a few agents) was hoping for huge positive exposure for Green and Upson so we could mourn their leaving while banking some serious money. If nothing else to be able to keep Parker and Cole. On the international note, I’m sure that Parker would have been lost to us had he been given a chance to show what work rate and moral can do, also on the international scene.

Other secret messages were extractable from the release of the new away kit. Cole, Noble, Stanislas and Hitz were used as fashion plates. The odds on Stanislas, Noble and Hitzlsperger to play for us during the 10/11 campaign are pretty low, but what raised my spirits was that Cole would do a photo shoot dressed in it. I thought he would be reluctant, not only because he was afraid that those hoops that seems to have slid down from the chest to get stuck around the waist would make him look short and chubby (is this why Benni wasn’t asked?), but also because he figured he wouldn't be using it much this season. It kind of tells us that he is not in the middle of wrapping up a transfer. But then he looks a bit depressed doesn’t he? Maybe the transfer talks are not as many and as fruitful as he was hoping? But then Noble and Junior doesn’t really look too excited either in the pics on the online store. It’s all a party though when they realize that they will be offered a free high fat meal! (just go and look at the pics on the OS site if none of this makes any sense to you).

Anyone noted that Avram has been seeing a PR consultant? A bit like Tony Soprano seeing a shrink. Either that or a plastic surgeon. He is smiling like his jaws are unhinged on every picture! A smart move just the same as his trade mark sulky face seem to be the major problem people have with him.

Btw, the name of the post was chosen to lure the writer of THIS blog out of hiding.

That's better!

2010-06-02T13:56:00.001+02:00

The ongoing discussion over whether the new leadership brings a new information policy has been a bit of a farce. The Sullivan outbursts cannot qualify as information can it? Today’s post on the official site indicates that the old rule that “information appears last on the official site” is still true but the delay is reduced.
The post addresses (or rather touches on) the manager situation and gives the official version on some players that are or are not offered new contracts. Both topics that are of genuine interest (Nothing wrong with the “Sign up for Stadium tours” and “ “Noble’s recipe for success” posts but still…). “The worst kept secret in football” is packaged as a selection process. Most likely to make sure that Grant doesn’t get carried away with his demands

The Footballer Formerly Known As the Dead Snake (TFFKAtDS), is offered a new contract.
That is a bit surprising to me considering his comments on the new owners. The offer could well be all but an insult, making it possible for the new regime to say that he chose to leave, and there is no way that it’s anywhere near the 70000 a week he is supposedly picking up today. I kind of hope that it is a decent contract and that the “love for the Club” that he expressed when rejecting that offer last summer is genuine. He is the kind of player we need in the squad, even though I hope that he won’t be relied upon to start.

I’ll be back on comments on the youngsters.

What's your diagnosis?

2010-05-21T20:02:00.002+02:00

As a fan one more or less have to adapt to whatever happens in your Club. That adapting process can be a painful one. How on earth should I feel about the inevitable, and in my view needed, sacking of Zola and the disgusting way G&S has handled it. Can I just see them as separate incidents? Of course not, but where does that leave me?

And what attitude should I have to the economic side of their ownership? I am quite sure that the Clubs economic situation was worse than Duxbury et al. wanted us to think (even though maybe not as shockingly dire as G&S told us after the take-over) and I’m fairly convinced that there was no one else that had the economic muscle to complete a take-over. In that sense they saved us from going into administration and, most certainly, relegation. But then it is as certain that they will limit the spending on players in a way that will burst a few bubbles. We will lose some players that will be able to find better financial deals elsewhere and that is always hard to stomach. G&S will however keep some other bubbles flying as a more conservative salary policy will pave the way for a more balanced squad. Fewer peaks but also less visits to the abyss is my hardly unique prediction for next season. A bit like learning that your depression is treatable but that you will never be as happy as you used to, ever again.

That provides an effortless queue for the Grant part of this post. Grant was not my first choice, but then was he anyone’s first choice? However considering the alternatives I think it has its flipsides. One is that you can read anything you like into his “CV”. One may want to emphasize the success at Chelsea, or say he was never a part of it. One may look at his work at Portsmouth and interpret it any way one chooses. Is he the one that managed a team to relegation or is he the one that against all odds got a relegation doomed team to the FA-cup final? Loser or winner? Talk about bipolar! I see his West Ham gig as the first true test as a manager in the UK, even though his ability to get the Pompey players to perform as they did although they were already doomed to relegation may say something. My guess is that Grant will have me off the lithium and longing for excitement. Fancy that, the team known for its contempt for consistency having an outside chance of stability!

Then the Olympic stadium. If I feel divided in the other issues I’m split right down the middle on this one. It forces you to answer to the question “Do you feel it is of importance that West Ham can compete with the top clubs for players and trophies or are you fine with letting players that succeeds in our colors go on to build the back bone of ManUre and Chelsea?”. If you have a clear answer to that one, the stadium question is a no brainer. Unfortunately I don’t. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Hand me the Prozac!

Mental state and West Ham

2010-05-21T15:33:00.006+02:00

This post transformed to the one above for technical/tactical reasons - sorry about that Allan.

Same Sullivan...

2010-05-12T13:59:00.002+02:00

I think one can separate the team from the owners to some extent. Like the ManUre fans chant "Love united hate Glazers".

G&S are bastards, we all knew this.
However, they are the bastards that were willing to spend money to save our Club from economic oblivion and a Portsmouthian fate. No one else was. If they were forced away from the Club for some reason, what would be achieved? There are no buyers!

Zola was probably unwilling to go - why? Because he believed he had done wonders with the team and deserved another season? Maybe one can argue that one should know when a party is over, but then he was under a contract and had all the rights to try to hang on for the length of it. But he is not quite the first manager to be sacked under that kind of circumstances is he?

G&S was always going to try to avoid paying Zola off. All the abuse during the season had that sole purpose. If the rumours are true really doesn't matter, does it? The lawyers that are, or will be, involved will sort it and it certainly doesn't change my view of G&S. They are and were bastards.

It may have some detrimental implications for the future however.
What manager would like to come to our Club and risk to share Zola's fate? G&S seem to try the "we stand by our players and managers" defining "our" as people that they have hired - let's see how that hangs with the managers they are courting.

Shame Sullivan!

2010-05-12T11:16:00.003+02:00

If it is more than a rumour, if it is closer to the truth, I think it is a real shame. If Sullivan has breached Zola's contract by saying that Franco has breached the contract himself (and not paying him a penny) cause the Italian defended his own players and asked a question when Sullivan himself went out to the media and critisised the players openly - then it's not fun anymore. It is filthy oppression. It is acting like a former Eastern dictator, thinking he can do anything he wants with people.

Zola may not have reached any hights with his team, so this is not about finding a new manager or not, it's about how G&S acts. To humilate our servant Zola this way - if the rumours are true - is disgraceful.

It will not get us any new fans, it will not get us any energy, it will probably mean that players are looking elsewhere, it will not improve our team. The opposite. We can be seen as the gready basterds and maybe – if supporting our new owners doing things like this – we are. This is not the West Ham way, no way.

West Ham fans should act and refuse to buy any season tickets before this is reasonable solved. We still got the power.

At least to do something when we find out the truth in this matter.

Quite Gianfrancly, it's for the best

2010-05-11T16:17:00.003+02:00

The OS awards our manager of the last 2 seasons a one (1!) sentence long farewell!!

G&S have no reputation of being soft, but this is a bit too much. It ends the piece with “The club will make no further comment on this matter” – yeah right. Sully is known as the strong silent type isn’t he?
On the note of the sacking itself – I don’t doubt for a second that it was handled lousily as G&S certainly doesn’t share Zola’s suffering when having to tell a player he is not in the team for the next game. But then Zola knew this was coming and I’m sure he will be economically compensated.

“Naïve” is probably the word I will use to describe Zola while with us.
I very much liked the way he wanted us to play and his visions for the future was very tempting – all the things a player and a fan wants to hear. The image of an attacking and technically able squad will stick in the back of my mind as a icon and monument over his reign at Boleyn Ground. Unfortunately he never got us to play fluid football on the floor bar a few precious moments.

... and I very much doubt that he ever would.
One could argue that he never got a chance due to dire times. But as our manager during these hard times I still expected more, like adapting o the situation. His inability to learn from his tactical mistakes was one of my problems with him. I would fully expect a West Ham under Zola to gather in the center of the pitch and play 5 yard passes to covered players or a long ball toward Cole also next season.
My “favourite” hang up, however, was the ever-changing team sheet (even though I respect him for trying not to communicate through one as Curbs allegedly did), making it all but impossible to form a team of the players.
He was obviously liked by most in the squad, as a person, and it will be hard to find one that has not pledged his allegiance to Zola and this is what makes it a bit hard to criticize him. It feels a bit like stabbing your friend in the back. Let's see how the players will handle that.

I will most likely miss him if we, as expected, get a manager that (as main qualification) can forge out decent results from a mediocre squad.
Or rather I will miss what we never had.

Best luck for the future Gianfranco!

Money is the law

2010-05-11T08:22:00.005+02:00

It was nice to see Zola play for us this Wednesday, he was king of the pitch in the testimonial game for Carr (and should actually be able to play in the team if he wanted to). But he may sooner than later leave us...

It was very nice to see LBM back on Sunday, with his energy and no-nonsense play he was the king of the pitch (together with Diamanti) against Man City. But he may sooner than later leave us....

I think they both could do business for us (Zola as head coach). At least we need a player like LBM, as he fights like a wounded lion each time on the pitch. A game like the one against Wolves or Fulham would have looked different with him on the pitch.

Boa Morte reacted angrily at Sullivan after our owner had said some very unwise words. So answering the owners, who had accused Zola and the players with mainly the same words, was to cost him two weeks salary (according to reports) in fines. The Portugese had to apologize. Money talks. Money rules. I do not like the way our owners handle things.....

I really would like to see us write a new contract with Ilan right now. He kept us in the PL and are the only one who can score in the box. And are about to learn some understanding with Cole, a thing we've asked for too long now....

It is never easy to be a West Ham fan, but I do wonder what team we will see in August. We all knows we need change, but if every other senior player agree with Boa Morte and Zola, and continutes to have this strained relations to our owners, then we may see too many good players leave. And an unsecure team... once again....

I do hope I'm wrong.

Way to little, still enough!

2010-05-03T08:33:00.005+02:00

Long time no seen!

I´m sorry I haven´t been able to deliver updates the last couple of weeks. Last time was at the end of march and I was struggling to see where we were going to get the points needed to stay up. It seems we didn´t need the amount of points I thought was needed since it seems that this will be the season with least points required to stay up, ever. This, ofcourse, isn´t good enough!

Yesterday we had a splendid chance to get another three points against a Fulham side who never win against West Ham. A Fulham side thinking about the clubs biggest game ever in a forthnight. A Fulham side who wouldn´t be interested in a fight since the players wouldn´t want to risk an injury before the final. What did we do? As we´ve done quite a lot of times this season. We rolled over without a fight. We were not up to it. I´m getting really frustrated with performances like this and I don´t think I´m the only one.

We don´t seem to be psyched up at the start of the games and most of the time we´re not able to change that around during the game either. During the games we don´t seem to have a strategy how to get the ball and when we get it we doesn´t seem to know what to do with it. This is a management issue. Are you really up to it Zola? It certainly doesn´t seem so!

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -4p
Total February: 7p, 6p, -1p, -4p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p, 0p, -1p, -5p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -5p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -5p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p, 0p, -3p, -8p
WHU - Stoke: 3p, 0p, -3p, -11p
Total March: 7p, 0p, -7p, -11p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, -10p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p, 3p, 2p, -8p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -8p
WHU - Wigan: 3p, 3p, 0p, -8p
Total April: 4p, 7p, 3p, -8p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p, 0p, -1p, -9p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -9p, 16p
Total 09/10: 43p, -9p, 34p

James Collins may save West Ham!

2010-04-21T22:48:00.002+02:00

Maybe it was a good idea to sell James Collins after all. At least, as he late Wednesday was one of the main reasons Hull were prevented any goals and any oints at home against Villa. Kilbane had a number of chances to score, and Hull held their heads high during most of the game, just to be prevented to deliver any goals by Dunne and Collins, to giants in Villa's defence.

You might say that we would have had more points if Collins had stayed, and I do not challenge that. Not at all. But today I'd like to thank our old redtop for a great game.

0-2 is a cruel result for Hull ( In an awkward way I actually felt sorry for them as they did a really hard try - the opposite what we saw from "our boys" the other day.) I guess the fight may be over this weekend. As long as we win against Wigan.

We demand: Just do it!

Weak ham!

2010-04-19T22:59:00.007+02:00

I do not know if the West Ham players were told before the game not to get hurt or not to get any yellow cards? If so I can understand why we did not seem to be at Anfield at all. Not trying to create any close contact at all. Creating just one really good chance during the whole game was really, really bad (with some memories from this weekend were Wigan fought to a win against Arsenal despite 0-2 down. This was the opposite what Wigan did.)

Yes; This 3-0-loss was one of the biggest disappointments this season. Well, the fans were told that "this is not the game we got to get points in" but actually it may be, so why play a game like it was softball? Or can we win any points by trying to bore our oppontens to death? Liverpool did not have to play well to beat us, and could field a team without many of their best: Still they won very, very easily. The only good thing today was our fans. They were great!!! All respect to them.

Green 5 - Not to do at any goal, still: last year he had saved one or two.

Faubert 5 - Not as good as lately, still one of the better players in our team.

Da Costa 6 - After he missed the offside trap in the beginning he was the anchor (well a small one) in defence and it was long time ago I saw a CB dribbling so much up front as he did today. Tried.

Upson 4 - Never seen him so bad. Was not able to get connected to any of "his" players during the whole game, and certainly not at the goals where he looked weak and slow. Captain? Nah.... Maybe he had lasagna for lunch in that bus?

Spector 5 - The first goal was once again partly his fault, after that he played OK (after his standards). Can't understand why we are selling N'Gala and not Spector to Plymouth....

Stanislas 4 - Fast but weak. Gives us "something else", but not today as he did not manage anything he wanted to. Out at halftime. Disappointing.

Kovac 3,5 - Very disappointing. Does not look like a holding midfielder, hardly a football player.

Noble 4 - Against Sunderland this boy was more than excellent, today he was more than disappointing. First half he was never seen at all, second he did some good tackles but very poor with his passes. Our attackers were left totally stranded.

Behrami 5 - At least he fought a bit. Happy birthday!

Ilan 4 - As good as this guy can be in the box as useless he can be as midfielder (second half). In the first he was left really without any chance to get into the match.

Cole 5,5 - Fought but was left without any real chance to impress as he was alone up front nearlly all the time, even when he first won the ball at some few occasions there wasnät a player within a mile. Two shots in the first half, and a really huge chance in the second whre Reina did well. Subbed late to be fresh.

Subs:

Franco 5 - Not much impression today,

McCarthy - Not any impression at all, but that we can see that he is not fit enough. To his defense: not an easy situation to get on, as we are already down 3-0 and Liverpool can just hold the ball.

Daprela - had some minutes to feel how wonderful it is to lose at Anfield. Like the youngster though.

Can someone (maybe Zola?) please tell me why Diamanti isn't playing? I mean he can't just have been left out because on inappropriate or bad behaviour os so? Cause then he wouldn't be on the bench would he? And if he is so hurt that he can't come onto the field why is he then on the bench? I do not understand!

So another year without a win at Anfield. Now it's 47 years! But I do not care as long as we can be a PL team next season. The problem today was that we didn't look like one! We also lost the half momentum we had after two good displays. Now we are back at square one. Next game is a must, must. Wigan can play without stress, will that be good or bad for us?? I am really, really nervous. Anyhow:

This was not acceptable, and the most really worrying thing is maybe that our big names like Upson, Noble, Green and Cole are in bad form. Please, Parker help us!

Will Wigan be our last resort?

2010-04-14T22:56:00.004+02:00

Now it’s time for the heavy math’. As Bolton lost and Wigan only took one point in their home tie game against Portsmouth, we can now see that the "three-team-battle" has become adogfight between five or six teams involved. I do not mind. As long as we stay up. Looking at the fixtures it is Hull who looks to have the easiest schedule left and Wigan the hardest.

Round 35: Liverpool-West Ham, Wigan–Arsenal, Sunderland-Burnley, Birmingham-Hull, Stoke-Bolton, Fulham-Wolves.

We can get something from Anfield, but I do not count with it. Wigan can rock Arsenal after their loss against Tottenham and the title fight. But van Persie will be back and I can’t see Wenger accepting another loss. Sunderland will win against Burnley at home, no doubt and Stoke-Bolton may see Bolton snap a point. The most nervous game here will probably be Birmingham against Hull. A point or three for Hull, against a good, but nowadays seldom sparkling, Birmingham side may well be a good chance for Hull if they have any mental strength to came back after their frightening loss to Burnley.

So this forthcoming round may not be decisive, but it will certainly be able to give us a new agenda. A point against Gerrard & co would do magic. And we may have some points to go on when we'll meet Wigan....

Ilan in the sun!

2010-04-10T19:20:00.002+02:00

Can you be more relieved than relieved?

Certainly you can and I guess it was more than me who felt that way when the poor referee Michael Jones blew his whistle for full time. 1-0 against Sunderland is massive, so was the players big heart out there today. With a lot of support from the stands. It was not the prettiest victory, but who cares, and we certainly deserved it.

Man of the game was our young hero Mark Noble, who really took the responsibility when Parker was not there. Another hero was of course Ilan who, with his special ability, once again gave us a crucial goal. But I want to say that every player did what they were expected to do today. And that was to fight, fight and fight. Which was enough and even better when we saw Burnley win their first away vicotry this season, against Hull! Lovely day!

35 points may now be enough to play in the top league next season and we have four games to get those four (well, I would not mind more)....

Green 7 - Made a crucial save in the second half from a surprising freekick, when his reaction was fast and spot on. Other than that, not much, so credit to the back four!

Faubert 7 - Another massive effort from our Frenchman. No mistakes, played with calm and decisiveness.

Da Costa 7,5- Another massive effort from our Portuguese. No mistakes, played with calm and decisiveness. Impressed and it looks that he will be important for us next season if Upson leaves.

Matthew Upson 7,5 - This was the best from our Captain in a long time. Gave Bent and Sunderland few opportunities and had a really strong game against one of the teams that scores most at the moment. In the offense he should stop to try to score with weak headers. Idea: Try to find try to find a teammate instead.

Spector 6,5 - Well the first half gave us (once again) some nervous hiccups with his bad ability to get rid of the ball from his area. The second 45 was better as he was less challenged. Then he also had time to go forward which also gave us a couple of really neat dribbles(!). Who had thought that? (My wife says I sound like Seinfeld mentioning the name Newman when I say Spector, but credit to him today)

Stanislas 5,5 - Not as important as against Everton, but made his contribution more in the middle of the park than on the right.

Kovac 5,5 - A pretty silent game. Worked - once more - pretty hard for the team, made some important blocks, but I do want more from the experienced blonde.

Mark Noble 8 - We hardly missed Parker today, and that really says it all. Gave everything, played smart and had wonderful tackles and blocks. We did not even once saw that he is slow today. Thanks Mark!

Valon Behrami 7,5 - One of the most important players for us today as he rallied around all 90 minutes and gave the guests no chance to calm down. He even contributed with some offensive play today, but gave away some stupid freekicks which could have cost us.

Carlton Cole 7 - Impressive display from our big man. Won nearly every header and took care of many long balls. Headed the ball nicely to Ilan for the winner and should certainly have had Gordon sent off when he perfectly saw Gordon drop the ball and he was about to put it in the net when Gordon grabbed Colewith both hands and pushed him over. But "referee" Jones totally misjudged the situation.

Ilan 7,5 - As I've said before, this man knows how to find space in the box! A natural goalscorer which now has "given" us four points in two games. Ran perfectly at Coles header. Well, he still needs to learn the physical aspect of English play, still gives us womething new and special!

Subs:

Franco - We all like this guy nowadays. He comes on to fight, to play smart with his experience and to irritate the opponents. He does that very well. I would give this guy another year no doubt.

Daprela - Came on in over-time just to check out his boots.

A massive, massive win!!!! Without Parker, without Diamanti.

Happy for us, happy for the players, and happy for Zola who never gave up! Two games ago I really thought we were doomed.... not anymore!

Liverpool next!

Point of grace

2010-04-05T18:52:00.004+02:00

So a bit of relief, wasn't it? To see the spirit! To see Faubert still fighting after Yakubu's "winning" header – and a "guaranteed" home win – and put in that wonderful cross and see Ilan fly through the air and meet the ball perfectly with his head.

2-2 was a fair result and ended the fightful spell of losses.

Everton our boogey team (oneof'em) had win after win at home in Liverpool, but still we fought, and this time fought to get something. We certainly deserved it.

After a first half where we - as guests I presume – we lay low in pour positions and just took chances with long balls up the field (sometimes to a lonely Cole), we took contol of the second half and could really have won the game. A point is a point! Vital or not may not show until the 9th of May.

Cause we haven't achieved anything yet. Looking at next weekend's fixtures it looks like we need a win over in-form Sunderland to keep us over the "drop line". I mean; Hull will take on Burnley, Wolves will meet Stoke and Wigan is at home against Portsmouth.

But if Upson can show that he is a man for the England team by putting in an immaculate performance against Darren Bent and Da Costa can keep winning headers even against Jones I think we can do it even without Parker.

Green 6 - Had he any saves in the game at all? Alright he came out in the box a couple of times, once to grab the ball in front of the feet of an opponent but not much otherwise. And not much to do about their goals either. Maybe he can leave his goalline a bit earlier sometimes.

Faubert 8 - That cross was spot-on. And this man fought and is really in form now. Great effort and no mistakes.

Da Costa 7,5 - His goal was not the most beautiful, and he was part of the defense that made pitiful mistakes at Everton's first goal. Still a great game. Good headers, good blocks, an important goal and good fighting spirit.

Upson 6,5 - Not at his best yet but better than lately. I can not understand why he shoves those long balls up the field again and again and never reach a player in claret & blue. Ever.

Spector 4 - After some good games from the American this was another showing of mistakes. He made two mistakes at Everton's first goal (the bad clearence and then just left the Russian on his own) and a useless pass right into the arms of an Everton player that led to the home teams second. I've seen enough. If Ilunga is a doubt still, Daprela should play from now on. I do not care if the youngster from Switzerland (edit) is looked upon as "too young" in an situation full of pressure. He can take it.

Stanislas 7 - Behrami was injured (or sick) in the warm-up and Stanislas came on instead. I think that was tremedous move for Zola, as we all of a sudden had speed and width, and some (if too many bad as well) good crossing. The right side is probably better for the rightfooted youngster as well. Good game with energy, even if a bit too eager sometimes.

Kovac - 6 He was alright and played for the team.

Parker - 8,5 Lovely game again. Lost some ball's unnecessarywhen the team had found themselves in the opponent's box - Parker should have made some easy passes earlier. But that is the only thing I can find to complain about. And of course the yellow card that makes us very vulnerable for the next two fixtures. Otherwise a great, great game with an effort that probably noone in PL this weekend can compare themselves with.

Noble 6 - Totally lost in the first half on the left hand side (not a good position for him) but got into the game and showed heart and a strong will. A good shot at the bar, took the corner that lead us to our first goal.

Mido 5,5 - The penalty was as naive as parts of his play. But actually fought pretty hard. ut: Gives few options that Cole doesn't already possess.

Cole 7 - Left stranded in the first half even if he fought and won balls even if he had two or three men against him. Won the penalty after a good run. Decent but not at his best yet. I think this man has to score soon.

Subs:

Ilan 8 - That goal deserves credit!!! We could see it from the beginning when he came. He may not be anything peculiar in some positions, but he is something special to when it comes to get himself into the box and find room and space. Gives the team new qualities. May it continue!

Gabbidon - Came in at overtime just to check his boots I guess.

Sunderland next!

For goodness sake focus!

2010-04-01T10:37:00.003+02:00

I’m not quite sure who needs this urge the most, the owners, the manager or the players. But it was the Fulham complaint that got me started. Let’s focus on getting the required points to stay up instead.
Of course I see what Sullivan is doing, using his default method - threat - to refrain other teams to do the same, be it teams in the relegation battle resting players against teams they’ll lose to anyhow (Wolves) or safe teams focusing on a bigger game as Fulham.
Of course it’s morally questionable to field an under strength team for several reasons but I think that West Ham is best served by everybody focusing on one thing – the game against Everton. Besides we have not been strangers to resting players ahead of vital games ourselves, the latest example being Parker against Arsenal, and quite a few fans demanded him to be rested against Chelsea as well not to risk a ban for the important games ahead. So where is the morally acceptable limit? 2 players? Three?
Go shock Everton!

EDIT:
And so we did!
Also, Sullivan confirms my thoughts in this interview HERE

It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair...

2010-03-31T08:53:00.004+02:00

I remember once hearing another West Ham fan saying that the spring feels empty the seasons we are safe from relegation, and I laughed out loud.
Today I’d do almost anything for that empty feeling. However, I’m slowly edging toward another state, or rather survival strategy, that is best described by the John Cleese quote from Clockwise:

"It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand"

I’m about to accept relegation and have found myself thinking that we may have a decent squad for the fizzy pop. Comfortably numb as Pink Floyd put it.

But then the terrible feeling of hope resurfaces as I wonder if it’s the feeling of nothing to lose that is needed in our team to make our cramped performances give way. Maybe a game away against Everton is the perfect fix(ture)? They have not that much to play for and even though they have an impressive home (and away) record, motivation is a powerful force. Everton is of course heavy favorites with the bookies, but Stoke Wolves and Birmingham have all left Goodison with a point and we (Stanislas more than me, I must confess) scored against them at Boleyn Ground - when all hope was gone.
So here I am, wondering if I can stand the hope a point on Saturday would bring.

(thanks to Jolly for reminding me of the Cleese quote)

If support could kill

2010-03-30T13:38:00.002+02:00

What does support for a manager really mean?

The latest player to back Zola is Robert Green that dubs Zola “a great manager” and the other day Mido told the press that "Everyone is working so hard for the manager. We're behind that man. He is a top manager, in my opinion, and we're all behind him". Just the other week two or three other players including Scott Parker said more or less the same thing.

But what does “a great manager” mean to a footballer.
I’m pretty sure that if players outside West Ham are asked to name a great manager Fergie, Wenger and Mourinho would all be named but Zola wouldn’t even enter their mind. So why do our players say he’s a great manager? These are players working with him every day so they should know, right?
First one must consider if they are just lying as this is the politically correct way of behaving. No one wants to look like a managerial problem so on the direct question “what do you think of Zola as a manager” they don’t have much of a choice do they? But I’m sure that some players actually do think he is a good manager. How come?
Of course the he players can like a manager for several reasons. He can be a good “man manager” making the players feel comfortable and wanted. How can you dislike that? He can avoid the hair-dryer treatment, which is most certainly appreciated by players in the short run. Also he can be accessible to the players, being there for them when they want him, which is probably a totally new feeling for players used to old-school Curboid managers. I think Zola have all these “qualities”. Zola is also apparently very good one-on-one with the players giving each player “quality” time with the manager working on (what he/they think is) their individual needs. There are a so many statements confirming this that we (almost) have to accept it as the truth. It also appears as if the training sessions are enjoyable to the players.
So the players lead a good and enjoyable life with Zola as their manager. The fact that they don’t win games with him at the helm is just a minor flaw in his managerial CV.

But the players are not the only ones backing him, almost every manager of teams we have played of late has backed Zola as well. Now, that is a League Managers Association kind of thing as they know that they could be up next and they all by default despise the sacking of any manager.
Old West Ham players also seem to get behind Zola with Julian Dicks, Don Hutchison, Ian Bishop, Tony Gale and John Moncur among those having given him their support. Some of that is maybe due to genuine support for him as a manager and some of it can reflect that they don’t want change during a season. But I bet some is also that they want to be regular nice guys not wanting to stab his back and the statement have no real relation to what they actually think of him as a manager. I’m sure pretty much the same persons will back the next manager too.

So what do we do with all this backing of Zola?
Nothing. I think their greatest value is as a post-topic, at best.

If.... we actually mention the unmentionable....

2010-03-29T08:44:00.005+02:00

I do not want to mention the War. As we are all a bit superstitious and if some players begin to think in the same way, and if.... Well, Yes if. If we can lose against Wolves and Stoke at home and if Hull can get some energy from their last win (a win that was not hard to predict) we actually can "do a Newcastle". A team too good to go down, a team with disastrous finances but with good individual players but no team gut. We have done it before and we can do it again. Go d....

Despite the money from the Davids.... Despite that we might have a handful of players in South Africa this summer...

But what do we have next year, if we go d..... At least you can speculate.... I am not sure of most of the contracts. Some of them may give the players freedom to leave if we drop. Some may be longer than I know, the David's may offer useless contracts, who knows? But let's start anyhow.

Green - Will probably leave anyhow. Has spoken about doin a couple of years abroad, but where? It will of course depend on how he will do in an England shirt this summer, a question raised as he has been less strong in the last months then when he became England No1.

Julien Faubert - Will miss Africa, but will leave us, as I see him go back to a top team in France.

Jonathan Spector - As he won't attract any PL teams he will be here next season as well.

James Tomkins - I guess some teams will be interested, but I guess he knows that he can have use of a season in the CC, he will stay too.

Matthew Upson - Sold. How much can we get?

Gabbidon - Will be released, sorry to say, as he has been injured too many games, too many times now. But we surely could have use of an experienced CB next year. Will not go to another PL team I guess, so Cardiff or retirement....

Manuel Da Costa - Still young he could do a year in CC and grow. Guess it is up to the (new) coach and how Da Costa enjoys London. I would keep him, even if it may be a year for Spence to get a place in the first 11. If da Costa leaves it would be for an international career.

Daprela - Stays.

Ilunga - Goes to West Brom, Newcastle or Bolton. (pity)

Diamanti - How much I would like to see him here in claret & blue in CC he will have his career somewhere else. May be back in Italy - in a top team - rather sooner than later, but may also chose a career in PL. He may not attract the top four, but which ( other)team can he chose that plays as beautiful as him?

Jack Collison - A real talent that I guess could attract many teams in PL, but he do also have a big WH heart and will have an operation in his knee this summer. So stays!

Kovac - Sold the 10th of May. Germany, Russia or home....

Scott Parker - Uh, how much we will miss him. But we must understand that he wants to do another year or two in the top flight. Harry would probably be there for him....

Mark Noble - We can not sell all our central midfielders. Noble can attract teams like Villa, Sunderland and Blacckburn. Tottenham is no alternative. But we will do our best to keep him in our team and as a new Captain he might stay here with his big West Ham heart.

Junior Stanislas - Must stay. And I'm very happy about it!

Behrami - Will go back to Italy. Or Spain.

LBM - Will not be offered any new contract anyhow.

Dyer - Will not be offered any new contract anyhow. Will leave.

Carlton Cole - Will probably be sold to Arsenal for 10 millions. Anyway.

Ilan - Will leave anyhow.

Mido - Will leave anyhow.

McCarthy - Has a contract that do not expire this summer, but probably a contract that tells that he can leave if we go down. But I am not so sure that he will (if we will). At least not if he misses the World Cup at home this summer. Can be an important senior for us in the CC.

Freddie Sears - The youngster has not blossomed when on loan in the CC. Will he come back and lead the line now? Not so sure. May leave.

Zavon Hines - May be our key-player next season.

Nouble - Our new Carlton Cole must stay.

From our own ranks: Stech, Kurusz, Edgar, Spence, Fry, Örn, Montano.

This may be a very good, but much too young team - with only McCarthy, Noble and Spector at least a bit older. Will D&D buy some senior players from a Birmingham sale? If they still really will fight for the Olympic Stadium we can not do more than a year in CC, and it leaves them with a lot of more spending.

Well, anyway but looking at this it is this leaves us with another question and opportunity:

Who may be the best guy to lead youngsters to success, educate them and take that time?

It may well be Zola.

If he stays this season out, without being able to keep us in PL, the answer to our future may actually be the Italian. But what about the others, the players?

When enough isn´t enough

2010-03-26T23:40:00.005+01:00

In my last post, before yhe Arsenal game, I wrote that we were the worst prepared team for the relegation battle (of the ones down there) because the managment or the team never expected us to be where we are at the moment. To many losses seems to have erased the little that was left of the confidence. The team doesn´t act like a team anymore.

Zola and Clarke doesn´t seem to be able to get the team going. Benni McCarthys statement about the half time speech at the Wolves debacle is a bit telling. Noone seemed to listen according to The Mirror "The manager tried but everyone's heads had dropped. We didn't really perform. Everyone's heads were in their shirts and everyone was shy to show their faces - it was really hard." Quite worrying one would think..?

I really thought Zola was going to say "enough is enough" and walk out after the game vs Wolves. Especially after the players failed to perform as they did. I thought he was to proud to take that kind of shitty performances (and I thought he could afford it). Now it seems like he´ll stay and maybe it doesn´t matter? How many times has it actually worked out to change the manager (especially with seven games to play?)? I don´t know.

I do know however that I received a letter from mr Sullivan the other day and he wrote the way a lot of us fans feels. At last someone who speaks his mind and recognise shit when he sees it. Maybe it was a publicity stunt with an agenda and maybe it wasn´t good from a psychological point of view (or maybe it was?) but it was surely refreshing.

The most important game of the season is a very worn out expression but it´s never been more valid than for this game. Every game will be more important than the other til the end of the season. At the moment it seems like the only thing that´ll keep us up is if Burnley and Hull also have stopped to gather points. We shouldn´t fool ourself. Ofcourse they haven´t. Therefor we need to gain some on our own, starting tomorrow (and I just can´t see how that´ll be possible with the last couple of games on my mind).

A win vs Stoke puts us on track for 35p. A loss and I can´t see us get more than 32p. Will that be enough? Probably not.

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -4p
Total February: 7p, 6p, -1p, -4p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p, 0p, -1p, -5p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -5p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -5p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p, 0p, -3p, -8p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -8p, 35p

The 5 most annoying statements

2010-03-25T16:04:00.003+01:00

1. "We're 100% behind the manager"
That statement may just have a tiny bit of an off key ring to it don’t you think?
Maybe a sentence from Sullivans “message from the chairman” can explain why. “I was angry and upset as every supporter in the stadium at the disorganised way we played…”
There are at least 10 other observations that turns this statement into one of the daftest from G&S yet.
Filed under "shit we need to say".

2. Gianfranco Zola insists David Gold and David Sullivan are not meddling in first-team affairs at West Ham.
"We realise the performance was absolutely appalling. We can't play like that again, and I'm sure the manager will be making changes for Saturday and I'm sure it will be a much better performance.” That couldn’t have been an owner could it?

3. "I don't think they're putting any pressure on me”
That is Zola again and “they” are the Davids of course. I’d insult your intelligence if I commented this one. Filed in the same folder as no 1.

4. “The most important thing is that they enjoy playing football”
It’s hard believing that anyone in our team is enjoying football at the moment.
I bet one of the most enjoyable feelings of a footballer is when he recognizes that his hard work pays off. Saying "go out and enjoy yourself" never worked.

5. “You're not fit to wear the shirt”
We tend to bear down hard on players not giving it all for the team. Maybe we should all take that “long, hard look” at ourselves that Matty Upson urged the players to take. Getting behind the team and “loving them the most when they deserve it the least” is nothing that comes easy to me, or most fans, but I’m convinced that even if we need to pretend, as most of us will have to, it is the most effective.

Which nail in the coffin was this, Zola?

2010-03-23T23:09:00.004+01:00

Do you remember West Ham-Reading 0-6?? Well, that was not under Zola's regime. Just as to put some things in perspective. But anyway it's not easy to say anything clever after 1-3 against Wolves in THE important game of the season....

Yes: We dominated and had two or three times as many goal scoring opportunities as Wolverhampton. The team who had scored least goals in the league did not create much, but still did three goals! In a way this makes things even more Embarrasing.

I have defended Zola even in my sleep, but can no longer see Zola turn this ship. Sorry I want you here, but... this.... Well, I still can see the players do it, but they got to do it fast. Please grow that confidence that can build champions!

We are lucky that there are Hull, Burnley and Ports, three really bad teams out there this year. I guess they do mention us in the same sentence....

As we didn't show any creativity, even less any teamplay today. The Wolves tactics was easy to spot and understand, but our tactics were? Can someone explain please?

Green 4 - I do not care much about the English national team, but if this is the best they can get.... I mean Greeno used to save shots like this. Used to save at least one shitty shot in the game. Well, not his fault any of the goals... but not very convinving either. Back to No6?

Faubert 7 - Probably our best man out there, back from injury he showed energy and was one of few that won some 50-50-situations.

Tomkins 2 - Sorry man, but you did it against Bolton, a extremely important game, and you did it again. Situations that seems to be of no harm, turns up to be crucial against us. Won't do. I can understand that you got hurt.... I hope you can survive and come back stronger, but not sure. Off 45.

Upson 3,5 - Was lost at their second, slipped at their third. Our Captain was not even able to handle his back four. Will be sold this summer if there are any bidders left.... Will he even go to SA?

Daprela 5 - Deflected the shot which led to 0-2, but tried. Our future man, but hop to see Ilunga next.

Behrami 4 - Not good enough. Very invisible and when he went into the middle there was even less creativity than when Kovac was on the field. Yes, alright he ran but that is not enough.

Parker 7 - Well, this man showed a big heart and was self-sacrificing as always. Lost some and won some but fought! Lovely double- opportunity!At the moment he is our only man to sit next to Capello on that flight.

Kovac 3 - Disaster. Lost every ball, missed every pass. What happened, all of a sudden he looked like the player he was when he came.

Diamanti 6 - Tried and fought. That is what I demand. But not one of he best games as Wolves were good to defend close on him (and on everyone of our players). Should use his speed more.

McCarthy 4,5 - Had some good ideas, more pace than most of the others and some passes that can fit Cole when they have played more games together. But as they all were lost today, I was not satisfied. Is not up to even 60 minutes yet.

Cole 5 - Well he wanted so much, he fought and looked quite good when he came down in the field to pick the ball up. But up there not much today. Wolves had no problems to defend their box at all. Was prevented by the lack of creativity from midfield, on the other hand he is far from any form at all.

Subs:

Spector 4,5 - On for Tomkins at halftime. The good thing with the American is that he can play nearly everywhere. The bad thing is that he seldom do it very well (apart from Arenal last game). Was lost on their third and conclusive goal.

Stanislas 4,5 - On for Kovac at halftime. Had big problems with the guests hard and close defending, and as he seldom goes to the left, close to the line, he was no problem at all for Wolves. Well, at least he showed some energy and had a great cross. I had expected a bit more but when Wolves do have their lead it's not easy for a young guy to make things goin...

Franco 6 - Three nice tries before he with an even nicer chip gave us our only goal. Far to late, but that is not his fault. The problem is that he when he came on looked really fast. But I guess he is the slowest man in the team....

Well, we are not doomed yet. Far from. But I think Zola is.

Stoke next.

A game for men

2010-03-23T12:56:00.003+01:00

Tonight’s game is a decider extraordinaire.
I have heard the word “sixpointer” maybe once to many already, but one of our most important jobs tonight is to make sure that Wolves go home empty handed.

The key words for tonight’s game are commitment and composure. If Zola knows any additional ways to help the team with this he should do it even if it meant playing a side that may not be the best in every position. Almost regardless of what players we field we have the better players compared to Wolves, so it’s the team effort that is in need of boosting and has been desperately lacking. This may be the kind of game when experience outweighs talent, when understanding of the game plan, regardless of the situation in the game, is crucial.
We cannot afford another game when the fear of losing turn our game into a thoughtless ball chasing event.
Work rate is, as always, also crucial and nothing bothers me more than players not carrying their weight, but without knowing what work should be done, running is of little value. We have seen it once too many already this season.

There has been quite a few good things said about our display against Arsenal, and I am not contending any of that. However I am not sure that it has much bearing on the Wolves game. Against Arsenal we were in the very situation when we have been quite decent this season – with nothing to lose. It would have been really interesting to see what the game had looked like had Diamanti scored from the spot. That is when the composure is needed.

Tonight is all different. We are expected and more or less forced to win. In that situation the fear of losing may turn out to be an enemy much more powerful than Wolves. It’s man or mouse time.

Few causes of rejoicing but the public Spector

2010-03-20T22:12:00.005+01:00

A bit lucky there. Portsmouth did win their game against Hull with two goals in the dying minustes - 88th and 89th. And Wigan scored their winner against Burnley in the 90th. So after todays loss against the new PL leaders at the Emirates we still have it our own hands. We are talkng about the dirty fight we will be involved in to the bitter end.

After two goals down against a 10 man Arsenal you can say that we did OK, but far from enough. When Diamanti missed his first penalty in a West Ham shirt (just before the break) we may have lost our chance in the game. Still I suggested for myself: This may be good for us as the home team won't come out to the second half like hungry tigers. We will...

Well, from then we seemed to take control of the game, but to be truthful Arsenal did what they wanted to pretty easily. They did what they needed. Not less not more. We were - apart from Cole's shot at the post late on - never able to threat.

Since Zola has taken over the team we've most of the time been able to play quite well in these games, but never been able to threaten the top four. Any of them. A couple of years ago we actually had som wins, on the other hand some truly lousy efforts. Nowadays we seem to know that we may be able to take a point but never disturb the hard opponent's enough to win three. As even Hull and Burnley do.

I do really hope that this was the last loss this season!!! With some luck and hard work it may even be so!

Green 6 - Some really good saves. Not to blame for the goals: But why has he stopped to save those penalties that he used to?

Spector 7 - After some early moments where he sold himself awkwardly easy he grew and ended as one of the very best players we had for the night. If he made a mistake he used his speed to regain the ball. As several times against Arshavin and Fabregas! He helped the others out and even ran for some attacks! Credit to the critisised American.

James Tomkins 7 - Another decent game with aggressiveness and no-nonsese. (Far better then against Bolton... of course)

Matthew Upson 5 - Not as his best as he lost out on the first goal and handled the ball clearly which gave the home team their penalty. Not a Captain on the field (as I usually point out).

Daprela 5,5 - This young guy has the right attitude, and had a fighting face during all game. Good contribution, but not a decisive effort. Well, FB's seldom have. But he will be important for us from now on, even if I'm longing to see Ilunga back to his best.

Diamanti 7 - Well he missed the penalty (I guess Almunia knew which corner Diamanti always shoots in) and he missed some other shots, but when he really had a golden opportunity he sadly chosed to pass instead. But: even if he made the wrong decisons from time to time he was one of few players that looked inspired and tried to change the game.

Behrami 5 - Ran, but was not able to influence the team today.

Kovac 6 - Ran, and had an import task to stop Fabregas and (in the first half) Song. Did pretty well, but he could not do anything going forward. I do not complain, I mean it was Song and Fabregas for God's sake...

Stanislas 6 - Happy to see him on the field from the start as he has speed, energy and (some) width, but if he shall play on the left he must sometimes go to the left and not every time move into the field. Worked hard and had a beautiful cross (from the right!)

Franco 4,5 - Well, he gave us the chance to get into the game. But apart from the attack from Vermalen - which gave him a red card and us a penalty - Francoe was never friend with the ball and did not do enough to be left on the field. So subbed, and rightly so. But maybe too late.

Mido 4,5 - A very silent game, so he is here to prove something? Well, you can see that he has a lot of football in his body, but his capacity has seldom bloosomed or really given us anything. So far. Was close to score on Stanislas beautiful cross though.

Subs:

Cole 5,5 - a late sub and he does make difference as soon as he shows, but apart from that wonderful shot to the post, he seemed far away from top form and lost the ball much easier than he usually does.

Noble - Nice to see him back even if he was not given any time to shine. "As if..."

McCarthy - Hardly involved but in some few moments he showed what speed can do, and the strong, fast pass to Cole makes me dream of a beginning of a beautiful friendship... I hope to see the South African start on Tuesday. And Cole!

Wolves next. Our most important game of the season!!! (again...)

Last game at Boleyn 2015?

2010-03-19T10:57:00.009+01:00

When the talk about a move to the Olympic stadium started again after the G&S takeover I was a bit slow to catch on. Of course I knew the Davids would be interested in selling Upton Park and renting the Olympic stadium, but so were the Icelanders.

The pre-crunch antics of Sir Sebastian Coe, olympics minister Tessa Jowell and others had me fooled there for a while thinking that a “commitment to the International Olympic Committee” was actually important.

One may say that I failed to recognize the change in scenery laid down by the credit crunch.
In a BBC interview Sullivan points out the obvious that building a 80.000 seater just to use it for a few weeks and then tear most of it down to turn it into an athletic arena with a 25.000 capacity (that will be used for athletics a handful of times each year), must be downright waste of money .
However, what he chooses to disregard is the initial investment needed to turn it into a football ground as this is supposed to cost quite a lot more than transforming it to an athletics venue. That initial extra investment is, as I see it, the only real stumbling block in his quest to move the Club.
In a situation where the UK is pressured by the EU to speed up deficit cuts, every chance of reducing costs and increasing income will be very welcome. Talk of honoring a commitment will be wasted on governments facing a harsh financial reality, but if the initial investment or the long term stability and income will be the most important is still unclear. I guess it will depend on how the initial tab can be divided.

According to Telegraph, a West Ham spokesman said: "Our position is that we want to talk and see if a way forward can be found that can retain the athletics legacy and also allow us to make sure we get the most out of the stadium”.

Now that’s a scary thought. Keeping the tracks would mean taking away a substantial part of the match day experience. People arguing that this is insignificant as “the seats furthest away from the pitch is still closer to it than the ones at Wembley” are unlikely to be football fans and misses the point by a mile. But I don’t have to convince any Bubbleview reader about that. Still, I’m a bit worried that G&S thinks that the “customers” will turn up in enough numbers to fill the 55.000, or so, seats anyway and are willing to oblige to reach a compromise with the UKA (that are hoping to land the 2015 World Athletics Championship) just to finalize the deal.

The decision on who gets that 2015 athletics gig is to be decided in November, and the deadline (?) for the final (?) decision on the future use of the stadium is said to be December so if the UKA bid fails West Hams negotiating position is strengthened.
These deadlines also mean that we will see quite a few turns in this saga yet, but as things lay it looks to me as if the Boleyn Ground will stage its final football game in 2015.

West Ham ill prepared for a relegation battle?

2010-03-18T11:28:00.005+01:00

Another loss last weekend. This one well expected. Not least because West Ham during Zolas tenure still haven´t beaten any of the "top four". They have a new chance to change that this coming weekend when we take on Arsenal. I haven´t seen anything during the last two games that points towards a point or three, more to the contrary actually. I think we´ll get well beaten once more and our confidence will suffer another blow.

It´s not in the games vs. Chelsea and Arsenal (and Bolton since we allways loose against them) we should expect to save our season. It would, however, be nice to get some bonus points once in a while. All the other teams around us seems to do that and that´s what we did last time we were involved in a relegation scrap.

We still have some games left with obvious chances to get some points. Zola has spoken about ten more points to reach 37 and safety. The games vs. Wolves, Stoke, Sunderland and Wigan will be massive. Not only do they represent our best chances of gathering points (together with Fulham away where we usually play well). They´re also teams we fight and can´t afford to drop points against.

I think West Ham have got the most talented team in the relegation battle. Though I also think we´re the worst prepared team to be in this situation. I don´t think the managment team or the players recognised this as a possibility (though I know a lot of the fans did) last summer and aren´t mentally prepared. This ofcourse is a great disadvantage towards the other involved teams.

In the prediction made early January I hoped for another eleven points from now until the end of the season. If we get those eleven points I think we´ll survive. To get them won´t be a walk in the park though.

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -4p
Total February: 7p, 6p, -1p, -4p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p, 0p, -1p, -5p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -5p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -5p, 38p

Kovac was good!

2010-03-16T19:53:00.002+01:00

As I've been away, I was not able to watch the game against Chelski until now, and as most things have been said out there already, there are just a few things that I've been thinking about.

As opposed to many/most comments on the net I think Kovac was very good. We all know that the Czech can't offer much goin forward and - yes - he lacks feet to pass the ball like an Aquiliani.

But he has improved a lot defensivly and against Chelski he ran like a lion hunting. I think he was the main reason, together with our team spirit (and maybe Chelski's lack of the same), that we had an even game in 55 minutes. We all saw that Parker was dominating - if not the pitch, at least - the team. But I think he is offered a lot of liberty when Kovac is there behind him. Parker did a hell of a job defensivly as well, I know, but still I think they are doin quite well together. If we just had an even more creative passer in front of them.... In the last ten minutes Kovac was probably the most tired man on the field, but that is another story.

Gabbidon's come-back gave the team a less hysterical look when we defend. Maybe he will partner Tomkins next year. As I guess Upson - who once more didn't captain the team on the field or played like a CB Capello would like to have - will be sold.

Why Diamanti and Cole (the knee I suppose) was rested is still a big Q. At least Mido seemed to enjoy to play. As opposed to Ilan. Dyer also showed that he is not a finished article even if I once more would have given Stanislas more time.....

I think we played pretty alright this weekend and 4-1 was -as Zola said -flattering for the home team. But once more we let the fans down after goin 2-1 down. Why do we, once more, seem to just give up??

The picture of our next manager emerging?

2010-03-10T13:30:00.003+01:00

Ludo “Oi Big Boy” is gone (i.e. left the Club).
Regardless of the reasons for this, slipped discs or not, he will probably be replaced fairly quick even if living without one for the rest of the season can’t be a catastrophe. Green will hardly transform into butterfingers by the lack of one.

But if the rumor on KUMB are right Hughes sidekick at Blackburn and City, Kevin Hitchcock, is lined up.

He may be a West Ham supporter but if he is coming, and I say IF, we need to wonder no more about our manager situation next season.

Behrami states the obvious - but ducks the implications

2010-03-09T12:31:00.006+01:00

Finally someone from the team stands up and admits it – we have a mental problem. For those of us watching we didn’t really need Behrami to tell us that, it has been evident, and a major point of discussion, almost since the arrival of Zola. From the very start Zola made a point of changing the players attitudes as a way toward success

“The players can’t be afraid of trying, my job is to encourage them to play
their game and not being afraid of losing… … football is all about enjoying
going out there”

Still one of the most evident features of the squad under Zola’s rein is the lack of mental stability. Countless times we have seen the game plan collapse, most strikingly when we have been two goals up on a team that gets a player sent off! The fear of losing is never far off.

What are the reasons?
When Zola came in he changed into the 433 system “a system I like and that can be very effective” he said. The response from the team was more ambiguous, at least after a few losses. Noble went on record saying "you need a couple of years to get it right".
The timing of this fundamental (?) change in game plan wasn’t the best either, as it turned out. Ashton picked up his final ankle injury in his first training session with Zola and injury plagued the squad the whole first half of the season.
So a team with several players that were not really considered starters were asked to change from the familiar 442 they were brought up with. And to make it yet a bit harder, it was more or less an “on the job training” as Zola came on after the start of the season. If a grain of doubt is planted under those circumstances there is a great risk of it getting nourished and grow. I feel we didn’t really ever have a squad able to play according to Zolas wishes, but that is maybe another issue.

We turned it around last season and that must have installed some belief in the future in the players, but the never ending (?) doubt over what players were going or staying as well as other aspects of the owner issue handed us just the start of this season we didn’t need.
Zola couldn’t do much about player trades but to minimize the damage. What I do think he could have done this season, after it was evident that the results were not going our way, was to minimize all types of insecurities he had any control over.

Quite often you hear coaches saying “at the moment it doesn’t work so we have to go back and work on the basics” We’ve heard that from Zola as well, but still he kept on experimenting with different systems (433, diamond 442 and standard 442). He has also been guilty of tampering with the starting lineup as I pointed out in THIS post about the back 4 (8?), as well as playing midfielders in all kinds of positions.
I am fully aware that it’s hard to decide to give a certain back 4, midfield, or striker duo time to settle in if it seems as if it doesn’t fully work out. It must be hard resist acting on the “maybe if we…” idea, nevertheless it’s of fundamental importance to do it as little as possible especially in times of turmoil.. Some of these changes were obviously due to injury and to a limited squad (making it tempting to make 2 changes to cover for one injury), but that can’t by far explain all the different starting lineups.
As much as I can sympathize with Zola’s urge to find the right player for the right position, constant change will be detrimental to player, no team, security. As this was one of Zola’s main issues he should have tried hard to avoid it as he knew success depended on security! It’s no coincidence that teams that start week in and week out with the same players seem to play above their player standard. When under pressure, knowing what the players next to you will do is an immense advantage and may well have solved some of the problems (in the form of conceded goals for instance) attributed to “individual mistakes”. When you know from many games together what your team mate will do, you don’t have to use valuable time to evaluate the situation and decide on a solution – you act on what may look like instinct but what is actually a result of spending time together in games in similar situations. This is something I think Zola could have provided, at least to a higher degree.

Life isn’t fair, with a better start to his managerial career in terms of available players and owners, the chance of Zola turning into a West Ham icon would have greatly increased. Unfortunately that was not to happen and I think the time to turn this around is long gone.

As much as I hate the thought of a manager coming in and playing “grave digger ball” to secure points and league survival, I can’t see Zola being successful with us. Given the right resources he can be a great manager but that will never be given to him at West Ham.

Davids! Please find us a manager that can do what Zola couldn’t and give him the funds to give it a shot! (but wait until the summer)

Another bad loss

2010-03-07T11:58:00.003+01:00

Why is it that it allways looks exactly the same when we play Bolton? The team seems clueless and surprised. I find it very odd since Bolton doesn't look like a team that brings a lot of surprises to their games? We seemed absolutely clueless from the start.

Since we usually lose against Bolton I didn´t expect a win but I did expect some fight and for the team to be prepared from the kick off. In the prediction I decided for a draw which means we now lost another point.

Now we´re looking forward to two really difficult away games, Chelsea and Arsenal. I expect zero points from those two games. Everything else is a bonus. Durin Zolas time as a manager we seem to draw vs the "top" teams from time to time but never win. Now is a good time to change that and get the first one signore Zola!

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p an
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -4p
Total February: 7p, 6p, -1p, -4p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p, 0p, -1p, -5p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -5p, 38p

Bolton bolted Hammers again

2010-03-06T18:15:00.005+01:00

We ought to know better by now. But... I expected a win this weekend, even if most of us have seen too many losses against our boogey-team (even more "boogey" than Tottenham?).

And today was awful. Awful.

While Bolton always knew what to do... all the time, it didn't seem that we had a clue. When Bolton attacked they knew were to find Davis, Elmander and the impressing Chung-Yong. We looked up and found noone and no or few runs. Our players (except Cole) was in a place where they are expected to be when we attack. Not like Bolton. This was Bolton's first away win in six months! A bit.. no very embarrasing as we never looked close... even if Stanislas shot right at the bar in the dying minutes was a beautiful effort.

This loss leaves us in a dire situation. Again. We may need a point or three in (at least) one of our fortcoming away games. And the opposition are Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. So after this new "fiasco" (passed by Bolton now) we do have to show much, much more guts, much more energy, much more teambonding, more skill. Or we'll get relegated! But that can't happen can it?

Green 5,5 - May need to work more in the box as their goals hardly was delt by by the CB:s. Even if not at fault for any of the goals he had a bit of a tired game.

Faubert 5 - He was not at his best, had some awful passes, but still I do not know why he was subbed as he was much more involved in attacks than Behrami. (Injured?)

Tomkins 3,5 - Young players do good games and bad games. But a CB is not allowed to do these mistakes. Tomkins first half was his worst ever or at least since Yakubu scored for Everton in Tomkins debut. Was more or less at fault at both goals and did some other serious mistakes. Grew during 2:d. To late then.

Upson 5 - Is this our captain? I guess the annoying Kevin Davis is not his favourite...

Spector 5 - OK, Fooled sometimes but tried hard, and compared with his friends in the back four he was the most decent one.

Behrami 4,5 - During the first half, did he have any passes to the correct address? In these games you got to show some skill, I did not find it in Behrami. He fights yes, he runs yes, but every Bolton player do the same.

Kovac 5 - Did what he had to do and was expected to do (Fought!). But no more.

Parker 6 - After some lousy play were he lost the ball possession and had some even lousier shots he came in and fought and ran hard.

Diamanti 7 - Even if he had three great opportunities from the same (?) free kick spot and was unable to score he was my man of the match today as he was the only one who did the unexpected and at the same time was there to be found when others needed som help.

Franco 4,5 - Not his game at all. Had a wonderful scoring opportunity which he just "fluffed". Played to far away from Cole and to far away from the box.

Carton Cole 5 - Not at his best at all, but tried, fought and came down to midfield to pick the ball up. Continues to limp, does he need a rest? Will McCarthy be ready?

Subs:

Dyer 6 - Liked what I saw, even if he missed the best opportunity of the game when he was totally free. But that was just 30 seconds after he had come on. The n he showed some skill but not enough.

Mido 4 - Looked slow and far away from the rest of the team. May need a start to begin to show... (or be rested forever?).

Stanislas 5 - Offered something different and - again width and some goal opportunities. As he only gets a couple of minutes each game he is very eager to show what he can do - which isn't always the best way to play...

Chelsea next.

Scary rumours!

2010-03-05T09:28:00.005+01:00

Even if Jason Burt may have lost his good relation to the topnotch of our club, by supporting Fernandes (which I did myself) and have lost some good information sources when Nani and Dux left, he may still be the best informed journalist in West Ham matters. So it is very worrying to read his article in todays the Telegraph which states that Behrami will be sold in the summer and Diamanti too.

We all know that Upson's and Green's futures in claret and blue may be in doubt as their contracts soon is ended and they both seem to leave for finishing a career with a top-four club (Upson) or abroad (Green). At least those rumours haven't been crushed by the players themselves. Or the Club. So this we know. But to lose Behrami and Diamanti would be a disastrous act, as it's not only as a declaration of war against Zola, but also against the fans. We all know about the financial situation - as Sullivan has repeated in the journals every day since he arrived – and we know that the club has to act. But by selling two of our most popular and important players would be against all sense. We do not have anyone else like Diamanti! Noone else can close down games with his free kicks! If he continues like this he will get the status of an Hammers icon.

Please, let this just be - as I suppose is the case with poor paid Collison - a part of the negotiating process. Otherwise Sullivan will have no friend's left. And as Joppe has speculated about here earlier, Zola will leave rather sooner than later.

I doubt anyone will renew their season tickets this summer if Burt's article is telling us the truth. We may have to clean our debts, but not by selling these players!

To read Burt's article read HERE.

A really bad week

2010-03-04T23:41:00.005+01:00

Last week was a rather bad week personally. My broken wrist turned out to need not only an operation. They had to make it a "stiff operation" (I´ve got absolutely no idea what the correct English term would be but I try with that one) and I won´t ever be able to use it properly again. Than again, it could have been worse, a lot worse.

Back to more important stuff and the reason why you read this post. West Ham. After two straight wins and six points the team got the expected zero points vs. Manchester United last week. Noone could argue with the result and at least the first goal was a real peach.

I expected 0 points from that game and it means that the prediction still points towards 39p at the end of the season. This weekend we´ve got an "easier" opposition. Bolton at home. In my prediction I´ve only calculated with 1 point due to the fact that we´ve been struggeling with Bolton for the last decade or so (at least since their "fat-Sam" years). I really hope we´ll get all three points since this is one of the game were we've got a decent chance to get some plus points on board. The fact that the next two games afterwards are Chelsea and Arsenal away makes it all the more important to put some points in the bag asap!

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p an
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p, 0p, 0p, -4p
Total February: 7p, 6p, -1p, -4p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -4p, 39p

Hindsight – an exact science!

2010-03-03T16:39:00.005+01:00

Now that the latest financial figures are out there is a huge demand for interpretations of them. As this is not an easy task and there are may ways to be “creative” when describing the financial situation, people seem to be hesitant to comment on the wider picture and most comments has been on some easy to understand figures, like the cost/benefit of Dyer and Ljungberg.

While I wait for someone I trust to do a readers digest version of the numbers, I’ll do the same.

Those were very lucrative contracts, to say the least, and few with insight at the time would have called them conservative or maybe even reasonable. As things turned out, these contracts together with some other misjudgements are still costing us dearly, no doubt about that. As things turned out, they are a not insignificant parts of the threat to our PL existence that we have been under, on and off, for the last year or so.
What is generally not commented on, however, is the situation at the club at the time they were drawn up. The judgement on these contracts are passed with the key in hand, as most judgements are. We now know that Dyer and Ljungberg were never to add much to our team, and of course there was always that risk. Eggy got carried away and loved to be able to sign high profile targets. He did pay over the top for their (and others) services and I’m certainly not here to defend these contracts as such. But Eggy and BG were filthy rich at the time, they thought there was no danger involved. Bad business maybe, but no financial danger. Having a wage bill of 80% of the annual turnover is not sustainable, as Igoe points out in his accounts comments, but I bet it's not unusual during a build up phase when a rich owner takes control.

The Ashton contract has also been extensively discussed.
As things turned out it was another major mistake. However, Cole was also handed a long term contract a little more than a year ago, a fact that more than likely saved this and maybe also last years PL contract, and will secure a decent return if we have to let him go. If Cole had picked up a career threatening injury last spring, however, having him on a long contract would have drained our funds and a horrific £/game calculation would have emerged. With almost 4 years to run on Coles contract would any of you like to cut
it short today to reduce the risk?
OK, so the comparison stinks, Ashton had a well known problem that should have cautioned us. But I also remember thinking, when he scored the astonishing goal against ManU in the penultimate game of the 07/08 season, that it was typical that he produced such a showpiece with the summer window coming up. I was overwhelmed with satisfaction when we just a few weeks later had secured his services for another 4 years. As things turned out, it was a bad move and in hindsight there should have been a few clauses included, but would we have gotten his signature had they been included? Was it totally appalling to be willing to take a risk to be able to “take the Club to the next level”? Again, this was some time before the financial meltdown.

As things turned out these are the very things that have put us in a very awkward financial situation. G&S and other owners with a restricted budget wouldn’t have done those things, and that’s also why I preferred G&S to a sugar daddy today, but remember that our owners back in 07/08 were filthy rich and that one of our main problems back then was to lure any decent player to us, almost regardless of what we were offering (now known as the Kaka to City dilemma). But the key words in the first sentence of this paragraph are “as things turned out”… If the world had NOT seen a financial meltdown there wouldn’t have been much discussion about these contracts today. The odd “we could do better with our wage bill” would still be heard but as our owners would have been able to line up decent replacements (i.e. not Tristan) we would be reasonably happy. The Icelanders were guilty of doing risky and even bad football business, but not of more or less willingly ruining our club.
Without putting these decisions into a context the discussion will revert to “everything is the Icelanders fault” which is a bit of an exaggeration. Unless they were responsible for the sub-prime mortgage fuelled financial bubble bursting that is.

One musketeer to go...

2010-02-26T12:38:00.005+01:00

G&S are well known for their "hands on", cost cutting way of running a football club, so them getting rid of a member of the staff that picks up a decent check every month, and who is intimately associated with, and hired by, the sacked Duckers can't surprise anybody.

Zola came to the club lured here by Duckers and Nani and the "Football Project".
In the first interviews all Zola went on about was how important and interesting it was to develop young players and turn them into PL material. During that first year the most common theme in Zola interviews was the close cooperation between himself, Dux and Nani. That he was managing the team but that the three of them were working very closely together for West Hams future. This was also emphasized by Duckers and Nani, as in this Q&A with Dux on the OS. It was evident that this way of running things appealed to Zola and that he believed it could be successful.

After thrashing the results so far this season G&S were recently forced to either sack or back their manager. They decided to back Zola. For owners to go public with sharp criticism of the under achievement of the team tells me way more than any official backing following such a criticism. The manager is doubtless in jeopardy in that situation.

From the other angle Zola has lost 2 of his three mates in the management. Zola and Clarke are left to administer what is handed to them by the owners. This was obviously always the case, Zola had hoped for less Kovacoid players and more of the kind that Savio represented - at least until we saw him play... but at least he was involved.
Looking at some comments during the dying days of the transfer windows it is clear that Zola was not or didn't feel involved in the process. I talked about that in THIS post and the Zola quote I used was the pretty obvious "The Club are looking for some reinforcement but we didn't speak about a budget. They are trying to strengthen the team and that is enough for me".

Not involved and two of the three corner stones of the "football project" are gone. I think it is reasonable to extrapolate.

To lose and be lost

2010-02-24T08:25:00.005+01:00

So we played pretty neat and confident football in 37 minutes. Not bad at all against the Champions. And we kept the ball. Then Rooney scored a beauty and all of a sudden the East end boys understood that goin to Old Trafford is not a holiday trip. They understood that success depended on themselves but they could not make it. They were not close. A game against Hull was a children's party, a summer bicycle trip compared to this ultimate fighting, to this F1-race. Even if we started well, we were never ever close to take a point from this game. Because we could not make those passes that United could, we could play slow, but you seldom win games that way.

Where was the speed? I saw one good counter-attack from us during all game. I saw a number of slow attacks where we lost the ball down in midfield when most of our players already was up there, close or into their box. "Faster, faster, faster" I shouted to the telly. I did not help. I did not help with a midfield with Kovac, Noble, Behrami. It did not help to see our main forces Diamanti and Cole weakened by nervousness. It did not help to see ManU play beautiful on their fast counterattacks.

This is not a game that we expected anything from, but in the end it didn't help our cause. As we - in the end and despite some good football - looked like boys againt men. I counted to three (Diamantis with Foster's clumpsy save, Cole's "non header" and Upson's "look-I'm-not-a-natural-goal-scorer-miss) good chances for us in 90 minutes...

ManU have Valencia and Rooney. That's enough, that is efficiency!

Green 6,5 - Some good saves, some unsecure handling of the ball out in his box. Still one of our best performers.

Faubert 6 - Another decent display from our Frenchman. Fought hard, but all those crosses he tried and succeded with against Hull were not addressed well tonight, mainly just "cracks".

Tomkins 7 - Lost Rooney at their second, otherwise a reliable hardworked effort. Our MOTM.

Upson 5 - Left Rooney at their first which I didn't like even if the goal in itself were close to unstopable. The third (Owen) was not Upson's fault either, but he could still have delt with it much better. A bit pointless today.

Spector 5,5 - Few FB's has easy games against Valencia. Spector certainly did not. Still he tried and made some good moves and even had some crosses today. I mean, I do not like to see the rightfooted Spector as our best alternative at LB. But it's not his fault that he has to play there when Ilunga is out. And even if Valencia did what he wanted, Spector needs more help. Decent game after his premisses.

Behrami 5 - Not a game to remember for the Swiss. Fought, but after a good start at the right where he and Faubert had some decent passing down the corner flag he later on made no difference as he hardly delivered in attack at all.

Kovac 6,5 - Reading on some other sites, many of them can't see the use of Kovac. Me myself thought he was our best man in midfield. He seems finally - together with Zola - to have found how to play in this holding defensive midfield role. Slow yes, but also pretty composure. Stopped pretty much of ManU's play in the middle.

Noble 5,5 - In for Parker (not because of risking a tenth yellow, according to reports, but as he had tight muscles) and tried. Works like a captain on the field as he pushes on. But lacked confidence and was not as his best. Do I need to spell the word "slow"?

Diamanti 4,5 - Nope, not today. At all. When he plays that free spiritual play, he must have some help by the rest of the team playing much more disciplined. Today, when the team had few ideas, and the rest of the guys hardly moved, and he came up against much better opposition, he did not seem to have a clue how to do it. I can understand him.

Franco 4,5 - Wanted to do much, wanted to take responsibility and play like the experienced pro he is. But he did not succeed, and mainly had some bickering with opponents and the referee.

Cole 5 - Looked nervous. I remember last year when he won everything against Ferdinand/Vidic. Today Vidic alone had no problems to stop him. Or Wes Brown. Wanted so much to impress, againt he Champs, against Rooney's team, but had one of his least impressive games this season.

Sub:

Mido 4 - On for Franco. Hardly showed anything.

Dyer 4,5 - Happy to see him back, but had his happiest moment when the referee blew his whistle for the final time as he looked to have escaped any injury!

Collison 5 - Sorry to say; Looks weak! Far away form his earlier form.

Hm, reading my own text, I seem a lot whinier than I want to, as we hardly played a nightmare. Just not good enough. So count that in, please.

At least we started well, but as soon as we conceded we did not look like we were able to fight back like we did when Ferdinand/Upson turned the game in Dec. 2007. Why do we seem to play worse against the best nowadays? What's the difference?

Anyway: Some rest and then Bolton next....

Three points vs. Hull

2010-02-22T12:55:00.005+01:00

It was a crucial win vs. Hull on Saturday. Three points in the bag and on the course for 39 according to the prediction. All of a sudden lots of web sites has picked up on the fact that it´ll be home form that saves us this season. If we´re to be saved that is.

It was a fantastic team performance. Addmittedly vs. a struggling team but it was a long time ago since I watched us play in such a controlled way. We were really on top of this game from the start to the finish.

A great weekend for West Ham but a really bad one personally. A broken arm makes it a lot harder to write.´Maybe it´s for the better for you readers? This way I´m not writing to long and boring... :-)

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p, 3p, 0p, -4p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -4p, 39p

Up to 13th!

2010-02-20T18:50:00.006+01:00

I am so happy that we have players like Carlton Cole and Alessandro Diamanti! Players who can make something different and also the difference! 3-0 against a weak Hull (without Bullard) makes our first back to back win this season!

Diamanti today was as entertaining as a West Ham player ever can be. Lovely energy, lovely uncoventional moves (the shot from own half!), good defensively (yes, he took Fagan off!) and involved all the time. Carlton Cole scored his ninth but also - without having a blinder – contributed a lot to the team. But maybe we should be most happy today for Faubert! He did not only score his first, his brilliant pass to Cole at his goal was a masterpiece!

Over all we may not have done one of our best games, but Hull was so much worse, and as soon as we put some pressure on Hull it looked like men against boys, Superheroes against weak crooks.

Zola let the youngsters; Noble, Collison, Stanislas start on the bench today and let the experience do the duty. And surely they did. West Ham seemed so much stronger today. I do wonder what Noble feel. But I still want more pressure from us. We plays considerable better when on the opponent's half.

Green 7 - Two important saves (one great and so important one - just before the break - after a shot from Boateng), the rest was a walk on the beach....

Faubert 8,5 - Lovely game, A few overhit crosses, but the rest was magnificent, and the pass to Cole was one of the best in PL:s history. (Or close to.) He really wanted to score himself and he did it! Good taken shot! Great game!

Tomkins 6,5 - A bit weak today, but he did enough.

Upson 7 - Good game! No problems. No nonsense!

Spector 6 - Played well defensivley. But do not give us much attack-wise, even if he dribbled two players at one time (which must have been the first time ever) one time.

Behrami 7,5 - Good game again after some less inspiring stuff! His first fifteen minutes was amazing stuff as he won every ball he fought for, he scored after 2 minutes and 10 seconds and should have had another when Myhill did an totally impossible save. During the rest of the game he looked confident, but later on a bit tired as he stopped going forward in the same manner as earlier on. (Understandable)

Parker 7- Mr Circle. His circular play with the ball at his feet in the midcircle was good today. It always is, but suits best when noone really attacks him with speed. Fought and tried to push the team on. Even with speed!

Kovac 7 - Good display. Involved in our first goal which was I think was important for him as he took an unusual offensive part.

Diamanti 8 - Our big entertainer. His work today also made the difference. Lovely energy, lovely skills. Thanks! Continue like this and you'll be a Hammers legend.

Franco 6,5 - Back in the team after injury and ready for a start. And as we saw again, not a fast, but a very intelligent player, and took some rubbish from the Hull back four (read McShane) as well, which only helped West Ham to go on.

Carlton Cole 7,5 - Two wide shots at least showed how much he wanted to do. And then... he did it (even if he was not on top). And it was not an easy tap in for him when Myhill quickly came out. Strong and determined, very very hard - once more - for anyone to take the ball from him.

Subs:

Ilan 4,5 - A bit of a disappoinment as he had some time to show what he can do. But even if he did not have any good balls from his teammates he did not look to work hard either. I've been impressed by his earlier entries. But this was a set-back. It looked like he will need some time to settle. But still early times...

Mido 5,5 - Not much time but moved well and pushed the team on.

Collison - no time.

Man U next! Could Everton may we!

Am I talking bullard?

2010-02-19T19:08:00.005+01:00

How much can a player with - next after Crouch - Premier League's thinnest legs affect a team? Enormously! If our former trainee Bullard (one of these I never understood why we let go, as he was as talented as we've seen later on. One year more and he could have been a PL player) will play for Hull tomorrow I am not as certain anymore. Will we really grab those three points then? So, can I really be scared for Bullard? That PL's funniest (?) player can give Hull a boost enough to give the guests a point? Yes I can.

We've seen it before. Looking at wins, draws and losses recently we have exactly the same amount of points as our guests, but that was "long ago" as we now have Cole back. And Franco, Ilan, and Mido. For instance. But looking at it Bullard may be back for Hull now, a player that can with fortune, class and energy give boost to a team.

Latest five PL games shows us (just) one win. The one against Birmingham. Hull's win is a good one: Against Man City! Our draws are against Tottenham, Villa and Blackburn. Hull's are Wolves and Chelsea! So do not count'em out. Remember Bullard may be back.

The biggest problem is that we really HAVE to win this one.

Hopefully we do it with style - but Parker may be right, the team may have to do it dirty!

My team:

Green

Faubert - Tomkins - Upson - Daprela

Stanislas - Behrami - Diamanti

Parker

Cole - Mido

Bench: Stech, Spector, Kovac, Noble, Collison, Ilan, Franco

Diamanti showed what he can do from the left against Birmingham, Stanislas who is rightfooted will give us width at right. I'm not totally convinced by Mido yet, but I think he might be a better starter than coming from the bench. Ilan will be really good - as I said earlier - for us, but I do not expect Zola to start him yet, as he probably not will do with Franco, just back from his injury. Happy for the Mexican! Hopefully we do show that attack is best defence!

Joppe schtum over Bubbleview future!

2010-02-19T10:45:00.005+01:00

The fateful words "Not really" echoes and dies in the corridors of the Bubbleview building as Joppe answers the inevitable question - "have you considered your B-view future?

It's a well known factoid that Joppe has quite some time to go on his contract and still does not find a good reason to plead for his Bubbelview future.
"I want Bubbleview to do well and I'm focusing on my next post" is another statements he's given lately and the hidden message in that is plain to everyone.

It’s been a busy week in the West Ham-related world indeed!
An ex-(?) player get money according to his contract, another makes the headlines for all the wrong reason and an ex-manager gets some money, and an all but dead project turns out to be an all but dead project. And then the final one - the cherry on the cake - an England international has not yet decided whether he's going to extend his stay with our relegation threatened team beyond the summer of 2011 but for less money...
Yep, there is the major content of the West Ham-related posts and articles on blogs and sites.
I guess one should be happy that we don’t have to post about Sullivan having another tantrum or another player getting injured in training, but still.
I do find one topic of some real footballing interest and that is the Dixon for Ireland U-21s stuff. Good for him!

All this in a week coming up to a game that may decide our PL fate.
The Hull game is of greater than great importance. In the next four games we’ll face all the top three teams away, mixed with another season deciding bout with Bolton at the Boleyn. So if we can’t win the game tomorrow we’ll have 3 or 4 out of 15 points available before the Wolves game March 23:rd. And Bolton will certainly be fired up, as that game is as important to them as it is to us.
So even if I do hope and believe that we can get the additional odd point against the top teams, tomorrow’s game may well play a big part in deciding in what league we will be playing next year.
Curbs? Still want to go on about Curbs?

At last a win

2010-02-13T12:53:00.004+01:00

What a difference a win makes. West Ham have struggled to get them and they´ve been few and far between. Now we need to get them on a more regular basis starting with the game vs. Hull next Saturday.

For you who regularly visits this blog you allready know that in January I tried to predict the rest of the season results to see what chances we had to survive in the Premier League. I tried to look at the games rather objective and see which ones we realistically could get the wins and which ones were we shouldn´t expect the results (but ofcourse hope for them and see them as bonus points). So far the team hasn´t lived up to the expactations since we´ve dropped points vs Portsmouth and Burnley to only mention some of them. The win vs. Birmingham was 2 bonus points since the prediction was a draw (based on Birminghams great season so far).

Here´s the prediction. Feel free to make your own. Will we survive? Am I to negative or to positive?

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p, 3p, 2p, -4p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -4p, 21p
Total 09/10: 43p, -4p, 39p

10 wonderful minutes of highlights

2010-02-11T13:17:00.004+01:00

If you - unfortunately like me - was unable to see the game last night this 10 min clip will cheer you up.
I guess that goes for those of you that watched it too.

West Ham United v Birmingham City
by distromatch

Zola safe as Sully can't afford to sack

2010-02-11T10:26:00.002+01:00

So Sullivan says Zola is 100% safe?
Of course he is, anything else is unthinkable. Sullivan is desperate to cut costs and sacking a manager is expensive.

Zola confirmed the other day that that he is on £1.6m a year (and that he is not here for the money, which I do not doubt!). As Clarke is also in the package an additional cost of £1m is attached to the Zola management. £2.6m a year – £50k a week until 2013. With that kind of money involved, can you see G&S spending what it would take to buy out Z&C?

No, but B&G does not seem to be interested in backing Zola for the rest of the contract either which leaves but one possibility - putting Zola in a situation he can’t stand. No money to keep pivotal players, no money to strengthen the squad and no influence over the replacements that comes in should probably do it.

In a way G&S and Z&C share a basic insight. For Zola’s game plan to work he needs players that are technically well equipped at a level that allows them to use their technique in a PL setting. But as that kind of players are highly regarded and sought after they are expensive, whether they come from our academy or not.
And herein lies maybe their common understanding - Zola may not be the manager to handle a squad supplied by G&S.

Will Zola leave by free will then?
Yes he will, I think, but certainly not until the summer.

Please, shut your mouth!

2010-02-09T12:30:00.007+01:00

As we've said before it would be best for all parts if Sullivan kept his mouth shut for a while. Till the season is over os so. Can't understand why he has to babble in public.

The latest is that the new owner have told the whole world that we are facing Armagedeon if (we drop to CC) and if the players don't take a big cut in wages.

For God's sake: This the day before we are to meet his old club in a (another) really, really important battle. So this verbal attack to his own players is his answer to that??

Demoralising and stupid I would say.... Whining around in public is not the way to act as the Boss taking care of his employees in any case. And certainly not in a football club, with all their fans. As fans we always want to know, we want to have the facts in a more transparent way, but not this! It seems that any paper just have to call Mr Sullivan and out comes the blunders....

I do not even think he can negotiate on-going-contracts. But in any case how wouldn't you react as a senior player? And Zola? After month's of difficulties outside the pitch, I thought that the time now was for the players and manager where they could concentrate on things on the pitch. But no, thanks to Sullivan.

If talk at all: Why doesn't he talk about the possibilities, the great future, the good atmosphere, the young players coming through, how overwhelmed he has been being here, the shirt who we all fight for? Togetherness?

I think Mr Sullivan ought to invest more instead: In a new PR manager.

And a zip for his mouth....

Are the Davids losing the plot already?

Edit: Maybe Mr Sullivan now has understood that he has said to much as he in SSN today (Wed.) actually proclaimed:

"The books are horrendous. There's 100-odd million of debt. This might be the last interview I do this season. We've made the public aware of the situation. We're not going to go over and over it again. It's an enormous challenge. We think we're up for it. It's something that we have to put all our energy into."

Happy if so. And if we can get some points now!

Three points dropped

2010-02-08T10:48:00.004+01:00

I´m starting to get fed up with writing about lost points but once again I´ve got to do it. This time we´re loosing away against a team that hasn´t one in 12 games before this one. If we can´t win this one, how can we expect to win any away game during the run in? And at a time when we´re not winning the home games either these are really testing times. We´re starting to eating in to the "winnable" games and are loosing more and more points towards the ones we´ll need to stay clear of relegation.

In January I made a prediction trying to look at "winnable" games during the second half of the season. According to my prediction we´d be safe with 43 points but since we´ve dropped six points until now my predictions see us on 37 points which probably are going to be a really close call in the relegation battle. Now we really need to get some bonus points here and there to climb up the table.

This is the prediction. And you tell me where we´re going to find the bonus points?

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 6p, 3p, -3p, -3p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p, 0p, -3p, -6p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wolverhampton: 3p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 7p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -6p, 19p
Total 09/10: 43p, -6p, 37p

Bad coaching - hard times ahead!

2010-02-07T11:11:00.008+01:00

I'm the hardest Zola fan in history. Like a retarded believer from a small Free church I still think Zola and Clarke will be a good solution for West Ham. But lately a small irritation has set in in my belief, and yesterday - against Burnley - I would say that even if Upson has a role to play here - it was Zola's fault that we did not stand up to fight the way we should be in an important game like this. Few but Cole fought the way they should do in a "war" like this. They were not prepared enough!

And even if we went 442 Cole was once more isolated up front, even if McCarthy was with him. There was an ocean between our two attackers and the midfield, who brimed with caution and fear. Yesterday's game showed that few of our players thought that offensive was the best defence. They waited for Burnley to play their game and they certainly did. I think it's the manager who has to take the blame when the team do not show that they are ready for the fight. When there was a gulf between the midfield and the strikers. When we had an unbalanced midfield (once more) and no width at all (until Stanislas came on).

We can not wait to play until we've conceded a couple of goals. We can not let the opponents decide how the game should develop.

In the end, if you see how the play shaped up, we were not worse than Burnley, and we should at least have had one point with us. But that is not enough, as we now have a huge fight to stay up. We should want to win this game, and it should be seen on the pitch from minute one. The result will, I guess, give us the hard task to win some points from the top four as well. As we need it. Funilly we seem better to do that than take them from lower opponents.

So nothing good yesterday? Well, yes there was. Cole was terrific and the newcomers Mido and Ilan impressed and looked like they will be important contributors to our team. McCarthy and the other two had great chances to score. one of them did while McCarthy went out with an injury. I guess he will be ready for the game on Wednesday though.

Green 6 - You can ask if Green was misplaced at the free-kick which gave Burnley a 2-0-lead but it was a perfect kick. I do not consider it Green's fault and beyond that Q there was no mistakes.

Faubert 5,5 - As opposed to other's he started fighting well and during the game he gave us some relly nice crosses but blinders as well. Fought hard defensivly, lost some won some. Needs to ber more consistent.

Tomkins 6,5 - Another solid game. One dangerous mistake, but covered well and took responsibility look like the senior in the middle of defense nowaydays.

Upson 4,5 - Seemed extremely naive (and foolish) when he lost the ball to Nugent to score. From there there was a high mountain to climb, not only our captain himself but for the whole team. Must do better.

Spector 5,5 - The first half was dreadful and he and Collison gave Burnley a motorway to work on at their flank. In the second half he did much better, helped out and raced a bit forward (Guess he was told to). I still see the American as a good player to have on the bench, hardly anywhere in the starting lineup. Ilunga time on Wednesday?

Noble 5 - Fights for the team and tries to be involved. Tries to find solutions, but: Slow! (have we written it before?). Some bad shots.

Behrami 4,5 - Invisible.

Scott Parker 6 - A unusual uninspiring first half. Stood up much better in the second and was more of his usual self. Which did not help this time.

Collison 5 - Really weak defensively, some good efforts going forward. But he does not give us the width that Stanislas do when he came on. Sorry to say: I would sacrifice him in the silent shape he is right now.

Cole 7 - Our best performer of the day. Still never close to a goal. Too isolated once more so there were few opportunities for him, but - as he had to step down and collect the ball - he did what he could and wanted further down in the field.

McCarthy 6 - They can't do it all from the start. But could - like Cole - hardly impress when he so seldom got the ball. I guess he couldn't believe that his great effort was blocked on the line by Cort. Taken off at halftime, with a slight (?) injury.

Subs:

Mido 7 - This guy did what we hoped for in advance: wanted to show what he can do. And even to selfish (not so strange during the circumstanses) sometimes in his fist game he really made an impression. Was very close to give us a point with a post-shot. When he finds out how this team work he can do a lot more.

Stanislas 6,5 - A moment of fresh air when he came on. The width is there, the speed is there. Should have been given much more time.

Ilan 6,5 - Came on late and scored on his debut. Great. I liked his moves into the box where he was all the time... and with better passes he could have scored even more. Impressed during these few minutes. I would like to see him start soon.

While we were lucky last round, as the other bottom teams lost, there was not the fortune this time. Hull beat Man City for instance. We got to show a strong carachter during the fortcoming games. Birmingham next!

Sullivan - defender of sanity?

2010-02-06T11:55:00.001+01:00

Sullivan has been very active ever since the takeover and have, as I see it, so far done a tremendous job presenting the fans with a palatable mix of good and bad news, playing on the fans feelings for the Club in a way that was not possible for the Icelanders or Duckers.
As has been commented on everywhere, Gold&Sullivan has not missed an opportunity to say how bad the Club has was run and how irresponsible money was spent. This does not end with the usual Eggy extravaganza charges, that everyone has been pointing finger at for at least a year and a half. We also get to hear about the huge “wine and dine” account of a board member as well as the rather peculiar example of club telephones. The target group he is aiming at with these statements is clear, he presents all these figures in a “down to earth, common sense, kit shirt” kind of a way, choosing examples we can relate to, giving the fans exactly what we need to get upset with big spending.
Sullivan knows that a crusade on greed and overspending is likely to find support among football fans, many of whom already suffer the consequences of the financial meltdown.
When listening to the BBC interview HERE there are not many things that one can object to, on the contrary, most of it makes perfect sense.

So it’s not really what Sullivan says that I have a problem with. What I do object to is why he says it and the timing of it - his agenda.

After creating this “everything was outrageous” context he gets to talk about getting rid of players we have previously been regarding as instrumental to success, without being immediately branded as a traitor.
So Sullivan finds the support for cuts by presenting them to the fans as threats to our survival, and in a way that’s perfectly fine. During Duckers the fans were lost in the dark and jumped at every little detail made public. What I thoroughly dislike, however, is when he starts a discussion on individual player contracts in public. I’m sure that he would find it quite OK with contracts and transfer figures being “undisclosed” when it serves his purposes so it’s not a new open policy we are witnessing. He feels he needs support for the thought of selling key players in the summer, and also wants to be able to use this acceptance in player contract talks. So he brands some of our most important players as greedy (hardly a way to build team spirit btw) but what gets really revolting is when he goes after players unfortunate to be hurt while playing or training. Signing Dyer was always going to be a gamble and offering him a contract not based on appearances was obviously stupid. But that is not Dyers doing and trying to turn us fans against individual players to put pressure on them in economic matters is just not OK.

Now I feel the need to point out that I am not against G&S as owners, I am certainly not against lowering the wage bill, as most readers of my previous posts can testify. On the contrary, I am really upset about how some teams are being run with the aid of “financial doping” as the “All Party Parliamentary Football Group” called it already a couple of years ago.

All I am saying is that we as fans of West Ham united are an instrument and we are played by a virtuoso.

We need to listen carefully, not only for each note but for what song it turns out to be so we can be upset when we find a good reason to, and not only when Sullivan wants us to be.

Two points dropped at home

2010-02-04T13:08:00.006+01:00

In an attempt to look at our survival hopes I tried to make some "until end of season prediction" early in January. To read that post click here. I tried to make the prediction as realistic as possible which means that I have us down to wins at home vs teams on the second half of the table and losses vs teams on the first half of the table away. We´ve dropped some points that should´ve been in the bag but if we manage to follow the prediction I think it´ll be enough for staying clear of the relegation zone.

Things have changed since I made the predictions in January but I won´t change anything. At least our chances to make it now should be slightly better. Unfortunately we lost some points the last two games and I believe it was down to failing to have our strikers fit (and no new strikers) and raring to go. Don´t get me wrong, Nouble did as well as anyone could expect from a 18 year old youngster but we shouldn´t have been in a situation where we have to depend on him during these circumstances. I do think he´s a great prospect and I´m sure his time will come. Sooner rather than later!

We lost another two points during the weekend. Blackburn at home is a game where we should expect to get all of them. The last few years this has been a team we usually beat and knowing their "not to good" away form this was a three pointer. I wasn´t able to watch the game but according to what I´ve read about it we weren´t particularly close to the three points. A weak game from our boys. That won´t do during the coming months.

Thouhg one should have in mind that Blackburn these days are managed by one of our real bogey managers. If I´m not mistaken he´s played us 15 times since becoming manager and only lost three times. One of those were a FA-cup replay which ended up in extra time during our run in to the final vs Liverpool. The goal difference in these games adds up to 10 - 19. His teams really plays a way that doesn´t suit West Ham even though it´s become a bit better since joined Blackburn were he hasn´t managed a win yet. Three straight draws is what he´s managed.

Now, could we afford this drop of points? Well, we´ll still manage but the line we´re walking is getting thinner and thinner. We couldn´t afford to drop many more now...

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
WHU - Wolves: 3p (postponed)
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p, 1p, -2p, -3p
Total January: 9p (6p), 3p, -3p, -3p (one game postponed)

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 4p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -3p, 22p
Total 09/10: 43p, -3p, 40p

Video proof that Ilan can score

2010-02-01T22:04:00.006+01:00

I know next to nothing about our new Brazilian so I did some "youtubing" and sticked my favourits on here if you don't care to go looking yourself.

Many goals but disgraceful soundtrack:

Cream of the crop:

A more realistic view when in claret and blue.
At the right place in the box:

Brilliant transfer window!

2010-02-01T19:10:00.003+01:00

This transfer window was all I hoped for (I know stuff can still be anounced, but I nurture a hope for yet another signing rather than fear an important loss..).

Can you believe - with all the talk about firesale and all - that no one seem to be leaving but Quashie!
Not Parker, not Green, not Cole, not Behrami but Quashie!
How about that, quality stays and surplus leaves! This is the first time in 3 windows we actually can say that the squad looks better after the window closes than when it opened.

I had a bit of a dejavue the other day when Zola said that Coles return was "like a massive new signing for us". It had my adrenaline pumping, thinking the McCarthy transfer fell through. Those are the kind of statements we have had "up to here" after the Icelandic banking crash, so I think I'm forgiven for that kneejerk reaction.

We wanted strikers for cover and for Cole to play with. Signing great strikers in January is next to impossible and if you succeed you have more than likely been paying through the nose. We get 2, or even 3 strikers of some quality in (read my doubts about Mido here) out of whom at least one have the potential to be a first team regular. Still the moaners go on about Benni getting too long a contract!
True, we would have been better of if we could have signed a competent right back but this is happy days as far as I am concerned and signals the beginning of the end of our times in the deepest part of the mire.

If we can just get these footballers to perform as a team…

Midon't like it at all!

2010-02-01T13:41:00.004+01:00

Beggars can’t be choosers but there are certainly players that we are better off without even if they don’t represent an economic gamble.
If we are to forge a team together, which I see as the most important factor for avoiding the drop, filling the team with players past their best ”desperate to show their worth” is hardly the way.
To have Midoid players, regardless of wage demands, running around frustrated for a chance, is not the kind of thing that usually is good for a team.
What Mido has shown, beyond reasonable doubt, is that even though he has been handed several chances he has not been able to show his worth at the highest level for a long time.

If we are to recruit a player, not automatically being one for the starting XI, make sure he is capable of handling that situation. What we can't affort is a Zola having to spend his energy on solving ego-related squad-problems.

OK Prince H, I couldnt wait with my comment on the Mido rumour :)

But I do like the fact that McCarthy is finally officially ours

A 100 strikers?

2010-02-01T12:44:00.008+01:00

Ilan and McCarthy (NOW CONFIRMED!) seems to be the two strikers that are bound for Upton Park, still there is a couple of hours left of this transfer window and still there are plenty of rumours regarding West Ham. Why shouldn't it be? According to reports we are after Keane, Mido (CONFIRMED) , McDonald, Maoulida and the Italian striker Cacia. Maybe even more.... How many strikers do we need alongside Cole???

Less talk's regarding the right back many asked for. Tottenham's Alan Hutton seems to be going to Sunderland and I guess noone will hurt Julien Faubert in his hard times (his mother passed away a few days ago, still he opted to play the game against Blackburn) so I guess we will tay what we have in that position. I can see Spence as a backup. (according to Daily mail we've made a late loanmove for Onuoha)

Then we have not of course mentioned the winger Bentley. But I guess there will be no business with Tottenham at all. And I do not mind.

But if we will not be the first to give you the news, we will sure give our comments as soon as we know what G&S:s money have brought us this time..... A few hours left.

0-0 against Blackburn. A sleepy wake-up-call?

2010-01-30T18:14:00.008+01:00

Wasn't this the game that was supposed to be the "new start"?

It certainly did not look so at all and therefore I'm very disappointed. Like a wake-up-call, but contrary as we did not show up. More yawns than shots today....

So; Where was the fight and the heart? Well, we could see it in Carlton Cole's face when he came on, but that was far too late.

The first half was the most scrappy from a West Ham side since we lost to Tottenham as we played without teamspirit and team effort. The midfielders who should captain the ship couldn''t find each other and even less find our youngster Nouble, all too alone at the top.

We acted a bit cowardly at home at Upton Park. Where was the push??? And why did we lack it? The last fifteen minutes of the game was the first time we looked to score, but so did Blackburn. Even more.

Two scrappy sides but we were the scrappier. And maybe happier then, as Blackburn was better (but far from good) during the 90 minutes. At least they had a couple of good efforts from corners and free-kicks. But we did also keep the sheet cleen...

Green 6 - Did not look happy after the game although he had another Zero and a couple of good saves. I can understand him. But Blackburn were too poor for him to be able to show his best, even if the save from Olsson was great. We know, Samba was there, but Green hardly ruled his box the way we are hoping for.

Faubert 4,5 - Had hard times as RB today. Ran, but mostly of no use. Some stupid challenges gave Blackburn free kicks in dangerous positions. Took also a very stupid shot. He may be nervous to lose his place in the first team as the transfer window is open still. And after a performance like this he should do it. Hardly from any other in our team right now though...

Edit: On Sunday morning I read that Faubert came back to this game to play just hours after he went to France where his mother just passed away. I am very sorry to hear this and of course it may have affected him during the game as well. If it was an act of heroism I do not know, I think that absense in cases like this of course is forgiven. And I guess most of us feel that way. But if you want to play like Collison and now Faubert is certainly strong. Respect!

Tomkins 6 - A good game until Roberts with an easy flick showed that Tomkins still is a newcomer. One of those that has the big heart.

Upson 6,5 - Covered well. But: As a captain he needs to push the team more when he sees that nothing happens.

Spector 5,5 - Decent but thin.'

Diamanti 5 - We need his passing ability. But as long as his passes and shots from distance are not of the same quality as when the dead ball situations we can hardly use his energy. Do want much, but did not show enough today.

Behrami 6 - Well, this guy showed heart and ran like a rabbit on speed. But creativity lacks sometimes. As today.

Kovac 6 - I thought he played well today too as the ancor from midfield. Subbed.

Noble 5,5 - As good as he was against Pompey as bad he was today. No, not really, but he was disappointing with nearly all of his passes was bounded for an opponent. Lacked quality but showed heart.

Collison 5 - For long periods I forgot he was on the field. But I can understand that Zola kept him on as we have to keep somone to lead the way from midfield.

Nouble 5 - His most silent game so far, but you can not blame him as he was far too alone up there (despite good runs and growing confidence), and had no help when he took control of the ball and tried to control it like Cole. Was happy that Zola kept him on the field when he put on Carlton, as I wanted to see him together with Cole. But the partnership never showed as they played too far from each other in those 18 minutes thay had together. It will be better times for him.

Subs:

Carlton Cole 7 - Got 30 minutes today and as soon as he put his shoes on the field he made difference for the team. Not as a scorer, but he lifted us and our guests backs all of a sudden looked like Mickey Mouses when he gets afraid in the cartoons.

Scott Parker 5,5 - Good to see him back but apart from a lovely run and a ball into the box, that noone picked up, he was not able to make any difference in those 20'.

Freddie Sears 5 - Nice to see him on the field too. Guess Zola want to lift him by doin so, and he actually affected the game a bit playing closer to Cole and related on speed.

So just because we have a new regime, we will not start to play world class football by automatic. After G&S took over most fans started to think that we may end up somewhere in the middle of the table. But looking at this game, we will have to fight in the bottom still. I hope the guys show up against Burnley. Cause we can play so much better. As a team!

Best player today? It's hard to pick anyone. But this morning my 9 year old son Aron did four of his teams five goals. I guess it must be him.

At least (and last) the other teams around us failed to win as well.... and our bench today looked pretty impressive, did it not, with Ilunga, Parker and Cole all to pick.

On an Eidur hunt?

2010-01-29T21:53:00.005+01:00

Just when we thought things had calmed down we found these guys searching for Eidur at the hotel.

Or are they just looking for the party with John Terry?

Or may I be wrong, can it be a still from the new film "Get him to the Greek" by Judd Apatow that once more sets off the marvelous actor within Russel Brand?

Photo: Glen Wilson/Universal.

A glimse of the dark side

2010-01-29T21:28:00.003+01:00

It's always interesting to se what the selling side says about a player that is on his way.
I was looking for the Blackburn take on Bennis work ethics and found THIS post on the Blackburn area of Vital Football. I think the comments are at least as interesting and will probably show us what a West Ham forum discussion will look like in some time IF Benni gets the light of day at West Ham.

This isn't lazy journalism, it can't be, I'm no journalist!

Btw, take a look at the tottenham blogs and forums and see that they are as bewildered as we are over the Eidur soap.

Work permit issue - brilliant!

2010-01-29T15:06:00.007+01:00

"It's close to him finally becoming a West Ham player. It's a work permit situation - that's the only hiccup and that should be resolved by Sunday."

Sunday, how about that for a fortunate timing!

Sam Allardyce has a unique insight in the workload of the UK Border Agency, especially the Benni application, I’m pleased to hear.

Where does he get it all?

Anything goes?

2010-01-28T07:46:00.014+01:00

There are aspects of business and sports that I will always have a hard time stomaching. Basically it boils down to - anything you can get away with you get away with.

The Eidur hijack doesn't brake any laws or written rules but right now I feel it's worse than a few things that does.

Harry and Eidur may talk all week about how no deal was done and that no formal agreement is broken, or whatever, but we all know this is as lame as when Maradona talked about the "Hand of God" or Henri said he may have touched the ball but "wasn't aware of doing it".
Unfortunately neither Harry nor Eidur will lose any sleep over it.
Harry has made a career of screwing people, but I was hoping that there were values not counted in £ that still applied in Eidurs life - don't ask me why I was so naive.

I wish I could say something inspiring to lift the hopes of myself, and maybe some reader, but at the moment my limbic system has taken control over major parts of my brain much like the Talebans of Afganistan.
It hopes that Harry will wake up one day to find that his eyelids finally goes all in and refuses to open their regular 3/52 of an inch. The final "good luck" greeting on a theatre also spring to my medievally inspired areas, whereas the conspiratorily inclined part of my brain tries to find Eggy involved in some way, but surely no?
I wish we had a cup game with them coming up!

OK, so he was offered a longer contract at White Hart Lane, one that made more footballing sense to him, not forcing him to find a new (last?) club in the summer. And we did put him on hold while we chased a famous Hamburg striker, but how on earth can that matter today?
I'm hurt! (but at least I'm not a ManC supporter)

One time too much Eidur

2010-01-27T17:42:00.002+01:00

I know that Icelanders are very angry at the Capitalits - two of the most important was BG and his son – who fooled the whole population in Iceland into it's mess and the way many went bankrupt. But has not Eidur Gudjohnsen (maybe angry at BG still?) fooled us one time too much as well? We've tried to buy him like twelve times now. Many times have been quite close. It's seemed.

This time (if reports are correct, who knows?) he has done a medical and came to Upton Park to do buisiness. Everyone thought this was sorted. Then Harry (who else) called in the dying minutes/late night, and all of a sudden Eidur seems to have changed his mind. Again.

I do not expect footballers of today to wear a badge with pride and back that special team of theirs. That was old times. They play were they see the best opportunities for themselves. At least many of them. Therefore it may not be so important, how this affair ends. It may be more of importance that Eidur - by just negotiating with Harry after his medical here - not seems to be a man of his words, not a man to trust and who is just there for the money. I am not so certain he would do our team any good. At all. He hardly seems to be the saviour with a big heart. (and he is no goalscorer! by the way) Can he prove me wrong??

Another thing is; he would probably be a bench warmer at The lane. But that's another story....

Do I look embittered? Nah, I just wait for a more bold move from g&s!

Begovic denied Hammers heroes to bag goals

2010-01-27T13:27:00.004+01:00

Not seeing Parker on the teamsheet gave med creeps. With Utaka and Boateng out there to do business we really need Scott. But just as Parker usually (or at least leately) has played his best game not having Noble besides him, it seems that Mark also makes most of his game... without Parker. Stupid in a way... But Noble had his best game this season against Portsmouth.

Kovac did also impress me tonight. He showed, in his defensive role that he has found his feet and that he can play a clever game, picking up every loose ball that exists and covered the ground very well. Still not able to (as Joppe says in his former post) give us those crucial passes forward. Behrami showed that his marvelous energy is back and looked like a marine soldier stoppin for nu'tin, but he also missed some good opportunities when he was less friendly with the ball. So while I was very pleased in a way to see our central midfield working so well and hard, there is (as Joppe says and I thought of during the whole game) something missing attac-wise. And when Parker is back we have this unbalanced midfield again. Who to sacrifice? And who to build our offensive play on?

Portsmouth at home is no easy nut to crack. In the end 1-1 was pretty fair, as we never seem to be able to close a game. As we always seem to loose steam with fifteen minutes left.

Amir Begovic was once again the man of the match in Portsmouth, saving at least three "unstoppable" tries from the guests. (If we stay up, Ports go down and Green really would leave I would not hesitate to call this guy). Kevin Prince Boateng in midfield did also have one of his more impressive games.

We may have been a bit lucky with our goal even if we certainly deserved it. Upson/Kaboul fighting in the box and the latter put it in his own net. OR was it the chest of Upson?

But the home team was even luckier with their. Referee Marriner (again) stod just a few feet from Boateng and Tomkins when the german hit Tomkins with an ugly elbow in his face. But he let the play go on and all of a sudden Webber could score as Tomkins was missing in the defense, laying on the ground with a concussion. Awful, even if the home team finally (after 90 min) deserved it.

At least we did not drop more points than the others in the bottom of the table last night.

Green 6 - A very good save when Mokoena took advantage of a bad clearence from Behrami and shot hard, close to the post. Otherwise he did not have to do much. The goal slipped through his legs.

Faubert 6 - Looked once more a bit nervous in defence, but worked well goin forward and had some good crosses and a decent goal attempt.

Tomkins 7,5 - Our new Upson? Once again our best man in defence. Took big responsibility. Was down (a obvious foul from Boateng) when the home team finally scored and had to be substituted.

Upson 6,5 - "Scored" which was nice but I do not expect our captain and anchor to do some of the easy mistakes he did. May have been a bit nervous when his old friends from Birmingham (G&S) was there to watch their new team.

Spector 6 - Decent.

Diamanti 4,5 - No at last you get tired of someone who shoot - and pretty awful two - every time he sniff the ball. I mean, I want our team to shoot much more than they do and he has that quality to scare defences. But he also make them laugh...

Works hard, still I do wonder: Will he ever be the teamplayer that we need? We build an attack from behind, his comarades comes running and he destroys it with a too big ego. Back to a conference with Zola?

Noble 7,5 - As said before; the best game of the season for our "senior youngster". Moved well, built up most of our play, helped the defence at least hundred times with good breaks.

Kovac 7,5 - Liked what a saw. Very much involved and ran like Parker usually do. Found some space for his own play and at the same covered a lot of space. Like the rest of the team he was awfully tired last 15. Still: His best game for us?

Behrami 7 - Noone takes so much beating in a game a Behrami, noone runs like him, and noone shows so much no-nonsence attitude. And I liked what I saw today. Even if there still is a bit too much carelessness in his play sometimes.

Collison 6 - Had a wonderfull attac (with a nice flick from Nouble) where he beat two-three defenders and went very close from scoring in the same breath. Begovic made a surreal save.

Still must attac more, too often he plays the safe game. I want him to challenge more! Not so good in defence today.

Nouble 7 - His second start. Another impressing game, another game when he failed to score free with Begovic two times (good saves though), another game when he was left alone too often (the midfield has to help him much more), another game when he showed that this young guy will be a great player rather sooner than later. Remember he is just 18!

Subs:

Cole - O boy, did he look like a race horse before the race. He really wanted to play. And impress. He looked lively but only had 17 minutes. During a period West Ham mainly had to defend. Subbed with Nouble, but I had prefered Diamanti as I want to see Nouble and Cole together.

DaCosta - OK. New haircut.

Stanislas - Came on very late.

Blackburn next. With McCarthy in our team??

And another point in the bag

2010-01-27T10:09:00.009+01:00

Since the last game we´ve changed owners. There seems to be some stability starting to surround the club. Still no new players in to the team but at least noone has left and there seems to be a couple of players on their way to Upton Park between now and January 31st. To read the first post on this topic look here.

One point vs Portsmouth yesterday was disappointing. We really needed 3 points vs. one of our relegation rivals. It was really close but close, ofcourse, isn´t enough.

How does this leave us in regard to the relegation battle? Well, we lost two points (but at least Portsmouth didn´t close in on the gap between the two teams). In the last game however we gained a point vs. Villa. That leaves us with two points from two games and only one point less then "expected". If the team produce results according to the predictions below we´d probably still make it in the end with 42 points.

To explain the predictions below this is what I think we'll need to fork out from each individual game in order to survive. I´ve tried to not be to optimistic cause I don´t want to be dependent on points away vs. the top 8 or so. That means a lot of the points will have to be gathered in the next month. Will we manage?

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
WHU - Wolves: 3p (postponed)
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p, 1p, -2p, -1p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p
Total January: 9p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 4p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, -1p, 24p
Total 09/10: 43p, -1p, 42p

A third Bentley not enough!

2010-01-27T08:46:00.011+01:00

While we wait for Prince H’s game and player ratings I can’t help doing some reflecting myself.

What I miss the most in our performance last night is strangely not someone that would convert the chances, maybe because I hope that Cole, Benni or even Eidur or Nouble will. Of course it would have been nice to see Nouble bag a few but he is one for the future, and does ever so well in a PL setting.

I miss someone in central midfield that can release the attacking potential shown by Collison, Stanislas and others with attacking duties. A midfield dynamo.
I guess one could call the midfielders we have on against Portsmouth “role players” if you want to be nice, but I think they are really just a bit short on tricks.
Diamanti adds a kind of threat we have been lacking for a while. The way he strikes the ball is great, but his belief in his abilities to score from a distance is even greater. I generally don’t sympathize with players stretching their hands out in despair after not getting the pass they wanted, but Diamanti should be fined (joke!) for not to feeding Collison in a few situations yesterday. As you may understand, I don’t see Diamanti being the one to depend on for running our midfield.
Collison needs someone to depend on, in my eyes. His work rate and attacking skills are beyond doubt and the fact that one of our midfielders gets into those positions are encouraging. He delivers a mean pass from time to time but is not the central hub we need.
Noble is an enigma. I leave it at that, good game but not to be dependent on. May still need a father figure?
Behrami is impressive with his work rate, and wins the ball in positions were our opponents certainly don’t want to lose it. I’d field him any day but he won’t solve our main midfield problem.
Kover Kovac will never be a playmaker, and that could be acceptable but his passing game is below par even for a sweeper. He may be used against a team when we know we are going to defend most of the time, but against Portsmouth – NO!
That should take us to Parker, he leads by example but I find his example is more of a “OK, if no one else does it I’ll do it myself”. The solo raids of his are impressive but I find them more of a sign that there is a problem in how we build the game rather than a solution to these problems.

We won’t be able to find anyone who solves this problem during any January transfer window (not even if we get a third Bentley at Upton Park on game days) so I won’t even pretend there is such a possibility. When we have our preferred target player back it won't matter as much, we will avoid the drop anyway. However, without one Zola risk looking like a manager that lacks the ability to make the team play according to his game plan.

A Pompey game without pomp?

2010-01-26T17:00:00.002+01:00

It won't be long until the game against Pompey. I just want to raise a warning. Most of us seem to think that this is an easy game. Pompey is in a mess and may have to sell every player they do have. And they still got so few – with players still at the African Cup – that their bench places today may be empty.

We have just recieved Gold. And Sullivan. It's a big relief. It's such an big relief that - after a few weeks, month's or decades in this situation – we may sigh deeply of relief and say "it's alright now". So while Pompeys players, like Utaka and others - are hungry and starved we may be in a bit of laid back mood. Happy-go-lucky!

We did not recieve any striker before the game, as G&S said, but that is no wonder. Pick up good strikers in two days is nearly impossible. So please stay with Nouble. He can impress again. And please do not let Cole play to early. To see him limp off would be my disaster, even worse than a loss today.

This will be a totally different game from the 2-0 at home. And it won't be any easier.

At least that's what I think. I go for a draw.

Davids! Buy Zola a pint!

2010-01-25T17:51:00.007+01:00

Do I sense a slight distance between our manager and the new owners?

G&S were quick to give our manager support following the initial rumours that they were bringing Hughes in. They were also making it very clear that they were to give Zola funds to strengthen his squad. But after that it has been fairly quiet and I for one have been waiting for Zola's comment on the takeover.
Today we can read the Club-adapted version of his thoughts on this. "

It’s positive for the Club as we will have the stability we have been talking about for such a long time. I take it as a positive thing for everybody. We will see what happens but it’s looking good”

Picture yourself at a wedding when the father of the bride talks about his new son in law in those kind of words - I take it as a positive thing for everybody. We will see what happens but it's looking good...
Hardly a total vote of confidence, but in Zola's case also hardly surprising.

Zola used to emphasize, right from the first day he was with us, the partnership he, Nani and Duckers had struck. Countless of times he stressed that stuff were decided in unity, even though their cooperation seem to have haltered a bit lately. Duckers was the man that brought Zola here and sold the idea of the "Football Project" to him to begin with, so it's no big wonder that he is slightly reserved when the guys who have/will sack his working partner comes in.

Another sentence from the interview with Zola on the OS reads

"The Club are looking for some reinforcement but we didn't speak about a
budget. They are trying to strengthen the team and that is enough for me"

The club... They are... It's pretty obvious that Zola is not, or at least doesn't feel, as involved as he used to. He used to say "We are looking..."

As I said this is probably no biggie, I just couldn't help myself as it was so obvious. I do hope however, that they keep Zola involved enough so he feel a part of it, keep his enthusiasm (as I'm sure it's a huge part of his leadership) and so he won't se the newcomers as forced upon him.

Hey Davids, take him out for a pint! Let's see some "male bonding" here ;-)

Benni ready to take on Pompey!

2010-01-24T18:19:00.009+01:00

According to Timesonline McCarthy has agreed personal terms with West Ham.

As I said in THIS post Benni suits me fine. Benedict is 32 and I'm hoping he can still score. He has bagged 4 in 10 games for Rovers this season but out of those one was against Forest one in a decided game against Peterborough and one was a penalty against Chelsea when Blackburn sent them out of the league cup ...

£2.5m is supposed to be the fee and his contact runs until the summer of 2012. I can only reiterate the importance of keeping the personal terms on a modest level for the players that are to stay for a while. Timesonline also takes the steam out of the work permit problem talk by pointing out that his wife is Spanish.

This is according to the slightly longer scale "squad deepening" plan. It will not improve our starting XI when all in the squad are fit, but will not leave us naked when players are out.
It also offers us the luxury of not having to be desperate in this and the next window. With one additional striker our hand is improved in the negotiation-poker game with the other striker (Eidur?). Now the negotiators (and we) can be a bit more relaxed and go find a decent right back.

EDIT: According to several reports Benni is not training with Blackburn as of 2 days and a written bid has been handed in...

Eidur? Fine!

2010-01-24T09:46:00.009+01:00

The Eidur rumour is back again!
I usually try to avoid commenting on them as I have always thought they were too far off the mark. Just a few weeks ago I hoped it wasn't true but I and the time left in the transfer window have changed since.

West Ham and Eidur are in the same kind of situation. Neither is doing particularly well in their respective surroundings and both are a bit desperate so this time there is a true rings to it for the first time. So I dont think he want to do the same misstake as he did with Monaco by going to Liverpool to warm their bench.
Eidur is something of a joke in West Ham circles. That is not really his own doing, he has been a great footballer, it's mostly down to the previous ridiculous rumours.
He is is a fair bit past his best but may still be just the player we need to stabilize the team and help us from being dependent on academy talent for the rest of this campain.
Not one for the future but our table position is a very much a problem of the present.

Can you see I'm working on the positive side of my personality?
Just don't tell me his contract details please.

Karren Brandy? - just a name change suggestion

2010-01-23T19:52:00.006+01:00

I have a wonderful nine year old daghter. One of her more ambigous qualities is that she is “refreshingly direct”, so to speak, and acts long before she consideres the consequenses. This, as most parents can testify, can be a bit trying. She tried to rename her younger brother once but luckily there were a few loving people present that could help her understand the problem with that. To her defense I must add that she was seven, his sister, and never went public.

There is nothing refreshingly direct in Bradys name change blunder. It bluntly shows one of her less flattering sides. I’m sure being straightforward and good at disregarding peoples feelings has served her well in her relations with G&S and other men in this game, still I have a hard time liking it.
For a vice chairman to suggest a company-name change the first week at office is rare in any business, and there is a reason. To do that in a world so heavily based on history related emotions as a football club is either downright stupid or endlessly naive. The very reason we are fans is history, recent or ”ancient”! We don’t support the players as such, we support them only if they play for our club. The club is defined by history and if you take that away you have nothing. Change the Ground, Club name, Colours but keep the players and you will be without fans.
Wimbledon anybody?

OK, so she didn’t want to change the whole name, bless her heart, she might even have realized that the West Ham part is important to us. If Bobby Moore rose for the sole purpose to ask us to consider replacing United with Olympic I would consider it before humbly asking him to give it a rest. But this was KFB for god’s sake.

Where are the loving people that can help Karren with this?

Stability but not Europe

2010-01-22T21:07:00.002+01:00

Did you read the Wall Street Journal Europe interview with Sullivan?

It must have taken about 3 minutes to do but in the final sentence he actually says something interesting.

“… if I can bring in a billionaire investor or an Arabian prince to take West
Ham into Europe—I'd be happy to step down."

What he is saying is, what we all were quite certain of but haven't heard from the owners until now, that he does not believe he is able to do that himself.

On the other hand, in another interview he promises that he is not here just to sell on to a Russian oligarch in 5 years.
Crystal clear then - carry on!

100 k a week – how daft is that?

2010-01-22T14:15:00.007+01:00

The initial weeks of ownership are certainly as full of job as getting the Club ever was for G&S. There are several issues that must be addressed quickly.

Making sure that the players and coaches (and fans?) are happy
The primary task must be to give the present team the condition it needs to perform. Minimize the uncertainties, instill confidence and belief in the future. The new owners can do this by supporting the players and managing staff with energy, making them feel wanted, needed even (but not irreplaceable). Making them feel a part of something interesting – not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to be a part of the rise of West Ham. This makes sense for several reasons but foremost, as most industrial leaders know, if you can motivate people without doing it through the wallet the money can be used elsewhere. Don’t sign players the Manager haven’t asked for!

Make sure we have a squad that can avoid the drop
The above paragraph is totally contradictory to the “one player on 100k a week” statement. If you make a major point of bringing down the wage bill and cutting costs, and strike down at Eggy for spending £85,000 a week on a 30 year old Swede, how can one argue that giving £100 k a week to a 33 year old Dutchman on the slope is the right thing to do?

"We can carry one exceptional player, who would make a difference on that wage,
but generally we have to bring the wages down and in the summer we would hope to
sign younger players on a fraction of those wages. We have looked at a few
players in the Championship but the reality is that it is no good if they make
the grade in 12 months time, we need them to make the grade now. We have a
crisis and you have to have a different strategy to what our long-term strategy
will be." Sullivan says.

HEY, STOP IT! This is too much Eggy for me!
Nurture the team as a unit, not the cracks in the squad! There is no doubt in my mind that with a slightly deeper PL- hardened squad there will be no drop.
G&S wants to send a message rather than hire a footballer – “we are determined”! I think we will in reality see one or two fairly low profile signings that deepens the squad in vulnerable positions. McCarthy and a Young-oid defender sounds good to me!

Sort the CEO issue
Who calls the shots with Brady in as vice chairman? We know, but will Duxbury just play dead? Duckers, I’m sure, have a great and intricate contract. He can probably be a menace if he is made an enemy. He knows stuff that can be a burden if leaked and having to deal with that would take the focus and energy away from the real tasks. So he may well be around for a while or even given a nice office and title but little influence. Whatever the solution, it must be clear who does what and this must be handled as soon as possible. Actually it may allready have been sorted.

Welcome home!

2010-01-19T14:55:00.005+01:00

When I heard the press conference with our new owners - the local boys I haven't supported (in the take over), but will now - I actually was a bit moved.

Not mainly because Sullivan & Gold told us what a disastrous position we were in financially (with debts reaching over 102 M - I guess that depends on how you count, the lower numbers we have heard of before may not be totally wrong, just different), still they were able to give some credit to Dux as a man who have saved the club! But foremost because they really gave me the impression that they have a big heart for West Ham. Really.

It may be like in their films, fake orgasms, but being weak and hopeful I do not think so. They said that they would never had entered the race if they had not been great fans, missing out 22 (?) years ago. It will also help us that they know the football industry in and out as well.

They do hope that "Tony" (Fernandes) will step in for buying he other part of the club. It looks promising, but I doubt it. Even if Fernandes is in the same amount a true fan I guess he is more of an contractor or initiator than a financier. So he certainly would want the same amount of power. Would he be given that after this sale? Probably not. Maybe if somethig happens regarding the Olympic Stadium, a place where Sullivan wants us to play in the future.

Brady will come in, but it may be a place for Dux as well. Let's see. At least Zola will now be here at Chadwell heath and as the Davids certainly understood, it would have affected the fans a lot if our Italian was fired. Instead they will give him some money to spend!

A press conference will never be the reality in the end, and I may be too hopeful or naive, but promise; just for today!

Even if I do not like the way they have earned a big part of their money, we do now have two local boys and fans as owners. And they have already promised not to sell any of star players (it may be so Upson leaves anyway). According to them the club has had to sell for 8 millions now and 12 in the Summer if CBH was left the only owner in a week. It would have ment Coca-Cola league I guess. So they have already achieved something important!!

Support Zola&Clarke regime!

2010-01-18T20:27:00.003+01:00

Our "friend" Iain on the blogg West ham ' till I die has started a petition to save Zola and Clarke's jobs.

I do not think that our fothcoming owner (Still hope it won't be G&S, even if it seems so now) will be stupid to sack our manager, but we must do what we can - in any way - to show that Zola has our support.

Of course he has made mistakes, still and byno doubt I think he is our best hope for a good future!

So please sign "Keep Zola petition"!!! You'll find it all HERE.

Another point in the bag

2010-01-18T14:57:00.006+01:00

About a week ago I tried to predict wether or not West Ham would be likely to stay in the Premier League when the season is over (see that post here). My prediction sets sight at 43 points (which would be quite enough) which would mean that we´d afford to drop some, but not to many, compared to the prediction.

The point vs. Villa was one that I didn´t expect which means that we´re one point a head of the schedule so far. The coming six games including the postponed one vs. Wolves are going to be crucial for the survival plan. 16 points out of 18 would almost be to good to be true but if we take a look at the rest of the games those points are going to be the core to our survival. We can´t expect to many points in the other games. At least I don´t want to depend on it.

At the moment we´re one point up on the prediction and on our way to 44 points. Hopefully it´ll remain the same after next game as well. We´ll really need a victory vs. Portsmouth.

(Game: Prediction, Outcome, +/- from the game, +/- overall)

January:
WHU - Wolves: 3p (postponed)
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p, 1p, 1p, 1p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p
Total January: 9p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 4p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

(Prediction, +/- according to prediction, pointing towards x amount of points)

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p, 1p, 26p
Total 09/10: 43p, 1p, 44p

Battle between the claret & blues.

2010-01-17T19:20:00.006+01:00

It may have been a while ago, but at last Robert Green dressed as our hero again, when we snapped another point against Aston Villa.

0-0 was a real team effort and most of the players and the staff did not let the turbulence around the "West ham-sale-auction" goin on, affect them. Great work from Zola! I did not expect anything today to be honest.

It's a bit strange though looking at the players individually as few had special impressive performances. Luckily our CB's were great as our England No 6!

Besides Parker - I could not see much good from our midfielders. Still the five must have done something right. As we got a very important point from a game we did not expect much at all, at least after we understood that all our senior strikers Cole, Franco and Hines were all out.

Frank Nouble (18!) started his first game for us and it could have been easier task to begin with than as an alone front man against a team like Villa. But it was a really impressive effort. Looks like a lad with a great future ahead!

Luckily enough - as well - the Birmingham-team looked a bit uninspired as well (although they have a hard fight to reach the fourth spot, they played this Thursday and may have been a bit exhausted) and were never able to step up and find any speed. That would have killed us. Maybe that was because of our midfielders!

In the end we shall be happy for the point (it also looked like that was what Zola really strived for), still it was not far from 3 points as we had some good opportunities as well.

Robert Green 8 - This man will go to South Africa this summer. His best game in months with at least three crucial saves (When he came out to block a free Carew in the end was the icing of the cake). But to be honest, he can get rid of the ball a bit quicker than trying to dribble the opponents in his own box.

Julien Faubert 5,5 - Defensivly OK, but his passing was awful and let us down in many "changeovers". Lately he has been solid, but today he came wrong from the first minute. We really need good passing and crosses from his flank.

James Tomkins 8 - Our MOTM. He fought's hard, he blocks, he made no mistakes at all; he did everything today that Collins used to do when he was at his best. But this day - no doubt - our young man was the better than our old/Villa's new red-head.

Matthew Upson 7 - Good and important effort.

Jonathan Spector 6 - I had hoped to see Drapela again after his good game against Arsenal. But Spector looks still in front in the pecking order. And after todays performance you can hardly say it's wrong. Good game, even if he had some problems with the harder challenges from Agbonlahor. But who doesn't?

Mark Noble 5 - Another man who made me very disappointed today with extremly bad passing. And when he plays at RM he looks like the slowest man in the PL. But when Parker was forced off, he took a new position in the middle of the park and improved. Have been out injured and was doubtful, but he was there and fought and will become better....

Valon Behrami 5 - Alright he fights hard, but? Cause here we have guy no 3 unable to get a single pass right. How much do they pay these guys? Improved and was more involved in the second half. Needs to find his feet soon as he will be important in the forthcoming games, where we need some terriers in midfield. So it's very worriyng that...

...Scott Parker 6 - was forced off. I'm very angry at his right thigh. It should behave much better. Parker was his usual self as long as he could play.

Radoslav Kovac 5,5 - O boy, I really thought he was about to see red when he fell Petrov. Positive: Fought and was important in our box (Villa had 16 corners), but is of little use forward. So when substituted, we all of a sudden started to threat the home team!

Jack Collison 5 - "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"?? I do not know, but this was a pale performance. We need Jack more hungry!

Frank Nouble 6,5 - Hey, a very impressing debut. He does not look like 18, and he plays much more mature than so. Took good run's (and he is really fast!) and wanted to show. What have happened if he had scored that goal - so close - after just 5 minutes? New shoes next time?

Subs:

Diamanti 6 - Gave energy to the team and we improved.

Stanislas 6 - Got a bit nervous when both Parker and Kovac went off but when Stanislas and Diamanti came on, Villa was unable to hold on to their pressure and Stanislas contibuted well with his energy. Again.

Da Costa - Came on in overtime.

A bit too low numbers? I can not say that, but as a team effort, fighting for each other, during this very hard circumstances this was, as a whole, as a unit, more of a 7,5! Good game from Zola!

Out of the Icelandic frying pan

2010-01-17T10:10:00.000+01:00

We may soon be out of the Icelandic frying pan, but until we have a clue about the details of the takeover we cannot know where we have landed.

How long will it take for us to learn the level of debt the takeover resulted in? My bet is that there will be an avalanche of rumours on that topic when the takeover is done as all the losing parts will try to brand the winner a potential catastrophe. But the truth will probably not be public until the financial report on this period is published – if even then.

It's far from certain that the debt we are so concerned about will go away with new owners. This bidding war has certainly done nothing to help. One thing that has been clear through all this is that the bidders have had a hard time convincing Rothshilds (Straumur/CB holdings) that they have enough dosh. As the banks have been heavily involved in the discussions one can also conclude that the new owners are taking over these loans in one way or the other, rather than just paying them off. This means that the banks wants to make sure that the new lot are financially solid enough to service the loans. Based on what the banks think about the new owners they may also want to renegotiate the terms.

Martin Samuels wrote in an interesting piece the other day that "...right now we are mistaking the failures of individual clubs for a malaise in English football as a whole" and I agree that there have been several big mistakes, but I like the "financial doping" metaphor used by the All Party Parliamentary Football Group to describe some of the big clubs way of running their clubs. It gives these clubs advantages in the short run albeit by risking their long term health.

I will be a bit more worried if Tony Fernandes, Intermarket or Cellino makes the deal (for this kind of problems that is,, I agree there are other concerns with the others). We know they don't have the cash to just buy the Club and pay off the loans and so how would they finance it? Loans? Investors? Probably loans secured by so called investors. This is when you build insecurity into the club (lex Glazer). On the upside the timing is probably to any new owners advantage. Even though I think that as an investment a football club will always be risky and, in an ordinary - non football inclined - investors view, suboptimal. But the risk of the finances of the world bringing the new owners down á la BG doesn't seem that big (famous last words?).
But then there is always going to be businessmen in trouble. Especially those heavily in to risk ventures, airlines for instance.
I’m not quite sure if this applies to Cellino as he seems to have come in late and with a bid that appears to have been accepted more or less right away, but my guess is that it does. He is not wealthy in the Sheikh Mansour sense of the word.

But please don't brand me anti Fernandes because I am a bit worried about where he will take us. My concern is about every future owner, even though G&S knows about the reality of owning a club and may be less prone to "do an Eggy".
Having owners that are genuine supporters are obviously also a good thing, whether they need to fly to the home games or not, but if they need to stretch their funds too far to get possession I rather they didn't.

As a burnt child I’d really want to stay clear of the fire, or at least know if I'm in it as quick as possible.

It will be Fernandes! Wanna bet?

2010-01-14T22:11:00.004+01:00

Do you remember names like Noble, Collison and Diamanti? Well, Green, Carlton Cole and Parker then?

It's easy these days to forget that West Ham is (foremost) a football club, isn't it?

Well, I can do with a point against Villa, the Q is, can we and the players concentrate enough if we do not have a new owner by then?

Well, now I guess who the winner will be in this "auction". And yes I can only guess as I have no inside information at all. But my guess is that it's going to be Tony Fernandes and I do also think that we have the brightest perspectives with him and the money he hopefully can reach.

So why Tony? As I write this he is on his way to London again. (Right now over Luxemburg as we can see on his twitter, it may tell us something ;-D). That means that he is not out of contest. And that he has the money asked (or close to). Either he has already managed to convince the Banks, or he will go there do convince them even further. As it seems he has a long-term prospect that these who wants their debts back like. And they do have a lot to say in this issue.

Gold & Sullivan seems by many sites be out, mainly as the Banks never has liked the way of shared ownership. It is a hazard for the Banks actually. After some drastic statements in the media (about West Ham, not their stated corruption) , they've been more quiet lately. The porn men has probably to do with Charlton, and I do not mind.

Intermarket group is still a possibility as we do not know much more than Jim Bowe their CEO just passed away. I doubt though, but more with my stomach than real facts. Just reading all the sites (where they say they canät fund the deal) we really should know more by know....

The dark and late horse Cellino won't make it. He may have the money, Italian papers may say that he already has signed, but that can't be true. And as he seems to be the deft type there is still too many questions about him. Is he the Italian Harry (corrupted), is he totally free from every suspect of match-fixing and other stuff within the Italian football system. Where he seems to be involved a lot. Close to the law/legal issues. It may even be so that further investigations are goin on. And if so, I doubt any would give him the handshake and to play with their money.... If not do we have time enough to check out if he is clear? ANd by the way ESPN means that UEFA won't give him right to have one club (Cagliari) in Italy and one in England. I guess you can arrange that, but maybe not in just a couple of days. I count him out right now.

I may be totally wrong here, and may see ghosts where there aren't any. But this will be my last thoughts on this mess. soon I hope to concentrate - with a beer in hand - on football. As most of us I guess!

Check Tony's Twitter.

2010-01-14T12:52:00.001+01:00

You may want to click the link to Tony's twitter site (to your left)

Little Italy

2010-01-14T09:30:00.007+01:00

As everyone else I was dumbfolded by the Cellino stuff, and I have no idea if it’s the biggest scam around (a daunting task for any rumour) or the real deal.
Stories in Corriere dello Sport, la Repubblica, and Tuttomercato (that started all this), as well as the English ripoffs of these articles, says that Cellino is actually ready to bid and that he wants it done fast.
But I’ll leave that for now as there are just too many uncertanties, time will tell. I’ll also leave it to them to tell you about the Zola/Cellino connections if you haven’t heard about those already.

But let’s just toy with the idea that he comes in and have approximately the same financial muscle as, for instance, G&S.

Would it be to West Hams advantage to have an Italian owner?

I’m certainly not a xenophobic in the sense that I think that Brittish football should be left to be handled by Brittish managers and coaches. On the contrary, the imput of new ways of thinking and playing football has certainly been a major factor in developing the PL to have three teams in the last four in the Champions league last year. But I’d say it has been the successful mix of players and coaches with different background that has made that possible (and borrowed money of course). That is also one of the reasons that I was pleased when Clarke (and Keen) was appointed first team coach.

I think we have already seen some of the dissadvantages of focusing the attention in one direction. Gianluca Nani and Zola seem to have their binoculars pointed in much the same direction, giving us Diamanti, Behrami, Da Costa and Franco, but also Jimenez, DiMichele, Tristan and Savio. There is nothing strange with this! People will use their trusted contacts when doing business and with a background in Italy it’s only natural that you have those there. With an Italian owner we may not get the needed tug in another direction.
On the other hand, I’d rather have a Zola at the helm in a team where he has the trust of the owner. G&S for instance may not see Zola as the answer to our problems.
Do I? No I don’t see him as being a successful manager in a low budget team needing to play according to their limited recourses, but I’d love to see him given the economic chance to fulfil his dream. Preferrably with us.

The opposite is also scary! English owners known for their conservative view on football and an English manager with limited funds going after overprised English players and surrounding him with Academy.

The Takeover - what do the journos know?

2010-01-13T12:29:00.004+01:00

We are now right in the middle of the bidding war that Rothshilds were hired by Straumur to make happen. And (I hope) there is more than a good chance that a deal will go through as "deadlines" are extended and the haggling seem to have reached a fairly detailed level. Still there are widely different guesses about the outcome!

Either the parties have pulled strings yesterday to make sure that their respective "contacts" have published pieces saying they are in the lead, or the situation is too hard to call.
Or both.

Jason Burt of the Telegraph, has held Fernandes as the favourite ever since Fernandes appeared on this scene. He has throughout this dire process touted any non G&S bidder as the best option. I can honestly see that as a valid standpoint but Jason is also known as the Duxbury Bugeler ("West Ham have, certainly, been indebted to some shrewd husbandry from chief executive Scott Duxbury who, throughout all of this, has stuck as much as he could to a business plan") and If Duckers is worried for his existence at West Ham he certainly wouldn't want G&S to install Karen Brady would he? So even though Burt is close to the pot this also means that his info/judgement may not be without bias.

Simon Cass of the MailOnline considers Intermarket to be in pole position despite the unfortunate death of front figure and head negotiator Jim Bowe. I confess to not knowing anything about any connection to Intermarket and considering Simons previous writings he seem to have better contacts at Arsenal and Chelsea. Actually, the piece is so short that one is led to believe that he has no knowledge to share with us - just had "write something on the West Ham takeover!" shouted at him by his editor.

James Nursey of the Mirror has yet to put anyone else forward than Gold&Sullivan. He has said that G&S are about to take control previously, but who hasn't? He has not been totally pro the Davids and recently wrote a short piece on Yeung saying Birmingham had been run like a bootcamp. Still, the Mirror has not yet published an article where they see anyone else in the driver seat. Even though they seem not to have any inside info they could be right you know.

I have previously posted my thoughts on these parties HERE, so I'll spare you my comments for now.

Death may stumble the sale

2010-01-12T22:52:00.007+01:00

As the CEO of Intermarket group all of a sudden died this weekend you can be almost certain that it will take at least some more days until they/someone else has bought our leaking club. Do not expect any definitive news today or tomorrow....

Jim Bowe was only 59 years old. Bubbleview express our condolences. But still hope Intermarket group (who at least have told media that they will continue, for Bowe's sake) or Fernandes can calm the club with a firm and strong offer.

Rather before Upson -as it seems - will be sold.

Can we have Joe Cole back now please?

2010-01-12T13:19:00.006+01:00

According to some media today Joe Cole is out for more. He want's better pay from Chelski as he "only" earns a million pounds every second month. The greedy man's tiny wallet needs more!

But Abra says no! He has not proved enough out there!

Let's hope they do not find a solution, Cole gets pissed and returns to his native club with no (or low) salary demands. Big chance huh?

Or what do our future owner(s) say?

The Tony Fernandes Enigma

2010-01-12T09:10:00.000+01:00

Tony Fernandes enjoys public life it seems.
In December he took a very active part in his company's yearly party in a way that none of the owners of "my" companies ever has. Good for him and maybe for his employees I think, but it also tells me he enjoys the limelight a bit. He Twitters about his Upton Park trips and that's fine. I have never felt the need to tell the world when I go to a game, but then I realize the world wouldn't be interested. Nothing wrong with his Twittering but I think one can conclude that his public image is important to him.
Take the "Branson stewardess challenge" for an example. As Tony and Branson both own an airline and a F1 team (OK, Tony is CEO, not the owner – another hint) they made a very public pub-ish bet that the one with the team that ends up below the other in the F1 circuit will do a days job in a stewardess outfit in the other's airline. Not a bad image building publicity stunt.

It’s in this context I see the “Soon they will have an owner who will make a difference and care” Twitter message, the meetings with Zola, and his tour of the facilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he genuinely wants to be the next owner, but so do I. What kind of priority does he give this piece of business? He may be a huge fan but he lives in an economic reality, or at least Rothchilds does, and Tony is no dummie. He knows that there is a limit to his influence over this deal, a limit where his money or his ability to persuade others to invest no longer suffice.

Supposedly there was a Bank Meeting yesterday where the Straumur appointed Knight - Rothchilds - are supposed to have met up with interested bidders, together with the banks, to try to make sure if the bidders are for real. Tony sent representatives…
He was ready to go to the Wolves game but not to a meeting about acquiring the Club? Make your own deduction.

You all need to read the Times-on-line article HERE where it says that Tony missed a deadline. In these cases a deadline is not really a deadline as a seller with this much at stake most likely would wait another day or two if he really believes it would mean getting a better bid. Missing a deadline in these circumstances, however, may show that the bidder is not able (or even wanting) to put his money where his mouth is.

This, as you may have grasped by the build-up, is my worry. Tony wants to be involved, wants to be seen, wants to be accepted and loved, wants to get media exposure.
But then so do I.
When did he realize he would come up short? When did the genuine attempt to be the next Club owner turn into a charade?
He really has nothing to lose in behaving like this has he? He will be remembered/regarded as the guy who really wanted to buy the Club but for reasons out of his control was unable to.

If I had an airline I would bet a days job in a stewardess outfit that I can take his blog and Twitter site off the “Sites of Interest” list soon.

(There is an Intermarket twist to that Rotshild/bidders meeting but if you read the Time-piece, and choose to believe it, you know and this post was on Tony)

Will West Ham stay up?

2010-01-11T15:30:00.002+01:00

I was looking at the fixture list when it was publicised during the summer. I noticed that it wasn´t very kind to us during the autumn but would be significantly "better" from January onwards. From August to December we´d entertain 7 of the suspected top 8 teams with only Manchester City to play at home on the last day of the season (and yes, I suspected Everton to be up there amongst them, not Birmingham!). With the Premiership being as tough as it is with no easy games at all I was really concerned that we´d get in to some really difficult times (loosing breeds loosing so to speak and I´m afraid that´s what happened). With the prospect of having a sell out of our stars during the January transfer window I wasn´t less worried.

Now we´re in January and the "easy" part of the season is coming closer (it was supposed to start yesterday). Unfortunately with the self esteem shot to pieces but on the other hand with a lot of players coming back from injuries. Will we be able to resurrect the season and change it around? Well it´ll ofcourse depend a lot on what happens during the January transfer window and if we get more injuries to our key players (almost all senior players are key players at the moment due to our slimmed squad).

As most West Ham supporters are aware of 42 points might not be enough to keep us up and therefor I´ve decided to go for 43 and see what we have to do to get there. 43 points would be a perfectly safe place, wouldn´t it?

I´ve tried to avoid hoping for sensational results and therefor I´m not counting on any points away vs. the so called "top teams". Those points will be bonus points if we manage to get them.

Let´s see in the crystal bowl how the total points will be at the end of the season:

January:
WHU - Wolves: 3p (postponed)
Aston Villa - WHU: 0p
Portsmouth - WHU: 3p
WHU - Blackburn: 3p
Total January: 9p

February:
Burnley - WHU: 3p
WHU - Birmingham: 1p
WHU - Hull: 3p
Manchester United - WHU: 0p
Total February: 7p

March:
WHU - Bolton: 1p
Chelsea - WHU: 0p
Arsenal - WHU: 0p
WHU - Stoke: 3p
Total March: 4p

April:
Everton - WHU: 0p
WHU - Sunderland: 1p
Liverpool - WHU: 0p
WHU - Wigan: 3p
Total April: 4p

May:
Fulham - WHU: 1p
WHU - Manchester City: 0p
Total May: 1p

Total 2009: 18p
Total 2010: 25p
Total 09/10: 43p

As we all know (or presume) it´ll probably be enough with 36-38 points to stay up (based on experience from the last couple of seasons). But without being overly optimistic 43 points is quite a realistic target.

However, there´s a lof of ifs to this argument and a lot of things that can disrupt the "game plan". For example: If the team stays together or if the club decides to cash in on a few players. If the self esteem is irrepairable. Will the team be able to pick up the pieces already during the so important January and February when 16 of the 25 points should be picked up?

Will we stay up? Well, if we perform and get the results predicted above then no problem but I guess we just have to wait and see, don´t we?

There´s a lof of questions but no answers at the moment. I´m looking forward to follow this one up during the rest of the season.

Up the Hammers!

Past Their Best Ham?

2010-01-08T10:29:00.004+01:00

There are times that you realize that you have taken the right decision and in the same instance doing the oposite.

I decided to refrain from writing about any transfer rumours as the basis for them actually going through are so shaky. There is obviously work going on, making sure we have paved a way for some different scenarios we may be in when transfers need to be done. Agents have and will be contacted but both sides' interest will obviously depend on the situation. If we do get a new owner the transfers will hardly be the same as if we don’t, will they? So I’ll just pass on them for the time being.
But got lured astray.

West Ham has a proud history of not only being the Academy of Football but also the Geriatrics Ward of Football. During ‘Arry we saw Ruddock, Camara and Suker, just to name a few, at a point in their career that was less than flattering. Lately we have seen Tristan and Di Michele in much the same sorry shape. The mechanism is clear – we don’t have the money to get players in their prime, so we take a chance on possibly fixable damaged goods (Dyer, Dixon) or where the “best before” date has come and gone, hoping to shake some life back into them.
Sometimes this pays off big time as with Di Canio (Dixon?) but most of the time it just makes you sad.

On that very topic, the perennial Eidur rumour is here. It’s much like Easter, you know it will come but it’s a bit tricky to know when (and in both cases eggs spring to mind).
Now apparently our favourite Icelander, second only to Örn (not much competition for that spot nowadays), is not content with life at Stade Louis II as his opportunities have been limited. He competes for a starting spot along side Chu-Young Park with Serge Gapke, Frederic Nimani, Juan Pablo Pino and Yannick Sagbo. And none of them seem to have gained an upper hand in that fight.
Limited chances at Barca – OK, limited chances at Monaco FC…maybe OK, but do you see a pattern?

Please…

West Ham and SpongeBob Squarepants

2010-01-07T14:13:00.008+01:00

All I can say is, we're in safe hands.

At least when it comes to the licensing area. The team behind the licensing success of SpongeBob and Paddington has taken on the task of making us a brand to be reckoned with in Asia. CPLG or Copyright Promotions Licensing Group, that also helps Man C says that following the involvement in the 2009 Asia Trophy in Beijing, West Ham United believe the Hong Kong Licensing Show is a fantastic chance to introduce the club to new licensing opportunities in the Far East.

"We are confident that we have been able to demonstrate that the club has the
capacity to be a licensing success, not just on a local and national level, but
also internationally."

I am in no way against trying to sell merchandise (which is what licensing boils down to). I have my fair share of kits and other WH stuff and this could be money well spent but a great bonus, if you are to gain any success in this business, is to have a good product to promote. It's not just the club's active licensing department that secures the sale of a lot of Barca, Real Madrid and Inter mercandise around the world. I think it would be something of feat to get people in Asia to line up for a kit of a fizzy pop team.

"Our participation at this event, along with CPLG Sport, further reinforces our
commitment to expanding our licensing business in the years to come."

Winning a trophy or at least staying in the PL will do wonders if we are to compete with SpongeBob.

And the bad taste prize goes to...

2010-01-06T09:01:00.001+01:00

Last night, when my brain had long been in standby mode and I had clicked almost every conceivable link in the West Ham universe, I found myself looking at the site of David Gold.

It starts with David in his favourite pose - arms folded and the Cartier showing.

Below the picture his current positions are listed and starts out with "Chairman and co-owner of Birmingham city football club".
What did I miss? Does one of Britain's most successful businessmen not have a person updating his own internet site?

Now you may be asking how I came to the conclusion that he is one of Britain's most successful businessmen?
Easy, it says so on his site! And even gives us a humble background as the text on the homepage starts:

From beginnings of extreme poverty, shrugging aside numerous setbacks along the way, David Gold is now one of Britain's most successful businessmen.

He then decides to elaborate on the subject:

Brought up in the East End of London, David started out helping his
mother sell buttons from a stall outside their house. Moving indoors they then converted their front room into a card and sweet shop. From there, he went on to run a bookstore in Charing Cross, and before long branched out into publishing, printing and distribution.

Now David knows how to enthrall his readers right from the start doesn't he?

The site is basically a collection of links to articles about him in different magazines - articles that I have still to read - and a "profile page" where you'll find everything you already know about him. Well, the last was not entirely true as the size of his mansion in Surrey, 55 acres as it turns out, had previously eluded me.
When looking at the cover pics on the magazines a weird thing strikes me. He either has a watch on both wrists or all pics are taken from the same angle and "flipped over" when they want a picture of his other side.

I need to get a life...

A word of warning may be in place though. Those of you not into sites based on total self-glorification may find little of use in this cyber-shrine, and may also want to pass on the opportunity to get your own 1st edition signed copy of his autobiography.

Everyone back? Dream on!

2010-01-05T15:01:00.013+01:00

Zola is as always the positive one. "Trust me”, he said in the Daily Mirror, “when we have everyone back, this team will be a different story".

That may be true but is it relevant? Does anybody foresee this happening?
We are still at the top of the injury table and 9 players will have to get back to full fitness for this to be achieved. Some are "hopeful" for the Wolves game, the OS says. If hamstrings not only had tears but also a face they would be smiling.

To get a hamstring injury back (and worse) is far easier than getting it in the first place. Also, the reasons they got them are probably still there. There is no quick fix as it's not all about doing the right warming up. It's also about training methods, training conditions, preseason work and playing schedule. In this sense, thank goodness that Christmas is over and that we are out of the cups. But the cold is still with us, and so is the physio team.
During the summer of 2008 a new physio-team was brought in by Duckers and Nani to take "Decisive action on medical matters" and to make sure we would not find ourselves in this position again". In December 2008 Italian fitness coach Antonio Pinto, with a Chelsea past, joined the crew.

I think it is fair to make the same deduction now as the board did 2 years ago - something is wrong when so many players go out with non-impact related injuries, but the solution may be another. The current fitness-buch may have to take some of the blame but then there is no fitness-/physio-team in the world that can prevent all overload related injuries. Some players just can’t take playing week in week out at PL pace. They will brake.

When teams in the top 4 need to rest players to prevent these kinds of problems they try to get away with doing so against "lesser" sides (even though Sir Alex knows now that this is not always wise). They also have PL-ready players waiting for their chance, where we need to fill the bench with 18 year olds that failed to get a game at Scunthorpe! (let it be known I think he is our future).With a paper thin squad there is no way we would ever get away with resting players against teams involved in the relegation battle. Herein lies the problem.

The Wolves game is so important that I think Zola and the staff are ready to take a chance with the health of some of the players as there are no viable options. This is also a game where the team with the best attitude will have a decent chance to take all the points so the leaders will try to get the adrenaline flowing in the players and it is more than probable that we will see two teams that go out with all guns blazing.

That sounds to me like another injury in the making and one more step away from "everyone back".

The good, the bad, and the unknown

2010-01-04T13:53:00.008+01:00

During the nerve wrecking wait on a new owner one cannot help thinking about what may await us when the takeover is completed.
In my professional experience, one can quite often disregard what people say they will do. However, the info you get by studying what they have done previously cannot be overestimated. This certainly does not make it easy to “choose” one bidder before the others as precious little is there to evaluate.

The G&S track record seem to say that they are not going to gamble their own money (but then can you name one current owner that has put his own money at risk, barring Sheikh Mansour?) they will not flood the Club even with loaned money, and most certainly they will not spend flamboyantly or at a time that is, to cite Jack Sparrow, “not opportune”. So with them we seem to be reasonably secured from economic chance taking, also with borrowed money.
As runners of Birmingham they have solved quite a few of the squad problems by loans, a method we know all to well.

This “safety first” strategy, where feelings will certainly take a back seat to money, no matter what they say about being West Ham, means that they will most likely take the risk of going down rather than adding funds and endangering their investment. If that is their choice, be sure they have made certain that the drop will solve, not create, economical problems. It’s money first sporting success second, to them.

Their track record also says that they did take on a bleak looking side with financial difficulty in the Fizzy Pop and transformed them to a mid table Premiere outfit, granted by the aid of some lucky breaks. If they could do that with Birmingham, I’m sure they can do even better with West Ham.
Also, let’s not forget that sporting success of West Ham means more money to them, so if this relative success is achieved “wisely” they seek it too!
After talking and mailing to friends that has been more on top of the Birmingham situation fanwise, I realize that there are a few downsides to their ownership. The biggest problem most of the fans seem to have had with G&S is their flexible attitude towards the “truth”. They seem happy to lead people to believe that big things are going to happen and then not really living up to that “promise”. This is a way of leadership I cannot stand and that has also been a problem I’ve had all along with Duckers… The other dark side of G&S people mention is that they have “beriched themselves” at the expence of the club. If that is accompanied by some sort of success for the Club I cannot see that this would be a bigger problem than paying good wages to the right players or the right manager. One can dislike greed in sports, but it is everywhere to be found.

With Tony Fernandes we don’t have much of a clue what we wuold get. He seem like an easy going fella and I don’t doubt his good will or feelings for the Club. Being a “foreigner” myself I know that one can have a relation to the club that so strong that it at times borders to the unhealthy. If the Lotus F1 thing had had a few years of running, maybe we could deduct something from there, but his resilience or determination in projects that are not fundamental to his business is yet to be tested. At the surface it appears as there would be quite a difference between a West Ham run by G&S and a West Ham run by Tony Fernandes but then Tony is known for his low fare, low cost, low budget, low standard versions so maybe the difference is less than we expect? But then, we don’t even know how big a part he would play if the deal that he promise will bring “an owner who will make a difference and care” goes through. Rather than bankrolling stuff he seem to be known for bringing investors to projects and with the exception for Air Asia has not been the major contributor in projects so his views or passion may be as relevant as Eggy’s [shivers].

The part of the Intermarket group will, by necessity, be a short one as precious little is known about the real backers of the bid supposedly tabled today. This is also the most worrying part of that bid. Why all the secrecy? The nice interpretation is that the backer – if not successful in this bid – does not want to be associated with it. The other possibility is that the group contains people that most people not would welcome (back) as owners. The field is open for speculation, but as I said previously, business that does not stand the light of day is very seldom one that I would welcome.

Hopefully in a not to far future we will know who the devil (it) is…

Monday 4th of Jan: Christmas day?

2010-01-04T09:53:00.002+01:00

We could read Tony Fernandes Twitterblog yesterday:

"1 0. West ham beating arsenal. Great half from the young hammers. Soon they will have an owner who will make a difference and care ."

We are many who hope that this will be the truth and will be it!

Out of the FA-cup and not bitter!

2010-01-03T20:13:00.003+01:00

In the end this may be a divine loss!

Well, at least we hope so as we now are out of the FA-cup and can concentrate to survie (or even better than so) in the League.

But we coped very well in 65 minutes with a very understrength team against a decent Arsenal side.

Having the lead (Diamanti in he last seconds of first half) and some other good trials against the Gunners goalie we may get bitter as we lost 1-2 in the end. But hey, this is West Ham. And again we may take some good moments with us from this game to the much more important one against Wolves next weekend. A game we can not afford to lose.

Green 8 - Some really outstanding saves tonight. Against Arsenal he as usual seems to find his best. (Arsenal had 13 goal attempts on target) Could not prevent their goals though.

Faubert 7 - I was quite impressed today and if some, earlier had questions to ask about putting the Frenchman as a RB, few doubters will be left. Fought and ran well. But must improve (a lot) with his crosses.

James Tomkins 5,5 - Alright some good moments, coming in aid mainly for Faubert, but so many mistakes as he did today... that is not allowed as a CB. May need a rest.

Matthew Upson 7 - Let Eduardo head the winner, otherwise solid! Happy to see him on the field, as that means that he hardly is sold yet.

Daprela 7 - A really nice debut of our "new" Swiss youngster. Made no, or few, mistakes, seemed to play without nerves. Will probably challenge Ilunga after this season and will from now on be our back up here. At least if I was to decide.

Diamanti 7,5 - Another important display from our Diamant. Works his socks off. Sometimes he plays really idiotic passes and looks like a true newcomer (to all football). Still his contribution was essential. He is our "skeleton key", and seems able to open any defence. Made the badge proud and is today very important for the team.

Behrami 8 - Our best man (together with our keeper) on the field today. He may have been weak against Tottscum, this was sooo different. Defensivly he was outstanding!

Kovac 7 - No more or less: Good performance. Song may have been he midfield master, but Kovac kept his positions well and set up Diamanti with a smart pass.

Stanislas 6 - Wants to much at times. Need to think more at some moments, and less at others. He was not the only one today who should have had more shots instead of taking another dribble too much. At moments Hammers looked like a child team who do not tries to score until they have dribbled to the goal line. Still a good contribution filled with energy and a strong will to perform.

Jimenez 5 - Well, ths time he (for once) really seemed like he wanted to get involved, but in the end he hardly did. Where has the Wizard gone?? Soon gone back to Italy?

Frank Nouble 6 - A debut alone at the top against a regular Arsenal back four is not the easiest. I thik yhe youngster (18) did well. No spectacular moves, few of those fast runs we've heard that he can do. Still, showed that this man has a good future with us. Battled well.

Subs:

Anthony Edgar (debut!) and Freddie Sears (back from Palace) got a few minutes.

Now a really nervy week awaits. Will we be sold, will we be able to keep our players? Will Parker, Ilunga and maybe even Cole be ready for the extremly important game against Wolves?

Sites you may have missed I

2010-01-02T09:00:00.000+01:00

There are a few sites that I revisit that are not in the links list of many West Ham blogs. And we do need to read some stuff from non-West Ham sites to distract us from the dire news released about our Club, don't we? In a series of posts I'll present some of my "off topic" favourites.

If you know of an interesting site we have missed, please direct us to it!

First out is a site that one wish would be totally irrelevant, however, this angle on football, or any sport for that matter, is painfully important especially these days when we are struggling to escape the strangling grip of the Big Bad Puffin.

Political Economy of Football has quite a mouthful to chew and in a way they opt not to. They are like a bulletin board of snippets on these topics. Unfortunately they seldom offer any in depth articles, but they are a good starting point for further googling and may also suffice if you just like to keep reasonably up to date on these things.

One of my favourite parts of their site is the Statistics page with descriptic stats on club turnover, income, prize money, kit sponsors etc. Another interesting part summarizes financial information on UK proffessional clubs (nothing on West Ham mind you...)

A piece that I just read (I blame Santa for the delay), and that I pasted below, is on an all to familiar subject. Reading it may reemphasize importance of "choosing" the right owner. Also that we could be worse off (and may still be as we know precious little of the financial status of the "groups" that are bidding on us as I type.
Let's hope we are not ending up in the fire.

If you don't fancy what I chose, maybe they can tempt you with stuff on 'Arrys finances, Arsenes computer outburst, or the brothel visiting manager?

From the Political Economy of Football:
WATFORD STEP BACK FROM BRINK – 23/12/09
Championship side Watford have managed to avoid administration, but the more general lesson that emerges from this episode is that clubs can be put at risk by feuds on the board or the decisions of an individual that is funding them. Earlier in December Watford Leisure said that it required a further £5.5m to cover cash flow needs until July 2010. The company made a pre-tax loss of £2m in the year to 30 June on revenues of £23.1m compared with a £400,000 profit in the previous 12 months. Total liabilities amounted to £10.7m. The club's shares on Aim had to be suspended after the Russo brothers (chairman and vice-chairman) stormed out before the annual general meeting, leaving former manager Graham Taylor to chair the meeting. Their business, Valley Grown Salads, demanded immediate repayment of a £4.9m loan to the company. VGS has 30 per cent of the shares, Lord Ashcroft's Fordwat investment vehicle controls 37 per cent and he is backed by former chairman Graham Simpson who has 17 per cent. Lord Ashcroft, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, stepped in to pay the £4.88m debt to Russo. Lord Ashcroft is viewed by his opponents as a controversial figure, but he managed to save the club for now. Sir Elton John who has had a long association with the Hornets plans to stage a fund raising concert in 2010.

Trading in Watford shares resumed on December 23rd, but they closed down 11 per cent at 6p after an initial fall of 18 per cent. Sources close to the club described the loan as 'a road map to get us through the season.' However, Watford Leisure warned that it would still need further short-term funding at the end of January while it organises a rights issue. It is hoped to make some use of money from advance ticket sales for Sir Elton Johm's 'Paying for Players' concert which will not take place until June. The funds would be paid back to be available for player signings after the rights issue is completed.

The art of acquiring and running a football club

2010-01-01T20:14:00.004+01:00

We are getting more and more info as the sale of the club is seemingly creeping closer.
Besides the Davids and Intermarket (that jack-in-the-boxed), Tony Fernandes is rumoured to be ready to be involved in some way in a takeover.
That, of course, started a discussion on whether Fernandes is loaded enough to pull such a big deal off. But in a way that is beside the point. You don’t really have to have any money of your own. What you do have to have however, is a good relation with a bank or two.
Of course it does help if you do appear to have a few quid so the guys at the bank believes you are worthy of their services, and are willing to keep the interest down.

But let’s not get the actual wealth of a bidder be confused with if he is really going to back the club!

At the time BG bought us he was the wealthiest man in Iceland second only to his son. So there is no doubt that at the time he was a good backer. But we learned that he, as so many other owners of football clubs, actually didn’t bump us with any cash of his own. He made sure that we could borrow money, money that was never his and as the song goes “all he left us was a loan”.

So, regardless of the financial figures associated with the next owner, what is really important is that he does not do a Glazer or a Abramovich on us.
Glazer transferred a substantial part of the debt he took on for buying ManU over to the club. So in reality ManU ows banks money for the purchase of itself! This kind of money moving is not easy to figure out either, as is indicated by the time it took for journalists to find out that Abramovichs £736m backing of Chelsea was in the form of loans. Interest free loans (as it appears) but nevertheless loans. So much for sugar daddies…

So, even though the funds of our future owner makes a difference, the way he uses these fund, in the West Ham context, is the real issue.
I for one is more interested in a father that provides the mash and sausage he can afford than a daddy that feeds me sugar he got against my own future earnings.

Happy New and angst-free year!

2009-12-31T22:49:00.005+01:00

Happy New Year all Hammers fans!

We wish a year of peace of mind and a situation where we can start to believe in the future again!
We especially hope for a prosperous year for those of you that are regular visitors and commenters - no one mentioned, no one forgotten but you know who you are! We hope that some of that good fortune will rub off on the Club.

Joppe also promises to do his best to crawl out of his depression and be more positive about things - if he find a reason to...

Team against Arsenal

2009-12-31T09:00:00.003+01:00

With all the injuries Prince H talked about in his last post and the fact that we'll have a hard time coping with any more you wonder what team we will field in the Arsenal games.
Upson will hardly be played as he is bankrolling the january recruits and is "worth more to us alive".
Behrami is on the comeback trail and either need a few games to get in shape or need to take it slowly - hard call.
Diamanti is so precious to us at the moment that I'd rest him. The problem is to find any replacement old enough to drive a car. I would try Spector in defensive midfield and (in total disagreement with my last post) N'Gala in defence somewhere. Unfortunately I think Zola feels obliged to play Diamanti.
Sears is recalled from Palace where he failed to score in his 18 appearances for them. He'd be my choice ahead of Nouble against a weaker side where he could hope to play some balls he could use his pace on. On his + sides is also the fact that he has has been playing competitive football this season. But we'll need to have some kind of target player looking person up there to keep their back four from making base camp on our side so I'll go with Nouble.
Green is hardly enjoying his stay with us at the moment and I'm sure that he would jump at a chance to join a top 7 team. Maybe he should be rested to give him a chance to get his spirit back, but as Kurucz is out this won't happen.

So instead of Behrami, Gabbidon, Ilunga, Noble, Parker, Dyer, Hines, Cole and Franco (suspended) who would all "normally" be in line for a start, we could end up playing

......................... Green
Faubert - Da Costa -Tomkins - Spector
......................... Kovac
Collison - Jimenez - Diamanti -Stanislas
........................ Nouble/Sears

Our chance lies in..... let's not fool our selves, we don't have one.
(But then that's what I said before the Chelsea game as well).

A whole team off!

2009-12-30T20:21:00.005+01:00

Hi! Hurrah, once again we are the leader of the pack!

We have just beaten Everton and are in the top of the league. Of course I am talking about The Premier Leauges injury table.

Five of nine of our lost men have problems with their hamstrings! Can't our physio do anything to make these hamstrings softer, warmer, stronger??

I am certain I should be able to lend some guys from the reserve team (Edgar? Grasser?) to make "our best team on cruches" complete. Sorry, but two things are not correct: having Behrami in it is a bit of cheting as he is close to full fitness, and I can't find a goalkeeper. Maybe on Sunday?

On the other hand, I do not count on Dean Ashton anymore....

Could we please get some news about Hines knee soon? According to Physioroom Carlton Cole is closest to a return, but I guess Parker and Noble will be with us sooner rather than later? May we see all of'em against Wolves (10th Jan).

Anyway. Our team:

Behrami - Gabbidon - Davenport -Ilunga

LBM - Noble - Parker - Dyer

Hines - Cole

Could they be the answer to beat Arsenal this Sunday?