West Ham conquered the Chinese wall.

Even if we started nearly as pale as this Wednesday (in the loss against Tottenham) West Ham ended on a high in the final game of the Asia cup trophy and in the last 30 minutes gave us a much improved performance. 

2-0 against Beijing was a fair result in the end and I was extra pleased with the happy goalscorers, Danny Gabbidon who have come back after such a long injury - and you could see the whole team celebrate him with real joy - and Zavon Hines the young striker, who have a lot of potential, scored a real "striker-goal" in the dying minute.

Well, Bejing looked a bit tired and will have a new game in a couple of days, so let's not get carried away. But the energy level was much higher from the East enders and some performances was out of question improved.

Green 5 - Had actually nothing serious to cope with at all. So if not tested, sorry, no high grades...

Spector 6 - Did well and also moved a bit forward with some nice crosses. The weak link maybe in the defence today, when the Chinese players put some pressure, but still solid and seems to play with a little less pressure after the confi-cup games gave him a lot of confidence.

Tomkins 7 - As well as the other defenders they were not tested very hard, but still a very impressive display.

Gabbidon 7 - So happy to see him back, played the easy way and with the elegance only he can. Did his first goal in a West Ham shirt ever. Very happy for him.

Ilunga 7 - Much calmer and much more involved today. One of the best men on the field.

Noble 6.5 - Good to see him start. Always doing his best and playin for the shirt. But playin right wide is not his position and his lack of pace seems to be more of a concern here. When he moved into the pitch in the second half he had a good performance, if not splendid.

Jimenez 5 - Well, his not there yet. But also progressing... 

Parker 5,5 - Not as influential as you want to and lost the ball a couple of times too much. Grew during the game and was important with his defensive hard work. Sometimes he must play faster though! Much faster! But: He'll be fine.... and up to it in 2 weeks time.

Collison 5 - I don't know why,but these two last performances has reminded me of his debut against Arsenal. Where you could see his potential, but also that he looked a bit like a hen rallying around not sure of what to do. When he got the ball he always "went home with it" with a safe pass, which disappointed me. At the moment I prefer Stanislas in this position!

Dyer 7,5 - What a difference a day can make. So much, better today and with so much more energy and speed. If he was the biggest disappointment individualy against Spurs, it was the opposite this time. The referee blew for many offsides, but as we could see on the telly he fooled the trap many times. Sorry the linesman didn't do his job. Better on the right I think, and better up front. So not in the middle next time thanks.... MOTM.

Cole 6,5 - Good display, but once again he felt too alone at the top. At least until after an hour' when things started to happen. But he is much more confident with the ball nowadays and found some good flick-ons. I'm not worried at all, he'll be very important for us, I'm more worried who'll he play with and how to find the pace at the flanks that he'll need.

Subs:

N'Gala 5 - OK. LB is not his position, but I guess Zola wanted to give him some minutes and at the same time see if there is a possibility to have him as a LB back-up. Looks much more like a (good) CB to me.

Stanislas 6 - Better today and even if late on, he made a big change as his pace and strong will to go forward put better pressure on Beijing. Good!

Hines 6,5 - A really nice goal and a threat even earlier on. It won't be the last time we'll see him play for West Ham! A bit weak still, but promising.

Savio and Spence had a few minutes as well and Savio looked much better than against Spurs too.

Overall a much better performance, even if the opposition was weaker it gave us some hope back, that we lost the other day....

I know you don't care, but still I got to write: Tottenham won the final. 3-0 against Hull.

On the same day West Ham announced another signing of a youngster. The Swiss LB Fabio Daprela, 18  will be a back-up for Ilunga. Next year I guess. This year - I'm pretty sure of - Zola will try other options if the Congolese will have to rest (God forbidden). A 5 year contract for the Swiss teenager.

Next Weekend it's time for Napoli, our last game before the PL season starts. As we could see it should have been - from my point of view  - at least one, maybe two, more games against hard opposition. 

Still: Today we can be much happier! Like Pablo, my puppydog!

Photo: © Karin Hagen.

Far east and far from the form

We were beaten by Tottenham in the Bejing cup with "kind" 0-1 - and that from a rare mistake by Robert Green - just 25 days we'll meet them again in the PL start at home. But the result was really flattering for West Ham who seemed far, far from the form they are expect to show us the 15 of August. Tottenham seems to be far better off in preseason.... The worst with the loss was that LBM was the next man to have a serious (as it seems) knee injury in our team. A real backlash... again for Hammers. Against the thoughts of most fans - I guess - I think he could have played an important part for us this season.

Green 5 - The shots from Tottenham were many, but Green could just stand and see them fly wide all the time. So not much to do for the England keeper, except an excellent save when Modric came through. But looked a bit clumpsy when he lost control of Defoe's winner.

Faubert 5 - Well, our Neill-cover-up is still not sold and it may be the french guy we'll have to see as a RB against Wolves as well. I was not very impressed this time either, it looks that he don't care which I guess he does, but there is a spark missing. Changed to midfield in the end of the game.

Collins 8 - My MOTM. Great work, good challenges.

Upson 5 - Hm. Where was he? It looked that his season hasn't start yet. Once I (from the telly) shouted at Faubert, becuase he let his opponent so easily just walk through. Afterwards I saw it was Upson and I do not expect that from him. Not his only mistake either. I hope he doesn't have his mind somewhere else...

Ilunga 6 - OK, but a bit whiny wasn't he? You did not see much of his silent energy (which can spark the whole team) today. The left flank did not look like it uses to do, but Ilunga was left on his own to often.

Collison 5,5 - OK, but did not use his speed and lost to many second-balls.

Jimenez 5 - Has the ability, but looked a bit confused on the field today and was easy to tackle down the "british way". Well, found Cole a couple of times and The Wizard was the one closest to score in a tiny collaboration with Cole.

Dyer 4 - Where has his pace gone? Maybe he slow'd down he play because Zola has told him to. Was to play the man in the middle where everything should circle around but failed and played some very bad passes which could have cost us. And too slow. Well, from here you can only improve... In the end of last season he had some minutes coming back from hiss horrible injury, soon it's time to deliver again.

LBM - Injured himself seriously (knee) after just some minutes and will probably be out for months. Sorry for him and West Ham.

Stanislas 5 - Shaked his head when substituted, and you could understand why. Nope, not so influential as I guess he expected and wanted to be.

Cole 6 - Had a very hard task. I don't know how many times he had to cope alone with five-six Tottenham defenders. I guess this wasn't the way we wanted to play 433?? Showed at least power and som energy and some moves... even if he missed  passes like the rest of the team.

Subs:

Noble 6,5 - Came on earlier than he expected than he thought I guess (when LBM got injured) and began to make the most stupid pass of the game which led to a counterattack. But then he really took responsibility and I liked what I saw. Good game.

Parker 6 - came on and had some influence on the game.

Savio 4,5 - Do still want too much and should start every game to play much more simple...

Spector and Hines had some minutes as well.

What also worried me that you couldn't see the ideas of Zola's play. We created far too little and had far too few men up in attack. It was not 433 but more of a 451. The players looked worried and few really looked like they wanted the ball. It's preseason, so do not count to see this restless way of playing later but... it worried me a bit. Tottenham knew that we (nowadays) want to keep possession and have some neat passes before we go for attack. So they just put eight players behind the ball and we couldn't create anything but a few balls to a lonely Cole or back to Green to have a longkick. We have to be able to play much faster à la the Sunderland-goal last year...

Tottenham's play was torrent, had ideas and they used speed and flanks.... and saw our weak sides. They have met much harder opposition in their training, and that was pretty useful I guess for them today, but that doesn't matter as we do all start the 15'th.

The press report that Stanislas was given shirt no 9, which should mean that we have seen the last of Ashton. Probably a solid observation. Edit: The rules in China states that the players should wear 1-24, so editing my former statement; This was not a solid observation. 

 But: Even if LBM haven't scored since he was 11, his injury means that we looks even weaker goin forward. I do not know if it's the right time to sell Ashton then? Our team do not possess too many goalscorers. On the other hand, if not fit, how long can you wait??

I do really long for the PL-season to start, but this game cooled me down some degrees... I must admit.

The new Season starts!

The new season is here as the first teamers - well, most of them - started the friendly game against Turkish side Bursaspor tonight in Austria. 1-1 in a pretty scrappy contest (nothing else to expect) that at least saw Dyer score, Collins have a really good game and we also saw some classacts by the new Jimenez. I was also impressed by Stanislas and some of the youngsters that came on during the game. N'Gala and Spence both showed that we have loads of good CB's to choose from and Anthony Edgar came on late and impressed me. Faubert played the whole game and may be Zola's first choice this year as a RB if noone else is found and Behrami prefered in a midfielder role. I prefer not, but: Let's see...

A spot up for grabs!

While the Neill saga has dragged on, it seems that our former Captain finally will move to Turkey for his last (?) big contract, we at bubbleview do wonder who to fill his gap? At the moment it looks like Faubert can get another chance as our RB, but I doubt that he'll be the permanent solution even for the season to come. And expects that he moves back to France soon. 

Spector should be ready to take another step in his development – and when we saw his distinctive play in the national team against Brazil, we wondered if it was the same guy who are doin these uncertain appearences at Boylen ground? But even if mostly a RB even in the US, I can't see him as his right and final position. He is not good enough, not in the PL at least, but maybe he can prove us wrong. 

Jordan Spence? To early for the CB probably. Gabbs or Collins? Nah. Not if we want to improve. Let them fight for the CB spot instead and if Gabbs should leave the box LB seems to fit him better. 

While it seems that we could do with some new name to fill in the right defensive position, - even more than bringing in new strikers - I hope Behrami will - until then - be back here. 

I can see that his working rate makes him a better midfielder than RB. Still with a lot of midfielders to fight for few places, this might be it. I think he can be fast enough and hard enough and should be able to find the position work, something he lacked a bit in his first season when he begun as a RB. Still to find his feet goin forward, a bit like Ilunga has done. 

So Behrami it will be! At least until Zola has signed Dani Alves. Or??

Another Nouble is noble in Claret and blue

Today we are happy to announce that Frank Nouble is a West Ham player from now on. The 17 year old striker has signed a five year contract with us after he said goodbye to his childhood team, Chelsea and their attempts to hold on to the big, young player. I guess he will go right into our first team squad which should have been enough of bait to sign for us. 

Maybe you have checked his goals in the Academy league already? If not CHECK IT OUT.

We'll be even more happy when Nouble scores his first goal for us, after a pass from Noble...

Bubbleview has been on holiday, but as the new season is approching fast we'll try to give you more of our ideas, thoughts and news considering our beloved claret and blue. So please don't give up. We'll soon take a more active part in WHU!

Welcome Senor Jimenez

HERE

Dances with Wolves

So it's Wolves at Molineux to start with. Our first game next season is certainly not easy. New teams do always begin well, at least at home. So I hope Zola will give our players an erly wakeupcall that day. Good to have the schedule ready though. It's a mental start of the new season! You can find it in full HERE.

Will Jimenez and Mancini join us today?? It certainly looks so. And even if I just vaguely remember to have seen Jimenez I'm full of confidencvce that the two can fill gaps in our team and develop our team "the new Zola style". Jimenez can be the offensive force in thge central midfield and find the last passes to the strikers we've missed this year. Well, for many years now. Hope he stays fit, as he has had some troubles during the years. Read more about him in Trilbys good blog HERE.

 Mancini is class and can do well in PL, at least if Zola can get him to play for the shirt. And mentally shows that he still has to prove his ability.

Jimenez and Mancini! Last year we were about to get Ben Thatcher!

Good luck... not

Kyel Reid has signed for.... Sheffield United. Gosh, I really wanted to wish this guy good luck. But now it's impossible.

So: Nine games for West Ham and one goal. Seems to be able to cross the ball, but not strong enough to take his chances with us in the first team. Played pretty well with Wolves (on loan last term) and scored the crucial winner to make them a PL team again. So I thought McCarthy would sign our Academy winger. Now Sheffield United seems to have instead. Let's hope Dux has put up a trap in the contract. Worth five millions at least. To us....

New owner!

According to the official site, our club has just been sold!

Read HERE.

Our new non-executive chairman Andrew Bernhardt - a senior bankman - means that this is a long-term commitment and that he will give Zola and Nani funds to invest in a "sensible" way. What that means only Bernhardt knows, but at least it will get us stability for now. But as - if I get it right - the Icelandic Government still has everything to say about CB Holding/Straumur Burdaras future. And if Straumar is close to bancrupty themselves, where will they get money to invest. It may be another bubble who bursts in the end. What differs from all the bankers lending poor people money that you don't have in the first place, but do expect to earn another day? Just the new/old Capitalism I guess.

Very well. Maybe Barack Obama will be our saviour in the end as well???

We do start this new journey with a picture of Andrew. Doesn't he remind you a bit of Winterburn??

More reactions from Bubbleview to follow.

Bye Bye Neill.

Reading the news on the official site today it's easy to say: Bye, bye Lucas Neill. Thanks for what you did. But even if you had a strong spell this last months I can't say I'll miss you. At least not as a player. Let's see who'll be our new RB. Hope they find a right sided Ilunga!

WHUFC also confirm - more or less - that we will not see Di Michele, Tristan, Walter Lopez, Lee Bowyer, Kyel Reid or Jimmy Walker in our dress again. I guess few fans feel despair....

I'm a bit more surprised that West Ham will let the young Ashley Miller ('89) go as he just arrived home from Hong Kong, playin for us there. Other youngsters the will let go is the forward Jack Jeffrey (seemed good at the beginning but have not been able to take the last step), the midfielder Tom Harvey ('90) and the young Northern Irish defender Ryan O'Neill (born 90 played some games for the Reserves too). Well, you can't have them all, and defenders are pretty good here as Spence, N'Gala, Eylofsson, Edgar and even younger Sanchez are even bigger prospects.

AS we all already know Lastuvka has left, but the Hungarian keeper Peter Kurucz - who has been on loan with us - has signed a permenant contract. He is 21 so he and Marelk Stech may be enough cover for Green (supposed he sign a new contract with us). We do also have the even younger keepers Street and Mehmet in the team.

New Captain!?! I really guess it'll be Parker, but few outside the team do really know how every single player act in the dressing-room and elsewhere. 

Good luck to the realeased. Let's see some name's coming in soon! And the pen on paper by Green and Upson please!

All (-ready) sweet memories!

HERE.

They are all beautiful!

All is well that ends well

It had actually been a shame if we had let Middlesbrough stay in the PL this time. Not that I do mind them particulary - not at all actually. I even feel a bit sorry for them, and I think they will bounce back right away as they have a lot of young talent. But a team this lacklustre, and the way they failed to deliever any goods at all today - they should get punished. It was not our most sparky game either, but we did what we had to do, and you could see some glimpses of what Zola wants for next season. 

A sunny afternoon at Upton park! Could you ask for more? Well a win maybe, and after a very beautiful first goal with Stanislas, LBM, Ilunga and Cole involved most of us knew that we should win that 9th spot. Well, O'Neill had another shot under Upson's legs and all of a sudden the situation was 1-1, before our most vibrant player of the day, Stanislas got us our second with a shot that Jones should have saved. 

Green 6 - Not much to do at all, but bringing on the cap once in a while to protect him from the sun.

Spector 5 - Well, it looked a bit better when he was told to push forward. In defense he is - once again - more of a player for Swedish Allsvenskan than PL.

Neill 7,5 - Impressed again and even if he may be a bit to short for the CB-position, I think the position suits him - once again - better. Good powerful game! Will this mean another season?? Maybe.

Upson 7 - Really OK, won his headers, not troubled, but once: when the ball went through his legs (again!). So a bit unlucky at their goal.

Ilunga 6 - Had a bit tricky day defensively when Middlesbrough came with two men on his flank. On the other hand he impressed once again going forward, and his pass into the box when Cole scored was a real beauty.

LBM 8 - Yes! Our best player today! Even if he missed a couple of passes his workingrate and energy saved the day. Thanks! Have you seen that he can make crosses as well? And even dribble? Like he did when he won us aout 70 yards on his own once? Important contribution in Cole's goal. Hope to see you here next season as well! (Yep, mean it!)

Kovac 6 - Solid today as long as he play as the holding midfielder. Helped the defense a lot, but sometimes he misses the easiest of passes. Took the Parker role today and I doubt to see him here next season. But I wouldn't mind, as I think he grows from game to game and still learn this league. It depends on the clubs will to spend on good subs I guess.

Collison 6 - During some moments in the match he looked like Ronaldinho as best. Others we could all see that he recently has came back from injury. Subbed.

Noble 6,5 - Fought very well. Subbed with a niggling injury, probably as a precaution when U21 awaits him this summer.

Stanislas 8 - He may be young, he may be a bit over-optimistic - but what a game! Not only the goal but the way he handled the responsibility as well. Did you see when he (still) ran back in full speed two-three minutes from time? Great! Will play a big part next season even if Savio will be better and Behrami, Parker and two "fully trained" men in Collison and Dyer will be back. Wouldn't it be possible to see him in the middle of the park, as a creative midfielder?? Maybe a bit weak, but fast, two-footed and a good vision for the game.

Cole 6 - I was surprised to see him loose so many 50-50-situations today. But at the end of the day he made the difference. It's easy to forget that this was his first starting game since he went of playin for England. Today he received the good news: He's back in Capello's team. And for us, he scored 12 goals this season and played a huge part in our good run. Subbed. I may be one of few who always have liked him, and supported him, but he sure has grown under Zola/Clarke. With him fit all season we had been 7th! Promise!

Subs: 

Dyer 7 (on 53'd)- Good to see him back again. And even if he missed a good opportunity he looked fit and played a lively part in the game. For him preseason will start tomorrow.

Good to see the way Zola handled Di Michele (72'd) and Tristan (63'd). They were rightly on the bench from the start but had at last their chances to feel the good vibes at Upton Park for their last (it must be) games in claret and blue. Neither impressed me. But I think Tristan will have a Ok season next year. But not with us.

Over-all: Thanks for a season that gave us hope of a bright future again. And some really nice football too.

48 or 51?

Hull has to loose, Newcastle has too. But Boro will anyway and in which case fight for their lives. And they need a couple of goals in the net as their goaldifference is worse than Hull's. So expect our last match for the season to be a hard contest. I still think we'll win. If Boro don't make a goal in the first half, and if they sees that either competing team (read: Newcastle) will take a point or three, it's hard to believe they will be able to stuck in every minute here. And having Carlton Cole back from the start will suit us well in this game. It'll probably look like an away game, letting the old cricket team to keep posession and us to be the team that makes the counterattacks with Collison, Stanislas and LBM fight forward.

The weakest link or at least the most unsecure one will be who to partner Upson as Collins is still out and Tomkins suspended. You could either have Neill or Spector. But I'll go with the future and give N'Gala even if I've hardly seen him play. But the other two will probably not have a bright future here - different reasons though! - but N'Gala will. So let him play! (Ok, Kovac may be an alternative as well, but if the rumour is true that Moscow wants 6 millions for him he won't be here next season, and then why play him now? Let's give him 10 minutes in the end to applaud him a bit).

Having Stuart Downing off - and seven (!) other players - (well, the clever Tuncay will be playin!) will of course help our cause, but every M'boro-man out there will fight as hard as ever and hopefully our team cames through unscratched. And with three points! Which will see us in front of "the world's richest club" Manchester City. Not a bad bait, if you ask me.

It would also be a revenge as we lost 2-0 last time, in a ridiculously weak game. Last time at Upton Park Ilunga scored though. I do not mind if he'll do that against Boro again.

I'll go with:

Green

Neill, N'Gala, Upson, Ilunga

LBM, Noble, Collison, Stanislas

Cole, Savio

Bench: Lastuvka, Spector, Lopez, Payne, Kovac, Tristan, Sears

Good luck Joe

Young West Ham-academy player Joe Widdowson (born 1989) has put pen on a three year contract with Grimsby, after he was told he wasn't going to have a future at West ham. 

"I want to be a professional footballer, and I don't consider myself to be a Premier League player at the moment, so it was not a hard decision" he told Grimsby town's home site.

After seeing him play so good in the summer tour last year (against Beckham for instance) and knowing he has done very well in his loanspell at Grimsby this decision surprised me a bit. I thought he was one for the future, next term ready to make the bench. Who is there at LB if Ilunga get's injured? Or maybe that guy can't have any knocks?! Well, you can't have'em all. So good luck to Joe. Hopefully the West Ham product will see a better season to come for the whole Grimsby team.

The same morning Zola hinted that Sears needs to go out on loan the forthcoming season (at least a part of it) to grow. Looking at the few contributions he had this year I guess it would have been even better if Freddie already had done been out somewhere. Zola could have used Hines on the bench.

10'th place again?

So this was it. After a tremedous shot by Kovac I thought this could be the day to beat Everton at last. But they are a machine and have good strikers in Jo, Felliani, Saha, Cahill, Yobo, Pineaar... So a lot to choose from. Moyes put his money on Saha... a good choice - for the home team. We started with Di Michele and Tristan and once again they looked really out of order. I think it would be wrong to see any of them here next season. (If one of them would stay I'd go with Tristan, can explain why later.) 

In the second half we could see what a different Carlton Cole does, as he got his first 45 after the layoff. He won every (long) ball, but one, he had to deal with, he gave to home defenders hard work,  he fed LBM with a tremendous pass and he gave the midfield the opportunity to put some pressure on their counterparts at Everton. But it was too late as Tomkins was sent off - a very,very  harsh decision even if you're not a Hammer - when he (maybe) tripped Cahill. Penalty and Green went for once the wrong way. We came out with 1-1, but had hardly taken our seats (in front of the telly) as the second half begun with Everton scoring. And it looked "the old West Ham way". Noone attacked or was close to Yobo when a corner fell to him in the box and his shot went not just under Upson's legs (a bit deflected) but Noble's as well. Unlucky or poor defending? Both! It looked like an old game of Crocket. Why Spector also was given a go after the first 45' you can question. His lack of fundamental defending was exposed early. He sold himself very, very easy when Pienaar just ran away from Spector - maybe he was thinking what to buy for breakfast tomorrow - and served Saha for their third goal. 

It's not easy to play against Everton's midfield, but I want more from Noble and Collison. Even if the latter recently has come back from injury. 

And once again we lost 3-1 but their were a few sparkles. To see Cole back was one of them. Kovac seems to grow from game to game and may be an alternative in the end, and Stanislas came on and looked sharp again. Despite a very very tame - for the 1056 time in a row - shot when totally free with Howard, I would also give LBM the thumb up. His contribution was not bad. Ilunga solid as always. Fought good as well. The man of the match though was Green. Once again. Nani better ask for his name on a new contract now! But in the end; the referee and two lapsuses spoilt the evening for us.

(no marks today as I was unable to watch the beginning of the game)