KUMB.com
Filed: Saturday, 14th May 2011
By: Staff Writer
West Ham will be relegated should Birmingham secure a single point from
either of their final two fixtures of the season - even if Avram Grant's
side manage to beat both Wigan and Sunderland. United are hanging on the
precipice after both Blackpool and Wolves won this afternoon, leaving West
Ham needing to win both of their remaining games and for Birmingham to lose
both theirs in order to stand a chance of survival. Blackpool gave their
chances of avoiding the drop a boost with a memorable 4-3 win over Bolton
this afternoon. The Tangerines won the game despite being pegged back twice
in the first half by the losing FA Cup semi-finalists.
And the news was no better from the Stadium of Light, where Wolves overcame
a disappointing Sunderland outfit 3-1. With the match evenly-poised at the
break, the game was won by second half strikes from Fletcher and Elokobi. In
the only other game affecting the relegation zone, Blackburn held league
champions Manchester United to a 1-1 draw, taking them to 40 points - seven
ahead of West Ham. Birmingham's final two games of the season are at home to
Fulham tomorrow, before the Blues travel to Tottenham on the final day of
the season. West Ham face Wigan at the DW Stadium tomorrow before hosting
the erratic Sunderland at the Boleyn Ground next week, in what could be the
final Premier League fixture to be staged there.
Premier League standings
15 Blackburn 37 40 -14
16 Wolves 37 40 -19
17 Birmingham 36 39 -18
---------------------------------------------
18 Blackpool 37 39 -21
19 Wigan 36 36 -23
20 West Ham Utd 36 33 -23
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Collison: a debt to repay
KUMB.com
Filed: Saturday, 14th May 2011
By: Staff Writer
Jack Collison has expressed a preference to reamin at West Ham - regardless
of how the current season pans out. West Ham could be relegated to the
Championship by 5:00pm this afternoon should results not go our way. But
that is of no concern to the Welsh international, who insists that his
future remains at the club. "After the year I've had, I owe an awful lot of
people at West Ham," he told a popular tabloid. "But I'm hoping it won't
come to that anyway. "I'm just looking to get back and show I'm fit and
ready to play again. It was a year ago last Thursday that I had my op; I
knew I was going to be out for a long time. "Coming on against Blackburn
last Saturday was incredible. I was itching to get off the bench and had my
shirt on within two seconds."
With the personal target of a return to first team action now complete,
Collison is looking forward to tomorrow's clash at Wigan - a game the Irons
must win in order to stand a chance of avoiding relegation. "I'm looking to
go there and prove a point in what will be the biggest game of my career. A
real high-pressure game," he added. "It's about doing our utmost as a team
to stay up. It's a dogfight, the sort of game you look to be involved in as
a footballer."
And he also had special praise for the travelling fans - 4,500 of whom are
expected to make the trip to the North West over the course of the weekend.
"The fans are a good bunch," he insisted. "If you show fight and
determination they are good to you. "I can understand how it has felt from
their point of view this season. I've been to almost every home game and
have been pulling my hair out - and I haven't even got much, it's so
short..."
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Hines' anger
KUMB.com
Filed: Saturday, 14th May 2011
By: Staff Writer
Zavon Hines has hit out at manager Avram Grant for ignoring him during West
Ham's run-in. The young striker, who has barely featured this season under
Avram Grant is out of contract this summer and is set to leave the Boleyn
Ground, with Newcastle's Alan Pardew just one of a number of parties keeping
tabs on his situation.
Earlier today the 22-year-old allowed his frustration to get the better of
him when he told followers of his Twitter account: "Very frustrated with not
being able to help my childhood club because I'm not getting the chance to
score the goals the club needs." Hines has been at West Ham since an early
age but had to wait until the age of 20 before making his first team debut,
in a 4-1 Carling Cup win over Macclesfield in August 2008. Since then he has
made just seven starts for the first team.
Team mates Danny Gabbidon and Carlton Cole have both come under fire in
recent weeks for messages aired via the popular social network, with the
pair being fined a combined sum of £26,000 by the FA as a result.
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Parker puts Liverpool and Spurs interest to one side
Published 23:01 14/05/11 By MirrorFootball
The Mirror
Scott Parker has admitted he has tried to block out all thoughts about his
future until West Ham's Premier League fate is finally sealed. With
Tottenham and Liverpool both believed to be interested in the England
midfielder, Parker – who is valued at around £8 million – will be a wanted
man. He said: "I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought about where I'll be
next season. It's natural you have those thoughts because the reality is
that I have a wife and a family.
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Hammers relegation will force fire sale of EIGHT players
Published 23:01 14/05/11 By Paul Smith - EXCLUSIVE
The Mirror
West Ham's potential relegation will spark an exodus of EIGHT key players as
the club deals with the cost of the drop. The ramifications of relegation to
the Championship have been assessed inside Upton Park. And the crucial fact
is the Hammers could be forced to completely re-build in the summer as their
star players prepare to jump ship and move on. Scott Parker is their hottest
property. He will inevitably be offered a number of opportunities to stay in
the top flight by clubs ready to meet a £10million valuation for the England
international midfielder and newly-crowned Footballer of the Year.
Mark Noble, rated in the £8m class, has already sparked approaches from two
Premier League clubs. They will be back in for him if the Hammers slide out
of the top flight. England keeper Robert Green has admitted he will review
his future in the summer, too. To add to the Hammers' woes, striker Demba Ba
and midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger have already instructed their agents to
find them new clubs in event of the drop. And the likes of Matthew Upson,
Danny Gabbidon, Jonathan Spector, Kieron Dyer, Zavon Hines, Lars Jacobsen,
Anthony Edgar and Victor Obina, who is currently on loan from Inter Milan,
are all out of contract. They will have the opportunity to walk away as free
agents or face the prospect of new deals on reduced terms to reflect the
club's lower status.
Wayne Bridge, who was brought in on loan in January, will return to
Manchester City. Relegation will ensure there will be no permanent deal for
the former England left-back. Aside from being weighed down by enormous
debt, the club will also be looking to appoint a new manager following the
abject reign of Avram Grant. The ongoing uncertainty over the future of Neil
Warnock at QPR will make the king of promotions a prime target among a list
that includes the out-of-work ex-Newcastle boss Chris Hughton, Cardiff's
Dave Jones and Blackpool boss Ian Holloway. The club will try to persuade
Martin O'Neill to replace Grant if they manage a miracle and escape
relegation. Co-owner David Sullivan admitted: "The financial implications of
relegations don't bare thinking about. It's a nightmare scenario and means
we well probably have to inject a loan of between £20m and £40m. "Relegation
comes at an enormous cost. To say it's disastrous under the current
financial state of the club is an understatement. "I have been relegated
three times before and gained automatic promotion the following season. But
this will hurt the most. "We never envisaged being in this position. I can
barely sleep at night worrying about this."
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West Ham United's years of shambolic mismanagement have left club on the
brink of 'Armageddon'
By Duncan White 11:00PM BST 14 May 2011
Follow Duncan White on Twitter
It is a sunny day in Docklands in early September 2006 and Carlos Tévez is
in a Canary Wharf hotel speaking at a press conference ahead of Argentina's
friendly with Brazil at the Emirates. The world's media is in attendance but
the questions are not about the upcoming clash of South America's great
football nations but about West Ham United. The signing of Tévez, and his
compatriot Javier Mascherano, was a remarkable coup. With West Ham having
only been denied the FA Cup the previous season by Steven Gerrard's heroics,
these spectacular signings appeared to presage a redevelopment of this most
traditional of clubs, a modernisation to reflect that of the steel and glass
regeneration of the docks outside. Two months later and Bjorgolfur
Gudmundsson, the Icelandic billionaire, bought the club and the talk was of
getting into the Champions League. Five years on and West Ham's players will
walk out on to the pitch of the DW stadium knowing that they must beat Wigan
to retain even a chance of staying in the Premier League. If they fail, then
David Sullivan, the co-owner, believes it will take up to £40 million in
loans just to keep the club in business.
"The fans should know this club is in a worse financial position than any
other in the country," he said this week. In the past he has described the
prospect of relegation as "absolutely horrendous – like Armageddon." Well,
it was a terrible film. The roots of this crisis can be traced back to that
sunny day in September five years ago. The disastrous twists and turns of
the Tévez affair have been well documented: West Ham are literally still
paying for it (there are apparently two further instalments of the £21
million compensation to Sheffield United to come). The accounts show that in
the last four years, West Ham paid £51.1 million in "exceptional items" –
that means compensation and legal fees, the majority of which related to the
Tévez case. That's effectively three seasons' worth of match day revenue
poured down the drain.
Yet it was in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and the City of London that
West Ham's true undoing was hatched. The global economic collapse was
particularly destructive in Iceland and Gudmundsson went bust and with that,
West Ham were pushed to the precipice. In 2006, West Ham made a profit. The
team which Alan Pardew led first to promotion then to the FA Cup final had
finished ninth. The wage bill was £30.9 million. Two years later that wage
bill had more than doubled to £63.3 million. In the 2008-09 season,
according to Deloitte, they had the eighth highest wage bill in the Premier
League. They have made a loss every year since 2006.
The financial crash would have always hurt West Ham but the Icelandic owners
placed them in a recklessly precarious position. The chairman, Eggert
Magnusson, reportedly operated without a budget.
It has been estimated that Freddie Ljungberg and Kieron Dyer together cost
the club close to £34 million in total. Again, to put that in context,
that's pretty much how much West Ham make from filling Upton Park for two
full seasons. Two full seasons spent on two players. Within two years, West
Ham had been distorted from a profit making club into what David Gold
described as a "car crash" when he and Sullivan took over. There have been
some impressive efforts to staunch the flow of cash out of West Ham. The
wage bill had been reduced to £50 million last season and, at the end of
this campaign Dyer and Matthew Upson are out of contract.
If Scott Parker is also sold then the three highest earners will be off the
wage bill and £10 million a year will be saved.
With the Olympic stadium allowing the eventual sale of Upton Park (and
bringing higher match-day revenue), there was some hope that the club could
be brought back into line. The problem is that further cuts were needed just
to get fit for Premier League purpose and start addressing some of the
club's debt (some £35 million of loans are due for repayment in August).
With roughly 60 per cent of the club's revenue coming from TV rights,
relegation will mean completely gutting the place. The £48 million over four
years in parachute payments would take the edge off losing the Sky money but
there will have to be a drastic cut in wages. Whoever is in charge will have
to oversee a wholesale restructuring of the squad. Maybe that's not such a
bad thing. When Lee Dixon paid a recent visit to the training ground he
described what he saw as "a total shambles". "Players were arguing with each
other, others weren't trying, some were sulking," he said. Avram Grant was
appointed by these owners but has then been undermined by first their
pursuit of Martin O'Neill and then some of their public statements.
Even so, if the players are no longer working for him, then that is a dismal
failure. The game at the DW stadium should give a clear indication.
Relegation-fear muddies the mind. Whether they are relegated or manage to
cling on, the club have to break out of the cycle of costly short term-ism.
The likes of Benni McCarthy and Robbie Keane are typical of this kind of
signing, brought in under the misguided impression that they will keep the
club up.
Magnusson's excesses were unforgivable but West Ham's transfer policy
remains erratic. All of which points to a lack of understanding to what kind
of a club West Ham want to be. The fear of demotion has stopped them
thinking of what kind of club they want to be in two, five or 10 years time.
Who is in charge of transfer policy? At the moment a significant number of
deals are done through the agent Barry Silkman. While a friend of Sullivan
he does not work for the club and several of the deals he has been party to,
including the appointment of Grant, have clearly not come off.
They need to appoint someone to run the club's football strategy, to work
alongside Karren Brady, the chief executive, Tony Carr the academy director
and whoever is coach next season. They need someone to bring stability and
vision to the club. Ultimately, once weaned off the highly-paid mercenaries,
West Ham have to get back to what they have always done best. When the
players emerge from the tunnel at Upton Park they run across a slogan that
announces this club as the academy of football. West Ham needs to make good
on that again.
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The truth about Grant: good managers do not relegate big clubs
Gold and Sullivan should have been ruthless and removed the manager.
Instead, another 'golden generation' face the dreaded drop
By Tim Rich
Sunday, 15 May 2011
The Independent
One by one they walked off, the golden generation. Jermain Defoe shirtless;
Joe Cole man of a match he would never wish to remember; Paolo Di Canio
staring straight ahead, perhaps contemplating his pledge to commit suicide
if West Ham were relegated. In the middle, eyes cast down, was Trevor
Brooking, the man who epitomised all the grace and dignity of Upton Park,
who had offered himself as manager after Glenn Roeder had collapsed in his
office suffering from a brain tumour. They had taken 22 points from their
last 11 matches and it was not enough.
Up in the stands at St Andrew's were David Gold and David Sullivan, who in
2003 were owners of Birmingham City but had been brought up West Ham fans;
Gold amid what he called the "stench of poverty" of London's East End,
Sullivan, further out in Hornchurch. Now they stand where Brooking once
stood, at the helm of a West Ham side, perhaps not as glittering as that
one, preparing for the electric chill of relegation.
Neither was at Manchester City a fortnight ago, nor was the vice-chairman
Karren Brady. Gold and Brady had reasonable excuses, one was in hospital
recovering from septicaemia, the other celebrating her daughter's 15th
birthday. Sullivan might have travelled to Manchester but said it would have
done no good as he could not "influence the result". He donated his travel
costs to charity. Today there will be 34 coaches, paid for by the club,
travelling to Wigan, full of supporters who will not be able to influence
the result. Anything other than victory will see West Ham, already laden
with £80m of debt, go down.
The PR of a struggling club is serene optimism. Jonathan Spector told West
Ham United TV that he would be targeting "six points from six as West Ham
seek to pull off perhaps the greatest escape in their history". He could
hardly have targeted anything else but the sounds from the boardroom at
Upton Park, which like the training ground at Chadwell Heath is owned by the
banks, have been universally pessimistic.
When Birmingham were relegatedin 2008, Brady remarked that selling Emile
Heskey might be sufficient to stave off the creditors, but now the mood has
an apocalyptic feel to it. As early as 28 April, after their 3-0 defeatby
Chelsea, Sullivan publicly rated their chances of survival at "between 25
and 30 per cent". He added: "This club is in a worse financial position than
any other in the country", which seems an exaggeration when viewed from
Plymouth, whose players have not been paid in months.
"All the club's debts are football-related and the bank debts are secured on
the stadium and the training ground," he said. "There is no possibility of a
way out through administration." Brady said that Gold and Sullivan had
"dreams the size of whales" when they took over West Ham last year,
acknowledging they were now tadpole-like.
Given that their final two fixtures see them play Wigan, who they have
beaten in four of their last five meetings, and Sunderland, who have lost
their last four matches at the Boleyn Ground, there are straws to cling to.
However, before receiving his Footballer of the Year award on Thursday
night, Scott Parker said: "I would be lying if I said we had a good
opportunity of surviving."
Gold and Sullivan stated they would take full responsibility should West Ham
fail. That responsibility runs very deep and starts with the appointment of
Avram Grant. This time last year, Grant was preparing for an FA Cup final in
the wake of relegation. He had managed a financially-ruined Portsmouth with
dignity. He had come within one penalty kick of giving Roman Abramovich what
he craved, a European Cup won in Moscow.
However, good managers do not relegate big clubs. Since the Premier League's
inception there have been seven authentically big teams to have been
relegated. Three – Nottingham Forest in 1993, West Ham in 2003 and Newcastle
two years ago – were run by men afflicted by alcoholism or serious illness
(Brian Clough, Roeder and Joe Kinnear). Two – Blackburn in 1999 and Leeds in
2004 – by men who had either never managed beforeor who had essentially
retired from front-line football (Brian Kidd and Eddie Gray).
Where does that leave Grant? When removing Gianfranco Zola, whose campaign
total of 35 points would have seen West Ham relegated, Gold and Sullivan
were accused of a ruthless lack of sentiment, but with Grant, they have not
been ruthless enough.
There are some West Ham fans who wonder if Mark Hughes would have been a
better choice and there are many who wonder why they did not go through with
their plan to appoint Martin O'Neill in January.
It was botched like an African military coup and, if Brady, Gold and
Sullivan knew anything about O'Neill, it should have been that he has a low
embarrassment threshold and likes total control. At Upton Park he would
probably have got neither. It is almost certain that none of the clubs that
changed managers mid-season will be relegated. Had they waited they might
have got Roy Hodgson.
Eight years ago, the golden generation fled Upton Park – Michael Carrick to
Tottenham, Di Canio to Charlton, David James to Manchester City, Cole to
Chelsea. Defoe handed in a transfer request less than 24 hours after
relegation, a piece of tactlessness for which he has not been forgiven in
east London.
The names of Green, Hitzlsperger,Noble and Parker may soon be removed from
West Ham shirts. They may not be a golden generation or even silver but they
don't deserve to be the base metal they have become.
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David Gold confident West Ham can recover from relegation
Chairman admits club 'need a small miracle' to stay up
Co-owner gives no guarantees about Avram Grant's future
Press Association
The Observer, Sunday 15 May 2011
West Ham United's co-owner David Gold has assured supporters the club will
look to bounce straight back if, as expected, they go down from the Premier
League. Relegation will be confirmed if Avram Grant's side fail to beat
Wigan at the DW Stadium on Sunday.
Relegation will cost Gold and his business partner David Sullivan more than
£40m, but the former Birmingham City chairman insists dropping into the
Championship will not be catastrophic. "I am not confident [we will stay
up]. We need a small miracle," he said.
"We have budgeted for the worst. We have planned for the worst and hope for
the best. We are confident we can put together a good squad in the event we
are relegated."
"We are not relegated yet, we have two games to go but I want to assure our
fans so they know that in the event that the worst comes to the worst that
we will do everything in our power to ensure we come straight back."
Asked about Grant's future, Gold replied: "Well, it is such a massive,
massive thing. The difference between the Championship and the Premier
League is huge ... you have to wait and sit down at a time when you know
exactly where you are. That is when you sit down, as we have done over the
past 18 years. We have sat down with our managers at the end of the season
and that is what we will do here."
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Avram Grant 'understands' why Robert Green may quit England
'After the World Cup he didn't get any chance with England'
West Ham manager advises keeper to keep fighting for place
Jamie Jackson
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011 00.07 BST
Avram Grant says he could understand if Robert Green declines the
opportunity to play for England again. The Israeli takes his West Ham United
side to Wigan Athletic this afternoon knowing they have to win to retain any
realistic hope of avoiding relegation with Green, who has been one of his
better players this season, reportedly thinking about retirement from
international football.
Grant said: "Yes, I understand [this]. Rob is a very intelligent person with
good character. Not many goalkeepers can do what he did after the World Cup
and start the season not good [with] everybody criticising him, and now
nobody is talking about his quality. Since then [the World Cup] he didn't
get any chance [with England], so I understand why he is thinking of this if
[he is]. My advice is for him to keep fighting for his place."
Ben Foster, the Birmingham City goalkeeper, announced last week that he was
taking a break from international football. He joins Blackburn Rovers' Paul
Robinson and Aston Villa's Luke Young, who have retired permanently from
England in recent seasons.
Is Grant surprised that more and more players appear to be opting out from
England? "I am very surprised because you can be angry about the coach, you
can be angry about the kit-man, you can be angry about anyone [but] when you
are playing for your country it is more important than anything," Grant
said. "You need to carry on with this. I understand when a player like Rob
Green says to himself: 'They don't use me, why do I need to be there?' But
[regarding] other players, I do not understand."
While insisting he is not seeking excuses, Grant pointed to a number of
factors to explain why his side have barely been out of the bottom three all
season. "Since January we had a better squad than last year but we also need
to remember that there is no Hull City, with respect, and no Burnley, and no
team that was under administration [Portsmouth], so the league is more
strong than last year – the teams at the bottom [last season] were very,
very weak," he said. "You saw Hull, you saw Burnley and Portsmouth [all of
which were relegated], you see where they are now: they are not even
fighting to come back and they were in the Premier League.
"Unfortunately, we lost almost all of the midfield for the last month [Scott
Parker, Mark Noble, Gary O'Neil] apart from Thomas [Hitzlsperger]. Last year
Manchester United lost Wayne Rooney and they lost [in] the Champions League.
We had injury after injury [and] there were a lot of financial problems
[West Ham are around £80m in debt]."
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West Ham legend Hurst: Decline began when selling to Icelanders
tribalfootball.com
May 15, 2011, 5:05 pm
West Ham United legend Sir Geoff Hurst feels the club has been in decline
since they sold out to the Icelanders. Discussing the prospect of relegation
and the expected firesale, Hurst wrote n his column for the London Evening
Standard: "The loss of players like Parker, Matthew Upson or Robert Green
would simply be one of the consequences of a long, slow decline that started
at Upton Park when the former chairman Terry Brown sold out to an Icelandic
consortium. "Back then, West Ham still adhered to standards set down in the
Ron Greenwood-John Lyall era when Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and myself
helped the club enjoy a period of 20 unbroken years in the old First
Division. "The Hammers produced a conveyor belt of good youngsters and until
a decade ago were regularly turning out players of the calibre of Rio
Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick. "Stability and
caution underpinned the club but in the last 10 years we've had six
different managers at Upton Park and relegation would almost certainly add
the hapless Grant to that list. "Furthermore, we've had bewildering transfer
policies that have allowed the club to invest unrealistic fees and salaries
in players like Kieron Dyer and Freddie Ljungberg."
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