Daily WHUFC News - 7th September 2012

Reid ready for World Cup duty
WHUFC.com
Winston Reid will play his part in New Zealand's 2014 FIFA World Cup
qualifying campaign on Friday
06.09.2012

Winston Reid is hoping his fantastic form for West Ham United can boost New
Zealand's chances of qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Reid, who
memorably scored the Kiwis' first goal at the 2010 tournament in South
Africa, returns to international duty when the All Whites take on New
Caledonia on Friday. The centre-back jumped on a plane hours after helping
West Ham to defeat Fulham 3-0 in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday
before boarding further flights from Melbourne to Auckland and the New
Zealand capital to the Pacific island. Having missed the OFC Nations Cup -
where New Caledonia knocked the All Whites out at the quarter-final stage -
and the London 2012 Olympic Games, the 24-year-old is keen to start the
third round of Oceania World Cup qualifying with a victory. "It's a football
game like all others. We have to go out and win, we have to go out and win
all our games," Reid told TV New Zealand's ONE News at Auckland Airport
before boarding the plane to Noumea. "No game is easy, whether it's playing
against France or New Caledonia or whatever, so we're going to have to be
ready and we'll have to do our best and we have to win all our games because
we have to go back to another World Cup."

Reid is expected to partner Queens Park Rangers centre-back Ryan Nelsen
against New Caledonia and again in next Tuesday's qualifier with Solomon
Islands in Auckland. The Hammers No2 is hoping his domestic form and the
strong competition for places at the Boleyn Ground will stand him in good
stead when he represents his country again. "I've had a full campaign in the
Championship and luckily enough I've been able to start this season as well
and it's going well and I'm looking forward to it and just enjoying my
football at the moment. "I'm more mature in my all-round game, there were
decisions before that were not too good, but now I'm making better
decisions. "You have to play for your place every week and at training as
well. There's nothing granted and if you have a couple of bad games you know
you might be on the bench so that's how football is."

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Dev Squad to take on Dev's squad
WHUFC.com
The Development Squad will face Alan Devonshire's Braintree Town in a
friendly on Monday evening
06.09.2012

West Ham United's Development Squad will face Alan Devonshire's Braintree
Town in a friendly on Monday evening. Ian Hendon's side will make the short
trip to Essex to face the Blue Square Bet Premier team at Cressing Road
Stadium, with kick-off at 7.45pm. The Development Squad have made an
encouraging start to the 2012/13 season, winning two of their opening three
Barclays U21 Premier League matches. Braintree, meanwhile, go into the
weekend eleventh in the Blue Square Bet Premier table and on a three-match
unbeaten run. After defeating Woking and Tamworth and drawing with
Kidderminster Harriers in their previous three league matches, the Iron
travel to Macclesfield Town on Saturday.

Former Hammers and England midfielder Devonshire has been a revelation since
taking charge at Braintree in the summer of 2011. Last season, despite
working with one of the smallest budgets in the division, the Essex club
finished 12th in the table. West Ham's squad for the game is expected to
feature senior players in need of game-time and a host of young
professionals, including recent first-team debutants George Moncur and
Matthias Fanimo. One-time Braintree loanee Dominic Vose could also be
involved.

Monday's game will not be all ticket. Tickets will not be available for sale
prior to the game and spectators should pay at turnstiles 1-4, with all
Adult tickets priced £10, OAP/Under-16s tickets priced £5 and Under-11s
tickets priced £3.
Limited parking is available at the ground. priced at £2 per car, with no
vehicles allowed entry into the car park after 6.30pm to avoid congestion.
For directions to Cressing Road Stadium, click here.
For further information, please contact Braintree Town FC on 01376 345617.

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Turgott ready to take next step
WHUFC.com
Promising winger Blair Turgott should make his England Under-19 debut in
Germany on Thursday
06.09.2012

Blair Turgott feels ready to take the next step for club and country. The
West Ham United winger is set to make his England Under-19 debut in an
international friendly in Germany on Thursday, continuing his record of
having played for his country at every age-group level. At the same time,
after impressing for the Hammers first-team in pre-season, the 18-year-old
is targeting a maiden appearance for Sam Allardyce's side before too long.
This afternoon, Turgott is hoping to feature alongside West Ham colleague
Dan Potts when England take on Germany in Hamburg in a warmup game for their
UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round fixtures with Estonia,
Faroe Islands and Ukraine at the end of September. "It's obviously good to
be called-up by the Under-19s for the first time," he told whufc.com "I got
called-up by the Under-16s when I was younger and you hope that it isn't
going to be a one-off and thankfully it wasn't "It is always great to
represent your country at any level, so it'll be good to keep that run
going. I've played at every level and I just want to go all the way. "It is
very pleasing to be called-up, because I haven't played any first-team
football yet. People say Under-19s is a hard squad to get into because that
is when players start to break into first teams for their clubs, but
hopefully I can show what I can do with England and my chance will come at
West Ham. "The European Under-19 Championship is the big one. We'll be
looking forward to that come the end of the season, if we qualify, and
obviously there are a lot of games between now and then where I can stake a
claim to be in the squad. I can only work hard when I go away and keep
playing well for West Ham."

The teenager showed why he is rated so highly by producing eye-catching
performances in the pre-season fixtures at Oxford United. Rot-Weiss Erfurt
and Energie Cottbus - setting up a goal for Ricardo Vaz Te at Erfurt. While
Turgott was not involved in the Capital One Cup second-round win over Crewe
Alexandra, he believes his form in those pre-season matches and in
Development Squad wins over Reading and Everton have given him an
opportunity to push his way into Sam Allardyce's plans. Having trained and
played with the club's established first-team stars on a regular basis,
Turgott belieevs he possesses the attributes to go all the way to the top -
providing he keeps up the hard work and commitment that have served him so
well in his career to date. "I would like to think I am in the manager's
thoughts. It was obviously good to get the call-up to go to Germany and that
was a great experience for me to be around the boys and see what the manager
wants from the squad. "I've got to keep playing well for the Development
Squad and then I might go out on loan this season and hopefully I'll get
some first-team football. We have started the season well by winning our
opening two matches. "I am still only 18 but I feel ready for the Premier
League. I was watching Southampton the other day on TV and there is a boy
there, James Ward-Prowse, who I have played with for England. Being an
English player, it is great growing up seeing the Premier League because it
makes you want to be the best player you can be. "It's the best place to be
and I don't see why I can't play in the Premier League. I don't feel out of
place when I train with the first-team squad. I'm quite a confident player,
so when I train with them I don't look at names. You can't see it like that.
You just have to play your football."

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Jack's back: West Ham midfielder Collison close to return from knee injury
The Mirror
Jamie McDonald

West Ham midfielder Jack Collison hopes to return to the first team after
the ­international break having finally recovered from a long-term knee
injury. The 23-year-old Wales international missed the start of the season
with the problem, which has afflicted him for the last two years. "I'm
pretty much there or thereabouts," said Collison, who played a big part in
helping the Hammers return to the Premier League. "I just need to get some
minutes under my belt."

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More to come?
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 6th September 2012
By: Reece Bateman

So latest rumours suggest Andy Carroll is out until mid-October, at least.
Terrible news for us fans after watching him make a huge impact on his debut
against Fulham.

Obviously it is bad news, but it could work in the favour of both Carlton
Cole and Modibo Maiga who will now get their chances in the starting XI.
Having watched Carroll's display they may be motivated to go that extra
15-20 per cent to ensure that Big Sam has a difficult decision to make once
Carroll returns.

It may also work in the favour of young Rob Hall who, after making his
Premier League debut against Fulham, will surely be looking to prove to the
management he is also more than capable of pushing for a starting spot in
Big Andy's absence. I think Carlton Cole will be the favourite to replace
Carroll initially but I expect Maiga to play a big role over the coming
weeks.

We're currently linked with ex-Sunderland and Lyon centre half John Mensah.
He is available on a free transfer so can still but signed, however his
appearances since he signed for Lyon in 2008 have been limited to say the
least.

He joined Sunderland on loan in 2009, eventually leaving at the end of the
2011 season, and made 34 league appearances across two seasons. At Lyon he
has appeared just 13 times, incredibly making just 47 league appearances for
both clubs since 2008.

He is an experienced defender, he impressed hugely in the 2010 World Cup
where he captained Ghana to the quarter-finals, however his injury record
alone should be enough to deter us from making an offer, unless it's on a
pay-as-you-play basis.

Over the last few seasons we have had more than our share of injury prone
players who have drained the club of money, we should have learned by now
that the risk simply isn't worth taking. Perhaps this is why West Ham never
made a move for Michael Owen, who has just recently signed for Stoke after
being released by Manchester United.

At the beginning of the summer, when Owen was first available, Hammers
favourite Tony Cottee said West Ham should snap him up suggesting that 'you
know he guarantees reaching double figures in goals, which would take the
pressure off the rest of the players.' Did Sam and the board miss a trick by
not signing Owen up on a contract for just one season? If you think about
it, we could have had Owen feeding off Andy Carroll's knock downs and flick
on's, it could have been quite a potent partnership.

I don't know whether it is possible to bring any more players in, free
agents or not, as the club has confirmed their squad list for the first half
of the season, I'm unsure on Premier League rules regarding this. Free
agents currently linked to the club, like Nigel Reo-Coker and James McFadden
along with Mensah, may have to wait slightly longer for their chance in the
Premier League again.

Does the West Ham squad need its ranks bolstering with a few freebies? Is
there room for strengthening still, or would we simply be signing players
just to get our squad list up to 25 players?

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Carroll is Wanted More at West Ham, Claims Hammers Chairman
David Gold hints that Carroll was left to feel unwanted at Liverpool
By ADRIAN BACK: Subscribe to Adrian's RSS feed
September 6, 2012 3:23 PM GMT
Ibtimes.co.uk

West Ham United chairman David Gold believes that Andy Carroll will find it
easier to adapt to life at Upton Park as he will be immediately accepted by
everyone involved at the club. Carroll endured a difficult spell on
Merseyside as he struggled to win a place in the starting line-up in his 18
month spell with the club. The expectation placed on Carroll after his
£35million transfer fee did not make it easy for the England forward and it
was decided by manager Brendan Rodgers that he was no longer needed at the
club this season. Having been subsequently sent on a season-long loan to
West Ham, Carroll impressed on his debut as he helped the Hammers secure a
3-0 win over Fulham. While he received rave reviews for his performance,
Liverpool were criticised for allowing the striker to leave without a
replacement arriving. The lack of a striker was emphasised as Liverpool
were beaten 2-0 at home by Arsenal last Sunday in a game in which they could
do very little to change the game with a lack of attacking options on the
bench. Carroll's debut was a far cry from a player who underperformed at
Liverpool and Gold believes the major difference if that he is wanted by
everyone involved with the club. "[sic] The manager of WHU [West Ham United]
wants AC [Andy Carroll] the players want him, the captain wants him, the
fans want him, the owners want him. That's the difference," tweeted Gold.
The 23-year-old picked up a hamstring injury on his West Ham debut and will
now miss the England's World Cup qualifying games against Moldova and
Ukraine after being ruled out for around six weeks.

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Collison desperate for West Ham return
By talkSPORT | Thursday, September 6, 2012

West Ham midfielder Jack Collison is hoping to make a first-team return
after the international break after finally recovering from a long-term knee
injury. The 23-year-old has been forced to miss the start of the season
after failing to recover from the problem which has affected him for the
last two years. The Wales international played a major role in helping the
club gain promotion into the Premier League and is desperate to play in the
top flight. Collison has now resumed training and hopes to be back in action
by the end of September. The Hammers midfielder said: "I'm pretty much there
or thereabouts myself now. I just need to get some minutes under my belt and
then try to give the manager a few headaches. "If the boys continue to play
like they did against Fulham then it's going to be hard to get back into the
team. It's a challenge I'm looking forward to."

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