Friday, August 9

Daily WHUFC News - Get a load of this!

Carlton Cole 'hits brace in for Tottenham' in behind-closed-doors friendly
Thursday 8 Aug 2013 10:17 pm
Metro.co.uk

Tottenham could be set for a shock move for free agent Carlton Cole, after
the striker was reported to have featured in a behind-closed-doors friendly
for Andre Villas-Boas' side.

Twitter was awash with rumours that former West Ham striker Cole, who was
released from Upton Park at the end of last season, hit two goals against
non-league Enfield Town at Spurs' training ground today, with record signing
Roberto Soldado also reportedly bagging a hat-trick.

But it is unclear whether the 29-year-old is being lined up for a place in
Villas-Boas' squad next term, or whether he is simply maintaining his
fitness in the hope a top-flight club will move for him before the start of
the season.
Carlton Cole 'hits brace in Spurs friendly'Carlton Cole has been without a
club since the end of last season (Picture: AP)
Reports last month suggested newly promoted Crystal Palace were keen on
taking Cole to Selhurst Park, but any potential deal seems to have fallen by
the wayside.

As for Tottenham, they are still on the lookout for a new frontman after
Clint Dempsey quit White Hart Lane to join Seattle Sounders last weekend,
while Emmanuel Adebayor could yet be on his way out of the club.

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Daily WHUFC News - 9th August 2013

Home draw for Hammers
WHUFC.com
West Ham United will face Cheltenham Town in the second round of the Capital
One Cup
08.08.2013

West Ham United have been handed a home draw against Cheltenham Town in the
second round of the Capital One Cup. The League Two Robins booked their
place in round two by pulling off a 4-3 extra-time victory over Crawley Town
from the division above on Tuesday. They will now face the Hammers, who
enter at this stage of the competition. The game will be played in the week
commencing 26 August, following the Hammers' Barclays Premier League trip to
Newcastle United. Sam Allardyce's men defeated Crewe Alexandra in the second
round of the Capital One Cup last term, before exiting the competition at
the next phase to Wigan Athletic. Cheltenham Town, managed by former
Birmingham City player Mark Yates, finished fifth in League Two last season
and drew their opening fixture this term 2-2 with Burton Albion last
weekend.

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Health checks for Hammers
WHUFC.com
West Ham United's players have undergone a series of tests to make sure they
are in tip-top condition
08.08.2013

West Ham United Head of Sports Medicine and Sport Science Andy Rolls and his
team had a busy time recently as the players underwent their pre-season
health scanning. Sam Allardyce's squad were subjected to a range of tests,
from examinations by the Club optician and dentist, to assessments of their
balance, strength and co-ordination by sports scientists from Belgian-based
SpartaNova. A state-of-the-art DEXA scanner was also brought to the Hammers'
Chadwell Heath training base to record levels of body fat, bone and muscle
composition. It all adds up to give the management a clear picture of where
the players are at this stage of pre-season, and Rolls explained to West Ham
TV how crucial that monitoring is. "It's vital for several reasons," he
said. "It's a hectic day and the coaches have been excellent. The manager
likes to know where they are strength and fitness-wise, and we want to know
how their parameters that stop them getting injured are - muscle length,
muscle strength, balance, co-ordination, we want to measure all of those
things. "Also, there's a performance element as well, and we put it
altogether into an algorithm we've developed over many years, and the more
information we give this algorithm we more information we get out, and then
we can gear their gym work towards preventing injuries. "There will always
be some injuries, contact and things like that, which you can't legislate
for, but we want to decrease the injuries that we can, that we have some
influence over."

Every member of Big Sam's first-team squad was assessed over a range of
stations over an entire morning or afternoon at the training ground. Rolls
explained the benefits of each station, starting with SpartaNova: "Quality
research over the last 20 years has given us certain tests that give us
certain outcomes that we can work on to improve players' balance, strength
and flexibility, because it highlights players' weaknesses. We can then work
on them over the season to give them the best possible ability to play well
and avoid injury. "We got the dentist in because there's a lot of
correlation between dental health and overall wellbeing, and we look at
that. It's good for the dentist to see everyone once a year. We don't want a
player missing a game because of toothache, an infection or a wisdom tooth
problem."

"We also got the optician in. It's rare he picks something up, but it's
something we need to tick-off and make sure we haven't missed anything
simple." Part of the Chadwell Heath car park was also taken over by a truck
containing the DEXA scanner, which Rolls described as being 'quite unusual':
"It's a scan of the body to look at body composition, the percentage of body
fat, muscle mass and certain structures of the bone. We're also entering
into research with a rugby club at looking at joint structure with the DEXA
scan. "That's interesting, because we can build on this learning environment
we're trying to create to provide the players with the best possible care we
can."

Testing is not something which just occurs during pre-season, however, and
Rolls explained that the players would continue to be monitored closely over
the duration of the 2013/14 campaign. "Some screening is done every morning,
so players would play on a Saturday and on a Monday morning we would do two
or three tests to see how they've recovered. We then do them again on a
Tuesday, and perhaps again on a Thursday so the pre-season tests give us our
benchmarks for the season ahead."

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Is Parlo in for Mark Noble?
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 8th August 2013
By: Staff Writer

Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio is being linked with a move for West Ham's
Mark Noble, after he revealed he was searching for an English midfielder.
Di Canio, who left West Ham a year before Noble made his first team debut
for the club in August 2004 told the Gazette that his main target was a
domestic, central midfielder - something the Italian considers as key to his
team's hopes for next season. "The club is working on the two full-backs but
more important to me is the need to get a key player in central midfield -
someone who's English," he said. "He needs to be English with a physical
presence, because we have analysed that is a need we have. "English, because
he needs to know English football inside out. And also a player with very
good quality - because we want to play attractive football which gets
results. I hope it can be done. I know they are working to make it happen."

Noble, who hails from Canning Town has been with West Ham since he was a
schoolboy. In September of last year he signed a new three-year contract
with the club after further speculation regarding his future. Speaking at
the time, Noble said: "Everyone knows I love playing at West Ham. I enjoy my
football here so it was just a case of coming to an agreement. I'm delighted
now it's all signed and sealed. "Playing for West Ham has been a
rollercoaster and I've been through two promotions, a relegation and a
'Great Escape', but it's been thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to the
next few years of my career here."

Noble has made a total of 267 first team appearances for West Ham since
making his debut nine years ago this month, at an average of 30 games per
season. He has scored a total of 30 goals, the majority of which came from
the penalty spot.

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Hammers to face Cheltenham
KUMb.com
Filed: Thursday, 8th August 2013
By: Staff Writer

West Ham will face Cheltenham Town in the second round of the Capital One
Cup. United, who were knocked out of the competition at the second hurdle
last year when beaten 4-1 at home by Wigan Athletic face the League Two side
at the Boleyn Ground in the week beginning August 26th. The Robins, who made
the League Two play-off semi finals last season (before being knocked out by
Northampton) came from 3-1 behind in the first round of the Capital One Cup
to beat Crawley 4-3 after extra time. The meeting represents the first
occasion on which West Ham and Cheltenham will have met in a competitive
fixture.

Full Second Round Draw

Carlisle Utd vs Leicester City
Doncaster Rovers vs Leeds Utd
Nottingham Forest vs Millwall
Sunderland vs MK Dons
West Brom vs Newport County
Bristol City vs Crystal Palace
Peterborough vs Reading
Barnsley vs Southampton
Burton vs Fulham
Burnley vs Preston
Liverpool vs Notts County
Norwich vs Bury
Leyton Orient vs Hull City
Everton vs Stevenage
Stoke City vs Walsall
Huddersfield vs Charlton Ath
Aston Villa vs Rotherham
Tranmere vs Bolton Wan
Morecambe vs Newcastle Utd
QPR vs Swindon
Derby County vs Brentford
Watford vs Bournemouth
Yeovil vs Birmingham City
Accrington Stanley vs Cardiff City
West Ham Utd vs Cheltenham Town

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