Daily WHUFC News - 30th September 2015

Cheik's crazy suit
WHUFC.com

Cheikhou Kouyate was the talk of the dressing room after he showed off his unique fashion sense at the official team photo day at the Boleyn Ground. ​Kouyate is always full of laughter and shocked his team-mates when he turned his suit jacket inside out and was happy to pose with a different look to the rest of his team-mates. The West Ham United midfielder made sure he restored his Club suit to its more traditional look as the players lined up for the official Apsley team photo. But that didn't stop the rest of his team-mates giving him plenty of stick when the formalities were finished and the banter looks set to continue over the coming days. Defender Carl Jenkinson said: "He took it well and laughs at everything. I think it will dominate the dressing room over the next few days. "There is a great team spirit in the squad and that comes with wins and playing good football. It is always good for morale and there is a great group of lads here."
Winger Michail Antonio said: "It was hilarious. We are not going to let that go easily and he will get more stick over the coming weeks."

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Bonds thrilled to be back at the Boleyn
WHUFC.com

West Ham legend Billy Bonds is backing Slaven Bilic to have a successful final season at the Boleyn Ground and sees no reason why the team cannot secure a top half finish. Bonds was back at the Boleyn Ground once again on Saturday to see the 2-2 draw with Norwich and has been impressed with the Club's start to the season. Victories over Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have helped the Hammers move up to third in the table and the arrival of players such as Dimitri Payet, Victor Moses and Manuel Lanzini have helped transform the team over the summer. Bonds, who made an incredible 799 appearances for the Club during a memorable 21-year playing spell is confident the good run of form can continue and hopes to see the Club pushing for a place in the top ten. Bonds said: "It has been a great start for the Club and most of the signings have worked. "Moses looked fantastic against Newcastle and we have been playing on the break away from home which has suited our style. "We have got a lot of pace upfront and it is a great start. We have won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and the way we have been playing it has been a great start to the season. "Everybody at the start of the season would have said our main aim is to make sure we stay in the Premier League, but with the start we have had you would be disappointed if we didn't finish in the top half of the table and that is achievable now with the players we have got."

Bonds always receives a hero's welcome on his return to the Club and says he will be full of emotions as the Club prepare to play their final ever game at the Boleyn Ground against Swansea on May 7. Bonds added: "I have got great memories of the place. I can still see Bobby Moore with his hands on hips taking a breather around the 18-year box and Keith Robson scoring that goal against Eintracht Frankfurt and that was a fabulous night. "I have such great memories. When I first arrived at the Club I was like a scared rabbit. "I had been at Charlton and then to come to West Ham where they had three World Cup winners was fantastic and you could only get better as a player coming to a Club like this. "I played under great managers like Ron Greenwood and John Lyall and they were great coaches. "I played with so many great players like Devonshire and Brooking, Lampard, Hurst, Peters and Moore. I will probably get in trouble for not naming some of the other players!! "There were so many great players and I had some great times there. The fans were absolutely fantastic and they want people to put in a shift and if they do that, they will get behind you. "It has always been a great place to work for all the time I did and I hope that continues this season. The crowd deserve and it will be nice to see the Club push on."

Bonds is hoping to make many more visits to the Boleyn Ground this season and reveals how his grandchildren have become major fans of the Club. "It was nice to be back at the Boleyn Ground. I brought the grandchildren over a year ago and they liked it so much that I want to keep bringing them back and want them to become West Ham supporters. "A lot of the people from my time have gone but there are still some people about. Jimmy Frith is a perennial around and has been magnificent for the Club down the years with the youth team and the kids who come through. "There are some other people I know and it is nice to see they are still here. "The West Ham fans have always been great to me. I played my first game at the Boleyn Ground against Sheffield Wednesday and we ended up losing 3-2 even though we went 2-1 up.
"But that was typical West Ham in those days, but the supporters have always been fantastic with me. Wherever I have gone and whatever I have done, I know I am among friends with them. "The grandchildren have really taken to it and the little one even knows the tactics. The big one loves the directors lounge!! But seriously they both love it. "I think they will be supporters in the future and will want to be West Ham fans. The kids definitely want to come back so it looks like I will be a regular back here!"

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Slaven is the man, says Pearce
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 29th September 2015
By: Staff Writer

Former Hammer Ian Pearce has backed Slaven Bilic to lead West Ham to success.

Pearce, who featured for West Ham between 1997 and 2004 was the studio guest on this week's KUMB Podcast (which you may download or stream here). And the ex-centre half firmly believes that Bilic can take West Ham to to new heights.

"I like the fact that there's a togetherness involved in our team at the moment," Pearce told KUMB's Chris Scull and James Longman.

"At the weekend, when they went 2-1 down [against Norwich], in days gone by that would have been the end of it. But they showed resilience and a desire to get back into the game - and that's really important.

"I'd love to think we can just maintain what we're doing. I've always said let's just get to enough points so we stay in this league and then we'll see what happens. But I think this team is a little bit different - I don't think they'll be satisfied with that, I think they'll want to push on."

Pearce, who is currently employed in a scouting capacity by Championship club Brighton & Hove Albion also belives Bilic's reliance upon a core of domestic players will also prove to be vital in the weeks and months ahead.

"You had Jenkinson, Tomkins and Cresswell at the back on Saturday - whilst James Collins is sat there waiting to come on and run through walls for you," he said.

"If you look at Newcastle for example, how do the fans relate to that team? There's hardly any English or British players there to get you excited, apart from Jack Colback. At west Ham you have a core of English and British players who have been there and know what the club means.

"Then you sprinkle it with pace and power - and that's what I love. We look dangerous going forward with Payet - how did we get him? - and we need to make the most of him. It's interesting times, there's some real good players there. strong, powerful boys with good pace."

Whilst he never played alongside Bilic at West Ham - joining the club in October 1997 as a replacement for Marc Rieper, two months after Bilic had left for Everton - Pearce also revealed that West Ham's current manager occasionally returned to the Boleyn to meet his former team mates.

"Slaven came back a few times just to see the lads and he would always be really genuine, really humble and lovely to speak to", added Pearce. "He's a very intelligent man who speaks several languages and as for what he's doing now, long may it continue. I just hope it keeps going the right way."

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SHAMBLES AND CONSISTENCY
By Bobby Shovels 29 Sep 2015 at 08:00
WTID

Last week, I verged into an area I am not used to: optimism. Since that article, we lost against Leicester in the Cup and got an incredibly lucky draw against Norwich. As I thought, my optimism was misguided.

All the worries after the Leicester and Bournemouth games, along with my concerns after the Newcastle match, were still there in abundance on Saturday. I have to say, that opening 30 minutes was utterly dire, worse than anything I saw during the Allardyce era. I honestly don't see how anyone can suggest we are potentials for top six or even top ten on the basis of that first half. Even across the whole game, I don't think we were in the match at all and were constantly chasing shadows, both players and the score line. We should have been 3-1 down by half time. After 90 minutes, we should have lost.

Yes, we got a result in the last minute and we showed resolve. Yet that doesn't take away the fact that in on our fourth season back from the Championship, with a new manager who can apparently take us forward, we are celebrating a last-minute equaliser against…Norwich City? Again, I hear cries of "Norwich City are good on the road" to be added to those who said the same about Leicester whilst in the same breadth stating that Bournemouth are a class act. Stop making excuses. Four points out of 12? Against Leicester, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Norwich? That is relegation form, and if you had been told before the start of the season that that would be our return from our opening four home games, you would have found that unacceptable.

Yes, but look what we did away! At some point we have to ignore those results and ask hard questions about our home form and our results against teams we should be beating. We soon won't have big teams away anymore and we will have to face smaller teams that we clearly struggle against when we play them at home. We've already lost away to Leicester with a very strong team. That's why the Sunderland away game is absolutely huge. What happens when this current West Ham side – so good at playing the big games away but playing poorly against the minnows at home – faces a smaller side away? The only answer any of us can give is: we have no idea.

Against Norwich, bar the last few minutes of the first half, we were awful. In all the Allardyce years, I don't think I ever saw us give away the ball at the back like we did for the Canaries' first goal. Oh, it was just a one-off error, people will cry. Oh, we were unlucky, others will say. No, I'm sorry, it happened against Bournemouth and Leicester and it happened again against Norwich. We need to stop ignoring our deficiencies by simply focusing on three away games. We still have problems, namely that we are inconsistent.

I had a feeling against Norwich that we were almost giving the ball away simply to ensure we could prepare for our counter-attacking prowess. Yes, we once again created a large number of chances relative to our possession (44%) but we are so calamitous on the ball and so lacking in imagination by ourselves; we seem to not create many chances not off the back of opposition mistakes.

I am coming round to Slaven Bilic but there is something so laughable when we cheer "Super Slav" at home when we equalise. Perhaps I am missing the sarcasm here, but to cheer a manager who can get you to equalise twice against a newly-promoted side is embarrassing. End of story, Norwich at home is a three-point match. We seem to think that our home form will get better, but it's going to have to get better against much, much tougher teams. One point from six against two newly-promoted sides. That is worrying. Remember, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all have to come back and play at the Boleyn, and on this form, we won't get any points there.

Sunderland away is a crunch game, in my opinion. If we win, we have at least some vague consistency. If we lose, well, it's relegation worries all over again. We need consistency; we need to win against beatable teams. You don't get in the top ten by having the occasional good result away from home. You need to grind out three points from as many teams as possible.

I understand many supporters see me as overly critical and too much of a pessimist. Yet I feel that blogs like this and beyond need to be more than just an online utopia of gloating and indulgent West Ham fans who constantly sugarcoat the concerns. Of course I am delighted at our away form, but I despair at how better things could be if there was more order and consistency to the team, creating a better points return from home games. Again, four points from our first four home games – against those teams – is just not good enough.

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Gold on ground share 'West Ham is not powerless'
Posted by Hammers Newshound on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
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Hammers fan Carlo Resinelli asked West Ham chairman David Gold "Is it true we are powerless to stop LLDC allowing another football club to share part-time or otherwise?" Gold responded rather cryptically on twitter "West Ham United football club is not powerless. dg " but failed elaborate further what that actually meant. The question comes amid fresh speculation that Spurs could still ask Stadium operator Vinci to share with West Ham if negotiations with the FA over the use of Wembley are not concluded to Daniel Levy's satisfaction. Last week a very highly placed West Ham insider told ClaretandHugh exclusively: "We are tenants, so it could happen. We keep saying we have a good deal, but it's NOT as amazing as people think." "Having said that nobody believes it will happen for a moment. From everything we are hearing and are being told it seems far more likely that they will go to Wembley." "In the very unlikely event of a ground share happening for one season our fixtures will always have priority and the stadium will have the look and feel of West Ham United's home!"

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Hammers new boys head the ratings
Posted by Hugh5outhon1895 on September 29, 2015 in News
C and H

Dimitri Payet has come out joint top in a survey of the new Premier League stars to make most impact this season. But it gets better for of the clubs covered the Hammers are in top place when the impact of their five players – Payet (9), Pedro Obiang (8), Angelo Ogbonna (7), Victor Moses (8) and Manuel Lanzini (8) are rated together. 40 from a possible 50 They come out one point ahead collectively of Manchester United's new signings Anthony Martial, Memphis Dupay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Morgan Schneiderlin. 39 from a possible 50.

Here's what the Mail rating system has to say of our guys:

Dimitri Payet

The £10.7m arrival from Marseille has already proved to be an inspired signing and is a key driving force behind West Ham's excellent start to the season. Scored in the game with Leicester City and twice in the home win over Newcastle United, as well as chipping in with three assists in league competition. Is already looking like a superb piece of Slaven Bilic business. 9/10

Pedro Obiang

The Spanish midfielder played a full part in West Ham's eye-catching wins away to Liverpool and Manchester City, showing he is not afraid of a midfield confrontation and possesses a relentless energy in closing down opposition players. Certainly a positive start to his Hammers career following a £4.4m move from Sampdoria. 8/10

Angelo Ogbonna

A hamstring injury has temporarily put a halt to Ogbonna's momentum at the beginning of the season and there have been good and bad times so far. He was more than a match for Benteke during the 3-0 win at Anfield but also part of the sloppy defensive displays at home to Leicester and Bournemouth. Certainly improving though like most of the Hammers team.7/10

Victor Moses

Moses has certainly made his presence felt in the West Ham forward line since signing on loan from Chelsea on deadline day. Performed superbly on debut in the win over Newcastle United and then opened his account a week later against Manchester City. Looks a fine addition to the team. 8/10

Manuel Lanzini
Bilic ramped up the pressure on Lanzini, the man nicknamed 'the Jewel', by comparing him to David Silva upon arrival at Upton Park. The Argentine produced a classy performance in the 3-0 win at Anfield and looks a good addition to the Hammers midfield, with plenty more to come. 8/10

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Another loss for the winless Academy boys
Posted by Hammers Newshound on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
C and H

Although Elliot Lee scored on Saturday to put the Hammer U21's one nil up in the first half, the Academy youngsters succumbed to yet another defeat after two second half goals by Stoke City meant the match finished a 2-1 loss to West Ham. The Hammers youngsters are still looking for their win of the season with just one point from six games. They remain bottom of division now two points off Brighton and Newcastle.

U21 Team: Howes, Knoyle, Page, Dobson, Chambers, Oxford (Onariase 76), Parfitt-Williams (Brown 81), Cullen, Lee, Browne (Makasi 69), Samuelsen Subs: Pike, Boness

Last week West Ham rewarded Academy Manager and Head of Player Development Coaching Terry Westley with a new five-year contract despite the Development squad not winning a single game this season and getting relegated last season from the Barclays U21 Premier League Division one.

The Dev Squad's next game is against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday 19 October, kick off at Rush Green is 7pm.

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OS ticketing rumour "complete nonsense"
Posted by Hugh5outhon1895 on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
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Love him or hate him you have to hold your hands-up to David Gold for continually appearing on Twitter to face up the 'Good, Bad and Ugly' questions thrown at him. His continual presence on the social network is treated with respect by the vast majority whilst to others it seems like a red rag to a bull and an opportunity of attempting to make a cheap name for themselves at his expense to others. His latest reaction to an inquiry demonstrates again that an enormous amount of patience is needed to keep calm when questions come unbidden into our living rooms via 140 characters or less . It contained both a question and a judgement before the inquiry has been answered – a not uncommon occurrence on Twitter. It is only worth a story here to clear up once and for all one of the many scurrilous stories that is running around about the Olympic Stadium and ticketing arrangements.

One follower wrote: "Being told best seats being reserved for ticket agencies for tourist if true a disgrace."

The response: "This is complete nonsense. dg"

His retort follows hot on the heels of being questioned about transport arrangements into the new stadium to which he responded: "For pete's sake I'm the chairman of West Ham football club not the minister for transport. dg"

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Injury update: Ogbonna's sights set on Blues return
Posted by Hugh5outhon1895 on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
C and H

Angelo Ogbonna is this morning being tipped to return to the West Ham squad that will face champions, Chelsea, at the Boleyn on the 24 October. The former Juventus central defender pulled his hamstring in the 2-0 win over Newcastle and was thought to be out for around four League games. This would have meant a return against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. But although he is making decent progress, the plan will be to ensure he is not rushed back before he is 100 per cent fit – an underlying keynote of Slaven Bilic's management style, as shown with Andy Carroll. And ClaretandHugh was told this morning: "He would probably be ready in time for Selhurst Park, but we aren't into taking chances. Slaven is very careful with the injured lads ."
Our source pointed out that with James Tomkins performing so well alongside Winston Reid, at the heart of defence, there is ample cover at the moment and there is no reason to become over anxious about the situation. Indeed Ogbonna could return just a week before Alex Song is fit to make his seasonal reappearance, as Song is targeting the Watford away match for his eagerly awaited comeback.

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Marseille desperately missing Payet
Posted by Hammers Newshound on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
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Former Olympique Marseille defender Habib Beye says his old club is missing Dimitri Payet. Payet left Marseille for West Ham for £10.7m in the summer, where he was their star player.
"Players like Cabella and Sarr cannot be as decisive as Dimitri Payet was last season, but when you lose a player like Payet, you lose quality, so you cannot deny it," said Beye. The 28-year-old created more chances than any other player in Europe's top five leagues last year. The France international was lethal under Marcelo Bielsa, leading Ligue 1 for assists with 17, while no player in Europe's top five league created more chances than Payet's with 135. Marseille sit in 14th place in the Ligue 1 after 8 games with 8 points, winning two games, drawing tow games and losing four. Meanwhile West Ham sit in third place in the Premier League with Payet scoring 3 goals and making 3 assists so far since the start of the season with the Hammers.

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Fears that Jenks may become "expensive luxury"
Posted by Hugh5outhon1895 on September 29, 2015 in News, Whispers
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ClaretandHugh blogger John Moncur fears Carl Jenkinson could become an expensive luxury over the course of the season. The Arsenal loanee has made an uncertain start to the new season which has some fearing he sent his twin brother to the Boleyn this term! But Moncs has a more reasonable explanation declaring that young players finding their way in the game can see their game vary and confidence levels rise and fall. And he said: "I'm a big fan of James Tomkins and can see him settling down into that right back spot if I'm entirely honest."

Moncs believes that as a rampaging wing back, Jenkinson's more defensive role with the arrival of Victor Moses on that side, is being tested and thus far believes Tomkins has looked more at home on that side. He said: "We are going to have to wait and see but I think it's right to say that Slav is developing a defensve back line and a go for it midfield and front line. It's almost like two teams.
"Jenks may not get as many games as last year as a result and that could tun out to be costly because I believe the terms of his loan are pretty expensive. He could become an expensive luxury. "We have to give him and everybody else there chance to adjust to a new way of playing but it's brilliant we have such strength in depth and so many alternatives. We are moving up."

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