Antonio hungry for more goals after scoring at Liverpool
WHUFC.com
Michail Antonio is hungry for more goals after finding the net for just the
second time this season at Liverpool. The No30 has endured an
injury-affected season, with rib and calf problems restricting him to just
14 Premier League starts so far. However, after following his first assist
of the campaign in the home win over Burnley with a well-taken strike at
Anfield, Antonio believes he can go on a run of goalscoring form over the
final ten games of 2017/18. "Everyone loves scoring, it's one of the best
things in the world, so to get back on the scoresheet has given me
confidence," he said. "It was obviously a bad result for us, but hopefully
now I can go on a goalscoring run. "I'm going to try and play my part and do
what I can for the team. I hope I can add more goals to my tally between now
and the end of the season."
Last weekend's 4-1 defeat at Liverpool made it back-to-back away losses for
the Hammers, with a trip to resurgent Swansea City next up on the fixture
list. The Swans have won six straight home games in all competitions under
new manager Carlos Carvalhal, but Antonio insists the east Londoners can
stop the South Wales side in their tracks at the Liberty Stadium. "To be
honest, every time I go on the field, I feel like the team is going for
three points," said Antonio, who scored in West Ham's 4-1 win at Swansea
last season. "I do feel we have got better players than Swansea and Burnley
[who we play at home on Saturday 10 March] and we should be able to beat
them, but it's the Premier League and every game is different and every game
is hard. There are no easy games, but I feel we can do it and that it should
be six points. "At home, Swansea have beaten Liverpool and Arsenal recently,
so they're going very well at the Liberty Stadium, so it's not going to be
an easy task. We need to go there, be solid and rigid, start well and keep
their fans quiet. "Swansea have been doing well, but we've done our research
and will go there aware of their strengths and weaknesses and with a
gameplan from the gaffer to give us the best possible chance to win the
game. We've got to go out there, execute his plans, and win the game."
Two defeats in their last three matches have seen the gap between West Ham
and Swansea in the third relegation place close to three points, but Antonio
says the Hammers cannot afford to worry about league positions when they
kick-off on Saturday. "You can't allow yourself to feel pressure. You've
just got to go out there and play. You can't worry about things happening in
the background, because it can distract you from your work. As soon as you
step over the white line, there is nothing going on outside those lines.
"The league table is not on the pitch!"
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Hartson: David Moyes is getting the best out of Marko Arnautovic
WHUFC.com
Big, strong, combative, committed and, on his day, unplayable are all words
that could be used to describe both Marko Arnautovic and John Hartson. The
Austrian attacker and former Wales centre forward both endeared themselves
to West Ham United fans with their physical approach to centre forward play
and, above all, their goals. Twenty-one seasons ago it was Hartson, in
partnership with Paul Kitson and under the management of Harry Redknapp, who
fired the Hammers to Premier League safety and, two decades on, he has
backed Arnautovic to do likewise for David Moyes' side. "West Ham carry a
threat and Marko leads the attack, he has been like a different player since
David arrived in November," said Hartson. "We always knew Marko had the
talent and I don't think my old Wales teammate and manager Mark Hughes sold
him at Stoke last summer because he didn't have the ability, but rather
because he could be inconsistent and sometimes his attitude could be a
problem. "David has sat down with Marko and reminded him what a good player
he is and of his responsibility as a West Ham player. I know first-hand that
these supporters will not settle for players with carefree attitudes, but
they will get behind those who show their work-rate and drive to win
football matches. West Ham fans demand players who work hard and give
everything they have got and Marko has responded to them, too. "He is a fine
player, everybody knows that, and his talent and ability have never been in
question. David has clearly worked on the other side of his game and he is
now creating and scoring, while he is also working hard on the defensive
side of his game. You could almost say he has become a typical David Moyes
player."
Another player who has flourished under Moyes' management is one who Hartson
knows well from his days with the Welsh national team, James Collins.
Centre-half Collins was a wide-eyed 20-year-old when he broke into the
senior Wales set-up in 2004, as Hartson was ten years his senior and coming
to the end of his own eleven-year international career. Despite the age
difference, the pair hit it off immediately and Hartson is happy with the
way his fellow countryman's own career has flourished. "Ginge is a great lad
and has done really well, I'm really proud of him. He came into the Wales
squad when I was one of the senior players alongside Ryan Giggs and Gary
Speed and he got on well with all of us. "He has had a really good career.
Ginge is a head on a stick and is as brave as a lion and I'm not surprised
he has had such a long and successful spell in the Premier League."
Collins and Arnautovic will be important to West Ham's chances this
Saturday, when they travel to Hartson's home city of Swansea – a fixture the
former frontman believes is important to the Hammers' chances of securing
top-flight safety sooner rather than later. "It's a big game. I would not
say it's a final in itself, but rather one of ten finals every club from
Burnley down to the bottom have got to play between now and the end of the
season. "West Ham start the weekend in 13th and Swansea in the bottom three,
but a win for Swansea will see them pull level with West Ham on 30 points,
while a win for West Ham would take them six points clear of Swansea.
"Nobody from Burnley in seventh downwards is safe, so it's important to
avoid injuries and hope you don't get any bad luck, to go on a good run and
get yourselves to 40 points as soon as possible."
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Adrian proud of London Football Award nomination
WHUFC.com
Adrian has revealed his pride at being shortlisted for the London Football
Awards Goalkeeper of the Year. West Ham United's Spanish stopper is among
five glovemen nominated for the award, which will be presented at Battersea
Evolution on Thursday 1 March, with Chelsea's Thibaut Courtois, Watford's
Heurelho Gomes, Tottenham Hotspur's Hugo Lloris and Brentford's Daniel
Bentley also in the running. The No13 enjoyed some standout moments in 2017,
helping the Hammers to secure Premier League and EFL Cup wins over Spurs and
keeping six clean sheets in eleven top-flight appearances, including
shutouts against Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal. "I am really pleased to be
one of those nominated," Adrian confirmed. "There are some good goalkeepers
in London so I am delighted to be recognised as one of the best. "It's a
sign that I am doing a great job for the team and now people around me have
validated it by nominating me for this Award."
When asked to name his standout moments of last year, there were no
surprises in Adrian's choices. "Personally, I would say that our win at home
against Spurs at the end of last season was magnificent and also our win
against Chelsea in December at home too, as it was just my second appearance
after a hard beginning of this season, when I didn't play many minutes," he
confirmed.
A total of eight Awards will be presented on Thursday evening, including
Premier League Player of the Year, EFL Player of the Year, Manager of the
Year, Women's Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Former West
Ham striker Ian Wright will also be recognised on the night for his
Outstanding Contribution to London Football.
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We need as much support as possible, says Daggers boss Still
WHUFC.com
West Ham-born Dagenham & Redbridge manager John Still is looking forward to
welcoming the Hammers to Chigwell Construction Stadium on Wednesday 21 March
at 7.30pm. A giant of east London football, Still is in his third spell in
charge of the Daggers, who he led into the Football League for the first
time in 2007 and a historic promotion to League One three years later – but
since then the club has fallen on hard times financially. Now hoping to
guide the club back to League Two via the National League Premier Play-Offs,
the Dagenham boss is therefore excited by the prospect of a fundraising
friendly with their Premier League neighbours West Ham United, with all
proceeds on the night going to the non-league club.
Buy your Daggers v Hammers fundraising friendly tickets now!
"We are delighted, we went over to Rush Green and played a very strong West
Ham team in a [behind-closed-doors] friendly the other week and I'd already
had words with the Board about arranging a game with West Ham at our place,"
said Still, who has managed more than 500 games over two spells with the
Daggers since 2004. "It is a fundraising game, so we need as much support
from our supporters as possible and we are very grateful for West Ham for
what they are doing and a big thank you to them. "For them to commit
themselves to coming over with their strongest team that they can possibly
bring, we are hoping for a bumper crowd for a good occasion as well."
Still is hoping for a capacity 6,000 crowd at Chigwell Construction Stadium,
and urged fans of all clubs to turn out in support of the cash-strapped
Daggers. "Wednesday 21 March is for anyone who is out there, so whoever you
support, be a football supporter and come and watch us and West Ham."
Seated and standing tickets for West Ham United's friendly at Dagenham &
Redbridge on Wednesday 21 March are available now from
eticketing.co.uk/whufc, over the telephone on 0333 030 1966 or in person
from the London Stadium Ticket Office priced at £10 Adults, £8 O65s and £3
U16s. Access on the night will be via the turnstile on Bury Road.
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Ex-West Ham player Blair Turgott's gambling case dismissed
26 February 2018
BBC.co.uk
A former Premier League footballer accused of gambling £16,000 using a card
stolen from a pensioner has had the case against him dismissed. Ex-West Ham
winger Blair Turgott, 23, was accused of withdrawing the cash and exchanging
it for chips during a night at the Playboy casino in Mayfair. Jurors at
Southwark Crown Court failed to reach a verdict last week. Mr Turgott, who
made one first-team appearance for the Hammers, had denied fraud and
converting criminal property. The Crown Prosecution Service has until Friday
2 March to decide if it wants to seek a retrial. Mr Turgott, who is now
signed to non-league Maidstone United, cashed out £900 in profit at the end
of the night in 2016. The card used by Mr Turgott, from Bromley, was stolen
from 85-year-old Peter Dixon on 30 September 2016. Mr Turgott claimed he was
given Mr Dixon's card and PIN number by his gambling friend Ali, who owed
him for help with a Ugandan property development. The court heard he had
showed Mr Turgott a WhatsApp conversation which purported to show Mr Dixon
giving permission for the use of his card.
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Antonio hungry for goals
KUMB.com
Filed: Wednesday, 28th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Michail Antonio says he is desperate for more goals - having acquired a
taste for scoring again at Liverpool last weekend. The England international
scored West Ham's consolation goal in United's 4-1 defeat at Anfield on
Saturday, moments after entering the fray as a second half substitute for
Manuel Lanzini. And Antonio - who was scoring only his second goal of the
campaign - insists that he hopes to enjoy a prolific run in front of goal
having shaken off a recent injury. "Everyone loves scoring, it's one of the
best things in the world," he told whufc.com "To get back on the scoresheet
has given me confidence. It was obviously a bad result for us, but hopefully
now I can go on a goalscoring run. I hope I can add more goals to my tally
between now and the end of the season."
And United's #30 hopes to expand his tally at the Liberty Stadium this
coming weekend when the Hammers face a tricky away trip against one of the
Premier League's most in-form sides. "Swansea have beaten Liverpool and
Arsenal recently, they're going very well at the Liberty Stadium so it's not
going to be an easy task," he added. "We need to go there, be solid and
rigid, start well and keep their fans quiet. "They have been doing well but
we've done our research and will go there aware of their strengths and
weaknesses and with a gameplan from the gaffer to give us the best possible
chance to win the game. "We've got to go out there, execute his plans, and
win the game."
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New deal for Manu?
KUMB.com
Filed: Wednesday, 28th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Manuel Lanzini could be offered a new contract in order to persuade him to
reject any big money offers that may come his way during the close season.
Lanzini, who has become one of West Ham's key players in recent months was
linked with a move to Liverpool during the January transfer window after the
Reds parted company with Philippe Coutinho - the Brazilian being sold to
Barcelona for an astonishing £105million + add-ons. And according to a club
source, Lanzini is likely to be offered new terms - but only once the club
have secured their Premier League position for next season. West Ham
currently stand just three points off the relegation zone with a trip to
fellow strugglers Swansea City - themselves in excellent recent form
following the arrival of former Sheffield Wendesday boss Carlos Carvalhal-
to come next. The 25-year-old Argentinian international, who has just
returned from a month on the sidelines has made 21 appearances for the
Hammers so far this season, scoring three times.
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Karren Brady promises West Ham changes for fans amid protest plans
By Sky Sports News
Last Updated: 28/02/18 7:42pm
SSN
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady has written an open letter to fans who
are planning to march in protest ahead of their match against Burnley on
March 10.
In the nine-page letter obtained by Sky Sports News, Brady vowed to commit
to a study which will bring seating closer to the pitch at the London
Stadium. In a move away from the initial talk of retractable seating at the
ground, Brady said more money will be made available for investment in the
playing squad.
Supporters will also be able to enjoy a fanzone and see the renaming of the
walkway in which next month's protest is set to take place. In addition to
this, the 1000-plus items currently being kept in storage, including
memorabilia from the 1966 World Cup, will be showcased in a trophy room or
museum. Fans will also be consulted over a new badge to mark their 125th
anniversary. Brady said in the letter she feels the board have listened and
acted upon matters of importance to West Ham fans.
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WHY I AM JUST AS "REAL" A HAMMER
By Blind Hammer 28 Feb 2018 at 08:00
WTID
Blind Hammer argues that supercilious arrogance has nothing to do with the
West Ham way.
When you write a weekly column read by thousands, even if, hopefully, they
are like-minded supporters, you need a thick skin. If I was faint hearted, I
would simply stick to writing my column about blindness and guide Dogs.
Actually even this can be controversial. Yet Football is far more emotional.
Passions can run high. Mostly I accept people' will have different and
fervently felt opposing views. This is all part of the great expressive
debate that is football and West Ham. People care, which is why Rupert
Murdoch pays so much money.
Just occasionally though an example of such supreme supercilious arrogance
emerges which penetrates even my normal sanguinity. Recently a
self-professed "Real West Ham" action supporter magnanimously accepted I had
the right to opinions about the Watford game, however I had no right to make
comments about the Brighton game as unlike the "Real Supporters" I was not
there.
This article is not about the protest March. I support the right of protest
even though I personally feel the March aims are confused contradictory and
ultimately futile. Still I don't think they are any less of a West Ham fans
for marching. Why then do so many consider themselves TO BE BETTER "real"
West Ham supporters as opposed to people like me who are apparently lesser
or even "fake"?
I detest the notion that there has to be a "hierarchy" of supporters and
that only a "real" aristocracy have views that should have any merit.
Nevertheless for the record what are my credentials to a "real" West Ham
identity? Well actually it is pretty steeped. My Father predated West Ham
and was around at our formation. He was born in 1891. He lived in walking
distance not of Upton Park but the Memorial Ground and the Thames Ironworks.
I did not get the chance to ask him but I often wondered if he missed the
Athletics Track at the Memorial ground after moving to Upton Park.
After serving in the royal navy in the First World War my father lived as a
passionate Hammer in the East End during the 20s and 30s. He served in the
Fire Brigade in Shoreditch during the Second World War. My brother attended
his first game with our Father in 1949 and my Sister stood with them on the
North Bank for the first time in 1952.
I, born in 1956 did not attend my first game until 1968. By 1970 I was a
season ticket holder in the East Stand. I was at the FA Cup triumph at
Wembley in 1975 and for our League Cup draw in 1981. My biggest regret is
that I could not afford the ridiculous tout price for a ticket in 1980 so
missed the Brooking final. During the 80's I went to home and away games
before blindness robbed me from attending. Nowadays West ham provides
fantastic accessible support, including a free commentary service and space
for both my Guide dog and a sighted carer. I don't attend away games as
access may not compare.
However I have news for those who claim to be "real" West Ham supporters
simply because they attend away games. Attending away games does not make
you any better or more "real" than the rest of us. My brother attended away
games for decades but nowadays only goes to home matches. Yet despite being
in his late 70s he travels over 200 miles from Manchester to take up his
season ticket. Actually like many he supported the move to the London
Stadium. Howe dare people claim that they are any more of a "real" supporter
than he is?
I dispute that you even need to attend home games to be a "genuine"
supporter. Supporting West Ham is about family and inclusion not sneering
and posing as an ""exclusive" elite. " my sister, now also blind, despite
going to games in the 1950s, has not attended Upton Park for over 50 years.
Yet she listens to the radio commentaries and feels the pain of defeat, the
anger and frustration of disappointment and the joy of victory as much as
anybody else. I was in exactly the same position when my blindness stopped
me attending. I was never less of a real supporter then, and she is not less
of a supporter now.
My Mother, who never attended games would have thought you were stark raving
crazy to describe her or any of her family as anything less than "real West
Ham Supporters". We were defined as a West Ham family. West Ham have always
been larger than the numbers who at any one time attend games, and rightly
so. West Ham supporters can live thousands of miles away but feel just as
much, experience joy and despair in equal measure alongside the rest of us.
West ham is so much more than just the congregation of supporters lucky
enough to see them in the flesh. Those who claim otherwise have horizons
which are too narrow, insular and exclusionary. Ultimately such inward
looking elitist thinking is self-defeating. It hinders the vibrancy and
health of our club. It stops us turning outwards to appeal to wider
communities. In fact rather than drawing inwards into an elitist clique we
should want to grow the support of West Ham not just in London and Essex but
even wider, and yes even globally into World markets. The arrogant
self-possessed sit on their high East end horse and sneer at world markets
but I have no difficulty in finding common cause with Hammers across the
world, be they Australian Hammers, Norwegian hammers, Hamburg Hammers,
Florida Hammers or Austrian Hammers. I would never dream to think I am
somehow better or more genuine a supporter because I live in London. They
are all welcome as far as I am concerned.
To be a West Ham supporter it is not compulsory to munch Pie and Mash or
even jellied eels before a game. I won't even scorn or look down on you if
you indulge in the apparently heinous crime of enjoying Popcorn.
I welcome everybody who wants to share my pain into the West Ham family.
This welcome is pretty much unconditional; it does not matter to me if you
attend all games, some or none. If you declare as a West Ham supporter that
is good enough for me. I don't expect you to have to prove it. I don't
expect you to have to pass a club knowledge test. I don't look down on "new"
supporters just because they did not attend Upton Park. If you are prepared
to stand behind the team, in good times and most crucially remain true in
bad times that is good enough for me. We are a family inclusive club still.
Come in and join the roller coaster drama that is supporting West Ham.
COYI
David Griffith
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Overseas Investors Request London Stadium Feasability Study
Submitted by akira andersson on Wed, 28/02/2018 - 12:56
WestHamFans.org
A major building facilitation company have been asked to draw up a
feasibility study as to the actual cost of converting the white elephant
that is the London Stadium in to a football stadium fit for purpose, it is
not known as yet whether the request has the backing of the West Ham United
hierarchy but as they are only anchor tenants their hands are tied when it
comes to the actual building. The investment group is comprised mainly of
Chinese businessmen with the notable exception of one, Kia Joorabchian!
Joorabchian's MSI company are no strangers to West Ham United take over
attempts, and the fact that recent arrival 'super' Mario's loan spell from
Inter Milan was brokered by Kia Joorabchian will not have gone unnoticed by
some, and the similarities with the arrival at the Old Boleyn of Carlos
Tevez and Javier Mascherano brokered by MSI are astounding.
Joorabchian has long coveted owning a high profile Premier League team and
West Ham are right up his street, cash strapped with a need for new
investment. Ideal candidates for a 'passive/aggressive' take over which
works this way: Investment company take a less than controlling stake in the
club allowing a steady flow of funds, however there is a caveat. Using a
scheme known as 'green labeling' the new investors release money in tranches
on the condition that the majority stake holder invests the equivalent on a
quid pro quo basis in the club, the idea being the shares grow in value to
such an extent that the minority share holding becomes worth a lot more
money than the original investment. Shares have to be offered back to the
majority shareholders at a 'beneficial' discount, but this means leaving the
club needing to either refinance or accept a non majority stake.
If this sounds all smoke and mirrors that is because the murky world of
share trading and company acquisitions is mired with subterfuge and false
trails, anyone who has tried to research M.S.I (media sports investments)
will confirm just how difficult discovering the truth can be. The situation
has a further twist because of the mayor of London Sadiq Khan's desire to
get the London Stadium of the tax payer's books as soon as possible, MSI
have access to massive funding and a deal could be brokered as soon as this
April should initial negotiations prove fruitful, there is a desire from all
parties to turn the ironic stadium into the iconic stadium it should have
been had it not been for the meddling of Lord Coe and his cronies.
Before fans celebrate potential new investors, it should be remembered what
happened the last time 'new investors' came in to the club in the form of
Eggert Magnussen and the bankrupt Icelandics, that all ended badly didn't
it? In addition there were the punitive and swingeing fines administered by
the FA for fielding the ineligible Carlos Tevez that cost the club in excess
of £30 Million in fines and compensation to Sheffield United.
Now who was it who brokered those deals, do you get that Dejavu feeling? It
seems to occur to West Ham fans more than any others doesn't it? - Ed
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Moyes reportedly planning four bargain deals; are West Ham planning for a
number of exits?
HITC
Olly Dawes
West Ham United are already being linked with a host of summer signings.
West Ham United are far from safe from relegation to the Championship, and
manager David Moyes hasn't yet earned a deal for next season, but
speculation already surrounds the club's summer transfer plans. Moyes has
brought in three signings since his appointment as West Ham boss, landing
Patrice Evra, Joao Mario and Jordan Hugill, and he will now hope to keep the
club in the Premier League and earn himself a new contract. If Moyes does
land a new contract, then it seems that the West Ham boss already has some
transfer targets lined up to boost his squad ahead of next season, with four
names strongly linked.
Football.London report that a free transfer move for Fulham right back Ryan
Fredericks is wanted when his contract ends this summer, with The Sun
reporting that a similar approach could be taken with Saint-Etienne forward
Jonathan Bamba. Add in that The Express claim that Moyes also wants Twente
goalkeeper Joel Drommel and Metz playmaker Vincent Thill, and the Scot
appears to have four low-cost moves in mind for the summer transfer window.
Fredericks and Bamba's contract status makes them bargains, whilst Drommel
and Thill – two talented young players – shouldn't break the bank either,
but their status as young players or competition may mean that West Ham are
preparing for some exits. The signing of Drommel would almost certainly
suggest that Joe Hart's time at the club is coming to an end this summer,
whilst landing Fredericks to compete with Pablo Zabaleta may spell the end
for Sam Byram too. Versatile attacking players Thill and Bamba could also
suggest that the likes of Robert Snodgrass and Martin Samuelsen could be
offloaded, with greater depth – featuring exciting young players with
potential at a reasonable price – potentially leading to some exits this
summer.
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http://vyperz.blogspot.com
Thursday, March 1
Wednesday, February 28
Daily WHUFC News - 28th February 2018
Four April fixture changes for West Ham United
WHUFC.com
All four of West Ham United's Premier League fixtures in April have new dates after being selected for live TV broadcast. The Hammers' game away at Chelsea will now be shown on Sky Sports on Sunday 8 April, with a 4.30pm kick-off, although this fixture is subject to change should the Blues be in UEFA Champions League action the following Tuesday.
Next up is the home match against Stoke City, which has been moved to an 8pm kick-off on Monday 16 April, live on Sky Sports.
The Hammers are in Monday Night Football action again the following week, when they travel to Arsenal on Monday 23 April. Kick-off is again 8pm, live on Sky Sports.
Sky Sports will also broadcast the home clash with Manchester City, now to be played on Sunday 29 April at 2.15pm. Again, this date is subject to change should Manchester City be scheduled to play in the UEFA Champions League the following Tuesday.
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Rice looking forward to Coaching Association session
WHUFC.com
The Academy of Football host their third Official Coaching Association session on Monday 5 March at Chadwell Heath and there is plenty in store for those attending to look forward to. First team stars Declan Rice and Josh Cullen – who both came through the Club's famous youth ranks to be part of David Moyes' first team squad – will open the evening with a Q&A, and it's a great opportunity for local coaches to pick the brains of young players who have come through the elite Academy pathway. Rice made his first team debut at the end of last season and has gone on to become an important member of the Hammers' squad this campaign.
Coaching AssociationSigned as a youngster from Chelsea, the defender – along with Cullen, who has been with the Club since he was nine – has been coached through the ranks at Academy. And the 19-year-old is looking forward to what should be an intriguing evening for those at Chadwell Heath.
He said: "I'm really looking forward to the evening. It will be great to meet all the coaches who at a local level do so much for grassroots football and hopefully the Q&A with myself and Josh will be valuable for them. "We'll be there to answer any questions about our experiences coming through the Academy, so I think it's set to be an interesting night for those who come along."
Along with the Rice and Cullen Q&A, Academy Director Terry Westley will also be running through the Academy's Individual Development Plans, before first team coach and former Hammer and England full-back Stuart Pearce takes a practical training session. Rice continued: "Stuart is also doing a training session, so the coaches will get a chance to see what our training is like in action and that will be great, too."
The Association has been set up by the West Ham United Academy of Football to provide opportunities for grassroots level coaches to learn from some of the best and most experienced staff in the Hammers set up and the professional game. The evening on Monday 5 March begins at 6pm. To book your place on the session, click here. You can also book a spot on the final session – in April – by clicking here and finding your chosen evening.
Alternatively, visit https://www.eticketing.co.uk/whufc, head to 'find tickets' and look for the Coaching Association.
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Visit our free Bobby Moore exhibition - late opening this Wednesday
WHUFC.com
To mark the 25th anniversary of the tragic passing of Bobby Moore, West Ham United are hosting a memorabilia exhibition in honour of our greatest-ever player.
The unique display is free to visit and located on the lower ground floor of the Stadium Store from Saturday 24 February - and will be open until 7pm on Wednesday 28 February, giving even more Hammers fans of all ages the opportunity to gain a close look at some of most prominent and prestigious artefacts and honours from Bobby's life and career.
These include the actual shirt he wore on his West Ham United debut against Manchester United on 8 September 1958, his 1964 FA Cup and 1965 European Cup Winners' Cup winning medals, his 1964 Footballer of the Year award and his 1966 World Cup finals cap, along with a replica of his World Cup winner's medal, a matchday programme and a match ticket personally signed by all eleven England players on that famous July day at Wembley.
Bobby Moore: West Ham United remembers – 25 years gone, never forgotten
Alongside the memorabilia collection is a stunning three-foot high bronze sculpture of Bobby, seen in public for the first time after being commissioned by his daughter Roberta as part of a series of six sculptures to mark the 25th anniversary.
West Ham United's Stadium Store will also be open until the later time of 7pm on Wednesday 28 February and Thursday 8 March.
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West Ham feature in new Kick It Out LGBT+ inclusion initiative
WHUFC.com
West Ham United striker Andy Carroll features in a new Kick It Out film promoting LGBT+ inclusion in football and emphasising that homophobic, biphobic or transphobic (HBT) discrimination has no place in the game.
LGBT+ inclusion remains a central part of the work done by Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion organisation, and the film encourages supporters to report any abuse they witness or suffer – whether it's to a steward or to Kick It Out via its free reporting app.
The 90-second film, which you can view on this page, features Carroll alongside stars from all 20 Premier League clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur's Jan Vertonghen, Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata, Manchester United's Juan Mata, Manchester City's Vincent Kompany and Arsenal's Danny Welbeck.
Roisin Wood, CEO of Kick It Out, was delighted to work closely with every Premier League club and release the film at a time when the country is marking LGBT History Month.
She said: "Kick It Out have been campaigning for LGBT+ inclusion in football for a long time and it's wonderful that we've been able to bring all 20 clubs together for the first time in our history to take a stand against HBT discrimination. This is about the collective force of the game uniting to eliminate behaviour that has no place in the game.
"We also wanted to send out a positive message to fans across the world and make it clear that LGBT+ supporters are part of the foundations of football – just like any other fan."
Bill Bush, Executive Director of the Premier League, gave his endorsement to the film, adding: "This film produced by Kick It Out features all our member clubs and highlights the need to challenge homophobic, biphobic and transphobic behaviour across the sport.
"The Premier League is embraced across the world and we are proud to show our continued support for LGBT+ inclusion in football."
West Ham United are proud supporters of Kick It Out and the annual Football v Homophobia and Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaigns, all of which are aimed at eradicating discrimination and making LGBT supporters feel welcome at London Stadium.
The Club has also worked closely with its official LGBT Supporters Group, Pride of Irons, towards the same ends since its formation in 2015.
Pride of Irons founder Jim Dolan endorsed Kick It Out's campaign: "We don't want to be a group of people who go around grassing people up. What we want to do is challenge things and get people to understand we are not here to try and get people chucked out and change the culture of the Club – we want people to realise that we are part of that culture."
For more information about Kick It Out's Premier League and LGBT History Month inclusion initiative, click here.
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Collins: We need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result
WHUFC.com
James Collins says West Ham United 'cannot dwell' on their defeat at Liverpool and instead must focus all of their attention on Saturday's Premier League trip to Swansea City. The former Wales international and his teammates matched the high-powered Reds for 45 minutes at Anfield, only for a weak second-half display to allow Jurgen Klopp's team to run out 4-1 winners. Defeat on Merseyside saw the Hammers drop to within three points of the relegation zone ahead of a visit to the Liberty Stadium to face the 18th-place Swans. "We're going to have to go to Swansea and then host Burnley in the next couple of weeks and pick up our points from those games," said Collins. "I said to the boys in the dressing room that we cannot dwell on what happened at Liverpool, as better teams than us have gone to Anfield and been steamrolled, so we've got to look at the video, look at what we did right and what we did wrong and move on to a huge game in Wales on Saturday. "Morale in the camp is good. We had a good result against Watford and then a couple of weeks of good training, so spirits are high. We've got some great characters in that dressing room and we need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result."
Reflecting at greater length on Saturday's loss at Anfield, Collins felt it would have been a different game if West Ham had taken one of a number of first-half chances they created. Marko Arnautovic was denied by two acrobatic saves from Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, while the Hammers also worked the ball into dangerous areas on a number of other occasions, but could not find a way past the German. Emre Can headed the Reds in front from a corner on the half-hour mark before the hosts took control after the break, adding further goals through Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, rendering Michail Antonio's breakaway strike a mere consolation.
Collins admitted the east Londoners were disappointed by their second-half performance. "If you look at the first half, we played well, but conceded from a set play. In the second half, they went up a few gears and scored three goals. Obviously, we're not happy with the way they went in, but they're a very strong team at Anfield. "We said in the dressing room, if we'd gone 1-0 up, it would have given us something to hang on to, so we were disappointed to go into half-time 1-0 down when we thought we'd played relatively well and coped with them. So, to come out in the second half and not play as we wanted to and concede some goals, we're obviously disappointed. "Liverpool have got a bit of everything. They suck you into a false sense of security and then, when they get around the box, it speeds up. We didn't deal with that in the second half."
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All change - April schedule altered
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Each of West Ham's four April fixtures have been moved to satisfy TV companies, it has been confirmed.
The four matches - two at Stratford, two away - have all been re-scheduled at the behest of Sky Sports starting with the trip to Chelsea which will now begin at 4.30pm on Sunday, 8 April (unless Chelsea play the following Tuesday in the Champions League).
The following weekend United host Stoke City in a vital relegation battle - a game that has now been moved to Monday, 16 April (an 8pm start).
Following the visit of the Potters, West Ham visit the Emirates for another trip to North London where David Moyes' side will be hoping to take revenge for the Carabao Cup defeat back in December.
Finally, the re-jigged month ends with a trip to Champions elect Manchester City on Sunday, 29 April - a 2.15pm kick off, also to be broadcast on Sky.
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Liverpool 4-1 West Ham (And Other Ramblings)
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: HeadHammerShark
"You say you lost your faith, but that's not where it's at
You had no faith to lose, and you know it"
- Bob Dylan, "Positively 4th Street"
I never admire our away support more than on days like these. On a morning when you can create clouds with your own breath and the cold can descend upon you like a blanket, it takes a certain type of person to make the trip to a fixture like this. It isn't so much that we we ended up losing this game 4-1, but that it always felt like we would lose 4-1. Not everyone can march so readily North knowing that cannon shot and thunder and Mo Salah are lying in wait.
Even though we knew this was coming, it still stings when it happens, mind you. There is always hope until there isn't, after all. But the Premier League is becoming less competitive with each passing transfer window and each UEFA subsidy to the bigger teams. And so it is our lot to travel to places such as Anfield and play a team assembled at vast cost by cherry picking the best players from Southampton, Hoffenheim, Southampton, Bayer Leverkusen, Hull and, well, Southampton and wonder just what exactly is the point of all this. Maybe we have always been cannon fodder, but I don't remember everyone being quite so readily understanding about it.
We haven't got Salah, or Money Money.
It's a curious time to be a fan of a Premier League minnow. The top six are so far away now that it isn't terribly realistic to expect very much when playing them. We've lost 4-0 at Old Trafford, 4-1 here, 2-1 at the Etihad and drawn 1-1 with Spurs. We've spent roughly 80 per cent of those games defending, earned a single point, and apart from the second half at Old Trafford - when we seemed unaware that the season had actually started - overall I think we've done alright.
It's not that I don't want us to be more competitive but these are shoulder shrug games. You take what you can get, hope it doesn't get too embarrassing and then focus on next week. For fans of smaller clubs, trips to places like Liverpool are just about reaffirming our place in the established order. Four goals. Four goalscorers who cost a hundred million quid between them. Four hours drive there. For shame.
Whether we should actually be considered as a minnow is perhaps a different question and one I'm not sure I have the energy to revisit today. Gross mismanagement and too many Sunday nights writing this blog will do that to a man.
But to those who go and watch games like this, I salute you. It's easy to write these fixtures off as one sided and predetermined when you don't go to watch them, but when you're there in the ground it can be chastening. Of course, when you win 3-0 it can be exhilarating too, but we all know that was a beautiful aberration. At a time when we all seem very focused on what exactly constitutes a "real" West Ham fan, I think those who undertake trips such as these deserve to be foremost in our thoughts.
***
"Cause you give it all away, you give it all away now
Don't let it come apart, don't want to see you come apart"
- Doves, "Caught By The River"
I believe that when watching a Premier League football team, if you ever arrive late for a game, you should never have to turn to a fellow fan and ask the fatal question - "Jesus Christ, is that Willie Nelson playing centre back for us?". And yet, these days, you never know at West Ham. We started this game with a back three of Aaron Cresswell, James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna and flanked them with nominal wing backs Pablo Zabaleta and Patrice Evra. That's a back line with an average age of thirty two, a Boer War veteran, one guy with rickets and three country music stars who think electric guitars are a bit fancy.
And which one of you was supposed to be marking Mane?
The cumulative effect of our nonsensical transfer policy was laid bare here as we faced up to one of the fittest, fastest teams around with an octogenarian defence and simply dared them to run past us. And they did. Zabaleta was up against Andrew Robertson, and the Scot had the time of his life gallivanting around like a West Brom player at a Spanish taxi cab rank. On the other side, Evra fared little better and seemed to be suffering from the same disease that afflicted Zabaleta when he first arrived whereby he thought he was still playing for a Manchester side. So up he pushed, and sure enough we frequently lost the ball and the hosts exploited the gaps in behind him. I am seriously wondering if having wing backs with a combined age of sixty nine is a great idea, guys.
In fairness, it wasn't just the defence where we struggled. Of the entire line up only Joao Mario and Manuel Lanzini were under 28 and one of them isn't even our player. I have despaired of this transfer policy for long enough that I hope you will forgive me a brief moment of schadenfreude when I say to David Sullivan - I fucking told you this was going to happen.
And so the slowest team around played the quickest and it went pretty much as you might expect. While it's easy to be critical of West Ham, it's only reasonable to acknowledge that Liverpool are an electric side. Between Jurgen Klopp and their enormous budget, they have weapons that we simply cannot cope with, and have destroyed far better sides than us. Going forward they attack with quicksilver precision, and Salah could have scored as early as the second minute. Then we were saved by the woodwork, as the game settle into a pattern of Liverpool swarming all over us, while we tried to break with pace on the counter-attack but failed to do so because breaking with pace is hard when half of your team were teenagers during Suez.
For all that, we were not without threats of our own. Having Marko Arnautovic up front allows us the luxury of having a top six player in a bottom half team, and that is something that most of our relegation rivals cannot say. The Austrian was on his own here as Javier Hernandez was dropped for Lanzini, and had a frustrating afternoon getting annoyed that his team mates weren't a bit better. Which is saying something when you think he played with Ryan Shawcross for all that time at Stoke.
At 0-0, Arnautovic latched on to a rare decent through ball and brilliantly conjured a chip on to the crossbar from just outside the box. Loris Karius did well to tip it on to the woodwork and with that probably went our best chance of getting something from the game. Even with all of Arnautovic, Mario and Lanzini on the pitch, we struggled to keep possession and without a truly dominant central midfielder who can carry the ball and get us forward, it is bordering on impossible to ever create very much in these sort of games.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing was the way we defended, as our calling card under Moyes has been to set up with a well-drilled defensive line and rely on the general excellence of our defenders to repel teams. The problem with that is it relies on us having some sort of parity further up the pitch and with Antonio on the bench and Lanzini looking every inch like he'd just returned from injury, we didn't have the necessary class to keep the ball in advanced positions.
And so it was that even though I thought we were fairly competitive in the first half, it was that special brand of competitiveness that requires you to be a fan of that particular side and be squinting very hard indeed. Football fans see positives everywhere because we are conditioned to do so. Thus, when Antonio arrived and scored immediately with a fine angled finish we all briefly began to construct a theoretical scenario in which a comeback was plausible. I thought that if ever Hernandez was going to come on, it was then, when that shaky Liverpool backline was rocking, but Moyes is glacial in his decision making and the moment passed, Mane scored the fourth, and by the time he brought him on it kind of looked like a punishment.
In the same vein, I took some positives from Zabaleta's continued Herculean efforts and conveniently ignored the way Robertson was breezing past him with alarming frequency. I similarly lauded a couple of fine Adrian saves and glossed over the remote controlled malfunction that saw him somehow being twenty yards from his goal when Roberto Firmino scored the Liverpool third. You can apparently buy drugs very easily on Merseyside, after all.
This went about as well as it looks like it would
So while we are reduced to clutching at the thinnest of straws, it's true that Liverpool were simply a great deal better than us. And while there is no doubt that we have every right to demand our team puts up a better show than this, it's also undeniable that under David Sullivan's stewardship we have gone backwards at breakneck speed. We simply aren't equipped to compete with these teams, and these kinds of results are inevitable until there is a massive overhaul of this squad by someone who knows that they are doing.
Once more, to those fans who travelled up - I salute your inexhaustible optimism.
***
"A picture is worth a thousand words"
- The Temptations, "Paradise"
The Temptations are not wrong. A pretty big game, is Swansea.
***
"They don't, they don't speak for us"
- Radiohead, "No Surprises"
Bet Bobby would have been delighted to have been associated with this
In some regards the off-field antics were more interesting than the game, as both fans attempted to out-dickhead each other. Liverpool fans got in early by booing 74-year-old Hammers debutant Patrice Evra, who is great to have around the place because of his terrific social media antics. He can no longer run, but we care not for such prosaic notions and with young Jose Fonte having left for the Orient, he represented a great opportunity to somehow increase the average age of our squad outside of the transfer window.
Anyway, Evra was roundly booed all day. Home fans maintained this was because he is a former Manchester United player, except that they also kept singing Luis Suarez songs at him, meaning that they were linking the booing to the time Suarez was found guilty of racially abusing Evra and banned for eight games. So just to reiterate - they booed him for being racially abused. Wonderful humour though.
Not to be outdone, some of our fans responded by holding up the banner above. In an era when it has become a badge of honour to tell the world how little you are offended by anything because you aren't a snowflake, I suppose that I run the risk of outing myself as hypersensitive here, but I need to say something - this banner is moronic and reprehensible. It is so stupid I had to double check that it wasn't a parody before writing this. It doesn't speak for me or any sensible West Ham fan, and the main thing it has done is set the cause of the fans' march back before it's even begun. You all thought you were starting in Stratford, but instead you'll be going from Chelmsford. Bravo.
Not that I need to explain this, surely, but comparing people to Hitler is generally a pretty bad idea. Hitler is in the conversation for the worst human being who ever lived. He killed people in their millions, and there will have been people in that crowd who lost loved ones to German bombs in World War II. I am sure that the people who came up with it thought it was a pithy line but it's just crass and almost criminally stupid. Wasting a few million quid on Robert Snodgrass and Matt Jarvis isn't equivalent to waging a war, changing the club badge doesn't equate to eugenics and a failed stadium move isn't the same as systematically exterminating millions of innocent people because they are Jewish.
Don't message me with any justifications for this bullshit, or tell me it's banter or tell me it's not a comparison with Hitler because not only is it a literal direct comparison with Hitler, but it is somehow an unfavourable one.
I am so sick of the fucking morons on our lunatic fringe who follow this club and are so much more vocal than the average punter, meaning that we literally have to say things to other fans like "Yeah, most of our supporters are great if you can just ignore the Hitler banner".
Here is a tip for those going on the march. Your cause is just - the Board have done things for which they deserve to be held to account, and they deserve to have to face that examination in the full light of the public glare. That publicity helps the cause because external pressures can be brought to bear on the owners and a supportive media and wider football community will help affect change. Win the PR battle, and you have a head start on winning the war.
But here's the thing - if you march singing songs about Karren Brady, or carry flags personally abusing the Sullivan family or even do something as unthinkably brainless as carry a banner comparing our Jewish chairman to Adolf Fucking Hitler, then you cede every piece of moral high ground that you might have. We are once more reduced to a rabble of hooligans and thugs who aren't worth listening to, and have nothing reasonable to say. I beg you not to take that route. Stick to the facts. The team is shit and the stadium isn't what was promised. That's plenty enough to be getting on with.
***
"Well she wrote me a letter
Said she couldn't live without me no more"
- The Box Tops, "The Letter"
And then just as I was about to hit "Publish", Karren Brady sent a letter to the various fans groups that she met recently, ahead of the proposed march before the Burnley game. I've commented a couple of times on this before, and explained that while I understand the reasons for the march, I'm concerned that without any tangible goals or demands, it runs the risk of being a protest about nothing.
The genesis of all this was a meeting where representatives of Real West Ham Fans, KUMB, Hammers Chat, WHUISA and other groups that I can't name as I haven't seen minutes, sat down with Karren Brady and discussed a wide range of topics. The letter covers these in detail and I think it's fair to say that the club are at least taking the fan dissatisfaction seriously now, which is to the great credit of all the fan groups involved. Don't underestimate the inroads they have made through a coherent start and impressive organisation.
There is definite movement on certain demands made by fans to make the ground more like home and also a pledge to better improve communication with supporters. All of that is fine by me and a welcome move towards a more collaborative approach rather then the ludicrously adversarial tone that has been adopted in the past. There is actually quite a lot here, even if it is two years too late.
But there is a wider point too. Why did it take the threat of thousands of fans marching to get movement on something so trivial as putting up a banner honouring Billy Bonds? If it takes that type of effort to get you to engage with fans properly then I would humbly suggest that someone somewhere in the organisation needs to go on a crash course in people. You don't get to call us customers when it suits you and then totally ignore the concept of customer service. It is bananas that the club have allowed things to degenerate this far before acting.
And yet, for all the words and waffle in that letter, it is not going to be anywhere near enough to placate fans. I have a certain, limited sympathy with the Board in the sense that the fans aren't totally united and thus the disparate demands make it impossible to please everyone. There are a lot of people who are very upset that the club badge was changed, for example, while I think it's just about the dumbest possible hill to die on. I accept that my view is no more or less valid than anyone else's, and that's why I joined WHUISA and voted for people to represent me. But therein lies the problem.
Apart from Payet?
The People's Front of Judea/Judean People's Front approach means that lots of issues are getting floated by lots of different groups and it results in a letter like this, which is like a freewheeling trip through a list of minor annoyances, and summarily fails to address the two main problems that underpin everything - namely, that the team are crap, everybody knows that turning that around will be a significant undertaking, and the stadium is not up to scratch.
Now, I should also say that the letter constitutes the club's version of the action points. This doesn't mean that there weren't other things raised in the meeting, but simply that the club don't want to engage on those points. Indeed, I know for a fact that Brady was directly asked to discontinue her column in The Sun and refused, even though it was detrimental to the club during the transfer window. File that one away folks - it tells us something.
My buddy @LeBigHouse has suggested that what the fans really need is a cut throat, razor sharp shithouse of a trade unionist to lead this fight, and I'm inclined to agree. Not because the people involved aren't representing their groups well, but because we need to narrow all this down to a laser focus.
Fan questions should focus on the two areas I highlighted above: You promised us a stadium that was fit for football and you haven't delivered - what are you going to do about it? You also promised us that the stadium would allow us to generate more funds and improve the team. Why are you still allowing the owner to have a crack at this as a hobby, rather than employing qualified professionals to do the job?
That's it. That should be the agenda. Everything else is nice and I've suggested some of them myself but they are ancillary to the current situation. Small incremental gains are fine when you've exhausted the big ticket ideas, but the club haven't come remotely close to that. The Board should have watched that game on Saturday and felt a burning shame for every single minute of it. Barring one glorious accident of a season in 2015/16 when the league was upside down, they have done nothing but mire West Ham in mediocrity while spending vast sums to trail behind smaller clubs. A good team would paper over these cracks, but the bad one we've had for eighteen months is widening them.
The sole nod to this in the letter is the line "My Chairmen have also asked me to reaffirm their commitment to the restructuring of our recruitment policy as David Sullivan outlined recently..." That's it. David is going to appoint a Director of Football in the summer, at which point it will be too late to do any actual planning for the transfer window because real clubs are doing all of that now. Wonderful.
I'm not disagreeing with anything much in Brady's letter but it's all obfuscation because that's all she's allowed us. Her comments on the stadium essentially say little more than "We promise to look at this", which is a coded version of saying "I'll ask the landlord, but they're skint and we ain't paying anything so, ho hum..." Reading all of that, the temptation is to say that the reality here is that while we are tenants of the stadium, the thing that we really want - to be closer to the pitch - is not actually in their power to give us.
And this, I think, is the heart of the problem. We want to be on the touchline again, in a ground that feels like home, in the electric swirl of a pulsating football match, watching a team that is good enough to justify the move. And for all the lip service that the club may pay to those cries, it's not really in their gift to be able to do anything much about any of it. The stadium isn't ours, and the people who make the decisions about the team seem immune to any form of blame. So on we march, and up go the banners, and out come the hearses, and all the while it turns out that letting in four goals against teams like Liverpool is now the status quo. What a mess.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be attributed to, KUMB.com.
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Is this enough from the board?
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Paul Walker
So we have seen the whites of their eyes, certainly not the colour of their money but we do know where they draw the line in the sand over discussions with angry fans.
Intentionally or otherwise, when Karren Brady turned up at last week's five-hour meeting with the fans' alliance without David Sullivan (ill) or David Gold (too old or ill-informed), and with communications executive director Tara Warren and head of match day operations Ben Illingworth, it became clear very quickly what the board were not prepared to negotiate on.
Brady declined to consider questions about club finances, ownership and shares, plus transfer policy, because it was not her remit. So immediately, the core reason many will be marching for - a change of ownership - was not up for discussion. Frankly, it was never likely to be.
But that, and last night's (Monday) 5,000 word response from Brady to the previous week's lengthy debate, is hardly going to appease the rank and file who are marching on March 10 for change at the top. Full stop.
In the end it was always going to be this way. Brady has handled all the peripheral stuff; the badge, the memorial gardens, the legacy and museum, stewarding, retractable seating etc, etc but to drag our ownership into any meaningful discussion about their control of the club and the future, is a totally different matter.
The Real West Ham Fans Action Group, who have 16,000 plus on their books and have done a remarkable job getting the club to even this stage of negotiations, plus the associated groups like ourselves and other fans' organisations on the committee that met Brady, must, in all, speak for over 20,000 of our fan base.
The vast majority of this united front want an end to Sullivan's regime and will march ahead of the Burnley game under a banner of 'no confidence in the board.' So what was in Brady's letter is not going to solve the core problem, the anger of many is now too entrenched. This looks like a long, painful campaign.
Will Sullivan and Gold eventually get fed up with the hassle and sell. Who knows? Will they wait until the taxation levels drop on their profits on the stadium move? More likely. But with the club worth something like £500m now, they are going to want a lot of cash to walk away. Russians, Arab nations, the Yanks, please form an orderly queue because it is only you in the ball game now.
Frankly I expected more from Brady than what has transpired. I expected a large carrot to be dangled in front of fans to try to stop the march. A new badge now, maybe or other promises. But you know what us fans think about promises from this board!
Brady's letter took a long time last night to digest. But it is what we expected, hugely professional, a very political dialogue and complex. This lady has run rings round a Prime Minister, a Home Secretary, a London Mayor/Foreign Secretary, she doesn't do Sullivan's negotiating for nothing.
So what did we get? A list of what the club could do easily, what it couldn't do because we are tenants, what it blames the owners for and what the owners won't do.
There's a decree that no fan wearing other club colours (apart from our opponents that day, I assume) will be admitted to the stadium. There will be themed match day experiences, Westfield's might be a bit more assessable. Everybody gets the London living wage, our employees and those who work for the dreaded owners.
There will be another attempt to get ex-Boleyn stewards on board, and one on the senior supervisory team in each of the four areas of the stadium will be ex-Upton Park. Catering has improved, accessible shuttle buses are more frequent, stewards will be educated in the ways of football fans. The memorial gardens back at the Boleyn will be properly maintained long term (as if this even needs to be an issue).
Now our legacy. Historic club crests will be on show, significant moments in our history will be celebrated, club heroes (Moore, Hurst, Peters, Brooking, Bonds, Noble) will be honoured with permanent tributes. Billy Bonds especially. I await that with baited breath. The East Stand should be renamed, how difficult is that?
Flags of our 16 'core' crests will be on show for the Burnley game. They are going to ask someone if they can rename the main walkway from Stratford as the West Ham Way. Keep with me everyone, it gets better!
There's going to be a Fan Zone, much like the excellent one at West Brom and the one some of us experienced at Anfield. Heineken will install a 40ft-long mobile bar as a social hub, with legends on a stage and lots and lots of signs and flags letting us know this is the home of West Ham United. Just why the board didn't think ahead and sanction this sort of stuff 18 months ago, you can only guess.
And someone is going to ask someone in authority if the old stalls and food vendors outside the Boleyn can be re-integrated. E20 and Newham Council have to OK that, so don't hold your breath.
And the museum. The club have 1,000 items in store, they will put on occasional displays but look for a permanent site for a new museum. Seeing as we own doodle squat at the LS bar the club shop, your guess is as good as anyone's on that!
Now the badge (for me the least important item, sorry, try not to shot the messenger). There's been 16 since our formation, various colours, some with castles, some with just hammers, some with gold. Some that horrible yellow. The reason folk hate the current one is that is the symbol of the move, the Board.
The club explained away the consultations that got us this far. The voting etc. That 56 per cent wanted the current crest. But of how many votes? About 12,000 I was once told, so the new badge was wanted by about 7,000 folk out of 56,000.
Yes, I know, you don't vote you lose any right to complain but I always thought we were being rail-roaded here, and the 'London' tag was all about marketing abroad.
Anyway, the club are only prepared to talk again in 2020 ahead of the plans for our 125th anniversary, they'll want a new badge to flog for that, obviously, and will talk about a new permanent one after that. What else? Oh yes, ticket prices will be frozen again, we have been told (AGAIN) that our fixtures will always have priority at the OS (stop laughing at the back).
What next? Oh yes, retractable, removable, rebuildable seating. That's the owners' fault, of course. The club were given videos by the LLDC back in 2013 to pass on to us "in good faith". Hope you all got that, not our fault guv, sorry.
We now know that even with state-of-the-art retractable seating gliding in on golden clouds at the flick of a switch (like in Paris), it would get the fans no nearer to the action than we are now. The stadium configuration, shape, sight lines, roof cover, precludes that.
The club cannot be blamed for the retractable seating contractors going bust and the current cheapo scaffolding option we now have. But I would love to know just when the Board knew about that problem, and how long they continued to sell season tickets claiming they would have real retractable seats rather than ones that are torn down, dumped in a local goods yard and then refitted at laughable cost.
The solution is that the whole place is shut down for a year, we move to a temporary stadium (Orient, Dagenham maybe?) and the place is torn apart and refitted at even more laughable cost. Not going to happen with these ground owners and why would our Board offer to spend so much without getting people behind the goals any nearer to the action?
Of course the club will look at ways of tarting it all up, to get some seats (how?) closer to the pitch after discussions with E20 (and the new London Mayor I assume). Don't expect much change there any time soon then.
So how about any chat with Sullivan about the transfer policy debacle? Well Karren has covered that one… "My chairmen has also asked me to re-affirm their commitment to the re-structuring of our recruitment policy as David Sullivan outlined in his message to our supporters on the club's official site recently". Well that's OK then.
Oh, and she added: "They have also requested I reiterate their full commitment to ensuring a better match day experience. We have listened and want to work with you to rebuild a sense of belonging and unity." As long as you lot don't 'belong' much longer, I can hear you all cry. Ever get the feeling we are being 'played' and kept at arms length?
Finally, I would just like to add my thanks and congratulations to all those who have given up hours, days, months of their lives to get this campaign off the ground. Proper West Ham.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be attributed to, KUMB.com.
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Beware the Irons of March
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Following lengthy discussions with West Ham United's Board last week, the West Ham Groups United (WHGU) coalition have announced plans to poll their members in order to determine the level of support for a protest march next weekend.
The march - which is being organised by the Real West Ham Fans Action Group (RWHFAG) and is expected to attract thousands of disillusioned Hammers fans - is set to take place in Stratford on the morning of the next Premier League home fixture, against Burnley on 10 March.
As a result of the RWHFAG's plans - and, no doubt, a fast-growing membership that has swelled to 16,000 since November - the Board invited the group and several prominent West Ham United-based websites and social media groups, including the West Ham United Independent Supporters' Association (WHUISA), Hammers Chat, West Ham TV and Knees up Mother Brown to a meeting at the stadium last week.
During discussions that lasted in excess of five hours, the Board - represented by Vice Chair Karren Brady and Executive Director Tara Warren - took questions on a range of subjects regarding many aspects of the club's perceived shortcomings including the general match day experience, memorabilia and heritage, finances and media exposure.
Later in the week Vice Chair Brady responded with a 5,000-word 'open letter' to WHGU addressing many - although not all - of the issues raised at the meeting.
And at a WHGU meeting on Monday evening, it was agreed that the open letter should be published via the coalition's various channels so that individual members of each group could have their say in order to determine whether the club's proposals were sufficient enough to satisfy supporter's demands and lead to the march being postponed or cancelled.
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POSSIBLE MOYES CHANGES AND THE SLIPPERY EEL
By Tony Hanna 27 Feb 2018 at 08:00
WTID
Sometimes you just have to take defeat on the chin and the weekends game at Liverpool is one of those times. Whether Mark Nobles comments about it being a free hit were taken in the wrong context or not, whether you agree with the formation or team selection, on the day Liverpool were just too good. Manchester City found out just a few weeks ago at Anfield that a Liverpool side with Salah, Firmino and Mane all on song are difficult to stop. They let in the same as us too – four. In fact this was the third consecutive match where Liverpool have put four past us. With games to play at Arsenal and Chelsea together with home matches against both Manchester clubs we must hope for more resolute defending if we have any ambition of gaining points from these games. In Sam's days he would have targeted the forthcoming home matches against Burnley, Southampton, Stoke and Everton. Avoid defeat in these four matches and win two of them and we should be safe. The bookies have us at 10/1 for the drop but it is impossible to have the same confidence as this log jam of relegation candidates shows no signs of clearing any time soon.
What will be interesting is to see if or how David Moyes reacts to the weekends loss. There are a few players that could come under the microscope. Firstly there is the goalkeeping situation. When Hart was dropped for Adrian, Moyes insisted that Hart would get his opportunity and play Premier League games again this season. I thought at the time that perhaps Moyes thought there would be a time when Adrian's position would again come under scrutiny. My preference would be for Adrian to stay between the sticks but after conceding three at Brighton and now four at Liverpool I would imagine if Hart was to get his chance again it may be now. Another who could be making way is Ginge. Winston Reid was warming the bench on the weekend and whilst he hasn't had the best of seasons this is another change that Moyes might consider. It is also conceivable that Cresswell could be the one making way for Reid in a back three and with Evra certainly showing some steel in the tackling department on his debut the back five may well have a very different look about it against Swansea. Whilst showing some nice touches at times it would be surprise me if Mario retains his place. A fully fit Lanzini offers a deal more and I have my doubts that Moyes will play the two together too many more times this season.
I would like to dedicate the remainder of my weekly article to a former player who earlier last month turned 65 years of age.
Every once and a while a player comes along that gets your blood pumping. That happened to me, and I am sure many others, when Johnny Ayris broke through into the West Ham first team in 1970. The little right winger stood just 5'5" tall and weighed nine and a half stone but with his superb dribbling skills he was to prove as slippery as an eel. At first sight he had the swerve of Stanley Matthews and the trickery of George Best and he seemed destined for the top. The next seven seasons were to tell a different story.
Born in Wapping in 1953 Johnny Ayris would spend hours smacking a ball against the sheds outside his parents council flat. He would often kick the ball onto the roof and guess where it would come down before catching it on his right foot. The young kid was addicted to practice and when he made it at West Ham his great love was training. He admitted later that "training was a joy – it was touch, it was pace, it was skill and I was lucky enough to have those attributes. I loved the training perhaps more than the matches and maybe I wasn't cut out to be a footballer, I should have pushed my case a bit more."
He made his debut at just 17 years of age at home to Burnley on the 3rd October 1970 and played a blinder setting up all three Geoff Hurst goals in a 3-1 victory. Ron Greenwood gave him a professional contract just two days later and it was not long before the North Bank were singing "we've got Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Ayris on the wing" to the tune of Ging Gang Goolie. He continued to mesmerise defences until we played Chelsea at home nearly a year later on the 11th September 1971. Johnny was running rings around the notorious Chelsea hard man Ron "Chopper" Harris and the riled defender picked his moment 'to let him know he was still there.' Johnny was to later say "I'd been giving him the run around and he was getting really wound up and the crowd were on his back." One challenge later and Johnny Ayris had flipped over the back of Harris and he landed with a sickening thud. The young winger was all of a sudden having difficulty breathing and he was immediately subbed for Bobby Howe. Hospital tests showed that the injury had caused an air bubble to form in his lung, a condition he was to later to find out could be life threatening. Because of the injury Ron Greenwood would in the future only pick and choose the right games for him to play in, and even then a string of other injuries would curtail his ambitions. John is pictured right at the end of this very notable line up!
The whole incident had a lasting effect on his confidence but he said he felt no grudge towards Harris. Johnny was also to come off second best to the infamous Tommy Gemmill of Celtic in a match played for Bobby Moore's testimonial. John was to play only 69 games for West Ham over seven seasons, scoring just two goals. Following the Harris incident most of his time at West Ham was spent on the bench or in the background. Nicknamed "Rat" to his team mates because of his ragged looks, the Hammers fans dubbed him "Cyril Lord" after the carpet king, for his propensity for hitting the turf after having the rug pulled out from under him! Johnny Ayris loved every minute of his West Ham career but an incredible talent was wasted in some ways as his love of just playing overshadowed the real issue of playing professional football in a time where his light weight frame was no match for the battle hardened men of that era. Between December 1973 and October 1976 Johnny Ayris became our super-sub, making twenty five appearances of which 15 were from the bench. In many of the early matches he played though, he was one of the most exciting talents you would ever wish to see.
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http://vyperz.blogspot.com
WHUFC.com
All four of West Ham United's Premier League fixtures in April have new dates after being selected for live TV broadcast. The Hammers' game away at Chelsea will now be shown on Sky Sports on Sunday 8 April, with a 4.30pm kick-off, although this fixture is subject to change should the Blues be in UEFA Champions League action the following Tuesday.
Next up is the home match against Stoke City, which has been moved to an 8pm kick-off on Monday 16 April, live on Sky Sports.
The Hammers are in Monday Night Football action again the following week, when they travel to Arsenal on Monday 23 April. Kick-off is again 8pm, live on Sky Sports.
Sky Sports will also broadcast the home clash with Manchester City, now to be played on Sunday 29 April at 2.15pm. Again, this date is subject to change should Manchester City be scheduled to play in the UEFA Champions League the following Tuesday.
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Rice looking forward to Coaching Association session
WHUFC.com
The Academy of Football host their third Official Coaching Association session on Monday 5 March at Chadwell Heath and there is plenty in store for those attending to look forward to. First team stars Declan Rice and Josh Cullen – who both came through the Club's famous youth ranks to be part of David Moyes' first team squad – will open the evening with a Q&A, and it's a great opportunity for local coaches to pick the brains of young players who have come through the elite Academy pathway. Rice made his first team debut at the end of last season and has gone on to become an important member of the Hammers' squad this campaign.
Coaching AssociationSigned as a youngster from Chelsea, the defender – along with Cullen, who has been with the Club since he was nine – has been coached through the ranks at Academy. And the 19-year-old is looking forward to what should be an intriguing evening for those at Chadwell Heath.
He said: "I'm really looking forward to the evening. It will be great to meet all the coaches who at a local level do so much for grassroots football and hopefully the Q&A with myself and Josh will be valuable for them. "We'll be there to answer any questions about our experiences coming through the Academy, so I think it's set to be an interesting night for those who come along."
Along with the Rice and Cullen Q&A, Academy Director Terry Westley will also be running through the Academy's Individual Development Plans, before first team coach and former Hammer and England full-back Stuart Pearce takes a practical training session. Rice continued: "Stuart is also doing a training session, so the coaches will get a chance to see what our training is like in action and that will be great, too."
The Association has been set up by the West Ham United Academy of Football to provide opportunities for grassroots level coaches to learn from some of the best and most experienced staff in the Hammers set up and the professional game. The evening on Monday 5 March begins at 6pm. To book your place on the session, click here. You can also book a spot on the final session – in April – by clicking here and finding your chosen evening.
Alternatively, visit https://www.eticketing.co.uk/whufc, head to 'find tickets' and look for the Coaching Association.
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Visit our free Bobby Moore exhibition - late opening this Wednesday
WHUFC.com
To mark the 25th anniversary of the tragic passing of Bobby Moore, West Ham United are hosting a memorabilia exhibition in honour of our greatest-ever player.
The unique display is free to visit and located on the lower ground floor of the Stadium Store from Saturday 24 February - and will be open until 7pm on Wednesday 28 February, giving even more Hammers fans of all ages the opportunity to gain a close look at some of most prominent and prestigious artefacts and honours from Bobby's life and career.
These include the actual shirt he wore on his West Ham United debut against Manchester United on 8 September 1958, his 1964 FA Cup and 1965 European Cup Winners' Cup winning medals, his 1964 Footballer of the Year award and his 1966 World Cup finals cap, along with a replica of his World Cup winner's medal, a matchday programme and a match ticket personally signed by all eleven England players on that famous July day at Wembley.
Bobby Moore: West Ham United remembers – 25 years gone, never forgotten
Alongside the memorabilia collection is a stunning three-foot high bronze sculpture of Bobby, seen in public for the first time after being commissioned by his daughter Roberta as part of a series of six sculptures to mark the 25th anniversary.
West Ham United's Stadium Store will also be open until the later time of 7pm on Wednesday 28 February and Thursday 8 March.
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West Ham feature in new Kick It Out LGBT+ inclusion initiative
WHUFC.com
West Ham United striker Andy Carroll features in a new Kick It Out film promoting LGBT+ inclusion in football and emphasising that homophobic, biphobic or transphobic (HBT) discrimination has no place in the game.
LGBT+ inclusion remains a central part of the work done by Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion organisation, and the film encourages supporters to report any abuse they witness or suffer – whether it's to a steward or to Kick It Out via its free reporting app.
The 90-second film, which you can view on this page, features Carroll alongside stars from all 20 Premier League clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur's Jan Vertonghen, Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata, Manchester United's Juan Mata, Manchester City's Vincent Kompany and Arsenal's Danny Welbeck.
Roisin Wood, CEO of Kick It Out, was delighted to work closely with every Premier League club and release the film at a time when the country is marking LGBT History Month.
She said: "Kick It Out have been campaigning for LGBT+ inclusion in football for a long time and it's wonderful that we've been able to bring all 20 clubs together for the first time in our history to take a stand against HBT discrimination. This is about the collective force of the game uniting to eliminate behaviour that has no place in the game.
"We also wanted to send out a positive message to fans across the world and make it clear that LGBT+ supporters are part of the foundations of football – just like any other fan."
Bill Bush, Executive Director of the Premier League, gave his endorsement to the film, adding: "This film produced by Kick It Out features all our member clubs and highlights the need to challenge homophobic, biphobic and transphobic behaviour across the sport.
"The Premier League is embraced across the world and we are proud to show our continued support for LGBT+ inclusion in football."
West Ham United are proud supporters of Kick It Out and the annual Football v Homophobia and Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaigns, all of which are aimed at eradicating discrimination and making LGBT supporters feel welcome at London Stadium.
The Club has also worked closely with its official LGBT Supporters Group, Pride of Irons, towards the same ends since its formation in 2015.
Pride of Irons founder Jim Dolan endorsed Kick It Out's campaign: "We don't want to be a group of people who go around grassing people up. What we want to do is challenge things and get people to understand we are not here to try and get people chucked out and change the culture of the Club – we want people to realise that we are part of that culture."
For more information about Kick It Out's Premier League and LGBT History Month inclusion initiative, click here.
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Collins: We need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result
WHUFC.com
James Collins says West Ham United 'cannot dwell' on their defeat at Liverpool and instead must focus all of their attention on Saturday's Premier League trip to Swansea City. The former Wales international and his teammates matched the high-powered Reds for 45 minutes at Anfield, only for a weak second-half display to allow Jurgen Klopp's team to run out 4-1 winners. Defeat on Merseyside saw the Hammers drop to within three points of the relegation zone ahead of a visit to the Liberty Stadium to face the 18th-place Swans. "We're going to have to go to Swansea and then host Burnley in the next couple of weeks and pick up our points from those games," said Collins. "I said to the boys in the dressing room that we cannot dwell on what happened at Liverpool, as better teams than us have gone to Anfield and been steamrolled, so we've got to look at the video, look at what we did right and what we did wrong and move on to a huge game in Wales on Saturday. "Morale in the camp is good. We had a good result against Watford and then a couple of weeks of good training, so spirits are high. We've got some great characters in that dressing room and we need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result."
Reflecting at greater length on Saturday's loss at Anfield, Collins felt it would have been a different game if West Ham had taken one of a number of first-half chances they created. Marko Arnautovic was denied by two acrobatic saves from Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, while the Hammers also worked the ball into dangerous areas on a number of other occasions, but could not find a way past the German. Emre Can headed the Reds in front from a corner on the half-hour mark before the hosts took control after the break, adding further goals through Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, rendering Michail Antonio's breakaway strike a mere consolation.
Collins admitted the east Londoners were disappointed by their second-half performance. "If you look at the first half, we played well, but conceded from a set play. In the second half, they went up a few gears and scored three goals. Obviously, we're not happy with the way they went in, but they're a very strong team at Anfield. "We said in the dressing room, if we'd gone 1-0 up, it would have given us something to hang on to, so we were disappointed to go into half-time 1-0 down when we thought we'd played relatively well and coped with them. So, to come out in the second half and not play as we wanted to and concede some goals, we're obviously disappointed. "Liverpool have got a bit of everything. They suck you into a false sense of security and then, when they get around the box, it speeds up. We didn't deal with that in the second half."
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All change - April schedule altered
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Each of West Ham's four April fixtures have been moved to satisfy TV companies, it has been confirmed.
The four matches - two at Stratford, two away - have all been re-scheduled at the behest of Sky Sports starting with the trip to Chelsea which will now begin at 4.30pm on Sunday, 8 April (unless Chelsea play the following Tuesday in the Champions League).
The following weekend United host Stoke City in a vital relegation battle - a game that has now been moved to Monday, 16 April (an 8pm start).
Following the visit of the Potters, West Ham visit the Emirates for another trip to North London where David Moyes' side will be hoping to take revenge for the Carabao Cup defeat back in December.
Finally, the re-jigged month ends with a trip to Champions elect Manchester City on Sunday, 29 April - a 2.15pm kick off, also to be broadcast on Sky.
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Liverpool 4-1 West Ham (And Other Ramblings)
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: HeadHammerShark
"You say you lost your faith, but that's not where it's at
You had no faith to lose, and you know it"
- Bob Dylan, "Positively 4th Street"
I never admire our away support more than on days like these. On a morning when you can create clouds with your own breath and the cold can descend upon you like a blanket, it takes a certain type of person to make the trip to a fixture like this. It isn't so much that we we ended up losing this game 4-1, but that it always felt like we would lose 4-1. Not everyone can march so readily North knowing that cannon shot and thunder and Mo Salah are lying in wait.
Even though we knew this was coming, it still stings when it happens, mind you. There is always hope until there isn't, after all. But the Premier League is becoming less competitive with each passing transfer window and each UEFA subsidy to the bigger teams. And so it is our lot to travel to places such as Anfield and play a team assembled at vast cost by cherry picking the best players from Southampton, Hoffenheim, Southampton, Bayer Leverkusen, Hull and, well, Southampton and wonder just what exactly is the point of all this. Maybe we have always been cannon fodder, but I don't remember everyone being quite so readily understanding about it.
We haven't got Salah, or Money Money.
It's a curious time to be a fan of a Premier League minnow. The top six are so far away now that it isn't terribly realistic to expect very much when playing them. We've lost 4-0 at Old Trafford, 4-1 here, 2-1 at the Etihad and drawn 1-1 with Spurs. We've spent roughly 80 per cent of those games defending, earned a single point, and apart from the second half at Old Trafford - when we seemed unaware that the season had actually started - overall I think we've done alright.
It's not that I don't want us to be more competitive but these are shoulder shrug games. You take what you can get, hope it doesn't get too embarrassing and then focus on next week. For fans of smaller clubs, trips to places like Liverpool are just about reaffirming our place in the established order. Four goals. Four goalscorers who cost a hundred million quid between them. Four hours drive there. For shame.
Whether we should actually be considered as a minnow is perhaps a different question and one I'm not sure I have the energy to revisit today. Gross mismanagement and too many Sunday nights writing this blog will do that to a man.
But to those who go and watch games like this, I salute you. It's easy to write these fixtures off as one sided and predetermined when you don't go to watch them, but when you're there in the ground it can be chastening. Of course, when you win 3-0 it can be exhilarating too, but we all know that was a beautiful aberration. At a time when we all seem very focused on what exactly constitutes a "real" West Ham fan, I think those who undertake trips such as these deserve to be foremost in our thoughts.
***
"Cause you give it all away, you give it all away now
Don't let it come apart, don't want to see you come apart"
- Doves, "Caught By The River"
I believe that when watching a Premier League football team, if you ever arrive late for a game, you should never have to turn to a fellow fan and ask the fatal question - "Jesus Christ, is that Willie Nelson playing centre back for us?". And yet, these days, you never know at West Ham. We started this game with a back three of Aaron Cresswell, James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna and flanked them with nominal wing backs Pablo Zabaleta and Patrice Evra. That's a back line with an average age of thirty two, a Boer War veteran, one guy with rickets and three country music stars who think electric guitars are a bit fancy.
And which one of you was supposed to be marking Mane?
The cumulative effect of our nonsensical transfer policy was laid bare here as we faced up to one of the fittest, fastest teams around with an octogenarian defence and simply dared them to run past us. And they did. Zabaleta was up against Andrew Robertson, and the Scot had the time of his life gallivanting around like a West Brom player at a Spanish taxi cab rank. On the other side, Evra fared little better and seemed to be suffering from the same disease that afflicted Zabaleta when he first arrived whereby he thought he was still playing for a Manchester side. So up he pushed, and sure enough we frequently lost the ball and the hosts exploited the gaps in behind him. I am seriously wondering if having wing backs with a combined age of sixty nine is a great idea, guys.
In fairness, it wasn't just the defence where we struggled. Of the entire line up only Joao Mario and Manuel Lanzini were under 28 and one of them isn't even our player. I have despaired of this transfer policy for long enough that I hope you will forgive me a brief moment of schadenfreude when I say to David Sullivan - I fucking told you this was going to happen.
And so the slowest team around played the quickest and it went pretty much as you might expect. While it's easy to be critical of West Ham, it's only reasonable to acknowledge that Liverpool are an electric side. Between Jurgen Klopp and their enormous budget, they have weapons that we simply cannot cope with, and have destroyed far better sides than us. Going forward they attack with quicksilver precision, and Salah could have scored as early as the second minute. Then we were saved by the woodwork, as the game settle into a pattern of Liverpool swarming all over us, while we tried to break with pace on the counter-attack but failed to do so because breaking with pace is hard when half of your team were teenagers during Suez.
For all that, we were not without threats of our own. Having Marko Arnautovic up front allows us the luxury of having a top six player in a bottom half team, and that is something that most of our relegation rivals cannot say. The Austrian was on his own here as Javier Hernandez was dropped for Lanzini, and had a frustrating afternoon getting annoyed that his team mates weren't a bit better. Which is saying something when you think he played with Ryan Shawcross for all that time at Stoke.
At 0-0, Arnautovic latched on to a rare decent through ball and brilliantly conjured a chip on to the crossbar from just outside the box. Loris Karius did well to tip it on to the woodwork and with that probably went our best chance of getting something from the game. Even with all of Arnautovic, Mario and Lanzini on the pitch, we struggled to keep possession and without a truly dominant central midfielder who can carry the ball and get us forward, it is bordering on impossible to ever create very much in these sort of games.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing was the way we defended, as our calling card under Moyes has been to set up with a well-drilled defensive line and rely on the general excellence of our defenders to repel teams. The problem with that is it relies on us having some sort of parity further up the pitch and with Antonio on the bench and Lanzini looking every inch like he'd just returned from injury, we didn't have the necessary class to keep the ball in advanced positions.
And so it was that even though I thought we were fairly competitive in the first half, it was that special brand of competitiveness that requires you to be a fan of that particular side and be squinting very hard indeed. Football fans see positives everywhere because we are conditioned to do so. Thus, when Antonio arrived and scored immediately with a fine angled finish we all briefly began to construct a theoretical scenario in which a comeback was plausible. I thought that if ever Hernandez was going to come on, it was then, when that shaky Liverpool backline was rocking, but Moyes is glacial in his decision making and the moment passed, Mane scored the fourth, and by the time he brought him on it kind of looked like a punishment.
In the same vein, I took some positives from Zabaleta's continued Herculean efforts and conveniently ignored the way Robertson was breezing past him with alarming frequency. I similarly lauded a couple of fine Adrian saves and glossed over the remote controlled malfunction that saw him somehow being twenty yards from his goal when Roberto Firmino scored the Liverpool third. You can apparently buy drugs very easily on Merseyside, after all.
This went about as well as it looks like it would
So while we are reduced to clutching at the thinnest of straws, it's true that Liverpool were simply a great deal better than us. And while there is no doubt that we have every right to demand our team puts up a better show than this, it's also undeniable that under David Sullivan's stewardship we have gone backwards at breakneck speed. We simply aren't equipped to compete with these teams, and these kinds of results are inevitable until there is a massive overhaul of this squad by someone who knows that they are doing.
Once more, to those fans who travelled up - I salute your inexhaustible optimism.
***
"A picture is worth a thousand words"
- The Temptations, "Paradise"
The Temptations are not wrong. A pretty big game, is Swansea.
***
"They don't, they don't speak for us"
- Radiohead, "No Surprises"
Bet Bobby would have been delighted to have been associated with this
In some regards the off-field antics were more interesting than the game, as both fans attempted to out-dickhead each other. Liverpool fans got in early by booing 74-year-old Hammers debutant Patrice Evra, who is great to have around the place because of his terrific social media antics. He can no longer run, but we care not for such prosaic notions and with young Jose Fonte having left for the Orient, he represented a great opportunity to somehow increase the average age of our squad outside of the transfer window.
Anyway, Evra was roundly booed all day. Home fans maintained this was because he is a former Manchester United player, except that they also kept singing Luis Suarez songs at him, meaning that they were linking the booing to the time Suarez was found guilty of racially abusing Evra and banned for eight games. So just to reiterate - they booed him for being racially abused. Wonderful humour though.
Not to be outdone, some of our fans responded by holding up the banner above. In an era when it has become a badge of honour to tell the world how little you are offended by anything because you aren't a snowflake, I suppose that I run the risk of outing myself as hypersensitive here, but I need to say something - this banner is moronic and reprehensible. It is so stupid I had to double check that it wasn't a parody before writing this. It doesn't speak for me or any sensible West Ham fan, and the main thing it has done is set the cause of the fans' march back before it's even begun. You all thought you were starting in Stratford, but instead you'll be going from Chelmsford. Bravo.
Not that I need to explain this, surely, but comparing people to Hitler is generally a pretty bad idea. Hitler is in the conversation for the worst human being who ever lived. He killed people in their millions, and there will have been people in that crowd who lost loved ones to German bombs in World War II. I am sure that the people who came up with it thought it was a pithy line but it's just crass and almost criminally stupid. Wasting a few million quid on Robert Snodgrass and Matt Jarvis isn't equivalent to waging a war, changing the club badge doesn't equate to eugenics and a failed stadium move isn't the same as systematically exterminating millions of innocent people because they are Jewish.
Don't message me with any justifications for this bullshit, or tell me it's banter or tell me it's not a comparison with Hitler because not only is it a literal direct comparison with Hitler, but it is somehow an unfavourable one.
I am so sick of the fucking morons on our lunatic fringe who follow this club and are so much more vocal than the average punter, meaning that we literally have to say things to other fans like "Yeah, most of our supporters are great if you can just ignore the Hitler banner".
Here is a tip for those going on the march. Your cause is just - the Board have done things for which they deserve to be held to account, and they deserve to have to face that examination in the full light of the public glare. That publicity helps the cause because external pressures can be brought to bear on the owners and a supportive media and wider football community will help affect change. Win the PR battle, and you have a head start on winning the war.
But here's the thing - if you march singing songs about Karren Brady, or carry flags personally abusing the Sullivan family or even do something as unthinkably brainless as carry a banner comparing our Jewish chairman to Adolf Fucking Hitler, then you cede every piece of moral high ground that you might have. We are once more reduced to a rabble of hooligans and thugs who aren't worth listening to, and have nothing reasonable to say. I beg you not to take that route. Stick to the facts. The team is shit and the stadium isn't what was promised. That's plenty enough to be getting on with.
***
"Well she wrote me a letter
Said she couldn't live without me no more"
- The Box Tops, "The Letter"
And then just as I was about to hit "Publish", Karren Brady sent a letter to the various fans groups that she met recently, ahead of the proposed march before the Burnley game. I've commented a couple of times on this before, and explained that while I understand the reasons for the march, I'm concerned that without any tangible goals or demands, it runs the risk of being a protest about nothing.
The genesis of all this was a meeting where representatives of Real West Ham Fans, KUMB, Hammers Chat, WHUISA and other groups that I can't name as I haven't seen minutes, sat down with Karren Brady and discussed a wide range of topics. The letter covers these in detail and I think it's fair to say that the club are at least taking the fan dissatisfaction seriously now, which is to the great credit of all the fan groups involved. Don't underestimate the inroads they have made through a coherent start and impressive organisation.
There is definite movement on certain demands made by fans to make the ground more like home and also a pledge to better improve communication with supporters. All of that is fine by me and a welcome move towards a more collaborative approach rather then the ludicrously adversarial tone that has been adopted in the past. There is actually quite a lot here, even if it is two years too late.
But there is a wider point too. Why did it take the threat of thousands of fans marching to get movement on something so trivial as putting up a banner honouring Billy Bonds? If it takes that type of effort to get you to engage with fans properly then I would humbly suggest that someone somewhere in the organisation needs to go on a crash course in people. You don't get to call us customers when it suits you and then totally ignore the concept of customer service. It is bananas that the club have allowed things to degenerate this far before acting.
And yet, for all the words and waffle in that letter, it is not going to be anywhere near enough to placate fans. I have a certain, limited sympathy with the Board in the sense that the fans aren't totally united and thus the disparate demands make it impossible to please everyone. There are a lot of people who are very upset that the club badge was changed, for example, while I think it's just about the dumbest possible hill to die on. I accept that my view is no more or less valid than anyone else's, and that's why I joined WHUISA and voted for people to represent me. But therein lies the problem.
Apart from Payet?
The People's Front of Judea/Judean People's Front approach means that lots of issues are getting floated by lots of different groups and it results in a letter like this, which is like a freewheeling trip through a list of minor annoyances, and summarily fails to address the two main problems that underpin everything - namely, that the team are crap, everybody knows that turning that around will be a significant undertaking, and the stadium is not up to scratch.
Now, I should also say that the letter constitutes the club's version of the action points. This doesn't mean that there weren't other things raised in the meeting, but simply that the club don't want to engage on those points. Indeed, I know for a fact that Brady was directly asked to discontinue her column in The Sun and refused, even though it was detrimental to the club during the transfer window. File that one away folks - it tells us something.
My buddy @LeBigHouse has suggested that what the fans really need is a cut throat, razor sharp shithouse of a trade unionist to lead this fight, and I'm inclined to agree. Not because the people involved aren't representing their groups well, but because we need to narrow all this down to a laser focus.
Fan questions should focus on the two areas I highlighted above: You promised us a stadium that was fit for football and you haven't delivered - what are you going to do about it? You also promised us that the stadium would allow us to generate more funds and improve the team. Why are you still allowing the owner to have a crack at this as a hobby, rather than employing qualified professionals to do the job?
That's it. That should be the agenda. Everything else is nice and I've suggested some of them myself but they are ancillary to the current situation. Small incremental gains are fine when you've exhausted the big ticket ideas, but the club haven't come remotely close to that. The Board should have watched that game on Saturday and felt a burning shame for every single minute of it. Barring one glorious accident of a season in 2015/16 when the league was upside down, they have done nothing but mire West Ham in mediocrity while spending vast sums to trail behind smaller clubs. A good team would paper over these cracks, but the bad one we've had for eighteen months is widening them.
The sole nod to this in the letter is the line "My Chairmen have also asked me to reaffirm their commitment to the restructuring of our recruitment policy as David Sullivan outlined recently..." That's it. David is going to appoint a Director of Football in the summer, at which point it will be too late to do any actual planning for the transfer window because real clubs are doing all of that now. Wonderful.
I'm not disagreeing with anything much in Brady's letter but it's all obfuscation because that's all she's allowed us. Her comments on the stadium essentially say little more than "We promise to look at this", which is a coded version of saying "I'll ask the landlord, but they're skint and we ain't paying anything so, ho hum..." Reading all of that, the temptation is to say that the reality here is that while we are tenants of the stadium, the thing that we really want - to be closer to the pitch - is not actually in their power to give us.
And this, I think, is the heart of the problem. We want to be on the touchline again, in a ground that feels like home, in the electric swirl of a pulsating football match, watching a team that is good enough to justify the move. And for all the lip service that the club may pay to those cries, it's not really in their gift to be able to do anything much about any of it. The stadium isn't ours, and the people who make the decisions about the team seem immune to any form of blame. So on we march, and up go the banners, and out come the hearses, and all the while it turns out that letting in four goals against teams like Liverpool is now the status quo. What a mess.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be attributed to, KUMB.com.
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Is this enough from the board?
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Paul Walker
So we have seen the whites of their eyes, certainly not the colour of their money but we do know where they draw the line in the sand over discussions with angry fans.
Intentionally or otherwise, when Karren Brady turned up at last week's five-hour meeting with the fans' alliance without David Sullivan (ill) or David Gold (too old or ill-informed), and with communications executive director Tara Warren and head of match day operations Ben Illingworth, it became clear very quickly what the board were not prepared to negotiate on.
Brady declined to consider questions about club finances, ownership and shares, plus transfer policy, because it was not her remit. So immediately, the core reason many will be marching for - a change of ownership - was not up for discussion. Frankly, it was never likely to be.
But that, and last night's (Monday) 5,000 word response from Brady to the previous week's lengthy debate, is hardly going to appease the rank and file who are marching on March 10 for change at the top. Full stop.
In the end it was always going to be this way. Brady has handled all the peripheral stuff; the badge, the memorial gardens, the legacy and museum, stewarding, retractable seating etc, etc but to drag our ownership into any meaningful discussion about their control of the club and the future, is a totally different matter.
The Real West Ham Fans Action Group, who have 16,000 plus on their books and have done a remarkable job getting the club to even this stage of negotiations, plus the associated groups like ourselves and other fans' organisations on the committee that met Brady, must, in all, speak for over 20,000 of our fan base.
The vast majority of this united front want an end to Sullivan's regime and will march ahead of the Burnley game under a banner of 'no confidence in the board.' So what was in Brady's letter is not going to solve the core problem, the anger of many is now too entrenched. This looks like a long, painful campaign.
Will Sullivan and Gold eventually get fed up with the hassle and sell. Who knows? Will they wait until the taxation levels drop on their profits on the stadium move? More likely. But with the club worth something like £500m now, they are going to want a lot of cash to walk away. Russians, Arab nations, the Yanks, please form an orderly queue because it is only you in the ball game now.
Frankly I expected more from Brady than what has transpired. I expected a large carrot to be dangled in front of fans to try to stop the march. A new badge now, maybe or other promises. But you know what us fans think about promises from this board!
Brady's letter took a long time last night to digest. But it is what we expected, hugely professional, a very political dialogue and complex. This lady has run rings round a Prime Minister, a Home Secretary, a London Mayor/Foreign Secretary, she doesn't do Sullivan's negotiating for nothing.
So what did we get? A list of what the club could do easily, what it couldn't do because we are tenants, what it blames the owners for and what the owners won't do.
There's a decree that no fan wearing other club colours (apart from our opponents that day, I assume) will be admitted to the stadium. There will be themed match day experiences, Westfield's might be a bit more assessable. Everybody gets the London living wage, our employees and those who work for the dreaded owners.
There will be another attempt to get ex-Boleyn stewards on board, and one on the senior supervisory team in each of the four areas of the stadium will be ex-Upton Park. Catering has improved, accessible shuttle buses are more frequent, stewards will be educated in the ways of football fans. The memorial gardens back at the Boleyn will be properly maintained long term (as if this even needs to be an issue).
Now our legacy. Historic club crests will be on show, significant moments in our history will be celebrated, club heroes (Moore, Hurst, Peters, Brooking, Bonds, Noble) will be honoured with permanent tributes. Billy Bonds especially. I await that with baited breath. The East Stand should be renamed, how difficult is that?
Flags of our 16 'core' crests will be on show for the Burnley game. They are going to ask someone if they can rename the main walkway from Stratford as the West Ham Way. Keep with me everyone, it gets better!
There's going to be a Fan Zone, much like the excellent one at West Brom and the one some of us experienced at Anfield. Heineken will install a 40ft-long mobile bar as a social hub, with legends on a stage and lots and lots of signs and flags letting us know this is the home of West Ham United. Just why the board didn't think ahead and sanction this sort of stuff 18 months ago, you can only guess.
And someone is going to ask someone in authority if the old stalls and food vendors outside the Boleyn can be re-integrated. E20 and Newham Council have to OK that, so don't hold your breath.
And the museum. The club have 1,000 items in store, they will put on occasional displays but look for a permanent site for a new museum. Seeing as we own doodle squat at the LS bar the club shop, your guess is as good as anyone's on that!
Now the badge (for me the least important item, sorry, try not to shot the messenger). There's been 16 since our formation, various colours, some with castles, some with just hammers, some with gold. Some that horrible yellow. The reason folk hate the current one is that is the symbol of the move, the Board.
The club explained away the consultations that got us this far. The voting etc. That 56 per cent wanted the current crest. But of how many votes? About 12,000 I was once told, so the new badge was wanted by about 7,000 folk out of 56,000.
Yes, I know, you don't vote you lose any right to complain but I always thought we were being rail-roaded here, and the 'London' tag was all about marketing abroad.
Anyway, the club are only prepared to talk again in 2020 ahead of the plans for our 125th anniversary, they'll want a new badge to flog for that, obviously, and will talk about a new permanent one after that. What else? Oh yes, ticket prices will be frozen again, we have been told (AGAIN) that our fixtures will always have priority at the OS (stop laughing at the back).
What next? Oh yes, retractable, removable, rebuildable seating. That's the owners' fault, of course. The club were given videos by the LLDC back in 2013 to pass on to us "in good faith". Hope you all got that, not our fault guv, sorry.
We now know that even with state-of-the-art retractable seating gliding in on golden clouds at the flick of a switch (like in Paris), it would get the fans no nearer to the action than we are now. The stadium configuration, shape, sight lines, roof cover, precludes that.
The club cannot be blamed for the retractable seating contractors going bust and the current cheapo scaffolding option we now have. But I would love to know just when the Board knew about that problem, and how long they continued to sell season tickets claiming they would have real retractable seats rather than ones that are torn down, dumped in a local goods yard and then refitted at laughable cost.
The solution is that the whole place is shut down for a year, we move to a temporary stadium (Orient, Dagenham maybe?) and the place is torn apart and refitted at even more laughable cost. Not going to happen with these ground owners and why would our Board offer to spend so much without getting people behind the goals any nearer to the action?
Of course the club will look at ways of tarting it all up, to get some seats (how?) closer to the pitch after discussions with E20 (and the new London Mayor I assume). Don't expect much change there any time soon then.
So how about any chat with Sullivan about the transfer policy debacle? Well Karren has covered that one… "My chairmen has also asked me to re-affirm their commitment to the re-structuring of our recruitment policy as David Sullivan outlined in his message to our supporters on the club's official site recently". Well that's OK then.
Oh, and she added: "They have also requested I reiterate their full commitment to ensuring a better match day experience. We have listened and want to work with you to rebuild a sense of belonging and unity." As long as you lot don't 'belong' much longer, I can hear you all cry. Ever get the feeling we are being 'played' and kept at arms length?
Finally, I would just like to add my thanks and congratulations to all those who have given up hours, days, months of their lives to get this campaign off the ground. Proper West Ham.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be attributed to, KUMB.com.
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Beware the Irons of March
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 27th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
Following lengthy discussions with West Ham United's Board last week, the West Ham Groups United (WHGU) coalition have announced plans to poll their members in order to determine the level of support for a protest march next weekend.
The march - which is being organised by the Real West Ham Fans Action Group (RWHFAG) and is expected to attract thousands of disillusioned Hammers fans - is set to take place in Stratford on the morning of the next Premier League home fixture, against Burnley on 10 March.
As a result of the RWHFAG's plans - and, no doubt, a fast-growing membership that has swelled to 16,000 since November - the Board invited the group and several prominent West Ham United-based websites and social media groups, including the West Ham United Independent Supporters' Association (WHUISA), Hammers Chat, West Ham TV and Knees up Mother Brown to a meeting at the stadium last week.
During discussions that lasted in excess of five hours, the Board - represented by Vice Chair Karren Brady and Executive Director Tara Warren - took questions on a range of subjects regarding many aspects of the club's perceived shortcomings including the general match day experience, memorabilia and heritage, finances and media exposure.
Later in the week Vice Chair Brady responded with a 5,000-word 'open letter' to WHGU addressing many - although not all - of the issues raised at the meeting.
And at a WHGU meeting on Monday evening, it was agreed that the open letter should be published via the coalition's various channels so that individual members of each group could have their say in order to determine whether the club's proposals were sufficient enough to satisfy supporter's demands and lead to the march being postponed or cancelled.
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POSSIBLE MOYES CHANGES AND THE SLIPPERY EEL
By Tony Hanna 27 Feb 2018 at 08:00
WTID
Sometimes you just have to take defeat on the chin and the weekends game at Liverpool is one of those times. Whether Mark Nobles comments about it being a free hit were taken in the wrong context or not, whether you agree with the formation or team selection, on the day Liverpool were just too good. Manchester City found out just a few weeks ago at Anfield that a Liverpool side with Salah, Firmino and Mane all on song are difficult to stop. They let in the same as us too – four. In fact this was the third consecutive match where Liverpool have put four past us. With games to play at Arsenal and Chelsea together with home matches against both Manchester clubs we must hope for more resolute defending if we have any ambition of gaining points from these games. In Sam's days he would have targeted the forthcoming home matches against Burnley, Southampton, Stoke and Everton. Avoid defeat in these four matches and win two of them and we should be safe. The bookies have us at 10/1 for the drop but it is impossible to have the same confidence as this log jam of relegation candidates shows no signs of clearing any time soon.
What will be interesting is to see if or how David Moyes reacts to the weekends loss. There are a few players that could come under the microscope. Firstly there is the goalkeeping situation. When Hart was dropped for Adrian, Moyes insisted that Hart would get his opportunity and play Premier League games again this season. I thought at the time that perhaps Moyes thought there would be a time when Adrian's position would again come under scrutiny. My preference would be for Adrian to stay between the sticks but after conceding three at Brighton and now four at Liverpool I would imagine if Hart was to get his chance again it may be now. Another who could be making way is Ginge. Winston Reid was warming the bench on the weekend and whilst he hasn't had the best of seasons this is another change that Moyes might consider. It is also conceivable that Cresswell could be the one making way for Reid in a back three and with Evra certainly showing some steel in the tackling department on his debut the back five may well have a very different look about it against Swansea. Whilst showing some nice touches at times it would be surprise me if Mario retains his place. A fully fit Lanzini offers a deal more and I have my doubts that Moyes will play the two together too many more times this season.
I would like to dedicate the remainder of my weekly article to a former player who earlier last month turned 65 years of age.
Every once and a while a player comes along that gets your blood pumping. That happened to me, and I am sure many others, when Johnny Ayris broke through into the West Ham first team in 1970. The little right winger stood just 5'5" tall and weighed nine and a half stone but with his superb dribbling skills he was to prove as slippery as an eel. At first sight he had the swerve of Stanley Matthews and the trickery of George Best and he seemed destined for the top. The next seven seasons were to tell a different story.
Born in Wapping in 1953 Johnny Ayris would spend hours smacking a ball against the sheds outside his parents council flat. He would often kick the ball onto the roof and guess where it would come down before catching it on his right foot. The young kid was addicted to practice and when he made it at West Ham his great love was training. He admitted later that "training was a joy – it was touch, it was pace, it was skill and I was lucky enough to have those attributes. I loved the training perhaps more than the matches and maybe I wasn't cut out to be a footballer, I should have pushed my case a bit more."
He made his debut at just 17 years of age at home to Burnley on the 3rd October 1970 and played a blinder setting up all three Geoff Hurst goals in a 3-1 victory. Ron Greenwood gave him a professional contract just two days later and it was not long before the North Bank were singing "we've got Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Ayris on the wing" to the tune of Ging Gang Goolie. He continued to mesmerise defences until we played Chelsea at home nearly a year later on the 11th September 1971. Johnny was running rings around the notorious Chelsea hard man Ron "Chopper" Harris and the riled defender picked his moment 'to let him know he was still there.' Johnny was to later say "I'd been giving him the run around and he was getting really wound up and the crowd were on his back." One challenge later and Johnny Ayris had flipped over the back of Harris and he landed with a sickening thud. The young winger was all of a sudden having difficulty breathing and he was immediately subbed for Bobby Howe. Hospital tests showed that the injury had caused an air bubble to form in his lung, a condition he was to later to find out could be life threatening. Because of the injury Ron Greenwood would in the future only pick and choose the right games for him to play in, and even then a string of other injuries would curtail his ambitions. John is pictured right at the end of this very notable line up!
The whole incident had a lasting effect on his confidence but he said he felt no grudge towards Harris. Johnny was also to come off second best to the infamous Tommy Gemmill of Celtic in a match played for Bobby Moore's testimonial. John was to play only 69 games for West Ham over seven seasons, scoring just two goals. Following the Harris incident most of his time at West Ham was spent on the bench or in the background. Nicknamed "Rat" to his team mates because of his ragged looks, the Hammers fans dubbed him "Cyril Lord" after the carpet king, for his propensity for hitting the turf after having the rug pulled out from under him! Johnny Ayris loved every minute of his West Ham career but an incredible talent was wasted in some ways as his love of just playing overshadowed the real issue of playing professional football in a time where his light weight frame was no match for the battle hardened men of that era. Between December 1973 and October 1976 Johnny Ayris became our super-sub, making twenty five appearances of which 15 were from the bench. In many of the early matches he played though, he was one of the most exciting talents you would ever wish to see.
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http://vyperz.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 27
Daily WHUFC News - 27th February 2018
Former Hammer relishing Dagenham & Redbridge friendly
WHUFC.com
Lifelong West Ham United fan Bondz N'Gala cannot wait to face his old Club
when Dagenham & Redbridge host the Hammers in a fundraising friendly next
month.
Now 28, Academy of Football graduate N'Gala was born in Forest Gate, joined
West Ham at 13 and spent six seasons in Claret and Blue, making his one and
only first-team appearance in a League Cup defeat at Bolton Wanderers in
September 2009. After spells with a host of Football League and National
League clubs, centre-back N'Gala returned to east London in summer 2017,
when he joined the Daggers. Now, he is set to face his old club for the
first time in a special match organised to raise much-needed proceeds for
the financially-stricken National League club on Wednesday 21 March, tickets
for which can be purchased here.
"Everybody at the club is really looking forward to the game, not only
because it will help raise some of the money we need, but also because it
should be a good, competitive game between two professional teams," said
N'Gala. "There is a massive crossover between the two clubs, with a lot of
people being fans of both and lots of players, like me, making careers with
Dagenham after leaving West Ham. This is a club that gives players a chance
and it is so important that we secure the future of Dagenham & Redbridge FC,
so please come down and support us on the night. "Our manager John Still is
a Newham boy like me and I know he is excited about welcoming the Hammers to
our stadium. We'd love to get a big crowd in and hopefully we can put in a
good performance and win the game, too!"
N'Gala has played more than 250 senior games during a well-travelled career
that has included stops at Plymouth Argyle, Yeovil Town, Stevenage, Barnet,
Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Dover Athletic and Leyton Orient. The defender
returned to the starting XI on Saturday and helped the Daggers to secure a
3-2 win over Chester at Chigwell Construction Stadium. With ten league games
to go, N'Gala's eye is on an unlikely promotion back to the Football League.
"It's great to be back in east London, being from Newham, so it's nice to be
back home rather than playing and living in another part of the country, as
I've been doing for most of my career! "We are doing quite well in the
National League, have won two of our last three games and are only a few
points outside the Play-Off places, so promotion is still very much an
achievable target for us, as it was at the start of the season. "We have
sold a few players, and we didn't start the season with a particularly big
squad but, if anything, the situation has pulled us closer together and we
are not letting it affect us. "If we could have a good game against West
Ham, raise some money, then go on and reach the Play-Offs and win promotion
at Wembley, that would be perfect!"
Seated and standing tickets for West Ham United's friendly at Dagenham &
Redbridge on Wednesday 21 March are available now from
eticketing.co.uk/whufc, over the telephone on 0333 030 1966 or in person
from the London Stadium Ticket Office priced at £10 Adults, £8 O65s and £3
U16s. Access on the night will be via the turnstile on Bury Road.
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Loan watch: Martinez debuts, Oxford celebrates, Burke secures point
WHUFC.com
Toni Martinez made his full debut for Real Valladolid, but was unable to
prevent his team falling to a 2-1 Spanish Segunda Division defeat at Cordoba
on Saturday.
The West Ham United loanee (pictured, above) played for the opening 56
minutes and Valladolid were leading 1-0 through Moyano's when the striker
was replaced by Chris Ramos. With Martinez off the pitch, Cordoba introduced
former Spain winger Jose Antonio Reyes from the bench and turned the game
around with goals from Sasa Jovanovic and Sergi Guardiola inside the final
17 minutes.
Elsewhere on the continent, Reece Oxford fared better, helping Borussia
Monchengladbach end a four-match losing streak by scoring a 1-0 German
Bundesliga victory at Hannover 96. Oxford (pictured, below) started his
second match in succession after returning to the club in January,
completing the full 90 minutes at right-back. Christoph Kramer was the
match-winner, netting 18 minutes from time to silence the
Niedersachsenstadion crowd and help Monchengladbach climb above their
opponents and up to seventh in the table.
Closer to home, Robert Snodgrass scored his seventh goal and registered his
eighth assist of the season as Aston Villa won 4-2 at Sheffield Wednesday in
the EFL Championship. Snodgrass assisted Glenn Whelan's equaliser to make it
2-2 on 67 minutes before completing the scoring from the penalty spot in the
third minute of added time after the Scot had himself been fouled by Daniel
Pudil.
Also in the Championship, Martin Samuelsen and Reece Burke were in action
for relegation-threatened Burton Albion and Bolton Wanderers respectively.
Samuelsen's Burton sank to 23rd after going down to a 1-0 home defeat by
Millwall, with the Norwegian playing the opening 85 minutes. Burke's Bolton
are 19th after securing a hard-earned goalless draw at Norwich City, with
the defender playing for 81 minutes before being replaced by Derik.
Finally, Moses Makasi was an unused substitute as Plymouth Argyle made it
six League One wins in a row to climb into the Play-Off places. The
Pilgrims' latest victory saw the Devon side defeat Bradford City 1-0 at Home
Park.
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Confident West Ham see off Norwich to make it three wins in a row
WHUFC.com
West Ham United's scholars made it three wins in a row with a deserved 3-0
U18 Premier League South victory at Norwich City on Saturday. Odysseas
Spyrides (pictured) scored twice in the first half to put the Hammers in
control at Colney Training Centre, before Louie Watson added a third after
the break. Victory took West Ham up to a season-high of ninth in the table,
pleasing co-manager Mark Phillips. "If I am being honest, I thought we were
well worth the three-goal win and the winning margin could have been wider,"
said Phillips. "It was a really good, confident and solid performance. "We
scored two in the first half, both from Ody with similar left-foot finishes,
and then Louie added a third in the second half. "That was certainly one of
the coldest football matches I've ever been involved in, but our win
certainly warmed everyone on our side up!"
Phillips believes West Ham's recent upturn in form – victories over
Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion preceded Saturday's success in
Norfolk – has been based on defensive solidity, giving the attacking players
a platform on which to go forward and win matches. "What has made a
difference is that we have welcomed Mason Barrett back from injury and Aji
Alese back from England duty and they have slotted in really well alongside
captain Ben Wells at centre-half. "Playing with three at the back has made
us really solid and given us a base to build from. We also had U16s in goal
and at right-back in Daniel Jinadu and Harrison Ashby and they both did
well. "Ody has also come back recently after being ruled out with a pelvic
injury and his goals have obviously helped." Weather permitting, next up for
the young Hammers is a home derby with Tottenham Hotspur at Little Heath on
Saturday morning. Phillips and his co-manager Steve Potts are looking
forward to seeing how their in-form team shapes up against a Spurs side
coached by none other than three-time Hammer of the Year Scott Parker.
"The forecast looks a bit dodgy but, if the game does go ahead, it will be
great to see Scotty again. Steve, of course, knows him very well from his
time here and he's a top lad and now well on his way to being a top coach.
"A lot of the players from both teams have also come up through the
age-groups together and know each other well, so it should be a really
interesting game. "We are in confident mood and we want to keep winning and
keep climbing the table."
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Zabaleta: We fell short in the second half at Liverpool
WHUFC.com
Pablo Zabaleta admitted the Hammers gave Liverpool a helping hand en route
to their 4-1 Premier League victory over the east Londoners at Anfield on
Saturday, saying their second half performance did not reach the standards
they have set themselves. David Moyes' team started the game well enough,
hitting the crossbar through Marko Arnautovic with the score at 0-0 after 15
minutes, but they conceded a 29th-minute opener to Emre Can from a set play
and then were powerless to stop Liverpool taking the contest away from them
after the break. Zabaleta was disappointed with the way the hosts were able
to create openings in the second period and says his team need to bounce
back quickly when they head to Swansea City this weekend. The No5 said:
"Every time you play against top teams they have good quality up front and
you have to make the perfect game to get something against the top sides. In
the second half we gave them too many chances.
"It was tough. Anfield is always a tough place to come and they were better
than us. First half we were good and had a few chances but in the second
half we weren't good enough. As a team they are very intense, they kept
coming forward and they can score goals. It's time to move on and just think
about the Swansea game. "Swansea are three points behind, everything is so
tight at the bottom half of the table, and we need to win the games like
this Saturday's at Swansea."
Reflecting further on Saturday's defeat, Zabaleta said Liverpool's front
three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane - who all scored -
will make things difficult for any defence that has to face them. "It is not
only against West Ham – we have seen they can score more than two or three
goals against top sides," he continued. "It is always hard any time you come
here. I think they are a really good team to be honest. "Those three guys up
front now are in a really good moment. They are difficult to play against.
They don't give a point of reference, they are so mobile. They are good
players. In the second half we gave them too many chances."
West Ham, who ended the weekend in 13th place with 30 points from 28 games,
will look to bounce back when they visit the Liberty Stadium on Saturday at
3pm.
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WHAT I WOULD DO TO IMPROVE THE LONDON STADIUM!
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 26 FEBRUARY 2018 AT 9:01PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Written by @DavidMrplumber
The situation with the owners, the fans, the stadium, E20 and the govt
cannot go on as it is. The current deal is abysmal for the tax payer and the
deal in return is also poor as WHU have no control whatsoever in the running
of the stadium. Compromise and alternative deals need to be struck by all
parties named above.
In all reality WHU are stuck with the stadium for the foreseeable
future,talk of rebuilding a new stadium elsewhere or knocking the stadium
down is nonsense and completely unrealistic at this point in time.
The billionaire owners/company's that some crave for are not exactly queuing
up around the corner even if the owners wanted to sell up, also the club in
its current state is severely lacking in appeal for any prospective buyer
anyway so we have to make the best of what we've got.
Here are my proposals to improve The LS short term within a sustainable and
reasonable budget and in doing so will maximise profits long term for both
WHU and E20!and help us, the supporters.
•If Athletics is to remain then a percentage of the cost of the installation
of retractable seating to be paid for by WHU which would make it a proper
multi use venue.
•£2.5m yearly rent paid by WHU to be raised significantly to a more
realistic amount to appease the govt and the tax payer.
•Stewarding to be employed and paid for direct by WHU for football games
only, all other events eg Rugby/live concerts, athletics etc the stewarding
to be provided by E20.
In return we'd want…
•Considerably more say/freedom in the running of the stadium.
•Front row seating to be "squared off" if possible.
•Capacity to be extended to 66k and more toilets installed to cater for
extra fans.
•A bigger share of catering profits, a bigger capacity stadium will offset
the loss of income to the LLDC, more fans means more profit!
•The surrounding gaudy green Astro turf to be removed and replaced with
claret or blue at the expense of WHU.
•A possible solution for the Stadium naming rights would be to divide it so
West Ham will be free to find their own sponsor say Vodaphone and would be
known as the Vodaphone Arena when the stadium is being used for football
only. E20 to find their own sponsor name and will be called the …… Arena
when being used for athletics, rugby, concerts etc!
If this is not a workable solution then a deal needs to be struck where WHU
get a considerably larger share of the profits gained from a single naming
rights partner.
•WHU to pay the council to take control of the access bridges on match days
only and some local businesses from UP to be invited to pitch their stalls.
How lovely for example would it be to see a Nathan's pie and mash stall?
•The main access bridge to be made "West Ham" eg ex players and legends
remembered/flags etc (as promised)along with a new statue of the 3 x World
Cup winners, the original to remain at Upton Park…..
To summarise I understand some of these suggestions may not be feasible
others may well be, other than the retractable seating most of my
suggestions with good negotiations between all parties could be in place
before the start of next season. What you may have noticed is that I'm
attempting to separate WHU from the stadium owners/operators but at the same
time generating extra turnover for both parties, appeasing both WHU
fans/owners and ultimately the government.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
HC INSIGHT – JOAO MARIO – PLAYER PROFILE
AUTHOR: BRIAN KNOX. PUBLISHED: 24 FEBRUARY 2018 AT 11:18AM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
In the latest episode of #HCInsight, Joao Mario is the centre of attention
as well as the centre of West Ham United midfield.
Joao Mario was signed on loan last month from Inter Milan as Moyes looked to
inject more creativity into the side so Geo decided to take a look at the
Portuguese International and see what his strengths and weaknesses are from
his time at Internazionale and Sporting Lisbon as well as his first 3 games
in a claret and blue shirt.
With an investment of over £3m for his loan and a £38m summer price tag, he
doesn't come cheap, but is Joao Mario looking like he is worth it? Geo does
the research and Charlie does the superb graphics as Hammers Chat bring the
stats to The West Ham Way on this video.
For more West Ham related stats follow @redhammer8 on twitter as well as
@hammers_chat and we will feature their 4th episode of the series next week
on this website, as they take a look at another Portuguese International.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Fans' alliance to discuss club proposals
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 26th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
The supporters' alliance that attended a recent meeting with the Board of
WHUFC to share its numerous concerns will reassemble this week in order to
discuss the club's proposals. The committee, that included members of the
Real West Ham Fans Action Group, KUMB, WHUISA, West Ham TV and Hammers Chat
will be gathering again to discuss the club's response to the intial meeting
with vice-chair Karren Brady and fellow Board member Tara Warren.
A number of points pertaining to the operation of the football club since
West Ham moved to Stratford were raised during last week's five-hour
meeting, ranging from continuing concerns over security at the stadium to
the negative influence Karren Brady's weekly tabloid newspaper column may
have had on the club. The Board have since responded with their proposals,
which will be discussed by the groups involved ahead of a prospective
follow-up meeting with the club at a date yet to be confirmed. The emergency
meeting between supporters and the Board of Directors was called by the club
after the RWHFAG announced its intention to stage a protest march against
the club's owners on 10 March.
Although supporters have cited many differing individual reasons for
intending to protest, all those in attendance at next month's peaceful
parade will be marching under a general banner of "no confidence" in West
Ham United's current Board, which stands accused of gross mismanagement of
the club both on and off the field.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Liverpool v West Ham
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 26th February 2018
By: Ten Thousand Miles From The Boleyn
-5 Minutes: As kick-off time approaches their famous anthem rumbles around
the stadium. With a couple of exceptions, visits to Anfield have been so
horrible for the last half century that I can't bring myself to watch
Carousel any more.
Not a massive issue as it was never one of my favourite Rodgers and
Hammerstein musicals, but as Liverpool fans are renowned lovers of Show
Tunes (not that there's anything wrong with that) I'd bet there is a
parallel universe where there are currently fifty thousand Scousers singing
I'm just a girl who can't say no.
I live ten thousand miles from the Boleyn. So what do I know about anything?
I do know it's not easy living and working in the International Space
Station, particularly on match day when you miss half game because you're on
the wrong side of the planet. This is just one of the many reasons I never
pursued a career in a field that would have made me of any value in a
zero-gravity environment.
-2 Minutes: Commemorative Bobby Moore t-shirts for the travelling fans,
let's hope this doesn't become contentious. But it probably will.
There were a few negative responses to my first opinion piece regarding the
mood of discontent surrounding the club and the upcoming march. I could have
taken the criticism as a perfectly reasonable response from people who have
a far greater investment in the ongoing issues surrounding the stadium than
I do. But instead I decided to treat it as a vicious assault on my right to
free speech, casting doubt on my love of West Ham and questioning my very
Cockneyhood!
10 Minutes: I just know it's going to be a long night, surprised to see
we've had 15% possession but I suppose Adrian has held onto the ball quite a
bit.
When I was a child we lived in my Gran's house in Selsdon Road, off Green
Street and within the sound of the North Bank. I remember Christmas night
was about as East End as you could get; lots of drinking, dancing and a
round of "Sing us a song or show us your bum". Luckily, everyone preferred
to sing and traditionally Aunt Mary would give us all seventeen verses of
You don't get many of them to the pound, while Uncle Fred would treat us to
the popular love song; Step into the garden and kiss me under the plums! My
efforts were less successful as every year, after just a few bars of my ten
minute Tribute to Judy Garland the old man would call a halt, describing it
as "inappropriate".
30 Minutes: We're one-nil down, disappointing but nice to be able to
unclench for a few minutes.
Trying to follow West Ham while living on one of the Pacific Islands is also
challenging... probably. I don't know how things work there but I suspect
they must fall under the footprint of one of Murdoch's satellites, although
I prefer the idea of living like the characters in the 1950s classic The
Admirable Crichton, ingenious contraptions made from coconut shells and
having to coordinate your meals around kick-off time as the satellite dish
doubles as a wok. If that comment is at all culturally insensitive I
apologise to all the people of the Pacific Islands. I suppose I could have
said "but you can't say that any more", but that seems to be what people say
immediately after saying something racist.
57 Minutes: Adrian is caught in a conundrum. Decides to come out but is too
late, if he handles outside the box or gets anywhere near Firmino you know
he'll go down, followed by a red card and a three match ban... so he brings
down Zabaleta instead... good call.
We've been living in Australia for twenty five years and following West Ham
has never been easier. When we first arrived I had to wait until Thursday's
paper came out to see the score from the previous weekend, tucked away in a
column underneath the cane toad racing and dwarf throwing results. Thanks to
improvements in technology I have watched live, every Premier League game
we've played since 2008. The only thing all this new fangled technology
can't fix is the time difference.
59 Minutes: Antonio is on for the tiring Lanzini, not sure what difference
he can possibly... Bugger me, he's scored!
For most of the season the traditional 3pm kick-off happens at 2am on Sunday
morning down here. In the past I've tried recording the match and watching
it the next day but realised I can't logically affect the outcome with the
power of my will if it's already happened, also the urge to fast forward
when the opposition has the ball is too great. I tried staying up but
usually fall asleep before the match starts, so I now go to bed and get up
just before the teams come out. This is a time when you're no longer drunk
but not yet hung over, the period we should really be asleep and not the
ideal time to watch West Ham.
90 Minutes+: It's all over. I predicted a 3-1 defeat in my tipping contest
so not surprised by the result. I usually go back to bed angry,
disappointed, depressed or on occasion, pumped. Tonight it's just acceptance
of a painful reality... they're so much better than us. On nights like this
a job on the International Space Station doesn't sound that bad.
In the morning my memory of the match is less than reliable. Any attempt to
report faithfully on the events of the game is a waste of time, ending up
like something Fellini would have written if he'd decided to quit the cinema
and try his hand at football journalism. Like going to the match while
you're bread & drippin'... so I've been told.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be
attributed to, KUMB.com.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
'It isn't a football place': Ex-West Ham boss Slaven Bilic takes aim at
Hammers' London Stadium switch
The Croatian coach oversaw the club's move in 2016, before being sacked
earlier this season
The Mirror
ByRob Guest
14:10, 26 FEB 2018
Former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has taken aim at his former club, hitting
out at the London Stadium. Bilic led the Hammers to a seventh place finish
in the club's final year at Upton Park but experienced numerous teething
problems after the move, reports Football.London. Despite winning their
first Premier League game at their new home, they won just seven of their 19
league games on home soil, finishing 11th. Although the team are on course
to beat last year's total having already won five league games at home this
time around, fans still aren't happy with the stadium given the distance
they are away from the pitch.
Speaking to beIN Sport over the weekend, Bilic said: "It isn't a football
stadium." The Croat's comments come after he said in February 2016 that it
would be impossible for the club to recreate the atmosphere at Upton Park at
their new home. He declared at the time: "We will miss that. It's a
different stadium, it's going to be a different atmosphere. "It would be
very, very hard, almost impossible, to get that kind of atmosphere at the
new stadium. "I am not saying it is better or worse. At Upton Park and
Highbury, the old stadiums, the stands are as close to terraces as you can
get. "It was almost like terraces, you are so close to the players, whether
you sit or stand. In the new stadium it will be great to watch, it's
unbelievable comfort-wise. "People who went to the Rugby World Cup told me
the sound and atmosphere is unbelievable. It's very, very acoustic. "It will
be great. It will be a great stadium, definitely. But if you ask me about
the late-night kick-off, in the FA Cup, a little bit chilly, you cannot beat
Upton Park."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
West Ham set to reignite interest in Leander Dendoncker as David Moyes eyes
two midfield additions this summer
PLUS: Fiorentina are plotting a fresh bid for Hammers midfielder Pedro
Obiang in the summer
The Mirror
ByDarren Lewis
Adrian Kajumba
Football Reporter
21:06, 26 FEB 2018
West Ham will reignite their interest in Anderlecht midfielder Leander
Dendoncker in the summer. The Irons are big fans of the 22-year-old and
David Moyes failed in an attempt to land him last month. The midfield area
is one that Moyes is desperate to strengthen. West Ham failed with moves for
Stoke's Joe Allen, Norwich starlet James Maddison, Fulham's Tom Cairney and
Bournemouth's Harry Arter. But they are set to bring in at least two
midfielders this summer to add much-needed depth to their squad. Meanwhile,
Fiorentina are plotting a fresh bid for Pedro Obiang in the summer. The
Serie A side were keen on the now-injured West Ham midfielder in January.
And they are set to return as they brace for Croatian star Milan Badelj's
exit on a free transfer.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://vyperz.blogspot.com
WHUFC.com
Lifelong West Ham United fan Bondz N'Gala cannot wait to face his old Club
when Dagenham & Redbridge host the Hammers in a fundraising friendly next
month.
Now 28, Academy of Football graduate N'Gala was born in Forest Gate, joined
West Ham at 13 and spent six seasons in Claret and Blue, making his one and
only first-team appearance in a League Cup defeat at Bolton Wanderers in
September 2009. After spells with a host of Football League and National
League clubs, centre-back N'Gala returned to east London in summer 2017,
when he joined the Daggers. Now, he is set to face his old club for the
first time in a special match organised to raise much-needed proceeds for
the financially-stricken National League club on Wednesday 21 March, tickets
for which can be purchased here.
"Everybody at the club is really looking forward to the game, not only
because it will help raise some of the money we need, but also because it
should be a good, competitive game between two professional teams," said
N'Gala. "There is a massive crossover between the two clubs, with a lot of
people being fans of both and lots of players, like me, making careers with
Dagenham after leaving West Ham. This is a club that gives players a chance
and it is so important that we secure the future of Dagenham & Redbridge FC,
so please come down and support us on the night. "Our manager John Still is
a Newham boy like me and I know he is excited about welcoming the Hammers to
our stadium. We'd love to get a big crowd in and hopefully we can put in a
good performance and win the game, too!"
N'Gala has played more than 250 senior games during a well-travelled career
that has included stops at Plymouth Argyle, Yeovil Town, Stevenage, Barnet,
Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Dover Athletic and Leyton Orient. The defender
returned to the starting XI on Saturday and helped the Daggers to secure a
3-2 win over Chester at Chigwell Construction Stadium. With ten league games
to go, N'Gala's eye is on an unlikely promotion back to the Football League.
"It's great to be back in east London, being from Newham, so it's nice to be
back home rather than playing and living in another part of the country, as
I've been doing for most of my career! "We are doing quite well in the
National League, have won two of our last three games and are only a few
points outside the Play-Off places, so promotion is still very much an
achievable target for us, as it was at the start of the season. "We have
sold a few players, and we didn't start the season with a particularly big
squad but, if anything, the situation has pulled us closer together and we
are not letting it affect us. "If we could have a good game against West
Ham, raise some money, then go on and reach the Play-Offs and win promotion
at Wembley, that would be perfect!"
Seated and standing tickets for West Ham United's friendly at Dagenham &
Redbridge on Wednesday 21 March are available now from
eticketing.co.uk/whufc, over the telephone on 0333 030 1966 or in person
from the London Stadium Ticket Office priced at £10 Adults, £8 O65s and £3
U16s. Access on the night will be via the turnstile on Bury Road.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Loan watch: Martinez debuts, Oxford celebrates, Burke secures point
WHUFC.com
Toni Martinez made his full debut for Real Valladolid, but was unable to
prevent his team falling to a 2-1 Spanish Segunda Division defeat at Cordoba
on Saturday.
The West Ham United loanee (pictured, above) played for the opening 56
minutes and Valladolid were leading 1-0 through Moyano's when the striker
was replaced by Chris Ramos. With Martinez off the pitch, Cordoba introduced
former Spain winger Jose Antonio Reyes from the bench and turned the game
around with goals from Sasa Jovanovic and Sergi Guardiola inside the final
17 minutes.
Elsewhere on the continent, Reece Oxford fared better, helping Borussia
Monchengladbach end a four-match losing streak by scoring a 1-0 German
Bundesliga victory at Hannover 96. Oxford (pictured, below) started his
second match in succession after returning to the club in January,
completing the full 90 minutes at right-back. Christoph Kramer was the
match-winner, netting 18 minutes from time to silence the
Niedersachsenstadion crowd and help Monchengladbach climb above their
opponents and up to seventh in the table.
Closer to home, Robert Snodgrass scored his seventh goal and registered his
eighth assist of the season as Aston Villa won 4-2 at Sheffield Wednesday in
the EFL Championship. Snodgrass assisted Glenn Whelan's equaliser to make it
2-2 on 67 minutes before completing the scoring from the penalty spot in the
third minute of added time after the Scot had himself been fouled by Daniel
Pudil.
Also in the Championship, Martin Samuelsen and Reece Burke were in action
for relegation-threatened Burton Albion and Bolton Wanderers respectively.
Samuelsen's Burton sank to 23rd after going down to a 1-0 home defeat by
Millwall, with the Norwegian playing the opening 85 minutes. Burke's Bolton
are 19th after securing a hard-earned goalless draw at Norwich City, with
the defender playing for 81 minutes before being replaced by Derik.
Finally, Moses Makasi was an unused substitute as Plymouth Argyle made it
six League One wins in a row to climb into the Play-Off places. The
Pilgrims' latest victory saw the Devon side defeat Bradford City 1-0 at Home
Park.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Confident West Ham see off Norwich to make it three wins in a row
WHUFC.com
West Ham United's scholars made it three wins in a row with a deserved 3-0
U18 Premier League South victory at Norwich City on Saturday. Odysseas
Spyrides (pictured) scored twice in the first half to put the Hammers in
control at Colney Training Centre, before Louie Watson added a third after
the break. Victory took West Ham up to a season-high of ninth in the table,
pleasing co-manager Mark Phillips. "If I am being honest, I thought we were
well worth the three-goal win and the winning margin could have been wider,"
said Phillips. "It was a really good, confident and solid performance. "We
scored two in the first half, both from Ody with similar left-foot finishes,
and then Louie added a third in the second half. "That was certainly one of
the coldest football matches I've ever been involved in, but our win
certainly warmed everyone on our side up!"
Phillips believes West Ham's recent upturn in form – victories over
Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion preceded Saturday's success in
Norfolk – has been based on defensive solidity, giving the attacking players
a platform on which to go forward and win matches. "What has made a
difference is that we have welcomed Mason Barrett back from injury and Aji
Alese back from England duty and they have slotted in really well alongside
captain Ben Wells at centre-half. "Playing with three at the back has made
us really solid and given us a base to build from. We also had U16s in goal
and at right-back in Daniel Jinadu and Harrison Ashby and they both did
well. "Ody has also come back recently after being ruled out with a pelvic
injury and his goals have obviously helped." Weather permitting, next up for
the young Hammers is a home derby with Tottenham Hotspur at Little Heath on
Saturday morning. Phillips and his co-manager Steve Potts are looking
forward to seeing how their in-form team shapes up against a Spurs side
coached by none other than three-time Hammer of the Year Scott Parker.
"The forecast looks a bit dodgy but, if the game does go ahead, it will be
great to see Scotty again. Steve, of course, knows him very well from his
time here and he's a top lad and now well on his way to being a top coach.
"A lot of the players from both teams have also come up through the
age-groups together and know each other well, so it should be a really
interesting game. "We are in confident mood and we want to keep winning and
keep climbing the table."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Zabaleta: We fell short in the second half at Liverpool
WHUFC.com
Pablo Zabaleta admitted the Hammers gave Liverpool a helping hand en route
to their 4-1 Premier League victory over the east Londoners at Anfield on
Saturday, saying their second half performance did not reach the standards
they have set themselves. David Moyes' team started the game well enough,
hitting the crossbar through Marko Arnautovic with the score at 0-0 after 15
minutes, but they conceded a 29th-minute opener to Emre Can from a set play
and then were powerless to stop Liverpool taking the contest away from them
after the break. Zabaleta was disappointed with the way the hosts were able
to create openings in the second period and says his team need to bounce
back quickly when they head to Swansea City this weekend. The No5 said:
"Every time you play against top teams they have good quality up front and
you have to make the perfect game to get something against the top sides. In
the second half we gave them too many chances.
"It was tough. Anfield is always a tough place to come and they were better
than us. First half we were good and had a few chances but in the second
half we weren't good enough. As a team they are very intense, they kept
coming forward and they can score goals. It's time to move on and just think
about the Swansea game. "Swansea are three points behind, everything is so
tight at the bottom half of the table, and we need to win the games like
this Saturday's at Swansea."
Reflecting further on Saturday's defeat, Zabaleta said Liverpool's front
three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane - who all scored -
will make things difficult for any defence that has to face them. "It is not
only against West Ham – we have seen they can score more than two or three
goals against top sides," he continued. "It is always hard any time you come
here. I think they are a really good team to be honest. "Those three guys up
front now are in a really good moment. They are difficult to play against.
They don't give a point of reference, they are so mobile. They are good
players. In the second half we gave them too many chances."
West Ham, who ended the weekend in 13th place with 30 points from 28 games,
will look to bounce back when they visit the Liberty Stadium on Saturday at
3pm.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
WHAT I WOULD DO TO IMPROVE THE LONDON STADIUM!
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 26 FEBRUARY 2018 AT 9:01PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Written by @DavidMrplumber
The situation with the owners, the fans, the stadium, E20 and the govt
cannot go on as it is. The current deal is abysmal for the tax payer and the
deal in return is also poor as WHU have no control whatsoever in the running
of the stadium. Compromise and alternative deals need to be struck by all
parties named above.
In all reality WHU are stuck with the stadium for the foreseeable
future,talk of rebuilding a new stadium elsewhere or knocking the stadium
down is nonsense and completely unrealistic at this point in time.
The billionaire owners/company's that some crave for are not exactly queuing
up around the corner even if the owners wanted to sell up, also the club in
its current state is severely lacking in appeal for any prospective buyer
anyway so we have to make the best of what we've got.
Here are my proposals to improve The LS short term within a sustainable and
reasonable budget and in doing so will maximise profits long term for both
WHU and E20!and help us, the supporters.
•If Athletics is to remain then a percentage of the cost of the installation
of retractable seating to be paid for by WHU which would make it a proper
multi use venue.
•£2.5m yearly rent paid by WHU to be raised significantly to a more
realistic amount to appease the govt and the tax payer.
•Stewarding to be employed and paid for direct by WHU for football games
only, all other events eg Rugby/live concerts, athletics etc the stewarding
to be provided by E20.
In return we'd want…
•Considerably more say/freedom in the running of the stadium.
•Front row seating to be "squared off" if possible.
•Capacity to be extended to 66k and more toilets installed to cater for
extra fans.
•A bigger share of catering profits, a bigger capacity stadium will offset
the loss of income to the LLDC, more fans means more profit!
•The surrounding gaudy green Astro turf to be removed and replaced with
claret or blue at the expense of WHU.
•A possible solution for the Stadium naming rights would be to divide it so
West Ham will be free to find their own sponsor say Vodaphone and would be
known as the Vodaphone Arena when the stadium is being used for football
only. E20 to find their own sponsor name and will be called the …… Arena
when being used for athletics, rugby, concerts etc!
If this is not a workable solution then a deal needs to be struck where WHU
get a considerably larger share of the profits gained from a single naming
rights partner.
•WHU to pay the council to take control of the access bridges on match days
only and some local businesses from UP to be invited to pitch their stalls.
How lovely for example would it be to see a Nathan's pie and mash stall?
•The main access bridge to be made "West Ham" eg ex players and legends
remembered/flags etc (as promised)along with a new statue of the 3 x World
Cup winners, the original to remain at Upton Park…..
To summarise I understand some of these suggestions may not be feasible
others may well be, other than the retractable seating most of my
suggestions with good negotiations between all parties could be in place
before the start of next season. What you may have noticed is that I'm
attempting to separate WHU from the stadium owners/operators but at the same
time generating extra turnover for both parties, appeasing both WHU
fans/owners and ultimately the government.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
HC INSIGHT – JOAO MARIO – PLAYER PROFILE
AUTHOR: BRIAN KNOX. PUBLISHED: 24 FEBRUARY 2018 AT 11:18AM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
In the latest episode of #HCInsight, Joao Mario is the centre of attention
as well as the centre of West Ham United midfield.
Joao Mario was signed on loan last month from Inter Milan as Moyes looked to
inject more creativity into the side so Geo decided to take a look at the
Portuguese International and see what his strengths and weaknesses are from
his time at Internazionale and Sporting Lisbon as well as his first 3 games
in a claret and blue shirt.
With an investment of over £3m for his loan and a £38m summer price tag, he
doesn't come cheap, but is Joao Mario looking like he is worth it? Geo does
the research and Charlie does the superb graphics as Hammers Chat bring the
stats to The West Ham Way on this video.
For more West Ham related stats follow @redhammer8 on twitter as well as
@hammers_chat and we will feature their 4th episode of the series next week
on this website, as they take a look at another Portuguese International.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Fans' alliance to discuss club proposals
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 26th February 2018
By: Staff Writer
The supporters' alliance that attended a recent meeting with the Board of
WHUFC to share its numerous concerns will reassemble this week in order to
discuss the club's proposals. The committee, that included members of the
Real West Ham Fans Action Group, KUMB, WHUISA, West Ham TV and Hammers Chat
will be gathering again to discuss the club's response to the intial meeting
with vice-chair Karren Brady and fellow Board member Tara Warren.
A number of points pertaining to the operation of the football club since
West Ham moved to Stratford were raised during last week's five-hour
meeting, ranging from continuing concerns over security at the stadium to
the negative influence Karren Brady's weekly tabloid newspaper column may
have had on the club. The Board have since responded with their proposals,
which will be discussed by the groups involved ahead of a prospective
follow-up meeting with the club at a date yet to be confirmed. The emergency
meeting between supporters and the Board of Directors was called by the club
after the RWHFAG announced its intention to stage a protest march against
the club's owners on 10 March.
Although supporters have cited many differing individual reasons for
intending to protest, all those in attendance at next month's peaceful
parade will be marching under a general banner of "no confidence" in West
Ham United's current Board, which stands accused of gross mismanagement of
the club both on and off the field.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Liverpool v West Ham
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 26th February 2018
By: Ten Thousand Miles From The Boleyn
-5 Minutes: As kick-off time approaches their famous anthem rumbles around
the stadium. With a couple of exceptions, visits to Anfield have been so
horrible for the last half century that I can't bring myself to watch
Carousel any more.
Not a massive issue as it was never one of my favourite Rodgers and
Hammerstein musicals, but as Liverpool fans are renowned lovers of Show
Tunes (not that there's anything wrong with that) I'd bet there is a
parallel universe where there are currently fifty thousand Scousers singing
I'm just a girl who can't say no.
I live ten thousand miles from the Boleyn. So what do I know about anything?
I do know it's not easy living and working in the International Space
Station, particularly on match day when you miss half game because you're on
the wrong side of the planet. This is just one of the many reasons I never
pursued a career in a field that would have made me of any value in a
zero-gravity environment.
-2 Minutes: Commemorative Bobby Moore t-shirts for the travelling fans,
let's hope this doesn't become contentious. But it probably will.
There were a few negative responses to my first opinion piece regarding the
mood of discontent surrounding the club and the upcoming march. I could have
taken the criticism as a perfectly reasonable response from people who have
a far greater investment in the ongoing issues surrounding the stadium than
I do. But instead I decided to treat it as a vicious assault on my right to
free speech, casting doubt on my love of West Ham and questioning my very
Cockneyhood!
10 Minutes: I just know it's going to be a long night, surprised to see
we've had 15% possession but I suppose Adrian has held onto the ball quite a
bit.
When I was a child we lived in my Gran's house in Selsdon Road, off Green
Street and within the sound of the North Bank. I remember Christmas night
was about as East End as you could get; lots of drinking, dancing and a
round of "Sing us a song or show us your bum". Luckily, everyone preferred
to sing and traditionally Aunt Mary would give us all seventeen verses of
You don't get many of them to the pound, while Uncle Fred would treat us to
the popular love song; Step into the garden and kiss me under the plums! My
efforts were less successful as every year, after just a few bars of my ten
minute Tribute to Judy Garland the old man would call a halt, describing it
as "inappropriate".
30 Minutes: We're one-nil down, disappointing but nice to be able to
unclench for a few minutes.
Trying to follow West Ham while living on one of the Pacific Islands is also
challenging... probably. I don't know how things work there but I suspect
they must fall under the footprint of one of Murdoch's satellites, although
I prefer the idea of living like the characters in the 1950s classic The
Admirable Crichton, ingenious contraptions made from coconut shells and
having to coordinate your meals around kick-off time as the satellite dish
doubles as a wok. If that comment is at all culturally insensitive I
apologise to all the people of the Pacific Islands. I suppose I could have
said "but you can't say that any more", but that seems to be what people say
immediately after saying something racist.
57 Minutes: Adrian is caught in a conundrum. Decides to come out but is too
late, if he handles outside the box or gets anywhere near Firmino you know
he'll go down, followed by a red card and a three match ban... so he brings
down Zabaleta instead... good call.
We've been living in Australia for twenty five years and following West Ham
has never been easier. When we first arrived I had to wait until Thursday's
paper came out to see the score from the previous weekend, tucked away in a
column underneath the cane toad racing and dwarf throwing results. Thanks to
improvements in technology I have watched live, every Premier League game
we've played since 2008. The only thing all this new fangled technology
can't fix is the time difference.
59 Minutes: Antonio is on for the tiring Lanzini, not sure what difference
he can possibly... Bugger me, he's scored!
For most of the season the traditional 3pm kick-off happens at 2am on Sunday
morning down here. In the past I've tried recording the match and watching
it the next day but realised I can't logically affect the outcome with the
power of my will if it's already happened, also the urge to fast forward
when the opposition has the ball is too great. I tried staying up but
usually fall asleep before the match starts, so I now go to bed and get up
just before the teams come out. This is a time when you're no longer drunk
but not yet hung over, the period we should really be asleep and not the
ideal time to watch West Ham.
90 Minutes+: It's all over. I predicted a 3-1 defeat in my tipping contest
so not surprised by the result. I usually go back to bed angry,
disappointed, depressed or on occasion, pumped. Tonight it's just acceptance
of a painful reality... they're so much better than us. On nights like this
a job on the International Space Station doesn't sound that bad.
In the morning my memory of the match is less than reliable. Any attempt to
report faithfully on the events of the game is a waste of time, ending up
like something Fellini would have written if he'd decided to quit the cinema
and try his hand at football journalism. Like going to the match while
you're bread & drippin'... so I've been told.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be
attributed to, KUMB.com.
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'It isn't a football place': Ex-West Ham boss Slaven Bilic takes aim at
Hammers' London Stadium switch
The Croatian coach oversaw the club's move in 2016, before being sacked
earlier this season
The Mirror
ByRob Guest
14:10, 26 FEB 2018
Former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has taken aim at his former club, hitting
out at the London Stadium. Bilic led the Hammers to a seventh place finish
in the club's final year at Upton Park but experienced numerous teething
problems after the move, reports Football.London. Despite winning their
first Premier League game at their new home, they won just seven of their 19
league games on home soil, finishing 11th. Although the team are on course
to beat last year's total having already won five league games at home this
time around, fans still aren't happy with the stadium given the distance
they are away from the pitch.
Speaking to beIN Sport over the weekend, Bilic said: "It isn't a football
stadium." The Croat's comments come after he said in February 2016 that it
would be impossible for the club to recreate the atmosphere at Upton Park at
their new home. He declared at the time: "We will miss that. It's a
different stadium, it's going to be a different atmosphere. "It would be
very, very hard, almost impossible, to get that kind of atmosphere at the
new stadium. "I am not saying it is better or worse. At Upton Park and
Highbury, the old stadiums, the stands are as close to terraces as you can
get. "It was almost like terraces, you are so close to the players, whether
you sit or stand. In the new stadium it will be great to watch, it's
unbelievable comfort-wise. "People who went to the Rugby World Cup told me
the sound and atmosphere is unbelievable. It's very, very acoustic. "It will
be great. It will be a great stadium, definitely. But if you ask me about
the late-night kick-off, in the FA Cup, a little bit chilly, you cannot beat
Upton Park."
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West Ham set to reignite interest in Leander Dendoncker as David Moyes eyes
two midfield additions this summer
PLUS: Fiorentina are plotting a fresh bid for Hammers midfielder Pedro
Obiang in the summer
The Mirror
ByDarren Lewis
Adrian Kajumba
Football Reporter
21:06, 26 FEB 2018
West Ham will reignite their interest in Anderlecht midfielder Leander
Dendoncker in the summer. The Irons are big fans of the 22-year-old and
David Moyes failed in an attempt to land him last month. The midfield area
is one that Moyes is desperate to strengthen. West Ham failed with moves for
Stoke's Joe Allen, Norwich starlet James Maddison, Fulham's Tom Cairney and
Bournemouth's Harry Arter. But they are set to bring in at least two
midfielders this summer to add much-needed depth to their squad. Meanwhile,
Fiorentina are plotting a fresh bid for Pedro Obiang in the summer. The
Serie A side were keen on the now-injured West Ham midfielder in January.
And they are set to return as they brace for Croatian star Milan Badelj's
exit on a free transfer.
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