01/09/2007 00:23
West Ham make a deadline day double signing. Minutes before the transfer
deadline closed the Hammers secured the transfers of Nolberto Solano and
Henri Camara. Solano has signed a permenant deal with the Club putting pen
to paper on a one year deal with a one year option. Camara has signed on a
season long loan from Wigan. Neither player will be eligible for tomorrow's
trip to Reading.
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West Ham sign Solano and Camara - BBC
West Ham left it late on transfer deadline day before sealing the signings
of Nolberto Solano from Newcastle and Henri Camara from Wigan. Senegal
striker Camara, 30, signed a season-long loan deal. Peruvian international
Solano, 32, joined on a one-year contract, with the option of another year.
Solano had informed Newcastle he wanted to move closer to London to be near
his wife, from whom he is separated, and their children.
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Reading v West Ham - BBC
Madejski Stadium
Saturday, 1 September
Kick-off: 1500 BST
Coverage on the BBC Sport website, BBC Radio Five Live & highlights on Match
of the Day. Featured game on Score and Final Score.
Reading are set to welcome back defenders Graeme Murty (hamstring) and Nicky
Shorey (knee), though visitors West Ham are trying to buy the latter.
Shane Long (broken thumb) is doubtful but Seol Ki-Hyeon, John Oster and Glen
Little are all still sidelined.
West Ham striker Dean Ashton is back in the squad after missing out in
midweek after his partner went into labour. Kieron Dyer will miss the rest
of the season and Freddie Ljungberg and Scott Parker may not be ready to
play yet.
Reading (from): Hahnemann, Federici, Murty, De la Cruz, Ingimarsson, Bikey,
Duberry, Shorey, Golbourne, Fae, Cisse, Harper, Gunnarsson, Hunt, Convey,
Doyle, Lita, Kitson, Long, Cox, Halls.
West Ham (from): Green, Neill, Ferdinand, Upson, McCartney, Noble, Mullins,
Boa Morte, Bellamy, Zamora, Wright, Spector, Collins, Gabbidon, Pantsil,
Dailly, Ljungberg, Parker, Bowyer, Etherington, Ashton, Cole.
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Camara obscura - KUMB
Filed: Friday, 31st August 2007
By: Matthew O'Greel
West Ham have signed Henri Camara on a year-long loan from Wigan. The
30-year-old striker put pen to paper on a season-long loan deal with just
minutes of the transfer window remaining. Camara - who had previously
enjoyed spells with Wolves and Celtic - will give a boost to Alan
Curbishley's previously-stretched attacking options. West Ham made the
last-ditch move for the Senegalese international after missing out on main
targets Darren Bent, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Inter's Adriano. Unfortunately
Camara signed too late to be eligible for the game against Reading tomorrow.
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Just the two - KUMB
Filed: Friday, 31st August 2007
By: Matthew O'Greel
Attempts to sign Reading's Nicky Shorey and Derby's Giles Barnes have fallen
through. A spokesman for Reading has revealed tonight that the Shorey deal
fell through after United failed to raise their initial £4m offer. The
spokesman claimed that they had not heard from the Hammer since last week.
Meanwhile United are thought to have pulled out of the Barnes deal after
Derby made excessive demands. Elsewhere, the deal to bring Inter striker
Adriano to the club fell through - as widely expected - earlier today,
meaning that veteran Nobby Solano and striker Henri Camara are the only
players arriving at the club prior to the end of the summer transfer window.
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Solano signs for Hammers -SSN
Peruvian to slot in at right-midfield
By James Dall Last updated: 1st September 2007
West Ham have landed Newcastle's Nolberto Solano on a free transfer and
Wigan's Henri Camara on loan, just moments before the close of the transfer
window. Alan Curbishley was desperate to bring in a right-sided midfielder
after summer signing Kieran Dyer suffered a broken leg. Earlier in the
summer, Magpies boss Sam Allardyce insisted he had no intention of letting
Solano leave but circumstances have changed with the versatile player
heading to Upton Park. Solano was recently recalled by Peru after an absence
of more than two years. The Hammers made it a doube late swoop as they
brought in Senegal striker Camara from Wigan. 30-year-old Camara has moved
to Upton Park on a season-long loan deal to further bolster Curbishley's
attacking options.
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Reading v West Ham: Preview - Soccernet
Reading winger Bobby Convey has admitted he and his team-mates are
constantly questioning the club's ambition. The Royals, who host West Ham on
Saturday, exceeded all expectations last season when they finished just
short of an UEFA Cup spot in their debut in the Premier League. But Steve
Sidwell immediately decamped for a much bigger wage packet at Chelsea and
England defender Nicky Shorey is wanted by the high-spending Hammers, among
others. Manager Steve Coppell insisted the club was no soft touch in the
transfer market, with West Ham, who were thrashed 6-0 in the corresponding
fixtures last season, having seen their £4million bid rejected as ``nigh on
derisory''. But Convey admitted there was a concern within the dressing room
that if key players were sold the feel-good factor would quickly disappear.
He said: ``Every year you re-evaluate your position as a player and how the
team is progressing. The players look at what is the best option. ``You see
how the club is investing in the team and how many players you still have.
``If you think the team is going to do well there are so many options.
Losing players is difficult. It's self-explanatory - if you lose your best
players you are going to lose.
``We need to keep as many players as we can and maintain the quality of our
team otherwise we will lose.''
Convey is likely to start on the bench tomorrow as Stephen Hunt has become
an automatic selection on the left flank while the USA international
recovered from major knee surgery. The 24-year-old was happy just to be
involved, however. He said: ``I was in the States for two months on
crutches. I was sitting on the couch doing nothing because I couldn't move.
``It was miserable. I couldn't drive or do anything. I sat around, ate food
and got fat. ``My knee was seriously injured and it has been an amazing
recovery because I wasn't supposed to play full out until October. ``They
told me two out of 10 people with an injury like mine never played again.
That's why now I am happy to be back and don't take anything for granted.''
West Ham boss Alan Curbishley has shown his squad a recording of last
season's thrashing at Reading as he looks to lay the ghost of the ``Baby
Bentley'' to rest. Losing 6-0 on New Year's Day was the lowest point of last
season for Curbishley, one of the darkest days of his career, and despite
their remarkable escape, the misery at the Madejski Stadium still lingers.
Curbishley famously said that it was Reading who wanted to be in the Premier
League and ``drive the Baby Bentley'' and although he insists he was merely
praising Steve Coppell's side, it was widely interpreted as an accusation
that his own players were getting carried away with one successful season in
the Premier League.
It took West Ham two months to emerge from their slump before they
eventually completed their miraculous escape from relegation, inspired by
Carlos Tevez, who was on the bench for the Reading nightmare. Curbishley
confirmed the squad will be looking at the thrashing again. He said: ``We'll
go through it. I will show them bits of it because there are some things
Reading do that they are good at and they will continue to do it this
season.'' The Hammers will have a different look this season, with Nigel
Reo-Coker, Yossi Benayoun, Marlon Harewood and Paul Konchesky leaving over
the summer, while Christian Dailly and Danny Gabbidon have not started a
Premier League game this season. The new-look side have had a mixed start to
the campaign, and Curbishley wants to use last season's defeat as motivation
to get themselves into mid-table before the international break. `Last year
was a disaster, in more ways than one,'' Curbishley said. `We got what we
deserved. It was a long 90 minutes and something we never want to go through
again. We will remember it and hopefully try and put it right this weekend.
``I won't forget it. We can't forget that and I don't think the fans will.
It's something you look at and try to use it as a spur.''
Curbishley's ``Baby Bentley'' comment will inevitably be remembered as the
phrase to sum up the wretched situation the club found themselves in,
although Curbishley insisted: ``I was actually praising Reading, they wanted
to stay in the Premier League and wanted all the trappings that came with
it.''
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Reading defeat stills spurs West Ham on - Telegraph
By Martin Smith
Last Updated: 1:08am BST 01/09/2007
Just 21 days into his new job, and having endured one of the lowest points
of his career, Alan Curbishley came up with a phrase so memorable that it
sits alongside 'Essex Man', 'Essex Girls' and 'White Van Man' as metaphors
for our times. And so was born the 'Baby Bentley' generation.
Many took it to be Curbishley's critique on the celebrity-conscious,
bling-obsessed breed of modern-day footballers, and in particular the
culture inherent in his own West Ham players, who had just succumbed 6-0 at
Reading on New Year's Day. Most professional wordsmiths would kill to coin
(itals) bon mots like that, but Curbishley has been trying to distance
himself from them during the build-up to West Ham's return to the Madejski
Stadium this afternoon. "That was misinterpreted a bit," Curbishley says
now.
"I was actually praising Reading, saying that in their first season in the
Premier League they had all the ingredients of a newly-promoted side:
hunger, desire and commitment to stay in the Premier League. They wanted to
stay in the Premier League and wanted all the trappings that come with it.
"Most people understood that, and my players understood that. I was saying
Reading wanted to go on to bigger and better things; they showed a hunger
for that and we didn't. On the day they had everything you needed, and we
didn't. That's what I was trying to explain."
Those trappings, he said, included driving around in Baby Bentleys, and it
seemed to stick to an under-performing West Ham team, several of whose
members did, in fact, own the status-symbol car. The 6-0 thrashing came in
Curbishley's fifth game in charge, just as the euphoria of his first, the
defeat of Manchester United, was ebbing away. "I won't forget it,"
Curbishley admitted. "You're a manager a long time and you take the good,
the bad and the ugly. That was one of them, for sure. It's something you
look at and try to use as a spur: how our fans felt and how we all felt. It
doesn't happen a lot, and when it happens you remember it."
Matthew Upson wasn't at the club at the time, but he said: "I can't see that
result happening again. It's a slightly different line-up, different bodies,
different faces. Just because you got beat, or beat a team, last season
doesn't mean the result's going to happen this year. How it works out will
be down to our application, as always, and how we play ourselves in the
game." [If needs to cut, this would be the most painless one] West Ham were
suffering from divisive cliques in the dressing room back in January, but
Upson doesn't see the same problems this time round. "There's a lot of
characters here," he said.
"That isn't a bad thing: you'd rather be in a changing room full of people
who want to say their piece or have a row, than one that's quiet. "Players
talk a lot. I think it's really healthy as long as it's constructive or
afterwards you sit down
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Was That It? - West Ham Till I Die
September 1st, 2007
Well what an anti-climax. We ended up with two players coming in and none
departing. Solano is a solid signing but what on earth we are doing signing
a player like Henri Camara I just do not know. He's not exactly Adriano, is
he? We now remain short of cover at left back in particular. it is said that
we were being quoted £10 million each for Giles Barnes and Nicky Shorey and
that is silly money, so I don't blame the club for not being held to ransom,
but even so, I am sure I am not alone by being disappointed in not getting
one world class player to sign for us.
Those who accuse us of throwing our money around ought to look at the
figures. We have made a net outlay of around £3 million. Just look at what
Spurs and Fulham have spent!
The onus now is to to make sure we are in the top half of the table by the
time the transfer window opens again in January. If we look as if we are a
club on its way up, then we should be able to attract the best players. If
we are near the bottom they just won't come.
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I'll NEVER forget our shame - The Sun
By PAT SHEEHAN
September 01, 2007
ALAN CURBISHLEY returns to the scene of his worst managerial nightmare
today, insisting the humiliation West Ham suffered at Reading was like a bad
dream. The Hammers' chief saw his team hit rock-bottom when they were
thrashed 6-0 at the Madejski Stadium last season. Curbishley's worst-ever
loss in the top flight was followed by another seven games without a league
win before, inspired by Carlos Tevez, they finally turned things round to
escape relegation on the last day of the campaign. The shocking New Year's
Day show had fans chanting that the players were not fit to wear the West
Ham shirt and was the catalyst for a massive end-of-season clear-out. Curbs
flogged captain Nigel Reo-Coker and established players like Marlon
Harewood, Paul Konchesky and Yossi Benayoun as he attempted to turn the club
around. And he pledges fans will not have to suffer a repeat of the
spineless show still burned into his memory. He said: "I will never forget
it and I don't think the fans will. "It's something you look at and try to
use as a spur. That's what we will be doing, thinking how our fans felt and
how we all felt. Games like that don't happen often. When one does, you
remember it. "It was Reading's first season in the Premier League and they
had all the ingredients of a newly- promoted side — hunger, desire and a
commitment to stay up. "On the day, Reading had everything you needed. We
didn't. "We got what we deserved. It was a long 90 minutes and something we
never want to go through again. We will remember it and, hopefully, try and
put it right. Was that my lowest point? You're a manager a long time and you
take the good, the bad and the ugly. That was one of them, for sure. But
last year was a disaster in more ways than one."
Curbishley made his players watch the X-rated match video to ram home just
what was missing from their performance. And he planned to show it to them
again. But only to point out Reading's strengths at set-pieces. He added:
"I've obviously seen it again. I went over it with the players. Reading
wanted it more, were more aggressive. "Reading have already demonstrated
again this season they're going to be a tough side. We know it's going to be
a tough game."
Defender Matthew Upson was one of the new players brought in by Curbs — from
Birmingham — as the Hammers successfully battled against the drop by winning
seven of their last nine games. Upson watched the wretched display against
Reading on TV and admitted: "No one expected it. "It put a lot of pressure
on the club, the team and the manager, so I'm sure everyone will be looking
to make amends for it. "I can't see that result happening again. We'll go
there in a different position to start with and with some different faces in
the team. "How it works out will be down to our application, as always, and
how we play. "This season is for building on something positive. "There has
been a lot of talk and hype about West Ham because of the transfer action
and rightly so. "You spend a lot of money and all of a sudden you want to be
doing things. That's the feeling everyone has at the club."
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Hammer time raps fit Kitson - The Sun
By PHIL FOX
September 01, 2007
READING striker Dave Kitson has warned West Ham he is ready to unleash a
year's worth of frustration on them. Kitson, 27, missed most of last season
after sustaining a knee injury on the opening weekend. And he suffered more
first-day misery this term when he was sent off during Reading's 0-0 draw at
Manchester United. Now the former supermarket shelf-stacker is determined to
make his mark when he returns from his three-match ban at home to the
Hammers today. Kitson said: "The best thing about football is there is
always another season. I am fit and raring to go. It is about time the wider
audience saw what Dave Kitson can do." Royals midfield star Bobby Convey
admits he started to plan for life without football while sidelined with a
serious knee injury.
He has since made a remarkable recovery and hopes to make his first start in
11 months. Convey, 24, was plagued by a knee problem last term and has been
in the treatment room since February. He was told before surgery there was a
chance he would never play again — but the American international has fought
his way back after eight hours a day of rehabilitation. Convey said: "It was
miserable. "I couldn't move. I just sat there, eating and getting fat. "It
was horrible and I was planning my life while I sat there. "I was not
supposed to play until October but now I am confident I'll be OK."
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