The 2007/08 Young Hammer of the Year James Tomkins is still going from
strength to strength
16.05.2008
James Tomkins has spoken of his delight at being crowned Young Hammer of the
Year after a tremendous campaign for club and country.
The 19-year-old defender had perhaps the biggest impact of the three academy
debutants this season, making five starts and one substitute appearance as
he finished the season as a regular in the first team. Added to that, he
firmly established himself in the England U19 set-up and is set to be an
essential part of their bid to qualify for July's European Championship
finals with the Elite round later this month in Belarus.
It is at West Ham United, though, where Tomkins' impact has been most keenly
felt. To pick up that prestigious prize before the final game of the season
was just reward for his efforts in following the likes of past winners Anton
Ferdinand and Mark Noble into the side. "There are a lot of good players on
that list and to be among them is a great honour," he told WHUTV. "Nobes won
it before. There are a lot of big names and it feels good to be in the same
bracket as them."
Tomka, as he is known to his team-mates, will not feel he has achieved
anything yet. "Obviously I have ended the season playing regularly - that is
good and is going to hold me in good stead for next season but I am just
going to keep trying and learning. It has been a brilliant season." He was
also delighted to be able to take part in the end of season lap of the pitch
and thank the supporters for their contribution this campaign. "The fans
have been brilliant all season so it was good to show our respect to them
and how good they have been."
While many of his colleagues have begun their holidays, Tomkins has been
training hard with Freddie Sears for the England U19 trip to Belarus, where
they will play three qualifying matches for July's finals in quick
succession between 26 and 31 May. "I am concentrating now on England. Then I
will have a little break away and then come back ready to go. My objective
next season is to get into the team again. If that isn't right, and if I go
out on loan then so be it. My objective though is to make a mark on this
team."
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Sears hungry for more - WHUFC
Seven appearances in the Premier League has left Freddie Sears wanting more
next season
16.05.2008
Freddie Sears has pledged to come back stronger for the new season after
giving a taste of his potential in the 2007/08 run-in.
A winning goal five minutes into his debut against Blackburn Rovers back in
March was followed by five more substitute appearances and one start. He
also got to play against the champions-elect in front of 76,000 fans away to
Manchester United and ultimately had the satisfaction as a boyhood Hammers
fan of helping the team finish above old rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
"It has been a bit of a struggle at times but we got there in the end," he
said. "It was a good team effort. We all dug deep and it really meant a lot
to the boys. One of the aims for the end of the season was to be above Spurs
and come tenth and we did that." While the squad finished on a collective
high, Sears could not hide his individual happiness at making an impact
after 25 goals in 24 appearances for the youth and reserve teams.
The England Under-19 international said: "Looking back it has been a great
season for me personally. Coming into the team like that when I scored, then
making more appearances and I have got my first start. Everything this
season has just been a bonus for me. I have got lots of experience and
played at Old Trafford. I will come back stronger next season, hopefully
play more games and see where it takes me."
Having grown up watching on from the stands as players such as his hero
Paolo Di Canio ruled the Boleyn Ground roost , Sears relished the chance to
take to the pitch with the rest of the squad after the final game of the
season. "It was a really good atmosphere and nice to walk around the pitch
at the end and say thanks to the fans. It was good for everyone to finish
like that." While his team-mates prepare for holidays, Sears is getting
ready to join up with England U19s for a crucial qualifying tournament.
whufc.com will have more news on that to come.
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Positive news from Ljungberg - WHUFC
Although he is still returning to fitness, Freddie Ljungberg is focused on
making it to Euro 2008
16.05.2008
Freddie Ljungberg is working hard to be back playing for the start of the
2008 European Championship which gets under way in just under a month's
time.
The West Ham United midfielder has been recovering from a broken rib
suffered against Newcastle United on 26 April but despite the injury he is
determined to be ready by the time Sweden kick off their finals campaign. In
a vote of confidence, he was named this week in the 23-man squad. "The pain
has been quite extreme," said Ljungberg. "It's been difficult taking deep
breaths and it hurts even when I just turn my body. I have been on
painkillers however, and I'm getting better and better.
"I have slowly started to try to jog and have even cycled a little. The
healing process so far has been all according to the prognosis by our
medical staff which is encouraging. I am very much looking forward to being
fit for the tournament." As captain of his country, Ljungberg has extra
motivation to make it for his fifth major finals and, with strikers Zlatan
Ibrahimovic and Henrik Larsson to feed off his service, he believes there is
no reason why the country cannot aim high.
He said: "First our goal is to advance from the group. That itself will be a
challenge and then if we succeed we can set new goals. That will all depend
on how the draw works out. But I don't think it is unrealistic to say we
have a chance of winning the whole tournament. Greece showed in 2004 that
anything can happen." With the Scandinavian nation getting under way against
the champions from four years ago on 10 June, Ljungberg has extra incentive
to be raring to go as soon as possible.
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Guberti Set for West Ham Switch - Goal.com
West Ham United are set to swoop for Ascoli midfielder Stefano Guberti,
according to the player's agent. Guberti has enjoyed an impressive season
for the Serie A side, with the 23-year old linked with a number of Italian
clubs in recent months, but it now looks like Alan Curbishley will win the
race for the sturdy midfielder. The east London club had a solid season in
the top flight but have struggled for injuries in midfield, with Keiron
Dyer, Lee Bowyer and Freddie Ljungberg among others missing for large spells
of the season. "There is something real," Claudio di Nicola told Calcio
Mercato. "Gianluca Nani, West Ham's sporting director, likes Stefano very
much and could fight to have him "Stefano is much demanded and Ascoli
received offers from Fiorentina, and Torino and Napoli have shown their
interest. "This season he stayed with Ascoli but he deserves to move to a
better level next year. "La Viola (Fiorentina) continue to show they are
interested in him. "In the past they refused a concrete offer from
Fiorentina, but from now on they will not resist anymore. "It is an
important decision to make for his career and we will study every offer. I
am due to meet with Ascoli's directors in order to discuss it."
Should Guberti move to West Ham, it is expected Ascoli will command a fee of
around £5 million.
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Hammers striker Ashton is £15m target for Spurs - Daily Mail
Last updated at 23:08pm on 17th May 2008
Dean Ashton will get a fresh opportunity to leave his bitter-sweet FA Cup
final memories behind when he is expected to move across London to join
Tottenham this summer. The 24-year-old striker, valued at about £15 million,
scored for West Ham in the last final to be played in Cardiff but still
finished on the losing side when Liverpool won a dramatic penalty shoot-out
after Steven Gerrard's last-gasp equaliser. Now Ashton tops the Spurs
shopping list as they look for a replacement for Real Madrid-bound Dimitar
Berbatov. Meanwhile, the north London club are hoping to end their long
search for a goalkeeper by signing former Real Madrid youth team product
Diego Lopez from Villarreal.
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Hammers linked with swoop for Taylor - guardian Series
WEST Ham are ready to make a £5 million bid for Newcastle centre-back Steven
Taylor, according to media reports. The 22-year-old has just over a year to
run on his current contract at St James' Park and is eager for a new deal,
although Magpies owner Mike Ashley is apparently looking to reduce the clubs
wage bill. That could see Irons boss Alan Curbishley make a swoop for the
highly-rated England U21 defender. With Anton Ferdinand linked with a move
away from the east end, and Danny Gabbidon and James Collins out injured,
Curbishley could see Taylor as an ideal partner for England star Matthew
Upson.
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Hammers striker Ashton linked with a move to Spurs - Guardian Series
WEST Ham striker Dean Ashton is a £15 million target for bitter London
rivals Spurs, according to media reports over the weekend. Ashton - who was
expected to meet with the Hammers board to discuss the terms of a new
contract on Friday - finished as the Irons top scorer this season with 11
goals, and was called into Fabio Capello's 31-man England squad for the
friendlies against the USA and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the 24-year-old
has been strongly linked with a move away from Upton Park this summer, with
Manchester United amongst the clubs believed to be interested. Now the Daily
Mail suggests that Juande Ramos is ready to step in with a firm offer for
the former Norwich man. The Spurs boss is sure to be without striker Dimitar
Berbatov - a target for Barcelona and Real Madrid - while flop Darren Bent,
who was signed for £16.5 million from Charlton by ex-boss Martin Jol in the
summer, is also likely to leave White Hart Lane. Spurs could even offer Bent
in an exchange deal to land Ashton, although the Hammers would probably
prefer the cash.
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Old boys' reunion will not prevent Cole from taking care of business
David Hytner
The Guardian, Monday May 19 2008
Joe Cole is searching for superlatives. Having dreamed the dream, he finds
the glorious reality is now upon him. "For a young lad to climb to the top
of the mountain is a fantastic achievement and something that takes the
breath away," chirps the Chelsea midfielder, a faraway look in his eyes.
"The Champions League final is the pinnacle."
Cole's achievement, though, will be glossed by an extraordinary sub-plot. It
is one thing to hit the heights as an individual; quite another to do so
alongside a handful of lifelong friends. Yet when Cole hears the Champions
League music in Moscow on Wednesday night, before the showdown with
Manchester United, he will exchange knowing glances with two players on
either team.
He is particularly close to the United midfielder Michael Carrick, the pair
having lived in the same Essex cul-de-sac as they made their way through the
West Ham academy. But he goes back with United's Rio Ferdinand and his
Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard, too, who are both three years older and
were ahead of him at West Ham. Cole even has boyhood previous with John
Terry, his captain at Chelsea. Terry, who is a year older than him, played
in the West Ham youth set-up between the ages of 10 and 14. Cole joined the
club at 12.
"I'm just happy to be able to go and play there with my mates, fantastic
lads who I've known for all of my life," said Cole. "To go and play in the
Champions League final with them and hopefully win it will be a cracking
night. I can't wait."
It will be an emotional night for Tony Carr, West Ham's youth academy
director of 35 years. He had Ferdinand and Lampard in the team that reached
the FA Youth Cup final in 1996 (they lost to Michael Owen's and Jamie
Carragher's Liverpool) and Cole and Carrick in the one that thrashed
Coventry City 9-0 in the 1999 final.
"I don't know who to support," said Carr, who travels to Hong Kong tomorrow
with West Ham's youth players and is desperate to catch the game at whatever
the time of night. "We'll all be very proud at West Ham because the boys
started out here and now they are at the top of their profession." Yet more
evidence of that came over the weekend, when Carrick signed a new £14.5m
four-year contract.
Carr remembers the "frenzy" that surrounded Cole even before he had kicked a
ball for the West Ham first team. Banner headlines had compared the prodigy
to Pele and Maradona, and the club's battle was as much with the hype.
"Joe was always destined to be a very good footballer but the expectations
were a big burden for him," said Carr. "When he was put in the team [at 17]
everybody expected him to set the world alight immediately but that is not
the reality for a young player. In a strange way, though, all the hype
surrounding Joe allowed Michael Carrick to develop. Michael had moved down
from the north-east and was very homesick at first. If it wasn't for Bob and
Val Rayson in our club house he might have gone home. But we felt the same
way about Michael as we did Joe."
Carr, who converted Ferdinand, "the joker of the group", from a midfielder
into a centre-half and who still marvels at the hard work that Lampard put
in to "make himself the player he is now", is regularly asked the 'What if
...' question about the club's famous old boys. "It's a nice dream to think
what might have happened if we could have kept them but it was never going
to be a reality," he said. "We couldn't turn down Leeds' [£18m] offer for
Rio; Frank's dad and uncle [Harry Redknapp] had just left the managerial
staff when the offer from Chelsea came in for him and the harshest of
relegations in 2003 meant that we had to sell our assets."
Cole and Carrick played in that ill-fated campaign; five years later they
have the ultimate club honour in their sights. "It's incredible and it goes
to show the ups and downs of football," said Cole. "When we were in the West
Ham youth team, it was just 'Can we get into the first team?' Then it was
'Can we get into the England squad? Can we play for huge clubs? Can we win
trophies?' The more successful you are, the greedier you get."
Ferdinand and Lampard, Cole and Carrick won the first trophy of their
careers together when, in August 1999, they were in the West Ham squad that
beat Metz to lift the Intertoto Cup. The stakes are somewhat higher now.
"Michael and Rio know I love them but Wednesday night will be war," said
Cole. "We'll be dignified in defeat or victory, we've already had a little
word about it. We meet up with England afterwards and you can't go running
round with a Champions League medal round your neck. But Wednesday night is
Wednesday night. There'll be no favours."
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How the Hammers can win the European Cup
The Guardian,
Monday May 19 2008
Michael Carrick Man Utd
Age 26 England Caps 14
Honours 3 (Premier League 2, Community Shield 1)
The midfielder rose to prominence as part of the Hammers' 1999 FA Youth
Cup-winning team, for whom he scored twice in a thumping 9-0 aggregate win
over Coventry City in the final. Carrick made his full first-team debut at
the start of the following season and stayed at Upton Park until 2004,
playing a full season in the second tier, before moving to Tottenham for
£2.75m in 2004 and then Manchester United for £18m two years later.
Joe Cole Chelsea
Age 26 England caps 48
Honours 6 (Premier League 2, FA Cup 1, Carling Cup 2, Community Shield 1)
Cole attracted instant attention when he broke into the Hammers' first team
in 1998-99 while also playing a starring role in the Youth Cup-winning side.
He stayed at Upton Park until 2003 when, unlike Carrick, he left when West
Ham were relegated, Chelsea signing him for £6.6m. The wide player has been
mostly consistent and impressive for the Blues ever since and was one of
England's few creditable performers in the 2006 World Cup.
Rio Ferdinand Man Utd
Age 29 England caps 65
Honours 6 (Premier League 3,
League Cup 1, Community Shield 2)
Ferdinand signed as a schoolboy for West Ham in 1992, making his first-team
debut four years later. The assured central defender quickly made his mark,
winning the club's player of the season award in 1997-98. He moved to Leeds
United in 2000 for £18m, a fee that made him the world's most expensive
defender, before moving on to Old Trafford for £30m two years later after an
excellent World Cup in 2002.
Frank Lampard Chelsea
Age 29 England caps 60
Honours 6 (Premier League 2, FA Cup 1, Carling Cup 2, Community Shield 1)
Lampard, the son of the former West Ham defender of the same name and the
then assistant manager, made his debut in 1996 and became part of a
promising young side. But he left for Chelsea for £11m in 2001 following the
departure of his uncle, the manager Harry Redknapp. Made his England debut
in 2001 and, though his displays for the national side have been
inconsistent, those for Chelsea have been frequently pivotal to their
successes.
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Hammers to face Tractor Boys - Echo News
By Rob Pritchard
WEST Ham will travel to Championship side Ipswich Town for a pre-season
friendly on Monday, August 4. The Tractor Boys finished the season in eighth
place in the table, losing just one of their 23 home league matches. The
last time the Irons visited Portman Road, in May 2005, a Bobby Zamora brace
secured the 2-0 victory that sent the Hammers through to the Championship
Play-Off final at the Millennium Stadium. There, another Zamora strike saw
off Preston North End and saw Alan Pardew's side promoted to the Premier
League. West Ham are unbeaten in their last seven trips to Ipswich. The
pre-season clash will kick-off at 7.45pm. The Irons are scheduled to travel
to North America to face the MLS All-Stars in Toronto, Canada on July 24. A
second game in the United States is expected to be confirmed soon.
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Newcastle linked with West Ham winger Boa Morte
tribalfooball.com - May 18, 2008
Newcastle United are eyeing West Ham United winger Luis Boa Morte. The
30-year-old, who has two years left on his contract, admits he isn't
"completely happy" at West Ham and is now looking for the exit door. Toon
are being linked with a £3 million bid for the Portugal international.
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West Ham eyeing Newcastle defender Taylor
tribalfooball.com - May 18, 2008
West Ham United are eyeing Newcastle United defender Steven Taylor. Magpies
billionaire owner Mike Ashley wants to reduce the wage bill at St James'
Park - and Taylor, 22, fears a new deal will not arrive quickly or match his
demands, says the News of the World. With just one year left on the
defender's contract he signed before becoming a first-team regular, the
Hammers hope Newcastle will be open to offers for the England Under-21 star.
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Pantsil ponders West Ham future
tribalfooball.com - May 18, 2008
John Pantsil has cast doubt on his future at West Ham United. The Ghana
fullback said: "What I need is to play more than I am doing now so, if a
team comes along that guarantees that next season, I will sit down with the
manager and we will see. "I want to play more games so I am ready every time
for the national team. It is my most important consideration."
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West Ham in for Watford wideman - FansFC
10:27 May, 18, 2008
Jobi McAnuff is being linked with a move to Upton Park. The Hornets failure
to bounce back into the Premier League will lead to summer changes at
Vicarage Road with boss Aidy Boothroyd admitting: "I'll have to be a Del Boy
and do a bit of wheeling and dealing. "It may be a case of starting again
for us." West Ham are working under a tighter budget than last season and
see McAnuff as a realistic signing.
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£15million rated West Ham Striker Set to Join Tottenham - footballpools.com
West Ham's peroxide haired striker Dean Ashton is rumoured to be a summer
transfer target for Tottenham. As Dimitar Berbatov looks set to depart to a
side that would offer him Champions League football, Ashton could be a
realistic replacement for the Bulgarian sulker at the Lane.
The Hammers are reported to be looking to cut their high wage bill and the
former Norwich and Crewe forward is without a doubt their most marketable
asset. The only drawback may be his less than perfect injury record. The
hitman has only scored 11 goals this season but has maintained his growing
reputation as one of the best targetmen in the Premier League. What the
player lacks in mobility and pace he makes up for with his hold up skills
and aerial ability. He could offer Tottenham a more reliable yet less
glamorous proposition to Berbatov but whether West Ham will want to sell to
their rivals is debatable.
Do you think this story has any credence to it seeing that the Irons
finished higher than Spurs last season? Would Tottenham fans be pleased with
this acquisition and would Hammers fans see a move as good business for a
player signed for just £7.25million just over 2 years ago?
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West Ham's Sears determined to build on Premiership breakthrough
tribalfootball.com - May 17, 2008
West Ham United striker Freddie Sears is aiming to build on this season's
Premiership breakthrough next term. The England Under-19 international told
whufc.com: "Looking back it has been a great season for me personally.
Coming into the team like that when I scored, then making more appearances
and I have got my first start. Everything this season has just been a bonus
for me. I have got lots of experience and played at Old Trafford. I will
come back stronger next season, hopefully play more games and see where it
takes me."
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