Valon Behrami is feeling fine and is ready to help Switzerland in their
World Cup mission
10.10.2008
Valon Behrami is looking forward to helping Switzerland get back on track
for World Cup qualification this weekend.
The 23-year-old was due back in training on Friday morning after a slight
knock saw him sit out practice earlier in the week, and he expects to play a
full part in Saturday's visit of Latvia. The match - and Wednesday's trip to
Greece - is key to the nation's chances of qualification after a surprise
2-1 defeat by minnows Luxembourg last month, when Behrami sat out with a
minor injury.
Behrami said: "The Luxembourg game was very disappointing and we need to get
two wins from our next two games. It is not easy to go to Greece and win. We
have to do better though because the Switzerland fans are not happy with the
national team. They expect more from us.
"I didn't play last time against Luxembourg and it was hard to watch. It is
hard when you are off the pitch because you cannot do anything. We have to
do all we can to win these two games because we need to stay near the top of
the group if we want to have a chance of the World Cup."
The midfielder has already played at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 and he
and his young team-mates want another crack. "It is too important for us. We
are young players who want to do well. We have to do more to help us get
back on track for this qualification. We reached the World Cup in 2006, had
the Euro this year and we have to keep this going."
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Collison ready for Noble - WHUFC
Jack Collison is excited about coming up aginst team-mate Mark Noble in a
high-profile U21 tie tonight
10.10.2008
Jack Collison is looking forward to facing team-mate Mark Noble in tonight's
European Under-21 Championship play-off.
The central midfielders will go head-to-head for their countries in the
first leg at Ninian Park with the winner after Tuesday's return at Villa
Park securing a place at the finals in Sweden next summer. Collison, already
a senior international, will don the red shirt of Wales, while Noble will be
wearing the three lions of England.
"I am looking forward to playing against Mark, we get on well and there has
been plenty of banter between us since the draw paired Wales with England,"
said the 20-year-old Collison. "It will be very interesting when we face
each other. Obviously he is a rival for a midfield place at West Ham, but I
train with him every day so I know a lot about him."
Collison, who made his first-team debut last season against Arsenal at the
Emirates Stadium, also spoke about his enjoyment of life under Gianfranco
Zola. He said: "He has been brilliant, a breath of fresh air. Training has
been very sharp, and he is very bright and approachable with the boys, a lot
of one-on-one stuff and I am really enjoying it.
"He has taken some players aside and helped them on an individual basis. I
saw him take Freddie Sears aside and help him with his finishing. With me,
he said that I need to work on some technical aspects of my game and long
passing. He did 15 minutes with me, and all things like that will help my
game," he added.
"He said that I need to be patient and wait for my chance, and I will get
one. So at the moment I will work hard, and these two matches against
England are a great opportunity for me to impress."
Collison has also prospered by working with Craig Bellamy, the captain of
the Wales senior side. He said: "He is great on the training pitch and is a
really good professional. But he is always there for advice for younger
players, we just need to watch him train, the extra sessions he does, and he
is always right in what he does. He keeps you on your toes in training and
tells you the good things and bad things you do to help you improve your
game.
"He was in most days over the summer trying to get fit, even when the other
players were off. He had a setback in pre-season and now he is raring to go.
He scored a lot of goals in pre-season and looked very sharp."
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U18s in Palace test - WHUFC
Tony Carr's is hoping to get back to winning ways when his Under-18 side
face Crystal Palace on Saturday
10.10.2008
West Ham United Under-18s play host to Crystal Palace on Saturday bidding to
end a run of three straight defeats.
Manager Tony Carr is hoping that the hard work put in on the training pitch
this week will pay off against the visitors from south London. "We've been
working very hard this week as we've got two games coming up, against Palace
this week and Chelsea next week and I'm looking forward to us giving a more
complete performance," Carr said.
"The results are disappointing but the key area for us is that we have long
periods of the game when we are as good if not better than the opposition so
we're working hard to put all that together and take another step forward."
Carr has seen the likes of Marek Stech, Junior Stanislas and Jordan Spence
move up to join the first-team picture this season while key midfielder Josh
Payne is out on loan. While he is delighted to see the youngsters make the
step up, it means he often has a less experienced squad to choose from.
"We're a young side, an inexperienced team this year and in our good periods
of the game we're not scoring the goals that our players deserve. Then we're
getting caught out on set-plays and as the game wears on we're losing our
way and losing our shape.
"We've been on the receiving end of three adverse results over the last
three games and we're finding it difficult trying to keep clean sheets.
We're playing well in parts of the game but can't seem to put 90 minutes
together at the moment."
While Carr is optimistic about winning the next two home games, he is not
overly concerned with his side's league position. Carr explained: "We're
bottom of the league but you can look at that two ways.
"You can have a player playing every week but never plays with the first
team or you could be at the bottom of the league and have one or two of the
players who go on and make great careers in the game so league tables can
lie in that respect. We're not happy being there but I'm not under pressure
to win the league or be at the top of the league but the quicker we get off
the bottom the better really."
The Academy director is also hoping to welcome back several players that
moved up to play for the reserves on Tuesday night. "Some of them will step
back down. Sometimes the downside of the reserve league and the youth league
is when senior players don't play at the top level, the burden falls with
the youth team to play two games in four or five days. But that's part and
parcel of what we have to do so three or four will drop down to me and
hopefully we can pick some points up."
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Hypocrites to plead for more - KUMB
Filed: Friday, 10th October 2008
By: Staff Writer
Sheffield United are set to increase their compensation demands from West
Ham United to an astonishing £50million, according to reports in the local
rags. The Championship club, relegated in the 2006/07 after only managing to
secure 38 points over the course of the season somehow convinced a recent
arbitration panel to fly in the face of common sense by finding in favour of
the Yorkshire club after they pleaded that Carlos Tevez, who spent the 06/07
season with United, was the reason they failed to win enough games to stay
up.
According to reports in the local press today chief hypocrite, chairman
Kevin McCabe - a self-confessed proud Yorkshireman who spends much of his
time at his home in Brussels, Belgium - is set to increase the Championship
outfit's compensation claim from £30million to around £50million.
However West Ham United remain confident that the implausible decision
reached by the arbitration panel will be overturned, and are currently
awaiting the outcome of a preliminary hearing at the Court of Arbitration
for Sport before deciding what steps to take next.
Whilst the hapless Blades continue to languish in the Championship, West Ham
United are looking forward to an impending takeover which could potentially
lift the club amongst the nation's biggest and richest clubs.
Sheffield's second biggest club were accused of hypocrisy after being
accused of breaking the very same regulation which West Ham United were
punished for in the shape of a £3million fine when preventing former Blade
Steve Kabba, whom they sold to Watford, from playing against them.
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Five in a row - KUMB
Filed: Friday, 10th October 2008
By: Staff Writer
It's an armchair supporter's delight; West Ham will feature in FIVE live TV
games ahead of Christmas. The Hammers will feature on Sky and Setanta no
less than five times between the end of November and Christmas - meaning
every game during that period is being broadcast live. Gianfranco Zola's
side entertain Tottenham and Aston Villa during what promises to be an
extremely tough period, with trips to Sunderland, Liverpool and Chelsea also
beckoning. The fixtures against Sunderland, Chelsea and Villa will be shown
on Sky whilst the games against Liverpool and Tottenham are to be broadcast
on Setanta's Monday evening show.
High Five: the games on the box
Sunday, 23 November: Sunderland v West Ham 16:00
Monday, 01 December: Liverpool v West Ham 20:00
Monday, 08 December: West Ham v Tottenham 20:00
Sunday, 14 December: Chelsea v West Ham 16:00
Saturday, 20 December: West Ham v Aston Villa 17:30
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Club deny Behrami reports - KUMB
Filed: Friday, 10th October 2008
By: Staff Writer
Reports that West Ham United midfielder Valon Behrami is set to be sidelined
after sustaining an injury whilst on international duty with Switzerland are
wide of the mark, according to the club. Behrami - who is with his national
squad in preparation for their forthcoming World Cup qualifiers - suffered a
minor knock in training earlier in the week and was forced to sit out later
training sessions as a result. However the injury won't prevent him from
playing in the two fixtures against Latvia tomorrow and Greece on Wednesday,
according to whufc.com.
Also likely to be in action this weekend is central defender Matthew Upson,
who is likely to feature alongside former Hammer Rio Ferdinand due to this
week's injury to John Terry. Robert Green, who was selected by Fabio Capello
despite making two howlers which cost West Ham last week's game against
Bolton is likely to be on the bench as England face Kazakhstan tomorrow
before jetting off to Belarus with the squad for Wednesday's fixture.
Meanwhile West Ham United midfielders Mark Noble and Jack Collison are set
to go head to head tonight as England meet Wales at Ninian Park in the the
first leg of their European under-21 Championship play-off.
Collison, who has only just returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines
told whufc.com: "We get on well and there has been plenty of banter between
us since the draw paired Wales with England. I am looking forward to playing
against Mark; I train with him every day so I know a lot about him."
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Bad-boy Bellamy is a good role model, claims teen ace Vokes - Daily Mail
By Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 10:35 AM on 10th October 2008
Wales teenager Sam Vokes is excited about the potential of his "pupil and
teacher" partnership with Craig Bellamy. The 18-year-old Wolves forward is
set to win his fifth cap against Liechtenstein at the Millennium Stadium
tomorrow, but this will be his first start alongside West Ham's fit-again
striker Bellamy. Vokes said: 'I suppose it will be a bit like pupil and
teacher. To get the chance to play alongside someone with so much experience
can only be of benefit to me. 'I have watched Craig on TV lots of times and
will relish the chance to play alongside him. Bellamy has had his troubles
on and off the pitch including allegations of throwing a chair at Newcastle
coach John Carver and sending abusive texts to local hero Alan Shearer,
being fined £80,000 after attacking team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf
club during a Liverpool training camp and getting arrested outside a Cardiff
nightclub. But Vokes said Bellamy was an integral part of the Welsh set up.
'I have enjoyed training with him. It has been good to have him around the
place again, and his help is appreciated,' he said. 'He has looked sharp and
hopefully he can do well for us. Craig is a massively important player for
Wales.'
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West Ham going for a song - Hammers owner Gudmundsson looking for quick sale
after Iceland bank crisis wipes out £230m of his fortune - Daily Mail
By Andrew Hodgson Last updated at 11:22 AM on 10th October 2008
West Ham owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson is set to sell the club to a
'cash-rich' buyer for a knockdown fee. Gudmundsson is considering selling
the club after the economic meltdown in Iceland wiped an estimated
£230million off his personal fortune, and left him facing the possibility of
even bigger losses. Sources claim there is a 'cash-rich' buyer waiting in
the wings as pressure continues to mount on Gudmundsson with the Icelandic
Government now contemplating freezing the assets of some of its top
businessmen to help investors caught in the country's banking crisis. This
is currently only a threat but could develop over the next few days. The
British Government has also raised the possibility of seizing
Icelandic-owned assets in this country, but West Ham's parent company, WH
Holdings Ltd, is registered in the UK and unlikely to be affected.
Gudmundsson is thought to have a 95 per cent stake in WH Holdings, which
bought the club for £85m in November, 2006.
Gudmundsson took a massive hit on his personal fortune when Landsbanki was
nationalised. He was axed as chairman of the bank and there are now serious
concerns about some of his other business interests, including a shipping
company that he owns. West Ham are not thought to owe any money to
Landsbanki, but it is believed that Gudmundsson may sell the club to recoup
some of his personal losses. He has already said there would be no further
investment in West Ham and that manager Gianfranco Zola would have to sell
players before bringing in any new signings. With no sign of the credit
crunch easing it is now thought he is ready to put the club up for sale.
Indian businessman Anil Ambani, the sixth-richest man in the world, worth an
estimated £24billion, has already been linked with buying the Hammers. The
49-year-old billionaire who is head of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
Group, the largest business house in India, is keen to get ownership of a
Premier League club although there was growing speculation in the City this
morning that several other potential owners are interested in West Ham. The
Premier League's chairman Sir David Richards called club directors yesterday
to seek reassurances over the finances, but West Ham insist that they are
largely unaffected by the situation in Iceland.
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Guilty West Ham banking on legal loophole - The Sheffield Star
Carlos Tevez in action against the Blades
Published Date: 10 October 2008
By James Shield
WITH BRAMALL Lane closed for the international break and several Sheffield
United players preparing to embark on another round of World Cup qualifiers
with their respective countries, the Carlos Tevez Affair has again reared
its ugly head. West Ham, who last month were ordered to pay the Championship
club compensation after an independent arbitration panel ruled the Argentine
striker, whose presence at Upton Park broke transfer regulations, helped
them win at least three points during the controversial 2006/07 campaign.
United, who lost their Premier League status after trailing the Londoners by
that exact margin, won a landmark legal victory when Lord Griffiths and his
team ruled in their favour. Proceedings designed to determine the exact
amount they will receive are scheduled to take place early next year, with
reports suggesting that United's representatives will submit a damages claim
of between £30 million and £50m. But West Ham, despite agreeing to be bound
by the terms of the arbitration, are pressing ahead with their efforts to
get the verdict overturned by invoking a little-known FIFA rule that enables
the decision of national associations to be reviewed by the Court of
Arbiration for Sport, based in Lausanne.
"An appeal against the decision of a federation, association or
sports-related body may be filed with CAS insofar as the statutes or
regulations of the said body so far provide or as the parties have concluded
a specific arbitration agreement and insofar as the appellant has exhausted
the legal remedies available to him prior to the appeal, in accordance with
the statutes or regulations of the said sports related body," CAS's website
confirms. The devil, it appears, will be in the detail. United have refused
to comment publicly on West Ham's course of action but, privately, they
insist the arbitration was a private matter and that the FA, under whose
rules the process took place, had no influence over the outcome. Officials
at Soho Square have also taken that view and are likely to take a dim view
of suggestions to the contrary. While the lawyers continue their argument,
United manager Kevin Blackwell is focusing purely on footballing matters.
With a clutch of players away on international duty, coaching staff at
Shirecliffe will be keeping their fingers crossed that Gary Naysmith
(Scotland) and David Cotterill (Wales) both return home in peak condition
ahead of next weekend's Steel City derby.
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Friday's football transfer rumours - West Ham owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson
to sell up and hightail it back to Iceland?
Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk, Friday October 10 2008 09.52
Iceland. They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we
had, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers' fathers. And
from our fathers' fathers' fathers. And from our fathers' fathers' fathers'
fathers. They've taken money from our local councils, our police authorities
and our fire services and put it in their high-yielding even-higher-risk
savers accounts. And what have they ever given us in return? Nothing so
useful as better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and
public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order …
oh no. All they've given us in return is the now-deceased host of Mastermind
and ethereal sounding experimentalist elfin plinky-plonky types who think
it's cool to play guitars with bows.
Well now the chickens are coming home to roost, because the word in today's
Star is that under-fire banker and West Ham owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson is
ready to skip London town as the credit crunch threatens to blow his native
country off the fiscal map. With two different parties, one of whom is
Indian businessman and sixth richest man in the world Anil Ambani in talks
with him about buying the Hammers, Gudmundsson will accept an offer of £100m
for the club, which is exactly what he paid for it.
Elsewhere in London, Chelsea will have to move heaven and ear … well,
Stamford Bridge and their Cobham training centre at least, if they're to
realise their ambition of securing the scrawl of Ezequiel Lavezzi. Napoli's
£10m-rated Argentine striker has said he has no intention of leaving Naples,
because "I enjoy the sun and life at Napoli. I've nothing against London,
but here it's marvellous."
Although its gangster quotient is similar, if not higher, the weather on
Merseyside isn't as warm as in Naples. Nevertheless, Fernando Torres is also
content with life at Liverpool, which means he'll decline the £200k-per-week
carrot that Manchester City's people have been dangling carrot-like –
unofficially, of course - in front of the young striker's people in the hope
of getting him to up sticks to Middle Eastlands.
Arsène Wenger is licking his thumb and counting the notes of a £6m wad,
which he will hand over to PSV Eindhoven in exchange for 22-year-old Dutch
international utility midfielder, Ibrahim Afellay.
Darren Ambrose is not a £6m-rated Dutch midfielder and probably never will
be, but that hasn't stopped suits at Ipswich Town discussing the possibility
of tying a rope around the ankles, hitching him to the back of the club's
standard tread 1948 Massey-Harris 50 and dragging him back home to Portman
Road when his contract with Charlton expires in the summer. Out-of-favour
Birmingham City winger/kind-of-striker Gary McSheffrey is another man who
could find himself returning to an old haunt, as Coventry City are stepping
up their efforts to bring him back to his hometown club.
But seeing as the Mill has started today's thrilling installment on an
Icelandic-involvement-in-West Ham riff, we'll finish on an
Icelandic-involvement-in-West Ham riff. As if the depressing ongoing saga of
financial meltdown in the north Atlantic wasn't depressing enough for the
club's owners, the news that Irons' right-back Valon Behrami is likely to be
feeling subprime for quite some time after being clattered by his Swiss
team-mate Gelson Fernandez at international training is unlikely to
alleviate their gloom.
Björk Guomundsdóttir! Eidur Gudjohnsen! Magnús Magnússon! Miss World 1988!
Sportacus! Hermann Hreidarsson! Leif Ericson! Miss World 2005! Sigur Rós!
Heidar Helguson! Kerry Katona – can you hear me Kerry Katona!? Your banks
took one hell of a beating! Your banks took one hell of a beating!
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Hammers Braced For Massive Claim From Blades - goal.com
Championship side Sheffield United are set to increase their claim against
West Ham significantly over the Carlos Tevez affair, adding to the Hammers'
financial woes.
The Blades were originally seeking around £30million in damages from West
Ham United over the Carlos Tevez episode, but they are now thought to be
ready to demand a £50million on the strength of the legal advice they've
been given. And it may not end there for the Hammers, either, as they could
also face separate compensation claims from former Sheffield United manager
Neil Warnock and some of the Blades' players who lost earnings as a result
of their relegation in 2007.
It is a worrying time for West Ham, whose Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur
Gudmundsson is reportedly ready to sell the club for a cut-price fee after
seeing his assets fall sharply in value in the wake of the global banking
crisis. Gudmundsson is apparently prepared to sell the Hammers to a 'cash
rich' buyer, according to reports in today's Daily Mail, after losing an
estimated £230million of his personal fortune when Iceland's banks went into
melt-down. He had already lost a sizeable chunk when his country's second
largest bank, Landsbanki, was nationalised. He was sacked as chairman of the
bank and could lose out further with rumours circulating about the
insecurity of a shipping company that he also owns. In the meantime it has
become clear that any players new manager Gianfranco Zola wants to bring in
will have to be financed by the sale of existing members of the squad.
However, West Ham could be helped by their adversaries, Sheffield United,
whose chairman Kevin McCabe has hinted he could negotiate a deal which would
allow the Hammers to pay the Tevez compensation money in instalments. McCabe
told the Sheffield Star that the claim would be "a sum of substance", now
believed to be £50million, and "we're producing our final figures." West Ham
will have to wait for this issue to be resolved, with McCabe expecting a
"springtime-ish" deadline for the compensation deal to be agreed.
Mark Hinton, Goal.com
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Hammers Await Buyer As Iceland Economy Freezes - goal.com
Iceland's economic woes have had an adverse effect on West Ham United, with
the club's owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson ready to sell his asset in a bid to
stave off further financial losses. Gudmundsson was chairman of the
Icelandic bank Landsbanki before it was nationalised this week and he was
relieved of his duties.
Iceland's crippled economy is though to have cost Gudmundsson somewhere in
the region of £230million to date; He faces further loss of personal wealth
as doubts appear over the security of a number of his other business
interests including a shipping company. There is severe domestic pressure on
Gudmundsson in Iceland, as the government there prepares to freeze the
assets of some of the country's top earners, according to the Daily Mail.
With this in mind, it is believed that Gudmundsson has a 'cash rich' buyer
on hand to take West Ham United off his hands as he continues to count his
losses. The club did not owe any money to Landsbanki, but the owner is
eager to stem the tide of his losses. Furthermore, the British government is
also considering seizing Icleandic-owned assets in the UK, but West Ham
United look set to be spared any more woe. WH Holdings, of which Gudmundsson
controls 95%, is the Hammers' parent company but was registered in the UK.
Peter Staunton
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Ankle injury is 'no problem' for Behrami - Echo
1:52pm Friday 10th October 2008
By Rob Pritchard »
VALON Behrami was back in training with the Switzerland national team on
Thursday, having appeared to have overcome a minor ankle injury. The
23-year-old West Ham United star was treated on the pitch after being on the
receiving end of a challenge from Manchester City's Gelson Fernandes on
Wednesday. Behrami was photographed clutching his right ankle in obvious
discomfort by Swiss newspapers. The midfielder had a quantity of ice
strapped to the joint before hobbling back to the dressing room. However, on
Thursday morning, he was back in action and, according to reports, suffered
"no problem" from the ankle in question - as was exclusively revealed by the
Echo on Thursday. Behrami is now set to take his place in the Switzerland
side for Saturday's 2010 World Cup qualifier against Latvia in St Gallen,
having missed his nation's calamitous 2-1 home defeat to Luxembourg through
injury. The news will come as a relief to Hammers' supporters, who have
already lost striker Dean Ashton until the New Year with his own ankle
complaint. Elsewhere, Behrami's midfield colleagues Jack Collison and Mark
Noble are preparing for Friday evening's UEFA 2009 European Championship
qualifying play-off first leg at Cardiff City's Ninian Park. The pair, who
know each other well after coming through the ranks together at Upton Park,
will square-off at Ninian Park in an eagerly-anticipated fixture being
screened live by SKY Sports (7.40pm kick-off).
Meanwhile, Matthew Upson looks almost certain to start for England in
Saturday's 2010 World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan at Wembley (5.15pm
kick-off) after captain John Terry was ruled out with a back injury. Upson
is the hot favourite to be named in Fabio Capello's side ahead of Everton's
Joleon Lescott, but the Italian was remaining tight-lipped over Terry's
replacement on Friday. "We have plenty of players, we have the substitutes,
I am sure the substitute of John Terry will play well," he said. Craig
Bellamy and James Collins will also be in international action on Saturday
when Wales take on Liechtenstein in a World Cup qualifier at Cardiff's
Millennium Stadium.
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West Ham injury jinx hits Behrami
10.10.08 | tribalfootball.com
West Ham United's injury jinx has now hit midfielder Valon Behrami. The Sun
says the £5million right-back, 23, hurt his knee while training with
Switzerland when team-mate Gelson Fernandes clattered into him.
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