WHUFC.com
Robert Green has told his team-mates to dig in and battle for their Barclays Premier League lives
29.03.2010
Robert Green has reminded his West Ham United team-mates that all is far from lost this season as Gianfranco Zola's team contemplate a Sunday trip to Everton. Following Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by Stoke City, the Hammers sit in 17th place in the Barclays Premier League with six fixtures remaining, with only goal difference separating them with Hull City, who have a game in hand. While the situation may appear to be critical, Green knows things could be far worse. Three seasons ago, with the England goalkeeper between the posts, West Ham sat 19th and two points adrift of safety with six matches to go, before winning their final four games to finish 15th. With that in mind, Green is not giving up. "Saturday was disappointing. Everyone put their all in, as you could see, the lads dragged themselves off the pitch. But perhaps, in front of goal, the creativity wasn't really there for us. "We've got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and get on with it. Worse things have happened. West Ham have been in worse positions at this point of the season. We've just got to dig in and fight and that's it. "We got a response from the fans on Tuesday [after losing 3-1 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers]. It clearly wasn't good enough and we didn't have a leg to stand on and we rightly got told what they thought of it at the end of the game. Saturday wasn't the same. The reaction at the end was one of massive disappointment, but undeniably everyone had given everything."
Zola and his players have taken a short break to recharge their batteries ahead of the weekend trip to Goodison Park, and Green insists everyone inside the dressing room believes in their manager. "He's a great man and a great manager and you could see on Saturday that it's not through want of trying. "He's been hamstrung through the season with selection problems and players leaving and injuries and things like that and he's just putting out the teams that seem fit for the games, and it's up to us to put in the effort that we did on Saturday and to have the confidence to carry on playing and play more football in and around the final-third which, hopefully, will make the difference."
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Hammers get winning start
WHUFC.com
Tony Carr has seen his young side get up and running with a win in a US-based tournament
29.03.2010
West Ham United made a winning start in the International Amateur Soccer Tournament - The Challenge for the Tiffany Trophy Cup in Washington DC on Sunday night. Tony Carr's side were 2-1 victors against Georgia Under-17s in their first encounter, with goals from Jack Powell and Dylan Tombides enough to see the Hammers through. The U17 competition which runs until next Sunday also features Major League Soccer club DC United, next up for the Hammers on Tuesday, and Northern Capital Soccer League team Annandale United. A host of leading clubs from around the world have also been invited to take part. All the club's expenses for the trip will be paid for by the tournament's organisers. Last year's competition was won by Real Madrid.
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Fry eyes Charlton chance
WHUFC.com
The19-year-old centre-back will hope to show his promise at the League One promotion-chasing side
29.03.2010
Matt Fry will join up with his new Charlton Athletic team-mates on Monday determined to impress at the League One high-fliers until the end of the season. The highly-regarded Academy graduate got 13 first-team matches under his belt at that level after a successful loan spell at struggling Gillingham this season. The Charlton challenge will be entirely different as they are going for promotion to the Championship - either through the play-offs or, at a push, the automatic spots. Fry said: "I am definitely looking forward to it. Charlton are a quite a high-profile team. I went to Gillingham in the beginning of the season, which was a good experience but it is nice that Charlton wanted me. It has all worked out nicely. "I need matches. As a young player you are limited for first-team football. You always look to gain experience elsewhere and it is nice to have them come in. Huddersfield on Saturday was too soon, if I am honest, having come back from a knee injury. I want to be 110 per cent before i can play. "The club will watch me closely. I am away from West Ham but not, because they do watch and they see it as a chance for me to get stronger. If I go out and do well, they will see it. I will try to do my best."
Fry has high hopes of making it at West Ham but knows it is a tough step to progress from reserves, as shown by the likes of Josh Payne and Bondz N'Gala, who both look set to move on at the end of the season. He has overcome that tricky knee problem in recent weeks and hopes to stay injury-free in the weeks and months to come to prove his worth. The defender has no hesitation in naming who he most admires and would love to emulate at the club. As a left-footed, left-sided centre-back, he pays close attention to captain Matthew Upson - taking every opportunity to watch him work at Chadwell Heath and in action for club and country. "It is always nice to look at someone who is left-footed and plays at left centre-half. It is nice to have someone close to home that can watch every day and take things from his game that I can add to mine. All in all it will make me a better player. I have watched him closely over the last year."
Another centre-back he admires is Christian Dailly, having had the opportunity to train with the former Hammers skipper in the summer. The 19-year-old will get the chance to link up with him again as the Scottish veteran, himself now 36, is part of the Charlton ranks, alongside another Academy product in winger Kyel Reid. "It will be good to be with Christian. Having trained with him during pre-season he is a true professional and takes his job seriously which is great for me. That has helped him squeeze more out of his career. I am looking forward to playing alongside him and teaming up with him again."
Fry returned to the Boleyn a more rounded-individual after his spell at Gillingham and wants to take that to another level. "I look at loan moves as an opportunity to get stronger. I want to fulfil my full potential and get the best out of it that I can. My long-term target is West Ham's first team and this is a good opportunity. Gillingham was a great experience and I am stronger as a person and a player."
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Parker the pick again
WHUFC.com
The reigning Hammer of the Year was the star man again on Saturday and may win the monthly prize
28.03.2010
Scott Parker was voted the man of the match on Saturday but you can have your say now for the SBOBET player of the month for March. The West Ham United midfielder is once again in the running for the monthly prize - having won it twice already this season - after his inspiring displays in what has been a difficult four weeks for the team. Parker was singled out against Stoke City by match sponsors BPC Interiors Ltd and received his prize after the match. Alessandro Diamanti was the sixth different monthly winner this season when he took the February honour after Julien Faubert, Zavon Hines, Carlton Cole, and James Tomkins, along with the hat-trick seeking Parker, had previously been singled out.
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Stoke manager Tony Pulis backs Gianfranco Zola
BBC.co.uk
Stoke City boss Tony Pulis is hopeful that Saturday's 1-0 victory over West Ham United at Upton Park will not see Gianfranco Zola leave his job. Zola is under pressure after a run of six successive Premier League defeats. But Pulis told BBC Radio Stoke: "You need a good chairman who backs you in times of great difficulty, and what's happening at West Ham is exactly that. "Fingers crossed, they'll back him. What he needs is a bit of good luck and the players showing some commitment." Ricardo Fuller's brilliant individual strike won the game for the Potters to catapult them into the top half of the Premier League table. However, Pulis revealed that the Jamaican may not have been involved in the match at all because of food poisoning, which has affected a number of players in the squad."A few of them have had it and Ric's brought it into the camp," said Pulis."He's been a bit below-par of late so we thought we would give him a bit of a rest. "I thought Kitson and Sidibe did well. They do the donkey work and then Ric is the silky one who picks it up and does something special. "He's a nightmare off the pitch, but on the pitch he's fantastic at times." Stoke, who now have 39 points with seven matches left to play, are now almost certain to be enjoying a third successive season in the Premier League.
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Pulis on ... West Ham
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 28th March 2010
By: Staff Writer
Stoke boss Tony Pulis shares his thoughts on West Ham's situation following his team's 1-0 win at the Boleyn...
Does that win effectively make you safe?
Well you look to get 40 points and we've put 40 points on - and I think that's definitely safe. We finished 12th last year with 45 points and I think there's only one team ever stayed up for a second year and then beaten their tally, which is quite amazing. So it'd be lovely for us if we could get 46 points and do that.
Ricardo Fuller had food poisoning?
I think it's him who brought it into the football club. Etherington had it as well, there were two or three of the lads who'd suffered from it. We thought we'd put Rick on the bench today and give him that final half an hour.
Etherington was the big one, Rick was quite happy to sit on the bench and come on. We were obviously desperate to get Matty playing, coming back to their old club always gives players a lift. So Matty was the one really, but he went through it today for us.
Fuller took his goal well?
I thought it was a fantastic goal; he can do that, Rick. If he gets in that position he's so strong and his feet are so quick that he can do real good things with the ball. I've seen him create chances and score goals from that area, it was a special goal and I'm very pleased for him.
A great result for you but do you feel for Gianfranco at the moment?
I'm very fortunate at Stoke to have a quite outstanding man who runs the football club, that's Peter Coates. When I first came back to the club there was all sorts of stuff going on and Peter was rock solid. He's benn like that ever since I've been at the football club.
The Chairman of West Ham has come out and said he's going to back Gianfranco - well he needs backing now. This is when you show your real colours and your character. So he needs that backing, he needs the players to roll their sleeves up and have a right go for him - and he needs more than anything else a little bit of good fortune, a little bit of luck.
You pick up two or three wins in the Premier League and you don't half shoot up the table. So it'll be interesting to see now what backing Gianfranco gets.
Are you surprised at the publicly expressed views of the owners, players and manager?
I can only talk about my club and like I say, I've got a Chairman who's rock solid, lets me manage, lets me get on with it and never interferes. He's at his best when things are going badly.
I know how lucky I am, I've been in the game a long time and worked through some Chirman so I know how lucky I am! Gianfranco, he needs that backing now, this is the time that he needs that backing.
He's a popular guy in football?
Well I've met him four times now and every time we've played against them he's been first class. He's a gentleman. You sit there, you talk football with him and he's absolutely fantastic.
I didn't know him as a player, I was never that gifted to play at the top level, but everybody tells me that when he was at Chelsea he was an absolute top-drawer professional.
As a supporter of football, which I am, I think he's one of the greatest players to ever play in the Premiership.
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Mido doesn't expect relegation
Zola under pressure but Egyptian staying positive
Last updated: 28th March 2010
SSN
West Ham striker Mido says he does not expect the Hammers to be relegated from the Premier League this season. The East Londoners suffered another defeat at the weekend after going down 1-0 at home to Stoke City. Ricardo Fuller scored the only goal of the game at Upton Park to leave the Hammers level on points with Hull City and only avoiding a place in the relegation zone because of a superior goal difference. But Egyptian forward Mido, who moved to the club on loan in February, says it is not all doom-and-gloom behind the scenes. He said: "If you look at the faces in the dressing room, the experience, the people who want to work hard for this club, you don't see a club going down." Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola admitted he would consider his position following the defeat to the Potters. Zola cut a disconsolate figure on the touchline at the weekend, and after mounting pressure which has included a statement from co-owner David Sullivan calling the midweek defeat to Wolves 'pathetic' and 'appalling', he may decide to leave before the end of the season. In the aftermath of the Stoke defeat, opposite number Tony Pulis described management as a 'very lonely job'. "The West Ham chairmen have said they will back Gianfranco and that is brilliant because he needs backing now," he said. "This is when you show your real colours and character. "It is a very lonely job. It will be interesting to see what backing Gianfranco gets. "What they need is a game where they don't play well but get a win and that will bring the confidence back."
West Ham will be hoping they can turn the corner in their next game, which is against Everton at Goodison Park next weekend.
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Davids should own up
Gold and Sullivan have blundered, says Barclay
Last updated: 28th March 2010
SSN
Patrick Barclay thinks West Ham's owners must shoulder the blame for the club's Premier League struggles. Saturday's 1-0 loss to Stoke - The Hammers' sixth defeat on the spin - means The Londoners are only out of the bottom three on goal difference and pressure is mounting on under-fire manager Gianfranco Zola. However, The Times' Barclay - speaking on the Sunday Supplement - says David Gold and David Sullivan are at fault for not replacing Zola when they took over in January, when it was clear they did not want the Italian in charge. "It was obvious they didn't fancy him as soon as they bought the club and that was the time to part company. All the newspapers chorused that they didn't fancy Zola and it's obvious that we didn't all get that wrong, and hence they've got themselves a lame-duck manager," Barclay told the Sunday Supplement. "The players are sniffing an excuse a mile away and they've got one now haven't they? Zola may be a great manager but you can't manage when your own chairman doesn't fancy you. "I don't know if they've said it brazenly but the message has come over and it's obviously well founded and I think they've made a terrible mistake. For such experienced people who successfully ran Birmingham City, they've made a bit of a mess at West Ham because they could end up getting them relegated and while football never ceases to amaze me, I cannot see an advantage in getting relegated. And it would be their fault. "I would say there's a real chance (they will go down). I watched the Wolves game on the TV and it is looking bad."
Neil Ashton of the News of the World believes The Hammers are deep in the relegation mire but thinks they can maintain their top-flight status, with or without Zola at the helm.
"Whether Zola's there or not, there are other options. The first choice for the job is Mark Hughes and Zola knows that. But Hughes feels that perhaps there is a bigger opportunity. He wants the Ivory Coast job and the chance to lead them through the World Cup finals and then perhaps a bigger job in the Premier League after that. "(Glenn) Hoddle is a manager who would demand a certain way of playing and (Graeme) Souness would be a taskmaster, a disciplinarian and very, very demanding. "Something has to change very quickly, either a change of manager or a change of atmosphere, to give these players any chance of getting out of it. "But they could still do it, all is not lost."
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Hammers get three days off
The Sun
By ANDREW DILLON
Published: Today
WEST HAM'S flops have been given THREE days off from their relegation crisis. Under-pressure boss Gianfranco Zola and the squad will not report for training again until Wednesday - just four days before Sunday's crunch clash at Everton. Hammers fans will be dismayed after home defeats against Wolves and Stoke left them deep in trouble.
Zola has told pals in Sardinia he is prepared to stay at West Ham and help their survival battle.
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Zola : I will fight to the finish
The Sun
By CHARLIE WYETT
Published: Today
GIANFRANCO ZOLA will today tell West Ham's owners he wants to stay in charge. The Upton Park boss flew himself home to Sardinia on Saturday night to decide whether to quit as manager of the relegation-threatened team. But after thinking things over, Zola told friends back home yesterday that he wanted "to keep fighting for West Ham". The 1-0 defeat to Stoke was West Ham's sixth successive loss and the club remain in deep trouble. Only goal difference is keeping the Hammers out of the relegation zone and 18th-placed Hull have a game in hand. Asked on Saturday whether he would quit, Zola said: "If the problem is me, why not? I will have to think about it a lot overnight. "The players are trying very hard and the bottom line is to see whether I can help them or not."
Zola is believed to been boosted by the attitude of owners David Sullivan and David Gold, who he will speak to again today. But whether the pair will remain sympathetic if West Ham suffer a seventh consecutive loss at Everton on Sunday remains to be seen. Qualified pilot Zola is already back in Sardinia where he flies a plane to unwind away from the stresses of football. His assistant Steve Clarke has gone home to Scotland and the players who have lost six games in a row are resting to 'freshen up' for this weekend's tough trip to Goodison Park. Zola is unlikely to face the sack until the end of the season at least as Gold and Sullivan feel the timing is not right to replace the man at the helm despite the dreadful run of results. Sullivan said last night: "Mr Zola has gone to Sardinia. He's given the players three days off to freshen up for the Everton game, they are back training on Wednesday. "The Board will be most surprised if he isn't coaching the team this week. We had a very amicable meeting with him after the match on Saturday and he indicated nothing to the contrary." Whatever the outcome of the season now, it will not be enough to keep Zola in the job beyond the summer.
A list of potential replacements is already being drawn up and his No 2 Clarke may even be asked to step in for the run-in should Zola choose to quit in the next few days. Gold and Sullivan are concerned at the lack of application by the squad and Sullivan told the players they were 'no better than a mid-table Championship side' during a heated team meeting last Thursday. The club's Egyptian striker Mido said: "We tried hard against Stoke but it didn't work and we are very disappointed. "I look at the faces of the players in the dressing room and I don't see anyone who thinks they are in a team which will get relegated."
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Cahill : I'll hammer 'em
The Sun
Published: Today
TIM CAHILL has vowed to crush West Ham's survival bid next Sunday. Everton's ex-Millwall midfielder made it clear where his loyalties lie as the relegation battle hots up. The Toffees face another clash with a struggling team when they host the Hammers - fierce rivals of his old club. Cahill said: "We have one of the biggest games of the season against West Ham coming up. We know how important it is. "We don't want to kick-start their season, with their poor form. We just want to keep going. "It is a massive point for Wolves. They had a great win at West Ham last week. You are happy for clubs like this. "The fans have had some hard times and hopefully they can get out of it."
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Gianfranco Zola leads along well-worn path Simon Barnes, Chief Sports Writer
The Times
Zola is paying for West Ham's bad run
We English have a special veneration for leaders. We measure our past entirely in kings and queens (every outmoded thought is "Victorian", every idyll "Edwardian") and in sport we admire captains and managers above all else. We are in thrall to the mystique of leadership.
Perhaps only England would have made Mike Brearley a Test match captain. He finished with a Test average of 22.88 and led England in 31 Tests, winning 18 and losing just four. And perhaps only England would go into a crisis when the football captain was found with his shorts round his ankles.
How do we spot a good leader? By the attitude of the led, I suppose. In sport, the leader must try to produce performances from the led that are beyond their usual capacity. A leader must be able to ask for something extra, and to find it generously given.
We believe that leadership is innate. That's why, time and again, we make top-level managers of footballers who have no experience of management. As a result, we have a glorious record of destroying young managers before they have begun.
We appoint them to a job beyond their capacities on the assumption that their in-built leadership qualities will somehow see them through. We believe that leadership is not a skill but a gift. The victims of this belief make a series of glaring public mistakes and are branded failures. The latest in a long line is Gianfranco Zola.
The first-time leader with the highest profile in English sport is Martin Johnson, team manager of the England rugby boys. He has been heavily criticised after a poor season. He was appointed because he was a great leader on the pitch. The RFU took a punt on his ability to translate these talents into management. But it gave him a back-up — Johnson is not the ultimate boss; that post is held by Rob Andrew, the director of elite rugby.
Now, one of the most ancient principles of leadership is to see the men all right. Offer a cup of tea to a good officer; he won't take it until his men are settled down with cups of tea of their own. Front up, take the blame but not the glory, and see the men all right. The first principles of real leadership.
But Andrew left Johnson cruelly exposed. Match after calamitous match, Johnson was gruffly trying to pick out positives and by implication taking blame, while Andrew kept out of the way. Letting the men take the flak while he had a cup of tea.
Now there is a bandwagon rolling for Andrew's dismissal and for the appointment in his place of Sir Clive Woodward.
Woodward also has a mystical reputation for leadership. He was head coach and Johnson was captain when England won the World Cup in 2003. The idea of reuniting them has a fine ring to it; whether it would work is another matter. But one thing is certain: Woodward would never leave Johnson's back exposed.
Andrew Strauss is the England cricket captain in a year that reaches its climax in the winter, when England go to Australia. I can already picture the scene. Stuart Broad has bowled his guts out in sledgehammer heat in Perth. The captain comes to him: "One more over, please, Broady. Do it for me. Do it for the skipper." Broady is entitled to say, and will certainly think: "Where were you, glory-hunter, when I was bowling the same guts out on a bread pudding in Bangladesh?"
Strauss's little sabbatical, his swerving of an uncomfortable trip, is not something a proper leader does. A leader doesn't say: "Advance, boys." He says: "Follow me!" We English have a special thing about leadership; we also have a special knack of making a botch of it.
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Gianfranco Zola asked to stay the course by new West Ham owners
The Times
Zola has gone back to Sardinia to mull over his future, but is expected back at Upton Park on Tuesday
Gary Jacob
Gianfranco Zola is expected to stay as West Ham United manager despite returning to his native Sardinia to contemplate his future at the end of a turbulent weekend at Upton Park. The Italian is set to fly back tomorrow to take training on Wednesday, after the players were given a planned three days off, and to lead the battle against relegation. The team play away to Everton on Sunday. Zola has been boosted by support from the players and was told by David Sullivan and David Gold, the joint-chairmen, at a meeting on Saturday night that they would not dismiss him. Senior club officials were surprised and angered when Zola admitted that he was considering his future at a press conference immediately after the defeat by Stoke City. "I will have to see very clearly what is not working and see if I can sort it out," Zola said. "That's the bottom line." However, Sullivan is unable to dismiss Zola without the agreement of Straumur, the Icelandic asset management company that owns half the club. Zola would be liable for compensation of about £3.5 million if he were dismissed. In addition, Sullivan is confronted by two problems. First, he claimed that he was not in the habit of sacking managers when he bought his stake in January. Second, there are no credible alternatives to take on the job for seven matches. A shortlist was drawn up, in case Zola departed. Graeme Souness indicated that he was not interested in the opportunity. Glenn Hoddle might consider the role, but he is a Tottenham Hotspur legend, which makes a position at the North London club's bitter rivals unlikely. Terry Venables also managed Spurs, David O'Leary has been out of management for four years and Alan Curbishley and Alan Pardew, former West Ham managers, are not contenders. Slaven Bilic, their former defender, has ruled himself out. "I love West Ham very much, but that job is not for me right now," Bilic, the Croatia coach, said. "I want to qualify for the European Championships and nothing is going to change that. I am staying for all my country's qualifiers." Stoke City inflicted West Ham's sixth straight defeat on Saturday at Upton Park, their worst losing run in the top flight in 43 years, and they are above the relegation zone, and Hull City, only on goal difference.
Relegation would be catastrophic, because it would force the sale of at least half the first team, including Matthew Upson, Robert Green, Scott Parker and Carlton Cole. The players are close to Zola and some of them may want to leave regardless. "If you look at the faces in the dressing room, the experience, the people who want to work hard for this club, you don't see a club going down," Mido, the Egypt forward, said. Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, offered words of encouragement. "If you go six, seven, eight games without winning, then put a run of two or three wins together, you can shoot up four or five places," he said. "They need a game where they are not playing well but they win. That will bring the confidence back."
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Zola vows to fight on at West Ham
Published 23:00 28/03/10 By Neil McLeman
The Mirror
Gianfranco Zola has vowed to battle on as West Ham manager. The Irons boss flew to his home in Sardinia to mull over his position on a previously arranged break. But he told friends last night that he intends to return to the club for training on Wednesday morning to prepare for Sunday's visit to Everton. However, the Italian's chances of remaining at the end of the season have been fatally damaged after a weekend of chaos at the Upton Park club. Co-chairman David Gold backed Zola immediately after their defeat at home to Stoke – their sixth on the trot. But he then shocked and surprised the club's senior management by going straight into the post-match press conference and admitting he was considering his future at the club. The full support of the West Ham players is understood to have convinced Zola to fight for Premier League survival. England goalkeeper Robert Green said: "We are all behind the manager. He is a great man and great manager."
Zola's indecision left the Hammers needing a fall-back plan in case he quit. After contacting Glenn Hoddle and Graeme Souness last week, emergency caretaker managers not in work including Terry Venables and David O'Leary have been considered. Croatia coach and former player Slaven Bilic distanced himself from the job yesterday, although he remains an option in the summer along with Mark Hughes and Steve McClaren. West Ham do not want to sack Zola so late in the season with only six games remaining. "We are absolutely 100 per cent behind him," said Gold on Saturday night. David Sullivan, though, has not voiced his public support and Zola would be owed around £3million in compensation if sacked.
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Mido: Players know Zola is the man to keep us up
By Soccernet staff
ESPN
March 29, 2010
West Ham striker Mido insists the whole squad are behind under-fire manager Gianfranco Zola and that his team-mates don't have the look of a group about to get relegated from the Premier League. Zola has given the squad three days off while he considers whether he is the man to lead the Hammers to safety and the latest indications are that Zola will battle on until the potentially bitter end. While new owners David Sullivan and David Gold appear to have lumped for Zola in absence of a better alternative, Mido has retirerated the unwavering public support for Zola from within the dressing room, claiming he is definitely capable of reversing West Ham's alarming run of form. Mido said: "Everyone is working so hard for the manager. We're behind that man. He is a top manager, in my opinion, and we're all behind him. I think we have a very good chance of staying up. If you look in the dressing room and you see the faces in there, you don't see a team that is going to get relegated. "By experience, by names and by people who want to work hard for this club, I don't think this team is going down.''
West Ham's run-in is tough, starting with a trip to Everton next weekend followed by fixtures against Sunderland, Liverpool, Wigan, Fulham and Manchester City. "Everton are a very good team, but we're definitely going to go there to get at least a point," Mido said. "We're going to work hard. It didn't work for us on Saturday, but I hope that it will work for us next week.''
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Gianfranco Zola set for crisis meeting with West Ham squad over his future
Gianfranco Zola will hold a crisis meeting with the West Ham United squad before making a final decision on whether to quit the Premier League club.
Telegraph.co.uk
By Jason Burt
Published: 7:00AM BST 29 Mar 2010
Gianfranco Zola is pondering his future after a run of poor results including defeat by Stoke City. The Italian is understood to be at the end of his tether, with sources close to him claiming last night that he has felt undermined by the regime of David Sullivan and David Gold ever since they took control in January.
West Ham suffered a sixth straight league defeat at the weekend, at home to Stoke City, with, as The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, Zola later confirming he was considering his future and was set to walk out.
Zola: players motivated by Sullivan criticism Zola had intended to fly to Sardinia yesterday morning, to clear his head and decide what to do next, after giving the squad a two-day break, but remained in London to talk to his friends and his advisers.
He will now return to the club's training ground tomorrow and hold a meeting with the first-team squad to ask them directly if they believe he is the reason they are in danger of being relegated.
The situation is so critical that, even if he is given their full support, Zola is considering whether to leave in any case and, as things stand, he is unlikely to be in charge for the visit to Everton next Sunday. His assistant Steve Clarke will also leave if Zola walks out.
The pair are understood to be furious with Sullivan and Gold and also bewildered at the way in which the former has publicly ridiculed them and the squad when they are in such a precarious position. There is also anger towards the club's former owners and Straumur, the failed Icelandic bank which retains a 50 per cent shareholding and which conducted a sale of the club mid-season having promised stability for up to three years. The role of former chairman Andrew Bernhardt is under scrutiny.
For Zola the issue is not a pay-off and the £1.9 million-a-year salary he is receiving – as Sullivan knows – but an agonising desire not to walk out on the club, the players and supporters and be deemed a failure. He had hoped to secure safety from relegation and then leave – knowing that Sullivan was hoping to replace him in the summer in any case – and that is still a significant factor in his deliberations.
Sullivan and Gold maintain they fully support the manager but that is difficult to reconcile with the former's intervention at the training ground last Thursday. Sullivan accused the players of being unfit and fat and was forced to leave a meeting by Clarke who told him that he and Zola should be allowed to get on with their work.
Zola is particularly upset with Sullivan's behaviour, believing that if he wanted to make changes he should have waited to the summer. According to sources close to him, he believes that Sullivan should have kept his counsel on such issues as the players' wages and debts and not ridiculed his coaching and questioned whether he was "too nice" to be a manager.
Zola was also furious at the departure of technical director Gianluca Nani while the three strikers recruited in January by Sullivan and his transfer adviser Barry Silkman – Benni McCarthy, Mido and Ilan – have all proved to be failures.
If Zola does, as expected, walk out it will present West Ham with the serious problem of how to cope until the end of the season and this is fuelling part of his reluctance to leave. However, there is understood to have been some contact, through intermediaries, with former Tottenham Hotspur manager Glenn Hoddle who may be prepared to take on a role for the final six matches.
West Ham are also known to admire former Manchester City manager Mark Hughes, but he is expected to join another club this summer, while Croatia coach Slaven Bilic is also believed to be under consideration despite his protestations that he wants to remain for the 2012 European Championship qualification campaign.
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Arsenal eye move for Carlton Cole after West Ham give Gunners first option on hitman
By Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 1:24 PM on 28th March 2010
Daily Mail
Carlton Cole could be set for a move across London this summer, after it was reported that Arsenal were given first option to buy the England international. West Ham's week went from bad to worse on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 by Stoke in the Barclays Premier League, leaving them teetering on the brink of relegation. Demotion to the Championship would spark a mass exodus with £9million-rated Cole among the names set for an Upton Park exit. Arsenal were linked with a move for Cole in the January transfer window and would almost certainly rekindle their interest at the end of the season, should the Hammers go down. Arsene Wenger is keen to boost his attacking options, with Bordeaux marksman Marouane Chamakh, who is out of contract at the end of the season, thought to be the Frenchman's prime target. But according to the News of the World, doubts have emerged over the Moroccan's switch leaving Wenger forced to look at other options. Cole, 26, signed a new five-year deal at Upton Park just 18 months ago but would be sold at a reduced price, if the Hammers are relegated. The West Ham hitman has suffered another injury-hit season but has still managed to score nine goals in 18 Premier League starts.
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MARTIN SAMUEL: David Sullivan missed his cue to axe Gianfranco Zola, and he knows it
Daily Mail
Last updated at 12:39 AM on 29th March 2010
David Sullivan made one mistake with Gianfranco Zola. He should have sacked him when he had the chance in January. Not because Zola necessarily deserved it then, but because it was what Sullivan's gut instinct told him to do. Then, if West Ham United went down at the end of the season, Sullivan would have only himself to blame. Instead, right now what is coming through from his increasingly outspoken comments is not just his frustration and fear of relegation, but his resentment.
He resents not having been the ruthless boss. He resents not backing his judgment. He resents sticking by Zola primarily to keep the crowd happy. He is an angry man, because he did not do what he wanted to do, and now it may be too late. In every utterance these days it is plain he thinks not only that he has the wrong manager for the job, but that he knew as much from the start. If West Ham drop, the only way the business remains solvent is if the owners put in more money, so this may prove a very expensive indulgence. What can never be quantified in the event of relegation is the extent to which Sullivan's constant pronouncements on team matters turned a drama into a crisis. The bottom line is he would have been better off removing Zola, making his own appointment and riding out the flak at Upton Park. 'If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything and will achieve nothing.' This column does not intend making a habit of quoting Margaret Thatcher, but she got that one bang on.
Sullivan has tried to ally himself to the fans but will secretly feel sore at them, too. Financial ramifications aside, the only reason he kept Zola on was that he feared alienating supporters by sacking a popular manager. His gravest error, and it is the error of a great many chairmen, was to play to the gallery. When Kevin McCabe, chairman of Sheffield United, sacked the unpopular Bryan Robson he said his manager had been doing a tremendous job and it was a pity the supporters could not be more patient. It does not matter whether McCabe was correct in this assessment: if that is what he truly believed he should have stood by him.
Now Kevin Blackwell, Robson's successor, is also struggling to return the club to the Premier League and the fans are disenchanted once more. Gary Speed, Blackwell's assistant, was forced to speak in his defence earlier this month. Yet who can blame supporters for being forceful when the chairman has shown he is willing to bend in the populist wind? They now expect every decision to be made by a 30,000-strong committee. Harry Redknapp was railing against the Tottenham Hotspur fans who booed his team off at half-time against Fulham on Wednesday - before a second-half fightback earned a 3-1 victory and a place in an FA Cup semifinal - but just about every home team who are not leading after 45 minutes get the bird these days.
It is the fall-out from our interactive culture. We are becoming conditioned to raw impulse responses. Press red to vote, post a comment now, have your say; don't, whatever you do, sit down and actually think about a subject for any length of time. If your team aren't winning, just boo.
It is through this uneven landscape that the modern club owner walks and Sullivan stumbled early in his journey. In business, powerful men live or die by their decisions, but football is different. Sullivan did not want to start his time at Upton Park with confrontation; he was enjoying being the saviour too much to risk falling out with the fans. So instead he delivered an uneasy compromise: a manager he did not really want.
The downward spiral began that day because, by doing this, Sullivan negated the positive aspects of his takeover. Before his arrival, West Ham were rudderless. The club were controlled by Straumur, the reluctant creditors of previous owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson. They had acquired the asset by accident, had no interest in driving it forward, and were merely marking time for a sale. With new owners should have come direction, but this did not materialise because the relationship with the manager was so clearly a marriage of inconvenience.
Sullivan should have risked a few brickbats and axed Zola immediately, right or wrong. If he was not prepared to do that, he needed to put all reservations aside and back him with stoic silence. This slow death, in which it is plain a parting is merely a matter of time, with Sullivan existing in a permanent snit because he blames others for his failure to act, is what has really harmed the club.
Populism is a capricious mistress anyway. If West Ham are in the bottom three at 5pm on Sunday, May 9, the new owners will quickly discover how in vogue they are.
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