hearing (Mail Online)
Carlton Cole has requested a personal hearing after being charged with
improper conduct by the FA.
The West Ham striker was charged for comments he made on Twitter about
Ghana fans during last month's friendly against England.
Cole is likely to escape a ban but can expect a fine in the region of
£10,000.
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Spurs question stadium award (Sky Sports News)
Tottenham want to ensure stadium award is correct and fair
Tottenham have applied to the High Court for a judicial review of Newham
Council's decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham.
Spurs are unhappy with the process involved with the Hammers
successfully securing the tenancy to utilise the venue after the 2012
Olympic Games. <http://topics.skysports.com/Olympic+Games/?section=football>
Newham Council had been prepared to put money up towards West Ham on a
loan basis, although feel the use of public funds is unjust.
The north Londoners now want the High Court to review the process, and
only once their lawyers are satisfied will the process will be able to
continue.
Spurs have contacted Newham Council directly in order for a response to
their issues, however, their questions have been ignored - forcing
Wednesday's action.
Review
"The club has on Wednesday sought permission from the High Court to
bring a claim against the London Borough of Newham ("Newham") for
judicial review of Newham's process in providing a loan for the
conversion of the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games," read a
statement on the club's official website.
"The club wrote to Newham asking it to explain its reasons and
justification for its decision, but Newham has declined to respond to
this request for information.
"Due to the time limits which apply to claims for judicial review, the
club has had no alternative but to issue these proceedings in order to
protect its position.
"The club continues to hold discussions with both local and national
government bodies in order to seek to agree a feasible stadium solution."
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Dyer set for shock West Ham comeback against Aston Villa (Talksport)
Kieron Dyer could make a shock comeback for West Ham against Aston Villa
on Saturday.
Dyer, 32, has been plagued by injury problems once again this season and
has only made eight Premier League starts for the east London club.
The former England midfielder was sent out on loan to his former club
Ipswich last month in a bid to get him some much needed first-team action.
Ipswich boss Paul Jewell wanted to keep Dyer at Portman Road for the
rest of the season but was told by Avram Grant that he wanted the player
back for their crucial run-in as they look to stay in the Premier League.
Jewell said: "Kieron spoke to the manager Avram Grant and he said he
wanted him to feature in some of the games between now and the end of
the season."
With West Ham crashing to a 3-0 defeat against Bolton last Saturday,
Grant is set to make changes for the must-win game against fellow
strugglers Aston Villa at Upton Park and Dyer could earn a recall to the
side.
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Benni McCarthy and What Might Have Been? (West Ham Til I Die)
So, Benni McCarthy's disappointing time at West Ham has finally been
brought to an end. It appears that the club and the player have agreed a
£1.5m pay off to terminate his contract. No doubt McCarthy has other
options that he wishes to pursue and it suits him to take the £1.5m to
leave the club. Apparently, he could have sat on his contract and raked
in an additional c.£2m, if he had he had stayed on at the club until 2012.
On the face of it, Benni McCarthy was a highly skilled striker who
should have excelled at West Ham. He had the credentials, the tools and
Champions League experience to have boosted West Ham's strike force.
Unfortunately, in retrospect, it appears we just signed McCarthy to late
in his career. One wonders if it would have been a very different story
if Alan Pardew had succeeded in signing him in the summer of 2005.
Pardew had agreed terms with McCarthy and was only awaiting a
confirmation from Porto that the £6.5m bid had been accepted. Then at
the 11th hour the Portuguese club scuttled the deal by upping the
transfer fee to £9m.
I well recall the then Porto Coach making noises to the effect that
McCarthy was too good to sign for West Ham. The gist was that he was a
top CL striker and he should move to a top PL club like Man Utd or
Liverpool, but not West Ham!! Yeah, right, then a season or so later he
joins mighty Blackburn Rovers for a reduced fee of c.£2m! That must be
one of the worse deals ever for Porto, effectively losing £4.5m on the
player.
When he finally joined West Ham, in last season's January transfer
window, the hope was that 32 year old McCarthy still had enough left in
the tank to make a difference. Unfortunately, a clearly unfit McCarthy
was injured on his debut, in a defeat at Burnley, and played little part
in the remainder of the season. The club sought to address McCarthy's
weight issues and set him targets for attaining fitness over the summer.
Further confirmation of his poor physical conditioning was provided by
the decision of the South African coach to leave him out of their final
23 man squad for the 2010 World Cup Finals hosted in their homeland.
Yet, one retained hope that he would return to Upton Park, lose the
excess weight and achieve some sort of form. Surely a fit Benni McCarthy
could still make a valuable contribution, drawing upon his undoubted
class and wealth of CL experience? I make no apology for hoping that
this would have proved to be the case. He did eventually lose the
weight, but never looked convincing in his subsequent appearances for
the first team. Perhaps McCarthy had lost his hunger for the game and
desire to score goals at the highest level? Avram Grant commented
earlier this season that McCarthy was the best finisher at the club and
that he demonstrated that every day in training. Yet, this training
ground prowess was not to be translated in to PL goals. It is a sad fact
that he never scored a single first team goal during his time at the
club. This failure resulted in the decision to exclude McCarthy from the
25 man squad announced this January and various attempts to loan him out
to Championship clubs.
Perhaps we just have to accept that West Ham signed McCarthy too late in
his career? Yes, he was signed on a very good contract, but can we
really blame the player for accepting the excellent terms on offer. No,
the fault lies with the club for offering those terms. Although,
admittedly, it is easy to forget that at the time, we were desperate to
sign strikers to fire us get out of relegation trouble. Clearly not
enough background research was done on the player's physical condition.
Indeed, the club even ignored a very public statement from the then
Blackburn Rovers manager about the player's absences from training and
corresponding lack of fitness. But acute necessity obviously overrode
the alarm bells that that this should have sounded.
Would things have transpired differently if the proposed 2005 transfer
had gone through? Would McCarthy have thrived in Pardew's high tempo
team, feeding off the excellent vision and slide rule passes of Yossi
Benayoun? In all probability yes, but ultimately, we can now only
speculate on what might have been?
SJ. Chandos.
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