WHUFC.com
Blair Turgott is loving life after England made a winning start at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Mexico
21.06.2011
Blair Turgott is loving life at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Mexico - on and off the pitch. The West Ham United youngster completed the full 90 minutes as England kicked-off their challenge with a 2-0 Group C victory over Rwanda in Pachuca on Sunday. With Canada next up at the same venue, the Young Lions took a break from training to visit the world-famous Teotihuacan ruins. The 17-year-old spoke to whufc.com direct from England's training base ahead of Wednesday's second group-stage fixture. Concentrating first on the victory over Rwanda, Turgott explained how he and his team-mates had left nothing to chance in the build-up to their clash with the African side. "We were pleased with the victory and to be fair we put in a good performance and I thought we controlled the game," he said. "In a tournament like this, getting off to a good start is everything as we now have something that we can build on going forward. "Before the game we watched a lot of clips of the opposition and that was good because we got an insight in to them. The coaches kept banging the message into us not to take them lightly and that if we kept playing our football and being patient we would get our rewards and I think that's what definitely happened - we wore them down. "I was happy to get the full 90 under my belt and thought I put in a good performance. It was a great team performance from the lads, especially as we were playing in front of a big crowd. "We are just looking forward to the next game now against Canada on Wednesday, where hopefully the lads can put in another solid performance."
It has not been all hard work for England's youngsters, though. John Peacock's squad and coaching staff - including the FA's Head of National Teams and former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence - travelled into the Basin of Mexico to visit the historic Teotihuacan ruins and pyramids - an Aztec settlement dating from 100 BC.
"There has been a good vibe around the camp, to be fair, leading up to the game," Turgott confirmed. "Ray Clemence has been here with his experience and that is definitely a good factor because you can talk to him at any time. "We did go to the pyramids which was nice. They were in nice surroundings and I got some nice photos. Everywhere we went on the site, people were trying to sell us things, but it was definitely good for us to have that bit of sightseeing to help us to relax."
Live action and highlights from the FIFA Under-17 World Cup are being screened on British Eurosport.
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Da Costa departs
WHUFC.com
Manuel da Costa has joined Russian Premier League side FC Lokomotiv Moscow
21.06.2011
West Ham United can confirm that Manuel da Costa has joined Russian Premier League club FC Lokomotiv Moscow. Da Costa, who had only one year left on his Hammers contract and had expressed a desire to leave, has linked up with Lokomotiv for an undisclosed fee. He spent two years in east London, making just 35 appearances and scoring four goals. The 25-year-old joined the Hammers from Italian club ACF Fiorentina in September 2009, having previously featured for French side AS Nancy and Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven. The Portugal B international becomes the second Hammer to join Lokomotiv this week, following Internazionale loanee Victor Obinna to the Russian capital. The club, who have already signed Abdoulaye Faye and Kevin Nolan as part of a busy summer of transfer activity, would like to thank Manuel for his efforts and wish him all the best in the future.
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Da Costa departs
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 21st June 2011
By: Staff Writer
Portuguese centre half Manuel Da Costa is joining Russian club Locomotiv Moscow on a permanent contract. The 25-year-old is set to put pen to paper on a four-year deal with the Russian Premier League outfit after just two years in east London. He will play at the Lokomotiv Stadium alongside another former Hammer, Victor Obinna, who signed a permaent deal with Loko just last week. The deal that takes Da Costa to Russia is reported to be worth just €1.5million - around half the valule placed on Da Costa when he came to the Boleyn Ground in exchange for Savio Nsereko in 2009.
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Da Costa departs Hammers
Portuguese defender heads to Lokomotiv Moscow
Last Updated: June 21, 2011 8:27pm
SSN
Defender Manuel da Costa has left West Ham and joined Lokomotiv Moscow for an undisclosed fee. The 25-year-old, who had one year to run on his Upton Park contract, spent two seasons in East London, scoring four times in 35 appearances. Among his team-mates in Moscow will be Victor Obinna, who spent last term on loan at West Ham from Inter Milan. The Hammers, who suffered relegation from the Premier League last season, claimed that the former Fiorentina, Nancy and PSV man was keen to move on. A statement on the club's official website read: "West Ham United can confirm that Manuel da Costahas joined Russian Premier League club FC Lokomotiv Moscow. "The club would like to than Manuel for his efforts and wish him all the best in the future."
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Transfer Market Fetishists
Alex V - Tue Jun 21 2011
West Ham Online
Some will disagree, but I think our haul of transfer signings over the last season was probably one of the most impressive in our history. Hitzlsperger, Piquionne, Reid, Jacobsen, Obinna, Barrera, Ba, Bridge, Keane and O'Neill. The end result - a humiliating relegation. It should leave more than just Avram Grant and David Sullivan scratching their heads.
The comfort blanket we seem to continually cling to is this pervading belief that whatever our problems are on the pitch, they can be solved in the transfer market. Any poor performance is greeted by ideas of who we could bring in to solve the problem. I do it, we all do it. The media feeds this concept, especially during the Summer 'silly season' – who could be coming in and who could be leaving. The media loves it as it fills their and websites, the clubs love it because it sells season tickets, the agents love it because it bumps up their players' prices, and the fans love it because it gives them hope and excitement for the season to come.
I'm pretty sure that David Sullivan loves it. This is a man who has very publicly voiced his frustration at player performances, and this is the man who shapes our transfer activity. It's his only chance to solve the problems that he seems so clearly to see on the pitch. And it seems that he does it 24/7 – I would guess not a day goes by when he isn't ringing up agents scheming and planning our next moves in the transfer market.
I don't think 'playing the transfer market' offers a viable long-term route to success. I think it's a myth perpetuated daily by the media, the fans and the clubs themselves. I think we all need a good slap.
I think it basically compares to roulette. Each Summer you pick your players, spin the wheel and see what happens. We might hedge our bets a little, a long-shot like Barrera mixed with a more solid percentage roll on a German International like Hitzlsperger. But whatever we do we end up spinning the wheel. And if we win the only benefit is that we get to spin the wheel again next time with more chips to bet.
And just like spinning the roulette wheel things tend to only go right until they go wrong. Last season we span the wheel and it landed on zero. Back to the fruit machines.
The transfer market is a system of total compromise. You don't buy the player you want, you buy the compromise that you can afford. You don't pay for the worth of the player, but for the price determined by the demand for their services. Players don't go to the clubs best suited to their abilities, but to the best career opportunities. And of course the agents interests begins and ends with money – their only benefit from improving a club is the promise of future business. It's a really poor system for getting good players into your club.
And it's an even poorer system for providing long-term development and improvement. Players coming and going year on year, managers the same way. Many football clubs these days seem like the equivalents of battered celebrities on their fifteenth marriage, still claiming that this time they've found 'the one'. And if this season's bunch of players fail to deliver that short-term boost, then they're shipped out and the next bunch come in.
What has a decade or so of 'market trading' done for West Ham? Well it's nearly bankrupted the club twice. It's brought in a succession of higher-profile higher-paid players who have come and gone. The net result – zero. But what has it done for any club? Was Manchester United's dominance built on a mastery of the transfer market? Was Arsenal's development under Wenger? Was Barcelona's? The only thing the transfer market has created of 'worth' are the vapid under-achieving squads at Chelsea and Man City that should by rights dominate Europe but end up a collection of the World's best players in search of a beating heart.
And that is what we still aspire to? No thanks.
And worse, the transfer market has turned players into commodities, and fans into armchair traders. A player is judged against what the papers told us they were worth, rather than their actual value on the pitch as... you know... human beings. No wonder many fans are jaded cynics who think the players are unscrupulous overpaid mercenaries – that is the image sold every day in every paper you will read. It's the image the whole system depends upon, where one player is only 'worth' what they would cost to replace. I think there are better ways to apply the notion of 'value' to a player and to watching them as a supporter. It's as if we are slowly training ourselves to ignore the human feelings like respect, fear, pity, hope and exhilaration, and replace them with straight cash appraisals.
The next time a player puts in a shoddy performance, try this.
Hold back that 'natural' impulse to consider what a waste of money they might have been, or how much of their wages you might want to dock. Hold back the 'natural' impulse to consider who might replace them in the next transfer window, or how willing you might be to drive them to their next club. Hold back that 'natural' impulse to feel like a short-changed customer. In short, stop thinking about the money.
Instead think how they might improve. How they could work on their weaker foot. Or learn to keep their head up in possession. How to play the simpler percentage ball more often. How they could be fed the ball more effectively. How they could form a partnership with another player. How they could stay on their feet more and dive in less. How the club could get the best out of them.
I worry that too few people at West Ham are thinking about how to improve the players we have. I worry that those in charge of the club rely almost exclusively on trading in the transfer market to supply 'success'. I think it's desperately counter-productive, completely short-termist and will get us nowhere other than further into debt.
And the worst feeling is the idea that we might invest heavily, get promoted this season on our first attempt, and slip straight back into that mode of investing in the Summer, rolling the dice and betting the farm again in the lower reaches of the Premiership. It might improve the club as a short-term saleable asset, but I think as a football club it will lead us precisely nowhere.
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Da Costa Exits, as the Question is Posed: Should We Target Shane Long?
June 22nd, 2011 - 6:51 am by S J Chandos
West Ham Till I Die
It has been confirmed that Portuguese centre half, Manuel Da Costa has left the club. Da Costa has signed for Russian side, Moscow Lokomotiv, for a non-disclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £1.3m. He now joins another ex-Hammer, Victor Obinna, next season at the Russian club.
Many will be surprised that Da Costa has been allowed to leave. There was a general feeling amongst supporters that Da Costa provided a physical strength and dominance in the air that would have been a real asset in the coming Championship campaign. No doubt there are a few conspiracy theories being hatched, as this is the latest of, former Director of Football, Nani's signings to have exited the club for nominal fees. However, the actual reason for the move may just be as mundane as (1) Sam Allardyce deems him surplus to requirements or (2) Da Costa is entering the final year of his current contract and he has indicated that he does not intend to sign another with the club. Hence, the move to obtain a fee for the player, rather than run down his contract and let him go on a Bosman.
Of those two possible explanations, current evidence points to the latter being most probable. After all, Da Costa has been quoted as stating that to remain at West Ham would have been a backward move, in a team where he did not always play. And that he wants to be part of a good team were he plays regularly! That's a bit rich considering that he was injured for a large part of last season. We can only guess at Allardyce's assessment of the player? But he must have agreed to the move going ahead. Personally, I thought Da Costa was a useful player, but not outstanding nor irreplacable. And at the end of the day we are going to need players next season that are 100% committeed to the cause, it does not appear, from his statements, that Da Costa was of that inclination! So, best to sell and take a fee.
Oh well, that's another centre back added to the list of transfer targets. Perhaps the club have also agreed to the move safe in the knowledge that youngsters Jordan Spence and Matt Fry will come in to the first team reckoning next season? Or maybe a deal for another centre back is pending? Whatever, expect the transfer revolving door to accelerate as we move into July and pre-season training. This is certainly going to be a very busy summer in the transfer market, as Allardyce assesses the current squad and oversees a radical restructure.
Speaking of which, also expect moves for a keeper and striker to complete the reconstruction of the spine of the team. The name in the frame for the goal keeping position is Peterborough's promising custodian, Joe Lewis. While we have been linked with a number of strikers, including Yakubu, Maynard and Boothroyd. However,one player that we should arguably be targeting is Reading's Shane Long. There are rumours that a number of PL clubs are considering a move for the Republic of Ireland international. But much of that could just be speculation. Long scored 20 plus goals last season in the Championship, is a mobile and skillful striker and would fit in well at the club. It is also a potential signing that would send out the clear message that the club are not going to just lump it up field for two 6ft plus target men all season. In addition, Shane Long falls in to that category of player who is young and has the potential to make a successful transition to PL football.
Will it happen? Probably not, but we live in hope!
SJ. Chandos.
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Allardyce's first West Ham press conference to take place tomorrow afternoon ( That's now this afternoon - PeterR )
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
2:15 PM
East London Advertiser
Sam Allardyce will hold his first press conference as a West Ham manager tomorrow at 2pm from Upton Park. Allardyce had his first day of work on Monday after returning from a family holiday and will be unveiled to the media in the media room. The former Blackburn boss was brought in by co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan following the sacking of Avram Grant at the end of the season, after the club were relegated to the Championship.
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West Ham hopeful Hines will sign new long-term contract
TalkSport
By Marc Isaacs
Tuesday, June 21
West Ham are hopeful that talented young forward Zavon Hines will sign a new deal with the club. Hines, 22, is currently a free agent after rejecting the first offer of a new contract at the end of the season. West Ham's new boss Sam Allardyce is keen to keep the England Under-21 striker at Upton Park and hopes he can persuade him to change his mind. After bringing in Abdoulaye Faye and Kevin Nolan, Allardyce wants Hines to see how the club is heading in the right direction following their relegation into the Championship. The club remain hopeful that Hines will pledge his long-term future to the club before the start of the season.
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Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient face crucial week in oppostion to West Ham's Olympic Stadium move
By Paul Kelso11:58PM BST 21 Jun 20111
Tottenham and Leyton Orient will discover within days whether their challenge to West Ham's tenancy of the Olympic Stadium has been successful after a High Court judge spent the early part of this week considering their case. Mr Justice Davis will rule on whether to grant permission for a judicial review of the decision to declare West Ham the preferred bidder after considering four separate applications from Tottenham and Orient. The clubs are challenging the decision of the Olympic Park Legacy Company to select West Ham, the Government and London mayor Boris Johnson for endorsing that decision, and Newham Council's decision to agree to lend £40 million to a joint venture with West Ham that will convert and run the stadium. If successful, Tottenham and Orient will be granted a full trial at which their challenge will be heard, which is likely to be no earlier than October. The clubs have already won the first round of their challenge after the judged rejected an attempt by the Government and the mayor to skip the first phase of the judicial review and proceed straight to a substantive hearing in the autumn.
Tottenham and Orient objected, arguing that the judge should decide whether to grant permission for the challenge before hearing the substance of the case. That process began on Monday when Mr Justice Davis began studying several hundred pages of documents submitted by the various parties. The legal challenges follow the acrimonious bidding war between Tottenham and West Ham that culminated in February with the Hammers being selected as preferred bidder. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, desperate to develop a new stadium to keep pace with their Premier League rivals, believes he was encouraged to enter the Stratford bid, only to be used to drive a better deal out of West Ham.
Orient, meanwhile, believe that West Ham's move to within a mile of Brisbane Road will have a huge impact on attendances and the club's commercial prospects.
Orient are also challenging the Premier League's decision to approve West Ham's potential move to Stratford. An arbitration hearing will be held in the autumn. The clubs' submissions, copies of which have been seen by Telegraph Sport, reveal that Tottenham and Orient are challenging both the process and the substance of the OPLC's decision, and Newham's financial support for West Ham which they say breaches European laws on state aid. The submissions also reveal that one of the OPLC's grounds for rejecting Tottenham's bid was that their plans to renovate Crystal Palace as an alternative to retaining the athletics track was "inadequate and under-funded" and "does not provide a long-term sustainable athletics legacy".
Spurs reject this argument, insisting that they provided a £500 million guarantee to underwrite their bid and the Crystal Palace scheme. The role of Newham in providing a £40 million loan to West Ham is at the heart of the challenge from Tottenham and Orient, while the legal process is understood to have exposed tensions between the OPLC and the council over the key issue.
Without the Newham loan, West Ham cannot afford to take on the stadium, but Tottenham and Orient argue that it is an inappropriate use of public money and was made unlawfully. Given this, they argue that West Ham's bid, which relies on council funding, is not financially secure and should not have been approved.
Tottenham argue that the Newham loan breaches EC laws banning state aid for private companies; that the council acted beyond its powers by entering into the deal with West Ham; and finally that Newham should have considered offering similar terms to them as they would then potentially have benefited from having two Premier League clubs in the borough.
Newham's defence is technical but crucial. The council argues that in fact it has not agreed to make the loan, but simply agreed that its chief executive could make the loan in future, if a suitable deal can be agreed with West Ham over terms and conditions. Tottenham argue that this admission proves that the OPLC should not have approved West Ham, as without the Newham money the bid cannot satisfy the key criteria that any tenant has "committed, secure and agreed" funding. Newham's claim that the loan has not been agreed is understood to have greatly concerned the OPLC, which based its decision to award West Ham the stadium on the fact that the funding was in place. The council and West Ham are understood to have signed numerous documents to that effect.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the OPLC was so concerned that it has written to Newham demanding clarification of the status of the loan. The council is thought to have responded that the loan will be available to West Ham, but Tottenham and Orient will claim that that admission negates the council's defence on other points. Describing the OPLC decision as "irrational, discriminatory and unfair", Tottenham accuse them of displaying bias towards West Ham in the bidding process and of secretly changing the rules by which the preferred bidder would be chosen. Tottenham argue that in key areas they were not given vital information about how the decision-making process would be made, particularly in relation to the five criteria on which the final call was based. The OPLC set out the criteria at the start of the process, stating that they were listed in order of importance, with the financial certainty of bidders rated the most important. Spurs say that "without warning" the OPLC changed the rules during the final bidding, judging the criteria with equal weight. This, they say, worked against them as West Ham should have failed the financial test, and the areas they were "perceived as failing" – reopening the stadium rapidly and flexible usage – were third and fifth on the list. They cite a letter from Johnson as evidence of the confusion, even among OPLC stakeholders. Explaining his decision to back West Ham, Johnson initially said the objectives "were listed in order of importance". In a subsequent letter however he has admitted that this was "a mistake and obviously so".
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