Daily WHUFC News - 26th April 2012

Reid pleased to hit the mark
WHUFC.com
Winston Reid is looking to end the week as it started after a fine display
at Leicester City
25.04.2012

Winston Reid will be looking to carry on where he left off at Leicester City
in Saturday's Season Finale with Hull City. The New Zealand international
had another superb evening at the King Power Stadium and was on hand to tap
home his third goal of the season from just yards out. The strike saw the
Hammers' equalise on the night before Jack Collison wrapped up all three
points with a superb 25-yard thunderbolt that flew past Kasper Schmeichel
just before the hour mark. The win was the Hammers' 13th on the road this
season and was enough to keep the pressure on Southampton, who sit in the
last automatic promotion spot - two points ahead - with just one game to go.
"It was a deserved win in my opinion," Reid said. "I thought we had the vast
majority of chances in the game. Obviously the last ten minutes was always
going to be hectic. They put us under a bit of late pressure, but in the end
I think we could have scored a couple more goals." "We all wanted to go into
the last game with something to play for. Hopefully Southampton will stuff
up and then we'll be ready to pounce, and hopefully score enough goals to go
up."

It was another great performance from the central defender, who has grabbed
his first-team opportunities with both hands since coming back from a head
injury sustained whilst on duty with the All-Whites back in February. With
the Olympics just around the corner, Reid is hoping to continue his
formidable form and celebrate a successful promotion with a call up to the
New Zealand squad for the tournament. "It's something that I'd love to do.
Especially as it's in London, it'll be an amazing opportunity but we'll have
to see."

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We only wing when we're winning…
KUMB.com
Filed: Wednesday, 25th April 2012
By: Richard Williams

With the play offs/automatic promotion and will we/won't we in the balance,
there has been a lacking ingredient. This ingredient would have tipped us
(Great Escape style) back onto the cliff and away to the Premier League. It
appears very inconsistently but when it does, it has an effect so profound
that the points are ours. The ingredient?

Width.

There has been an incessant need for each and every manager in recent years
to flood our squad with central midfield players, ignoring our immediate
concerns for diversity and width. Even the most staunch Hammer would agree
that a successful squad must have balance and to have balance, we must have
wide players.

While watching Leicester I began making and reading comments on how Collison
"wasn't what he used to be, pre injury". I even said, "He just isn't the
same player" but I began thinking about it and what I should have been
saying was, "He just isn't a wide player!" I firmly believe that Jack
Collison summarises the biggest problem West Ham United have faced in the
'yo yo' years of late. Too many players out of position.

Let me give you a few examples. Take this season for example; Ricardo Vaz Te
who has been exceptional as a front-three wide striker, has often found
himself on the left wing in a 4-5-1 formation and Jack Collison as a right
winger when he struggles to beat a man or cross the ball. Last season? Mark
Noble played right midfield to accommodate Scott Parker and Radoslav Kovac
(sends shivers down my spine, that one). I could go all day but instead I
will list the players we have forced out wide over the recent years:

Joe Cole; Marc Vivien Foe; Freddi Kanoute; Titi Camara; Steve Lomas; Thomas
Repka; David Bellion; Luis Boa Morte; Lee Bowyer; Yossi Benayoun.

Just a selection, but it drives the point home that wide players have not
been our priority and if you are debating the importance of wide players,
how well do you think Real Madrid would play without Ronaldo, Man United
without Valencia, Bayern without Robben?

Just a brief look at the Premier League Assists chart tells it's own story.
In the top 20 you have Valencia, Bale, Wallcott, Pennant, Brunt,
Etherington, Mata, Nani and Young. Would Blackburn have won the Premier
League without arguably their most dangerous players Ripley and Wilcox
providing Shearer with his service? The link between quick, wide players and
success is evident.

This season we were dominated twice by the eventual champions Reading. "Look
at our squad compared to theirs!" was heard before they beat us.
Unfortunately football isn't won on paper and the defeats showed us that we
could not deal with a team who broke well with their quick wide players in
Kebe (who we failed to sign; if we had this blog would never have seen
fruition) and Jobi McAnuff (ironically a West Ham cast off).

The importance of a balanced team with quick, wide players who can deliver
quality, pose a threat, and pull teams about is highly important in top
level football. Sam Allardyce has shown that he likes a direct playing
style, much to the anger of many, but if it works we'll stick with him.
Unfortunately for Allardyce it hasn't worked every time and there has been
little in the form of a 'Plan B'.

The lack of creativity has been present for all but the blindest to see this
season. Lack of creativity is often the result when forcing players to play
outside of their comfort zone, or more accurately, out of position. What
happened when Collison drifted inside to his natural position against
Leicester? He rifled in the winner from 30 yards!

When things haven't been working for Sam and with some hindsight, it would
have been fantastic to switch up the playing style and throw on Rob Hall out
wide to get at defenders, giving Carlton Cole the service in the box he
needs. (From the by-line not the half way line!) The praise given to Zola as
being the "only man" to get the best out of Carlton Cole is true enough but
is it any coincidence that it was the same season we had Etherington down
the left and Behrami down the right? Natural wide players? Both of whom are
still notching assists in the top flight week in, week out?

At times we have been fantastic this season, we have controlled, dominated
and passed our way through teams but the beauty of football is that there is
no magic formula. Sometimes the beautiful passing game won't cut it,
sometimes you just have to give it the old hoof ball and sometimes you need
that spark of brilliance out wide followed by a daisy splitting cross.

The difference between the top teams and the also rans, is the diversity of
a balanced squad played in their true positions. Regardless of what happens
over the next few games, high priority needs to be given to bringing the
balance for success.

* Richard Williams is the host of the claretsweatandtears.co.uk blog. He can
also be found on Twitter at @CSAT_whufc.

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Championship clubs vote in financial fair play rules
Published 14:35 25/04/12 By MirrorFootball
The Mirror

Championship clubs have voted in favour of introducing a groundbreaking new
financial fair play model, the Football League announced today. All but
three of the npower Championship's 24 clubs voted in favour of introducing
the model, which is based on UEFA's financial fair play regulations, and
plans to curb Football League debt by limiting investment from owners and
total spending. Football League research has revealed that the 72 clubs that
form the Championship, League One and League Two are on course to rack up a
combined £2billion of debt unless spending and investment from 'sugar daddy'
owners is curbed. The regulations will be introduced next season on a
gradual basis, but sanctions for non-compliance will not be put in place
until the 2014-15 season. Under the regulations, from the 2014-15 season,
clubs who record total losses of over £6million will be hit with either a
transfer embargo or a fine that could run in to the millions. The club in
question will be fined if they are promoted to the Barclays Premier League
and will be hit with a transfer embargo if they remain in the Championship.

Owners will be allowed to invest £6million next season, £5million the
following and £3million the following season. Financial losses per season
will also be curbed under the new regulations. Clubs will be allowed to
record a £4million loss next season, £3million per season for the next two
campaigns, and £2million per season from 2015-16 onwards. The money
generated from any fine imposed will be shared among the clubs in the
Championship who are compliant with the regulations.
The initiative is seen as an important step to stopping Football League
clubs going bust.

Earlier this season Portsmouth went into administration and Football League
chairman Greg Clarke predicts several clubs will go out of business if this
scheme is not adopted. The Football League have been consulting with the
Premier League and the FA, and are confident the initiative will get the
official backing of both bodies.
The scheme applies to the Championship only, but League One and League Two
already have initiatives to make them more financially sound. League Two
clubs are already allowed to spend 55% of turnover on wages and a similar
scheme will be introduced to League One next season after a successful pilot
scheme this term.
Any League One club spending over 65% of their turnover in the 2012-13
season, or 60% of their turnover in the 2013-14 season will be hit with a
transfer embargo.
Clarke said: "On the pitch we have three exciting, competitive divisions
with crowds at their highest levels for 50 years. But that success isn't
necessarily being reflected on our clubs' balance sheets and we have to
remedy that situation or face an uncertain future. "I'd like to commend the
Championship clubs for the courageous decision they have taken today. "It
means that for the first time, all 72 Football League clubs have agreed to
take concerted action towards controlling their financial destiny. "Whilst
we cannot promise that these rules will deliver results overnight, they will
begin to lay the foundations for a league of financially self-sustaining
football clubs."

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