Daily WHUFC News - 28th May 2012

George the loan star
WHUFC.com
Left-back George McCartney enjoyed his season back at West Ham United
27.05.2012

George McCartney was nothing short of a revelation on his return to West Ham
United on a season-long loan from Sunderland. The left-back has marauded up
and down the wing all year long, producing a level of consistency and
professionalism that saw him voted Players' Player of the Year by his
team-mates. McCartney, who spent two successful seasons at the Boleyn Ground
between 2006 and 2008, was at it again in the npower Championship Play-Off
final, helping the Hammers to a 2-1 victory over Blackpool at Wembley.
Speaking to West Ham TV on the pitch just moments after collecting his
winners' medal, the 31-year-old celebrated one of the finest days of his
life and revealed how much he has enjoyed being part of West Ham United this
season. "This is probably the very top of my football career," said the No3.
"There was a lot on the game and this is right up there with the best days
in my life, apart from my kids being born! "It's tremendous and a
once-in-a-lifetime moment in your football career."

After starting for much of the season, McCartney has taken on a substitute's
role in the Play-Offs. In the final, his introduction saw West Ham carry a
far greater threat down the left flank in the closing half-hour. The
left-back himself set Kevin Nolan up for a volley that hit the crossbar
before the captain himself raced into space on the same wing before crossing
for Ricardo Vaz Te's dramatic late winner. "I think Blackpool improved from
when we beat them both times during the season. Both teams had plenty of
chances but thankfully we scored the winner and we're going to the Premier
League. "The lads have worked hard this season. Everyone wants to be in the
top division playing against the best teams and the best players, so here we
come Premier League!"

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That Was The Season That Was 2011/2012 - Part Two
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 27th May 2012
By: Gordon Thrower

There's a theory that sunlight has the same effect on Gordon Thrower as it
does on vampires. Which could account for why he locks himself away in a
dark room for days on end this time of the year. While he's there he writes
our end of season review, part two of which covers September-November 2011.
Seems so long ago doesn't it?.......

September

The month starts with us in 5th place, 3 points behind leaders Brighton .
This doesn't change after the first weekend of the month thanks to an
inconveniently-placed international break. FIFA apparently use the same
scheduling software as Transport For London so that, much like engineering
works, international breaks come at precisely the point when the maximum
number of sides don't want them.

The contingent of Hammers in the England squad is reduced to nil, Green
withdrawing with a minor injury whilst Parker no longer counts. The U21's
kick things off with a nice 6-0 win over Azerbaijan, with Angela celebrating
his escape from Arsenal with a couple of goals and a couple of what I
suppose we must call "assists".

Remember the transfer window? You know, that thing that slammed shut in part
1 at the end of August? Well it's very warm in Turkey this time of the year
and so they left their window open, enabling Galatasaray to slip in a cheeky
bid for Carlton Cole. 4m is the bid apparently – though nobody seems to know
whether that's pounds or Turkish Lira. Whatever the currency the bid is
rejected out of hand as the Turkish window is closed and the airconditioning
finally takes over.

Rob Green is at the centre of a mystery as one of the Sunday tabloids that
hasn't been caught hacking phones yet claims that the club has been touting
the player for transfer using an unnamed agent – not the player's own. 12
year old Jack Sullivan, whose twitter account is being increasingly used as
a quasi-official mouthpiece by his dad, claims that Sullivan senior is livid
and muttering stuff about legal action.

Back on the international front Angela picks up another goal in England
U21's 4-1 win over Israel whilst Collison plays about two thirds of Wales'
match against England. England run out slightly fortunate 1-0 winners as Rob
Earnshaw manages to put the ball over the bar from 4 yards, presumably as a
thank you for all those free prescriptions that we English subsidise for the
third world part of the UK.

After what seems like years, but is in fact only a couple of weeks, we
return to action at home to Portsmouth. Of the new boys, only Lansbury
starts and he is on target, netting our second in an eventful 4-3 win. A
Taylor free-kick cancels out a Pompey opener before Angie's effort gives us
the lead. They equalise before skipper Lawrence sees red for a second
X-rated tackle. A Noble penalty and a fine Cole header complete our scoring
whilst Piquionne lasts four minutes as a sub before his shove on Halford's
chest somehow sets off some sort of pain in the defender's face and
Piquionne is rather harshly red carded. A penalty "earned" by a late Ben
Haim dive cannot prevent what turns out to be our first home win since
March.

Time for some nostalgia. Remember Savio? You know, the player we brought in
for not nearly as much money as everyone said, honest, and who definitely
wasn't a replacement for Craig Bellamy (that much was right anyway). He's
gone missing again apparently. On loan to Serie B club Juve Stabia from
Fiorentina he calls in to say that he won't be in for training and that a
note from his Mum will follow shortly then promptly disappears. Not being as
well-versed in these matters as we are the Italians don't think to look for
the nearest caravan park.

Talking of caravans, our next match is the small matter of a trip to
Millwall. Having got things spectacularly wrong for the last meeting between
the clubs, the Met decide to actually send a few officers along to this one.
All of them by the look of things. Lansbury nearly sparks crowd unrest by
having a shot in the first few seconds while the Millwall 'keeper is
fiddling about with the goal net, the shot unfortunately going wide. Bentley
misses a late sitter as the game finishes 0-0 to send the home side further
into relegation trouble. Segregation of the supporters mean that the home
fans lose a fortune in unsold clothes pegs and lucky heather.

Hammers fans are up in arms as yet again the ordinary supporter is dumped
upon by the tv companies. This time Sky have rearranged the Brighton match
for Monday 24 October, messing up everyone's plans, mine included, for a
weekend on the sauce by the sea. This reminds us of the time a few years
back when a late change of plan by the same tv company left us with plane
tickets for Newcastle that we couldn't change. So we went anyway and brought
you a match report on the Northern Premier League clash between Whitley Bay
and Billingham Synthonia.

Having not won at home since March we make it two on the trot as a Mark
Noble spot kick is enough to give us all three points in an unconvincing 1-0
win over Peterborough. However, the plan to make it three in a row at the
Boleyn comes unstuck as a poor performance and yet another late goal, this
time from ex-Hammer Lee Bowyer (again), see us go down 1-0 to Ipswich. Other
results are kind to us though and we remain in 4th place.

In other news, Man Utd 'keeper David De Gea is caught nicking a doughnut
from his local branch of Tesco. Clearly Fergie has told the thin as a rake
'keeper to bulk up, though most amazement is directed that De Gea managed to
get to the front door of the shop without dropping the confection. De Gea is
let off with a telling off when he stumps up the £1.40 to pay for the item,
prompting Frank Lampard to own up to 250 similar offences, all committed the
previous Thursday.

October

In the Sheikhdom of Manchester all is not sweetness and light as Carlos
Tevez appears to refuse an instruction to warm up during the Citizens' So
Called Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich. The club immediately
suspend Tevez for a minimum of two weeks while they decide what action to
take. Tevez maintains that it is all a "misunderstanding", though
transcriptions prepared by lip readers are pretty damning. SuGoBra take
advantage of the player's forthcoming inactivity to put in a cheeky bid to
take the player in on loan, receiving the same response from Man City as the
player allegedly gave them when asked to run up and down by the touchline in
the Allianz Arena a few days previously.

Our first match of the month is a trip to the grotty edifice that is
Selhurst Park to play Palace. The match is played in 80 degree heat which,
whilst not being that great to play football in, is glorious for the
spectators. I make a mental note to use as many aerosols as possible. Manuel
Almunia comes in for his first game on loan as Rob Green has a knee op. We
draw 2-2, coming from behind twice with goals for Nolan and Carew who opens
his account for the club. 4,500 away fans show that they've read the morning
papers with the chant "Caros Tevez, he wants to come home", and, whilst the
player probably wouldn't disagree with the comment, he probably has Buenos
Aires more in mind than the Boleyn.

The Palace match is followed by yet another international break as England
travel to Montenegro (the country not Brian) for their final Euro 2012
qualifier. During the build up it transpires that Wayne Rooney's dad is
amongst several people arrested following an investigation into "irregular
betting patterns" in relation to Scottish football. England manage to get
the point required for qualification in an unconvincing 2-2 draw that sees
Rooney sent off for petulantly kicking an opponent.

Despite the fact that John Terry is only in the correct position once
throughout the whole evening (during the singing of the anthems), Mirror
journalist Martin Lipton proclaims the third-rate defender as "England's
Greatest Ever Captain". One can only presume that Lipton won his bet for
printing that one.

The England rugby team prove that it's not just our footballers who can
cover themselves with glory abroad. A series of unconvincing wins in the
group stages of the World Cup does at least have the consolation of knocking
Scotland out of the competition, though tales of nights out dwarf throwing
and the sexual harassment of female hotel employees grab more of the
headlines. Meanwhile Mike Tindall is caught on CCTV cavorting with what the
tabloids always like to refer to as a "mystery blonde". Clearly Tindall is
not one to set much store in the conspiracy theories relating to earlier
commoners who married into, then annoyed the Royal family, though he is seen
double checking his seatbelt on subsequent car trips. The whole sorry
enterprise ends with defeat in the quarter finals to France as Manu Tuilagi
picks up a fine for jumping off a ferry into Auckland Harbour. Although the
tabloids note the incident, their reaction seems relatively restrained and
one can only speculate quite what would have happened had, say, John Terry
been the one to jump. Apart from a resulting major improvement to the
England defence, obviously.

Back on the subject of real football, a bombshell is dropped as the Olympic
Legacy folk announce that they are withdrawing from the agreement to sell
the stadium to the West Ham/Newham joint venture after the Games. As the
dust settles it transpires that the Machiavellian legal delaying tactics
employed by Spurs have meant that the sale could not be processed in time
for West Ham to move in by 2014 as originally planned. Instead, the stadium
is to remain in public ownership with tenants to take occupation in 2014.
Since the sale will not go through, the Spurs legal challenge is neatly
sidestepped with the possible added benefit of Spurs losing out on £17m of
infrastructure payments for the redevelopment of their own ground, the
Olympic deal having partly foundered due to a complaint to the EU over
"illegal state aid". The complainant remains anonymous, though in the run-up
to the proposed judicial review of the case Barry Hearn was quoted as saying
"I know a bung when I see one". Quite, Barry, I'm sure you do.

Meanwhile the international break silly season gets a bit sillier as Swindon
boss Paolo Di Canio (nope, still doesn't sound right) admits to having
"accidentally" run a half marathon. Easily done I suppose. It transpires
that, having been the celebrity starter for a fun run event, he accidentally
took a wrong turning joining the bunch that were doing the full 13 miles
rather than the lot dressed up as pantomime horses etc. Obviously the wrong
turning never took him north.

Back on the pitch, or at least back in the treatment room, David Bentley's
season-long loan is under threat as he returns to Spurs for a knee
operation, presumably to have the bugging device implant surgically removed
before it gets discovered.

More egg-chasing double standards as we are all urged to become Welsh for
the Rugby World Cup semi final. I dutifully try this but when I annoy all my
friends by constantly whining and getting them to pay for everything I
decide to become English again. Wales have their skipper sent off and lose
9-8. The referee takes the blame rather than the kickers responsible for 5
missed penalties, which, in any case were probably all the English's fault
anyway.

We return to action after the international break with a comprehensive 4-0
drubbing of Blackpool. Carew, Baldock (2) and Collison are on target. The
supporters still find something to boo at however, as the groundsman charged
with replacing a broken corner flag refuses to give the fans a wave,
resulting in some good-natured abuse from both sets of supporters.

The win takes us to second and, as luck would have it, the very next fixture
takes us to Southampton who happen to be top. A very late first half goal
gives the home side all three points, though we have a number of chances to
level including hitting the woodwork and a goal line clearance. Other
results mean we remain in second spot.

In other non-football news, the eviction of some "travellers" from Dale Farm
in Basildon hits the headlines, with nobody being quite able to explain why
they are called "travellers" if they've been there (albeit illegally) for
ten years. Meanwhile there is much hand wringing on the part of those who
like to wring hands with some even going as far as to use the term "ethnic
cleansing". It is revealed that the "travellers" have turned down numerous
offers of replacement sites as they were just that little bit too far from
the New Den to be convenient.

The world is rocked as the death of Colonel Gaddafi is announced. The
circumstances surrounding the unlamented dictator's demise are unclear but
nobody is over convinced by the official explanation (delivered with a
nearly straight face) that he was captured alive before being "accidentally"
caught in crossfire whilst being taken away. Yeah right. Meanwhile breakfast
coffee is spat out hereabouts as a BBC 5Live interviewer shows superb
interview technique when he genuinely asks a passer-by in Tripoli "now that
Gaddafi is gone are you hoping for a better life?" I guess we can be
grateful that he didn't give her multiple choice options for the answer.

Back on the subject of football, sort of, and all hell breaks loose at KUMB
Towers as it is revealed through the medium of John Carew's camera phone and
twitter that El Hadj Diouf has been training with the club. Those who he
spat at at Anfield are less than impressed with Sam for considering the
signing and are further unimpressed by those who choose to accept the
disgraceful snow job put up by Liverpool FC and Merseyside Police, a stitch
up exposed for what it was worth by subsequent events.

"England's Greatest Ever Captain" ((c) M Lipton) is in hot water again over
alleged racially offensive comments made towards Anton Ferdinand during a
bad-tempered match between QPR & Chelsea. Mr Lipton, if Terry is "England's
Greatest Captain" I really don't want to know who the second greatest is.

Racial stuff again as Liverpool's Uruguayan diver Luis Suarez is accused of
using racially offensive language towards Moan Utd's Patrice Evra.
Typically, Liverpool lie through their teeth and deny anything happened and,
even if it did it was Evra's fault. The FA decide to have a long close look
at things.

We return to second spot as we grind out a 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove
Albion at the Amex stadium and, whilst "that'll do nicely" for the three
points the defensive manner of the performance raises eyebrows. Brighton end
up having over 60% possession but, tellingly, Almunia is forced to make only
one real save in the whole match.

Sam announces that El Haj Diouf won't be joining the club. The player is out
of condition apparently and his gobs barely reached the touchline at
Chadwell Heath. The player ends up signing a short term deal at Doncaster.

The team celebrates with a 3-2 win over managerless Leicester. A Baldock
header and a low Faubert drive give us the lead. Leicester pull one back in
the second half before Baldock's second effectively wins the match. A second
Leicester goal turns out to be academic. One major talking point in the
match is the performance of referee Pinnington who gives a succession of
fouls against John Carew without the player actually committing any
offences. After the player is cautioned for "persistent foul play" Sam
withdraws the player to save him further punishment lest the ref actually
spots a real foul and sends him off. The match marks the return from injury
of Rob Green as Almunia goes back to Arsenal.

We end the month in second place which is good, bit with a hospital wing
full of injuries, which is bad, if not exactly unusual. We ask the computer
Boffin (not Ruud) we spoke to in pre-season how the new computerised injury
monitoring system is going but all we hear down the phone is shouts of "we
need more memory" followed by sobbing.

November
We start our latest chunk of our season review in second place despite a
good old fashioned injury crisis that gets worse early on in November's
first match. Winston Reid is latest to fall foul of the bad luck curse
hanging over the club as he lands awkwardly and dislocates his shoulder
early on in the midweek 0-0 draw at home to strugglers Bristol City. The
match itself is poor with the team simply having no idea as to how to break
down an eleven man defence.

The fans are unimpressed by the manager's claim (using the usual array of
statistics, graphs and pie-charts) that the performance was "outstanding",
preferring instead to mull over the fact that City 'keeper David James had
but one proper save to make all night.

A number of happenings early in the month put football into perspective.
Doncaster striker Billy Sharp plays and scores only days after tragically
(and that word is, for once, appropriate) losing his infant son. On scoring
he reveals a t-shirt tribute that referee Darren Deadman laudably ignores,
applying a level of common sense unusual in modern day refereeing by
refusing to issue the standard yellow for such "offences".

The Hull match is preceded by a period of silence in advance of Remembrance
Day. Both sides wear poppy-embroidered shirts as we take home all three
points from the KC stadium with goals from Baldock and Collison. Rob Green
pulls off a number of good saves to preserve the points and the clean sheet.
Meanwhile Billy Sharp is in the news again receiving generous applause from
Ipswich fans as he scores in Doncaster's surprise 3-2 win at Portman Road.
Someone called El Haj Diouf scores the other two for Rovers but gets no
applause whatsoever for some reason.

An international break follows the Hull match giving journos an excuse to
start the pre-window silly season a bit early. Alessandro Del Piero starts
it all off with rumours that he is looking for a move to either us or Spurs
during the summer. I'd join us mate – the lasagne's safer.

Talking of N17, the Metropolitan Police confirm that they are still looking
at allegations that the tawdry little club based in that area are still
under investigation following allegations that illegal surveillance
techniques were used over the Olympic Stadium affair. In fact so closely are
they looking they have actually managed to arrest somebody after Baroness
Ford (chair of the OPLC) complains that all 14 board members were the
subject of Tottenham's scrutiny.

Predictably, Tottenham deny any involvement, stating "we did not instruct,
undertake or engage any party to conduct surveillance" adding, "We hired
PKF's Olympic Bugging & Covert Surveillance Services Team in the utmost good
faith and are shocked and dismayed at the idea that they would involve
themselves in Bugging and Covert Surveillance in this manner. By the way
Baroness, you have a small leak under your kitchen sink you might need to
get repaired sooner rather than later and, if you could snore a little
quieter of an evening, the person that we have not instructed, undertaken or
engaged to listen in would appreciate it all the more as the microphones
that we know nothing about are really quite sensitive". Allegedly.

Christiano Montano returns a week early from a loan spell at Swindon
following criticism over his attitude by Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio (no
matter how many times I say that it still doesn't seem right). PDC claims
that the player seems to lack the desire to play for Swindon Town. Be fair
Paolo – most people feel like that. And it's not as if the player was
"injured" every time there was a fixture north of Oxford is it.
Montano returns for a Development Squad match at Gillingham, a match that
features an unnamed "triallist". Given the furore over El Haj Diouf we
reckon Sam is playing it cagey lest it is discovered that someone equally
universally loathed and reviled is in line to sign. Our money's on Simon
Cowell or Pol Pot. We draw 2-2 as Guy Demel (yup we'd forgotten about him
too) manages 45 minutes without exploding. Speculation suggests that the
trialist is either the exotically-named defender Calum Angus who is
currently playing in Sweden, or the equally exotically-named Pelly Ruddock
who is playing in the Blue Square something or other for Borehamwood.

The FA pick another argument with FIFA this time over England's friendly v
Spain. As has become prevalent in domestic football in recent times, the
plan is to wear shirts emblazoned with poppies in the match against the
World Champions, the match taking place as it does on the day between
Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. Those who think that even FIFA can't
object to this are sadly mistaken as the increasingly sad organisation bans
the shirts on the grounds that "political" statements are forbidden. The
Prime Minister gets involved as there is talk that the match could even be
abandoned if England take to the field in the "offending" (and I use that
word quite incorrectly) shirts. Finally FIFA – whose head let us not forget
owes his position to bribes given to African delegates- relent after FA
Patron Prince William gets involved. After William threatens to send what's
left of the Army round (or, worse still his stepmother) FIFA relent enough
to allow poppies to be worn on black armbands, though sadly nobody thinks of
sewing the armbands to the front of the shirts just to be bloody minded.
Meanwhile FIFA continues its purge of all delegates caught receiving bribes,
taking care to investigate only those not bribed by Blatter.

When the match is finally played England nick a 1-0 off the World Champions
with a goal from some fat bloke who clearly won his place in the team as a
result of a competition. The win is followed up with another, an own goal
being enough to beat Sweden despite England fielding a fit John Terry.

Montano has barely unpacked before he goes out on loan again, Dagenham &
Redbridge being the lucky recipient of his services. The Development Squad
("give us a D.....") win 2-0 at Whyteleaf with Demel getting another 45
minutes.

Just when you thought Blatter couldn't make more of an arse of himself than
he already has up he pops with his views on racism. According to Sepp it
doesn't exist on the pitch and even if it does, why, a good solid handshake
should be good enough to settle matters. The clamour for the corrupt fool's
resignation is deafening, though the faint sound of "for he's a jolly good
fellow" being sung can be heard in the background coming from the John Terry
household. The row escalates as Blatter claims that he was misquoted, or
misunderstood or just about everything other than caught red handed. "I'm no
racist" he is heard to claim. "Why just look at how many Africans I bribed
to get my position in the first place" he added, or at least would have
added had we gotten to him first with a syringe full of Sodium Pentathol.

Karren Brady goes to court over allegations that her phone records have been
obtained by PKF's Olympic Bugging & Surveillance team. PKF (and for PKF read
Tottenham) argue that the case should be heard in secret. The High Court
judge involved refuses to sanction such an arrangement. We therefore find
out that PKF do, in fact have copies of Brady's phone records. "Oh those
phone records" PKF exclaim. "We found them, in the street. Or was it a pub.
We haven't looked at them honest. In fact we were just on our way to return
them. We were just taking a peek at the address. Of course we didn't copy
them and share the details with Spurs. Perish the thought".

We next go to Coventry. The eve of the match is punctuated by laughter as a
recently-resigned Coventry director comes up with the idea of allowing fans
to decide on substitutions by submitting (no-doubt premium rate) text
messages to the club. The idea is given shrift so short it barely qualifies
as shrift at all. We can't help but speculate as to what might have been had
such a system been in place for the past. One text we might have sent would
have read "arry don't bring on that manny bloke whateva u do lol"

The match at the Ricoh stadium sees us take another three points from an
away trip. This time a lacklustre first half sees us go into the break 1-0
down. However, the introduction of Cole and Piquionne changes everything as
both subs score to give us a 2-1 win. Piquionne's effort is particularly
noteworthy. Having missed his header the ball ricochets off a defender and
hits the floorbound striker to rebound past the stranded keeper to beat
Carlton Cole's previous record for funniest comedy goal scored by a West Ham
player.
It's rumour time again as the attempts to beef up the central defensive
area, which currently is comprised of Tomkins, Faye and, er, that's it, are
stepped up.

Ex-Real Madrid defender Francisco Pavon turns up, trains then turns his nose
up at a short term deal (if you believe his version) or, alternatively,
turns up, trains and fails to look fit enough for the first team (if you
believe ours). Leeds defender Andy O'Brien is next on the list. O'Brien is
originally linked with a loan move to the Boleyn due to being out of favour
at Elland Road. However things come to a head when Leeds boss Simon Grayson
states that the player will not be allowed out on loan. The player reacts by
refusing to play for Leeds again. The manager reacts to the player's refusal
to play for Leeds again by stating that the player will never play for Leeds
again.

Barcelona beat AC Milan 3-2 at the San Siro (or Stadio Guissepe Meazza if
you prefer) in the so-called Champions League. Entertaining as the game is
it is noteworthy for the fact that, in scoring for the 27th consecutive
match, Barcelona have finally equalled the 30 year-old record held by
ourselves. Pep Guardiola is effervescent at finally being elevated to such
company, though his mood is returned to normal on being reminded that they
still needed Real Madrid's help in the World Cup.

A 3-1 home win against Derby coupled with a surprise defeat for Southampton
at Bristol City sees us narrow the gap at the top to 2 points. A Cole header
sees us go in at half time on level terms. A wonder volley by Kevin Nolan –
his first of the season at the Boleyn – and a Noble penalty give us all
three points. The win is only spoilt by an injury to Sam Baldock, whose
hamstring keeps him out for a bit.

Not for the first time Karren Brady's column causes consternation as a
poorly worded commentary on racism in football suggests that Clyde Best
suffered racism from West Ham fans at the Boleyn, including the frequent
launching of bananas in his direction. That's certainly a new one on me and,
whilst my memory may not be the greatest I do have the advantage of Ms Brady
on this one by virtue of the fact that I was actually there. When asked,
Best, ever the gentleman, merely confirms the mutual affection between him
and the supporters of that era. All in all not our vice chair's finest hour.

Back on the pitch the away form continues to inspire as we go up to Teesside
and beat Boro' 2-0. A proper header (unlike his previous goal at Coventry)
from Piquionne in the first half would probably have been enough for the
points even without Carlton's stoppage time effort which sealed the match.

Five months to go then. Or possibly six......

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The Michael Owen Dilemma
By Iain Dale
West Ham Till I Die

There's no doubt about it, Michael Owen is a class player. Or should that be
'was'? He's now available on a free transfer from Manchester United and in
the opinion of Hammers legend Tony Cottee, West Ham should snap him up no
questions asked. I can see his viewpoint. We need a smaller striker to play
off Carlton Cole. While Owen may not be as nippy as he once was, he still
knows where the goal is, as evidenced by the fact that he seems to score
every time he plays at Upton Park. Since he joined Man Unied in 2009 he has
only played 49 games, but he's scored 19 goals. Not a bad record for someone
who some say is past it. At Newcastle he scored 30 in 74. But of course at
Newcastle he didn't move there - he commuted from Cheshire by helicopter. I
have to say that if he wanted to have that sort of arrangement with West
Ham, we would have to say no.

The big question is over his fitness. Could he play 35 games in a season, or
would we be satisfied, as Man U were, to use him as a supersub? I still
think Michael Owen has a lot to offer and if we could secure him on a 'pay
as you play' deal rather than some ridiculous weekly salary, I certainly
think it's something we ought to look at.

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Aston Villa, Fulham, Newcastle, Spurs & West Ham target's future to be
sorted in days
London24
Sunday, May 27, 2012
11:27 PM

Transfer News: Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes has been linked with a
host of Premier League clubs and the assistant manager believes his future
will be sorted this week. Huddersfield assistant manager Glynn Snodin has
revealed that the future of star striker Jordan Rhodes will be sorted within
days. The 22-year-old, who scored 40 times last season as the Terriers won
promotion to the Championship, has been linked with moves to Aston Villa,
Fulham, Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham, although the club have reportedly
slapped an £8million price tag on the striker. "He has been fantastic.
Hopefully over the next three, four or five days things should be getting
sorted out with Jordan, his agent, the chairman and see where we go with
that then," Snodin told talkSPORT. "It will be down to the club what Jordan
is looking for and what Jordan Rhodes wants to do as well. "Whatever
happens, if he is going to stay, fantastic, if he is going to leave then
everybody is going to pat him on the back because what he has done for this
club has been absolutely out of this world."

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Arsenal rival West Ham United for Blackburn Rovers ace N'Zonzi
by Jack Failsworth. Published Sun 27 May 2012 23:00, Last updated:
2012-05-27

According to reports Arsenal are launching a bid for Blackburn Rovers
midfielder Steven N'Zonzi. The Sunday Mirror claims Gunners boss Arsene
Wenger is set to make a £6 million bid. He has three years left on his
contract, but ­Rovers will struggle to keep him. N'Zonzi wants to be in the
Premier League and Rovers will find it hard to turn down a decent offer.
West Ham United are also believed to be keen.

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