Daily WHUFC News - 18th February 2013

Lletget looking to add goals
WHUFC.com
American midfielder Sebastian Lletget is enjoying his football under Nick
Haycock's guidance
17.02.2013

Sebastian Lletget is convinced the goals will start to flow provided he
heeds the advice of Development Squad coach Nick Haycock. The United States
Under-23 international, who has started all but one of 18 Barclays Under-21
Premier League fixtures this term, is now being deployed in a more advanced
midfield role, one that he expects to bring goals. Haycock has asked Lletget
to continue to make the right runs into the right areas, in the knowledge
that reward will inevitably come in the final third. "I think what the
manager's trying to get into my game is to for me to get into the box and
making chances and creating things," Lletget told West Ham TV. "As the
season goes on I'm playing in a different position, I'm more advanced and as
long as I'm getting in there the chances will come."

Lletget was in good spirits after Friday's 1-0 defeat by Southampton, as the
Hammers lined up in an unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation. The 20-year-old
midfielder insisted he embraced the new system, recognising that versatility
is a key ingredient in his and his team-mates' development. "Credit to
Southampton, I think they really put in a shift," he added. "I give a lot of
credit to the young boys that came in to the side and we played a new
formation that we're not quite used to. What the manager is trying to
emphasise is the development of the players and trying to play new
formations and trying something different is never bad.
"The manager said at half-time that it was going to be a 1-0. Both teams
were going at it and it was a great strike. We couldn't do much about it."

Casting an eye towards the upcoming trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Lletget
reckons there is every reason to be positive ahead of the trip to AFC
Telford.
"I give credit to all the boys, like I said we put a real shift and we move
on to next week at Wolves. I know we're going to play our best, we don't
know what team it is or who's going to be involved but I know we're going to
push it. "The beginning half of the season we did really well, obviously a
couple of players have gone out on loan. But I think we're doing well
without them and they're doing well with their teams at the moment, so I
think I'm doing good."

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Ladies lose in County Cup
WHUFC.com
West Ham United Ladies suffered a 1-0 Essex FA County Cup semi-final defeat
at Colchester United
17.02.2013

West Ham United Ladies suffered a 1-0 Essex FA County Cup semi-final defeat
at Colchester United on Sunday. The Hammers were edged out at Shrub End
Community Sports Centre in Essex by an Emily Clements' goal with 20 minutes
of the second half remaining. Julia Setford's side, who were also beaten on
penalties in the final of last season's competition, lost former Colchester
forward Hannah Gowland to an ankle injury before half-time. West Ham were
unable to find an equaliser late on and will now concentrate all their
efforts on the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division. The Ladies
return to action next Sunday 24 February, when they travel to Lewes for a
2pm kick-off. West Ham sit fifth in the table, eight points behind leaders
Reading but with two games in-hand on the Royals. The Hammers have to play
the leaders home and away before the season ends in April.

West Ham United Ladies: Wayne, Mellors, Barling, Revell, Sullivan, Little,
Morgan, Merritt, Gowland (Lipley-Hinton), Blanchflower, Bowers

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Shooting ourselves in the foot
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 18th February 2013
By: Paul Walker

So we have a pending relegation crisis, a managerial crisis and the return
of the dark cloud that is the Sheffield United crisis. Forgive me, but
haven't we been this way before?

It all seems to come around about this time every year, or is that just me
being paranoid, or the pessimist that my match-going mates continue to call
me. I'm sorry, but when you've been around West Ham for as long as me, you
do tend to see a glass as half empty rather than half full.

And it is all so avoidable. The relegation situation would have been
avoidable if our beloved team had managed a half-decent, organised
performance at Aston Villa last Sunday.

It has taken me a few days to get over what was a bitterly disappointing
outcome and it was even laughable to see a quote from Sam Allardyce that 'we
couldn't play any better.' Good grief, if he believes that maybe he should
go now.

It makes you wonder why managers of all persuasions think they can trot out
rubbish remarks for the great unwashed and expect them not to be challenged.
Club websites and players do the same. Do give us some credit for knowing
what we are watching.

Then there was the official statement from the club to re-iterate what we
all have known all along - that's if we have been keeping up, and we all
have. It explained again that there will be no talk of new contracts until
we are safe from relegation.

That was in response to a no-quotes piece in one of the Sundays about big
Sam's future. Nobody picked up on it until the club went all official on the
website, then it's all over Sky on the half hour, every half hour, and has
been the subject of follow-ups all week.

That could all have been avoided if the club had ignored the Sunday paper
piece and allowed Sam to handle any questions at his next press conference.
He's big enough and ugly enough to look after himself, and he would have
said that there was nothing new in the story, it's been that way since the
Play-Off final when his long-term future was put on the back burner until he
had achieved the second part of his two year contract…to maintain West Ham's
place in the top flight.

So often our club, who seem to lack basic understanding of how journalists
work, come out with poorly conceived statements that just add fuel to a fire
that would fizzle out on it's own accord.

So now we have had a week of 'names in the frame' and soul-searching about
Sam's future, style, his staff and what the players think. Well done
everybody, a crisis out of nothing.

Sam is a very rich man with a home in the Lancashire hills. He does not need
to work, he does it because he wants to prove he is right and everyone else
is wrong about him. He may even want to go in the summer, he hopes with his
reputation restored and our club safe in the top flight and able to get
their hands on the vastly bigger sponsorship pot from Sky and the worldwide
TV contracts.

That would make paying Sheffield United their last £6m hand-out this summer
an awful lot easier. Maybe we will even be able to spend money on transfer
fees in the next window, unlike the last one where we paid out only wages
and loan fees and were unable to buy a good left back and a new striker. But
then again, pigs might fly.

Sheffield United, of course, is a problem we can do without raising its'
ugly head every few months. It leaves a bad taste.

And I am fed up with seeing everybody still writing that we contravened
third-party regulations over Carlos Tevez. Now if I am wrong about this,
please someone correct me. But when the Tevez crisis arose, the Premier
League did not have any regulations about third-party ownership, I believe
the Football League still don't have any either.

The new rules came about afterwards. We were found guilty of lying to the
Premier League, and having a clause in Tevez's contract that allowed his
owners to sell him whenever they wanted, against our wishes, in any window.
That clause was discovered by Liverpool's former chief executive Rick Parry
when he was going through Javier Mascherano's contract with a fine tooth
comb ahead of the now Barcelona star's loan move to Anfield.

The clause contravened regulations that say no outsider can influence team
selection, and if that said third party had other players at other clubs
with the same clause, it could be seen as a way of influencing team
selections.

In the summer of the Tevez scandal, the Premier League adopted new
regulations and voted not to punish West Ham any further. Clearly, at the
time more than a few clubs did not want to see any close investigation of
certain contracts and wanted the situation concluded.

It was also suggested at the time that a few contracts of Portuguese or
Brazilian players would not have passed closer inspection. Maybe Chelsea and
Jose were all too aware of a pending problem?

This wasn't good enough for the Blades as we know, who finally found an
FA-established independent hearing that allowed them to railroad us into the
current £20m we are still paying back.

And that only came about on the back of the wonderful Scott Duxbury being
accused of trying to re-negotiate Tevez's original contract that we said had
been torn up at the time of the original offences.

The Premier League accepted that had happened, and allowed Tevez to play at
Wigan on April 28, 2006 and the final two league games against Bolton and
Manchester United…all three games were won and we were saved from the drop.

Only after all that did Duxbury try to offer Tevez a deal to stay, and that
was interpreted at the tribunal - without anything in writing it has to be
said - as 'not having torn up the original contract.'

Now that's how I have always seen it. I was a working journalist at the time
and obvious sympathetic to the Irons, but do not believe that my
understanding of what happened to be incorrect. As I said, if I am labouring
under misapprehensions, will someone put me right.

It just continues to annoy me that we are constantly accused of breaking
regulations that didn't even exist!

But now back to the present and our team who could be dragged into a
relegation battle very, very easily. All that pressure could have been
avoided by a victory at Villa Park, and we certainly had the chances despite
a terrible, mechanical performance.

The previous day I, along no doubt with a few thousands Irons fans, had sat
at home and watched virtually every result go our way, apart from
Southampton beating Manchester City. Had we won at Villa we would have been
12 points clear of the drop zone with 12 games left.

We would have been on 33 points and almost safe. But now the gap is just
seven, although we still(!) have a far better goal difference than any of
the bottom four, which is worth another point.

Since we went down in 2002-03 with 42 points, still a record, the fourth
from bottom survival place has been achieved with 44, 39, 34, 38, 38, 36,
35, 35, 40 and 37 points. An average of 37.

So now I believe we must get 37 minimum. But the run-in is very tough. Home
to Spurs and Manchester United, and away trips to Chelsea, Liverpool,
Everton and Manchester City. That's six of our final 12 games were are
unlikely to get anything from on current form.

So we have to find seven points now from the other six. And that includes
matches against fellow strugglers Southampton, Reading, Wigan and Newcastle.
It does not look like it is going to be easy, which makes the rotten display
at Villa even harder to take.

Perhaps the five-day break in Dubai will help us. It certainly did last
season at this time when we were going through that bad patch of draws in
the Championship.

But unless we want to avoid facing Sheffield United on the field next season
- our money looks to be giving them another tilt at promotion - we had
better get our act together quickly and rustle up seven points from
somewhere.

It is all coming to a head together, with the move to Stratford likely to be
confirmed in the next week or so. What our wonderful leaders will not be
able to contend with is a team in the Championship while their heads are on
the clouds over a rebuilt Olympic stadium, and the Boleyn on the market.

So come on Sam, if this is your last throw of the West Ham dice before you
return to the Lancashire hills, get a grip now!

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