Daily WHUFC News - 8th March 2013

West Ham United statement
WHUFC.com
West Ham United have issued a short clarification in relation to comments on
third-party ownership
07.03.2013

West Ham United would like to clarify that Richard Scudamore's comments in
relation to third-party ownership refer to the actions of former Directors
of the club during investigations into third-party ownership in 2007 and
have no link to current Board members David Sullivan, David Gold or Karren
Brady, who only joined the club in January 2010.

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Andy aiming to please
WHUFC.com
Andy Carroll wants to do his very best for West Ham United for the final ten
games of the season
07.03.2013

As there seems to be with any striker who stands over a certain height,
there has been endless debate over Andy Carroll's strengths as a footballer.
Throughout his career, West Ham United's No8 has had to fight to be
recognised as more than just a 6'4 frontman who can head the ball, hold it
up and bring his team-mates into the game. While he is undoubtedly superb at
all three of those disciplines, Carroll can certainly play a bit on the
ground too, as was evidenced by the left-foot strike he blasted past Ghana
goalkeeper Richard Kingson for his first England goal at Wembley in March
2011. When asked how he would assess himself as a footballer, Carroll shows
characteristic humility in summing up his attributes. "It's a hard question
to answer," said the 24-year-old. "I would just say I'm hard-working and
determined to do well and put myself about, really. Everyone thinks I can
just jump the ball and head it, but I think I am more than that. I am able
to do well with my feet and most of my goals have been scored with those
feet, to be honest!"

As West Ham supporters have seen during Carroll's 15 appearances in claret
and blue, he takes as much satisfaction from setting up goals as he does
from scoring them - something he has done in each of the club's previous two
home matches. "I'm not a selfish centre forward - if someone else is in a
better position to score then I'll put him in, even if I have a chance to
score myself. I like creating chances as well and that's the kind of player
I am. "Being up there by yourself is hard so you have to keep going.
Sometimes you don't get much of the ball and it is hard work, so when you do
get the ball you want to keep it and bring other players into the game. "You
cannot score every time you have the ball, so you have to try to create
chances for others."

With ten games to go between now and the end of the season, Carroll
naturally wants to play his part in as many goals and victories as possible
before his loan spell from Liverpool comes to an end. "It's the same with
every game and it doesn't matter how many games we have left this season - I
go into every game the same wanting to work my hardest and to come off at
the end thinking I've given everything I can. I don't want to watch a game
back thinking 'I could have done that better'."

Carroll certainly feels he is in the right place to get the best out of
himself. "Everyone here has been great and is behind one another, which
makes everything a lot better."

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Haycock laments slow start
WHUFC.com
Nick Haycock blamed a sluggish start for the Hammers' 2-0 reverse against
Manchester United
07.03.2013

Nick Haycock admitted a slow start had cost his side dearly as the
Development Squad slipped to a 2-0 Barclays Under-21 Premier League Elite
Group defeat against Manchester United at Altrincham FC. Former Crewe
Alexandra youngster Nick Powell opened the scoring inside just five minutes,
as West Ham United struggled to find their feet at a sodden Moss Lane. It
was 18-year-old Powell who settled matters a minute from full-time,
profiting from a defensive muddle to double his tally for the evening and
send Manchester United second in the Elite Group table. Haycock subsequently
conceded that he was none too impressed with the Hammers' first-half showing
and accepts his side are perhaps short of inspiration in the final third,
having struck just once in their last four outings.
"We can definitely do more creatively," he told West Ham TV. "I just think
there might be a slight lack of spark at the minute, due to the volume of
games. But we've got goalscorers in the team and as you saw in the second
half, once we started to get the ball in the box a little more, we looked
more of a threat.
"Maybe for the first 20 minutes Manchester United got on top. You know
they're going to have plenty of the football, because you're playing away
from home, like you would do if you were at Old Trafford. We were expecting
that. "We came in at half time and there were one or two who I was
disappointed with, who didn't actually give me what I know they're capable
of. I made it known at half time that I wasn't happy with the performance.
"In the second half I thought we came out and responded. They are a good set
of lads and I knew I'd get that reaction. The plan was to try and stay in
the game and obviously try to sneak something towards the end. Had we got
the game's second goal it would have been game on but unfortunately there's
a little mix up at the end which killed it."

The Hammers' task was made all the more difficult by the late withdrawal of
Pelly Ruddock, who pulled up in the warm-up. It was a second injury blow in
as many days, as midfielder Sebastian Lletget, too, had been ruled out with
a slight knock. Haycock, however, was not about to bemoan his ill-fortune
and instead hoped his side would make the best of a late reshuffle. "Losing
Pelly in the warm-up wasn't an ideal situation but that's part and parcel of
football and we had to deal with it," he added. "I told the boys in the
dressing room, 'The first team lost two players in the first eleven minutes
but ultimately those two players came on and delivered the winning goal
between them'. Sometimes things like that happen in football and you've got
to be ready to slide people in.
"Callum Driver is only just back into his rehab so we knew he only had 60
minutes in him. We had only planned to play him for 30 or at most 45
minutes, but obviously we had to push it a bit longer. Leading up to the
game, we lost Seb Lletget who has been an integral part of the midfield. So
we've had to change the shape of the team as well in preparing for the game.
"People have got to bear in mind, we've got a young squad and one or two are
finding the going tough with the back to back games. We'll patch ourselves
up again and we've got to go again against Liverpool on Monday."

The Development Squad return to action on Monday 11 March, when they make
another journey to the North West to take on Liverpool at the Reds' Kirby
Training Ground.

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Ow gawd he's at it again!
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 7th March 2013
By: Mr Preview Percy

Preview Percy is at a loose end, what with there being no match this
weekend. So to fill in the time until the bunion lady arrives he returns to
a particular irritant of his. He still hasn't forgiven Barry Hearn for
Snooker Loopy you know....

So the deal to sort out the Olympic Stadium is nearly done and we can expect
an announcement any day/week/month/year now. So what happens? Yup our old
mate (and I use that word quite wrongly) Barry Hearn pops up and starts up
with the legal stuff again.

Now I wrote about Mr Hearn back in the summer whilst similarly at a loose
end. At the risk of repeating myself, lest I be accused of being pro or anti
anything I'm a committed "don't know" on the subject of the Olympic Stadium
move. I still haven't got enough information on which to base a proper
decision so until then I'll reserve judgement.

However, I do have enough information to make a judgement call on Barry
Hearn. Unfortunately the editors won't print that type of language in an
article so let's just say that I'm far from impressed.

His current move is to seek a judicial review of the latest bid process on
the grounds that not enough consideration was given to his proposal of a
ground share between Leyton Orient and West Ham United. This was one of the
four bids considered by the powers that be. To be fair the other two were
pretty much non-starters. The University College for Football Business
currently operate out of a broom cupboard at Turf Moor so what they were
going to with a whole stadium was never quite explained. As it happens
they've decided to rent some space at Wembley so they've got their room with
a view after all.

The other bid came from a company wanting to stage Formula 1 races there.
That would have left the stadium scrabbling around for use for much of the
year other than the few weeks for which the British Grand Prix was taking
place. No doubt the proposers had something in mind but when compared to
9-10 months of guaranteed football a year it all seemed a bit woolly and
vague.

Our bid we know all about (or as much as we're allowed to know) so let's
look at the Hearn bid then. The gist of it was "we'll move in and share it
with West Ham". It didn't seem to matter that we didn't actually want to
share a ground with them something that was made pretty clear to the world
in the club's statement that:

West Ham United has not held talks with Leyton Orient in respect of ground
sharing and nor is it our intention to do so

No, Hearn proceeded with the bid on the assumption that we could be made to
ground share against our wishes. Even for someone as arrogant as Hearn that
was a bit presumptuous.

I imagine that the conversation with the Legacy people went something like:
"Mr Hearn I see you propose to share the place with West Ham – have you
spoken with them at all?" "Er, not spoken as such but, er, oh look over
there is that a kitten?…."

So, having put in a bid that fell apart as soon as somebody read it, Hearn's
reaction when it failed was predictable : There's nothing wrong with the bid
it's the process that's wrong!

There's no real pattern to Hearn's continuingly shifting position. Our
moving to within 1 mile 890 yards of Brisbane Road (roughly three and a half
times the 750 yard distance Hearn loves to try and mislead the world with),
will apparently put his club out of existence whilst our staying put 2 miles
1687 yards away will see them thrive. On that logic you'd have thought that
moving to 0.0 miles away would result in an instant meeting of matter and
anti-matter that, whenever I watch Star Trek, seems to result in the end of
the known universe as we know it. Perhaps Mr Hearn would like to tell us the
optimum yardage available so that we don't need to call on the services of
whichever of the crew of the Enterprise are still able to walk.

Key to all this is, of course, the future of Brisbane Road (I hate sponsored
names) which I understand is owned by Mr Hearn (or businesses controlled by
him). Were his club to move from the ground that they nicked from Leyton FC
all those years ago that would free up a lot of real estate. As it stands
Hearn has been nibbling at the edges already, bits of the place having been
sold off piece by piece to effectively surround the ground with flats.

Hearn had promised to reinvest the profit from any sale of Brisbane Road
back into the playing side – though presumably this would be after repayment
of any sums owed by the club to him. And of course the level of "profit"
would depend on exactly who bought the place. A sale to another Hearn
company might raise a few eyebrows for example.

All of which is rather academic since, without a move, Mr Hearn is sitting
on an asset which isn't realisable. Which, presumably, is the reason for
this latest rather desperate move. Still his lawyers seem to think he has a
case – and no lawyer ever urged a client into unnecessary litigation from
which fees could be made, did they?

In the meantime I'm off to Mr Hearn's bank to propose a unique
account-sharing opportunity. Mr Hearn hasn't agreed but that apparently
doesn't matter……

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Would Watford's Scott Duxbury Care To Respond To Richard Scudamore's
Comments On Third Party Agreements?
http://thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.co.uk

Now I have to be careful here. Watford Football Club don't take kindly to
criticism and their lawyers are especially protective of Scott Duxbury if
emails I have received are to be believed. However, Watford and West Ham
fans might be interested in listening to an interview with Richard Scudamore
and, I am sure, West Ham fans would love to hear Mr Duxbury's response.

According to Mr Scudamore, "What West Ham did and what actually happened was
wrong and those players should not have been entered into the league on that
basis. However, having said that, on the rules as drafted then, WE COULD
HAVE EASILY WORKED WITH WEST HAM PROBABLY TO HAVE CRAFTED THOSE AGREEMENTS
SO THAT THEY DID FIT WITHIN THE RULES…HAD THEY COME TO US UPFRONT AND
DISCUSSED IT UPFRONT, WE COULD HAVE PROBABLY REGULARISED THOSE AGREEMENTS".

So the question arises, why didn't the club discuss it up front? Who advised
the owners not to do so exactly? Now I may be wrong, but my memory tells me
that Scott Duxbury was the club's legal adviser at the time and I am certain
that he was at the club during the whole Tevez affair.

Mr Scudamore also says that the punishment meted out to West Ham was
appropriate and questions the legitimacy of Shafting United's compensation
claim. The question therefore arises as to why, exactly, Mr Duxbury agreed
to pay the Blunted Blades the huge compensation figure of, reportedly,
£20m+.

In the interview Mr Scudamore also objects to Third Party Agreements because
of the issue of "sporting integrity" clarifying this by saying that a player
should be at a club "primarily as a playing asset" and not with a view of
him being "moved on" for financial gain.

Now that is interesting given Watford's present policy. Fair enough if all
these "loanees" sign permanently for the club, but if Vydra and co are sold
on, and the profit goes back to Udinese, then surely "sporting integrity",
by Scudamore's definition, is not being upheld. Or am I being stupid?

Now I am sure that Mr Duxbury is able to answer these points to everybody's
satisfaction. I am not suggesting that he did anything dishonest, nor that
the compensation paid to Sheffield United was designed to cover his own
back. Nor am I suggesting that such an eminent legal expert acted
incompetently, gave bad advice to the club, and later compounded that by
acting still more incompetently. Any such suggestion would be absurd.

However, in the interests of clarity, it would be wonderful to hear Mr
Duxbury's response to Mr Scudamore's comments. Based on what Mr Scudamore
has said, every West Ham fan would, I am sure, like to hear why:

1) The club broke the rules in the first place.
2) Why there was not an honest admittance of rule breaking and an attempt to
find the common ground that Mr Scudamore suggests could have been
negotiated.
3) Why the compensation was agreed with Sheffield United.

Further, football fans up and down the land would probably like to hear Mr
Duxbuury's view on "sporting integrity" and the present arrangement between
Watford and Udinese in the light of Mr Scudamore's definition.

As I have already said, I am sure Mr Duxbury can explain this to everybody's
satisfaction, but idiots like myself would appreciate hearing that
explanation because, quick frankly, we are bemused. Why, given what Mr
Scudamore has said, did we ever get into the mess we got into at West Ham;
and are Watford currently breaching "sporting integrity" whilst exploiting,
in Mr Holloway's words, "a loophole".

You can hear Mr Scudamore's interview by following this link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/scudamore-says-player-funds-risk-soccer-s-int
egrity-5msQPl4CThW6UcFzFBYY6g.html

(With thanks to Stani!)

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Nolan sets sights on injury return against Chelsea
By talkSPORT | Thursday, March 7, 2013

West Ham captain Kevin Nolan is hoping he can overcome a broken toe to play
in the London derby against Chelsea on March 17. Nolan was forced to miss
the Hammers' 1-0 win over Stoke last weekend after he picked up the injury
following a collision with Mousa Dembele during the recent defeat by
Tottenham.
There were fears that the influential midfielder could face up to eight
weeks on the sidelines. But with West Ham not playing this weekend due to
Manchester United's involvement in the FA Cup quarter finals, Nolan has been
receiving intensive treatment at the club's training ground and hopes the
extra time will allow him to make a first-team return. Nolan could even play
with a painkilling injection to help him get through the ninety minutes at
Stamford Bridge. The news will come as a major boost to manager Sam
Allardyce who looks set to be without Joe Cole, who has a hamstring injury.

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Joe Cole tells Liverpool fans what they already know: you're not that big
http://www.anorak.co.uk

HOW football reporting works, with West Ham's Joe Cole:

This is what Cole said when he joined Liverpool:

"I could have stayed at Chelsea because the fans loved me and I won things,
but I wanted to challenge myself and when I knew Liverpool were interested
it was a no-brainer because they are the biggest club in the country."

He now explains:

"When I joined, the guy interviewing me said 'you've joined the biggest club
in the country' and reeled off the trophies they'd won," said Cole. "I just
said 'yeah, if you put it like that, I suppose you're right' and Liverpool
used that as the headline to the interview. I didn't want to upset anyone so
I just went along with it. But obviously they're not the biggest club in the
country any more. How do you judge how big a club are? Nottingham Forest won
the European Cup twice but they're not a bigger club than Chelsea. I didn't
want to upset anyone so I just went along with it. But obviously they're not
the biggest club in the country anymore."

West Ham, of course, won the World Cup. They're the biggest.

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Scudamore slams West Ham´s Tevez conduct
7 March 2013
UKSOCCERWAY.COM

English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has hit out at West
Ham United for their dishonesty during the Carlos Tevez saga. The striker
moved to Upton Park in August 2006 along with fellow Argentine Javier
Mascherano in a transfer that was eventually found to have broken
regulations regarding third-party ownership. The players' contracts, then
partly owned by agent Kia Joorabchian's business Media Sport Investment, saw
the east London club receive only a small portion of the fee when they moved
on. And Scudamore has now blasted the club's previous executives for lying
to him. "It is quite simple - you are completely undone by an act of bad
faith," he told Bloomberg in a TV interview. "If a club, through its
executives, chooses to lie straight to your face, there is a great deal of
damage that can be done from that. "Ultimately, the Tevez saga goes down to
people not being honest. With any regularity body, if people are not honest
there is very little you can do about it and that is why the whole thing
unravelled. "It ranks up there as the number one act of bad faith that any
club has ever done towards me during my time here. After that, it was dealt
with under our rule book and the rest is history."

Despite West Ham's five-and-a-half-million-pound fine being labelled lenient
in some quarters at the time, Scudamore believes the amount was significant,
especially compared to other punishments meted out by governing bodies.
"When you consider what certain Football Associations get fined for racist
abuse in Europe, 5.5 million pounds is a huge fine," he said. "Our rules say
that if you break them then a commission hears the case and decides. We are
glad English football has stopped these transactions happening.

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Big Sam Seeking Assurances?
By S J Chandos
West Ham Till I Die

There is a peice in this morning's Telegraph that suggests Sam Allardyce
will seek assurances regarding the transfer budget for next season. The
story is that Allardyce wants to oversee a major restructing of his
strikeforce, with the likes of Carlton Cole and Maiga being shown the exit.
The question is whether the club will fund the acquisition of replacements
of sufficiently improved quality? The article claims to be based on a
source, no doubt close to the club, but who knows if there is any truth to
it?

Talking of new strikers, the link to Southampton's Ricky Lambert keeps
persistly re-emerging. The latest story is that West Ham will make a £6m bid
for Lambert's services. There is no doubt that Lambert is a consistent goal
scorer and has proven this season that he can convert regularly at PL level.
However, is he the right choice of striker for the club? Will Southampton
agree to the transfer of their prolific centre forward or is the offer, if
true, of £6m for a 30 year old too good an offer to turn down?

Of course, it does beg the question, what is likely to happen with regard to
Andy Carroll's future? The latest situation is that West Ham have first
option on signing Carroll for an estimated £17m fee. Will West Ham take up
the option? One thing is fairly certain and that is that Carroll's time at
Liverpool is up and he will be leaving his parent club this summer. And if
West Ham do not exercise their first option, then Newcastle Utd are likely
to pursue their much publicised interest in the player. Carroll has been
very unlucky with injuries, but a return of two goals this season is
disappointing. Regardless, Carroll needs to apply himself in the final 10 PL
matches and find some goal scoring form. If he finds that form then he will
increase the chance of the board agreeing to commitment a large proportion
of next season's increased TV proceeds to securing Carroll on a permanent
deal.

So, Leyton Orient are contemplating taking the 'powers that be' to Judicial
Review over the fairness of latest procurement process to decide the tenancy
of the Olympic Stadium. Rumour had it that all parties are very close to
clinching a deal on a 99 year lease deal. Now Barry Hearn is seeking to
de-rail the process once again by challenging the procurement process in the
courts. Apparently, West Ham being in Stratford will destroy the club
because of its geographical closeness to Orient's Leyton Stadium; yet, if
they actually share the same location everything will be ok, because there
will be a 'level playing field.' Hopefully, the procurement process this
time around is legally water tight and the challenge will be rejected. As
for Mr Hern's rationale, who can square that particular circle?

Finally, well done to the club for granting Hammers great, Billy Bonds, an
award for his outstanding service. It has been confirmed that Bonds will be
honoured at the end of season club dinner. Bonds was a great all action
player, of considerable skill. He was also the best tackler I have ever
seen. His career was marked by the ability to play in a number of positions.
He started off as a right-back, converted to central midfield and then,
latterly, he played at centre back and was superb in all three positions. A
man who should have played for his country on multiple occasions and graced
the first team well in to his 40s. They just do not make them like Bonzo
anymore!

SJ. Chandos.

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West Ham fan barred from Stoke City stadium because he was carrying a
NEWSPAPER
The Mirror
8 Mar 2013 00:00

A fan was barred from a Premier League ground – because his newspaper was
branded a weapon. Security guards at Stoke City ordered stunned West Ham
supporter Chris Barmby, to bin it, claiming he might set it on fire and
start a riot. Ex-fireman Chris, 57, of Claines, Worcs, said: "It was
ridiculous. They were letting in fans with programmes. What is stopping
someone setting light to a club programme? The worst thing was I hadn't even
read it. "I've been following football for years and years and I have never
heard anything so ridiculous." No one at Stoke's Britannia Stadium was
available for comment. Newspapers are not on its website list of banned
items, but it states that any article that might be used as a weapon and/or
compromise public safety would not be allowed into the ground.

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Sam Allardyce puts future as West Ham manager on the line over summer
transfer funds for new strikers
The West Ham manager, Sam Allardyce, will seek assurances over his transfer
budget before committing his long-term future to the club.
By John Percy10:30PM GMT 07 Mar 2013
The Telegraph

Allardyce's contract at Upton Park expires in the summer but he is facing
the prospect of being left with only one senior forward for next season,
with a substantial clear-out of attacking options expected at the end of
this campaign. Carlton Cole, Modibo Maiga, Marouane Chamakh and Wellington
Paulista are all set to leave West Ham United and it is believed Allardyce's
decision on whether to sign a deal will depend on the size of his transfer
budget for replacements.
Talks over a new contract for Allardyce have been suspended until Premier
League survival is secured. However, Telegraph Sport understands Allardyce
has serious concerns regarding the shortage of forwards should he agree to
stay, and will want assurances that funds will be made available to address
the issue.
Andy Carroll's future is also uncertain, and he could return to parent club
Liverpool if West Ham's board opt against signing the England international
permanently for a fee of around £17million. Cole is set to leave West Ham
after seven years on a free transfer, while Chamakh will go back to Arsenal
after failing to impress since signing on loan in January. There are also
doubts over whether £4.7million summer signing Maiga will remain with West
Ham for next season. The Mali international is understood to have annoyed
Allardyce by playing in the Africa Cup of Nations despite insisting he would
not do so when he completed his move from the French club Sochaux in July.
West Ham even considered selling Maiga in January and will listen to offers
this summer, with Newcastle believed to be interested. Brazilian forward
Paulista, who arrived from Cruzeiro on loan, has not made a single
appearance and will also depart. The exits of four senior strikers could
leave only Ricardo Vaz Te on the books. West Ham have scored only 32 league
goals this season but are nine points clear of the bottom three, with 10
games remaining, and face Chelsea a week on Sunday.

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http://vyperz.blogspot.com