Daily WHUFC News - 15th May 2013

Olympic poll shows fans' support
WHUFC.com
The result of the SMG YouGov supporter consultation shows a huge level of
support for the Olympic Stadium move
14.05.2013

West Ham United's plan to move to the Olympic Stadium has received the
backing of its supporters after 85% of fans who took part in an independent
SMG YouGov poll said they supported the move to the iconic new stadium
situated in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. A further 10% who said they
would consider supporting the move but required more information before
agreeing, were offered the chance to take part in SMG YouGov's ongoing
consultation sessions throughout this summer. SMG YouGov have also revealed
today that of those that voted in favour, over 50% said they did so because
they believe the move to the Olympic Stadium will provide the resources to
improve the squad and build the Club. The second most popular answer cited
was the fact that fans trust West Ham United's Directors to make the right
decisions to take the Club forward, while others stated their support for
the move because it will provide an overall better fan experience. In
another encouraging sign, a total of 89% of supporters surveyed said they
would attend either the same number [41%] or more [48%] West Ham United
fixtures if the Club moved to Stratford for the start of the 2016/17 season.
This bodes well for West Ham United's ambitions to grow their supporter base
to match their stunning new home, given that post conversion the arena will
boast a capacity of 54,000.

West Ham United Vice-Chairman Karren Brady said: "I am delighted that the
SMG YouGov independent poll shows that such an overwhelming majority of our
fans are in favour of our plans to move to the Olympic Stadium. "I would
like to thank each and every supporter that took the time to have their say
on what is an historic and monumental decision for the Club. We must now
engage further with the fans who've requested more information but it is
fantastic to know that the consensus among our supporters is that they are
behind the move. "Now we know we have their support to advance this
incredible project, we can look forward to the busy, but exciting, three
years ahead working together to ensure that this world-class arena exceeds
their expectations."

SMG YouGov's Managing Director, Frank Saez, added: "The impressive response
of nearly 12,000 completed surveys underlines the passion West Ham United
fans feel about the historic move to the Olympic Stadium. The number of
respondents is six times larger than typical survey sizes used for a robust
research analysis. "The immense turnout means the survey results provide a
highly accurate reflection of the views of all core spectator groups
including Season Ticket holders, Academy members and matchday attendees.
"West Ham United can now use the results of the survey that will follow to
plan their next steps and focus on the areas that their supporters feel the
most passionately about."

SMG YouGov will be providing further detailed analysis to the Club, which
they intend to publish later this week.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
O'Neil aiming for strong finish
WHUFC.com
Gary O'Neil is determined to help West Ham United secure a top-ten finish in
the Barclays Premier League
14.05.2013

Gary O'Neil is desperate for the Hammers to bounce back quickly when they
face Reading on the final day of the Barclays Premier League season, so that
they secure a top-ten finish. West Ham are on course to mark their first
season back in the big time by ending in the top half, but need a win over
the Royals to guarantee their place. Midfielder O'Neil, who has been a
regular in Sam Allardyce's side in recent months, knows a better performance
than at Everton will be required to make sure that happens. He said: "We
need to do some work this week and make sure we finish the season on a high
against Reading. The aim from the start has been to finish in the top ten
and the fact we're safe already had no part to play in our performance on
Sunday. "It was just a poor performance all round. That's gone now, we'll
have a look at it, see where we went wrong and make sure we're ready for
Reading. "We've done enough to justify being around the top ten so if we can
produce a big performance this Sunday we can get there. "Everton was
disappointing. We got outplayed a little bit. They are a good side and it
was a big occasion for them. "We got overrun and couldn't cope with the way
they overloaded the middle of the park - with Osman and Pienaar coming in
there, there were five of them at times. "The early goal made it easier for
them, they started to keep the ball well and were in no rush.. We started to
get dragged out and it wasn't good enough from us, because we have played
well on the road recently."

Having started the last eleven Premier League games in the heart of
midfield, O'Neil is hoping to keep hold of his place so that he can end the
campaign with a flourish this Sunday. He added: "I've enjoyed the run of
starts, Sunday was the eleventh on the trot - I've enjoyed all of my time
here to be fair, the lads are all great and in the the two-and-a-half years,
I've enjoyed being around the squad, even when I haven't played. "The fans
have been brilliant, and for the two full seasons I've been here, we've had
a promotion and a good season in the Premier League, so it has been
successful"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Colchester tickets on sale now
WHUFC.com
Tickets for the pre-season friendly at Colchester United on Tuesday 16 July
are on sale now
14.05.2013

West Ham United are pleased to confirm tickets for a pre-season match at
npower League One side Colchester United are on sale now. The Hammers will
take on the U's at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on Tuesday 16 July -
one of a host of exciting fixtures Sam Allardyce has already organised for
his players as preparation for the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League campaign.
West Ham have been allocated 1,700 standard tickets for the fixture, which
is expected to attract a bumper crowd to the home of the Essex club. Prices
have been set at £15 for Adults, £12 for 18-21 year olds, £10 for members of
the Armed Forces, Over-65s and Under-18s, £4 for Under-14s and just £2 for
Under-8s. Disabled tickets are also available, including a complimentary
seat for a carer. For full prices, click here.

West Ham visited the same stadium last summer, when Nicky Maynard and Mark
Noble hit the target as the Hammers came from behind to win 2-1. Former West
Ham striker Freddie Sears featured that afternoon for the hosts and could do
so again this July. Managed by former U's defender Joe Dunne, Colchester
narrowly avoided relegation from League One in 2012/13, staying up on the
final day of the season. The Hammers had already confirmed a number of
exciting pre-season fixtures ahead of their second campaign back in the
Barclays Premier League. Big Sam's squad open by travelling to the Republic
of Ireland for a meeting with League of Ireland Premier Division club Cork
City on Sunday 7 July. To book your seat at Turners Cross, click here. After
domestic visits to Conference South outfit Boreham Wood and Championship new
boys AFC Bournemouth, West Ham will travel to the far north of Germany to
take on Bundesliga giants Hamburger SV in Flensburg just a few kilometres
south of the Danish border.

More pre-season fixtures, including a home game against prestigious
opposition, will be confirmed in due course.
2013 Pre-season fixtures
Sunday 7 July v Cork City, Turners Cross Stadium, Cork City, Republic of
Ireland, 6pm
Wednesday 10 July v Boreham Wood, Meadow Park, Borehamwood. 7.30pm
Saturday 13 July v AFC Bournemouth, Goldsands Stadium, Bournemouth, 3pm
Tuesday 16 July v Colchester United, Weston Homes Community Stadium,
Colchester, 7.45pm
Tuesday 23 July v Hamburger SV, Flensburg, Germany (further details to
follow), 6.45pm
(*all kick-offs stated are local times)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Dorothy's Olympic story
WHUFC.com
Lifelong Hammers fan Dorothy Parlett has her own special memories of Wembley
Stadium
14.05.2013

Wembley Stadium is a special venue for every West Ham United supporter, but
it is one which stirs uniquely fond memories for Dorothy Parlett. The
86-year-old is surely the only Hammers fan to have won an Olympic medal and
watched her team win a trophy under the Twin Towers. Born in Manor Park into
a West Ham family in 1927, Parlett was in the crowd who braved Second World
War bombs to watch West Ham win the inaugural Football League War Cup at
Wembley in June 1940. A little more than eight years later, she was running
alongside the same pitch, winning the silver in the women's 100 metres final
at the 1948 London Olympic Games. It may be more than half a century ago,
but Parlett can recall the day she became Great Britain's first female
Olympic sprint medallist. "I can remember it of course," she confirmed. "It
was very different being an athlete back then. "Back in 1947, they drew up a
list of possible people who they thought might reach the Olympics and my
name came up for the high jump, not the sprinting at all. Even to this day,
I've never found out what I did in 1947 to put my name on that list of
possibles. "We were all given a new coach if we didn't have one and I was
very lucky to be put into the hands of Sandy Duncan, who was a well-known
athlete in his own right. "I started training for the Olympics in March 1948
with him and, even as a high jumper, I had to warm-up and he had seen me
running around the track. He came to me and said 'Dorothy, I don't think
you'll make it as a high jumper but I can see potential in your running, so
will you allow me to coach you?'."

Duncan's advice served Parlett well as she streaked in second to Dutch
sprinting great Fanny Blankers-Koen in a time of 12.2 seconds. "I started
training the March and won the medal on 2 August, as Sandy had improved me
so much that I was actually able to get into the team. "Fanny Blankers-Koen,
who beat me in the 100 metres final, was such a wonderful person and she
would have beaten me no matter how hard I had trained, because she was such
a powerful girl."
Back in 1948, the country was still recovering from six years of conflict -
the Olympics of that year were labelled the 'Austerity Games' - and the
resources available to athletes were scarce in relation to the present day.
Parlett, then Dorothy Manley, fitted her training around her full-time job
as a typist for the British Suez Company, and rode the London Underground to
and from Wembley to compete. She retired from athletics in 1952 and is now a
great-grandmother. At 86, she is still working as a piano teacher at her
home in Woodford Green. "I've never really missed athletics. I have had a
couple of hundred pupils through in my time as a piano teacher but not all
of them stay the course. They think they can do it but find they can't and
give up. "Usually they get to hear about my Olympic medal. Since the 2012
Games I have found some of them saw me on the television talking about it!"

While athletics was the sport at which she excelled, Parlett has been a
football fan for as long as she can remember. Her father was in the huge
crowd as the Hammers were beaten 2-1 by Bolton Wanderers in the first-ever
Wembley FA Cup final. As a child, she attended her first West Ham match at
Plymouth Argyle in the mid-1930s. In 1940, the Parlett family were at
Wembley as Sam Small's goal secured a 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in the
augural War Cup final.
"West Ham is very much in my family. My father started supporting the club
as a boy of 16 and he went to the 1923 FA Cup final and right through until
he was 88! "He actually had a cardiac arrest while he was watching a West
Ham match, but luckily he had a doctor sitting alongside him and he
resuscitated him and he was taken off to hospital. "My father's season
ticket went to one of my sons and he still has it today. I have two
grandsons who follow West Ham and now one of my great-grandsons, who is only
12, is keen on following them too, so it's really in the family. "I know I
was about eight when I went to my first West Ham game. We were on holiday in
Devon and they happened to be playing Plymouth Argyle and, of course, my
father said 'We're going to that match' so I was taken along and that was
the first match I ever saw. "I went to a cup final during the war in 1940
against Blackburn Rovers. It was surprising we got any matches at all with
the way we were getting air raids in London, but we had to have some fun
because life was pretty awful otherwise!"

While she does not watch satellite television or surf the internet, Parlett
keeps an eye on her Hammers' fortunes by listening to the radio and reading
the newspapers. "I didn't go all that many times but I did go to matches,
although I haven't been for some years now. On a Saturday, if they are
playing, I have to have it on the radio or the television. "I enjoyed
watching Bobby Moore and Trevor Brooking, who was a wonderful chap because
he never got himself into trouble. He was a very clean player."

With West Ham to move to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, the marriage of
football and athletics will be made once more in Stratford - just a short
sprint from where Parlett was born. Last year, she and her husband John -
himself a competitor in the 800 metres at the 1948 Games - were invited to
the Olympic Stadium to witness the women's 100 metres final. Sixty-four
years on from her own medal-winning performance, Parlett witnessed another
amazing display from a British athlete. "I was given a free ticket and I
asked to attend the women's 100 metres final. I went along and it was on the
same evening that Mo Farah won the men's 10,000 metres, which was
fantastic." One day in the not too distant future, a West Ham player will
hope to emulate both Parlett and Farah by enjoying glorious success inside
an Olympic Stadium.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
West Ham: 85% of fans support Olympic Stadium move in club poll
BBC.co.uk

West Ham's relocation from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford
has been backed by 85% of fans in a poll of supporters. Nearly 12,000
Hammers fans took part in the survey conducted by independent pollsters SMG
YouGov. Club vice-chairman Karren Brady said: "We must now engage further
with the fans who've requested more information. "It is fantastic to know
that the consensus among our supporters is that they are behind the move."

West Ham supporters' poll
Fans were asked to agree with one of six statements
Support move as better fan experience - 12%
Support move as will provide resources to improve squad and club - 51%
Support move, will grow level of support - 6%
Support move, trust club directors 16%
Consider support but need more information - 10%
Against the move under any circumstances - 5%

Only 5% of the 11,858 respondents - which covered bond and season ticket
holders, academy members and matchday ticket holders - were against West Ham
leaving Upton Park under any circumstances while 10% said they would
consider backing the move but required more information. The survey asked
fans to agree with one of six statements, only one of which was against the
plan, which will see the Hammers play games at the Olympic Stadium from
August 2016. West Ham's capacity at home games will rise from about 35,000
to 54,000 as a result. Frank Saez, managing director of the pollsters, said
the response showed "the passion" fans feel about the move. "The number of
respondents is six times larger than typical survey sizes used for robust
research analysis," he said. Under conversion plans, the roof will be
extended and the seating capacity reduced from 80,000, with a retractable
system allowing the venue to be converted from an athletics arena to
football stadium within days. Seats will slide over the running track to
bring West Ham fans closer to the action. The London Legacy Development
Corporation will begin work on the roof in the autumn and officials hope it
will be ready for the autumn of 2015 - in time for the Rugby World Cup.
After that the stadium will close again to reconfigure the stadium's lower
seating bowl and re-open in time for West Ham to start playing their games
therefore the 2016-17 season.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
85 per cent
KUMb.com
Filed: Tuesday, 14th May 2013
By: Staff Writer

That's the number of West Ham United supporters the club's YouGov survey
claims want to move to the Olympic Stadium.

The results of the recent survey, as commissioned by the club were revealed
today - and there were few surprises.

85 per cent of the 11,858 sample size selected one of the survey's four
options backing the move to Stratford, whilst only five per cent selected
the only one of six possible answers to offer those taking part in the
survey the option to vote against the move.

A further ten per cent selected the remaining option that stated "I would
consider supporting the move to the Olympic Stadium but need more
information".

The largest group - more than half of those polled, 51 per cent - checked
option two of the final question in the survey which stated they were
supportive of the move because "it will provide the resources to improve the
squad and build the Club".

Next, at 16 per cent, was option four - "because I trust the West Ham United
Directors to make the right decision to take the Club forward", whilst third
on the list at 12 per cent was option one, namely "it will provide an
overall better fan experience".



YouGov's Managing Director told whufc.com: "The number of respondents is six
times larger than typical survey sizes used for a robust research analysis.
The immense turnout means the survey results provide a highly accurate
reflection of the views of all core spectator groups including season ticket
holders, Academy members and match day attendees."

However the survey - and its results - were not welcomed by all.

Peter Caton, whose campaign group WHU's View? ran an independent poll last
year that resulted in the vast majority of voters rejecting the move to
Stratford said: "This is not the objective poll we hoped for.

"It is an exercise in sales and marketing, dressed up as a questionnaire,
which was preceded by the club wheeling out a succession of past players to
endorse the move.

"Sadly neither is it a questionnaire that will provide much useful
information to the club which would help take account of supporters' wishes.
It was clearly designed to elicit the answers the club wants - a rubber
stamping exercise."

KUMB.com have previously held five seperate polls over the course of the
last two years to guage the opinion of supporters with regards to the move.
None of those polls resulted in more than 65 of voters backing the move.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
West Ham midfielder Gary O'Neil targets top 10 finish
Last Updated: May 14, 2013 12:21pm
SSN

West Ham midfielder Gary O'Neil is targeting victory over Reading on Sunday
to secure a top 10 Premier League finish. The Hammers were beaten 2-0 by
Everton at the weekend, a game which marked David Moyes' farewell to the
Goodison Park faithful ahead of his move to Manchester United. But O'Neil is
keen for West Ham to sign off their campaign with a win at Upton Park on
Sunday to cap an encouraging return to the top flight following promotion
last season.
"We need to do some work this week and make sure we finish the season on a
high against Reading," he told the club's official website. "The aim from
the start has been to finish in the top ten and the fact we're safe already
had no part to play in our performance on Sunday. "It was just a poor
performance all round. That's gone now, we'll have a look at it, see where
we went wrong and make sure we're ready for Reading. "We've done enough to
justify being around the top ten so if we can produce a big performance this
Sunday we can get there."

O'Neil, signed from Middlesbrough in January 2011, has played 27 times for
Sam Allardyce's side this season and is delighted to have been part of his
plans.
"I've enjoyed the run of starts, Sunday was the 11th on the trot - I've
enjoyed all of my time here," he added. "The lads are all great and in the
two-and-a-half years, I've enjoyed being around the squad, even when I
haven't played. "The fans have been brilliant, and for the two full seasons
I've been here, we've had a promotion and a good season in the Premier
League, so it has been successful."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hearn continues groundshare bid
Last Updated: May 14, 2013 7:29pm
SSN

Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn is continuing his attempts to secure a
groundshare with West Ham at the Olympic Stadium. The League One club's
written request for a judicial review of the decision to grant the Hammers
sole tenancy of the stadium was turned down last month. But Hearn will now
attempt to state his case at an oral hearing and is "confident" of a
successful outcome. A club statement read: "Orient would like to confirm
that it has renewed its application for permission for a judicial review
against the London Legacy Development Corporation in respect of their
decision to deny the club Olympic Stadium tenancy. "The club believe that in
refusing permission, the judge erred in his decision on reviewing the
papers, and we are therefore opting to debate the issues at an oral hearing
where we are confident that permission will be granted." West Ham were
declared anchor tenants in March and are due to move into the stadium in
August 2016. But Hearn argues the move, to within a mile and a half of
Orient's Brisbane Road ground, will have an adverse effect on the League One
club's attendances.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Bordeaux defender Lamine Sane keen on move to England
Last Updated: May 14, 2013 3:48pm
SSN

Highly-rated Bordeaux defender Lamine Sane has admitted he would love the
chance to play in England. The 26-year-old Senegalese international has been
strongly linked with a move to the Premier League, with West Ham United
credited with an interest most recently. Sane, who has two years left on his
current deal with Bordeaux, has now hidden his admiration of the English
game. "I love the game and the atmosphere in the Premier League," he told
L'Equipe. "And I believe on a physical level I could match the expectation
level." Sane has played over 80 games for Bordeaux since joining from Agde
in 2009.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://vyperz.blogspot.com