Daily WHUFC News - 14th March 2014

Big Sam on: Stoke City
WHUFC.com
Big Sam spoke to the assembled media ahead of Saturday's trip to Stoke City
13.03.2014

Sam Allardyce spoke to the media on Thursday morning at his press conference
ahead of Saturday's trip to Stoke City. The West Ham United manager was
quizzed on the latest team news ahead of the game, his side's fine recent
run and the challenges that the Hammers will face against Stoke on Saturday.

Morning Sam, after not playing last weekend, how important is it to pick up
momentum again?

SA: "Like everything else it's another game that we've had to wait a couple
of weeks for and we obviously want to go and try to get a result. After a
valiant effort at Everton, just losing by the odd goal shows that the basis
of our team is our defensive qualities and on this occasion we couldn't
convert any of our opportunities into goals as we have done so regularly
before that. It's a real tough game for us because their home form has been
very, very good, as it was under Tony Pulis. I think they're fifth in the
table in terms of home form, only losing two, so it shows you how tough the
game is going to be for us. Everybody has to be at their best on Saturday.
They've had a good rest, some time with their families then they've worked
very hard this week to get ready for what they need to do on Saturday to get
a good result at Stoke City."

Apart from their good home record, are there any particular challenges in
terms of playing Stoke?

SA: "You have to deal with the front men. Everybody that has players on the
frontline who can cause you problems need to be dealt with first when you're
playing away from home. They mix up the service a little bit more than Tony
[Pulis] did, so you've got a mixture of playing off Crouchy or through
midfield. It's slightly different to how it used to be when Tony was there,
but it's equally as dangerous in those areas as they always were. Our
defensive unit has to be solid and aware of what they're going to try and do
to break us down.
"When you're in possession you must retain that possession and then try to
create opportunities against the opposition that you think you can expose.
It'll be about our players playing their best there. I remember us having a
fantastic result there last year, a 1-0 win with Jack Collison scoring. We
go in good form, even though we lost to Everton, we go with a lot of
confidence and we've got to make sure we convert that confidence into a very
good performance."

I saw a report recently that said you'd stopped your players from going to
the Cheltenham festival this week, is there any truth in that?

SA: "No, not really. They thought they were having a day off on Wednesday
that they didn't get. They generally get Wednesdays off in a normal week,
but this wasn't a normal week for me. They never got told so they probably
thought to plan to go to Cheltenham, but when they found out they were in on
Wednesday they couldn't go. It wasn't a normal week, like I said, and I
wanted to do some functional work for the team to re-emphasise what we're
good at and make sure we remember what we're good at.
"When you've had a period of time longer than normal without a game, then
players tend, in the early part of last week, to switch off mentally. They
tend to think 'It's two weeks away, I can relax a little bit', take their
minds off the pressures in and around the Barclays Premier League and you
have to switch them back on. You have to make sure they get focused again."

After the break last week, do you see this as the start of the final phase
of the season?

SA: "It's ten games to go, ten very important games to try and achieve as
many points as we possibly can. We'd have to say at this stage of the season
it's about how quickly can you get safe. How quickly as a squad of players
can you achieve the results you need to achieve to secure your position in
the Barclays Premier League because then it's an opportunity to ease the
pressure on the players that everybody has at this stage of the season. You
see how far then you can finish in the league. First priority is how quickly
can you achieve safety, and then from there it's about whether you can go on
from there."

Is the aim, ultimately, to be the best of the rest and finish in the top
half?

SA: "There's not a huge amount of difference between tenth and the bottom
three so that can change very, very quickly. Falling games behind is not
what you want to do. To make those games up and points up, where others have
played games if they've picked the points up is a difficult task. I think
we're going to fall another game behind in a few weeks time when we were
scheduled to play Arsenal who are now in the semi-finals of the cup.
"It's going to be a pretty tricky schedule to manage, so we have two weeks
off and then we're going to have to play three games in a week when the
opposition won't have had to do that. That becomes a difficulty then with
the physical capabilities of the players. It's a pretty difficult situation
to manage, more difficult than we would like, but we have to think carefully
about how to manage it."

Prior to defeat against Everton you'd been on a really good run, is that
what you'll be asking your team to replicate between now and the end of the
season?

SA: "There's no doubt about that. It's about trying to get better than that,
I'm not sure about results because it will be tough to get better results
than we've had. We have to try to achieve the results and improve the
performances, the demand from me is a level of consistency from the players
that will deliver results. The clinical aspect, which deserted us at
Everton, which we done so well in the four games we'd won on the trot
deserted us at Everton and we've got to get that back. We've got to take the
opportunities when they arise, we scored against the run of play sometimes,
we scored when we were in the ascendancy and we've to make sure we are as
clinical as we were in those four games."

What's the team news ahead of the weekend?

SA: "Our squad is pretty good at the moment. There's only a long standing
injury to Joey O'Brien, a shoulder dislocation and the only other
unfortunate one is Marco Borriello, who hasn't recovered from a calf strain.
That's only two out of the squad at the minute which gives me a big healthy
squad to choose from, which in terms of selection makes my job easier. It's
not easy when you have to leave players out, but it's easier to choose the
sort of team that you want to choose to get a result."

Having a fully-fit squad is not something you've had the luxury of many
times this season.

SA: "We've had it pretty good recently, and I've always said that's why
results have turned in our favour along with determination and desire to go
out and turn the season around. The players have done magnificently well up
to now, and we'd like to continue that between now until the end of the
season."

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Adams reunited with old pal Potts
WHUFC.com
Tony Adams met old pal and West Ham United U18s coach Steve Potts on his
return to Essex
13.03.2014

Arsenal and England great Tony Adams MBE is commonly considered to be one of
the finest centre-backs in Premier League history. Capped 66 times by his
country, Adams captained the Gunners to the Double in their amazing 2001/02
season. The 47-year-old won 13 trophies during his 20-year Arsenal career,
but during a recent visit to watch West Ham United U21s in action, Adams
revealed that he could easily have been a Hammer rather than a Gunner! To
start with, West Ham TV asked the outstanding defender why he had chosen to
watch West Ham's youngsters take on Liverpool on a Friday evening at Rush
Green Stadium. The answer was that Romford-born Adams had returned home. "I
was actually visiting my Mum and Dad's grave, which is just around the
corner from Rush Green," he poignantly revealed. "I went to school about a
mile down the road on the other side of Central Park. My Dad was a West Ham
fan and every Christmas Day he would sing 'Bubbles' to us all! "I used to
play badminton in the Civic Centre down the road there when I was at school,
so they were happy days! "It's a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as I
bumped into my old mate Stevie Potts, who I have known for about 40-odd
years, so that was great. "There are numerous reasons why I came down to the
game, as I had to chat with [Liverpool U21s manager] Alex Inglethorpe about
a few things as well."
Adams enjoyed many battles with his old school friend Potts and West Ham
over the years, winning most of them! However, if things had turned out
differently, the one-time Hunters Hall Primary School and Eastbrook
Comprehensive School pupil could have pulled on a claret and blue shirt,
rather than a red and white one. "I loved the derby matches," he recalled.
"Weirdly I did score a lot of goals against West Ham, but perhaps that's
because I tried a little bit harder because I came from the area. "It was
always great to play against West Ham, as I always seemed to find myself on
the end of things and scored a few goals - unfortunately for West Ham! "I
chose at 14 to go in the Arsenal direction because there was a great coach
there called Terry Burton who is back at the club now - he was pretty much
the only reason I went to Arsenal and didn't join Stevie over at the
Hammers. "That's how things go and your past can go different ways, as it
can for clubs as well."

At present, West Ham are thriving under another former centre-back in
manager Sam Allardyce - a man whose methods Adams has always been impressed
by. "Sam is very organised and Neil McDonald is there as well, and West Ham
are good in both boxes and I think that's important. "People under-estimate
that side of the game because 30 per cent of goals come from set plays, so
that's important. "Sometimes, it's not attractive but one of the reasons
Arsenal have not won the league in recent years is because they have not had
that resilience in both boxes. West Ham certainly have that, so credit to
them. "It's been great that West Ham have pulled away from the relegation
zone."

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Taylor drops in on Northbury pupils
WHUFC.com
Matt Taylor attended a Q and A at Northbury Primary school on Tuesday
afternoon
13.03.2014

Matt Taylor is used to fielding tough questions from members of the press,
but on Tuesday afternoon the West Ham United midfielder was quizzed by an
altogether different audience. Taylor visited Northbury Primary school in
Barking for a Q&A session with 120 eager pupils, all of whom were ready to
fire their questions at the 32-year-old. After half an hour of answering
questions, Taylor presented the school with presents and equipment from the
Club shop before signing autographs and taking pictures with the children,
who had formed a large, orderly queue to meet him. The energetic midfielder
admitted that he was delighted to attend the afternoon and thoroughly
enjoyed the experience. He told West Ham TV: "To me, it's wonderful to come
into a school like this where the kids are so enthusiastic about meeting you
and have some really interesting questions to ask. "It's important to show
them that footballers are not just to be seen on the television, that you
are normal people, you have normal lives and it's good to give them
something to look forward to as well. It's vitally important that we
maintain these links as a football club within the community. He added:
"There's no undertone with kids, they ask you a question that they want to
know the answer to and I personally thoroughly enjoy that. "These school
visits and other visits within the community are really good fun, especially
when you get an infectious group like we had today. They were good fun, they
all wanted to learn and hopefully they enjoyed themselves because I know I
did."

The midfielder's visit was in line with the Club's 'Football for All'
scheme, to which Northbury are signed up, and which aims to make football
affordable for families within the local communities in east London and
Essex. Taylor believes that making football affordable to the next
generation of Hammers' fans is vitally important as the Club works towards a
future at the Olympic Stadium. "It's especially important, considering that
we're in the Premier League, to make watching football achievable for
everybody, it's vitally important. "For me, it's important as a football
club, especially moving into the Olympic Stadium with the extra fans that we
hope to get along to games, that these kids can come to watch games, it's
great for them and important as West Ham that we continue to be the people's
football club, because that's important."

The partnerships between West Ham United and several local schools are
beneficial for both parties, and Taylor believes that bringing Premier
League football into the reach of more people can only be a good thing.
"Football at the Premier League level is such a huge game that maybe some of
these kids don't think that you are normal people, that you have children
yourselves and that you understand what being a kid is about. "The kids
here, along with their siblings, they are the next generation of West Ham
fans and we need to be seen to giving something back to the community,
because often it's thought that football clubs just take, take, take."

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Nolan takes Goal of the Month honours
WHUFC.com
Skipper's acrobatic effort against Southampton pick of the Hammers bunch in
February
12.03.2014

Kevin Nolan has won a high-quality West Ham United Goal of the Month award
for February. The Hammers skipper notched five goals in a highly-productive
month, and his acrobatic effort against Southampton topped the poll as the
Club's stand-out goal. Nolan hooked home after Carlton Cole knocked Stewart
Downing's dangerous cross into the No4's path and sealed a 3-1 win for Sam
Allardyce's side. The goal took 31.8% of a tightly-contested vote, just
edging Elliot Lee's spectacular volley for the Under-21s against Reading
into second place. Another Nolan goal, his first against Swansea City, was
third in the whufc.com fan poll.

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Borriello out for season?
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 13th March 2014
By: Staff Writer

Unconfirmed reports are suggesting that West Ham's on-loan striker Marco
Borriello is out for the rest of the season through injury. Late on Thursday
afternoon it was revealed via the KUMB forum that the on-loan Italian
striker could be out for the rest of the campaign with a muscle injury
which, it is claimed, occurred earlier this week. Having joined West Ham
little more than a month ago, the experienced forward - who is contracted to
Serie A club Roma - has made just two brief appearances from the substitutes
bench so far, against Aston Villa and Norwich City. We'll have more for you
on this as it happens...

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Jose Mourinho and Brendan Rodgers lead nominations for Manager of the Month
award for February
By Emma Webb | Last Updated: 13/03/14 11:55am
SSN

Jose Mourinho and Brendan Rodgers lead the nominations for the Barclays
Premier League Manager of the Month award for February. The Chelsea and
Liverpool managers are competing for the accolade against West Ham's Sam
Allardyce and Hull City boss Steve Bruce. Table toppers Chelsea won three of
their four league matches last month, beating title rivals Manchester City
1-0 away from home before enjoying victories against Newcastle and Everton.
Rodgers is hot on Mourinho's heels with a triumphant 5-1 defeat of Arsenal
on 8th February, putting Liverpool in second place with a game in hand over
Chelsea, but seven points behind. Allardyce turned a shaky start to 2014
into a month of magic for the Hammers, with four straight wins through
February and three clean sheets. Bruce's Hull side successfully saw off
Cardiff in a 4-0 thrashing on Welsh soil and won 2-0 at Sunderland, while
they have made outstanding progress in the FA Cup. Rodgers can also
celebrate two of his players being nominees for Player of the Month, as
forwards Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling are both up for the award.
West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan is also nominated after scoring five goals in
four appearances for the club last month, along with Chelsea's Eden Hazard.
Sturridge and Hazard are high up in the Premier League top goal scorers
list, sitting second and fourth respectively. The winners of Manager of the
Month and Player of the Month will be announced at 10am on Friday.

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Karren Brady says West Ham never considered sacking manager Sam Allardyce
By Emma Webb | Last Updated: 13/03/14 5:32pm
SSN

West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady has confirmed that sacking manager Sam
Allardyce was never a consideration of herself or joint chairmen David
Sullivan and David Gold. The Hammers suffered a run of poor form through
December and January which led some fans to call for Allardyce's head, and
others to speculate over his future at the club. However, the February
manager of the month nominee was never in any danger, according to Brady.
"Our faith in him never wavered," she told Sky Sports News Radio. "We didn't
sack him, and we never really thought about it. "The easy part is sacking
the manager - the hard part is finding someone better to replace them with.
"If we were in that position, Sam Allardyce would be the man we would try
and find to get us out of the mess - and we already had him there."

After a dangerously shaky start to 2014 that saw West Ham flirting with the
drop zone, a 0-0 draw away at Stamford Bridge on 29th January was the
catalyst for a run of clean sheets and four successive wins. Instrumental to
the turnaround was the return of Andy Carroll and skipper Kevin Nolan from
injury and suspension, and Brady couldn't be happier with the results. "I am
very, very pleased for him (Allardyce) that he's managed to turn it around
over the last half a dozen games," she said. "He copes well with pressure.
He's a manager that has never been relegated."

West Ham confirmed their move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium in
Stratford last year, and the conversion work is now under way. The stadium
will have a capacity of 50,000 and hold retractable seating to cover the
running track that surrounds the pitch. West Ham will move in time for the
start of 2016/17 season, but Brady insists there is still work to be done
before then. "We know we've got to provide a team on the pitch that is
worthy of playing at that stadium and capable of filling it," she said.
"We're not new to the Premier League but we're establishing ourselves. We
don't have the depth and the quality in the squad that some others clubs do
- it takes time to build that."

Brady is sure, however, that this is a manageable feat for Allardyce's
squad. "The Premier League is the only place to play in the United Kingdom.
West Ham are a Premier League club by any means," she added.

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Sam Allardyce wary as rearranged games pile up for West Ham
Last Updated: 13/03/14 4:37pm
SSN

Sam Allardyce fears a stop-start Premier League programme could see West Ham
dragged back into a relegation fight. Allardyce's side are in the top half
on the back of four straight wins in February, but their momentum was
interrupted by defeat at Everton and then a weekend off as scheduled
opponents Hull City played an FA Cup quarter-final. That game has been
rearranged for March 26, but there is no date yet for the London derby with
Arsenal - originally scheduled for April 12 but now postponed because of
their opponents ongoing FA Cup commitments. West Ham are six points clear of
18th-placed Cardiff, and Allardyce said: "There's not a huge amount of
difference between 10th and the bottom three so that can change very, very
quickly. "Falling games behind is not what you want to do. To make those
games up and points up, where others have played games if they've picked the
points up is a difficult task. "I think we're going to fall another game
behind in a few weeks' time when we were scheduled to play Arsenal, who are
now in the semi-finals of the cup. "It's going to be a pretty tricky
schedule to manage, so we have two weeks off and then we're going to have to
play three games in a week when the opposition won't have had to do that.
"That becomes a difficulty then with the physical capabilities of the
players. It's a pretty difficult situation to manage, more difficult than we
would like, but we have to think carefully about how to manage it."

Allardyce's immediate priority is Saturday's trip to Stoke, who beat Arsenal
in their last game at the Britannia and have also won at home this season
against Chelsea and Manchester United. "It's a real tough game for us
because their home form has been very, very good, as it was under Tony
Pulis," he said.
"I think they're fifth in the table in terms of home form, only losing two,
so it shows you how tough the game is going to be for us. "Everybody has to
be at their best on Saturday. They've had a good rest, some time with their
families then they've worked very hard this week to get ready for what they
need to do on Saturday to get a good result at Stoke City."

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A number of Premier League clubs are tracking Charlton's Diego Poyet
By Pete O'Rourke - Follow me: @skysportspeteo | Last Updated: 13/03/14
4:01pm
SSN

Sky Sports understands Charlton face a battle to keep hold of Diego Poyet,
with a number of Premier League and foreign clubs tracking the midfielder.
Poyet has been one of Charlton's shining lights this season and caught the
eye during their run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The 18-year-old,
who is the son of Sunderland boss Gus, has been highly-regarded at Charlton
for some time and he has established himself in the first team this season.
Poyet's potential has not gone unnoticed higher up the football pyramid with
the likes Tottenham, West Ham and Fulham all keeping tabs on his progress.
The Spanish born-teenager is also thought to have admirers on the continent
with Barcelona seeing him as a potential star of the future they can groom
at Barcelona B, while Italian giants Inter Milan are also monitoring his
situation at the Valley. The England youth international is out of contract
at the end of the season and Poyet's suitors are waiting in the wings to
snap up him in the summer.

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