Daily WHUFC News - 4th July 2016

Hammers start work in Seattle
WHUFC.com

West Ham United got down to work in the Seattle sunshine at the start of the Club's 12-day US Tour on Sunday. The Hammers will spread the West Ham Way to the Pacific Northwest and North Carolina by taking on the MLS' biggest club Seattle Sounders and ambitious NASL side Carolina RailHawks. Slaven Bilic and his staff led the Hammers through an introductory training session at the picturesque Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC) training complex home of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. The players were impressed by the sheer scale of the Seahawks' facility, where they visited the 2013 Super Bowl champions' locker room, where the likes of All-Star quarterback Russell Wilson, cornerback Richard Sherman and tight end Jimmy Graham prepare for action. While Mark Noble and Aaron Cresswell checked out the equipment used by the Gridiron stars, Andy Carroll and Cresswell tried their hand at throwing an American football around an indoor field in the company of Seahawks' staff.
On the training pitch, new boy Havard Nordtveit enjoyed his second session with his new teammates on the shores of Lake Washington before talking to West Ham TV. "So far, so good!" said the smiling Norway midfielder. "It's a really good group and I'm looking forward to the next few days of this tour. "As a boy, I was always dreaming of playing in the Premier League and I never got a chance when I was with Arsenal [as a teenager], then I went to Borussia Moenchengladbach and got a good experience there. "Now I am back and hopefully, not I have played in Germany, I can do a bit better in the Premier League."

Nordtveit has quickly been taken into the squad and is relishing the opportunity to play for a West Ham team which became synonymous with team spirit last season. The experienced 26-year-old has already spoken to manager Bilic and is looking forward to the remainder of pre-season ahead of the big Premier League opener at Chelsea in August. "It's a very strong group and they all stand together as a big team and hopefully I will be a part of it," he continued. "Everything is there so that we can work hard and get our fitness up to the level that we want to, and as you can see it is amazing and the facilities are on another level than we have in Europe.
"We had a chat before and we are both positive and we will see how we go in pre-season and take it day by day and hopefully then I can get some caps for West Ham. "We start bang on at Chelsea and it can be a good time to play the big teams at the start of the season because maybe they didn't find their rhythm and we found it already! "We're looking forward to that but we have some friendly games to get through first."

Nordtveit has quickly struck up a friendship with fellow countryman Martin Samuelsen, with the teenager already generating plenty of interest in their homeland of Norway. The young winger emulated the midfielder by earning a national-team debut earlier this summer against Iceland, and the former Gunner is also excited by the prospect of seeing Samuelsen develop his game over the coming campaign. "We come from the same city – well, I'm a farmer and he's from the city!" Nordtveit confirmed. "He got his debut for Norway in the summer and he was the youngster ever player from our city [of Haugesund] to get his debut. "Of course he worked hard to get where he is now and so far everyone is liking what they are seeing from Martin. He is showing some really good skills for the national team, so I think we will see much more from him."

While the majority of Americans will be on holiday on Monday 4 July for the Independence Day holiday, the West Ham squad will have another double session in preparation for Tuesday's opening pre-season match with the Sounders as the impressive CenturyLink Field.

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Hammer Howe's Seattle salute
WHUFC.com

Former West Ham United player and Seattle Sounders player/coach Bobby Howe, who has lived in the Seattle area for nearly 40 years and is coaching director for youth soccer club Emerald City F.C., reflects on his career with US-based journalist Robert Wickwire…

Bobby, let's start with how you joined West Ham in the early 1960s…

"West Ham allowed me to train on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for players like me that were in the broader youth program. I hadn't signed at that time. It was a way of getting you interested in the club. Then obviously they invited me and me and my Mum and Dad to a couple of first team games.

"One thing and another, I was able to sign for West Ham and that was great. It was 1962, I signed in August to apprenticeship forms. So, I was 16 when I signed, but in December on my 17th birthday, I signed professional forms for West Ham for a massive 12 pounds a week. (Laughs) From which I had to give my parents three for living at home.

"When I went to train at West Ham I was still at school. Most of my contemporaries had already left school and were already at West Ham because you could leave school at 15 at that time. I left school at 16 because I was taking some levels or certificates of education called GCEs.

"During that year, I was going to train at West Ham in the evenings and playing for them on Saturday mornings with players like Harry Redknapp and John Sissons."

You were part of the 1963 FA Youth Cup-winning side, who came from nowhere to beat Liverpool 5-4 in the final?

"The second leg of the final was on FA Cup final night. We were watching the cup final in the afternoon. It was that late, it got backed up because of the weather. The weather in January was really bad, it was awful.

"We played Wolverhampton Wanderers in the semi-final and we won that fairly well, but the final was a classic because we went to Liverpool and lost the first leg 3-1. So, we come back home and we're drawing at half-time 2-2 at Upton Park and we had to score three goals in the second half and did it!"

In your days in the youth set up at West Ham, were you always slotted in at the same position?

"Yeah, I played in what was called the wing-half position, which is basically midfield now. The system that we were playing was called the W-M formation. The system was an exact matchup, so you knew exactly who you were marking. In those days I was more of a defensive midfield player."
After a few years in the 'A' and reserve teams, you made your debut alongside Moore, Hurst, Peters and Byrne in a 2-2 draw with Southampton in September 1966 – that must have been a thrill?

"My debut was out of the blue. As you can imagine, I was very nervous. It was the biggest crowd I had played in front of up until that time. It was ten minutes and I didn't do anything really wrong. I felt like a million dollars afterwards. It was terrific."

Was it exciting to think about playing alongside the World Cup heroes at West Ham?

"Yes. Obviously, they had to integrate back into the club spirit. Winning the World Cup gave those three players a tremendous amount of confidence as you can imagine. Bobby Moore and Martin Peters were really natural soccer players anyway, but Geoff Hurst scored lots of goals after the World Cup for West Ham. And for two or three seasons after that, maybe more, he was really on top of his game. It was tremendous."

You've said before that Bobby Moore was the quintessential captain, what do you mean by that?

"He was such a good player and had wonderful technique. He was able to read the game extremely well. He had a good presence on the field, a good command and really was a person everybody looked up to. He was in all sense of the word, the captain. He was very hard to emulate because he was a person you wanted to be but you couldn't be that good.

"Bobby Moore was in the England squad in Chile in 1962. He would have come on in his own right anyway, but he got moved to a leadership position in the England National Team setup because Duncan Edwards had passed away [in the Munich Air Disaster]. So Bobby Moore was the next Duncan Edwards so to speak."

West Ham had one of its best seasons in many, many years, what are your thoughts on the current team and manager Slaven Bilic and what he's doing there?

"I think he's done a fabulous job. He's got players with varying skills that complement each other. He's got Dimitri Payet who is a fantastic distributor of the ball. Noble is an excellent player. And then he's got these people who can just really run.

"Their counter-attacking ability is just fantastic. They can present a different style when necessary, like when Andy Carroll comes on they can play balls into the air. He's doing a good job. I like watching West Ham; they're really exciting to watch now."

What do you think of the move to the new Stadium?

"I think it's fantastic. It's in a better area, only because the area was upgraded because of the Olympics. It's only three miles away, but it's in its own grounds, it has the infrastructure, a train station, a parking lot.

"Somebody sent me a link the other day to a time-lapse. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's completely enclosed with a roof over the entire seating area."
Let's talk about your move to the States – how did you come to work for the Sounders in 1977?

"I went to Bournemouth in January of 1972, and Harry Redknapp and Jimmy Gabriel came in the summer at the end of the season and played the following season. The three of us would go into training together, come back afterward, go to the local pub, talk about soccer. It was brilliant. So we became very good friends.

"In 1974, Jimmy came over to the United States. He was asked to come over and play with the Sounders. John Best was the head coach and Jimmy was his assistant/player coach. Jimmy brought Harry over here to play in 1976 and Geoff Hurst came over as well at that time. Then when Jimmy became head coach in '77 and he asked Harry and I to be assistant coaches.

"I was coaching at Plymouth Argyle at the time and it was fantastic. When Jimmy was with the Sounders he flew me out in '76 from London to have a look at Seattle and get to know everybody.

"I had been here twice before but only for a couple of days. I came here with West Ham in 1969 when we played Hibernian at Memorial Stadium. It was like playing on concrete. Then two years later in 1971, we played Rot-Weiss Essen from Germany in the same place.

"He brought me over to get to know the Sounders' organisation and I thought 'let's go for it'. So we came over, but I didn't know how long it was going to be for."

In 1977, your Sounders lost to Pele's New York Cosmos in Soccer Bowl '77 in Portland. What are your memories of that match?

"It was a fantastic game, a terrific experience. You're disappointed at having lost the final, but by the same token fairly pleased with the performance of the players. And to have got so far given the start that we had.

You had two very memorable seasons following the success of 1977?

"In the '80 season, it was a very exciting team. It was the semifinal we lost. It was one of those silly situations where you had to play two games and then had to play a mini game. We beat L.A. 4-0, but we'd lost away so we had to play the mini game. They scored early in the mini game and won. That was ridiculous.

"Then '82 was another very, very good season. The highlight of that was the Fort Lauderdale series in the semifinals. We had to go there and score. It was unbelievable, it was tremendous. Then, of course, we got the Cosmos again in the final and they scored early in the game and then wouldn't give us the ball again. That final wasn't as exciting!"

Robert Wickwire (@rwickwire) has worked the past 20 years as a digital sports producer in the U.S. at MSNBC.com, NBA.com, ESPN.com, ESPNSoccernet.com (now ESPNFC.com) and Seattletimes.com.

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Meunier rejects West Ham offer
KUMb.com
Filed: Sunday, 3rd July 2016
By: Staff Writer

Thomas Meunier has become the second transfer target to turn down a move to West Ham within the last 24 hours. The 24-year-old right back completed a move to Paris St Germain this afternoon - less than a day after stating that there was a "less than 30 per cent" chance of him joining the Ligue 1 champions.

#PSG confirm signing #Belgium defender Thomas Meunier: https://t.co/f00TU8y49O#TransferNews pic.twitter.com/v2HzJJgLOm
— LiveSoccerTV.com (@LiveSoccerTV) July 3, 2016

The €7million-rated defender had been offered a contract by a number of clubs including West Ham, Napoli and Torino. However he rejected all alternative offers in order to complete a move to PSG. Despite Meunier having rejected the move to West Ham, that Slaven Bilic is in the hunt for another full back suggests previous rumours insisting that Michail Antonio will be utilised in that position during the forthcoming campaign are wide of the mark.

It's official! Welcome to @ChelseaFC, Michy Batshuayi! https://t.co/wZIjQm5DSe
#WelcomeMichy pic.twitter.com/bigpsiuDkX
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 3, 2016

Meunier's rejection follows hot on the heels of Michy Batshuayi's decision to sign for Chelsea, following months of speculation linking the Belgian international with a move to the Olympic Stadium.

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Crystal Palace close in on deal to sign James Tomkins from West Ham
By Sky Sports News HQ
Last Updated: 03/07/16 8:09pm
SSN

Crystal Palace expect to complete a deal to sign James Tomkins within the next 24 hours, according to Sky sources. Tomkins did not travel with the rest of the West Ham squad for their pre-season tour of America ahead of a proposed move to Selhurst Park. He will become Palace manager Alan Pardew's third signing of the summer following the acquisitions of winger Andros Townsend from Newcastle and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from Marseille. Tomkins, who came through the youth ranks at West Ham, made 32 appearances for Slaven Bilic's side last season. The 27-year-old featured predominantly at right-back for the Hammers during the 2015/16 campaign, scoring in the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United. Tomkins, who only signed a new five-year deal at West Ham in February 2015, is currently the east London club's second longest serving player behind captain Mark Noble. He joined West Ham in July 2005 and has made 243 first-team appearances, scoring 11 goals.

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Dimitri Payet could leave for Barcelona or Real Madrid, admits West Ham chief David Gold
10:39, 3 JUL 2016 UPDATED 13:19, 3 JUL 2016
BY MIRROR FOOTBALL
The Hammers chief insists there have been no approaches and any bid would not be welcome, but concedes it would be difficult to deny the Frenchman a big move
The Mirror

West Ham co-chairman David Gold has admitted Dimitri Payet could leave the club if Barcelona or Real Madrid come calling. The midfielder has starred for hosts France at Euro 2016, staking his claim to be named player of the tournament with a string of impressive displays. He enjoyed a stellar debut season with the Irons, hitting 12 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions triggering talk he could attract interest from some of Europe's biggest clubs. While insisting no approaches have been made for Payet and that any bid would not be welcome, Gold concedes it would be difficult to prevent him moving if either of the Clasico giants came calling.
"We'll fight tooth and nail to make sure Dimitri pulls on a claret and blue shirt next season," Gold told The Sun."We want to improve our squad and Dimitri is an integral part of what we're trying to do. But we also must be realistic. If Barcelona or Real Madrid made a bid and he wanted to move there, it would be difficult to keep him."

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Crystal Palace could sell Yannick Bolasie with West Ham leading the chase
22:30, 2 JUL 2016
BY NEIL MOXLEY
Several top-flight clubs have been sounded out about capturing the exciting DR Congo man
The Mirror

Yannick Bolasie could be heading for the exit door at Crystal Palace in the wake of Andros Townsend's switch to Selhurst Park. Several top-flight clubs have been sounded out about capturing the exciting DR Congo man – with West Ham among those eager to see if the winger will move. To do so, the Hammers and other interested parties will have to break the £20million barrier for a player who has been a stand-out performer for the Eagles in the past two seasons. A string of top clubs, including Spurs, Everton, Manchester United and Liverpool have all asked to be kept informed of events – although it does not necessarily follow that a bid will be forthcoming. However, West Ham appear particularly keen – and the ace up the Hammers' sleeve is Bolasie is settled in the capital and would prefer to stay put rather than moving north. Slaven Bilic has already signed one winger this summer in the form of and is hopeful of adding another.

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THE SCOUTS-ONE TO WATCH: ISLAM SLIMANI
BY EXWHUEMPLOYEE ON 3 JULY 2016 AT 8:58AM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Islam Salmadi
By Dean Ammi (@whufcammi)

ISLAM SLIMANI

Date of birth: 18.06.88 Weight: 84kg Club: Sporting Lisbon

Nationality: Algerian Position: Striker Height: 188cm


Hello everyone, I am a Hammer with one half of my family English and the other half Algerian. As a result, I have always kept a close eye on Algerian footballers and as we are on the hunt for a top class striker (or more), I thought I would give a little more insight into Islam Slimani.

Slimani is a player the club have tried to sign before, but with West Ham moving into a new stadium with European football now, it is inevitably much easier to attract higher quality footballers. Sporting are looking for around £20-£25m for him, whilst the player himself has rejected a new contract at the club.

The 28-year-old is one of the best in the air that I have seen in world football, but his range of goals is impressive too. He scored 27 goals in 33 games in the Portuguese top tier, helping Sporting Lisbon to 2nd place and Champions League football. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the only African in Europe to have scored more goals than him this season.

There was one game in particular that really stood out for me, that was away to Porto. Slimani scored two goals in the game and made Iker Casillas look like an amateur. This is a goalkeeper who had lifted a World Cup just a few years ago, and was embarrassed by the sheer strength and accuracy of Slimani's striking ability. He is such an aerial threat and can generate the heading power from anywhere in the box. Perhaps rather similar to Andy Carroll, the two of them together could be lethal and of course there are Carroll's injury problems. Slimani has been pretty much injury free for his entire career.

He would hold the ball up brilliantly, often drawing in fouls from the opposition or allowing the attacking creative players such as Payet, Lanzini and Feghouli to get forward in time and really threaten any team in the division. The signing of Sofiane Feghouli is also relevant, as the two have been playing together for a number of years now in the Algerian national team. They know each other very well, particularly with Feghouli's crossing ability into the path of Slimani.

Of course there are critics who compare the quality of the Portuguese League to the Premier League. Slimani was an average footballer when he first signed for Sporting, but now he is a striking superstar. Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Eric Dier are just a handful of names who have come through their academy and taken the league in England by a storm.

In addition to this, Slimani scored two goals in four games at the 2014 World Cup (Feghouli also scored at this competition). He gave Manuel Neuer problems and took Germany to extra time, even scoring against him in the first half but it was narrowly ruled out for offside. I think Slimani would be brilliant at West Ham and a player that the fans would really warm to.

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JACK SULLIVAN'S EXCLUSIVE COLUMN
BY EXWHUEMPLOYEE ON 3 JULY 2016 AT 9:47PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk

Hello again to everyone reading this, my last one of these was more of a re-cap on what had been going on and who we had signed so far. We have signed three players so far, if you include Lanzini, and all are very good players. We are still in the search for a few more big players. We have also signed some youth players; all three could be great in the future and potential stars for the club.
The Batshuayi situation was a big blow, as we had had a bid accepted from Marseille but Chelsea came in for him. Of course the player wants to go to Chelsea due to his wages being greater and their more recent history of winning lots of trophies. Personally I'm not sure it's the right decision as Chelsea is a hard place to go as a new player – you have to hit the ground running with a lot of pressure on your shoulders.

It's important to remember that of course there are more targets. As we work to complete them we want everyone to be happy from Tony Henry to Bilic to DS. If you are spending £30 million the worst thing to do is spend it on a flop and we want everyone to have full faith that he will not be. Of course the fans are starting to get angry which does disappoint me, as over the last three years, our transfer record has been one of the best in the Premier League in my opinion. It does hurt me that I can't really say much more than that but everyone is trying and I can't tell you what is happening just yet. I promise when the season starts the team will be ready and will have a great striker to go with it.

Deals are taking their time and if I ran things maybe things would be different, however whether I would be more successful I'm not 100% sure about. DS has been in this business for 24 years now and overall has done a fantastic job. He turned Birmingham into a club that finished 8th in the Premier League with a great stadium and West Ham have just started their transformation. West Ham has fantastic potential and in a few years time I believe 99% of footballers will want to play for West Ham.

I go to the OS and it really is incredible, the size is breathtaking! It honestly should be amazing next year and I feel the whole club will follow suit. I feel it almost has already! The OS has the best facilities, better than any other stadium! I went last Tuesday for a look around and it's truly sensational. I went pitch side and was blown away by the size and I'm sure with 60,000 fans there every player will be impressed.
At the moment it is frustrating and for no one more so than DS as of course he wants what is best for the club. In every tweet I get people think they know the answer and 99.9% of the tweets, unless they are ridiculous, we have tried to pull off.

As I said before there are reasons that you will never know as to why deals don't happen or things don't work out. It wrongly makes people feel like it's easy to buy and sell players! I can assure you it's the hardest thing in the world. I have 100% faith in DS to pull something out of the bag and I really feel you should too!

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EXWHUEMPLOYEE TRANSFER UPDATE
BY EXWHUEMPLOYEE ON 2 JULY 2016 AT 10:02PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk

I understand that some people expect there to be new news in each one of these columns. As a site we do not put out any old bit of news for clicks, we put out reliable and accurate news. It is our motto. I do not believe in making up stories and so yes some stories you have heard elsewhere but I elaborate on them and confirm those which I believe are true and those that are not.

Tomkins to Crystal Palace: This deal is likely to go through on Monday and will have a set fee of around £10m with other money to be made on clauses. This is a deal that we reported happening on the 22nd May here: Original Tomkins News, and we outlined the reasons for the deal being likely to go through. It is sad to see the end of a local lad who came through the academy but the fee is good for effectively our forth choice centre back. This money will go straight into the signing fund along with Valencia's fee when he departs soon too. It is also said that Burke may be given his chance to fight for the forth spot and play in the European matches. Tomkins also revealed that he wasn't very keen to be considered a right back either and the move seems best for both parties. The thought of James wearing a Palace shirt instead of ours though is a little hard to imagine and to take.

The club continue to work on forward targets. As I keep saying we have a number of bids in for various players (approximately 10-12). It is quite an interesting tactic. On the list are: Bacca, Pelle, Janssen, Lacazette, Batshuayi (although he is obviously likely to complete his Chelsea move soon), Gomez, Zaza, Milik, Benteke, Calleri, Ben Yedder and Braithwaite. These targets could change depending on what other clubs do. There are two other players that I am aware of but these are players that we haven't contacted their clubs over. We may do so but no official approach has gone in. One player is domestic based and the other is actually ex Manchester United star and current Fenerbahce striker, Robin Van Persie, although his excessive wages and injury record may be a stumbling block to get any deal done with the 32 year old Dutch international. His agent has offered the player to us and depending on how "higher up on the list" targets go he could be someone that we turn to. Which of these targets we will end up with I am very unsure on at this point and I think the same can be said for the club. Despite lots of press coverage I do not believe that the Nigerian player Musa has ever been a target and will not be joining.

The club appear to be getting quite frustrated at the Tore deal taking so long and dealing with the Turkish club has been very difficult. We also wish to sign Hutchinson too. There is some thought that unless Besiktas start to play ball soon we may have to look elsewhere for a different wing target. The back up option for Tore was originally Ritchie but as we all know he has joined Newcastle. It could be that Slaven Bilic abandons his plans to use Antonio as a right back and signs a right back allowing Antonio to be the winger at the club rather than Tore. This right back could be the Belgium one Meunier. That isn't Bilic's favoured approach though – he wants Tore and he wants Antonio at right back but if it can't be concluded his hand may be forced.

Bilic has a little bit of a conundrum with Randolph. There have been some clubs expressing interest in signing him and making him their number one. Randolph loves the club but the offer of first team football could be enough to persuade him to leave. Slaven wants to keep him here and will offer him the number 1 spot for all cup competitions and hopefully with Europe that should give him a number of games. There have also been enquires for Obiang which I think will be accepted. If Obiang goes we will sign another central midfielder too. The club have a number one target for this position already identified.
The new kit should launch within the next week with a special launch planned at the stadium along with "another" exciting event. I was out with David Sullivan Jnr and West Ham Social last night at Faces. It was a really good night and Sullivan Jnr has done really well with these events. I am delighted to say that West Ham Social will be helping to write articles on the site from now on too. Myself and SDCC also have some really exciting news to announce soon but we will wait until it is all confirmed too.

Thank you so much for continuing to support the site. We are still looking for people to advertise with us so please get in contact if you are interested.

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