Different seat for me yesterday (East Stand, Centenary End) being that my usual was occupied by some Barnsley fan singing “We’ve been to Wembley”. Possibly the least researched football song I’ve ever heard.

I don’t know if it ever crossed their minds, but we have actually been to Wembley. The original Wembley infact. Rumour has it we played in the first ever FA Cup final to be held at Wembley.

The original Wembley.

Just thought I’d clear that up for any Barnsley fans tuning in.

Anyways, our new signing…Kieron Dyer. On the exceptionally poor coverage of the game on ITV last night, Robbie Earle mentioned that we have “missed him”. Personally I like to take a different stance on it, and argue that we havn’t missed him at all as he has hardly played for us. The way we all need to look at it is that he is simply a new player, a new signing and by all accounts yesterday a bit of a revelation! OK, bit much with the revelation talk, but in all fairness to him, he looked inventive, sharp and hungry to get going. He gave the fans and the players alike a lift…and if we can keep hold of Parker, we will have so many options in the middle and have a midfield that on paper, is exceptionally strong. Happy days!

Quick Mentions

OK, some very quick mentions on performances yesterday:

Tomkins - outstanding
Collins - outstanding
Collison and Noble - outstanding
Bellamy - outstanding
Cole and LBM - vast improvements and credit to Cole for getting on the scoresheet again.

That’s now three out of our last three and if we keep up performances like we have been seeing, it could very well be three out of our next three….yes that’s right, I’m back to my optimistic self!

COYI!

Sam

It contains questions about the clubs finances, players to be sold etc in the January window, personally I am pleased that have done this, but we will see! Just follow the link below…

Q+A With Scott Duxburry

COYI and Happy New Year!

Sam

Perhaps it’s just me, or is every single newspaper in the country writing a story about how we are selling all of our best players and keeping all of our fringe players in the January transfer window? Harry Redknapp at Spurs is more than likely to be after most of them at some point or another, we’ve now rejected a £12m bid for Bellamy from a team whose front line cost approximately £30m. It is true, that Spurs are desperately in need for a bit of class in their strikeforce, but as far as I care if they value Pavlyuchenko at £14m, then Bellamy must be worth at least £50m.

It’s good to see that the Harry turnaround is really in full swing now - all the best down there Harry, you fit right in. Enough about Harry ‘the money-grabber’ Redknapp and Spurs wanting all our players, it’s giving me back-ache.

Like I said earlier, all the talk is about how our entire team needs to be sold just to remain a football club, so in an attempt to clarify a few things here and there, here are a couple of quotes I’ve picked up over the week:

Zola:

“The commitment is to improve this team so we’ll try to keep all our players, everybody at West Ham wants to take this team to a better level.

It’s not easy because we have very good players in our team and big clubs are looking for good players.

There’s also the financial thing but the club tells me it’s not a problem”

Good, next…

Rob Green

“These things happen in life, but we’ve been assured as senior players that there won’t be a fire sale from the chief executive and we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m happy playing for West Ham in the most exciting league in the world. What more motivation do you need?You don’t want to go out and have a bad game, and I love playing for West Ham

You look at the team and everyone who gets out there wants to play well for West Ham. There’s not many unhappy faces, if any, in the camp.

But there’s not much I can do about it. All I can do is keep playing well. I want to play for West Ham, all the lads do

Spurs and Bellamy

“Spurs manager Harry Redknapp underlined his determination to sign Bellamy by doubling his original £6m bid but the Hammers are determined to hang on to him” - Mail

Zola Again

“As far as I’m concerned the club is on the same line we want to keep our best players.

Yes we will try everything we can to keep them obviously we have a project, an ambitious project and we need good players to achieve that.”

They are all quotes that I have picked up from the last 7 days and from what I can work out it is a very different message to actually what the media are trying to stir up. It will be in the best interest of BG to try and hang onto these players because when it comes to selling a club, a team with these players (Upson, Parker, Bellamy, Green) in it is far rosier than a team without.

To clarify to the media, the players in question when we say we will be offloading fringe players are Louis Boa Morte, Faubert, Gabbiddon, Davenport (unfortunately), Quashie, Spector and preferably Carlton Cole. What you have there is a lot of players, a lot of wages and I would think at about £12m in transfer fees…that should at least pay-off Sheffield United with a bit of change I would have thought.

So either we are being completely lied to once again, and if that is the case there could be trouble because we won’t take to kindly to that. Or Zola and the other senior players are speaking the truth and we can look forward to us holding onto these players in the new year and actually pressing forward.

COYI!

Sam

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On the 24th August this year, I wrote about our spineless performance against Manchester City. I don’t know how well people remember that game, but it was ugly to the eye, we looked devoid of any type of passion for the cause, we looked unfit and inept in all departments. It was a pitiful shambles, and judging by the comments on the post, everyone agreed.

What we saw today against Stoke was a far cry from the Citeh performance. We witnessed grit, determination and passion. And up against a Stoke side who were out to defend, to hassle, to frustrate and to generally play Championship football, we had to be.

OK, so technically we were’nt so spectacular today and at times we seemed to huff and puff a little, but the fact remains that it was always going to be hard to break down a Stoke side who had 10 players in their own half after our equaliser and who were out to waste time at any opportunity they were given. There was no time for pretty football today, what was required was a gutsy, hard-fought performance and that’s exactly what we got.

There were some areas that really stood out to me today as important to our victory; Work Rate, Team Spirit, and Tactics

Work Rate
As I have already outlined, Stoke were here to scrape a result, with a draw probably making their entire Christmas - especially after scoring early on. The goal was a case of switching off at a set-piece and unfortunately the blame for that does have to lie with our very own Ginger Pele (who incidently went on to have a great game). The players had to battle and to fight for everything today and I believe that had they not done, we could have easily gone on to lost the game. We kept our cool when things were heating up and on the ball (at times) showed great composure and patiece - although sometimes a little too much.

Zola seems to have instilled a great work ethic amongst the players, all working for each other and together. The fitness of the players has vastly improved since the beginning of the season and certain players are starting to take games like this by the scruff of the neck. Players like Behrami, Parker and even Louis Boa Morte really stood out for me today. Very impressed.

I think we got what we deserved. I’m pleased; it makes a big, big difference for us. - Zola

Team Spirit
Lack of team spirit is what undone Stoke - quick mention to everyone around me in the Centenary Lower who were giving Fuller no-end of stick for being generally an arrogant, cocky so and so. I don’t know what it was like in other areas of the ground, but generally I like to think we wound him up so much he couldn’t take it anymore and lashed out at his own player. What a cracking example of a true gentleman and professional.

Anyway

As for our team spirit, I think today it has been one of the strongest I have seen it for a long while. Zola has our players working truly as a team now, and if we want to continue to press on and improve, that is a vital foundation. You can have all the money in the world (City) but without team spirit and work ethic, you will struggle. Particularly in hard fought games like today.

There was no getting at each other when we were getting no rewards for our hard work and there was no getting up in the quite shoddy referees face today - even though at times he really did deserve it. Credit to LBM for going over late on the first half to quietly suggest that their time wasting right on the edge of the pitch could easily have been done off of it, and we could have all got on nicely with a game of football.

Tactics
In my opinion, a lot of credit has to go to Zola and Clark today for getting the tactics and strategy spot on. As soon as Fuller saw red, Stoke were all set our for slowing the game up, and putting every man behind the ball. For long periods of the game, Zola stuck with his plan frm the outset, but the inclusion of Mullins, for me, was really what I felt opened the game up. It allowed for the extra player, Tristan, up front without sacrificing our solidarity in the middle. Mullins is a very composed player and was able to sit in the centre of a three man midfield, and break the game up - allowing for more men to get forward and ultimately secure the second goal.

It was a long while coming and Stoke were hard to break down, but the patience paid off.

Individuals:

- I thought that Behrami was absolutely brilliant today and proving to be worth every penny that we paid for him.
- Credit to Carlton today for scoring his 2nd in two games, but he still missed a couple of easier chances earlier on the game and he needs to continue to work to put some of those away
- Louis Boa Morte was a workhorse for us today. He has the tendancy to drift inside, and to give away stupid fouls - but great effort nonetheless.
- I could go on and on with these, but I felt that these three particularly were worth mentioning - maybe stick Collison in there too. And Parker. And Upson, Collins too. I’ll stop there I think!

The referee was a joke today, I don’t know his name and I won’t go to the effor to learn it, but I know he looked a lot like Steve Lomas. He fell for every dirty little attempt at ‘gamesmanship’ that the Championship Stoke side attemtped and was mugged off on several occasions by their timewasting. As the crowd were singing, with performances like that, you can stick “respect up you ar*e”

Zola is slowly turning this around, and I think if we can manufacture a win against Newcastle next, we will have 2 massive home games against Fulham and Hull - full points against these two would see us securing a place further up the league.

And Spurs lost. Ha

COYI!

Sam

You can view highlights of the game here

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West Ham 2-1 Stoke City Highlights

COYI!

Keep your eyes peeled for my match review

Sam

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Let’s just hope that it is a happy new year, because as it stands, I am dreading it!

God bless

Sam

It was not a sign that we are moving forward, and it underlined the fact the we are not really on a sound financial footing. I don’t think there is a single club in the Premier League who would consider signing Carlton Cole as moving forward.

The fact that Zola is personally giving him shooting lessons every day until he can score underlines that perfectly for me.  Zola says that, “From Monday on I’ll be working on his finishing every single day until he’s fed up with it. He has to score more goals because it can change performances so much”. No kidding. If Carlton could finish, we would have beat Chelsea, we would have at least got a point against Villa. And that is to name just two recent games.

We are a Premier League side, he is getting paid a Premier League players salary yet he needs finishing lessons. Give me a break.

I’ve kept calm for a long while as I know there is a lot of support for Carlton because he works hard. I’ll give it to him, he does. And he has also improved on his ability to trap a ball and to flick one on. I’ve now seen him win a total of 3 headers this year.I would like to hear from people why they think he is a good asset to the team, it genuinely interests me because I personally cannot see it. I’d rather us play football on the ground and utilise the combination of the pace of Sears and Bellamy.

He has to score more goals because it can change performances so much

Zola has realised that he is pretty much the main reason we are not winning games now, “We play well, we try everything, we create chances but we can’t get it going right now and it’s becoming a problem. Yet we are determined to change things. We deserve much better than this. Bellamy is playing very well and Cole is playing well too. But he needs to be more focused on scoring goals. He knows that”

Every single player in the side is putting in match winning performances at the moment. Green is outstanding, along with Upson, Davenport/Collins. Illunga is playing very well. Parker has been exceptional, so has Behrami. Noble is finding form again, Collison is playing brilliantly. When Mullins features he plays well and does his job. Bellamy is scaring defences and creating chances, for himself and for others (admittedly he’s not scoring as many as I would like, but he is creating so many  chamces for the team). It would seem that the job Cole is responsible for is putting his chances away. That is all.

We need to replace him with someone who can finish the chances we are creating. He can be lazy and not work hard for all I care because we don’t need someone who runs around a lot. We need someone who can score - and then we will start to win games and the results will reflect our performances.

I am very frustrated by him and my patience is wearing thin.

COYI

Sam

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This is quite an unusual situation for me, I am unfortunately having to miss tomorrow’s game. Not only that but I won’t be able to run a match report after. So I’m scheduling this post now at 1:13AM Saturday to be ready hot off the press for you after the game.  At the time of writing, I obviously don’t know what the score will be, so here’s my Optimistic Prediction Of The Week 2-1 West Ham.

Anyways I realise I would have by now either been proved wrong or right, but I do know for certain that you will be able to find the highlights by following the link below…

West Ham v Aston Villa Highlights

I’m just hoping that where I am has full access to a television…with the game on….please.

COYI!

Sam

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In fact, it wasn’t injury or precaution that forced him off in the behind-closed doors friendly, but instead that he has flu and was feeling a bit rough.

Have a look at the OnYaHead.com Top 10 Gory Injuries Of All Time list anyway - but not if your just sitting down to lunch.

As for Eggert Magnusson, he couldn’t have picked a better time to kick a mate when he is down. Something between him and BG must have gone seriously wrong for him to want to be sueing his old friend, particularly in the financial plight he finds himself in.

According to KUMB.com he is “chasing Gudmundsson for fees in the region of £1million, fees that were promised to him upon his dismissal a year ago. Magnusson claims to have received just £100,000 so far, when he was promised £200,000 plus €1million”

At least Sheffield United are becomming increasingly likely to receive closer to what they deserve in light of the Tevez saga. The fee we are now likely going to have to pay them is a far cry from the £50m they thought they should have got. The figures being banded around now are closer to the £10/15m, which is incedently closer to the figure most people think they deserve…

Nothing.

COYI!

Sam

I will forward you onto his site where you can find the links to the news and the story in more detail…just click the link below:

According to Icelandic News, the sale of West Ham has now begun….

COYI!

Sam

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