The silver lining in the cloud for all those Hammers fans who were unable to get a season ticket and have now had to join an endless waiting list, is that West Ham United will feature in three live Sky TV broadcasts in August. The first is Hammer's opening fixture away to Chelsea which has been re-scheduled to Monday 15th of August at 8pm, the second is Hammers inaugural match at the Olympic Stadium against Bournemouth again re-scheduled to Sunday 21st of August at 4pm and finally the match against Manchester City at the Etihad which has been re-scheduled for Sunday 28th of August at 4pm.
The constant in Sky's thinking is probably let's see what Conte and Guadiola can do to these state funded arena upstarts, but the decision to show the first match to be played at the Olympic Stadium will go down with West Ham fans who are unable to attend. August looks to be a pretty tough month for Slaven Billic's side, the situation has not been helped by Manuel Lanzini's promotion to the Argentine national team as a replacement for Lionel Messi, great for Lanzini's confidence, but he will be sorely missed at the beginning of the season while he represents his country at the Olympics in Brasil. - Ed
