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Surprise Or Expectation?

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Sun, 18/05/2025 - 18:21

At 14:15 marked the kickoff for the final home game at the bowl this season, a bright bold start from Potter’s men saw Soucek denied by Sells.

But as a continuing theme this season for us, one mistake is all it takes, all momentum was killed as Areola’s gift for Forest saw them go one up… too late to offer Fabo a contract?

It’ll be surprising to see the Frenchman as number one next season. Mistakes against Spurs, Bournemouth, and now Forest have proven to be costly. Points have been gained through Areola being in goal, but it’s also cost the club many.

The game felt Null and void until Forest got their second, and you’d have probably forgotten that they actually scored by the time the VAR check was over, SIX MINUTES it took for a conclusion! Weren’t the FA bragging about the new offside system and how it would improve games? Alongside the not-so-successful system, you can also thank Barrott for a fantastic refereeing performance, one for the ages, a complete demonstration as to why you don’t trial referees in Premier League matches

The referee may have been abysmal, but yet again the Hammers were far from good today, and it’s another ‘look in the mirror’ performance. Ipswich is now the only game to play and it’s what we’ve all been waiting for: the end of the season in sight and a closure to an underwhelming campaign.

Jarrod Bowen revived the fans’ hope with a superb touch and a crashing volley into the roof of the net, stunning from Bowen, but it would all amount to nothing as we prodded and poked Forest for the remaining 20 minutes, but couldn’t find an equaliser. Shots on target and poor decisions are what closed the game off, and all in all, the fans are just happy to be a game closer to the end.

It’s 7 days until the Ipswich game, and within that timeframe, there’s potential for even worse to happen somehow despite the fact we’re not even playing.

There will be no dramatic change against Ipswich, but who knows, we could still secure a magnificent 14th! Come on West Ham 'United', let’s finish this season on a high.

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West Ham v Nottingham Forest Lineups

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Sun, 18/05/2025 - 13:02

West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Todibo, Coufal, Soucek, Kudus, Bowen (C), Rodriguez, Cresswell, Ward-Prowse Subs: Fabianski, Soler, Paqueta, Fullkrug, Mavropanos, Guilherme, Alvarez, Emerson, Ferguson
Forest: Sells, Murillo, Sangare, Williams, Anderson, Gibbs-White (C), Wood, Dominguez, Elanga, Milenkovic, Aina

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Is Ten Enough? Or Is More Needed?

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Thu, 15/05/2025 - 10:51

With only two games remaining in the season and with recent announcements of some of the players’ contract renewals, our focus starts to shift towards next season.

Earlier last week, West Ham announced that Fabianski, Cresswell, Ings and Coufal will all be leaving at the end of the season. The total of the four players leaving saves the club around £275,000 per week, which is good, but this also means that THREE homegrown players will need to be brought in to fulfil the 8 homegrown player quota.

Despite those four being confirmed to leave, almost the entire squad has been deemed to be up for sale by Potter, which starts to beg the question… how many incomings are we going to have next season?

The club are anticipating Potter to revamp the club, which he’d informed them of during his hiring process in January. It is expected that over 10+ incomings are to be made in this upcoming window. We certainly won’t be challenging Nottingham Forest’s Premier League record of 21 signings in a window, but we most definitely will be in the double digits.

As well as many others, moves for Mavropanos, Guido Rodriguez and Aguerd are the three closest to an exit. Aguerd has publicly made it known that he doesn’t want to play in Claret & Blue next season, Mavropanos is unwanted by Potter, and Guido is eyeing a move to River Plate.

With all these moves in mind and many others to happen soon, you can see why a window of 10+ signings seems a possibility. We do know that Potter will be utilising some of the returning youth players; the likes of Potts, Earthy and Callum Marshall, all players who flourished on their loan spells this season.

Jean-Clair Todibo technically is already our first signing this window, with the obligation being triggered, which does take money out of Potter’s supposed budget, but there’s definitely money left over in the kitty, albeit what Sully will suggest.

Will Sullivan let Potter raid the chambers just as Lopetegui did, or is the £5,000,000-£10,000,000 transfers going to become more of an occurrence? Should we rather spend a chunk of money on a proclaimed ‘world-class’ player, or spread the money out on a few ‘nobodies’ and see where it lands…

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Hammers Relish In Victory After 73 Days

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Sun, 11/05/2025 - 17:03

Bim-bam thank you Wan! One of the many players who helped secure the 2-0 win against Manchester United in an all-around top performance.

Our Czech warrior secured the first goal with a great link-up between Kudus and AWB, and the second goal was similar with Mo Kudus making a run, finding Wan-Bissaka and a slotted ball to Bowen secured the second goal and three points.

Three extremely valuable points, as now not only are the two Europa League finalists in the bottom five, but we’ve moved up two positions, which effectively gives us £6,000,000 extra! Which I’m sure dithering Dave upstairs is licking his lips too, especially with the contract news midweek.

The balance has been an issue with us all season, but we got it right today, finally, the players didn’t possess the ‘ultra defensive’ mindset after scoring today and it was nice to see us attacking after we scored, even in the 90th minute, which nearly saw us score a third through JWP. Even the late substitutions didn't come back to haunt us, it felt as if all the pieces went in perfectly.

A performance of passion and one that couldn’t be faulted, a joyous moment to have in such an abysmal season.

It’s games like these that remind you why you’re a Hammers fan, I’ve been reeled back in far too quickly! However, doing the double over United is a feeling of great satisfaction.

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Manchester United v West Ham Lineups

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Sun, 11/05/2025 - 13:01

Manchester United: Bayindir, Mazraoui, Mount, Fernandez (C), Hojlund, Yoro, Amad, Shaw, Ugarte, Mainoo, Amass
West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Coufal, Todibo, Kilman, Cresswell, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Soucek, Kudus, Bowen (C) Subs: Soler, Mavropanos, Paqueta, Fullkrug, Guilherme, Alvarez, Fabianski, Emerson, Ferguson

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So It's Goodbye From Him and....

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Submitted by Deluded Hammer on Sat, 10/05/2025 - 11:30

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Not exactly new news that the club are not renewing the contracts of Coufal, Cresswell, Fabianski and Ings. Personally I find it a sad time as I have a lot of time for Aaron, Vlad and Lucasz and thank them for their loyal and tremendous service at the same time thinking they could have had at least another season as decent squad players, Be interesting to see who will be sitting on the bench next year in their place.
It's time for Ings to move on, without a shadow of doubt, but I'm not going to join in the hatred towards him. The carrot was dangled in front of him and he took it and don't you lot tell me you wouldn't have done the same. It wasn't his fault he wasn't given enough game time time to prove his worth, but still remained the consummate professional during his spell with us, so I wish him well also in his future projects.
Strange though, that word on the grapevine, is that Ants is getting an extension though.

The Search For Balance Comes To An End

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Wed, 07/05/2025 - 10:42

Boring, lame, uninspiring and apathetic are words you might anticipate a Hammers fan uses to describe how this dismal season has been; however, it could also be used to describe Umbro's kit designs for the club since 2015, two of the only memorable kits going towards the 'Farewell Boleyn' kit, alongside the third kit which was the black and gold design that they'd made for the 125th aniversary of the club's existence, with all the others being fairly lame.

Umbro is now no more, New Balance will be the kit manufacturers from the 2026/27 season onwards. Fortunately, the Hammers declined the opportunity to be with Castore, who have notoriously been known to manufacture poor quality kits and ones of which many teams have complained about in the past.

Regarding the design, if a classical, common, plain design is to your liking, then New Balance will fit it to a T.

Amidst the company's surge back into the Footballing world and the Premier League since 2015, New Balance has now acquired the contract for two future clubs, West Ham United and German giants Bayer Leverkusen.

It's nice to have a change, but it feels as if the ownership is toying with us. We asked for signings and got Ings, and we've all been calling for balance within the squad, and they went and got New Balance! Not exactly what we've been after Macaulay, but we'll let you off for now, hopefully the attention goes towards the 'squad' now

Now that's Boyle Sports and New Balance as our future sponsors sorted, who's next?

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That Time of Year Again

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Submitted by Deluded Hammer on Wed, 07/05/2025 - 07:16

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Yeah, Hammer of the Year blah blah blah in what has been a very forgettable season and one that I needed the reruns for the goal and save of the season to remind me because they've all been buried in what must be the worst season in my living memory of this club. Yup, even those relegation seasons of '78, 89 and '2003 weren't as bad because even in those years I had hopes. Only other miserable one that could be up there would be Avram Grants term in 2011. Hang on........didn't he manage Chelsea as well?

My HOTY is Wan Bissaka for the record.

‘El Crapio’ Shared Through Killjoy Moment

Submitted by Louis Nixon on Sun, 04/05/2025 - 18:08

No win since February and that still continues into May, the Hammers suffered yet another draw in what was anticipated to be one of the most underwhelming London derbies in a while.

A game consisting of the following highlights of Lord Olivier calling a staggering 33 fouls, Max Kilman’s mistake, and my sunglasses being checked by the LS security despite them being on top of my head.

Kilman’s horror show of an error came after booting the ball twice at Tel, seemingly followed by a complaint for handball, and before you could blink, it was 1-0. Each game it seems we’re trying to challenge ‘who can have the easiest goal of their career’, Odobert currently must be taking the cherry.

Despite the dismal defending, the driving pressure was too much and finally a gap was found with AWB slotting it for Jarrod, through Vicario’s legs and just like that 1-1. An unknown West Ham player also booted the ball in a Spurs fan’s face after the goal, probably up there with the highlight of the season.

The Stratford sun started bright and at the end of the 90 the sky was grey, which sums up the performance today. No wins in 8 games, yet still a 50% point rate.

There’s only one game left at the Bowl and two others elsewhere, for those who are counting, it’s now 21 days until the final day.

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