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Super Season for Tomas Soucek Just Keeps Getting Better

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Submitted by nevillenixon on Fri, 09/04/2021 - 13:23

Scoring goals isn’t really what defensive midfielders are about, so Tomas Soucek obviously didn’t get the memo. West Ham United have had the odd Czech Republic international turn out for the team down the years, but nothing quite like this.

Ludek Miklosko played between the posts at Upton Park for most of the ‘90s, earning Hammer of the Year honours for 1991. He famously put in a Man of the Match display in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United which handed the Premier League title to Blackburn Rovers on the final day of the 1994-95 season too.

Tomas Repka did little to disprove the stereotypes attached to defenders from Eastern Europe during five years with West Ham in the early 2000s. He picked up the first of four red cards while at the club on his Hammers debut no less, but at least remained in East London and put relegation out of the Premier League right by helping them earn promotion back.

That’s more than Radoslav Kovac did when West Ham again dropped down from the top flight into the Championship in 2011. Soucek, a surprise source of goals from deep-lying midfield, has 13 goals and counting for club and country this season.

While today’s prediction of value Premier League goalscorer bets often still overlooks him, this kind of form isn’t such a shock if you dig a little deeper. At previous team Slavia Prague, Soucek managed 12 goals in 26 games across all competitions in the first half of last season before he moved to the Hammers on loan. That’s a ratio just shy of one in two which most strikers would be proud of! During the 2018-19 campaign, only one domestic footballer netted more times than Soucek in the Czech First League. No wonder Slavia did the double that season, and there’s no prizes for guessing who opened the scoring in the cup final.

It’s true that he took penalties for his last club, which contributed to an impressive 30-goal tally in his last 18 months in Prague, but this is more than just a purple patch. Soucek might just be one of the best-value finds for a relatively modest £19,000,000 in recent Premier League history.

David Moyes isn’t the only beneficiary either. Away to Estonia in the Czechs’ first 2022 World Cup qualifier, Soucek hit a hat-trick in little more than 15 minutes either side of half-time, which took the game completely away from the hosts. This is a footballer entering his prime, having just turned 26. Soucek had nine Premier League goals going into the March international break, putting him above recognised forwards Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen, who cost West Ham a similar amount up front when purchased from Hull City. Yet he still goes under the radar, because Hammers winter window loan signing Jesse Lingard has made a big impact since linking up with old Manchester United boss Moyes. Soucek is all action in the engine room, and more prolific than compatriot and fellow Czech Golden Ball winner Tomas Rosicky ever was across London at Arsenal. Long may it continue! -Ed

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How Far To Reach The Most Supporters Elite?

Submitted by the editor on Fri, 09/04/2021 - 10:01


Becoming a 'global brand' was one of the reasons behind the club's contensious move from the beloved Boleyn Ground to the vast wide expanses of the 'unfit' for football, as yet unnamed London Stadium. Well, the club has an awful long way to go, but it has to start sometime, beyond the competition lies the golden chalice of 'proper recognition', the last time the club received it was in 1966 having provided the back bone of England's only World Cup winning team.

This is how West Ham are generally perceived

West Ham may not be one of the top three clubs in Europe but they are one of the most flamboyant clubs in the UK and around the world. Amongst its fans are a host of celebrities. Here are just a few of them: Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Keira Knightley, Alfred Hitchcock, Elijah Wood, Matt Damon and Lennox Lewis. But West Ham don’t just have stellar fans. Such football stars as Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Harry Redknapp and others have played for it. West Ham have won three FA Cups, the Super Cup and even the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. The Hammers may not be a top club with a huge number of trophies, but true fans remain loyal to them and appreciate the team’s rich history.

The club has a long long way to go before it can be included in the 'rich list' of high achievers from a global audience point of view...football is the most popular team sport and clubs have a huge fan base. For example, 3.6 billion people watched the 2018 World Cup in stadiums and on television (you can find out more about TV broadcasting on Telecomasia.net). This number is equal to one-third of the world’s population over 4 years old. In this article, we will tell you which are the most-watched football clubs in Europe. We will base it on the total number of followers on all social media.

3. Manchester United (England, Premier League)
Total supporters: 135.8 million

The fact that Manchester United are in the top three most popular teams proves the true loyalty of their fans. They remain with the Red Devils, even though the club had practically no trophies after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. The fans always fill the 75,000-seat Old Trafford almost to capacity when United play their home games, and the queue for stadium season tickets stretches back for several years.

Of course, in cities like Manchester, the love for the home team is passed down from generation to generation, but the club has a lot of credit for maintaining the loyalty of so many fans. United’s exclusivity is borne out by its many trophies. They have become the champion of England 20 times (the record of the country) winning the Champions League three times.

Four players who won the prestigious Golden Ball award, four world champions and two Euro winners played for this club. From the list of 100 Legendary Footballers, which was compiled in 1998 in honor of the anniversary of the Premier League, 14 players defended the colors of Manchester United.
2. FC Barcelona (Spain, La Liga)
Total supporters: 254.7 million
Barcelona have been the Champion of Spain 26 times and are one of the strongest clubs. Moreover, the best team in the history of football is called the 2009-2012 team, which was led by Josep Guardiola. He helped Barcelona develop their special style of play, which is so appreciated by Catalan fans. In the 21st century alone, the Blaugrana managed to win La Liga 10 times and the Champions League four times.
Six Barcelona players won the Ballon d’Or. Cruyff won it twice and Messi six times! Defending the colours of the Catalan club, 12 players became world champions and 13 won the Euro.
1. Real Madrid (Spain, La Liga)
Total supporters: 259.2 million
Real Madrid are the most awarded European club. They have 33 Spanish league titles, but most of the grand fans are outside of this sunny country. In 2017, Spain was home to only 5% of the 450 million cream fans. Most of the fans were from the USA and Indonesia.

In 2017, Madrid announced they were the first sports brand to have over 100 million Facebook followers. Today this number has grown significantly.

Real Madrid hold the record for the most victories in the Champions League. They won the cup 13 times. Seven representatives of this Spanish club have received the Ballon d’Or (Di Stefano has won the award twice, Ronaldo - four times), and the number of world and European champions in the Los Blancos is impossible to count. No wonder Real Madrid are the most popular European club!

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Whu Next After Big Mich?

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Submitted by nevillenixon on Fri, 09/04/2021 - 09:55

For some reason, injuries in football tend to occur in multiples for teams, and West Ham United are a prime example. Having had to deal with the 'continued loss' of Michail Antonio due to his extremely temperamental hamstrings, the club had been coping relatively well, but injuries to Angelo Ogbonna, Authur Masuaku, Pablo Fornals and finally Declan Rice have served to illustrate exactly how paper thin David Moyes's squad really is.

The latest tranche of bad news as Hammers enter the final 8 games of the season is, yes you guessed it, Big Mich Antonio's season is probably done and dusted, that news allied with Declan Rice's unavailability for at least another four games, could put the kibosh on the club's unlikely push for a champions league place, to lose one talisman is hard to live with, but two , make achieving a 'top slot' virtually impossible.

It would be very simple to do a 'Kier Starmer' and just carp and criticise without any positive contribution, the fact is Hammers have punched well above their weight, and to continue with the boxing vernacular, have now been caught out by two blows below the belt, highly unfair, but exactly what happens when you try to battle it out with the big boys, eventually their access to resources will always prevail.

From conversations we have had with fans, an eighth place finish is probably all that can be hoped for now, it still represents an astonishing turn around within a twelve month period, but nonetheless will be viewed as a golden opportunity gone begging. Next season will not be the same, crowds at games, even heavily restricted, will bring the home advantage balance back, and the chances of a 'mid to low' table team of reaching the heady heights of the top four will virtually become non existent.

Moyes's team selections from now until the season's end will be hamstrung, however he will at least be able to call upon the services of the 'Angel' Ogbonna, and heaven knows, divine help is going to be needed. - Ed

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All Aboard The 'Jesse' Wagon

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Submitted by nevillenixon on Thu, 08/04/2021 - 10:51

There appears to be an under swell of fetid comments regarding West Ham United's 'bromance' with Jesse Lingard, his arrival at the unnamed London Stadium, let's call it the Teslar Stadium and pretend the club's sponsors are electric rather than eclectic, has been nothing short of 'Payetesque'.

Now Payet's name may have been 'sullied' (we do like that word's connections and connotations) by his acrimonious departure, earning him the 'Le Snake' moniker, but for a while he lit up the sky with his pure brilliance. Everyone knew it wouldn't last, and so when Marseille came calling, in addition to some of the player's off field personal dalliances, he was always going to be departing the club.

Jesse Lingard's arrival at West Ham wasn't greeted with much of a fanfare, with many fans seeing him as a Manchester United reject who would be unfit and would just cost a load of money just to be sitting in the treatment room. His debut well and truly blew that theory out of the water, playing from the start and scoring twice against Aston Villa, he has since gone on to score SIX goals in eight games and been credited with three assists.

No one at Manchester United nor indeed at West Ham, had any idea of just how explosive Lingard was going to be, unfortunately there wasn't any agreement to buy the attacking midfielder put in place at the time, this was as a result of his 'bad' parent club not wanting to completely lose their asset, in the hope that he would perform well and thus increase his value, and the loaning club not wanting to commit themselves to yet another expensive mistake in a similar vein to the signings of Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenlo and Le Sulk.

Hindsight is wonderful, but can only be learned from, not having a permanent deal in place is now looking like a really bad move, because the player's value has sky rocketed from around £10-15 Million to between £20-30 Million or more! Nonsensical comments from the club's senior 'spokesperson' saying the club will do anything to sign Lingard are far from helpful, in fact David Moyes is known to immensely dislike 'disclosures' emanating from the club, his conduct business behind closed doors mantra is appearing to fall on deaf ears.

Lingard is far from stupid, and doesn't need any of the club's hierarchy to validate his presence, the only opinions that matters to him are those of his manager, and the rest of the squad who couldn't have given him a better reception. The player knows that he is a big fish in a small pond at West Ham, whereas if he returns to Manchester United, he will be a 'bit' player at best, a scenario that the 28 year old is unlikely to embrace, unfortunately there will be a host of other clubs wanting to sign Lingard, and the Mancs will be hoping for a bidding war for their player, even if they had written him off before his Hammers loan spell.

The Irons could find themselves priced out of the market by the likes of Leicester or even the dreaded Tottenham 'mourinho' all stars! - Ed

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Double Deja Vu For Irons

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Submitted by nevillenixon on Wed, 07/04/2021 - 11:04
The King Is Dead-Long Live The King

There has been plenty of debate regarding the Irons ability to cope without Declan Rice for what might be the rest of the season, although fears of his lay off have been slightly tempered by his social media interaction showing him 'embracing' his rehabilitation at the club's 'goose green' training facility.

This season Rice has fully emerged from the shadows to take the reins of the club's captaincy from skipper Mark Noble, Rice to many fans IS the captain. Criticism of Mr West Ham, Noble, is clearly frowned on by the Hammers community, and his Monday night's performance against Wolves will probably have divided opinion even further.

Yes he was off the pace, and was culpable for not stopping speed machine Adam Traore from getting down the wing to put in the cross for Wolves' first goal, but then again so were the rest of the team! Noble put in a stellar performance, whether he can replicate the same against Leicester City is a matter of some conjecture, the player himself admitted when he announced his pending retirement that the club cannot rely upon him to perform for the full 90 minutes week in week out.

Strangely enough some fans will have a feeling of Deja Vu with regards to Rice and Noble, only back then oit was Nolan and Noble in situ, Noble had become. captain in all but name and fans openly criticised the then captain, Kevin Nolan, for his lack of pace etc... sounds familiar? Of course 'chicken Kiev' has now returned to the fold in a coaching capacity, much like has been planned for captain Mark when he hangs his boots up.

Any club that has aspirations to feature in elite European competitions must have the ability to cope with the loss of key players, and to that purpose West Ham have already had an acute portent, with the perpetual issues caused by Michail Antonio's dodgy hamstrings, the injuries to 'King' Authur Masuaku and the 'Angel' Ogbonna and the further loss, albeit only for a few games, of midfield dynamo Pablo Fornals.

The loss of Rice will probably still have a heavy impact on the club's final Barclays Premier League position, and has clearly illustrated the need to do some 'creative' recruiting in the summer, but if anything was going to 'unlock' the 'Sullivan Coffers' then this season will have done it, the irony will not have escaped the Irons majority shareholder as he considers what might have been had he chosen to lavish the same money on David Moyes as he did on Moyes's predecessor Manuel Pellegrini. - Ed

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Good-Bad & Ugly 3-2 Win At Wolves

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Submitted by nevillenixon on Tue, 06/04/2021 - 13:29

Let's face it, very few Hammers fans, or observers, gave the team 'a prayer' ahead of last night's crucial game against Wolves at Molineaux, a match that saw a multitude of West Ham's facets, from the good to the bad and then on to the ugly.

Deprived of one of the best, if not the best, central midfielder in the World, Declan Rice, Hammers went in to the game on the back of the dismal 3-3 'loss' against Arsenal. Either Wolves were complacent or West Ham were magnificent, because after twenty odd minutes the visitors were 2-0 up. This was good, but then the bad occurred, almost inevitably Michail Antonio was forced to withdraw courtesy of his 'selfish' hamstrings, however his replacement Jarrod Bowen took to the pitch and scored his 8th Hammers goal by latching on to a Masuaku pass that was made possible by an 'insane' run through virtually the entire Wolves team by Jesse Lingard.

Of course feelings of DejaVu began to manifest after Wolves managed to pull a goal back just before half time, when they went on to score another early on in the 2nd half it looked as if the 'Hex' had been cast over the Irons. Things looked especially ugly when Tomas Soucek picked up a nasty gash to his ankle that required lengthy treatment on the pitch.

Finally there was a bit of ugliness as the players left the field, with some of the Wolves players who were suffering an acute case of 'bad grapes', trying to 'confront' man of the match Jesse Lingard by questioning "why did you play the way you did?" referencing the amount of time Lingard 'wasted' towards the end of the game. Perhaps they should have asked themselves "why did you play the way you did?"

Finally, we would be remiss not to mention Mark Noble's contribution, selected to virtually universal abhorrence from fans, the club captain ran his heart out playing the full 90 minutes, and while he was culpable for NOT stopping the attack that led to Wolves's first goal due to a mistimed tackle, he put in a first class shift that will probably have his limbs reminding him about it vociferously all of today!

If Hammers are to continue their unlikely 'assault' on Europe, and in order to prevent too many unnecessary visits to A&R for fans given heart murmurs, game management has got to come in to the equation. Racing to a 3-0 lead in concurrent games, only to concede goals and then have to hang on for dear life might be fun for the neutral observer, but for Hammers fans and the club's coaching staff it is an issue that needs to be addressed ahead of the visit by the Foxes, who will be far deadlier than Wolves were. - Ed

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Game management

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Submitted by mcbikeman on Tue, 06/04/2021 - 06:04

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We need to be a lot lot better than we are right now because as good as we were last night we almost threw it away again....concentration has to be 100% no matter if you are 3/4/5 up and when in possession we need to learn to keep it simple at times and play a short pass not a long ball and giving it straight back to the opposition....spuds/gooners/wolves etc we have just not had good ball retention and the opposition hurt us because of it thankfully it only cost us 2 points from those games but we have to be better.....we have the players Moyes and his coaching staff need to work on this and drill it home to the players.

Return of the King

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Submitted by mcbikeman on Tue, 06/04/2021 - 05:55

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Arthur what a performance for 64 mins last night for a player to be out and having had knee surgery to come back and play as he did was a sight for sore eyes long may it continue.

Hidden sign in plain sight

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Submitted by mcbikeman on Tue, 06/04/2021 - 05:52

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Anyone else notice Lingards red devil sign after his goal not cross hammers as he has done before...so was it a dig at Ole or was it a signal he wants to stay at manure? gotta love a good conspiracy theory dont ya!and i wonder if thats why Moyes made more than a fuss over him at full time last night.

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