West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Ogbonna, Aguerd, Johnson, Rice ©, Paquetá, Souček, Bowen, Ings, Benrahma Subs: Areola (GK), Cresswell, Scamacca, Fornals, Antonio, Lanzini, Downes, Kehrer, Emerson
Forest: Navas, Williams, Worrall ©, Felipe, Lodi, Freuler, Shelvey, Colback, Gibbs-White, Johnson, Wood Subs: Hennessy (GK), Mangala, Danilo, Scarpa, Toffolo, Lingard, Ayew, Dennis, Surridge
Beleaguered Hammers manager David Moyes is probably sick to death of the 'advice' he has received in recent weeks, he notoriously plays his cards close to his chest and is 'singularly' minded to say the least!
However, it is widely known that Mrs Moyes is a regular reader of sports sites and passes on information that might be of help.
Well Mrs M if you are reading this please please ask Hubby to consider this, 'when Trevor Brooking took over as interim manager many years ago he knew he had to get a disparate fan base on board from the get go, so HIS ANSWER? Sir Trev played THREE up front and won each of the games he was in charge!
Now we are not suggesting Moyes plays three up front, but why oh why on earth doesn't he give two up front a go? Fans have been screaming out for two up front but with the exception of one fifteen minute period at the end of one game Moyes has steadfastly refused to acquiesce and insists on his one up front formation.
A word in either Moyes shell like, "play two up front today against Forest and you will have 60,000 plus supporters ON YOUR SIDE!" It might not work out, but you would at least have tried, by doing what is seemingly counter-intuitive t your normal stance you might just turbo charge your players AND the crowd, which might ultimately save your job!
Two strikers up front? It isn't jumpers for goal posts is it? Give it a go Moysie, ask the missus! - Ed
West Ham have been drawn to face AEK Larnaca in the UEFA Europa Conference League Round of 16, the Irons will take on the Cypriot side in a two-legged tie, with the first leg set to be played away on Thursday the 9th of March.
The Stratford Stadium will then play host to the return a week later, Premier League fixtures permitting ,as the club look to secure a second successive European quarter-final.
Larnaca entered the Europa Conference League at the Knockout Round stage, having finished third in their Europa League Group B, behind Fenerbahçe and Rennes, and above Dynamo Kyiv.
They faced another Ukrainian side in the Knockout Round, beating Dnipro1-0.
For once Hammers were on the receiving end of a good draw which has definitley NOT been the case recently, especially domestically. Two of the main contenders Anderlecht and Villarreal have been drawn against each other, further good news is that Lazio have been drawn against AZ Alkmaar and Nice play Sheriff Tiraspol.
The draw in full was:
AEK Larnaca v West Ham United
Fiorentina v Sivasspor
Lazio v AZ Alkmaar
Lech Poznań v Djurgarden
Basel v Slovan Bratislava
Sheriff Tiraspol v Nice
Anderlecht v Villarreal
Gent v Istanbul Basaksehir
John Motson, voice of football passes away aged 77. For many 'Motto' or Motty WAS the voice of football, generations of fans grew up hearing his knowledgeable voice as a true indicator of what was going on, before during and after games. His attention to detail was legendary as was his preparation ahead of games.
Before lap tops, mobile phones or even computers Motson was a source of information that was bereft of supporters unless they spent hours and hours trawling for information as religiously as he did, no detail was too small or too large for him to know or talk about, his sheepskin 'car dealer coat' as he called it was synonymous with a wry smile and a keen sense of boyish humour.
John Motson a true gent, a wonderful much loved family man and a great football ambassador for this country. R.I.P 1945-2023
Dear oh dear, remember when Pep Guardiola and other such luminaries were 'bigging up' 'wonderful' West Ham? It was only 18 months ago that Hammers briefly threatened to gate crash a top four position, how things have changed.
How things have changed is the question that droves of Hammers fans are regularly asking themselves as they trudge towards 'Coe Towers' for yet another classic example of negative football, gone is the once electric forward line that terrified the opposition, instead they must now be forced to 'cower' at the sight of a team facing up to them which has TWO keepers on the bench and a bunch of forwards who are expressly forbidden for ever being on the pitch at the same time as each other!
David Moyes' insistence on only playing one forward up front will be his undoing and ultimately might well see the club relegated from the top flight, as the club sleepwalks towards the Championship surely the Board MUST have had a conversation at least regarding replacing the incumbent manager or at the very least INSISTING that he breaks his dinosaur mode and plays two up front, why not? Everything else he has tried has failed hasn't it?
At the moment watching West Ham is a painful experience, the 'Seb Coe Experience' Stadium still fills out regularly, but if you look at who is attending you will see unfamiliar faces in season ticket spaces because owners of the tickets pass them on to friends and family who have yet had to endure a David Moyes led West Ham performance.
Because of all the 'newbies' things seem relatively OK, but under the facade of the pop corn, over priced drinks and the appalling half time entertainment lurks an ocean of malcontent.The fact is, watching West Ham has become a chore, fans find excuses NOT to attend games now and there seems little chance of that changing until Moyes has been ousted.
We don't know David Moyes personally,in the past we DID know various managers but Moyes has always kept his cards close to his chest, but he is a busted flush at West Ham now. That is not to say his services aren't in demand, in fact the rumour mill is full of "Moyes to Leeds" news!
Moyes might be a good fit for Leeds, but his time in East London is definitely over, whether it is sooner or later is the only variable. There is still JUST ENOUGH time to give Moyes the heave ho and put together a survival management team headed by Mark Noble if it came to it!
In an ideal world Will Still would suddenly be plucked from France to save his boyhood club, but that would be too much to hope for. In reality the club will most likely persevere with Moyes until it is too late, the board will be concerned but they won't have to trudge along the canal full of misery after a game, their Maybachs and Rollers will cushion them from the noises of discontent.
Many fans laughed at Saturday's visitors recruitment during the off season, but Forest fans will be saying "who's laughing now?" if Moyes cannot see the Forest for the trees, how on earth can he guide West Ham to safety, let alone success- LN
Times are tough for West Ham fans. Our Premier League season is in tatters, and we sit on the brink of relegation – third from the bottom! With just 20 points, we are right in the thick of the battle, and the only saving grace is that there are five or six teams in a similar situation.
Leicester City, Wolves, Everton, Bournemouth, Leeds, and Southampton are all on similar points, and we aren’t out of the EPL yet! With all this doom and gloom, we need something positive!
As a result, in the below article, we look at how you can celebrate a Hammers’ victory in style and what you can do to show your support for the club – enjoy!
Let’s Face it – Wins are Currently Few and Far Between!
Currently, we don’t have much to shout about as West Ham fans! Spuds thumped us 2-0 in the recent London derby and the games before that have been a mixed bag too.
Admittedly we did get draws against Chelsea and Newcastle which were probably unexpected. Regardless, our season isn’t going well, and it’s never a nice feeling being in the bottom three of the Premier League table!
Make the Most of The Hammer’s Triumphs
Now that we’ve got that unpleasantness out of the way, let’s be positive! How can we celebrate and have fun when we win (yes, let’s say WHEN is an inevitability)? It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity and the upset about our league position.
We have listed four simple and fun ways to celebrate when West Ham finally wins another game!
1. Spend your sportsbook winnings at an online casino
Sports betting goes hand in hand with football; many enjoy placing bets as they watch their favorite teams. There are loads of sportsbooks available for people to use, and most have handy mobile apps too.
Therefore, why not do something similar and try to boost your winnings by playing at an online casino? You could transfer your winnings from the sportsbook and deposit them at the online casino. Platforms typically have hundreds of games, like slots and table games.
Many even have welcome offers for new customers that you can benefit from. This could be fun after the Hammers pull off a win.
2. Get on social media and brag
Everyone loves to proclaim their support for their football team, so why not do this on social media? People quickly kick the Hammers when they are down and losing, so let’s even the odds and kick back with some social media posts.
You could search for trending hashtags on Twitter relating to West Ham and join in on conversations and tweets from other supporters. You only have to look at Twitter to see posts about our recent loss against the Spurs.
When we win our next EPL game, fans must log on to their social media profiles and remind people that we have a voice and love the Hammers!
3. Head down to the pub for a celebratory pint
This is an obvious one and a pastime for many football fans. What’s better than celebrating a well-earned victory than heading down to your local pub or restaurant for a celebratory drink?
You could even watch the match at the pub in the first place! This makes football a communal event you can enjoy with friends and fellow supporters.
That first drink will feel much better if the Hammers have won, and depending on the time of the match, you could turn one drink into an evening session with the lads and lasses!
4. Share the love on the community forum
It’s great to share your joy and relief that the West Ham squad has won with fellow supporters, too. Many die-hard fans love discussing the games and assessing what we could have done better.
The best place for this is our forum; we have many topics relating to games, injuries, upcoming matches, and previous results. There are thousands of posts by active members who love the game and have been West Ham supporters for years.
We don’t have much to shout about, with only five wins in the 2022-23 EPL season! Things aren’t going well, and being third from the bottom is not where the Hammers want to be. As a result, making the most of any points or wins we get is essential!
Make sure you share the love, show your support for West Ham and continue to display that we are some of the best football fans in the world!
The Premier League has evolved into a global phenomenon. Sure, it’s a British footballing competition. However, the money involved, the excitement of the games, and the celebrity status of the players mean that it attracts attention from the four corners of the world.
This holds for our beloved West Ham too! When you think of West Ham, you traditionally think of East London and our native fanbase. The club has a deep history in London, and this is usually where most of our fans hail from.
People grew up watching the Hammers and have gained their love of the club from their parents and previous generations. However, that love has extended overseas too! There are some genuinely amazing foreign West Ham fans, and we should embrace them!
In the below article, we look at some of the most notable West Ham fan bases outside the UK – hats off to you amazing people!
New York
Football (or soccer as the Americans like to call it) isn’t as big as the NFL or the NBA in the USA. Indeed, waging platforms like Super Bowl betting and wagers on NBA matches do huge business, while football, in comparison, has a small online gambling following.
West Ham has many supporters, clubs, and fan bases in North America. This includes Toronto, Vancouver, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, and Cincinnati. However, one of the most notable is the NYC Hammers.
Yes, an official supporters club in the Big Apple was founded in 2001! This is pretty incredible, and we tip our hats to our American fans!
Barcelona
Moving away from North America, what about a little closer to home? Spain is known for its die-hard football fans, and Barcelona is one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Surely everyone in the Catalan capital supports Barcelona FC. Wrong! There is a large group of West Ham supporters in Barcelona, if you can believe it. Therefore, whenever we play in our upcoming fixtures, remember that there are people in Spain cheering the lads on too!
Serbia
Another unlikely source of West Ham fans is Serbia in Eastern Europe. The Serbian SuperLiga is one of the lesser-known leagues in Europe, and it doesn’t usually have any teams that make a massive push in Europe.
The competition isn’t unique either, and Crvena Zvezda usually win the league (at the time of writing, they are 11 points clear!). Due to the lesser competition and smaller coverage, some Serbians also turn to other European leagues and support EPL teams.
There is indeed a West Ham following in Serbia, possibly due to the handful of Serbian players who have kitted up for the Hammers. This includes Luka Belic, Filip Kostic, Kristijan Belic, and Nemanja Gudlj.
Australia
West Ham supporters in Australia make more sense. There is a large ex-pat population down under – many of which continue supporting Premier League teams from back home.
Also, many Australians will have parents or previous generations who emigrated from the UK and followed football. Aside from that, many Australian players have kitted up for the Hammers, including Hayden Foxe, Dylan Tombides, and Lucas Neill.
In recent decades, the Hammers took a tour of Australia in 1995 to celebrate the club’s 100th anniversary! This included a four-game tournament, and it was a great event that must have gained some fans!
Scandinavia
Scandinavia, by far, gives us the most foreign support, and it’s incredible! For example, the Scandinavian Hammers in Norway is the largest overseas supporters club.
This supporters club is a long-standing tradition in Norway and was formed in 1988! Currently, it has 800 active members, which is fantastic.
Aside from that, the Hammers also have support in Denmark. This is a much more recent supporters club, formed in 2014. However, they already have 300+ members!
Tenerife
Tenerife is another hotspot for British ex-pats and holidaymakers. It stands to reason that there is a substantial West Ham following there. The Tenerife Hammers have their own Facebook page, which seems incredibly active!
The supporter’s club was formed in 2006 and has over 100 active members. Some people used to buy season tickets and watch the games regularly back in the UK but have now moved on to a life in the sun. Regardless, they maintain their love for the sport and the club.
It’s incredible to see just how much global support the club has. Who would have thought this East London team had supporters in New York, Australia, Serbia, and Scandinavia? It is incredible, and we want to thank these die-hard fans who continue to cheer the Hammers on!
French outfit Stade de Reims' manager Will Still revealed that it is his dream to manage boyhood club West Ham United in the future, the highly sought after manager's team remains unbeaten in the league since he took over from Óscar García on 13th October. The Belgian-English manager oversaw a five-game unbeaten run at the club before being handed the role until the end of the season. Reims are now unbeaten in 16 games, which is a record dating back to 1959.
Having risen rapidly through the ranks in Belgium and then at Reims, the 30-year-old manager, who claims to have learned his craft on Football Manager, revealed that he was a West Ham fan in a recent interview. Naturally, Still dreams of one day managing his boyhood club and the club's recent free fall must have alerted him!
“I’ve never set any boundaries or set any goals or any limits to what I want to do and can do. In a boring way, I’ll take whatever my career chucks at me, but if I’m being a little kid, I’d probably say coaching West Ham one day [is my ambition]. Being a West Ham fan, that would be unreal. It’s a shame it’s not at Upton Park any more, but the Olympic Stadium has something about it too, So coaching West Ham, winning the Champions League, winning a major trophy, that would be unbelievable. But there’s a bit of a way to go before I get there, so [I’ll] keep working.”
Appointing Still would be a bold left field action, but he would be a breath of fresh air that would surely enliven a 'mordent' dressing room that current manager David Moyes has clearly lost for some time! Still is only 30 years old and doesn't even have ALL the badges required to be a full time coach, in fact Reims get fined £22,000 per match that he manages because of his lack of paperwork, however the fiscal consequences of a club like West Ham getting relegated are so huge that 22K per game is chicken feed!
The other runners and riders in the 'replace Moyes' race are either not willing to come to the club or are insisting on lenghty contracts, they are also ALL old! IF the club can somehow work out a deal with Still and Reims it could be the magic solution to what is an increasingly desperate situation, relegation is unthinkable and apart from the financial cost would put the club back years and years.
'Will' Moyes 'Still' Be Standing after the Forest game irrespective of the result? We hope not! - LN
Sullivan backing Moyes is the news coming out followed later by the rumour that if we lose to Forest he will be sacked well woop e doop if his tenure as our manager is on this one game as we are to believe it was the same against Everton what a stupid way to run a club.......Decisions need to be made and by giving Moyes extra games we are just slowly choking ourselves to death....Dyche should of been the one soon as he got the Everton job i was and am still in no doubt he will keep them up as he has more about him IMO than the brush he gets tarred with and so he has sparked them into life whilst our zombified corpse keeps twitching along...
nobody out there they say Bollocks there are plenty out there but because of our situation right now we just need someone to get the players smiling and believing in themselves again and Moyes most definetly is not.......Benitez doing punditry this past week putting his old mush in the frame for any job out there and it would not surprise me if the club did that but he is by no means a LONGTERM soloution if they are going that way then it has to be till the end of the season with a nice bonus for keeping us up and no more.....maybe Twitch could come back!!!(tin hat firmly on)the club just have to do something because right now we are a laughing stock.
Frank/De Zerbi/Silva.......the first two was a case of who?? especially De Zerbie lets face it soon as Potter left Brighton we all thought thats it for them selling there best players for £50/60million they will fall apart but if anything they are playing even better how did they find this manager?by doing there homework so the usual treadmill of failed managers were not even considered and proof right now is in the pudding the same with Frank but he quite rightly signed a new contract with Brentford another club who sell when the big clubs come calling but again it does not seem to hinder there progress....Silva unfairly treated at Watford(who isn't)mare at Everton a busted flush by all accounts but nope he went to Fulham and here we go another so called smaller club playing good football and flying up the league whilst we wring our hands on a decision that should of been made when the world cup started......i struggle to understand how men who have made an absolute fortune in there lives by making decisions cannot do what everyone apart from Keown can see and mr Pearce you say that you chat to Moyes regular and that he is HURTING well think about the fans who have to watch that shite week in week out and earn a few hundred a week to see it.....
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