Forum | Non-Football Related

It may seem a little more than co-incidence to some Hammers fans when they see 'one of their own' come out in the media in support of an aggressive take over bid for the club they 'love', the fact that said person has just lost their job with a major sports platform after nearly 20 years can't have anything to do with it can it?

Well of course it can, ex-West Ham and Everton player Tony Cottee has been on the periphery of every bid so far connected with taking over at the club, and the PAI(n) bid is no exception. Cottee has been a dissatisfied ex player for many years following his dismissal as a match day ambassador back in the day, just before the arrival of the biscuit barons. He has always proclaimed his 'love' of the club, despite spending nearly as much time as an Everton player!

Humourful observations, from some ill informed areas of the media, are even saying how 'spot on' the PAI(n) group are in their approach to buy the club citing enlisting the 'support' of Cottee in addition to the brassic Anton Ferdinand and his wealthy elder Manchester United supporting brother as some sort of major PR coup, what could possibly go wrong?

Well the answer to that one is, 'just about everything', the golden rule regarding PR is to do your research impeccably, because your 'release' cannot be recalled, therefore it is essential to carry out the correct due diligence for the content of statements that you will have to live or die by in the future.

On the face of what we have seen so far, a call to the undertakers might well be in order as fans in their droves have taken to social media to express their disdain for the unhelpful take over bid. That's not to say that fans don't want rid of the current owners, far from it, but having had the GSB experience for so long, fans can spot a 'wrong 'un' from a hundred miles, and PAI(n), to all intents and purposes, are a wrong 'un!

The only positive that we can see from the 'take over' shout up, is that other investors who actually KNOW what they are doing, might well come to the fore. It should be remembered that Red Bull have coveted West Ham for many years and might be tempted to return with a 'realistic' proposal, there has even been talks in business circles that a certain Elon Musk has expressed an interest in the naming rights of the Irons stadium in addition to having shown interest in buying the club outright as a direct result of having been shown a photoshop image of the London 'Dome' lit up with a Tesla hologram.

The Tesla Stadium has a nice ring to it doesn't it? - Ed

Hmm, the mischief makers can't resist a free hit at West Ham's expense, by opening up the 'Declan Rice unhappy' story, yet again. 'Declan Rice is ready to run down his West Ham contract amid interest from Man Utd as the midfielder feels his £100 price tag has prevented him from securing a move away, the 22-year-old feels as though his £100m valuation has priced him out of a move away and is now ready to run down his current deal', reports the Telegraph.

The (sic) incredibly well written and researched article then mentions: 'Rice will continue to give his all for the club until his contract runs out in 2024.'

This is about as news worthy as talking about the potential winner of next year's Wimbledon, no sorry, about Wimbledon in 2024! Come on, what a load of clap track, this 'story' is lazy journalism in the extreme, although there is a darker aspect to it's resurfacing.

Potential Manchester United 'targets' do have an uncanny knack of having stories appear about supposed malcontent at their clubs, there are many who openly acknowledge that 'Elite' clubs are able to circumnavigate the Tapping up rules by using their extensive media connections. They don't come more extensive than those of Manchester United!

Ex- United boss Alex Ferguson once famously called the Real Madrid board 'A bunch of Gangsters', when describing their tapping up of Ronaldo, Pot calling the kettle? Make no mistake, the little Norg will do all he can to emulate old red nose's transfer acumen.

That acumen involves pulling out all the hospitality stops available, a mode that the well oiled Old Trafford media machine are extremely good at. Their blatant attempt at using the National Press in order to destabilise Declan is indicative of a club that is desperate to keep up with it's more successful neighbours.

Hopefully the 60,000 plus crowd at the London Dome will let Declan know just how much he is appreciated, although only a fool would expect the future England captain to stay at the club past 2023. One man one club is a thing of the past, however West Ham do have the opportunity of using their Talisman to help them establish themselves in the upper echelons of the Barclays Premier League, and get a massive amount of money to reinvest in the squad to boot.

Declan could return playing for any other other club and get a great reception, with the obvious exception of Tottingham, so enjoy him while you can, beginning at the Dome on Monday evening! LN

Working in London does at times feels like it drags a little bit with the exorbitant costs of virtually everything, the endless tube journeys, bus rides sat in hectic yet stationary traffic, and living in a city together with such a sheer mass of people despite its numerous beautiful green parks and nature reserves.

To ensure a healthy work-life balance, work teams should definitely take time to make an effort to socialise and have some highly valuable down time. Do you manage or are part of a team working in the capital? Then why not arrange a work social outing to enjoy yourself a little and get to know your colleagues in a more relaxed laid-back setting.

Here are a few ideas for work socials in London, but by all means be as creative as you like, as we continue the Saturday morning satire show.

Murder Mystery Events Can Be Exciting and Bring a Team Together

Murder Mystery events, can be a great team building exercise compelling team members to work collaboratively together to get to the bottom of a puzzling and gruesome mystery. Who in the team has the wit to really help you really find out whodunit? A murder mystery event is something for staff working in London to look forward to when they are listening to their music or favourite podcast through their headphones whilst on a hot and sticky tube in the morning.

Head On Down to See a Football Match Live in a Stadium

London is currently home to six English Premier League clubs, seven if you also include Watford FC which is on the periphery of London. You find that you will pay different prices for different types of tickets, a hospitality package will cost you a bit more than a standard seat for example. The tickets for some Premier League clubs in the London area are considerably more expensive than others. Tickets to Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur FC games are very much sought-after, hard to buy, and tend to have rather high match day standard ticket prices. Have you ever considered taking a trip over to the East End of London to soak in the atmosphere and getting West Ham tickets to one of their home games at the 60,000-seater London stadium in the Stratford area?

West Ham United are a football club cemented in the tradition and history of the East End of London. So why not bond and connect with your colleagues by visiting a few bars in east London, and then heading down to the West Ham ground. The stadium oozes modernity and was originaly used as the main arena for the Queen Elizabeth Park in the 2012 London Olympic games.

Escape Rooms Can Be a Top Team Activity

Escape rooms have exploded in popularity in recent years and are a super idea for a work social event. Escape rooms are often quirky buildings with character that are no longer in use, such as old hospitals, prisons, police stations and so on. Your mission of course is to break out of the escape room, can you overcome this potentially frightening experience and work together to find your way out of the place? Go and find out. 'T.I.C' Ed

Pin the Donkey, or more correctly Pin the Tail On The Donkey, was a game played by generations of kids in gentler times, when there were no mobile phones, computers nor the dreaded 'soshul' media! The game involved being blind folded, spun around and then released with pin in hand to stick it in the target, which was a Donkey's 'Arse'nal!

The target more often than not, being made out of felt or some other soft absorbent material sourced domestically at little cost. The alternative being an expensively purchased 'proper' Chad Valley game, complete with party hats, it could provide hours of fun, with the odd injury to boot.

During the final stages of the summer transfer window, Pin the Tail on the Donkey morphs into Pin the Donkey! It doesn't matter where, just so long as a pin gets stuck, if the target is home made and it gets wrecked it can always be remade, whereas the set that was bought from a shop has to be replaced at some considerable expense.

That's enough of the Donkey analogy for a Friday afternoon, but poor humour aside it does bear some semblance to the truth when it comes to Barclays Premier League clubs and their 'aiming' at transfer targets. Some of the lack of due diligence shown depicts decisions 'made in the dark', the 'most popular league in the World' is littered with very, very expensive duds, a scenario West Ham fans are all too familiar with.

Real concrete transfer news is about as rare as a Taliban disco, some of the 'targets' Hammers are supposed to have been 'aiming' for beggar belief, the 'targets' will continually roll off the rumour production line until the window 'slams shut'.

Oh well, those bastions of unbiased honesty, Clarity&Hugh, have been getting in on the act with an obviously tongue in cheek criticism of David Moyes's reluctance to spend his transfer budget, a budget that has mysteriously altered from £75 Million to £45 Million in their article. Now not being Maths geniuses, we at the Org reckon the club has so far spent £2 Million on making Les Dawson's loan move from Watford permanent, a further £2 Million loan fee to PSG for Alphonse Areola and that's that!

Even factoring in the wages of both players for the next season into the equation, approximately £6 Million, the figures most certainly still don't add up. There appears to be a £20 Million black hole doesn't there? PLaying lip service to your masters is one thing, but trying to pull the wool over the eyes of fans is neither clever nor productive. Or was the purported £75 Million shown on their site previously a 'falsehood'? It would never do to print falsehoods would it?

Here is a Fans kit for transfer clarity, it is the newly refreshed 'Agents version 2:0': Use it to find out what's really going on!

The wonderful Blind Hammer just reiterated how he feels about Moyes's transfer acumen on Graham Howlett's excellent KUMB site, in his article he listed just a few of the 'Pin The Donkey' competition 'hits' that have arrived at West Ham over the last ten painful years. All brought in to appease angry fans, usually just before the window 'slams' shut, the list reads like a who's who of failure and evaporating hopes.

Sometimes no news is good news. -Ed PS: See how many of the names you can list in the comments section, without googling?