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  • The most annoying, infuriating, aggravating and disheartening time of year.

    Submitted by Westhamphil on Fri, 23/07/2021 - 12:53

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    Every transfer window brings out the worst in many people. The money-grabbing agents, the gullible players, the mischievous antics of club owners. Taking the biscuit the barefaced lying of the journalists. it makes me so angry, all the sh1t we are dealt. West Ham has always been easy pickings for the media, penniless but full of ambition, punching over our weight etc. Our owners now have the opportunity to make something out of our first team after last seasons blinding achievement. As usual, we are being played by every team, agent and player we have an interest in. Lingard, the options, stay at ManU, sit on the bench, and lose out on a place in next years World Cup, Transfer to West Ham, be the first, with Declan Rice to be pencilled on the team sheet every week and get picked for England, it ain't rocket science! Maybe Mr Gold is dragging his feet over Lingard to use it as an excuse for not being able to sign other players. Goalkeeper, do we really need to be looking yet? We have higher priorities. Stricker, if you want a 20-25 goal a season centre forward they are going to have to pay good money for one. Scouring relegated teams and pay over the odds for their players, yea ok. All I can see is a lack of ambition from our board. So sad. Give Rice his new contract & pay rise, I was led to believe that West Ham is going to build the team around him??? Yarmolenko, give him another chance to show how good he is, and what he can do. He is a very good player. We have got some brilliant young'uns coming up through the ranks, Time to blood some of them. We are a few weeks away from the start of the season, the superstars should now be back in training, and our new-look team should by now be starting to gel. It's time for GSB to put their money where their mouths are, build on last season, win a cup, and build again. Otherwise, if they have no ambition for the club, pack their bags!

  • Beware Of P/X Offerings From Liverpool

    nevillenixon's picture
    Submitted by nevillenixon on Thu, 22/07/2021 - 18:56

    Nat Phillips is the latest Liverpool player to have been 'linked' with West Ham, the spin and rumour mill, essential elements of any tapping up process are already being put in place. You know the way it works, big club wants player from 'little' club, big club's manager publicly 'admires' player from little club, little club's player's head gets turned, big club's manager then says that he cannot discuss the destination of a player currently signed to another club.

    It's a fit up, pure and simple, not as unfair as say PSG and Manchester City's manipulation of their 'sponsorship' revenues, but nevertheless still a move big clubs get away with, and by big clubs we mean many of the initial members of the 'septic six' breakaway league.

    Liverpool's apparent interest in Jarrod Bowen didn't just happen, it just happened to become news as a result of their media department working overtime, much like C&H do for GSB. The fear of Hammers fans is that the Board will sacrifice Bowen in order to retain Declan Rice, whereas fans would prefer the retention of both players.

    Ironically, one of the reasons Rice has refused to sign a new contract is that he is yet to be convinced that the club will make good their promise of the new acquisitions required in order to make the club regular competitors in European competitions. So selling Jarrod Bowen would hardly send out the best of messages to Hammers talisman would it?

    Liverpool have several 'fringe' players that they would like to punt, the Anfield outfit see West Ham as a club in desperate need of fresh faces, but without a pot to piss in and therefore there for the taking. David Moyes's transfer targets are either being purchased by other clubs or are being priced out of the market by their clubs, not a particularly good set of circumstances to be doing business in.

    West Ham can do better than accepting Liverpool's cast-offs, Bowen is a vital component of the Hammers flying machine that David Moyes has constructed, Bowen's energy is a crucial element of the fast counter attacking Iron's front line. The club is already seriously in danger of losing Declan Rice, losing another vital part of Moyes' young team would be truly catastrophic! - Ed

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  • West Ham Need A Striker, But Tammy Abraham Looks To Be Off The Table

    Submitted by Louis Nixon on Thu, 22/07/2021 - 16:45

    Last season, David Moyes guided West Ham United to a superb sixth-place finish, bringing European football to the club for the coming campaign. However, throughout the season, it was abundantly clear that the Hammers need to reinforce or outright fill several areas of the pitch.

    The first need was at centre-back, but a shrewd £2 million deal to permanently sign Craig Dawson looks to have alleviated that need somewhat.Left-back could also do with a new face but, right now, the focus is on a position that the team continually struggles to get right.

    A goalscoring striker continues to be what the Irons need, and by the looks of it, the lack of a trusted goalscorer is hindering the club’s aspirations.

    Needing a goalscorer before the opening match

    Last season, Michail Antonio (traditionally a wide midfielder) and Tomáš Souček (a defensive midfielder) landed as the top scorers with ten each. Both are fine players, and having them score so many goals is a credit to their athleticism and talent. However, to build on last season, a designated striker is needed.

    This isn’t a new trend, though, with the last time that someone scored more than 12 goals being Carlton Cole in the 2011/12 Championship campaign. The last time someone breached 20 goals was Marlon Harewood in 2004/05, scoring 22 in the Championship.

    Of course, few pundits foresee West Ham repeating the feat that they achieved last season, especially without a go-to striker.In fact, when you bet on football at Space Casino, 23/20 are the odds that you’ll get on the Hammers beating Newcastle United – a team that finished 20 points back in 2020/21 – in the opening game of the season.it also doesn’t help that Moyes averages 1.32 points per match in 28 games against the Magpies.

    Most of the talk since the end of the season has been on West Ham signing Tammy Abraham, who has gone from Chelsea’s go-to striker to playing second fiddle after a tsunami of big-money signings. However, at £45 million, Football London reports that the club is being priced out of a potential deal. Even if Abraham isn’t going to work, the club needs a striker.

    Options if Abraham is off of the table

    West Ham may have made it into Europe, but the club still needs to find value buys – especially as the big-money deals haven’t exactly gone swimmingly over the last few years. The club needs to avoid another Sébastien Haller situation, at the very least, which ended up with them losing £25 million from a £45 million deal that yielded 14 goals and three assists in 54 games.

    Give the team’s prevalence when it comes to cross-assisted goals, headed goals, set-piece goals, and goals from corners, the clearest fit would look to be Wout Weghorst. The towering Dutchman nestled away 25 goals and teed up nine more for VfL Wolfsburg last season.
    Six of those goals came by way of a header, and only two came via penalties, proving the 6’5’’ striker’s ability to score in all situations.

    Another, likely much cheaper, option could be Algerian dynamo Andy Delort. The Montpellier man has put up consistently improving scoring numbers, from 14 goals and seven assists in 2018/19 to 19 goals and nine assists last season.
    He has a knack for firing on goal, averaging 3.0 shots per game in Ligue 1 last season, as well as seeing 26 per cent of his goals coming via a header.

    If London’s Blues continue to want too much for Tammy Abraham, either Weghorst or Delort could prove to be savvy signings that suit the West Ham style of play. -Ed Jnr

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  • Irons Are Only 2 or 3 Short Of The Stack

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    Submitted by nevillenixon on Thu, 22/07/2021 - 12:20

    With 'transfer fever fully blown around the Barclays Premier League, particularly West Ham United's rivals, Hammers fans are beginning to feel increasingly edgy as the transfer window rumbles on with apparent complete inactivity from The London Stadium.

    As we have already written before, over 90% of speculated transfer deals are complete bullshit with the remaining 10% only offering around a 1 in 10 chance of having any truth in them, so essentially only around 1% of what you read eventually turns out to be true.

    Even mentioning the 'S' word makes fans' blood boil given the amount of 'S'trikers Hammers have been linked with, even the expression 'linked' has become hackneyed, linked was probably real back in the day around the same time when Wimpy offered a bender brunch with 'linked' sausages.

    So, Striker, midfield enforcer, left back and goal keeper all need reinforcements, in addition an extra centre back would help. These requirements are known to anyone and everyone, but all is not lost. Hammers famous Academy, which went fully under the radar during the management of Big Sam, Slaven Billic and Manuel Pellegrini, has finally managed to come up trumps with it's current crop of young players, a mixture of boys who have been with the club since early adolescence and youngsters brought in from other clubs.

    Frederik Alves, aged 19, has already been promoted to the first team squad due to his impressive performances, whereas he was originally meant to spend a further year with the U-23's, his progress has been so prolific it would be stupid not to promote him. Alves is just the tip of the iceberg, Thierry Nevers, Levi Laing, Armstrong Okoflex and Pierre Ekwah Elimby have all been quietly recruited by David Moyes during the 'phoney transfer war', they join a whole host of bright youngsters who are just itching to progress.

    Aji Alese, Joseph Anang, Harrison Ashby, Jamal Baptiste, Dan Chesters, Kai Corbett, Conor Coventry, Nathan Holland, Emmanuel Longelo, Mipo Odubeko and Freddie Potts are just some of the 'quality' youth players available, and there are more to follow!

    So if David Moyes can do a 'loaves and fishes' number with his paltry transfer budget and acquire said striker, midfielder, left back and goalkeeper, then things are looking rosy, the club have always generated great players, the last time their was such a plethora of young talent was during the Harry Redknapp era which produced Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand.

    The future will be nowhere near as gloomy as people seem to think it might be, so long as Moyes is given the funds he was promised to do the business HE wants, and not necessarily what the Board wants. -Ed

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  • Irons Cruise To 3-0 Win

    nevillenixon's picture
    Submitted by nevillenixon on Wed, 21/07/2021 - 22:59

    Watching a free streamed game should have been pleasurable, but watching Hammers only striker running around filled Reading's Jeriel Dorsett, under pressure from Issa Diop, knocked the ball into his own net from a corner to give Hammers the lead as half-time approached at the Mad Stad. It was nothing more than the Irons deserved as the team looked to have a decent run out against 'determined opposition.

    The hosts were rather depleted, consequently highly rated Conor Coventry doubled Hammers' lead before the hour mark, tucking home a fine Ben Johnson pass, before Johnson wrapped up the win with a fine solo finish. David Moyes handed starts to both Coventry and Armstrong Oko-Flex alongside captain Mark Noble in central midfield, and the former Celtic man set up Pablo Fornals for his attempt on goal inside four minutes.

    It was a relatively even first half until Jarrod Bowen's corner deflected off Dorsett for the opener, Hammers always looked in control and were never in any difficulty against the chamionship side. Said Benrahma was among the half-time introductions, and he was involved in the build-up for the second goal, as Nathan Holland played in Johnson to tee up Coventry for a tap in. Holland almost scored himself, after great work from Manuel Lanzini, another half-time substitution, but was tackled while about to strike.

    Johnson then jinked past three before slotting home, and Benrahma had a late volley that flew agonisingly off target.-Ed

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  • Media Disrespect Irons Over Bowen 'Transfer'

    Submitted by Louis Nixon on Wed, 21/07/2021 - 17:34

    Perhaps it is the current heatwave that is making Hammers fans' blood boil, or the lack of any signings, or perhaps the disrespect the media have shown to the club with their 'coverage' of Liverpool's interest in signing Jarrod bowen. They need to be reminded that despite it's owners, West Ham are a club moving forwards, thanks to their manager David Moyes.

    So the contemptuous coverage of Liverpool's interest in Bowen shows astonishing disrespect, their inference being that if a club like Liverpool comes calling, Hammers players would down tools and jump at the chance of moving to Anfield. That may have been the case back in the Yossi Beneayoun era, but not now!

    There is even talk that Liverpool would graciously allow the Irons to take Xherdan Shaqiri in exchange for the winger who scored ten goals last time out in the Barclays Premier League, what a load of tosh! Shaqiri is the polar opposite of a Moyes type of player, the Swiss International shone at the Euros but definitely falls into the 'talented but lazy' category of club football.

    Hammers wafer thin squad urgently needs strengthening, letting Jarrod Bowen go would be suicidal and something David Moyes would not countenance, unless of course Liverpool offer in the region of £50-60 Million, which is highly unlikely, so hopefully these disrespectful rumours will disappear from whence they came. -Ed

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  • Sound Hog Day-Sassuolo's Berardi

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    Submitted by nevillenixon on Wed, 21/07/2021 - 15:52

    Sassuolo's 26 year old striker, Domenico Berardi, is the latest in an incredibly long line of forwards being 'linked' with West Ham, the source of news about this most recent supposed target is a well respected journalist. Now recently there have been so many reports from 'respected journalists' that it raises a journalistic question.

    How is it that there are so many 'respected journalists? During what is quite a long career in journalism, the amount of 'truly' respected journalists I have encountered can be counted on one hand. The words true and respected are about as far away from journalism as is humanly possible, where the adage is normally, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, so who is elevated to being respectable and why?

    The reason 'respected' journalists are quoted, is in order for other 'journalists' to use or more commonly fabricate a story citing the 'respected' one as their source, usually from a publication or site written in a different language to ensure the bull is not detected. When it comes to West Ham rumours, we call it 'Soundhog day', every year a different story but with the same eventual outcome.

    People aren't that stupid are they? Well of course they are, they are encouraged to lap up gossip at every opportunity by those clubs wanting to spin their fans a yarn, when it comes to that particular skill, West Ham can spin enough yarn to clothe a nation!

    News of a 'potential' takeover is periodically 'leaked' to the media in order to 'keep fans informed', whereas the real reason is to add a little more smoke to the mirrors already firmly in place. The latest 'release' that has suddenly seeped out is of Liverpool's apparent interest in Hammers winger Jarrod Bowen, fans see interest in one of the current squad by a 'high flying' team as a source of pride and should feel gratified that the club have such players, seems to be the mind set of the club's hierarchy.

    So you will excuse us if we take the 'latest' story doing the rounds with a truck load of salt, but we have been here before, there is as much chance of Domenico Berardi arriving at the London Stadium as there is of Lionel Messi, unless they are coming as guests for the Atalanta Betway Cup game! - Ed

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  • Pereira Won't 'Costa' Half Of Lingard-Better Deal?

    nevillenixon's picture
    Submitted by nevillenixon on Wed, 21/07/2021 - 09:42

    Matheus Fellipe Costa Pereira is a 25 year old Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or right winger. Given Hammers recent 'dalliance' with exotic Brazilian midfielder/wingers in the form of Felipe Anderson, a liaison which was catastrophically unsuccessful, why are fans clambering for the club to sign another player of exactly the same ilk?

    Well, although Pereira shares the same birthplace, he doesn't share the same work ethic, namely he puts himself about, never shirks a tackle and is NOT intimidated by burly centre backs or strapping midfield enforcers. Ironically he kept ex-Hammer Grady Diangana out of West Brom's starting line up, despite the fact the Baggies paid more than twice the price for Grady as opposed to that which they paid for Pereira.

    Along with other Irons' target, Sam Johnstone, Pereira was West Brom's stand out player in an otherwise desperately poor season which saw them relegated straight back from where they had come from! That is not to say that Pereira won't shine in a 'proper' top flight team.

    In fact given the chances that were regularly created, but not converted, by West Ham last season, there could indeed be the mouth watering prospect of him linking up with the forward line to further enhance Hammers 'need for speed' if he moves to the London Stadium.

    Pereira's dead ball capabilities are an added and significant bonus, a quality recently lacking in David Moyes's squad. The only fly in the ointment is the Baggies valuation of the player they signed for just £8.5 Million just before the beginning of last season having turned his loan deal from Sporting CP into a permanent one.

    It is rumoured that West Brom are asking as much as £30 Million for Pereira, however that figure is incredibly optimistic given the current state of financial affairs due to th eCovid pandemic, a figure of around half of that would be more realistic and possibly just within the reach of David Moyes' slender transfer kitty.

    Obviously the interest in Pereira is a direct result of Manchester United's intransigence regarding the eventual destination of Jesse lingard, Moyes would be more than stupid if he put all his eggs in one basket, especially given United's genuine fear of being overhauled by a bunch of what they see as East End Pikey's.

    The Red Devils will do all that they can to be awkward over the Lingard transfer and will wring things out until the last possible moment, a situation that Hammers need to be wary of. It seems that Moyes isn't prepared to 'dance the dance' with his former employers regarding Lingard and that is how it should be.

    Yes Moyes would 'love' lingard to become part of his set up, but he won't allow himself to be pressurised by ever increasing and unreasonable demands. Pereira represents a serious alternative to Lingard, he is four years younger and while he may have a lot to learn, could be just the player to fill Lingard's void, and he will probably end up costing much less.

    We don't mind whether Moyes brings in Lingard or Pereira, so long as he brings one of them!- Ed

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