Really bunching up from 4th to 10th now. Everyone will be fighting for those spots. Chelsea bubbling up quickly, Everton in good form, Liverpool not going to give up, Stoke, Watford and West Brom will all want to finish as high as possible. Don't want to mention Southampton. Are we up for it. Wednesday's match will tell a lot. Spurs can go top of the table on goal difference with a win over us. But we have a point to prove. Most exciting season in AGES.
The names (as voted by fans) for those Hammers to be immortalised have been announced by the club and the list is thus, Bobby Moore, Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Ron Greenwood, John Lyall, Paolo di Canio, julian Dicks, Mark Noble, Billy Bonds, Sir Trevor Brooking and the late Dylan Tombides. Personally I have nothing against any of the aforementioned but some notable absentees for me. Do any of you really think that Paolo, Julian or Mark deserve to be on this list? I have always been a big fan of The Terminator (our Dicksy) who always gave more than 100% in Claret and Blue, Paolo was (at his best) one of the most gifted players to grace the Boleyn and Nobes yep love the guy true loyalty and more than any other season this is certainly (IMHO) his very best. But some (for me at least) glaring ommissions.. Arnold Hills (club founder) , Paynter and King (the men who guided the Hammers through it's infancy, Wally St Pier the scout who brought us Moore, Hurst and Peters, Tony Carr? but what about Malcolm Allison who thought of the Academy, Frank Lampard Snr who along with Bonzo and Sir Trev won 2 FA Cups, a Div II (record breaking) Championship, a ECWC and League Cup Final? Alvin Martin, Steve Potts? Vic Watson our all time leading goalscorer, Phil Parkes (no keepers on the original final list) or Ron 'Ticker' Boyce , Budgie Byrne, or more lately Ray Stewart? What would your list be who would you (if any) take out and replace? I would love to see your suggestions.
Three points in the bag doesn't really sum up yesterday's narrow 1-0 victory over Sunderland in the Black Cat's final visit to the Boleyn Ground, prior to the match there was much made of Sam Allardyce's return to the club he managed for four years and the type of reception that he would receive. Fortunately Allardyce was given 'polite' applause which disappointed those in the media who wanted to project West Ham as a club with deluded owners and ungrateful fans, in fact the only boos and jeering were directed at ex-Hammer Jermaine Defoe, who was poorly guided when he slapped in a transfer request just moments after Hammers were relegated under Glenn Roeder.
West Ham's co-owners, their manager, the players and the fans ensured that there was no bad feelings, Big Sam was obviously receptive as can be seen by his twitter comments on Sunday morning with the message: "Want to thank all the West Ham fans who gave me a good reception yesterday! Thoroughly enjoyed my time at the club & wish them all the best." Allardyce also signed autographs at half time and made a smiling cameo whilst depriving Aaron Creswell of the ball on the touch line for a throw in. All in all it was a good day for everyone, except for the Sunderland supporters who had to get up at the crack of dawn for the early kick off only to see their team outplay the opposition but still lose.
West Ham will really have to up their game if they are going to get anything from Wednesday evening's derby against high flying Tottenham, Slaven Billic described the performance and the crowd as 'a little flat', this he put down to the fact that the game kicked off so early, the Boleyn at night is a different story and West Ham owe Tottenham a tonking as they are the only team to have comprehensively beaten the club all season! - Ed
I'm thinking of getting one next year. Anyone know the routine? Heard altho it might be wrong that 43000 have already been sold!
more to the point beware the whole month.....this is without doubt going to be slavens toughest test yet. spuds up first under the lights so hopefully a better display than what was served up yesterday against sunderland and make no doubt about it unless we are at our best against the spuds(much as I hate to say it)we will struggle because they are a very good side...hot on the heels of that match we face everton our bogey team so that's two very hard fixtures to start with...follow that with our cup match at manure and whilst not the power they once were its another hard match after that its chelski and again its not the team we beat in October this is a team of top players who have got the monkey off there back called moanrino and are playing more like what they are capable of.....so that's march bloody tough for sure and april starts with to local derbies as in palace and arsenal so the next few weeks will tell us a even more about our talented squad I just hope we don't start slow in any of those matches COYI
West Ham: 13 Adrian 22 Sam Byram 21 Angelo Ogbonna 19 James Collins 3 Aaron Cresswell 8 Cheikhou Kouyate 16 Mark Noble (c) 28 Manuel Lanzini 30 Michail Antonio 29 Emmanuel Emenike 27 Dimitri Payet Subs1 Darren Randolph 4 Alex Song 9 Andy Carroll 14 Pedro Obiang 20 Victor Moses 25 Doneil Henry 35 Reece Oxford
Sunderland: Vito Mannone 24 DeAndre Yedlin 23 Lamine Kone 16 John O'Shea (c) 3 Patrick van Aanholt 27 Jan Kirchhoff 10 Dame N'Doye 6 Lee Cattermole 21 Yann M'Vila 22 Wahbi Khazri 18 Jermain Defoe Subs2 Billy Jones 7 Sebastian Larsson 8 Jack Rodwell 9 Fabio Borini 13 Jordan Pickford 15 Younes Kaboul 20 Ola Toivonen
Q1. Which club did Sam allardyce manage that were relegated during his time at the helm?
Q2. Which player was described as 10 years before his time?
Q3. Name the cryptic players
A) which ghastly former player would not want to find at the bottom of your bed when seriously ill.
B) not Willems son
C) former delivery man in the old smoke
Q4. Within Which former player played 3 games for West Ham of which one was out of position that resulted in a win for the hammers at Highbury against all odds this century?
Q5. Name the former hammers that played in the 2008 fa cup final.
Ahead of this lunch time's Barclays Premier League fixture against relegation threatened Sunderland, West Ham manager Slaven Billic has a couple of pleasant selection head aches. Primarily who does he play at right back, Sam Byram who is now available having been cup tied, or retain Mikael Antonio who performed so well against Blackburn in the 5-1 FA Cup victory? Billic also has to decide whether to give Emmanuel Emenike his first EPL start, or start the incredibly fragile Andy Carroll, as Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho are both unavailable through injury. Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce will have prepared his players diligently in order that they can stifle the team he once managed and then go for a smash and grab raid! It should not be forgotten that Allardyce has history when it comes to 'parking the bus', he also has a certain Jermaine Defoe available who loves nothing more than scoring against the club he abandoned to go and play for north london's second team. Hopefully the contest will be devoid of unnecessary and unsavoury chants about Sam Allardyce or particularly Adam Johnson, in these circumstances it is far better to let the football do the talking! - Ed
OK so as the headline states, we all know what FIFA is. Some of us may have always known, but nevertheless it's finally out there. Personally I couldn't really give a stuff. But seeing as how most of us love the beautiful game, you cant ignore it. For me the thing FIFA have to do is get some credibility back, but is that really going to be possible? I'm pretty sure all of the 5 candidates knew what was going on at FIFA before it all came out. So, how the hell are we supposed to believe they've suddenly gone straight? I'm pretty sure as the day progresses it will turn into yet another debacle. Anyway, will anyone really understand what's going on 15 rounds of voting later? Answers on a postcard..!
To read some of the comments trawled out about Sam Allardyce by his sycophantic pals in the media ahead of his Sunderland team's visit to the Boleyn Ground for this Saturday's early 12;45 kick off, one could be forgiven if one thought that Big Sam was a saviour who rode in and rescued a "club that was on it's knees" single handedly! There is no mention of the massive salary he received or the fact that he was backed financially by the board on numerous occasions for several dubious purchases. Allardyce did bring Adrian to the club and a few others, he did get the club promoted at the first attempt albeit by the skin of it's teeth, and kept the club up in the promised land that is the Barclays Premier League, but he never took to the fans and the fans never took to him, the words 'super sam allardyce' never rang out at the Boleyn nor any where else come to think about. The fact is Big Sam did what he was paid to do, end of, he isn't owed any great respect although the Boleyn faithful will know it is always better to let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to returning players/managers in order not to give them any extra motivation to get a result! Allardyce should be treated just like any other visiting manager no better and no worse. The press will be out in force and would dearly love to portray West Ham fans as deluded, whereas it is they who clearly are. The sad thing is, there are so many of them, about as many as you can get around a large swimming pool in a gratis Algarve holiday home! - Ed
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