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Julian Dicks’ exclusive column

Can Downing put his Liverpool nightmare behind him?

Striker crisis? Do me a favour!

Time for Allardyce to reveal plan B

Will Petric have an impact?

& much more

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After a poor performance against Stoke, I felt we did reallywell to pick up a point at Southampton but the visit ofEverton this weekend will prove to be our toughest test sofar this season.

The news of Andy Carroll’s injury also concerns megreatly and I’m sure most of you would agree, the soonerhe gets back the better! Having said that I’m intrigued tosee how Petric fits into our team, assuming he gets agame anytime soon, and whether or not Big Sam will lookto change things around without a target man up top.

Looking at this week’s issue and I’m delighted toannounce that Julian Dicks has agreed to write a monthlycolumn for us. He was one of my heroes growing up and Ihope you will enjoy his no-nonsense, straight-talkingcolumns this season.

We’ve also got a brilliant piece by Bill West on theimpact Petric could have on our squad and another stat-crazy article by Lucy Woolford. Like it or hate it, BrianWilliams is also back with another “Dear Sam” column -when will he start receiving emails from the gaffer again?!

With away games at Hull and Spurs coming up after thisweekend’s Everton clash, we’ve also got three oppositionviews. They are all well worth a read and offer a greatinsight into these clubs ahead of our games.

As for our clash against the Toffees, I really hope we canpick up all three points but I think this can only happen if weget a couple of penalties. I am, therefore, going for a 2-1win with two penalties slammed home by Mark Noble.

EDITOR: David BlackmoreNEWS EDITOR: Alex ShillingCONTRIBUTORS: Julian Dicks,Lucy Woolford, Thomas Johnson,Brian Williams, Andrew Hosie,,Bill West, Tim Holland, MarcusJohns, David Meagher

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES:EMAIL: editor@blowing-bubbles.co.uk

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WHERE YOU CAN READ IT:Blowing Bubbles is available tobuy prior to each home gameand is also available to read onyour PC, Mac, Tablet or Mobile.For more information visitwww.blowing-bubbles.co.uk.

TO CONTACT BLOWINGBUBBLES:Email: editor@blowing-bubbles.co.uk

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(c) Blowing BubblesDavid BlackmoreEditor

Hello and welcome to thefirst of a series of columns I’llbe writing for BlowingBubbles this season.

Every month, I’ll be givingmy thoughts on all thingsWest Ham for you, the fans,to chew over. Plenty to talkabout so I might as well getstuck in!

I watched us play quite abit last season with my workfor BBC London andsometimes it was a bitboring but football is all aboutgetting results and that’swhat we did last season.

When Sam Allardycecame in, if someone had toldthe fans he would get uspromoted in the first seasonand in the next season finish10th in the Premier League,I’m sure 99 per cent of fanswould have taken that and Ithink West Ham had a greatseason last season.

I know a lot of fansdisrespect Sam Allardyceabout his style of play but weplayed some great footballlast season. I think Sam is anexperienced managerwhatever people think of him.

His teams are always wellorganised and don’tconceded many goals.

But this season I would liketo see a bit more footballplayed and another striker uptop with Andy Carroll.

Last season he was up topby himself a lot but he winsso much in the air and holdsthe ball up really well but at

times there was neveranyone to play to.

Having heard SamAllardyce speak last season,you would think we wereplaying 4-3-3 when the realitywas we played 4-5-1 and attimes it showed.

I am looking forward toseeing more of Matt Jarvisand Stewart Downingcharging down both flanksthis season.

Both are brilliant crossersof the ball and I bet AndyCarroll can’t wait to getplaying again because theseguys will be firing gooddeliveries from both sides.

I think Downing has alsogot quite a bit to prove

because when he went toLiverpool from Villa, he didn’tperform.

Hopefully he has come to aside where he can play howhe wants to play.

For me I think what wespent on Andy Carroll wasway too much money.

Having said that I like hisstyle of play and he gets theteam going when he is firing.

But for £15 million he hasto be more prolific for me andscore 15 to 20 goals aseason.

It’s the same for KevinNolan. When he’s scoringgoals he is fine but when heisn’t scoring goals, I don’tthink he brings anything else

Julian Dicks

Julian is available to give your team [adults and kids] a professionalcoaching session on an hourly, weekly or monthly basis

to the side. He needs to bedoing a lot more.

There is no denying he is agood captain and I know hisgame is to ghost into the boxunmarked to score but I thinkhe needs to be doing morefor the team.

Just look at players likeAlan Shearer who when hewasn’t scoring goals would beworking hard to createchances for others.

Looking ahead to thisseason and I think we have tocontinue to progress and wehave to finish 10th or above.

We have the players to dothis so long as we keepeveryone fit.

You look at some of theother clubs outside the topfive and they are fairlyaverage and nothing specialto be honest. I really do

believe we have the players toget at least 10th again.

I think the three teams whocame up last season will gostraight back down becausethey haven’t got the qualityand they aren’t big clubs, likeus or Newcastle.

It’s not all about spendingmega bucks to stay in thePremier League – it’s abouthaving a strong core ofplayers, keeping them fit andmaking sure your home formis good.

Home form is key and if anyof the promoted clubs startplaying well at home, theymight surprise me.

Moving onto the OlympicStadium saga and I havenever wanted to move there.

I can remember the firsttime I played at Upton Park –it was scary!

I was only 17 and wasplaying for Birmingham atthe time and thought it wasthe scariest place on earth.

But when I was playing forWest Ham it was the bestplace in the world. Theground was tight and theatmosphere was electric –especially under the lights.

I think for all the family togo to the Olympic Stadium itshould be £30. You hear theterm “affordable” bandedabout a lot these days andmore often than not, it is notaffordable at all.

Upton Park wasn’tcompletely full for everyhome game last season andI think going from a 35,000seater to 55,000 seater,you need to find another20,000 people so you haveto make it affordable.

A lot of my friends can’tafford to go to watch theirteam play at the momentbecause it is just tooexpensive at Upton Park.

I’ve never been for movingaway from Upton Parkbecause it is a fantasticstadium.

People have said to methat when we move to theOlympic Stadium we willbring in better players butthat’s a load of rubbish.

A stadium doesn’t attractbetter players – a goodmanager, money andwinning trophies does.

Contact Julian by emailing him on juliandicks3@icloud.com orfollowing him on Twitter @Julian3Dicks

Last week West Ham finallysigned a decent back-upstriker. No, it wasn’t CarltonCole, it was Croatian MladenPetric.

The 32-year-old had beenwithout a club since leavingFulham in the summer. Hehas signed a deal with theHammers until the end of theseason. He may be comingtowards the end of his careerbut I believe Petric couldmake an impact once he getsback his match fitness.

Petric had a blisteringstart at Fulham last season,scoring two goals andproviding an assist in theopening day win overNorwich.

However, the rest of theseason didn’t go to plan andhe ended up with five goals in23 Premier Leagueappearances. That statdoesn’t sound great, butwhat has to be taken intoconsideration is he wasbehind Dimitar Berbatov inthe Fulham pecking order,and of those 23 games, onlyaround 10 were starts.

Apart from his spell inWest London, Petric hasbeen prolific throughout hisleague career.

He scored 38 in 99 gamesfor Hamburg, 13 in 29 forBorussia Dortmund and 38in 72 for Basel. Plus, he’snetted 13 in 45 for Croatia.

His most famous Croatiangoal is without doubt the 25-yard stunner which beatEngland 3-2 at Wembley,meaning the Three Lionsfailed to qualify for Euro2008.

After the match, herefused to swap his jersey,saying: "This is the proudestmoment of my career. I didn'twant to swap this jersey foranything."

That goal against Englandshowed fantastic technique,which he shows on a regularbasis. After Pertic wassigned by West Ham, SkySports News showed hisgoals from last season.

One goal away at QueensPark Rangers was betterthan his Croatia goal atWembley. It whistled into thetop corner from around thesame distance. A top strike,and hopefully we’ll see a fewmore in his time at UptonPark.

In terms of his goals togames ratio, he is betterthan a 1 in 3 forward,something that none of thestrikers at West Hampossess.

When Andy Carroll finallymakes his comeback frominjury, he has the capacity toscore 1 in 3, but he doesn’thave that record currently.

Modibo Maïga had a goodrecord at Sochaux, with 24goals in 59 Ligue 1 games.

But he must have eitherplayed with top players orplayed against rubbishdefences because he hasshown not even a glimpse ofthat kind of form in hisHammers career.

Ricardo Vaz Te was brilliantfor West Ham in theChampionship butunfortunately he’s nottranslated that form into thetop flight. Yes, Vas Te wasinjured for part of last seasonand played out wide but youwould still expect better thanthree in the league season.

Petric might be in thetwilight of his career, but hisexperience and eye for goalmay prove vital for us.

Bill West

Why I’mtipping Petricto make animpact

We’ve all heard theunfortunate stat about StuartDowning’s creative prowessin one particular season. Ifyou haven’t, I’ll remind you - inhis 2011/12 season withLiverpool, he failed to provideany assists, including totarget man Andy Carroll,despite playing 36 games forthe Reds.

Doesn’t sound great doesit? As a lone stat, this soundspoor for a man who chargesup and down the wing,whipping in crosses, but theblame can’t solely lay on him.

Pondering this factprompted me to try and findsome positives about theEngland international by the

way of statistics and opinionson the 29 year old.

West Ham is Downing’sfourth Premier League club,and I think it’s fair to say he’sbeen highly thought of atmost.

Despite a slow start withMiddlesbrough, he lit up theleague and ended up with anEngland call up from Sven. Healso received high praisefrom Lazio’s Fernando Coutofollowing an impressive UEFACup performance.

Although he didn’t have amassive assist total in thePremier League for AstonVilla (10 in 63 appearances)he did score 9 and wassubsequently valued ataround £20 million by Villa.

This was the reported feehe was believed to joinLiverpool for. Of course, he’san English player, so thisprobably isn’t a truereflection of his value butnonetheless, Liverpoolwanted him enough to paythe price.

On the last day of that2011/12 season atLiverpool, Downing hit the barwith his last shot of thecampaign. In his entireLiverpool career, he managed123 shots on goal, three ofwhich were converted.

Ok, so that’s a conversionrate of 2.4%, but let’scompare that to “veteranstriker” Carlton Cole whose2012/13 campaign saw him

Lucy Woolford

CanDowningputLiverpoolnightmarebehindhim?

as the worst striker in theleague with a conversion rateof 6%.

We didn’t buy Downing forgoals but to think that he’salmost half as good as a manwho may become our mainstriker is interesting to saythe least.

If we want to compareDowning’s success on thewing, the obvious comparisonwould be to Matt Jarvis.

Unfortunately for Downing,Jarvis came out of lastseason with the mostflattering title of “best crosserin the league” or words tothat effect! Yes, Jarvis hadthe most successful crossesin the league in 2012/13, soDowning has got to go someto beat that. I quite like theidea of competing crossersthough.

Thanks to Jarvis’ effortslast season, West Ham hadthe highest percentage ofcrosses that foundteammates with a 24.5%success rate. Liverpool,interestingly, were fourthfrom bottom with 14.5%. Nota glowing review, I know.

Unfortunately, this articlewas planned before the newsthat Andy Carroll hadsuffered a serious lookinginjury in training for hisreturn.

My aim was to shout fromthe rooftops that West Hamhave finally got some great

prospects with tricky wingersand a hungry target man, butthat’s all changed.

The signing of MladenPetri  will provide Downingwith a goal poacher to aim atso we can only keep ourfingers crossed that anunderstanding partnershipwill blossom pretty sharpish.

As any good West Hamsigning tends to be, Downinghas been plagued withinjuries, which may be justone contributing factor to hisslightly more modest £6million price tag this timearound (nearing 30 andlacking high assist numbersmay be the others) but to hiscredit, he has a reputationfor being a persistent tryer.

I know sometimes that’snot enough but if Downingcan keep fit and Carroll caneventually do likewise, hisdetermination will pay off.

Unlike so many of oursignings, Downing has beenever present in the PremierLeague. He hasn’t come fromsome far away land with noexperience and he isn’tnearing 40 years old.

His stats may not put thefear into the opposition, butlike so many players, I thinkDowning needs confidence.

If regular football and a fewassists can come fairly soonafter his return from injury,he may prove to be worth hisprice tag (which is still lessthan Jarvis’, it has to be said).

Want one last fact to keepyou going? Stewart Downingis a keen DJ, and plays “funkyhouse” tunes. Didn’t expectthat, did you?

Follow me on Twitter@lucy_whufc

If you’re as intent oninternally torturing yourselfas I am, you may well haveseen an article in the DailyMirror last Tuesday byDuncan Wright, addressingwhat he described as the‘West Ham striker crisis.’

Now, this piece went upwent up on Tuesdayafternoon so naturally, Iassumed Mr Wright hadwritten it before the signingof Mladen Petric wasannounced. But no: “WestHam have Maiga and nowPetric.”

Evidently, having three fitsenior strikers (two of theminternationals) and oneEngland international strikerworking on his comebackqualifies as a ‘crisis.’

I’d hate to think what theesteemed author made ofthe summer of 2008, wherethe Hammers paid a transferfee for only one player (£5mfor Valon Behrami fromLazio) and ended up playingthe bumbling David DiMichele and the dog-tiredDiego Tristan up front formost of the season!

Let’s be clear about this. Itwould have been infinitelypreferable that SamAllardyce had put theremainder of our transferbudget towards anotherstriker, instead of splashingout on a hugely overratedwinger who couldn’t get inthe worst Liverpool team I’veever seen but he didn’t, andnow appears to haveabandoned the 2011/2012plan to turn the club into‘West Ham Wanderers’ infavour of an updated 2013plan to turn us into ‘LiverpoolHam United’.

We haven’t strengthenedthe frontline like most of ushoped we would but this doesnot mean the situation is acrisis, far from it.

Mr Wright acknowledgesin his article that ‘Big Sam’steams are always organised,disciplined and hard to beat’.

Quite so. It is teams likethis which Allardyce has builtwhich have ensured that hehas never once beenrelegated in a managerialcareer spanning 22 years.

Yeah alright, I know WestBrom got relegated toLeague One for the only timein their history in 1991 withBig Sam on the coachingstaff, but that was only asassistant player-manager, sowe’re not going to count thatone.

The point is that with SamAllardyce as your manager,you know what you will get.You will not get a lot of goalsbut you will get a soliddefence.

Alex Shilling

Strikercrisis? Dome afavour!

You will also pick up a lot ofyellow cards and you will get aphenomenally boringassistant manager.

There is a reason whyAllardyce has never beenrelegated (in a seniormanagerial capacity) in hisentire managerial career.

He sets his sides up exactlythe same way, building fromthe back, through midfieldand anything up front is abonus.

His teams will never getrelegated but they won’t tearup many trees either,

Bolton in 2004/2005 wasthe result of many long hardslogs over several season;

Allardyce was a Revie-esque figure at Bolton andachieved a very particularkind of success there basedon a very particularrelationship he had with hisplayers. It remains to be seenwhether he can repeat thatkind of relationship with theplayers here. They certainlyseem to like him.. Mr Vaz Teaside. Talking of the snapbackconnoisseur himself, we havea potentially decent PremierLeague striker if two thingshappen.

Firstly Allardyce buildssome bridges with Vaz Te andpublicly ruffles his hair andrefers to him as ‘a good lad’and secondly Allardycefollows this up by, when welack a centre forward in theabsence of Carroll, playing theone fit senior centre forwardwe have available (RVT) asopposed to sending out thepacy but lightweight Maiga. Ifthose two things happen and

Vaz Te starts to enjoy hisfootball again, we could havea #Baller on our hands.

In Maiga as well, we have adecent striker. Fans quick tocriticise him for hisperformances so far thisseason are quick to forget hisimpressive performances asan impact substitute lastseason. Goals againstSouthampton and Chelseashortly after coming on assub showed that the Maliinternational is capable ofscoring goals at this level.

It sounds a simple thing butnever underestimate theadded quality boost playingplayers in their correctpositions can give your teamas a manager.

In the absence of Carroll,Vaz Te should be playingcentre forward and Maigashould be playing off hisshoulder. Done.

And what of Petric? Fivegoals in 23 appearances in aprevious spell at Fulhamdoesn’t leave him exactlysteaming hot, but the bloke isan international and Croatiaaren’t bad these days.

We could have done a lotworse in terms of a freesigning and he deserves hischance. The fact is that WestHam United have beenthrough striker crises beforeand this is not one of them.

Yes, our best striker is outinjured but we have three fitsenior forwards raring to goand eager to prove a point, aswell as some great youngplayers.

Add that to the fact thatour defence is the strongestit’s been since 85/86 andthose claiming we’re in themidst of a crisis really shouldbuy a dictionary.

So Carroll’s injured. Again.Now, more than ever, the

failure to sign an additionalstriker in the transfer windowis becoming a full on disaster.

So desperate have we beento add firepower, we turnedback to Carlton Cole beforesigning Mladen Petric - aplayer deemed surplus torequirements at Fulham.

No disrespect to the lad butcan we fans really be excitedby the arrival of a cast offfrom a club who finished threeplaces below us last year?

But we are where we are.Ifs buts and maybes will haveto be consigned to historycome Saturday, as weprepare to take on Everton.What I find interesting though,is how we aim to take onEverton and indeed the rest of

the Premier League betweennow and Andy Carroll’s return.

Despite his critics claiminghe has steered us away from“The West Ham Way” it isdifficult to argue SamAllardyce’s way of lining us uphasn’t worked.

We are harder to beat,tight at the back and thesystem allows midfielders toget beyond the striker andinto dangerous positions.

Yet for each of his twoseasons, this system hasbeen played with Carlton Coleor Andy Carroll – both big,strong target men whocannot be faulted for theircontribution to the team.

Without either of these touse as the go to guy, what canwe expect?

Maiga has clearly not fittedinto this system, and Petric,

having been without a clubduring preseason, is clearlynot going to be match fit.

And even when he is, muchlike Maiga, he has traditionallyplayed his football as a secondstriker, rather than an out andout target man.

This leaves us with the onlyother recognised seniorforward at the club in Vaz Te,another known for playing offa big man, rather thancompeting for high balls,holding it up and bringingothers into the game.

So where does this leaveSam’s tried and testedformula? Should Downing befit to return, one possibilitywould be to bring Morrisoninto the centre of midfield andpush Nolan forward into thenumber 9 role. Unlikely, butanyone witnessing Maiga’s

Moore Than Just A Club: Marcus Johns

Time forAllardyce toreveal plan B

performance against Stokewould have been happy for thisto be tried out.

Perhaps then, the solution isnot to fit players into a systemthat doesn’t suit them, butinstead to look at what playerswe have available, and workout the best way to utilise theplayers we do have available.

Now I’m not expecting Samto go all out and play twostrikers but the 4-5-1 or 4-3-3formation can be useddifferently to the way he playsit. If Maiga, Petric and Vaz Teare unable to play the role thatCarroll and Cole did. why askthem too?

Why not instead drop Nolanin deeper alongside Diame andNoble to outnumber andfrustrate, utilising the pacethat a forward three of Jarvis,Vaz Te and Morrison couldoffer you as a counterattacking option. Then, theoption of bringing on Petrichalfway through the secondhalf will provide an option toeither go two up top, or keepto the same formation.

I think I speak for most fanswhen I say that I don’t want tosee a repeat of the Stokedebacle, whereby a flat refusalto change tactics saw Maigahung out to dry and the teamfail to function.

But is Sam too rigid toadapt to a Plan B? How do youthink he’ll line the team upagainst Everton and whatwould you do differently if youwere in charge?

For more articleslike this visit

moorethanjustaclub.com

After an excellent pre-seasonand solid start over the firsttwo games, the visit of StokeCity really brought Hammersfans back down to earth witha sickening thud.

It wasn’t just thedisappointing result, which infairness Stoke City diddeserve but the fact thatthey were able to expose justhow limited our offensiveoptions are.

To call us one-dimensionalwould be to suggest that wehad a discernible shape andplan, but sadly this was hardto detect as we just engagedin a largely unstructured,bitty encounter where therewas no sense at any stage

that West Ham were goingto unlock the Potters’ cage.

Even worse, despite ourseemingly endless supply ofmidfield options, N’Zonzibossed the midfield,reminding us of last season’sencounters against theFrenchman.

Thankfully, theinternational break providedsome time to lick our woundsand reconfigure – exceptthat will now be without AlouDiarra for the rest of theseason and, at leasttemporarily, Joe Cole andStewart Downing.

Added to the difficulties inidentifying new attackingoptions and the emergingnews that Andy Carroll’s

injury woes will continue ‘foran indefinite period’ suddenlyall is not so chirpy around theBoleyn.

The spectacle of aHammers side coming outon top in an away trip toBarcelona (albeit in a friendlyagainst Espanyol rather thanthe mighty Barca!) has donelittle to lift the spirits as thiswas really a run out for thekids rather than a collisionbetween two combative firstelevens.

So where are we in thePremiership pecking orderright now and what can werealistically expect from thisseason?

First up, dreams ofEuropean adventures are

David Meagher

Reality bites:Where are we inthe Premiershippecking order?

premature – the currentsquad is woefully lacking inattacking options both inrespect of personnel as wellas an effective plan B formatches where ourpreferred physical approachfails.

Sure, Jarvis, Cole, andDowning can provide excitingattacking options but they areunlikely as individuals toprovide a steady stream ofgoals as they are betterdesigned to provide assiststhan to fill the onion sackthemselves.

Captain Kev can beexpected to chip in with adecent haul of goals but hislegs are ageing and lastseason’s double figures tallywas considerably bolsteredby a meaningless final dayhat-trick against alreadyrelegated Reading.

On the bright side, RavelMorrison looks like he can bea real attacking threat frommidfield but in his firstPremiership season it wouldbe unreasonable to expecttoo much and Sam does tendto be frustratinglyconservative whenintroducing young talent tothe rigors of the top flight.

So, after failing to land astriker before the closure ofthe transfer window, we havebeen left to trawl through theleft-overs.

The arrival of MladenPetric provides some causefor optimism.

Although now in theautumn of his career at 32years of age, he has a pretty

consistent record of a goalevery three games acrossthe Swiss and Germanleagues over more than adecade and his time atCraven Cottage last yearcould be seen as a usefulacclimatising period for thepace of the Premiership.

But it’s hard to get tooexcited by the signing of aplayer deemed surplus toFulham’s requirements.

Maybe Carlton Cole canyet prove his fitness and addto his modest Hammers tallyof a goal every four games?Either way, it’s hardly aseason-changer!

On the positive side,whatever happens up front,we can expect to remainsolid in defence.

The back four is not onlyexperienced and well attunedto each other, butstrengthened by the arrival ofthe experienced Ratzvan Rat.

Moreover, the presence ofDiame and Noble providesthat important extra layer ofprotection. Jussi is simply toolong in the tooth to changehis reliable ways!

Finally, it’s worthconsidering whether wecould we find ourselvesinvolved in a nasty relegationbattle?

Think of the worst casescenario – Carroll’s injurypersists, Cole and some ofour other injury-prone squadexperience niggly injuries thatprevent us from playing aconsistent first team and,God forbid, any of Reid,Collins, Diame or Nolan getinjured.

Could we find ourselves inreal trouble?

Big Sam is a big fan ofstatistics and a littleintelligence gathering fromthe Premiership over thepast five seasons makes forinteresting consideration.

Much as goals win gamesand games won really pushon the points tally, it isinteresting that acomparison of the threerelegated sides versus thosewho fared next worst (i.e.finished 15th to 17th) ineach season really highlightshow goals concededcontribute to a club’srelegation much more than adeficit of goals scored.

The fifteen sides relegatedover the five years scored2.6 goals less per seasonthan the three survivingrelegation battlers, whilst forgoals conceded thedifference between these twogroups was a massive 25goals per season.

In fact, for two of the threeseasons the three relegatedsides outscored the nextthree survivors.

For the ever soparsimonious Hammers thisis good news since, despiteour offensive limitations, weremain a tough unit to scoreagainst.

In conclusion, mid-tableobscurity beckons but sodoes the Olympic stadiumand all the while we aremoving further and furtheraway from the near-bankruptcy of the pre-Gold/Sullivan era. Patiencemy friends, patience!

Nicolas Paul Bury@NicolasPaulBuryUnfortunately a 0-0 bore drawwas as good as it was going toget today. Lacking quality andcreativity in the final 3rd asusual #WHUFC

Jack Lebeau@jacklebeau98We'd be top of the league withCarroll, would have beatenStoke, Newcastle and So’ton.

Graham Murphy@geemurphy1Jussi had a blinder, solid at theback, BUT we need a strikerdesperately. Bad planning G&S

Jason Perry@Jay____PeeThis point could have been sucha great point if we had beatenStoke at home. We are a very'ordinary' team at the moment.No pace again!

West Ham Transfers@westhamtransferUnbeaten away unbeatenawaaaay we are West Ham andwe are unbeaten away.

Les Hitchcock@LesHitchcockReally don't know what you areall moaning about ! A pointaway from home ok no punchbut that will come COYIs

MarshyWhufc@whufc4ever91I understand saying "I'll take adraw away from home", butthe main problem I'm tryin toget across is the lack of threatwe pose as a team

Jarvo@whufcJARVO5 points and 3 clean sheets in4. Cant complain with that!

Tom Edwards@Tom_Edwards1997well that was dreadful. i cantsee where our next goal iscoming from. Good point in theend but wow we have nothingup top #WHUFC

Joy Baker@avocadothrowerGood debut today@morrisonravel . Keep onkeeping on. Fans really wantyou to succeed.

Colin Hughes@collywobzersDelighted with the point, notnormally negative , however 2shots on target in 270 mins offootball is nowhere near goodenough! #westham

Tommy Bee@TommyWHUFCIf we had beaten Stoke we'dhave been sitting 4th in theleague, that is depressing

Riccardo Bertani@ClaretbluemodNo Carroll, no party. I'm happywith a point though#hammersabroad

WOODY@MylegssuckDG says “Maiga is good intraining” > I'm good at Flightsimulator but I reckon I'dstruggle to keep a real 747from crashing!

Darren Turner@whu647580Anyone out there whoseriously still thinks Maiga willcome good, needs their headexamined.

Twitteraction

Following our draw away at Southampton, the wonderful world ofTwitter was awash with some praising the point gained andothers speaking of their frustrations over our lack of firepower.Here are what some of our followers tweeted after the game

@bl0wingbubbles

Leanne Baker@Leanne_Baker_One thing that does annoy meabout BFS is that he can seeMaiga is not working but leavesit till 85 mins to bring Lee on

Sam Hunt@Shunt_92@WHUFC_official get rid of ourwaste of spaces and sign someplayers. Worst performance bythe team in years.

Ryan Jarmain@WestHam1982Not great today @DavidGold butjust a bad day at the office. Ithink we need some fire powerup top as I’m sure you know

Justin Struble@jstruble287Quite toothless today glad bigAndy is coming back soon.Maiga didn’t cut it today and Ididn’t like his work rate

James@James_MeacockAt least I can go down the publater and drink my sorrows. It’sa hard life supporting WestHam

Chris Cooper@lammie29We never looked like scoring.No plan B without AC. Noble,Maiga, Collison nowhere neargood enough. Need the oldDiame back too!

WHU Stats@WHU_StatsDisappointing but I guessthat’s what happens when youspend 80% of your transferbudget on a player who isinjured so much

Cumbrian Hammers@CumbrianHammersWe were poor. We just offernothing in terms of attackingand won’t until Carroll is back

Norman’s Wisdom@Happyhammer69I can see a pattern emerging. Ifwe haven’t got a striker thenwe don’t score. It’s that simple!

Max Harvey@M4xwell1A draw would have beendisappointing but just aboutacceptable but to lose, that’sjust s***

Michael White@MichaelWhite84Maiga was non-existent today!Noble and Diame gave the ballaway too often. Might as wellhave played with eight men.

Rick@RicElliottThree months we have had toaddress the second strikersituation. Maiga is not goodenough to lead line dancing letalone a forward line!

Benjamin Anthonisz@76KIDNolan was worse than Maigatoday. How can we lose athome to Stoke!? No passionfrom anyone today but theaway side #dreadfulresult

Jackie Connell@Jackie_ConnellWe beat a poor Cardiff side,no shot on target againstNewcastle and very poortoday. I fear the worst withSam.

Twitteraction

There was a flurry of furious tweets on the wonderful world ofTwitter after Stoke’s victory at Upton Park last month with manytweeters worried about our lack of firepower. Here are whatsome of our followers tweeted after the game

@bl0wingbubbles

What do you make ofEverton’s season thus far?

A win over Chelsea isalways going to beappreciated but so early inthe season with a newmanager adds something. Ithink after having a managerfor so long there is always aworry that the transitionperiod is going to provedifficult. Hopefully that won’tbe the case.

You said last season thatyou wouldn’t begrudgeDavid Moyes going to ManUnited. Is that still thecase?

Being Man Unitedmanager is a huge job infootball and I still don’t

begrudge him leaving. I thinkit was the right decision foreveryone. We needed a newdirection and new way ofthinking. Hopefully withMartinez will give us that. Ithink Moyes might be caughtout at Man United though –he’s a good manager but it’sa totally different club to us.There is a lot of pressure onhim to get results week inweek out, they need a goodcup run and need to be in thetop two. Hopefully he candeal with this pressure.

What have you made ofRoberto Martinez so far?

I wasn’t overly impressedwith the appointment; I thinkwe should’ve gone forLaudrup or a foreign

manager. Martinez’s recordat Wigan wasn’t great and Ihope that he can step up.Everton and Wigan are verydifferent so I’ll reserve myjudgement for the time being.

Everton were busy in thetransfer window particularlyon deadline day. What areyour views on your signings?

I’m not a fan of Kone – itseems a little bit shortsighted after one decentseason. He’s not getting anyyounger and the transfer feewasn’t small. Our loansignings have been good –both Barry and Lukaku haveimpressed me. Alcaraz hasbeen injured but definitelybolsters the defence.McCarthy is a good player

Opposition View: Everton

Tim Hollandspeaks to TerryPitman, lifelongEverton fan andGoodison Parkregular aboutBaines notleaving, fillingFellaini’s bootsand hair andRoss Barkley’sEngland call up

but the transfer fee was toobig and he has big boots (andhair) to fill in Fellaini. The onlydownside was that Anichebeleft on deadline day though.

Leighton Baines was linkedwith a move to ManchesterUnited. Do you think he’llmove from Goodison inJanuary?

I think they tried to sign himagain on transfer deadlineday as well. Moyes has saidthat the deal is dead hopefullythat is the case but I think hemay leave next summer. He’sapproaching 30 and I think hemay want a big money movebefore he retires.

Fellaini left at the eleventhhour on the transfer windowday. What did you make ofthe deal?

He’s a good player and Ithink we got a good deal forhim. I wish him the best butI’m not sure where he fits inat Man United. The mainthing for us was that wemanaged him to findreplacements for him ondeadline day. We needed themoney and I think it workedout well for everyone involved.

Ross Barkley earned hisfirst England call thisseason. Do you think it wasdeserved?

Of course. I’ve said for along while that he’s a greatplayer with a great future. Hisvision and passing is amazingfor a player so young. If we

can nurture his talent andmake sure he gets thegames this season then Ithink he could go all the wayand become an Englandregular in the next few years.

Who should West Ham fansbe wary of in the Evertonsquad when the club’smeet?

McCarthy and Lukakucould both be dangerous forthe club this season. There isa weight of expectation onMcCarthy now but is up tohim to respond. I think Lukakucould be our top goal scorercome the end of the season.Kone really needs to startscoring.

What’s been your opinion ofWest Ham over the pastfew seasons?

Last year you overperformed and quite rightlydid better than the otherpromoted teams. I think you

might suffer from secondseason syndrome this yearas clubs have sussed you out.The problem with Allardyce isthat I think it’s all a bit onedimensional.

Which West Ham playerswould you have in yoursquad?

I think Razvan Rat has oneof the best names in footballbut in terms of footballingability I think Jarvis, Downingand Carroll are all very goodplayers. You just need to getthem all on the same pitch atthe same time.

Last season you were nearlyspot on with your predictionof Everton coming 6th andWest Ham coming 11th?What’s your prediction forthis year?

I think it’s going to be a bitmore difficult for both clubsso I’ll go with Everton 7th andWest Ham 13th.

Dear Sam,

I know I promised to keepyou posted about whatpeople are saying in thestands but, believe me mate,you don’t want to know whatwas being said during theStoke game.

I know you’ve got broadshoulders, but nobody wantsto hear that sort of language– especially when it’s comingout of the family enclosure.Best draw a veil overproceedings there, I reckon.

We weren’t all that cleverat Southampton either, werewe? Still – we did manage toovercome the mightyCheltenham, so fair play forthat.

The boy Ravel Morrisonwas different class that night.

Mind you, someone needsto sort out the ticketingarrangements. The queueswent halfway back to thestation. Did no one know wewere coming? Have a word,will you Sam?

Can’t say I enjoyed theinternational break. Still, wewere all delighted to seeFrank Lampard get his100th cap for England. Hewas always a big favourite atUpton Park.

There was a time I thoughthe might come back – Iremember him going downthe tunnel after we’d givinghim another rousing cheerand he made a sign thatsuggested he only wantedtwo more seasons atChelsea. But that was someyears ago, so I may have

misunderstood what hemeant by those two fingers.

What’s going on with AndyCarroll? You’d think a biglump like that would be ableto survive a knock in trainingwithout taking the next fourmonths off.

I do hope we haven’t signedourselves another Sicknote.

Get one of the backroomboys to tell you about KieronDyer. He was here four yearsand barely kicked a ball inanger.

I’m not one to tell tales outof school, but Dyer wasn’texactly the most popularplayer we’ve ever had –nobody was ever going todedicate a stand to him likethey did with Sir Trev andSaint Bobby. They could havenamed the treatment roomafter him, though.

With Big Andy out ofaction, another striker mighthave been useful.

Didn’t you think of buyingone when the transferwindow was still open?

I can see one or two peoplegetting a bit impatient if wedon’t score again beforeChristmas.

Not me, you understand – Irecognise that you aretactical genius, but noteveryone sees it that way.Still, what do they know, eh?

Don’t s’pose there’s anychance of getting Carltonback into his old shirt now?

Not going to fit him, is it?But you mustn’t blameyourself for the fact hecouldn’t take rejection.

You were well within yourrights to let him go and

Dear Sam: Brian Williams

there’s no reason for you tofeel guilty about the fact henow is totally unemployableas a professional footballer.

We’ve all had girlfriendswho’ve hit the Haagen Dazsafter we’ve given them theelbow. Sorry to keep bangingon about this, but I’m still notgetting your emails.

Could you check youraddress book to see if I’m init? I have a horrible feelingI’ve been deleted for somereason.

Have you changed yourinternet provider recently?That can play havoc with yoursettings.

Luckily my mate Angela isstill receiving you loud andclear, so she’s forwardinganything she gets on to me.

To be frank, your deepinsights are a bit wasted onher but she does appreciateyou taking the time andtrouble to keep in touch.

The last one confused hera bit. I had to explain that Neil

McDonald is your No 2 andbecause you are a busy manyou sometimes get him tohandle the communicationside of things.

He’s all right, but hehasn’t quite got your turn ofphrase if I may say so.

But, hey, that’s why you’rethe boss and he’s a bloke noone’s ever heard of.

Where did we get himfrom, as a matter ofinterest?

Did the Job Centre sendhim, or was he someoneyou’d met before? I reckonyour gift of the gab couldopen up some interestingpossibilities for you.

I saw you on the telly withFreddie Flintoff and JamieRedknapp in somethingcalled A League of TheirOwn and you came acrossvery well.

I thought you reallyshowed ‘em what you’remade of with that challengeto see who eat the mostcamel’s testicles. You wereawesome.

What I thought was, withAlan Hansen giving upMatch of the Day theremight be an opening for you.

You’ve obviously got a lotin common: clearly you’recomfortable with a mouthfulof bollocks, which isprecisely what he’s beencoming up with the past 22years.

Be lucky,

Your mate behind the goal

It’s the events of the last fewweeks that remind you beinga West Ham supporter is nota role for the faint hearted.

I think we should coin anew phrase, something like‘West Ham-esque’, which wecan use to describe an eventor situation in which if thereis a possibility of somethinggoing wrong then, mygoodness, it most definitelywill. Your boiler packs up onthe coldest day of the year –that is so West Ham-esque.

You are late for animportant meeting at workand the car/train/busbreaks down – again, soWest Ham-esque.

The thing is when I lastwrote for this magazinethings were looking actually,well, good!

A comfortable start athome against Cardiff, wasfollowed by a 0-0 atNewcastle. OK, theperformance wasn’t greatthere, but two games in, fourpoints and two clean sheets– musn’t grumble.

Then there was Stoke.There was that inevitabilityabout it really, wasn’t there?

The fact we could go top ofthe table for a few hours ifwe had won worked againstus or it did in my mindanyway.

Three games in a rowwithout defeat always seemsa nigh on impossibility,something that just seemstantalisingly always out ofreach for West Ham. Butthere was something more.West Ham just had that

‘look’ against Stoke and withinthe first five minutes it wasdefinitely going to be ‘one ofthose days’ – one where thetelevision screen was ingrave danger of beingshattered by a remotecontrol hurled in anger at itat any given moment.

And there we have it. Afterthree games, even before thenews of Andy Carroll filteredthrough, things had lost theirsheen somewhat.

The bright start nowseemed a lot more likedistinctly average despitebeing helped along by an evenkinder opening run of fixturesthan last season.

Writing this before theSouthampton match, if wecompare our results for thisseason to last we are alreadythree points behind havingbeaten Newcastle away anddrawing with Stoke at homelast year.

If we extrapolate that tothis weekend we’ll have tohope to reverse the trend ofdoing worse than last yearalthough we won’t have Coleto score for us and then getsent off for us this timeround.

Obviously like for likecomparisons are extremelyunscientific but does thestatistic of one shot on goalover the two matches againstStoke and Newcastle tell anymore of a story of ourcurrent status?

Reading the report on ourmatch against Espanyol wereyou in any way surprised ourgoal came from the penalty

Tales from the Sandpit

Strikers? Whoneeds strikers?

spot rather than from openplay and that the most talkedup feature of the match wasan outstanding display fromone of our defenders? No, meneither.

And all this was before thenews that Andy Carroll hadsustained another injury. Forme, this was as West Ham-esque as you could get, asinevitable as an ice cubemelting in the Dubai middaysun.

Sam Allardyce may tell usthis is once again a momentof incredible bad luck. He tellsus that specialists said thechance of this happening was4%. A bizarrely precise figurebased on what exactly andsurely this happening to a keyplayer who plays for a teamthat suffers from West Ham-esque tendencies meant theprobability of another injuryoccurring was hoveringaround the 100% mark?

The injury setback toCarroll was sown into thehistory of West Ham whenAllardyce gambled on the facthe would be fine to perhapsmake an appearance againstSouthampton and definitelyback to play against Everton,thus choosing to use the finalfunds available before thetransfer window shut toinvest in Stewart Downingrather than another forward.

Now I’m not knocking thesigning of Downing andindeed his arrival on the pitchagainst Newcastle didsuggest that he is a veryuseful addition to the squadbut the gamble was always

surely going to come backand haunt us.

Cue Stoke match and theinevitable injury to Downing,the following two weeksturmoil with an injury listheading towards our usualseasonal crisis, a franticsearch through the freetransfer list to plug the gap inour forward line and the earlyseason optimism has filteredaway to be replaced by anapprehension of where wemight be sitting when thetransfer window re-opens inJanuary.

At the time of writing theclub is saying the new injuryto Carroll is not as serious asthey first thought and anoperation is not required butthey cannot say when hemight feature again.

Lets face it, though, he’llnot be around much if at allfor the rest of 2013 so wehave to hope that a match fitMladen Petric will do a job for

us in the meantime. A teamcannot win a match withoutscoring goals and cannotscore goals without havingshots on target and we knowWest Ham have not beingdoing either recently.

Obviously it is somethingthat has to change andchange quickly to ensure therapidly diminished hopes andaspirations do not spiraltowards a sense of panic.

We have been fortunatewith the fixture list and wemust hope we’re not going tobe punished for failing to beatNewcastle or Stoke later onin the season.

In the meantime, a swifttonic and a boost in faith willbe complete with three pointsin the bag as the final whistlesounds this weekend at theBoleyn. Bring on the Toffeesand Come on You Irons!

You can follow me onTwitter @hosiemon

Claret and blue tintedsunglasses off, very few ofour academy and youthproducts will be good enoughfor Premier League football.

Every fan of any club wantsto see young talent risingthrough the ranks to the firstteam but the reality is 98%of them won’t cut it in themodern game.

West Ham United stand asa perfect example of thisharsh but realistic truth, fanswill wax lyrical about theyouth products as they’reclassed as ‘one of us’ butespecially since the arrival ofBig Sam, the youth at theBoleyn Ground have foundchances hard to come by.

Sam Allardyce has beenmore ruthless than anyprevious Hammers bosswhen it comes to youth,seeing the likes of Montano,Hall, Stanislas and Hines outof the Upton Park doors, butas co-chairman David Goldpointed out, none of the youthwho have been let go havegone onto play at the highestlevel since, so it is hard toargue against theirjudgement.

Premier League football isnot patient, certainly notwhen you are a side who willbe challenging to stay in thetop flight in what is almostseen as a mini-league outsidethe top 6.

There is precious little timeto blood in youngsters, thetwo obvious options are cupgames or the use of the loansystem, both have their prosand cons as has beenexampled in recent seasons.

The two cups have becomebreeding grounds for youthsince the mid-2000s as thePremiership became thenumber one competition tobe involved in.

Since Allardyce took theBoleyn Ground hot seat ourcup games have seen us lose4, win 2 and draw the once,not much of a cup run to giveany youth the chance ofmatch time really.

Alternatively, there is theloan system, which hasseemingly proved wondersfor our most excitingprospect of the 2013/14season in Ravel Morrison,who spent last season atBirmingham City in theChampionship.

After a difficult start in theMidlands, Ravel knuckleddown and was rewarded withsome man of the match

performances that led to himbeing a star featurethroughout West Ham’s pre-season fixtures leading up tothis Premier Leaguecampaign.

This shows the benefits ofthe loan system, but time andtime again we see our youthgo out on loan and then leavethe club permanently soonafter.

Two players that spring tomind are Freddie Sears andRob Hall, the former now afully-fledged Colchester manafter loan spells with the cluband the latter trying to breakinto a Bolton side in thesecond tier of English football.

One thing that has alwayspuzzled me is the completelack of English playersabroad, currently the bestEnglish players abroad areAnton Ferdinand, Nigel Reo-

Thomas Johnson

Youth and young manhood

Coker and surprisingly stillplaying Emile Heskey, and thatsurely speaks for itself.

International managersfrom the likes of Spain,Germany and Brazil travel theworld and watch some of thebest games around to seetheir players, whilst RoyHodgson just tries to squeezein as many free PremierLeague tickets as he can get.

Following on from FAChairman Greg Dyke’scomments at the start of theinternational break, Englandwon’t start to compete unlessthere is a massive changebut this doesn’t meanstopping foreign playerscoming to the PL, it shouldmean sending our youngstersabroad to teams like Portoand Shakhtar Donetsk to gaina complete footballingeducation.

The Premier League is afantastic competition, but it isclose-minded of English fansand players not to try their

hand abroad in theBundesliga, Serie A or LaLiga.

Since Allardyce’s arrival theonly player to really comethrough the academy andstay in the first team squad isDanny Potts, a good left-backwho with time should cometo be a regular in claret andblue, and one who will learn alot from the experience ofsummer signing Razvan Rat.

But with Sam at the helm,will any other youngsters inthe lower age groups ordevelopment squad get theirchance? History would pointtowards it being very limitedas Allardyce has never beenknown for his faith in youth.

But perhaps he is right, notevery youth product has thequality for Premier Leaguefootball and in his time he hasgiven chances to a youngKevin Nolan and nowManchester United andEngland utility man PhilJones.

Whilst since his arrival hehas introduced Potts to thesquad and is now givingMorrison game time andtentatively introducing ElliotLee to the top flight, the WestHam boss may be ruthless inhis view of youth but he isn’tblind to raw talent.

With the summer arrival ofDanny Whitehead fromStockport County and thereturn of Dylan Tombidesfrom serious illness, withinthe club there is a lot of hopefor the youngsters coming onbehind the scenes at WestHam United.

With a cup game againstCardiff coming up, it is achance for the youngsters onthe edge of breaking into thefirst team squad as well asthe older fringe players toimpress Big Sam, expect thelikes of Lee and Morrison tofeature.

West Ham have alwaysbeen a club that has prideditself on having the ability tobring through some terrificplayers, the academy offootball tag might not be infull swing in recent years butwith Tony Carr in thebackground it will always bebubbling under the surface.

Our first season back in thePremier League was survivalat all costs, no time to bloodin youth, but avoiding secondseason syndrome will seeWest Ham building for thefuture.

Follow me on Twitter@SoundOfVinyl

How do you rate Hull’s startto the season?

It’s early days but I thinkwe’ve made a good accountof ourselves. Sometimesbeing promoted makes youfeel like you’re gate crashinga party, everyone else got theinvitation and knows whatbottle of wine to bring and weturned up with a bottle ofsquash instead! I think oncewe settle into the league westart getting results.

Following on from beingrunners up in theChampionship, what wereyour expectations cominginto the season?

You know when your firstmatch of the season is

Chelsea away that it’s goingto be difficult but I think lastseason’s experience willdefinitely help. I think whenfans see smaller clubs like usget promoted they rub theirhands and expect at least 4points in the bag but it’s up tous to prove them wrong. It’sall about establishingourselves in the league andplaying the way we know wecan play and not beingoverawed.

What are your views onSteve Bruce as a manager?

I’ll be honest, when he wasappointed I was disappointedbut like many Hull fans he hasturned me round. I think it’sthe same for most fansprobably including West Ham

fans - there are somemanagers that aren’t themost likeable when theymanage other clubs, butwhen they manage your clubthat goes out the window!You have to forget about yourprevious opinions and getbehind the manager.

Steve Bruce signed anumber of players in thesummer. What are youinitial impressions of thelikes of Tom Huddlestoneand Yannick Sagbo?

Steve Bruce performedwell in the transfer windowfrom my perspective. Weended up breaking ourtransfer record with TomHuddlestone, who might notbe the most glamorous of

Opposition View: Hull City

Tim Hollandspeaks to PaulBennett, HullCity fan aboutgate crashingthe party,Abdoulaye Fayethe beast andDanny Graham’sscoring boots

signings but brings loads ofPremier League experienceto our team. I’ve also beenimpressed with both Figueroaand Curtis Davies coming intothe team. Sagbo was unluckywith his sending off so Isuppose I can’t reallycomment on him yet. Re-signing our loan signings fromlast season was goodbusiness as well, players likeBoyd, Gedo and Elmohamadycan all change matches.

You signed both SteveHarper and Allan McGregorin the summer. Who wouldbe your number one?

Steve Harper is great backup, as he’s shown throughouthis career but it has to beMcGrego. He is a top ‘keeperwith bags of experience so forme so it has to be him. I wassurprised with signing two‘keepers but I supposecompetition for places isnever a bad thing.

Your owner recentlyannounced the rebrandingof the club to Hull CityTigers. How have fansreacted to it?

I think it’s not only pointlessbut it shows a completedisregard for the fans. Sayingthat ‘City’ is too common isridiculous. We will always beindebted to Assem Allam buthe needs to remember we’renot a brand we’re a footballclub with traditions.

Ex West Ham defenderAbdoulaye Faye is still in the

Hull City squad. How’s hegetting on?

He’s more of a squadplayer now but as West Hamfans must know the lad is abeast. He’s 35 now and hasonly signed a one year dealbut he was immense lastyear and scored some crucialgoals for us. I was surprisedthat West Ham let him leave.

When you think of prolificstrikers, you don’t tend tothink of Danny Graham. Isthat a bit unfair?

I think it is slightly. Heoffers more than just goals,similar to Andy Carroll, and atone point was one of themost prolific goal scorers inthe country. You don’t losethat kind of ability completely.

Who should West Ham fansbe wary of in the Hull squadwhen the club’s meet?

Elmohamady, Huddlestoneand Koren all know to bedangerous and know wherethe goal is. Aluko can also be

a handful for defenders, aswell as Graham if he’s got hisscoring boots on!

What’s been your opinion ofWest Ham over the pastfew seasons?

I’m not a huge admirer ofAllardyce or of his football buthe’s put together a team thatare hard to beat similar to hisBolton team of the 2000s. Istill think you need a decentgoal scorer.

Which West Ham playerswould you have in yoursquad?

I think Joe Cole is a verylikeable player and I’mpleased he’s back at WestHam. If Jarvis keeps playingwell I think he could play forEngland.

What’s your prediction forboth clubs this season?

I think both clubs are goingto be in the relegation battlethis season unfortunately.Hull to finish 16th, West Ham17th.

West Ham Ladies managerMark Saunderson is inconfident mood after hisside’s promising start to theseason, racking up sevenpoints in their first fourgames of the leaguecampaign.

Saunderson, having beenappointed the Hammers firstteam manager earlier thissummer, has done much tostamp his own mark uponthe club.

“I tend not to say too muchto the team before the gameas I believe that this is thetime where the players willgo through their own ritualsto ensure that are physically& mentally ready for thegame ahead,” he said.

“The majority of theinformation that the playersrequire for the game willhave been communicated inthe squad briefing during thelast training session and theplayers will have worked onthis aspects during thesession.

“I may reinforce some ofinformation points from thebriefing prior to the gamebut I tend to leave the squadto prepare themselves whichusually involves some slightlydodgy music choices and earshattering volume levels!”

Reflecting on preseasonand the campaign so far, hecontinued: “I have beenimpressed by the way inwhich the squad hasembraced the direction andobjectives that themanagement team have set.

“The squad and coachingstaff undertook an off-seasonand pre-season schedulethat focused on ensuring

that each individual was attheir optimum performancelevel going into the openingfixture.

“The coaching staff alsofocused on the detail andwhen combined with thesquad’s work ethic andeagerness to learn, hasresulted in the progress thatwe have collectively made.

“The pre-season friendlyschedule was designed topose different scenarios andquestions to the squad whilstproviding a platform toprogressively improve teamperformance and the squadhave overcome eachchallenge with confidence.

“The squad have overachieved the pre-season

objectives set for them butwithout losing focus or driveon the task in hand.”

Last season, West HamLadies didn’t reach their fullpotential and failed in their bidto win the league title. Sincetaking the job, Saunderson isdetermined to improve thesquad, identifying four keyareas.

“The squad has focused onthe four main areas ofperformance: technical,tactical, fitness andpsychological,” he continued.

“I have seen majorimprovements, both onindividual and collective levels,in each of the elements. Froma management perspective,we have refocused on the

West Ham Ladies: Tommy Wathen

Picture byMickeyCartwright

Determination rewardedwith positive start

detail and brought in the rightpeople to support the playersboth on and off the pitchwhilst providing the rightenvironment for the playersto excel within.

“I also believe that we havecaptured players during thesummer that have enhancedthe playing squad in all areaswhilst increasing the squaddepth. I have also beenimpressed by the progress ofplayers in the developmentsquad and this is providing avaluable competitive elementin training.

“I am expecting severalplayers from the developmentsquad to progress into thefirst team fold over thecourse of the season andstrongly believe that we havethe foundations of anextremely competitive team.”

Over the summer, women’sfootball has gone through arestructuring stage whichhas pitted West Ham upagainst several higher placedteams this season, butSaunderson thinks that theirleague opposition shouldn’tunderestimate his team.

“Because of the leaguerestructuring this season, wewill be coming up againstteams that believe that theyhave greater resources attheir disposal then us,whether it be players orfinancial due to theirinvolvement in the nationalleague last year.

“For me, this has the addedpressure of increasingexpectations of players,managers and supportersalike whilst they will come upagainst teams who will

naturally raise their game forthese fixtures.

“I also believe that theleague restructuring has alsoimpacted upon playermovement in our league asplayers are looking to securemoves to teams involved inthe Super Leagues.

“I feel that we weresensible to secure theservices of the majority ofsquad from last season fromday one whilst conducting themajority of our transferbusiness early.

“We have introduced theright support functions forthe squad in the backgroundand when combined with theother factors, I am confidentthat we will be competitivethis season.”

Earlier this month,Saunderson announced thatBex Merritt will take over asthe club’s new first teamcaptain from defender RoseySullivan, believing that Merrittcan take his mind-set on ontothe pitch.

He added: “Firstly, I have torecognise the performanceof Rosey Sullivan whilst in therole of first team captain overthe last few seasons.

“For someone of such ayoung age, she has displayedgreat leadership qualities andhas represented the club inthe true spirit of West HamUnited.

“I did, however, feel thatRosey, whilst undertaking therole of captaincy and lookingafter other player interests,sometimes neglected herown to a certain extent and itwas impacting upon herdevelopment as a player.

“The captaincy of any teamshould be used by themanager to be an extensionof themselves upon the pitch.

“The captain shouldunderstand the playingphilosophy, the game planand the objectives of theteam and be able to inspirethose players around her toachieve these elementswithout distracting from theirown individual performance.

“They should also shapeand drive the team spirit,work ethic and mentality ofthe squad whilst embodyingthe spirit of the club andrepresent the club with theclass that it deserves.

“Finally, they should be ableto balance and enhance theunity of the playing squad bytheir leadership styleregardless if the individualplayer is a senior player or amember of the junior teams.

“I considered severalindividuals over the course ofpreseason and took my timewith the decision. Uponreflection, Becky Merrittdemonstrated all of theseelements and I am confidentthat she will excel in this rolebecause of the support of notonly the management teambut the playing squad.”

West Ham Ladies take onKeynsham Town in theLeague Cup tomorrow. Thegame kicks off at 2pm atThurrock FC. The postcodefor the stadium is RM191YN.

For more stories aboutWest Ham Ladies by TommyWathen visitwww.tommywathen.co.uk

How do you assessTottenham’s season so far?

Well the season has onlyjust started but I think with somany new first team playerscoming in I would say theseason so far is going well.It’s always hard to get newplayers to gel straight away ina team but I think the playersare already on a goodwavelength with each other.Erikson in his first gameagainst Norwich was one ofthe star performers and Ithink with the amount ofcreativity in the team nowand the more solid defensiverecruits we have made wecould be very hard to beatthis year.

How did you rate AVB’ssummer signings especially

given that you broke yourtransfer record a number oftimes?

I think the signings werevery astute. I’m not honestlysure how much influenceAVB had as opposed toFrank Baldini, our newdirector of football, but wehave purchased a lot of goodquality to take us to that nextlevel. It has also reallygalvanised our squad andplayers like Walker, Lennon,Sigurdsson, Defoe andDembele really do need tostep up if they want toremain part of the team.

How do you think they’vesettled in?

I think bearing in mind theamount of players coming in,

they have settled in well.Roberto Soldado has workedhard and already scored fourgoals. Erikson was amazingon his debut and has shownthat we are in for a creativetreat at the Lane this year.Paulinho and Capuoe havealready shown their defensivequalities and I’m sure in timeLamela and Chadli willdevelop well. I foresee excitingtimes for Spurs in the nextfew years.

We can’t talk about summersignings without mentioningGareth Bale. What do youthink of the transfer fee andhis behaviour prior to hisdeparture?

I thought for a lot of thesummer Gareth Bale’s

Opposition View: Tottenham Hotspur

Tim Holland speaks toChristos Anastasiou,Tottenham Hotspur fan,about the Gareth Baletransfer saga, selfishDefoe, and Allardyce’sunsexy football

behaviour was extremelynoble, he never spoke to thepress and for a long time Ithought he was going to givethe fans another year. Butwith the Madrid hierarchyconstantly talking about himdaily his head was turned. It isextremely disappointing hewas not willing to train with usas we are the team thatreally brought him through asa player. I’m not quite sure heis worth the £85m or soMadrid paid for him, but themoney certainly helped us toget in good solid players innumbers. We now have morequality in numbers other thana single superstar player andI think we are more solid allover the pitch other than theGareth Bale’s position.

There were rumours ofJermain Defoe leaving forQPR in the summer. Do youexpect him to still be in thefirst team this season?

I have always loved Defoeas a player. He is an out-and-out predator 6 yards fromgoal but he is a little selfish. Ithink he is still part of themanager’s plans but will haveto wait his chance. His goalagainst Man City towards theend of last year wasawesome but bearing in mindthat was his first goal sinceJanuary, he needs to step itup if he wants to remain aSpurs player.

John Bostock left for RoyalAntwerp in the summer on afree transfer. What do youthink happened to the

youngster who wasmentioned as a futureEngland international at onestage?

I think when a player that isso young joins a big club for abig fee there is so muchpressure on them toperform. I think the pressureand expectancy of the fansgot to him and he was notwilling to put in the hours onthe training pitch to reallydevelop as a player. His firstteam opportunities weresomewhat limited. ChernoSamba is another example ofa young player where somuch was expected of him atsuch a young age that wasnot able to fulfil his potential.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto left theclub on transfer deadlineday for QPR. How surprisedwere you to see thattransfer go through?

I was very disappointedwith the departure of Assou-Ekotto, He was one of myfavourite Spurs left backs ofrecent years. A few years agothere was a good argumentfor him being the best in theleague. You do not losequality overnight and I thinkhe performed very well for usover the last few seasons. Istill remember the goal hescored against Liverpool onthe first day of the seasonwhen we made theChampions League. I willsorely miss him and I do hopehe performs admirably atQPR and comes back into theSpurs fold next year.

What’s your opinion of SamAllardyce and West Ham?

I think Sam has done wellsince his appointment.Although you don’t play thesexiest of football, he has builta solid team through theyears at West Ham. I amsomewhat disappointed inyour lack of quality signingsthis summer and I think thejury is still out with AndyCarroll. He scored only sevengoals for you last year and yetSam was willing to pay £15million for him. You have alsobrought in the Romaniancaptain this year yet Sam hassaid he is not going to be firstchoice left back yet. I thinkmost Premier League teamshave recruited well thissummer and spent a lot, but Ifeel West Ham’s summerspending have not reallyexcited the fans enough and Isee you finishing a few placeslower than last year.

Which West Ham playerswould you have in theTottenham squad?

I think Nolan is a very solidmidfielder that does createand score a lot of goals. MattJarvis also has an excellentcross of the ball that Soldadowould lap up and Mark Noblealso plays with his heart.

What’s your prediction forboth clubs this season?

I think Spurs will finish 3rdor 4th this year and Westham I think 13th or 14th.

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