As you may know, your Hammer of the Year and mine, Rob Green is climbing Kilimajaro this summer in aid of charity. If you’d like to make a donation and help him achieve his £10k fundraising target you can do so HERE, as well as reading more about his adventure.

By Steve Anderton

Back in about 1980 – 1981 I played cricket for a local team in Essex. On this particular day we were due to play Hutton CC at King George Playing Fields in Brentwood. I kept wicket at the time and was surprised to see Psycho (David Cross) walk out to bat. As he scored 100 plus runs against us I had plenty of time to chat to him during his innings. When it was my turn to bat I had another opportunity to talk with him as he also was the wicket keeper.

At the end of the game he asked me if my wife and I would like to join him and his wife for a drink back at Hutton’s Club House. I thought this was just him being polite as it is courtesy after games to have a drink with the opposition, but in fact when we arrived at the club he immediately came over to me and insisted we join him and his wife as he had suggested earlier.

We stayed for at least 2 hours in his company and found him to be very different to his on pitch persona. He was as interested in my meagre footballing achievements (Essex Senior and Isthmian League) as I was in his. I will always remember him as a really nice guy.

Also my wife worked with the wife of Johnny Ayris and as such we became friendly for a while as we lived close by them in South Woodham Ferrers. Over dinner one night in our house John explained to me how his career got cut short by Ron “Chopper” Harris of Chelsea.

One last one is that after I stopped playing Saturday football I played for a Sunday morning team in Southend – on - Sea called Trinity. For a season where we got a good way in the National Sunday Cup we were managed by Anton Otulakowski. He was very unassuming and did not open up with many stories from his playing days.

Sky Sports News is reporting that Manchester United have tabled a £10 million bid for Dean Ashton. I think most of us would put money on the fact that they will, in the end, succeed in prizing him away from Upton Park. However, surely £10 million is a joke for a player who has scored 10 goals in 13 outings this season? We’ll be a laughing stock if he leaves for anything less than £15 million. Why on earth would Man U want a player who was valued at less than that anyway? Have we learned nothing from the past? What a joke it was to let Joe Cole go for £6 million … and any number of other players for less than their true worth.

I want Deano to stay. He and Bellamy would be a fearsome duo next season. But I fear it’s a partnership we will never see…

I’ll do a full match report tomorrow but here are some interesting facts about Deano…

He’s scored 10 goals in 13 starts this season, plus another one from 11 appearances off the bench.

And people moan about him. Dear oh dear.

If he can score at this rate when he’s not at full fitness, just imagine what he’ll achieve next season.

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain… words appropriate for Alan Curbishley’s final game in charge this season, or words appropriate for his final game in charge, full stop? I’ll write my thoughts on the season and Curbishley’s future another time, but there’s no doubt that today’s game will be the final game for one or two players.

I expect Curbs to start with his strongest possible lineup. There’s no word as to whether Faubert is fit again, but I reckon the team will look like this…

Green, McCartney, Pantsil, Neill, Tomkins, Noble, Boa Morte, Parker, Solano, Zamora, Ashton.

Villa will be up for this, as they seek to secure a UEFA Cup position. Let’s give Marlon Harewood a warm welcome, and as for Nigel Reo Coker, wy don’t we just ignore him? Booing him will just get him pumped up.

The News of the World reports that Luis Boa Morte wants to quit West Ham… He says: “I’ve got two more years on my contract. I can’t say I am completely happy at West Ham. In the end we will see.”

I started a poll a few weeks ago so you could vote for your Hammer of the Year. More than 1,000 of you voted and here is the result…

1. Robert Green 44.6%
2. George McCartney 33.8%
3. Matthew Upson 12.2%
4. Mark Noble 6.7%
5. Carlton Cole 2.7%

No great surprise there! I expect him to win Hammer of the Year at the ground tomorrow too.

Steven Howard writes in this morning’s Sun that we are trying to buy Freddie out of his contract for … wait for it … £3 million. If he is to be believed we signed him on a four year contract at £85k a week! His 26 appearances this season (some of them as sub) have cost £160,000 a time, and his two goals £360,000 each. Nice.

The thing is, I never wanted us to sign Ljungberg. To me he was neither one thing nor the other. Neither an out and out winger, nor an out and out goalscorer. However, in the last few months he has surprised me and been far more effective than I ever thought he could be.

It is outrageous, though, that West Ham ever offered a contract like this to a player who is obviously past his prime.

UPDATE: The whole thing has been denied by Scott Duxbury HERE.

According to THIS story, Craig Bellamy has invested £650,000 in a soccer academy in Sierra Leone. Well done him.

I there’s one position we have an embarrassment of riches in, it’s central defence. Sorry, perhaps I used the wrong tense there. We HAD an embarrassment of riches until they all got injured. It may be a little odd, therefore, to speculate about the future of one of our best defenders, Anton Ferdinand. But that’s what the papers are doing, so why shouldn’t we? The Sun speculates that Spurs have put in a £6 million bid for him. So what do we think? Cash in now?

Bearing in mind we have Upson, Gabbidon, Collins, Ferdinand, Davenport and now also James Tomkins we can certainly afford to sell one of them. However, it should be at the right price. Six million undervalues Anton by at least £2 million in my view.

What do you all think?