West Ham All Stars Tonight!

Tonight West Ham United face Reading as the First Round of the Premier League All Stars tournament continues at the All Stars Arena in North Greenwich. Premier League All Stars is a star-studded pro-celebrity charity event screened live on Sky One every night this week. The event is endorsed by all 20 clubs in the top division and is a part of the Premier League’s Creating Chances charity initiative. The prize fund of £300,000 will be distributed among the clubs’ nominated charities.

Each All Stars squad is made up Legends, Celebrities and fans. Ex-players representing West Ham tonight in a very strong side are Tony Cottee, Frank McAvennie, John Moncur and Allen McKnight. Also playing in Claret and Blue are a trio of Brit hardman actors – Danny Dyer, Geoff Bell and Tamer Hassan, while the fans lucky enough to be playing for their club are Julian Hilaire, civil servant and brother of ex- Palace winger Vince, Matthew Crook, an account manager for a publishing company and student Chris Whitelock.

Free tickets are still available for tonight’s game and throughout the rest of the tournament which reaches its climax on Sunday with the Grand Finals night. Details are available from skyone.co.uk/allstars or from the ticket hotline 0871 987 1234.

Tickets subject to availability.

Newcastle Match Report

From an attacking viewpoint Cole and Ashton combined rather well yesterday, but defensively we were a shambles, with Lucas Neill and Anton Ferdinand the main culprits. Overall I thought we played reasonably well, but with Etherington playing his vanishing act again and the lack of a right winger to get crosses in Cole and Ashton did well to fashion as many chances as they did. I don’t think anyone should get too depressed over this defeat, but I am beginning to wonder if James Collins might be a better partner for Upson than Anton. Your views?

Green 7 Couldn’t be blamed for the goals
Neill 5 All over the place for two of the goals
McCartney 7 Some good attacking play
Upson 7 Fairly solid
Ferdinand 5 To blame for the opening goal
Noble 8 Again, man of the match
Mullins 7 Solid
Etherington 5 Anonymous
Bowyer 7 Should have had a goal
Cole 7 Great in the air
Ashton 7 Really getting back into form
Curbishley 7 Subs used well, but perhaps Freddie should have been on from the start to give more width

If Mourinho Needs Advice…

A friend of mine (a Spurs supporter) has just phoned me from inside Stamford Bridge. He’s there for a non football related business meeting. Hilariously, Job Centre Plus are holding a seminar at Stamford Bridge this morning too. I wonder if the ‘special one’ will show up.

Tommy Repka Lashes Out

This is what happened immediately after Tomas Repka was sent off playing for Sparta Prague at the weekend. He doesn’t change, does he?!

Eggert to Take a Back Seat

So what do we make of the announcement in the last hour that Eggert Magnussen is to take a back seat and become non executive chairman? The club’s owner, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson will now be taking a more executive, hands on role.

We could of course take the club’s statement at face value, but I have to say that in my experience there is usually more to things like this than meet the eye. I hope there hasn’t been a falling out as Eggert Magnussen has really become a fans’ favourite in a very short time. And there aren’t many chairmen that can say that. Indeed, maybe that’s the problem. Maybe he has become too popular for the owner’s liking. We’ll see.

UPDATE: This is on an Icelandic website from Eggert M…

“When we took over the club last year, it was never my intention to take care of the daily running of the club, 24 hours a day. However, I took that on to begin with. A lot has been going on in recent months but we thought this was the right time for us to make these changes. In fact I needed some time to breathe. I have been very busy and now I can concentrate on other things relating to the future vision of the club.”

We are 4th!

By my reckoning our emphatic victory this afternoon has put as at fourth in the table, behind Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool. Our goal difference of +5 is the third best in the league and we are one of only two clubs still to concede an away goal. And even better than that – if we win our game in hand by two clear goals we’d go top. The downside is that the game in hand is against Liverpool – away.

I suspect most of us would have settled for three wins, one draw and one defeat from the first five games. It didn’t look like that after the Man City game though, did it?

I wasn’t at the game this afternoon so i will wait to see the reports, but surely the scoreline speaks for itself.

What a blow, though, for Craig Bellamy to have to be subbed. From the BBC live ticker it seemed as though Carlton Cole did reasonably well, and had a hand in two of the goals. And isn’t it great to dee Dean Ashton get off the mark?

All in all, I shall be able to enjoy may pasta tonight, now!

Middlesbrough Preview

We have a good home record against Middlesbrough – 5 wins out of the last 5 meetings I believe. And we need nothing less than a victory today. Craig Bellamy is on fire and Dean Ashton will be hingry for his first league goal in eighteen months. I don’t expect many changes in the team line-up. Scott Parker is available for selection but it would surely be wise to put him on the bench and give him a run-out in the last 15 minutes. It may be that Lucas Neill is rested after an exhausting flight back from Australia, but probably not. Will Solano get a runout on the right after his trip back from South America? If so, it looks like Lee Bowyer would be the man to be sacrificed. here’s the team I expect Alan Curbishley to pick…

Robert Green
Anton Ferdinand
Matthew Upson
George McCartney
Lucas Neill
Mark Noble
Hayden Mullins
Nolberto Solano
Matthew Etherington
Craig Bellamy
Dean Ashton

The subs bench is perhaps even more difficult to pick than the first team. Here’s my punt…

Richard Wright
Jonathan Spector
Scott Parker
Henri Camara
Bobby Zamora

We shouldn’t underestimate Middlesbrough. On the face of it they have a pretty unimpressive side, but Mido seems to be on fire. They are the sort of team who can be rubbish one week and score a hatful the next (remind you of anyone?). I still think they will be near the bottom of the table at the end of the season. If we win today we’re in the Top Ten, which is where we’ve got to aim to stay.

I am so annoyed I am still on holiday and will miss this game. Think of me following it on my laptop this afternoon as I retire to my hotel room for ninety minutes of tension. Anyone know if I can get commentary on it anywhere?

Bellamy on Song (Again)

I am on a much needed holiday on Lake Como this week and next so I haven’t seen yesterday’s international games or goals. Shame the BBC online reports have such small screens you can’t actually see the ball.

What I have gathered is that Craig Bellamy again had an outstanding game for Wales. It bodes well for Saturday. Let’s hope his groin strain doesn’t flair up again.

Dean Ashton and Scott Parker came through a behind closed doors game against Colchester the other night so I imagine he may make the bench on Saturday. Sadly, I shall still be sunning myself here… Now, where’s that suncream?

West Ham Spend £10k on Labour Fundraiser

As you may know, I don’t do politics on this blog, but as this post on the Dizzy Thinks blog relates to West Ham, I thought it worth mentioning here. Apparently the Hammers spent more than £10k on a table for a Labour fundraiser at Wembley and paid £1,000 for local MP Stephen Timms to join them at their table. Perhaps I’d better put in a request too! Or should I burn my season ticket in protest!?

Some people may remember back in July, just after Brown took over in Downing Street, he held his first big event at Wembley which was all about “celebrating 10 years of sport under Labour”. Richard Caborn, the sports minister at the time, said to the Times that it would be “one of the biggest ever Labour fundraising events.” I bring this up because I’ve just seen the latest published Register of Members’ Interests.

Apparently, Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, formerly at the Treasury under Brown and now Minister of State for Competitiveness at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform attended the event. Nothing wrong with that of course, a fairly senior and ministerial Labour figure attending a Labour fundraiser should hardly raise an eyebrow.

Yet apparently, he attended as a guest of West Ham United PLC. So he didn’t even pay for his own ticket to a fundraiser for his own party, he got West Ham (or should I say season ticket holders?) to pay for him instead. Bit tight to blag your way into an event that’s raising money for your own cause isn’t it?

Commentators Survey: The Results

Thanks to the 450 of you who completed the TV & Radio Commentators Survey which I launched a couple of weeks ago. Ici les resultats de la jurie West Ham United…

*81% of those who took part were supporters of WHU
*Martin Tyler was your number one commentator (23%). Second was John Motson (19%) and Jonathan Pearce was third (18%). Alan Green was fourth (9%) and Barry Davies fifth (8%). No one else scored above 3%.
*John Motson was by far and away the worst commentator (28%). Clive Tylesdley and Alan Green were next worst, tied on 14%.
* 24% reckon Adrian Chiles is the best ever presenter of 606 (23%). Danny Baker was second with 16%, Alan Green third on 15%. I cannot think who the 3% were who voted for David Mellor!
*Jeff Stelling is your number one stuido based presneter on 33%, followed by Gary Lineker on 25% and Adrian Chiles on 12%
*Alan Brazil is your favourite studio based raio presenter on 22% followed by John Inverdale in 19% and Mark Pougatch on 15%
*Alan Hansen wins best pundit on 29% followed by Andy Gray on 24%. Who were the two people who voted for Garth Crooks?!
*Mark Lawrenson is your wirst pundit on 23%, followed by David Pleat and Garth Crooks, tied on 12%
*69% of you subscribe to Sky Sports and 26% to Setanta, and 15% to WHUTV
*57% of you would pay £10 a month for a proper West Ham TV Channel
*33% of you rate Brian Moore as the best commentator of all time, followed by John Motson on 22% and Kenneth Wolstenholme on 15%

Bellamy Misses Out

Our thoughts must be with Craig Bellamy and his family this evening. His wife gave birth to a baby girl five days ago but there have been complications. He said he wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind to play. What a terrible thing to happen, just as things were going so well for him football-wise. Let’s hope his daughter pulls through.

I Prefer Round Balls…

Could someone tell me why ITV screened a game of rugby between France and Argentina last night? I mean, what’s the point of watching a game when you want both sides to lose? 🙂

I’ve never really understood Rugby. I mean, if you really want to spend 80 minutes with your head between a man’s legs, or your hand up his crotch, why not just… [that’s enough – Ed]

A Hat-trick for Heskey?!

I am sure I am not alone in desperately wanting England to win today and on Wednesday, but on the other hand wanting rid of the muppet that calls himself the England Manager. It is unbelievable that he has kept faith with Paul Robinson, who must be among the worst England goalkeepers ever. And to recall Emile Heskey just defies rational thought. Watch him get a hat-trick now that I have written that!

It looks like we Hammers had better support Wales this afternoon. Their line-up is likely to include three Hammers (Gabbidon, Bellamy and Collins) and also Carl Fletcher. Anyone know how he is going at Palace?

Oh, and by the way, yes, I have changed the blog picture. The other one was taken in 2004, so you can see what three years’ blogging has done to me!

Where are they Now? Tim Breacker

I used to sit in the East Stand Upper and one of the best things about sitting there was being able to observe Tim Breacker bursting down the right wing. He was a great player for the Hammers in the early to mid 1990s and I was sorry to see him leave for QPR. Anyone have memories of him they’d like to share, or know what he is up to nowadays?

Going Away?

Here’s tip about a new website which helps you find a hotel when you go to away matches. Match Hotels.com is HERE.

Shorey is a Gooner

Nicky Shorey is on Golas on SUnday at the moment. He said all his family are Arsenal fans and he used to go and watch them as a kid. Quite where the idea came from that he is Hammer though and though I don’t know. I suppose it partly explains why he didn;t seem desperate to move to us.

Three nil to the cockney boys! Having seen the goals now I am even more encoraged by Etherington and Bellamy’s performances. If they can continue that sort of interlinking, we’re going to have a very enjoyable season.

Ethers is Back!

Oh the joy. I am so glad I was wrong., I predicted 2-0 and it turned out to be 3-0. By all accounts it was a fantastic performance. Sky Sports said we could have had ten. And to think, I turned down tickets in favour of delivering Tory leaflets for a Tottenham supporting friend of mine in Chatham. I must want my head read. Still, as you may have seen in the previous threads, we delivered a leaflet to Rooster, one of my regular commenters. Spooky coincidence, or what?!

It seems the back four performed wonders and Rob Green saved a penalty, but the men of the match were Etherington and Bellamy. It’s fantastic to see Matty Etherington back in top form. I would have quite happily seen him leave Upton parl in the summer after his terrible form last year. It’s great to see he must have got rid of his demons.

Oh what fun it is to see, West Ham win away. Well, it would have been had I been there…

Reading Preview

Well it can’t be worse than last year, can it?! I am optimistic that we will get at least a point at Reading this afternoon. I can;t put my finger on why, but I just don’t think Reading are quite the same team as they were last season. I hope I am not being complacent. I got a phone call yesterday from a friend who had procured two tickets for the match and asked if I wanted to go. Very annoyingly I had already committed to going to help my friend Tracey Crouch, who is the Tory candidate in Chatham and Aylesford, to deliver 20,000 newspapers to her adoring electorate. I decided she’s lynch me if I let her down. So that guarantees that West Ham will deliver a convincing win! I don’t see many changes from last week’s team, apart from Dean Ashton starting and Lee Bowyer coming in to replace Kieron Dyer. Prediction? 0-2 to the Hammers. Brave man,aren’t I?

Was That It?

Well what an anti-climax. We ended up with two players coming in and none departing. Solano is a solid signing but what on earth we are doing signing a player like Henri Camara I just do not know. He’s not exactly Adriano, is he? We now remain short of cover at left back in particular. it is said that we were being quoted £10 million each for Giles Barnes and Nicky Shorey and that is silly money, so I don’t blame the club for not being held to ransom, but even so, I am sure I am not alone by being disappointed in not getting one world class player to sign for us.

Those who accuse us of throwing our money around ought to look at the figures. We have made a net outlay of around £3 million. Just look at what Spurs and Fulham have spent!

The onus now is to to make sure we are in the top half of the table by the time the transfer window opens again in January. If we look as if we are a club on its way up, then we should be able to attract the best players. If we are near the bottom they just won’t come.