Lest We Forget…

We football fans are fickle beasts. Let’s look back a mere six weeks and remember our fears. Let’s remember where we thought this club was heading. Let’s remember what we were saying about Zola, Cole and several others too. Let’s remember how little faith some of us had. Let’s remember that most of us thought that by January 31st we’d have probably lost Rob Green, Matty Upson and Scott Parker. Let’s remember that few of us would have expected us to buy a £3 million Czech international defender, let alone a £9 million Ugandan-German wunderkind from Italy.

And let’s remember that we are unbeaten since Christmas…

Portsmouth 4-1
Stoke 2-1
Barnsley 3-0
Newcastle 2-2
Fulham 3-1
Hartlepool 2-0
Hull City 2-0
Arsenal 0-0

That’s 8 matches without losing. That’s E.I.G.H.T.

Let’s remember Carlton Cole’s form and the fact that working with Zola and Clarke has enabled him to find the net 5 times in 6 league games. Let’s remember the defensive partnership between James Collins and Matthew Upson that has seen us keep 4 clean sheets in 8 matches. Let’s remind Fabio Capello who really is England’s Number One. Let’s all remember the tenacity and skill of Nehrami and Parker, whose tackled and passing have been crucial to the level of possession we have enjoyed.

And let’s remember Craig Bellamy. Who left all this behind for a team who contrived to lose to Stoke City today.

We are West Ham United. We understand what that means. No wonder Arsenal fans envy us. No wonder Spurs fans are jealous of our success.

Zola and Clarke have given us renewed belief. We anticipate a match now believing we will win. We hear the whistle and believe Carlton will score. We know Behrami will win his tackles. We relish seeing James Collins heading ball after ball away from danger. We can’t take our eyes off the colossus that is Herita Ilunga. We cherish the boyish enthusiasm with which Mark Noble approaches each game. Noble, Tomkins, Collison. West Ham Boys. Us.

Whatever happens for the rest of the season we can all agree that Zola has restored our faith in how the game should be played. We deserve to be where we are now. Who knows how much further this team can go.

Like you, I am looking forward to finding out.

Arsenal Preview & Open Thread

I would be astonished if the lineup changed for the match this afternoon against Arsenal. Why on earth would you change a winning team. No doubt there are several readers who believe that Savio Nsereko should get a starting place. I disagree. The short burst we saw of him on Wednesday was highly encouraging, but I think it would be disruptive to change the lineup today.

Believe me, we should go into this game confident of winning it. And it is in midfield where we will win or lose it. If Behrami, Collison, Parker and Noble can dominate the centre of the pitch they can snuff out much of Arsenal’s threat.

I would love to have a ticket for the game, but sadly I shall be reduced to listening to the audio commentary. If anyone knows where one can find a video feed, please say so in the comments.

UPDATE: Julien Faubert’s loan move to Real Madrid has been confirmed. Who’d have thunk?

Faubert to Madrid. Real-ly

I can hardly believe I am typing this but it’s confirmed that Julien Faubert
is in discussions with Real Madrid about a loan move.

Coming tomorrow: Sir Alex signs Luis Boa Morte!

And Straight In At Number Four…

According to those nice folks at Wikio, this is the fourth most popular football blog in Britain (and 10th most popular sports blog). In fact, West Ham blogs take up two of the top ten. Interesting that neither Chelsea or Manchester United have blogs which make the top ten. Perhaps it’s because their supporters have trouble with the UK alphabet. Joke.

1. Arseblog
2. Gunnerblog
3. SoccerLens
4. West Ham Till I Die
5. West Ham Fans
6. Goodplaya
7. Harry Hotspur
8. “Have you ever been to Liverpool?”
9. East Lower
10. AVFC Blog

So I suppose I must be doing something right, as not only do I have the number 4 footie blog, I also have the number 1 political blog!

Friday Rumour Mill

OK, busy at work, but here’s a couple of things to get your teeth into…

* Calum Davenport rumoured to be on his way to Wolves for £3 million. Personally, I like him as a player, but it means we recoup what we paid to Spurs, which isn’t a bad deal.

* The Kovacs deal looks done.

* The club is still ken to move Boa Morte and Faubert on elsewhere, but it looks increasingly unlikely.

That’s all. Unless, of course, you know different. Cyril…

PS Those too young to remember That’s Life won’t get that reference…

Vote for Scott Parker

The FA is running a competition for the player of the 4th round of the FA Cup. Scott Parker is one of the five players in the running. You can vote for him HERE (before 3 Feb).

Welcome Back Jeremy Nicholas

An email from a reader…

As a regular reader of your blog can I just say you missed a cracking game last night and if it wasn’t for the Hull goalie it would have been a very embarrassing score for Hull.

But the important thing was the atmosphere, and we all feel it was down to Jeremy being back – FatBoy Slim to start, Bubbles played properly, team read out properly – when reading our reserves he correctly saved the name of Savio to the end so we could cheer…….even with Hull he paused after reading out Garcia and Bullard for reaction from us……he know West Ham which is more than the last guy did. As we were filing out he read out the rest of the nights scores, making a humerous comment about our reaction to Bellamy scoring which had us all laughing.

Good times are back at Upton Park and we have Jeremy to thank for it.

Discuss.

Hull Match Report: Sublime Performance

In the end I couldn’t get to Upton Park tonight and had to settle for watching the game on Sky. The atmosphere sounded fantastic and I so wish I could have got there. This was a vintage West Ham performance. Although only two goals were scored, there could have been a hatfull. And all in the Hull net. Both Cole and Di Michele could have had hattricks. It was that good. Again the intricate one touch passing was sublime, and the tackling fierce, but fair.

There wasn’t a single weakness in this performance, but the best part of it was the burgeoning partnership between Di Michele and Cole. Who’d have thought it? Their interplay tonight had to be seen to be believed. All of which reminds me of a joke.

Knock Knock
Who’s There?
Craig
Craig who?
That’s football.

Defensively we were almost perfect. They barely had a shot on goal. Ilunga was able to rampage down the left at will and once Lucas Neill realised he could do the same from time to time, we had the perfect attack.

In midfield both Parker and Noble had stormers. Parker got forward a lot more, with Behrami filling in at the back, but Parker is the one who is developing into a massive player for us. It is inconceivable that we sell him. Behrami had his quietest game for a long time but was still impressive. Noble sprayed the ball around well, but his penalty was poor. It’s the third one in a row he has put in the same place. Third time unlucky.

It was fantastic to see Di Michele on fire. Amazing what the arrival of a new player can do! He had a couple of superb shots which should have resulted in goals but just clipped the post. The curler in the first half looked a dead cert. He was definitely man of the match. Carlton Cole had another brilliant game too. He had two one on ones and was unlucky with both of them. He held up the ball very well, won a penalty and scored a goal. Fantastic performance.

Green 7
Ilunga 8
Neill 7
Collins 8
Upson 8
Collison 8
Noble 8
Parker 9
Behrami 7
Cole 8
Di Michele 9

UPDATE: Just a word about the Sky TV coverage. They have discovered a fantastic new pundit in Dean Windass. He was knowledgeable, eloquent, funny and not afraid to call it as it is. They should use him more often.

Quiz Question

Who was the last West Ham player to score 5 goals in 5 games?

Answer: Tony Cottee, 23 years ago!

Hull Open Thread

Due to work commitments I now can’t go to Upton Park tonight, so I will be watching the game on Sky.

Use this as an open thread to discuss the match as it takes place.

Hull City Preview

West Ham are unbeaten in 6 and Hull have lost their last 5 Premier League games. So we’re going to win, right? You’d hope so, but even under Zola, we haven’t changed that much. Having said that, I am confident that we will continue our winning streak tonight, partly because the team virtually picks itself. The only real question is whether Savio Nsereko will start or be introduced from the bench. My bet is on the latter. But if he does play, where will he play? Up front in place of Di Michele or on the left in place of Jack Collison? I have no idea.

So this is the likely lineup: Green, Upson, Neill, Ilunga, Collins, Behrami, Collison, Noble, Parker, Cole, Di Michele.

One other word of caution, if you will excuse the pun. Behrami is one booking away from a ban. If he picks up a yellow card today he misses the Man U game.

Kovac: An Unlikely Tale?

The story in some of the papers about us buying Czech international defender Radoslav Kovac just doesn’t ring true to me. He’s nearly thirty. And do we really need another defender who can also play in midfield? Isn’t that exactly what we’ve got in Jonathan Spector, who, we shouldn’t forget is still only 22? Even in Davenport goes, we’re well covered in central defence , or at least we will be when Danny Gabbidon returns.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Nicholas Is Back on the Mic

Deck the halls, slaughter a goat, do whatever you do when you celebrate, but I bring glad tidings. Yes, Jeremy Nicholas is back on the microphone at Upton Park. Gone will be the moron who’s done the DJing duties for the last few months. Bubbles will be back, played at the right time. Mr Moon will be back. Well, maybe not, but you never know.

I’m told that Jeremy’s return is due in no small amount to the negative reaction on here and other sites to his replacement. It is good that the club can admit it made a mistake.

I bid you good night.

All is well and God is in her heaven.

Previous Posts

20/9/08 BRING BACK JEREMY NICHOLAS

21/9/08 MESSAGE FROM JEREMY NICHOLAS

The Harry Redknapp Guide to Media Tactics

If you can’t view this properly, click HERE.

Class!

Savio Nsereko Signs

West Ham have confirmed the signing of German under 19 international Savio Nsereko. He is a player well known to Hammers technical director Nani, who was with him at Brescia.

A fee of £7.5 million is a hell of a lot to pay for a player who has only 20 first team appearances behind him and scored a mere three goals. However, he was player of the tournament at the Euro Under 19s last year.

He’s only 5′ 9, so very much in the Craig Bellamy mould, but as well as playing up front, he is also at home playing on the wings.

I suspect he will be introduced to the team gradually, until he gets used to the style of playing. It’s important we don’t expect too much of him from the get-go.

UPDATE: Juventus have rubbished the Cole rumour.

Juventus Chase Cole

That’s Carlton, not Joe. According to Sky Sports, Claudio Ranieri is trying to sign Cole, who he managed during his stint at Chelsea. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Sheff Utd Face Third Party Interference Charge

I haven’t got time this morning to do into this in detail, but it appears Sheffield United may be in a bit of bother about the non appearance of a Charlton Athletic player in their cup tie on Saturday. Martin Samuel has the STORY.

Hayden Mullins Off to Portsmouth?

The Daily Mail, [irony] our favourite newspaper of record [/irony], is reporting that West Ham and Portsmouth have agreed a £2 million fee for Hayden Mullins to move to the South Coast. I’m not sure whether to be happy with this news or not. Mullins has always been a reliable performer and while he’s not the most skilful player, he never lets you down. However, we do have a surfeit of central midfield players so maybe we can afford to lose him. The fee seems about right for a player of his age who is not a first team regular.

If he does go, I hope we’re all united in wishing him well.

And In the 5th Round We Play…

Middlesbrough at home. Somewhat unexciting, but it’s a draw I’d settle for. They’re on a downer at the moment and in theory we should have a good chance of progressing. I’m already getting Cup fever!

Idiot Journalist of the Week: Rob Shepherd

I got quite excited when I read the News of the World story today, which says that the club are offering new deals to Rob Green, Scott Parker and Matthew Upson, which will tie them to the club. But then I read on and came across this sentence…

The club is also weighing up a move for Fiorintina’s Italian under-21 forward Pablo Daniel Osvaldo.

That would be the same Osvaldo who signed for Bologna last week, I suppose. Now I suppose it the rest of the article could still be entirely accurate, but it doesn’t half plant a huge seed of doubt in your mind when you read something you know to be 100% wrong in the self same piece.

The author of the article is Rob Shepherd, a dyed in the wool Hammers fan. You’d think he’d know better, wouldn’t you? No? No, I suppose not. He is after all a sports journalist. Once upon a time, a sub-editor would have cleared up his mess behind him, but most newspapers have reduced their subbing to a bare minimum.

Bloggers have an undeserved reputation among mainstream media journalists for inaccuracy and not checking their facts. But journalists like Shepherd get paid six figure salaries to make things up and not even bother to read cuttings on the very clubs they write about.

One day their editors will realise they are being taken for fools.