Just Like My Dreams...

Watford 0 v 4 West Ham United

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:11:00 +0000

We're winning away,
We're winning away,
How shit must you be?
We're winning away!

It may be to damn them with faint praise, but West Ham finally look as though they have arrived in this division. The early-season rust is clearing; new faces are becoming accustomed to their surroundings; disappointment is gradually morphing into determination. Here, they despatched a limited but experienced Watford side despite barely getting out of second gear, emerging with four goals, three points and barely a bubble pricked. Their escape route from the Championship will be paved with games such as these. After this ultimately comfortable victory, Sam Allardyce has achieved within his first three games what West Ham's two previous full-time managers never did: masterminding consecutive away wins. It was the first time they had won successive games on the road for four long years, a shambolic travelling circus stretching back to December 2007. It was also the second clean sheet in a row from a team that leaked goals last season like a sieve.

The visitors pierced Watford's fragile confidence with a goal early in the first half and destroyed it with another at its end, leaving the second period to be little more than a procession, one which they decorated with some excellent football and two further goals. "The quality of all four goals was something to be admired," said Allardyce. "We've got everything right. It's not often you see all your team playing what you think is the best they can play. It's how we defended as well. I wouldn't have thought they can get much better than they were tonight." Asked whether last night's display would go some way to healing the scars of last season, Allardyce added: "When you do what they did against Watford confidence flows back. Winning games the way we did can do a lot to that winning mentality."

No wonder Big Sam milked the applause on the pitch at the end as Hammers fans hailed him. Little by little, West Ham are responding to their manager's ideas. Allardyce is nothing if not a fast learner, and having met a striker shortage by signing John Carew from Aston Villa, he has given his side more attacking impetus by pushing Kevin Nolan further forward, into a role more akin to that he played for Newcastle last season. As against Doncaster on Saturday, Nolan orchestrated affairs and worked harder than anyone else when West Ham lost the ball. And as against Doncaster, West Ham took an early lead. Carlton Cole was fouled as he contested his goalkeeper's clearance, Matt Taylor's subsequent free-kick from 35 yards was tipped round a post and James Tomkins headed in the resulting corner after Watford failed to pick up his run to the far post; rising unchallenged to head back across Scott Loach and into the far corner for his first goal since April 2009. It was four minutes on Saturday; here the clock stopped on barely three.

It is scarcely possible for a goal scored that early to come against the run of play, but the Hornets had at least managed to squeeze in an attack before falling behind, Robert Green gathering John Eustace's shot at the second attempt. Watford contributed fully to a bright opening period. Sean Dyche's team were over-reliant on the tactic of looping balls over the visiting defence for the impressive Marvin Sordell to run on to, and it nearly brought them an equalizing goal in the 15th minute, only for Green to flick out an arm to nudge a curling shot past the post. It was a pivotal moment. Discussing Green's future, Allardyce said: "It's obviously a very delicate situation as we're in the Championship and there's only a certain length we can go."

Another searing Sordell run down the left culminated in a fine cut-back that was only just behind the onrushing Chris Iwelumo. The home side's threat, though, could not be sustained. The teams traded chances thereafter until, in the second of one scheduled minute of injury time, Joey O'Brien advanced from right-back and, as Watford's defenders scattered to cover more obvious attacking threats, found his path largely clear as he continued into the 18-yard box. After his attempted pass to Cole was deflected back to him, he poked a measured shot past Loach for his first goal in over six years. Given his attacking importance in a team not blessed with natural wingers, he should get more chances this season.

West Ham looked a lot happier after that. They were rarely threatened in the second half, and managed to take advantage of a flagging Watford to double their winning margin. Nineteen minutes from time, Nolan released Herita Ilunga on the left byline and his low cross was bundled in by Cole from around 18 inches. The England striker had got the nod ahead of Frédéric Piquionne. Interestingly, Allardyce brought Piquionne on for Cole almost as soon as he had scored. Cole insists he is staying at the club though. Carew – not fit enough yet – is eyeing his place, too.

Meanwhile, the midfield trio of Parker, Noble and Nolan looked less cluttered than in their first outing against Cardiff City, with Parker and Noble sitting slightly deeper. Parker reacted sharply to Craig Forsyth's attempts to snatch the ball from his hands in the first half, then smacked a fierce right-foot shot just over the bar from 25 yards. In the first minute of injury time, he collected a pass from Julien Faubert – making his first appearance since January – to score his first goal of the season, tiptoeing to the edge of the area and placing his left-footed shot low into the corner. Still seeking a move to the Premier League, Parker knows that every game he plays for West Ham now could be his last. The fans knew it too, and chanted his name heartily until the final whistle.

Watford's fans only cheered once in the second half and even then they were being ironic, as the already unpopular summer signing, Iwelumo, was replaced. When Dyche decided to buy a target man, abuse from his own fans was hardly what he had in mind. "For parts of the game, we played very well," said Dyche. "We gave away a set-piece goal which, from our point of view, is disappointing. The second goal is very disappointing from us. It's a very poor goal, especially at that late stage of the half. I'll check the statistics but I'm pretty sure Scott Loach hardly had a save to make in the first half and I thought we'd worked their keeper well. We had one cleared off the line and then we gave away a soft goal. We have been guilty of that and it's something we're addressing. After that they become more clinical. They got the third and then all of a sudden they can look like the team that they probably are, which is full of Premiership-style players. I read the other day that one of their players earns our total wage bill. If you spend that kind of money you're going to get quality, and the defining moments of the game came from that quality."

This was a second successive home defeat for the Hornets - and a second successive game without scoring - to leave them in the early-season bottom three. While West Ham are looking upwards. A beaming Sam Allardyce said: "The pleasing thing for me is how we've won this game. After we withstood the early pressure from Watford, and obviously the early goal helped, it was how we defended as well, how we never let Watford get a sniff tonight. As a manager, you look at both sides of it and two clean sheets on the trot away from home is something I always drive into the players and on the back of that we've gone and then played some great football, particularly in the second half, because we've earned the right to play that type of football. That's the most pleasing thing for me - seeing the opposition's threat off early doors, punishing them to the hilt in the end by picking out the right passes in the right places and what I thought might have been an Achilles heel, we've seen some outstanding and quality finishing tonight."

Watford (4-4-2): Loach; Doyley, Mariappa, Taylor, Dickinson; Yeates (Deeney 74), Jenkins, Eustace, Forsyth; Iwelumo (Massey 56), Sordell.
Subs: Gilmartin, Bennett, Mirfin.
Booked: Eustace, Sordell.

West Ham: (4-5-1): Green; O’Brien, Tomkins (Faye 67), Reid, Ilunga; Noble, Parker; Collison (Faubert 75), Nolan, Taylor; Cole (Piquionne 74).
Subs: Boffin, Barrera.
Booked: Noble.

Referee: D Whitestone (Northamptonshire).

Doncaster Rovers 0 v 1 West Ham United

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:50:00 +0000

Sam Allardyce was blowing bubbles of joy as he celebrated his first victory as West Ham boss, but there was a sense of relief at the final whistle after the Hammers survived a late onslaught from the home side. "Doncaster threw everything at us towards the finish but I was well pleased with the resilience of our defence," admitted Allardyce. "We did the good stuff in the first half, and could have scored more, but the result showed we can dig in and win games." With promotion their stated objective after dropping out of the Premier League, West Ham made a false start when they lost to Cardiff on the opening weekend of the Football League season, but Kevin Nolan's strike at the Keepmoat Stadium secured a vital 1-0 victory in South Yorkshire.

The West Ham manager could take a large slice of the credit for the way his team outplayed the home side before the interval. Doncaster might be one of the more unfashionable clubs in the Championship but they play some of the best football in the division - when they are allowed. Yet Allardyce's side ensured Rovers never had a chance to settle into their slick passing style. They hassled and harried, with midfield stars Nolan and Scott Parker rolling up their sleeves to lead the way. Last season's Footballer of the Year played well but was outshone by former Newcastle captain Nolan, who capped a fine performance with the all-important goal.

Just four minutes had gone when Jack Collison swung over a deep and inviting cross from the right and Nolan ghosted in on the stretch to volley the ball past Gary Woods. It was a typical poacher’s effort and his first goal in West Ham United colours since a £3 million summer move from Newcastle and the surprise decision to drop down a division. Another goal, and a fine example of his shooting repertoire, almost followed when he rifled a 25-yard effort against the woodwork. Woods may have got a faint touch to that, but the Doncaster keeper’s hand was firm in the 66th minute to deny Nolan once more from a clever chip. It was a performance that typified why Allardyce was so keen to be reunited with him again. "Kevin has a good mentality and knows what it takes to get out of this division," said the West Ham manager of Nolan, who scored 18 times when leading Newcastle to promotion in 2010. "It has got to be quality with teamwork and team spirit, and he builds that. He talks to players, demands from players and helps me with my job."

At a time when English sport revels in centuries and success, Nolan himself wants West Ham to enjoy a record-breaking season and pass their own 'big Test'. He steered Newcastle to the Championship title in 2010, as they bagged 102 points and got within four points of the league record set by Reading. Now he has challenged his promotion-chasing Hammers to emulate the Toon. "We have got the quality to do that," he said. "We just have to make sure we all believe scrapping out games is just as good a win as playing teams off the park. Everyone knows I did it with Newcastle – we romped it really. But for the opening 18 to 20 matches it wasn’t easy. Teams always put us under a lot of pressure because we were the big scalp. It’s going to be the same at West Ham, and the lads have to get used to that. Sam made no secret of the fact that’s why he bought me, to score goals and lead the team. We only lost four games that year with Newcastle and it was a fantastic season. That’s what we at West Ham have to try to do, try to put pressure on ourselves to beat their record. Hopefully that will be a common thing throughout the season. It was good to get the clean sheet too. Doncaster came close and sometimes you have to ride your luck. Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal do it. Early in the season they don’t play at their best, but make sure they win. Some of the lads are a bit disappointed because they feel they didn’t perform to their maximum. But it’s a team effort in this league. If we can stick together and play like we did, we will be fine and hopefully achieve the plan of being in the Premier League next season."

It could be a League One return for Rovers unless they improve in their current crisis. West Ham controlled much of the game and understandably so. Not only do they have players of Premier League stature, but Doncaster were missing 10 first-choice players, most notably the striking pair of Billy Sharp and James Hayter. Yet they might have snatched a point. From a corner for the visitors, James Coppinger raced clear but, as Robert Green advanced, the winger decided to slide the ball across for support that was not there. He then glanced a header inches past the post in the 76th minute after running on to a splendid cross from roving full-back Mustapha Dumbuya. Green then had to make a further fine save from Simon Gillett 12 minutes from time.

The late rally could not deny West Ham a first away win since February and Allardyce- who became visably more and more agitated in the closing stages- was delighted to see his side hold on. "It was a little uncomfortable, but I liked the resilience of our defence," he added. "It was important to win, not just because of our poor away record, but losing late against Cardiff when we didn’t deserve to lose." Sean O’Driscoll, the Doncaster manager, had few positive thoughts after a second successive league defeat. "We didn't do the things we practice right and maybe showed them too much respect," he said. "We had a lot of injuries but we can't make than an excuse. You can't afford to switch off like that in this division. Too many people think they can play in this division without doing the basics. It doesn’t disappoint me that we played poorly, what does is not doing the things they are told. There are injuries, but they are no excuse for our performance."

Doncaster (4-5-1): G Woods; Dumbuya, Naylor, Friend, Spurr; Coppinger, Gillett (Hird 82), Oster, Bennett (Baxendale 76), Barnes (Keegan 76); Brown.
Subs: Sullivan, Radford.
Booking: Brown.

West Ham (4-5-1): Green; O’Brien, Tomkins, Reid, Ilunga (Stanislas 86); Collison (Sears 72), Parker, Noble, Nolan, Taylor; Piquionne (Cole 62).
Subs: Boffin, Faye.

Referee: S Mathieson (Cheshire).

Head Full Of Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:36:00 +0000

Of all the places in England, Canary Wharf is perhaps the last one you might expect Sam Allardyce, "Big Sam" himself, to have made his home, three months shy of his 57th birthday. He loves it there especially, he says, his apartment, where a straight-talking Black Country lad who made his name in Lancashire lives next door to investment bankers. When he last lived in the south of England he bought a house in Sevenoaks. Back in the early Eighties it cost him £59,000 - all he could afford as a professional at Millwall. But the less said of that the better given Allardyce is now in charge at West Ham United. Now he could stretch to something rather more palatial. The pay-offs alone could probably buy him a multi-million-pound home in one of London's more upmarket areas. But after his most recent experiences in football management, at Blackburn and at Newcastle prior to that, he has chosen to rent for a while.

It still sounds like quite a pad. A state-of-the-art apartment 40-odd floors up in Canary Wharf, complete with a concierge service, a residents-only bar on the roof of the building and a fitness centre. Mrs Allardyce appears to like it too and her husband declares it extremely handy for the daily commute to work as well as the pleasant Italian restaurant he strolled to in the evening sunshine for an interview with assembled journalists. "Once all the bankers have gone home it's actually nice and quiet around here," he says.

It is 10 years since Allardyce first won promotion to the Premier League with Bolton Wanderers. It is 20 years this summer since he launched his management career at Limerick with a priest for a chairman and a transfer kitty raised by shaking a tin around local pubs. It is 30 years since he last decamped to London, as a player signed for £90,000 by Millwall. He got to know Canary Wharf when Wanderers played away at West Ham and Charlton Athletic. When it comes to putting down some permanent roots in London, you can hardly blame him for being a little cautious. He has only just embarked on a new adventure as the manager of West Ham and his last two jobs 'went horribly wrong', a change of ownership leading on both occasions to his sudden, unexpected and, most would agree, thoroughly undeserved dismissal. For all the recent upheaval in his life, Allardyce looks well. He is sporting a golden tan which he says is the product of 'six months off courtesy of Blackburn' and his mood is one of optimism as he discusses the challenge he faces at the 'Boleyn Ground'. "Not Upton Park as I always thought it was," he says with a smile.

As usual the story Allardyce has to tell is full of all the stuff that makes football interesting: transfer coups, billionaire owners, brutal sackings and the whiff of betrayal from those around him. Most of all it is about taking on the challenge of restoring West Ham to the Premier League just two years before they are scheduled to move into the Olympic Stadium with a 60,000-capacity. He takes great pride in having built a Bolton Wanderers team that achieved things the club had never done before (qualify for Europe) and he would like to do the same at West Ham, starting against Cardiff City in the Championship tomorrow. Sacked by Mike Ashley at Newcastle and then again at Blackburn Rovers last year by the Venkys Group when they bought that club, does it depress him, being back in the Championship? "It doesn't depress me, because there are times in life when you take the chance to go and do better," he says. "And it went horribly wrong for me at [Newcastle]. But I sit comfortably with it because it was through no fault of my own."

He even displays a surprising degree of insouciance towards that often hilarious but bogus Twitter page, TheBig_Sam. It is with some trepidation that the subject is broached of his alter ego, a satirical account so popular it has more than 66,000 followers. He did take steps to have not BigSam added to its title, leaving followers in no doubt that it really is the work of an impersonator; something that was perfectly understandable given some of the material. It is popular because it captures a commonly-held view of Allardyce with an absurdist twist. It is near the edge but it can be very funny. Only this week the imposter declared that among the drawbacks of living in London were 'snooty Beefeaters' and the proximity he now enjoys to 'John Barrowman'. Secretly, however, Allardyce is starting to laugh along with the rest of us, recognising that it probably does add to his appeal and gives him an almost cult-like status. "I have no idea about Twitter," Allardyce responds until he is persuaded to see the spoof as a back-handed compliment. "Yeah, you've changed my view, that'll do me. Mrs Allardyce reads it a lot. I suppose one day I'll have a look at it. It's a bit like an impressionist doing an impression of you. He might take the piss out of you, but you're happy he's done it."

He takes a dimmer view of certain people he has worked with these past few years. The real Big Sam has never been one for ducking a question and he responds with searing honesty, particularly when it comes to the man who succeeded him at Ewood Park. Fiercely loyal to his staff, Allardyce has always shared his success with them. He was delighted to see Mike Forde move on from their time together at Bolton to become performance director at Chelsea. He encouraged Bolton to give Sammy Lee a go as manager when he left for Newcastle. He considered Steve Kean to be another such colleague, having taken him on at Blackburn when he was an out-of-work coach. Until, that is, Kean was given the manager's job the day that Allardyce was sacked by Venkys. Venkys were advised by the TV rights group Kentaro, whose affiliate company also happened to have Kean as a client.

Allardyce says he has not heard from Kean since he called the Scot to say that he and his assistant, Neil McDonald, had been sacked. So how will he feel when he next encounters Kean on a touchline? "Since then we have never spoken," says Allardyce. "But I would say the thing is firmly in Steve Kean's court." Does he believe Kean already knew the job was his when he called him that day? "He'd have to have done wouldn't he really," he says. "Only he knows when he wakes up and looks in the mirror. But other influences must have told them to sack me because I never met them (he means the new owners, Venky's). They were sacking Neil at the same time as me and I was saying, "Why? Why are you sacking him? Neil needs to take over. He's been a manager. If you don't like Sam Allardyce's face, fair enough. But here's the man". Pushed on what really happened at Blackburn behind the scenes, he said: "I have to be careful what I say. Confidentiality issues. But you all know the answers to that. I can't repeat it. It was sad."

He was enjoying life at Blackburn. He pays tribute to Kenny Dalglish and the late Jack Walker for what they created but says he, too, made a significant impact at the club. "They [the Walker family trust] were desperate to sell Blackburn for many, many years and my satisfaction comes from the fact that I created so much interest in the club again," he says. "I know it sounds like I'm blowing my own trumpet but I might as well. Mourinho does it all the time and everyone fucking loves him, so why shouldn't I? I created such a vibrant football club that there were four or five [groups] who wanted to buy it having never previously shown any interest. Based on the fact that I was producing profit with results. It wasn't the best – Arsenal's profit ratio is so massive and obviously Manchester United sold [Cristiano] Ronaldo for £80m – but our profit ratio was fantastic. The year we finished 10th [2009-2010, his only full season] we made a profit rather than a deficit having [previously] kept them in the Premier League. We won the Premier League that year. I know that sounds strange. Chelsea won the league that year but we did far better. We sold £33 million worth of players and spent £14 million and still finished 10th." It was the same at Bolton. When I left Bolton I made a net profit after eight years. That was not even including Nicolas [Anelka] because I left before he was sold."

Allardyce’s methodology came to fruition with Wanderers where, over an extraordinary period, he took the club from what is now the Championship to regulars in the upper echelons of the Premier League. Consecutive finishes of eighth, sixth, eighth and seventh put into perspective the relative success last season of Owen Coyle, who guided Bolton to 14th. As he explains his philosophy, it quickly becomes obvious that the narrow caricature of ‘Big Sam’, the clogging old-school centre-back who promotes long-ball football and the physical intimidation of opponents, is nonsensical. "It comes by the media putting my photo in the paper with me shouting," he says. "It gives a skin-deep image of what I am. My real ingredient for success was to marry the academic to the practical. We wanted to break new ground in football. We would do it and not tell anyone because they would think they we were all off our heads, arrogant or completely insane.

"I put together heads of staff with the same desire and ambition in their fields that I had. I was the educator of football, coaching and tactics. The head of medicine was the head of his field. The head of sports science and fitness was the head of his field. The doctor was the head of some alternative medicines if possible and, of course, you had the sports psychologist, which was key on every level. All those created what we called the cog. By the end at Bolton, people were listening and saying, ‘how does he do it?’ It was very nice to sit back and manage a club with less worries, less anxieties than before. The last four years it was a well-oiled machine."

The marriage between Bolton and Allardyce seemed rock solid. Upon agreeing a 10-year contract, he even talked about retiring when it expired. Yet having guided the club to third, behind only Manchester United and Chelsea, at the beginning of 2007, he lost faith in the board’s ambition. Bolton chairman Phil Gartside has previously alluded to Allardyce’s desire to spend more time with his family but the new West Ham United manager wants to set the record straight. "Bolton, at the end, had an opportunity to finish in the Champions League but didn’t want to take it, so what’s the point in staying?" Allardyce said. "As much as I loved the club, it was impossible for me to stay. We had 39 points after 21 games. We were ahead of Arsenal, ahead of Liverpool. We needed to spend some money to give us an opportunity to finish in the Champions League and I was turned down flat and told that we don’t want to finish in the Champions League."

Asked what he needed, Allardyce said: "About two players. I said to the chairman, 'If we just put more into our squad now we will get in the Champions League. We’ll finish fourth or third. All we have to do is have a mediocre 17 games and we are going to finish in the Champions League. These players are too fatigued to carry on because we have got a smaller squad than Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.’ Their reaction was: 'Well, we’re safe, we’re happy with that’. That was it. I went home and said to [my wife] Lynne, 'That’s me finished’. She didn’t believe me, nobody believed but, believe you me, when Sam makes his mind up, there is no turning back. I tried to stay loyal. I had to keep it quiet at that particular time because of my love for the club."

Rather more short-term adventures were to follow. He is understandably defensive about his record with both Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers following sackings after seven months and two years respectively. In truth he has had some rotten luck with takeovers. "You always expect change in every business that is bought for millions of pounds," he says. "You become an unfortunate bystander; the product of new owners who didn't quite stick to what they said they were going to do. For that reason it doesn't depress me. There are times in life when you take the chance to go and do better, like I did at Newcastle, and through no fault of my own it went horribly wrong. I'm actually all right with Mike (Ashley). There was no problem. At least he said in the end what he should have said in the beginning: 'I wasn't the one who picked you so I didn't really want you'. I’m only remembered at Newcastle for one fan jumping up in one game that the TV keeps showing, but in the first 10 games I was the best thing since sliced bread. Anyway he settled the contract and I left, bitterly disappointed."

At Blackburn, the challenge was doing a troubleshooting job. "Walk into a football club, in the middle of December, in the hardest period of the season, drag them out of the bottom and get them to survive," he says. "Then take them beyond what they expected. The proof of the pudding is what happens to a football club when you leave. What happened to Limerick when I left? They went down. What happened to Blackpool when I left? They went down. What happened to Notts County? They went down. What happened to Bolton? They nearly got relegated. What happened to Newcastle? They got relegated. What happened to Blackburn? They nearly got relegated."

West Ham were relegated before he arrived and it is his job to do for them what he did for Bolton; not just guide them back into the Premier League but keep them there. So how will he revive the club? "I'm me," he says. "And I run a football club based on my structure, my model. My model has been developed over many years and I know that model works if everyone supports it. I have to get everyone believing in the expertise I own in that particular area. People will always question you in this job but I have the answers to make them understand what I am doing. The most important thing is to make West Ham believe they are winners. The team on the field in particular. They are paid to win, in this case over a marathon season of 46 games. They are not paid to play football and see how it goes. They need to be adaptable. Successful teams are able to change within a game and from game to game. We will give the players the opportunity to win and over the last 10 or 11 years it has worked. I have a huge amount of confidence in the methods I have developed. I'm going to try and get them back in one year. We will try our best. At this stage, a few days before the start of the season, you are always very apprehensive about what you've got. But all the indicators so far are looking OK."

Confidence is not something Allardyce lacks. Not now after the long struggle up through the hierarchy with Blackpool and Notts County to Bolton and certainly not since he established himself over nine years as a Premier League manager. And confidence is exactly what a beleaguered West Ham needed after last season's dismal relegation. "I came here because I want to experience something new, something I've not done for a long time - I am fighting to win this league," he states. "I hope the players have the same determination and desire I do. It is a different challenge but it excites me that the emphasis is on trying to win promotion rather than the lack of ambition in the Premier League of, ‘lets just survive’," he says. "I can’t bear that, it drives me mad. My life has been about winning, not surviving.

Allardyce signed a two-year deal on around £1m a year but admits he is unlikely to see that out if he fails to get Hammers back up this season. "I only think one season, because there's no point in thinking any further," he admits. "In this league you don't get much more than one season. Recent history tells you that. My life expectancy at West Ham United is 1.2 years. If I get past that I’m well above the average. Around 50 per cent of the managers in this league will lose their jobs. It's why you have to look at the first year first. Then if you're successful you can think what you'd do in two to three years, or three to five. But you can't until you get in that position. You can't think beyond one season. That's not depressing. That's an actual fact. Some people want to live in their perceptions. But I live in the real world. Football lives in the world of perception rather than reality. Only those of us who are realists survive."

So it starts again, this time at a club that inspires great loyalty in its support despite the absence of any sustained success since the 1960s and no top-flight league title in their history. West Ham is a club for the incurably romantic and in that sense Allardyce fits right in because, as befits his nickname, he does like to think big. "This team have to be ready to move and create a new history. To remember the past but to have people talking about the current time. Which is what people talked about at Bolton with the new Reebok [Stadium] legacy. It was not just about Nat Lofthouse. Now, the kids will talk about Anelka, Djorkaeff, Hierro, Campo, Okocha, Candela, Speed, Gardner. It's a modern day legacy. No one finished higher on a consistent basis than we did. If you look at the difficulties in our time compared to [the 1950s side], it was a greater achievement. So creating the new modern day history, for me has to go with the new stadium and not forgetting Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Not forget Alvin Martin or Tony Gale from the time when I played – they might not have won anything but it's the highest they have been since – and look to create a new modern day history."

These are strong opinions, and not everyone will agree with Allardyce but the man is past caring about that. He wants to be successful. He is an old-school manager with a modern twist; someone who has long embraced sports science and all it has to offer in the search for that something extra. While he was delighted with the 'highly qualified and in the right areas staff' he encountered when he arrived at Upton Park, he has brought McDonald with him and there will be further new additions to the backroom team. He feels they will be more crucial than ever in keeping his players strong and focused over a gruelling season. He expects a lot of his staff and they tend to feel loyalty back to him.

Lee Richardson, once a player and then a manager at Chesterfield, is the club's new sports psychologist. "I'm very interested in Lee because he's been a player, a coach and a manager who now has an honours degree in sports psychology," says Allardyce. "So it's the first time I've found a sports psychologist who actually has a proper football background - who has been there and done it all. If he's any good he should be one of the best. I've always felt football in this country doesn't focus enough on the psychological side of the game, when the only reason you play at the highest level is because of what's between your ears."

If you really want to know how much of an impression Allardyce has made at Upton Park though, ask some of the people who see him at work every day at the club's training ground. Ask Shirley, who has been helping to prepare the lunches for the players ever since Trevor Brooking was in his prime. "The other day Sam walked into the restaurant when the young players were queing for their food. He shook their hands, one by one, and talked to them. It reminded me of John Lyall," she says. Ask Jimmy, who has been helping out with the coaching as long as anyone can remember. "Sam reminds me of John," he says. "He's a football person, he has football values and he treats people the right way."

Yes, there are some fans who will still need convincing that Sam's style is the right one for West Ham but, if his team begin the season well and keep winning, their numbers will dwindle. "I treat people like human beings, like the way I would like to be treated," he says. "That's my style. I have no desire to shy away from anything or not answer any of their questions. I believe a good relationship with the players and staff prompts discussion, communication. As a manager you have the knowledge and experience to answer those questions. As a player I asked questions that some of my managers didn't like to be asked. In my younger years some of the questions were daft but I would never have learned if I hadn't asked. That was my learning process."

He also appears to be bonding with two 'British owners' who are also 'fans', the Davids - Sullivan and Gold. Allardyce wants to see a new training ground built; something he considers every bit as important as the planned move to the Olympic Stadium. He credits Sullivan with helping him recruit Kevin Nolan, the new West Ham captain and a player who represents quite a coup for a Championship club and signed in anticipation of Scott Parker's probable departure. "It can sometimes be agony trying to sign a player but David Sullivan moved like the wind to get the deal done," says Allardyce.

But how did he persuade Nolan to even consider dropping down a division? "I think it's past history," he says. "Kevin was bitterly disappointed that I didn't take him to Newcastle. It was virtually impossible at the time because of the animosity between me and Phil Gartside (Bolton chairman). If I'd tried to buy him the price would have been £12million, simply because it was me. I thought I only had an outside chance of getting him here but I was aware there was a bit of discontent because of what appeared, from a distance, to be Newcastle's lack of appreciation towards him. Kevin felt no loyalty to Newcastle United for what he had done there. We are a people business."

Allardyce thinks their past relationship counted for a lot. "I was the manager, at Bolton who really started him off, brought him through," he says. "So there's some mutual respect there, built over those years. Our understanding is something we built because he was a young lad when I came in to Bolton. I was a younger manager totally obsessed with making Bolton Wanderers a successful club. All those values he has taken away with him, but when he sought some loyalty back [at Newcastle United] it wasn't there. If you take a footballer for granted you will find that he will not be very happy and he will do one of two things. He will either leave or he just won't be as committed as he was before."

At the same time Nolan liked the idea of a new challenge. "It's a different challenge," thinks Allardyce. "There was a tremendous commitment from him. That's the element that's most exciting for me. It is what he is going to demand from the players and making sure we get out the division at the first time of asking. He has just experienced it at Newcastle. They got 102 points and he scored 17 goals [in their Championship winning season, 2009-2010]. So when he's telling [West Ham team-mates] what it takes to get promoted, how are they going to argue with him? Carlton Cole can't argue with him. Scott Parker can't argue with him. Robert Green can't argue with him. Kevin can say to them, 'To get out of this league we are going to have to do this and if you don't do it you're going to get a shock. You will find out it ain't so easy'. That's one of the big pluses for me."

Despite the financial problems and the psychological difficulty of rebounding instantly from relegation, Allardyce accepts West Ham's status in the division. "We are the favourites, the big boys in this league and I have told the players that," he said. "Everyone wants your scalp, you are going to have to live up to your reputation from day one because they are going to want to turn you over. They are all going to play better, they are all going to play their best and try their hardest when they play against us." Allardyce believes his new-look West Ham cannot afford to lose more than eight league games all season. Any more and instant promotion back to the Premier League will be gone.

Allardyce has moved into Upton Park determined to toughen up the feeble Hammers who lost a staggering 19 matches under Avram Grant last season to finish rock-bottom of the Premier League. They did not manage to win a match until the end of September. He raised alarms at fitness levels of the players he inherited when he took over on June 1 and now he is determined to forge a ruthless streak in the dressing room to add mental toughness to physical strength. "If I have a concern, it is about growing a winning mentality," he says. "They've not had one at this club over the past couple of years because they've lost more games than they've won. If we are to be successful and go back up then we can't afford to lose more than eight matches out of 46. If you lose 10 or 12 then you're unlikely to go up automatically. Teams have got away with it in the past but it would take a really low points total for it to happen."

The first thing Allardyce wants to do is focus on making Upton Park a place where people come and have fear when they walk out of that tunnel. "If we can do that then the fans will take it on because they get excited and create an atmosphere that intimidates teams when they come here," he insists. "When that happens you get on a roll. But once you achieve that then you have to have to make sure you're not a soft touch away from home. You can't just go away, lose, and talk about how well you played or how unlucky you were. If you end up saying you were unlucky too many times, you're not unlucky... you're just bad!

"We have to have a more determined, resilient structure away from home and that should then grow into better performances and another fear factor into the opposition manager and team. Maybe that needs us to win three on the spin at the start of the season, winning games we don't deserve to win. Winning breeds that confidence. We have to manage any complacency, as well. Players can't think it's easy because they won the last game. The team conceded 26 goals from set-pieces last season. That's too many. The first thing is to avoid giving teams those opportunities, so we have to be more disciplined and organised. It's a big pressure in terms of expectation of results but all I ever heard in the Premier League was 'we can't afford to lose £40million' 10 or 20 times a season or 'it's £800,000 per place'. It's become more about money than entertainment and results. I've told the players 'everybody wants your scalp, everybody wants to turn you over'. We have to be have controlled aggression. On the first day of the season the temptation is to chase around like headless chickens but you have to be calm and controlled, play as a team from the start."

Allardyce says that the club had been 'bleeding' following relegation but, in the form of new captain Nolan, set-piece specialist Matthew Taylor, Joey O’Brien and Abdoulaye Faye, he has attracted four considerable sticking plasters. Free-agent striker John Carew was at Upton Park for talks yesterday and is mulling over a one-year deal. Allardyce said: "We've offered him our terms; he's a quality pro with vast experience, so now it's up to him." There has also been the inevitable link this week to Joey Barton, a player he signed for Newcastle in 2007. "It didn’t work for me and it didn’t work for him because of his unfortunate off-field activities," he says. "He did put those behind him apart from obviously a few silly tweets. It’s a bizarre situation. There are not many players around with that amount of talent available for nothing. But I think it would be impossible from a wages point of view. We are a Championship and not a Premier League club."

You would hardly know that, however, if you looked at the team sheet to face Cardiff City on Sunday. As well as Taylor and Nolan, the midfield is likely to include Scott Parker, Mark Noble and Freddie Sears. They still have Carlton Cole in attack and Robert Green in goal. Allardyce, though, knows that he has players who yearn for a move to the top flight. And, as he surveys the situation at clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham, who are facing disruptive interest in their best players at this most sensitive stage of the season, he is scathing about the transfer window. "Before a club will contact us with an offer, the player will already know," he says. "It is the worst transfer system ever. We are dicing with people’s careers, people’s livelihoods. The panic causes mayhem between the day you come back for training and Aug 31 arrives."

That said, the club insists it will not hold a fire sale despite Parker, Cole and Green, their highest earners, still being at Upton Park, and David Sullivan and David Gold, the co-owners, having to inject £18m of their own money before the transfer window closes to keep the club running. Although there are more than three weeks until the window closes, if any or all of those three players still remain as 1September nears, the club will not allow them to leave under-price. Parker is West Ham's highest earner, having signed a new contract last September that earns him £70,000 a week until 2014, while Green earns around £30,000 a week.

Cole's proposed £4.5m move, plus £1.5m of add-ons, to Stoke City last month was agreed by both clubs but the striker's demand for £40,000 a week, plus appearance money, caused the deal to falter. The wage sought by the 27-year-old is more than he presently earns at West Ham. Aston Villa had a formal £7.5m bid for Parker rejected earlier in the summer and Chelsea's hopes of a loan fell down on the proposed terms. Each retains an interest in the midfielder, as do Stoke, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. West Ham are yet to receive a concrete offer for Green.

Sam Allardyce's says of the trio: "They are West Ham players and they are contracted to West Ham. Their commitment has to be to the West Ham shirt because that is where their contract lies. Of course, like everybody at this stage of the season, the madhouse is in full flow. Speculation is all over the place on a constant basis which is why this is one of the most difficult periods for a manager in an entire season. All we can do is try and focus on what is the most important thing and that is the Cardiff game on Sunday and for us to try and go out and set a marker on how we want to be by trying to win the game.

"Pre-season before the window shuts is an absolute disaster frankly. It's one long grind, in terms of what you have to try and achieve in a short time," he says. "From the moment you wake up, to the time you go home after a full day here at the training ground, it's always on your mind. You think 'I wonder what's going to happen tomorrow?' Some of my old managers would be absolutely distraught if, on July 1, they didn't have all the players they needed for the start of the season. A total of 16 players have left this club. We need a minimum of 18 outfield players, possibly 20 so we really need to add at least another two players.

"Then, suddenly, there's an offer for one of our players, we don't accept it because it's not enough, the player's upset because he wants to go the club, another offer comes in, we do accept it this time, we think the player's gone but then it doesn't happen - we have all this trauma on a day-to-day basis. For me, when we changed the transfer system it was by far the biggest mistake we've made. If they suggested going back to the old system of signing players throughout the season, I would say yes in the blink of an eye.

"We haven't sold anyone yet for big numbers. That could still happen but it's more difficult, the closer we get to the August 31 because we have to then get someone in quickly. Out of Scott Parker, Carlton Cole and Rob Green, Cole is probably the least likely to go because he's had the opportunity and turned it down. People are aware now that neither David Sullivan nor David Gold are soft touches. There is no fire sale here - yes, they will allow Scott and Rob to go but at the right valuation. The more desperate clubs become though, the more likely it is we will lose them. The window is narrowing all the time now. It's not long until it slams shut for the Premier League clubs."

Then, as Allardyce cheerfully acknowledges a few supporters and wanders past pictures of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Paolo di Canio, he is distracted by the television debate into whether England are the best cricket nation on earth. "Ahh, the cricket," says Allardyce, pausing for only the briefest of introductions. "Brilliant wasn’t it? And shows what can be achieved if you get the structure right." He then delivers an unprompted critique of the wider failings of British sport and specifically what can be done to improve the fortunes of the England football team. It is fascinating. The central thesis is that we do not value coaching highly enough to make it professional for the many volunteers who teach lower age groups around the country. And, for that reason, young footballers in this country simply do not receive enough quality time with a football at their feet.

Allardyce is also blunt about some of the practices at the top level, especially the reluctance to embrace new technology and ideas. "What I don’t like about football is its ignorance," he says. "It is very loath to want to change. One of the good things Richard Scudamore came up with is the 39th game. I hear rugby is playing the Challenge Cup in another country, American footballers keep coming to Wembley and we are still sat there on our big fat perches thinking, ‘we don’t have to do any of that because we are the best’. We will have a big shock if we don’t catch up. The Premier League is the richest brand in the world and we are still not doing live data; still not putting a chip in the ball, in the lad’s shirt, in the referee and linesman’s shirt and not measuring what they are doing. Australian rules have had it for years."

Allardyce, who refers to himself as 'a teacher', then explains in great detail how different people learn in different ways, whether through listening, watching, participating or reading. His own experience at school, where his dyslexia was not recognised, clearly shapes his philosophy. "I think most of our education system focuses on what people are not good at," he says, "but if you focus on what you are good at, that’s what gives you a particular area to make a living in this country. If you become the best footballer at two or three specific things, you are going to be a good footballer all your life."

Allardyce thinks his modern-day style and modern day outlook on life will suit this club. "Now it's about the psychological more than the physical. If you don't have your mind right, your ability will never shine through. But if your mind is strong you will maximise that ability. I know I don't speak in an East End way but I've always fancied myself and it won't take me long to pick up a few sayings and join in with the rest. I know it's a great football area. I've been spending time talking to people about football here and what a big catchment area it is. But we have to drag the whole place up into the modern era, to move into the new stadium and training ground. We have to be thinking about what type of model we want to be." With that, he gets up, begins attending to the two mobiles that have been regularly flashing - but ignored - during the hour he has been holding court. As his alter ego @TheBig_Sam recently tweeted to an aspiring manager seeking advice for his first game: "Suit, ear-piece, head full of dreams. Sorted". For the real thing, one imagines tomorrow afternoon will be much the same.

Any Given Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:15:00 +0000

A good speech is a wonderful thing. It has the capacity to inspire, to lift your spirits, to make your soul soar above the mundane minutae that obfuscates everyday existence. Unfortunately, noted Churchill, there are only two things more difficult than making an effective one: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you. If Sam Allardyce's media asault over the last few days has shown anything, it is that he understands the power of the spoken word. He may also have unhealthy obsession with Tony D'Amato. The latter was revealed in a radio interview with BBC London yesterday evening, when a tired sounding Allardyce suddenly referenced the film Any Given Sunday in a conversation about personal standards and collective responsibility.

Oliver Stone's meathead burlesque critique of American sports culture has multifarious faults but is partially saved by the now famous "Inch by Inch" panegyric as delivered by a coruscating Al Pacino. D'Amato's paean to the importance of making incremental improvements towards achieving a greater goal is one of the great sports sermons committed to film; a perfectly pitched oratory with a symbiotic alignment of the three persuasive appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. It starts with the coach admitting he is almost overwhelmed by the situation...

"I don’t know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives.
It all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch, play by play until we’re finished..."

It reflects in his person the feelings of his players, the embodiment of aptum/decorum. He appears like a "broken warrior", similar to his audience. His voice is mannered and low, his body language slow and not overly expressive. He avoids eye contact as much as possible. Compare it to the image of Allardyce in Sunday's Observer, head bowed, eyes closed and rubbing his forehead as if fighting against a headache-inducing memory. "No one else can put any more expectations and pressure on than me," Allardyce revealed to the Independent the same day, before declaring he will be sacked if he does not guide West Ham United into the Premier League. It is a massive burden on my shoulders, he states, before admitting he (and by extension the team) have "been hung out to dry" by the need to seek an instant top flight return. He repeatedly acknowledges that the need to gain promotion is intensified by the club's financial position; that the club carry debts of £80m and David Sullivan, the co-owner, has said that life in the Championship will "blow a £40m hole" in the business plan. Then there is the move to the Olympic Stadium in 2014 and the imperative to take Premier League football with them.

"We are in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me.
We can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us
or we can fight our way back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time..."

D'Amato begins to move from demoralization to a more rational appraisal of the situation and Allardyce does the same. "The club was is in despair really," he states. "Relegation leaves a club traumatised, from the owners to the fans, the players to the tea lady. You've got to get over the trauma and back to positive thinking. You win a game of football as much with your mind as with your ability." We are in Championship hell, Allardyce is saying, and we won't get out if we are feeling sorry for ourselves or take anything for granted. "It will be a tough division. It's going to be damned hard work over a marathon season of 46 games." There are recurring textual patterns; repeated reference to terms like 'consistancy' and 'winning frame of mind'; to 'graft as well as guile'.

"There's a lot of really experienced managers in this division who are wanting to do the same as me," Allardyce told the Independent, but there are also "young up-and-coming guys who want to make their names." It is the first oblique reference to the next part of D'Amato's speech; the confession of the 'broken warrior' who begins the process of conferring responsibility onto his young charges. It is here we see the "emotional structuring" of the life to game analogy. D'Amato begins his lament about the wrong decisions and actions he has taken in his life. He takes the strong emotions of personal failure and lets them converge into the game. Hence, there is not only a comparison of game and life on a logical level but also with an emotional background.

"Now I can’t do it for you. I’m too old.
I look around and I see these young faces and I think.
I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I pissed away all my money believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror..."

Reflecting on his evolution as a football manager, Allardyce bemoans: "I was a raging bull, an angry man, worrying, demanding." He would lie awake at night frightened by what the fans or the papers or the owners would say. "I used to be a terrible, terrible worrier, a pessimist," he says. "It's probably because I was a defender. One mistake and the manager will shout at you. I couldn't remember playing well. I could only remember mistakes. I used to worry like mad. But as I got older and established myself, that diminished and as a manager, it's the same. My style now compared to back then, it was just a part of the process. I don't think you can do it any other way, because you are too inexperienced to do it any other way. But if you don't learn from your experiences, then you don't last in this game."

"You know when you get old in life things get taken from you.
That’s part of life.
But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.
I mean one half step too late or too early you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second..."

Allardyce has lasted. He recalls again that he once said that he would like to see through his 10-year contract at Bolton and retire at 56. "By the time that birthday comes along, I would think I would be looking at other things in my life." Yet, he's now 57 and still consumed and driven by the challenge in front of him. Yes you lose things in life, he means to say, but you also gain things like a toughening of the skin and the self-belief engendered by survival. Insecurity has given way to conviction. Man-management remains Allardyce's greatest strength and he maintains that he could win trophies at the very biggest clubs, such as Real Madrid and Internazionale, if he was given the opportunity. "I still feel like I can walk into any club, anywhere, any time and deliver," he told the Telegraph. "It's a bit like a CEO, isn't it? You can take up a position in any industry and if you're a good CEO, you can make that company profitable. You put me in a football environment anywhere in the world and I can deliver the module. I can modify the module for the particular culture and the way of playing. I turn dreams into reality and that is my job".

Thus begins the tonal shift, just as D'Amato changes gradually form the "broken warrior" to an "old wise warrior" (who knows how to overcome any situation) with a strong spirit and experience. There is an increase in energy; his voice, body language, movements, content. He engages in strong eye contact with the audience. Finally, he offers the solution to winning in life/game by expressing that it is achieved by taking small steps (logos); while at the same time pushing his character (ethos) and creating emotional resonance (pathos) where the former is a pre-requisite for the function of the latter.

On this team, we fight for that inch.
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch.
We claw with our finger nails for that inch.
Because we know when we add up all those inches that’s going to make the fucking difference between winning and losing, between living and dying.

It is about standards Allardyce reiterated to BBC London. "If they are not met then I'm not very happy," he said. "As a manager you should always set higher standards than everybody else and you strive and push for those standards and drive and push your staff forward and constantly remind them what their responsibilities are; that they're paid to deliver, paid to entertain, paid to send a group of people home as happy as they can." If you want to succeed, Allardyce tells his players, you must dedicate yourselves to producing your very best every time you run out onto that field with a West Ham shirt on. "That's my values and standards and I hope some of that will rub off and we'll hve a successful season," he stated. "At times it will be difficult, at times it will be a long haul against lots of very good teams with some very good managers in this league, but I think it can be very exciting."

I’ll tell you this.
In any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch.
And I know if I am going to have any life any more, it is because
I am still willing to fight and die for that inch.
Because that is what living is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now to that personal Allardyce missive that dropped onto the doormats of season-tickets holders across the country this week. The one that talks of the "great thrill" of being Hammers manager, and the "special feeling" you get at the start of a new football season. "A lot has gone into our preparations," states Allardyce. "We began at the end of June, have been to Switzerland and Denmark since then and even had the lads running in Hainault Forest. It has not just been about form and fitness but also about changing the mentality of the football club and creating a more positive environment at the training ground." It talks of the positivity of the new signings he has made and how the youngsters have been given a chance to prove themselves. He speaks of how every effort has been made to ensure "no one has been allowed to feel sorry for themselves after last season."

The intent of the message is clear; living is to keep fighting. Allardyce wants to show he is motivated and energised; that he has done everything in his power to give his players the chance to succeed. "I said when I arrived that I was joining a fantastic club with a strong tradition and loyal supporters who deserve to be in the Premier League," he continues. "I wasn’t wrong. Everywhere I go there are Hammers fans and we have had a great following. Talking to fans long into the night in the car park at Dagenham & Redbridge last Tuesday, I could feel the passion and pride. My staff and I are determined to bring success but we also have a responsibility to bring on those players coming through the Academy and development squad. We also owe it to the owners to repay their faith."

The final line is the kicker; the moment when Allardyce reclaims his energy to underline he not the player/team ("warrior") but the coach ("wise warrior"). "We will need every single one of you right behind us," he insists, and with it completes the final transference.

Now I can’t make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That’s a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.

That’s football guys. That’s all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

"If we all work together and pull together in the same direction inside and outside the football club if we all try and improve by a small percent and add it all together it will be good enough," concluded Allardyce in his interview on the BBC. As in football so in life, like climbing that wall or kissing the girl, you'll get where you want to go an inch at a time.

Dreams Into Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 10:50:00 +0000

Big Sam strolled to the dug-out for West Ham's pre-season friendly at Dagenham & Redbridge last week like Dean Martin walking on to a stage in Las Vegas – only with a better suit. He acknowledged the cheers with a breezy wave, joked with his coaching staff and was happy to pose for pictures with supporters and sign autographs after a 1-0 win. But David Sullivan and David Gold, the owners, did not hire Sam Allardyce to beat League Two clubs, writes Nick Szczepanik in today's Independent. Taking West Ham back to the Premier League at the first attempt is his task, and once the Championship campaign starts, the relaxed figure of a summer evening has to deliver the intensity that was missing last season as West Ham sleepwalked to relegation under Avram Grant.

Allardyce accepts the challenge, and there is no hedging of bets with talk of stabilisation and regrouping, which is just as well. He knows that the size of his new club – not to mention the new manager – means that expectations are inevitable. "No one else can put any more expectations and pressure on than me," he said. "Because I haven't come down here to spend a long time down in the Championship. I've come to win the club promotion and get myself where I've been for the last 10 years, and that's managing in the top league in the world."

It may come as no surprise to some that the man charged with restoring West Ham United to the Premier League expects to return as a champion. Allardyce has always defied the critics and will attempt to do so again as he sets about transforming the club's fortunes, writes the Telegraph's Alex Shaw. He insists it is guile allied to graft that has brought him success in the past and in his blueprint for his side’s return to the top flight, Allardyce wants to set the record straight. He wants to remind those who have mocked his lofty dreams there’s nothing wrong with being sure of your strengths.

To those who continue to cast aspersions over Allardyce’s style of play, he asks them to view the bigger picture in his bid to manage where he believes he should. But most of all, you get the impression the one-time England candidate feels he has something to prove to himself. With that he bows his head, closes his eyes and rubs his forehead for a good 10 seconds. The memory alone is headache-inducing. "I was a raging bull, an angry man, worrying, demanding," he says, as he reflects on his evolution as a football manager. Arsène Wenger or Rafael Benítez might like to add to the description, ponders Guardian's David Hytner, but Allardyce is not talking about the halcyon days at Bolton Wanderers, when he would routinely upset the establishment, rather his formative years at Limerick, Blackpool and Notts County. "My style now compared to back then, it was just a part of the process," he says. "I don't think you can do it any other way, because you are too inexperienced to do it any other way. But if you don't learn from your experiences, then you don't last in this game."

Allardyce has lasted. He once said that he would like to see through his 10-year contract at Bolton and retire at 56. "By the time that birthday comes along, I would think I would be looking at other things in my life." Allardyce will turn 57 in October. At the start of last month, he signed a two-year deal at the Boleyn. He is now consumed and driven by the challenge in front of him – to restore the club's morale, which was battered during their relegation from the Premier League, and to lift them to an immediate return. It will not be easy, and not only because this season's Championship contains plenty of intriguing contenders. West Ham have parted company with 12 senior players from last season's squad and the number could yet swell. Scott Parker is keen to remain in the Premier League and will be sold if his valuation is met. "Scott's position is delicate," Allardyce says, "because if someone hits the numbers that we would value him at and it's the Premier League, where he wants to be, he will be gone."

Allardyce has named Kevin Nolan, the £4m signing from Newcastle United, as club captain, rather than Parker, although it ought to be noted that Parker was not the captain last season. Matthew Upson, who was released on the expiry of his contract, had the armband. "The misconception that Scott was captain was born out of the rousing half-time speech that he gave at West Brom [in February]," Allardyce says of the midfielder's address that inspired the team from 3-0 down to 3-3. "I'd like to hear the transcript of that. I might use it myself. It would be wrong of me to plan [with Parker]. Kevin is here because he thinks his future lies here and he wants to get us back in the Premier League. Like me, he doesn't want to drop out of the Premier League for more than one season."

To that end, Nolan insists there will be no hiding place for West Ham this season and the minimum requirement is an immediate return to the Premier League. Speaking in the Mirror just seven days before the Hammers begin their Championship campaign against perennial play-off sufferers Cardiff at Upton Park, he said: "We have to come out all guns blazing. We have to hit the ground running, there is no hiding place for us. The stakes are high and there is immense pressure on us. But the time for feeling sorry for yourselves following relegation from the Premier League has long since passed. The least we should expect is promotion. Anything else will merely be an unmitigated disaster for this club. This club doesn’t belong in the Championship and we have to make damn sure we don’t stay here either."

Nolan experienced the trauma of relegation with Newcastle two seasons ago and he is the first to admit the Championship is not an easy league to escape. "There are striking similarities between West Ham and Newcastle," he states. "The pressure and expectations are exactly the same. When Newcastle went down some people expected us to struggle but we re-grouped and had a right go. We knew we had to either get out of the Championship straight away or face being stuck there for years to come. It was a make-or-break situation for us in much the same way it is for West Ham. You don’t have a divine right to win promotion no matter how big the club are. You have to earn the right. No-one is going to do you any favours. Everyone will want to beat us. This will be their biggest game of the campaign. Opposing teams will come to Upton Park looking for a major scalp. You’re a team to be shot at but if we apply ourselves on the pitch and get the supporters right behind us I see no reason why we shouldn’t be celebrating come April/May."

Nolan admits he was pleasantly surprised when he turned up at West Ham, and insists the players have been first class and are determined to put things right. "You expect to come into a dressing room that is on the floor and in complete disarray," he explained. "There are normally three or four bad eggs, a few egos and players desperate to quit. I can honestly say I saw none of that. There is a refreshing unity about this squad and single-minded determination to put things right."

Some people are still surprised that Nolan was prepared to trade top-flight football with Newcastle for the Championship. He claims it was a no-brainer explaining: "Naturally the opportunity to work with Sam Allardyce again helped, but the club made such an enormous effort to get me that I felt I would have let them down if I said no. It’s nice to be wanted, that’s for sure. And after everything that happened at Newcastle it was important for me to hear that. More importantly when I met David Sullivan he did such a great job selling the club it didn’t take long to make up my mind. To fair he could have sold me some unwanted double glazing windows. He was that good. I won’t lie though, he wouldn’t let me leave the room until I agreed to sign after they had their bid accepted for me. It was refreshing to listen to David Sullivan. His enthusiasm, ambition and plans for the club were very impressive. He’s a supporter first and foremost and like the co-owner David Gold I don’t think anyone was hurting more than them when the club went down."

The signing of his former Bolton regulars Nolan and Matthew Taylor have signalled the manager's intent. There is also the free transfers Joey O'Brien, also from Bolton, and Abdoulaye Faye from Stoke City. Further signings are afoot, with the priorities being a left-back and a striker. The England internationals Robert Green and Carlton Cole appear more likely to stay than go. "You're happy that that type of talent is moving a step down to try to get itself back up," said Allardyce. "Kevin and Matt have the same ambition as me: to spend as little time as possible in the Championship. But we're not taking it for granted that we're going to get promoted. There's a lot of really experienced managers in this division who are wanting to do the same as me, and young up-and-coming guys who want to make their names. And a lot of money spent."

Allardyce admits he and his new recruits have hung themselves "out to dry" by pledging to seek an instant return. He also accepts that the need to gain promotion is intensified by the club's financial position. West Ham carry debts of £80m and Sullivan, the co-owner, has said that life in the Championship will "blow a £40m hole" in the business plan. Then there is the move to the Olympic Stadium in 2014 and the imperative to take Premier League football with them.

"We're reducing our costs and overheads where a lot are adding on to what they had last year, so it will be a tougher division," says Allardyce. "It's going to be damned hard work over a marathon season of 46 games. We have to perform at a consistent level and make sure we're always in a winning frame of mind." That, he admits, required altering the prevailing mood. "The club was in despair really. Relegation leaves a club traumatised, from the owners to the fans, the players to the tea lady. And you've got to get them over the trauma and back to positive thinking. You win a game of football as much with your mind as with your ability."

Allardyce radiates optimism. "We want to go up automatically," he says. "And if we don't quite achieve that goal, then we are going to be left in the play-offs, at the very least, unless I become the worst manager ever overnight and the players become the worst there has ever been." His style these days is characterised by such thick-skinned self-belief and searing ambition. Where once he would lie awake at night "frightened by what the fans or the papers or the owners would say", he now feels able to blot out the background noise, which is perhaps just as well at a noisy club like West Ham. "I used to be a terrible, terrible worrier, a pessimist," he says. "It's probably because I was a defender. One mistake and the manager will shout at you. I couldn't remember playing well. I could only remember mistakes. I used to worry like mad. But as I got older and established myself, that diminished and as a manager, it's the same."

Insecurity has given way to conviction. Spectacularly so. Despite his sackings at Newcastle and, more recently, Blackburn Rovers when, in both cases, the ownership changed and his face no longer fitted, he can be fiercely proud of his cv. With man-management his greatest strength he maintains that he could win trophies at the very biggest clubs, such as Real Madrid and Internazionale, if he was given the opportunity. "I've said a lot of things over the years that people laugh at and I find them very insulting for making a joke about it or laughing at how I could be a manager of any club, anywhere and deal with it. I still feel like I can walk into any club, anywhere, any time and deliver. It's a bit like a CEO, isn't it? You can take up a position in any industry and if you're a good CEO, you can make that company profitable. You put me in a football environment anywhere in the world and I can deliver the module. I can modify the module for the particular culture and the way of playing."

It remains easy to touch a nerve with Allardyce. Just tell him his teams have been long-ball bully boys or that he jars with the "West Ham way". "People had to make an excuse, at the time, for little old Bolton beating Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United," he says. "Little old Bolton used to beat Rafa Benítez [and Liverpool] every time he came to the Reebok Stadium. And they couldn't cope with it." Allardyce's West Ham will look to entertain but, above all, to win. He made the point that Manchester United and Chelsea were not only the best creative teams but the most destructive ones, too. "There is an adaptability," he says. "They never play the same way. Arsenal probably do and that's probably why they've won nothing for six years."

So while many still see Allardyce as a slave to Prozone statistics, long balls and blood and thunder, he sees it differently, calling on his adventures in Europe managing Bolton and the flair of World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff, along with Champions League conquerors Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro as a case for the defence. Allardyce reiterates graft as well as guile is necessary if West Ham want to return to the top flight and, remembering his time as a Bolton player under Ian Greaves, he reflects on two failed promotion attempts before abandoning brains for brawn and earning promotion back to Division One in 1978. "We were known as one of the teams for the purists," Allardyce explains. "Then, with about seven games to go, Ian told us to forget about the football that we had tried for two years. He told us to get the ball in the channels and squeeze it up there. It’s a lesson you have to learn. Great teams always know how to play any way."

Allardyce has won plenty of games with his own sharp mind – his instant exploitation of the new offside rules bordered on genius, and his application of sports science at Bolton was well ahead of its time – but he is still perceived as a typical northern former muck 'n' nettles centre-half. Many of the perceptions are wrong – he is not a northerner, for example, having been born and brought up in the West Midlands – and the one that rankles most is his reputation as a long-ball coach, at odds with the West Ham way. "It bores me to tears, to be honest. It will be answered by our performances this year," he said.

The harshest judges will be West Ham's supporters, but though Allardyce admits it will be a while before he feels like a Londoner again – he played for Millwall for two seasons in the early 1980s – he appreciates the club's traditions, hopes to promote young players from their vaunted academy, and relishes the responsibility of entertaining a demanding fanbase. "They're like Newcastle fans. They live and breathe the club and work hard for the money to come and watch them, so we have got to reward them for turning up in their thousands, as they have done for many, many years. Even though, realistically, over the last few years it has been a bit of a yo-yo time for them. It's the Championship now and for me it's a big change from the past 10 years of success."

That analysis of his decade in the Premier League defies, rather than ignores, the fact that he was sacked at his previous two clubs, and West Ham will surely settle for a repeat of his effect on his previous clubs. "Everywhere I've been there has been progression, even Newcastle," he said. "Even though we were six months into a complete overhaul of the club, we were 11th when I left and they'd finished 14th the year before. At Blackburn we completely turned that around, and everyone knows what we did at Bolton because we were top eight, top six and looking like a Champions' League-threatening side. West Ham is a different type of challenge, trying to win promotion and experience the joy of that."

The country's elite will have to wait. Allardyce must first ensure that the step down a division serves as a springboard. But he has it mapped out and the goal is to challenge for European places and cup finals. "How far can we go? That depends on how much the owners want to back the dream to turn it into reality," he says. "That's what I've done and that's what I do. I turn dreams into reality." And what about London and his new surroundings? "I would like to take in the sights and have a look around Big Ben,” he adds. "I haven’t seen Buckingham Palace yet and I’d like to do that - on an open top bus as long as the weather is nice." If Sam Allardyce has his way, he’ll be sitting on that bus parading the Championship trophy come May.

Switzerland- Day Four

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:18:00 +0000

There is something almost Riefenstahlian about the official site's daily descriptions of the squad's pre-season fitness regime; the luxuriating in the mundane minutiae of each training drill and the fetishistic depictions of lythe young bodies in the throws of physical exertion. So it is we learn that it was a mixture of work and play for West Ham United's players as the squad continued their pre-season training camp in Switzerland. Having arrived back at the team hotel late on Monday evening following the 2-1 Uhren Cup defeat by BSC Young Boys in Grenchen, manager Sam Allardyce afforded his players and staff a rare lie-in on Tuesday. The players were still up for breakfast at 8am and heading to their respective training areas a little more than an hour later.

Meanwhile, we are told, Allardyce and his backroom staff headed for a nearby lake for a welcome early-morning swim. The majority of the squad remained at the hotel to take part in a recovery session in the swimming pool, loosening up any muscles that may have tightened following the previous night's game. A small number of players cycled the two miles to the main training complex, where they were put through a series of technical drills by assistant manager Neil McDonald and first-team coach Wally Downes.

After a 'hearty' lunch, the squad and management boarded the team coach for a short drive to a nearby ten-pin bowling alley for a team-bonding exercise. There, goalkeepers Robert Green, Ruud Boffin and Marek Stech were the stars, with all three stoppers recording scores of over 200 - the Belgian taking the plaudits with a high of 215. Following dinner, the players got together for a team presentation before heading for bed ahead of a day of double-training and Wednesday evening's Uhren Cup meeting with Swiss Super League champions FC Basel.

Reflecting on the last few days, Sam Allardyce declared himself a contented man. The West Ham United manager has been happy with the way his players have given their all during the club's pre-season training camp in Switzerland, including their committed performance in Monday's 2-1 friendly defeat by BSC Young Boys - his first match in charge. However, Allardyce has told West Ham TV that there is still plenty of work to be done in all areas before the Hammers take to the pitch against Cardiff City on 7 August, both in terms of supplementing the playing squad and improving the form and fitness of the players already at the club.

"I think in terms of a pre-season training camp it's been an outstanding venue from many different aspects," said Allardyce, speaking from the team's hotel in the central Swiss canton of Bern. "We're in a beautiful place, have a fantastic hotel who are attending to our needs and I think we're virtually the only people in the hotel at this time of year and that's a big help. Down in the valley here, there is a 50-metre pool which has been very good for the morning starts. One or two of the lads are a bit miserable when they're getting up at 6.30 in the morning, but after the pool sessions they've been invigorated for their football training. Later in the evenings we've been moving on with the strength and conditioning and sport science lads, so it's been a good exercise up to now. There are a lot of young players who have travelled with us who want to make their mark and I think it's very important to get to know them as soon as possible and the senior players a little bit better not just as footballers but as people. Hopefully we can pull all that together and by the time this pre-season has finished, I'll have a better overall view of the squad."

Allardyce got his first view of that squad in a competitive environment on Monday, when a young side were narrowly beaten by Swiss Super League side and UEFA Europa League qualifiers Young Boys. The players gave their all during the Uhren Cup tie in Grenchen, despite having got up for a swimming session at 7am and a full training session in the mid-morning. The boss singled out England Under-18 international Robert Hall and England Under-21 defender Jordan Spence for particular praise, with the former rattling the upright with a rasping 25-yard shot late on. "First and foremost, just for everybody concerned, we've been training every day since we've been here from 6.30am. We even trained on the day we played. It's not the normal preparation for a game but we felt the lads needed to go into the game slightly fatigued and we weren't going to play all of the players for the whole game - particularly the senior players who were given 45 minutes each. It was effectively a training session rather than us going for the result. It was a competitive match against a very good side who had beaten Hertha Berlin 4-2 prior to playing ourselves, so the whole exercise was good from my learning curve point of view."

Cristian Montano also featured prominantly against Young Boys and is aiming to catch the eye of his manager after signing a new professional contract with West Ham United. The talented forward endured a difficult 2010/11 season after signing his first professional deal a year ago, suffering a succession of niggling injury as he looked to build on the Doris Bell Award he won at the end of the previous campaign. Now he is fully fit and raring to go, the Colombia-born 19-year-old is hoping to earn a regular place in the first-team squad for 2011/12 by impressing Allardyce during pre-season. "I'm very proud of this contract and I'm happy with myself as well," he told West Ham TV. "I have got my second contract which is the most important thing. Hopefully I can keep going from here and make the next step, which is to make my first-team debut and hopefully become established. I want to prove myself."

Montano is also eager to impress the same supporters he wowed by scoring two goals during Academy Director Tony Carr's Testimonial match in May 2010. The teenager travelled to Austria with the first-team squad for their pre-season tour in July last year, only for injuries to ravage his first campaign as a professional. "As a second-year scholar, I managed to do really well and win the Doris Bell Award, which I was really happy with and which, at the time, was a bit unexpected," he added. "As a first-year pro I just wanted to carry on from where I'd left off, which I did, but when we got back from the tour the injuries started kicking-off and it was a bit stop-start for me. Obviously I managed to get fit again and here I am. I've got my next professional contract and I want to carry on from there."

With Demba Ba, Victor Obinna and Robbie Keane having departed the Bolyen Ground this summer, Montano is preparing to impress Allardyce between now and the opening npower Championship fixture against Cardiff City on 7 August. "It's not impossible," he said. "I'm going to keep working hard and hopefully show the new manager that I can play and do well. We're all in the same boat - a new manager and new staff - so we've all got to prove ourselves again, which is not an easy thing to do because we've all got to start from scratch. I've come back in good shape and hopefully I can get a bit stronger, too."

Also keen to impress is Frank Nouble, who is hoping his goal against Young Boys is the first of many this season. The 19-year-old striker bagged the first strike of Sam Allardyce's reign with a well-taken header in West Ham United's 2-1 Uhren Cup defeat in Switzerland on Monday. Having caught the eye no only with his goal, but also with his pace and power, Nouble is hoping he can convince the new manager that he does not need to delve into the transfer market to sign a new centre forward. The youngster told West Ham TV he is 'eager' to force his way into the first-team picture and boost the club's 2011/12 Championship promotion challenge.

"It was a good game to play in," he said. "I think everyone tried their best. Most people played a half each and obviously it's pre-season so everyone wants to get around and get fit and impress the new gaffer and his staff. I enjoyed it. I knew I was only playing one half, so I got in my mind that I had to give everything. They are at a better stage than us because they've been out training for a few more weeks, but I'm hoping that I showed a little bit of what I can do, even when I'm not fully fit. When I'm fitter, hopefully I'll be able to do that for longer periods of the game. My goal came from a short corner. Luis Boa Morte crossed it in and I knew I had the run on my defender, so I went in and it was a good goal. I think if you're not hungry then you're not going to succeed in life and I'm definitely hungry this season to stamp a mark and stake a claim for playing."

Nouble admitted he had found things difficult at times last season and has come back to the club reinvigorated and rejuvenated ahead of the new campaign. "The first year I came here it was good and I got a few opportunities. Last season I went away on loan quite a lot, which was good for my experience, but going away for one month at a time wasn't really too great. This year hopefully I can come back and give everything. I'm 19, going on 20, now and I'm ready to make the next step. Some players have gone but you've just got to deal with it. Even if another player comes in, it's just an opportunity for me to showcase what I can do whenever I get the chance. There are still some strikers here so I've got to keep battling it out and show the manager that he doesn't need to put his hand in his pocket."

Meanwhile, Allardyce is keen to bring his former Bolton Wanderers midfielder Joey O’Brien to Upton Park – if he can prove his fitness. The 25-year-old played 45 minutes in Monday’s opening pre-season friendly against Young Boys and Allardyce is convinced that he can be a useful player in their Championship campaign. "He is an outstanding player," the West Ham boss told the Recorder from Switzerland this week. "For someone to play 28 times in the Premier League at the age of 19 shows that he has a lot of talent and if he is fit then he could be a very good player for us."

Fitness is the key for O’Brien, who has three international caps for the Republic of Ireland. His recent career has been plagued by injury and he ended last season on loan at League One outfit Sheffield Wednesday. Allardyce is well aware of the risks. "He has to prove his fitness," he said. "He has had a very frustrating time with injuries over the last two and a half years because he was misdiagnosed and then didn’t receive the right treatment. But it was good to see him come through 45 minutes on Monday without any reaction and now we will just have to see how it goes with him. We have him until the end of pre-season before we have to make a decision."

Allardyce has spoken to the England internationals in the squad and he revealed that at least one of them could be persuaded to stay for the new season. Scott Parker, Robert Green and Carlton Cole are all on the tour of Switzerland, but are interesting a host of Premier League clubs. "We sat down and chatted and they said they were happy to do their pre-season training with us and see what happened," said the manager. "Obviously we are a business as well as a football club and if the right sort of bid comes in for a player then we would have to look at it and we would certainly keep the player aware of what is going on, but I am hopeful that they won’t all be leaving."

Allardyce also confirmed that the club are talking to another of his Bolton old boys in Icelandic striker Eidur Gudjohnsen. "We are certainly interested in bringing him to West Ham," said the boss. "But negotiations on this one are at a very early stage." The Mail disagree and report discussions on a one-year deal are in the advanced stages, with a medical planned for the player on Thursday. The Iceland international, who spent the second half of last season on loan with Fulham, is a free agent after his one-year deal with Stoke expired. The former Bolton, Chelsea and Barcelona player struggled to make any impact at the Britannia Stadium and failed to find the net during 10 appearances with the Cottagers. Gudjohnsen came close to joining the East London club in January last year, but instead elected to spend a spell on loan with Tottenham from Monaco.

The same paper also claims West Ham have opened talks with Blackpool striker DJ Campbell. Campbell’s contract has a clause allowing him to leave for £1.25m. The striker was reported to have agreed to join QPR, but West Ham and two unnamed Premier League clubs are also said to be in the race to land the 29-year-old, who scored 13 Premier League goals for relegated Blackpool last season. Campbell, who joined the Seasiders from Leicester City last summer, has no secret of his preference to remain in the Premier League.

Allardyce is clearly looking for options after Stoke City agreed terms with West Ham United for striker Carlton Cole. The England forward, 27, is currently in Switzerland with West Ham but is reportedly due to hold talks with Stoke City manager Tony Pulis upon his return. Stoke chairman Peter Coates told Sky Sports: "We have agreed terms with West Ham, that's done. Now it's a case of can we agree terms with Carlton?" Cole joined West Ham from London rivals Chelsea in July 2006 and scored 42 goals in 165 appearances. But he managed just five league goals last season and according to media reports is now set to leave Upton Park. The fee has been reported to be an initial £4 million with a possible £2 million in add-ons.

Coates said Stoke had tried to sign Cole on previous occasions but was optimistic that this time the forward would make his way to the Midlands club, who lost in last season's FA Cup final to Manchester City. "We come from two different places. He has got an injury problem (Cole has had knee trouble) - he has always had that - and that is a risk you take so we have to factor that in," he said. "But he is a good player and Tony has always liked him. Manager's like different players but Tony has always liked him. I think we've tried to sign him around three times over the past few years without succeeding so maybe we will get somewhere this year. Now we've done a deal with the club it really needs his input with the player because he likes to talk to them and make sure they are on board, and he is on board and everything is ok from his point of view. But we see that work in progress and hope that something can be done."

According to today's Mirror, Cole's proposed move to Stoke is already in serious doubt after the striker's wage demands reportedly stunned his suitors. The paper claims Stoke were given permission to speak to Cole after offering £6million for the England international and the 27-year-old was expected to fly to Austria to join the Stoke squad. City’s director of football John Rudge even remained behind to accompany him. The Potters do pay big wages but Cole wants mega-bucks to uproot from his native London and instead joined the Hammers on their pre-season trip to Switzerland. Cole’s stance could now let Premier League new boys QPR back into the race to sign him.

The Mirror also claims Scott Parker is under consideration for a dramatic return to Chelsea, it emerged last night. The Blues are in sudden need of a midfielder after discovering Michael Essien could miss six months following surgery on a knee injury suffered in training last week. Hammers joint-owner David Sullivan last night refused to confirm whether the club had already been approached by Chelsea over the transfer of Upton Park talisman Parker. He is already known to Villas-Boas from his time at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho in 2004-2005.

Chelsea’s young coach was impressed by Parker’s conduct during his spell in west London, despite being frustrated by a lack of regular first-team football. The midfielder also stood out during the ritual, under Mourinho, which saw players deliver pre-match team talks. Parker went on to prove his leadership qualities last season when delivering a similar oration to inspire his West Ham team-mates from 3-0 down at West Brom to grab a point. Signing Parker would also help boost the club’s English contingent. Chelsea currently have only six domestic players in their squad and one of those, striker Daniel Sturridge, is expected to either be sold or go out on loan in search of regular action.

Finally, the Minister for Sport has 'advised' Tottenham Hotspur to ditch plans to challenge the decision to award preferred bidder status to West Ham. Despite having admitted corporate subterfuge in their attempts to undermine both the OPLC voting committee and members of West Ham United's staff, Tottenham have maintained that they will seek legal recourse - despite having lost the vote to win tenancy of the £500million stadium by 14-0.

However that could be set to change after the Conservative Minister Hugh Robertson warned the north London club that their plans to press on with legal action could destroy the capital's bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships. Speaking to the media yesterday, Robertson insisted that Tottenham should think very carefully before proceeding. "I would hope Tottenham would see the greater good to London; maybe it's a fond hope," he said. "The initial economic planning tells us it will be a £100million boost from hosting a World Athletics Championship. I hope anyone involved in sport would see the greater good, whatever their feelings about the stadium process. I find it frustrating that having been through the process we are now being dragged through the High Court, having won the first round we have the appeal to come. If we win that we will bid [to host the Championships], but I will not let the country bid if we have not got a locked-down secure venue, given the backdrop of previous bids."

Tottenham recently announced that they were seeking public funding after revealing plans to build a new stadium within their current borough of Haringey. Mr Robertson's warning could be seen as the first indication that should they refuse to play ball and back down over the Olympic Stadium issue, any such funding could be extremely unlikely to follow.

*West Ham play their final match on the tour tomorrow (Wednesday) against Basel with a 7.30pm kick-off.

*While this Saturday a Hammers XI will travel for a friendly at Bishop’s Stortford.

Switzerland- Day Three

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:51:00 +0000

Sam Allardyce suffered defeat in his first game in charge of West Ham United, narrowly losing 2-1 to Swiss side Young Boys. The respectable result was the culmination of a hectic day three of the pre-season tour in central Switzerland, which saw the squad conduct two training sessions ahead of their opening Uhren Cup fixture. The players were up early ahead of a 7am swimming session before returning to their hotel for breakfast. After a short rest, Allardyce led the way as the group cycled the two miles to the club's training complex, where a short warm-up was followed by keep-ball, an 11-a-side match and some set-piece and tactical drills. After a rest and a pre-match meal, the squad boarded the team coach for the hour-long drive to Grenchen, 20km north of Bern, arriving at the Bruhl Stadium 90 minutes before the 6pm kick-off.

Club representatives attended a civic reception in the town, which is renowned for being the watch-making capital of Switzerland and is home to the likes of Breitling and Fortis. There, they were welcomed by town Mayor Boris Banga, Head of Culture and Sport Barbara Pestalozzi, Uhren Cup official Frederic Falbriard and airport CEO Andreas Wegier. The Hammers learned that Grenchen is also known as the 'Silicon Valley of Switzerland' and that Lufthansa pilots are trained at the airport, which is the third-largest in Switzerland in terms of plane movements by all accounts. Anyway, signed pennants were presented to Banga and Pestalozzi, while a series of speeches were made, including one by West Ham thanking the people of Grenchen and Switzerland for their outstanding hospitality.

On to the match itself where West Ham's players gave a good account of themselves against a Young Boys squad just five days away from their opening Super Liga fixture against Basel. With Robert Green, Scott Parker, Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan and Carlton Cole given the night off, Allardyce sent out an inexperienced team to take on the UEFA Europa League qualifiers in front of a 7,000-strong crowd. The match was the second in the four-team Uhren Cup tournament, with Swiss champions FC Basel and German Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin BSC the other two clubs involved. The competition began on Friday evening, when Young Boys defeated Hertha 4-2. Basel were due to take on Hertha following the Hammers' clash with Young Boys this evening. The Cup has been running every summer since 1962, when hometown club FC Grenchen were the winners, which makes this year's competition the 50th. In that time, clubs from England, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia have all lifted the trophy. Last year's tournament was won by German side VfB Stuttgart.

United's starting eleven saw Ruud Boffin in goal behind Abdoulaye Faye making his debut at centre-back alongside trialist Hernani Da Rosa. Julien Faubert and Jordan Brown were the fullbacks. Fellow trialist Joey O'Brien anchored in central midfield alongside George Moncur, with Freddie Sears and Cristian Montano on the flanks. Luis Boa Morte, as captain, started in the withdrawn striker role behind youngster Frank Nouble. Curiously, Boffin and Boa Morte were late post team-sheet replacements for Robert Green and Frederic Piquionne; although no explanation was offered. Green had looked fine when warming up on the pitch just moments earlier. The substitutes were Marek Stech, Herita Ilunga, Jordan Spence, Winston Reid, James Tomkins, Junior Stanislas, Frederic Piquionne, Olly Lee and Robert Hall.

The game kicked-off in bright, warm sunshine under the shadow of the surrounding Jura mountains. Within two minutes Boffin had been forced to parry a shot from the dangerous David Degen, who had found himself free on the right side of the penalty area. A minute later and former Switzerland Under-21 midfielder Marco Schneuwly got in behind Brown again as the United youngster endured a torrid opening spell. West Ham then slowly played themselves into the contest until a further uneventful ten minutes was interrupted by Ben Khalifa- who having just been denied by an excellent Hernani sliding tackle moments earlier- brought another save out of Boffin. A minute later a cross from the left was headed down by Ben Khalifa and slammed home by Schneuwly from about eight yards. Faye and Hernani looked to the assistant referee for a flag, but he was (rightly) unmoved.

West Ham were level just four minutes later when young striker Frank Nouble reacted first to a near-post Boa Morte corner, getting in front of his marker to glance a fine header inside the far post. It was a big moment for the 19-year-old striker, who has spoken of his eagerness to impress new manager Sam Allardyce during the pre-season. The goal was followed by the playing of 'Bubbles' over the stadium PA system and a loud cheer from the many West Ham fans who have made the trip. The car park before the game had been swarming with Swiss Hammers, who were clearly delighted to see their club play in their home country.

A minute later and a ripple of applause broke out as Montano came within a couple of yards of putting his side in front. Faubert's hopeful free-kick from near halfway hung in the air and Montano outjumped Zverotic with ease, but could only head the ball high and wide of the left-hand post. A real competitive edge was starting to creep into the game, with plenty of hard challenges going in from both sets of players. After Young Boys threatened again when Degen cut inside Brown, Montano went down under a heavy challenge and needed lengthy treatment. O'Brien showed some neat touches in midfield but he was also a victim of a crude challenge.

Both sides subsequently created chances to take the lead but it was the Swiss side - for whom victory saw them lift the Uhren cup having also won their opening game of the tournament - who did just that with six first half minutes left on the clock. Schneuwly was allowed to bring the ball forward 40 yards before slipping in Degen for a stab at goal that Boffin diverted round the post. The resulting Degan corner was met by Switzerland international defender Francois Affolter, who sent a powerful downward header into the net from about six yards. West Ham's problems defending set-pieces still clearly evident for all to see.

Two minutes before the interval and a big let-off for United when Schneuwly's cross was allowed to bounce by Faye, who was trying to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick. The lively Ben Khalifa didn't give it up, and managed to poke the ball past Faye and the advancing Boffin only to see it roll across the face of goal. Degen then picked up the loose ball and crossed for two Young Boys to throw themselves to the ground looking for a penalty that referee Herr Hanni was never going to give. The half-time whistle was met by polite applause and Nouble's goal was obviously the highlight for the travelling support. There was plenty of reasons for Allardyce to be content though with the application shown by his players just ten days into pre-season training.

Allardyce and his newly-assembled backroom made five changes at the break, with Jordan Spence, James Tomkins (taking the armband from Boa Morte), Frederic Piquionne, birthday boy Olly Lee and teenager Robert Hall replacing Faubert, Faye, O'Brien, Boa Morte and Nouble. The only other introduction was Herita Ilunga, who has reportedly impressed in training. He came on for Brown after an hour. Young Boys replaced Wolfi, Ben Khalifa, Doubai, and Spycher with goalkeeper Ivan Benito, Mario Raimondi, Emanuel Mayuka and Ezgjan Alioski.

Even though Young Boys hit the post shortly after the restart, the Hammers started the second half brightly. Ten minutes of engaging attacking football- particularly by England U18 forward Hall- was halted by Degen, who had the ball in the Hammers net for a third time only to be ruled offside. Five minutes later a deep cross from Zverotic picked out Emmanuel Mayuka inside the box who tested Boffin. The rivalry would be resumed in spectacular fashion twenty minutes from time when the Belgium keeper made a miraculous save to again deny the striker. Degen raced into the box and cut the ball back for the Mayuka six yards from goal but Boffin was there to block the ball with his feet.

Inbetween there had been some nice exchanges between Lee, Hall and Piquionne; the latter tamely squandering a half chance. The impressive Spence also contributed a couple of dangerous crosses, and Montano picked up another heavy knock. As tensions rose, the committed Montano and Ilunga got involved in a brief skirmish with the home side. With ten minutes remaining, the exciting Hall sprinted away down the left before lifting a fantastic pass that Vuskovac could only flick on to Piquionne. The striker tried to control and find Sears, but his pass was blocked behind for a corner. Moments later Piquionne broke the offside trap and created the chance- via Lee and Ilunga- that saw Hall let fly with a rasping shot that shaved Benito's left-hand post. So close to an equaliser, West Ham were nevertheless finishing strongly as the sun began to set in Grenchen.

Although the final whistle arrived with the Hammers still trailing, manager Allardyce could still be proud of a good night's work. There was certainly signs that West Ham have a bright future. A number of first-team regulars were not on duty tonight, but the Hammers more than held their own against a side that regularly turns out in Europe and is adorned with full internationals. What is more, the performance is likely to tell the manager a lot more about his squad than he knew before the game.

As for United's young guns, they had the chance to put themselves into the thoughts of the manager. Rookie home-grown professionals Olly Lee, Cristian Montano, Jordan Brown, Robert Hall and George Moncur all featured and Tony Carr believes the quintet have a golden opportunity to push themselves into the first-team picture ahead of the 2011/12 npower Championship campaign. "It's terrific for them and if you look at the squad as a whole, there is a fair spread of Academy players in it," said Carr. "To even just get picked to go on the trip is an accolade, so they've got to go there, soak it up and when they do get an opportunity to go on the pitch, show the new manager what they are all about. He can look at them and, although they might not immediately be ready for the team, he can see that the talent is in the pipeline and ready to break through when needed."

The Academy Director also impressed the need on the young players to approach the tour with the right attitude, both on and off the pitch. "They are at the sharp end of the game now, at first-team level, and performance and professionalism are vitally important," he added. "Although it's the pre-season, gaining confidence and momentum that we will need to take into the season is always a good thing. They've got to show a good attitude around the senior players and, likewise, the senior players will set the example and standards for them. It's only six or seven days, but it is a great experience for them."

West Ham United: Boffin, Faubert (Spence 46), Brown (Ilunga 62), Hernani, Faye (Tomkins 46), Sears, O'Brien (Lee 46), Moncur, Montano, Boa Morte (Hall 46), Nouble (Piquionne 46).

Subs not used: Stech, Reid, Stanislas.

Goals: Nouble (21).

BSC Young Boys: Wolfi (Benito 46), Silberbauer (Farnerud 72), Schneuwly, Costanzo, Ben Khalifa (Raimondi 46), Zverotic, Spycher (Alioski 46), Affolter, Degen (Tosetti 78), Veskovac, Doubai (Mayuka 46).

Goals: Schneuwly (17), Affolter (39).

Switzerland- Day Two

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:18:00 +0000

The first time I passed through Switzerland I had the impression it was swept down with a broom from one end to the other every morning by housewives who dumped all the dirt in Italy...

Sam Allardyce is cracking the whip with his players by introducing triple sessions for the squad during these early stages of pre-season. The West Ham manager is said to be determined to transform the club following their relegation and is coming down hard on his players as they look to bounce straight back into the top flight. The former Bolton and Blackburn boss is renowned for his strict discipline but none of the first-team squad were prepared for the three sessions a day when they jetted back from their holidays last week, according to a report in this morning's Mirror. Allardyce wants his players in prime condition when the new season gets underway on August 6.

Head of sport medicine and sport science Andy Rolls has declared himself delighted with the squad's response to their pre-season training camp in Switzerland. The Hammers have been up early and working long and hard to get themselves in shape for the 2011/12 npower Championship campaign, and Rolls and his staff have devised a productive and stimulating series of sessions, ranging from keep-ball sessions to cycling to water polo. Two days into the trip and things seem to be going to plan. "Things have gone very well," agreed Rolls. "The whole week has been fantastic. We sat down with Sam and organised it from start to finish. I don't want to tempt fate but everyone has got through with minimal problems so far. There are always some blisters at this time of year but you expect that because it's hot and the ground is hard. We've come out here and the weather has been ideal really. It's not been too hot, although the sun has been out. The pitches are nice and soft. It's gone really, really well."

The gym has been a 'hive of activity' as the squad split into five groups to work on specific and focused parts of the body dependent on their own individual needs. "We did a circuit for 20 minutes where we hit all the exercises we wanted to do to strengthen the hamstrings, glutes and anything else they need to strengthen to prevent injuries. We then split into groups. Myself and the staff looked at each player's individual record and any problems that they've had and tried to see what we could do to benefit each individual player," explained Rolls. "We split them into five groups. The first was a lower-limb strength group, which was for players who have had some knee problems or muscle injuries. The second was a flexibility group which was for players who were tight in certain areas we found in our screening day last week. The third was a metabolic circuit for players to work on specific things, while the fourth was a core stabilisation group for those who have had some groin problems. Finally, there was some specific groin rehab which was specific to that small group of players."

Then it was onto water polo, diving, cycling, indoor hockey, basketball, racquetball and football; all on the agenda on the second day of United's training camp. The first-team squad were up bright and early on a beautiful morning in the canton of Bern in central Switzerland, assembling at an Olympic-size swimming pool at 7am for a water polo tournament. Following eight highly-competitive matches, Jack Collison made the biggest splash, combining with team-mate Scott Parker before scoring both goals to lead his team to victory. Collison and Parker were assisted by Jordan Brown, who swapped his usual left-back position for that of goalkeeper and made some heroic saves.

Following the water polo, some of the players moved to a 3m diving board to show off their skills, while others enjoyed a ride down a water flume. After breakfast, the players and staff hopped on to mountain bikes for the two-mile ride to the training complex. There, under the close guidance of manager Sam Allardyce, the squad enjoyed an hour-long practice match that saw Junior Stanislas score and miss a penalty - saved brilliantly by Ruud Boffin - as his team won 1-0. No sooner had the squad cycled back to the hotel for lunch when the heavens opened and torrential rain obscured the usually breath-taking views of the surrounding mountains.

After a bite to eat and a well-earned rest - although some of the younger members of the squad suffered a shock tennis defeat by the backroom staff - the players reconvened for their third and final session of the day. This time it was Abdoulaye Faye who was the goalkeeping hero, making a series of outstanding blocks to lead his team to a thrilling penalty shootout victory following a competitive indoor hockey match. The players then broke away for some smaller-sided games, with basketball and racquetball among the disciplines enjoyed.

The Hammers will take on Swiss Super League challengers BSC Young Boys in the pre-season Uhren Cup tournament in Grenchen tomorrow evening. Then, on Wednesday, West Ham will face Swiss champions FC Basel. Before, during and after those fixtures, Rolls said the players would be concentrating 100 per cent on getting themselves ready for the fast-approaching season. "It's a bit of everything in pre-season. We want to hit as many areas as we can and look at the anaerobic side of things, because the aerobic will take care of itself. We have had pool sessions and football sessions, nice long breaks after lunch for rest, massages and any treatment they needed, then we got going again at 5pm. On Sunday, we did three sessions again at 7am, 10am and 5pm. This week is a training week."

Meanwhile back in Disraeli's modern Babylon where the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually and one feels them passing like a whiff of air, the disputation over 'Knightgate' rumbles inexorably on. The Daily Mail slathers that West Ham's takeover of the 2012 Stadium after the Games could be thrown back into jeopardy by the investigation into the club's previously unknown payments to an Olympic Park Legacy Company employee.

Dionne Knight, the OPLC 's director of corporate services, was suspended on full pay last week after it emerged she has received payments from West Ham on a consultancy basis during and after the tender to take over the stadium. She had already been frozen out of discussions on the process because she had declared to the OPLC an ongoing relationship with West Ham director Ian Tompkins. However, OPLC did not know she was being paid by West Ham, while the club say Knight told them she had cleared her role with her employees.

Now chartered accountants Moore Stephens have been asked to establish whether this was indeed the case and as long as Knight did not have access to confidential information that could have aided West Ham, it seems likely that they will be able to move into the stadium. However, if any discrepancies are found, it would throw West Ham's takeover into jeopardy with the potential to reopen the contest. Tottenham, beaten to the vote by West Ham, are already seeking a judicial review of the entire process. Although a judge last month said there were no grounds for a review, they are now appealing and are likely to include the allegations against Knight.

In conjucture with the internal probe, the OPLC have also contacted the Police to investigate claims that its chief executive had his telephone records accessed by unauthorised agents. It follows on from last week when West Ham United called in the authorities following claims in the Sunday Times that the personal records of its employees had been surreptitiously gained by corporate investigators acting on behalf of Tottenham Hotspur. According to today's edition of the Times, the OPLC called in police when they discovered that records of phone calls made by chief executive Andrew Altman had been acquired by unauthorised agents. It is further reported that call records belonging to West Ham's vice-chairman Karren Brady were also accessed by the corporate sleuths, who had been employed by Tottenham to covertly investigate both the OPLC voting committee and employees of the club.

The revelation that Spurs have allowed themselves to become embroiled in a row regarding the unlawful access of personal phone records could not have come at a worse time for the north London club, following the national outrage this week over the News of the World's phone-tapping imbroglio - a scandal that led to the sudden demise of the 168-year-old newspaper. In last week's edition of the Sunday Times it was reported that Dionne Knight and her 14-year-old daughter had been spied on at her home by Tottenham's agents. As Rebekah Brooks can doubtless testify, the rich truly have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor.

In other news, a sweep of the Sunday tabloids reveals Michael Essien's injury could pave the way for Scott Parker's shock return to Chelsea. A report in the People states the full extent of Essien’s knee injury will be revealed tomorrow and if the midfielder faces a lengthy lay-off, it could prompt a shock move to take Parker back to Stamford Bridge. Essien, 28, has undergone further tests this weekend to establish the true nature of the injury he sustained in training on Thursday, although Blues’ officials fear he has once again wrecked an anterior cruciate ligament. If that prognosis proves correct, it will be the third serious knee injury of his career and give new boss Andre Villas-Boas a serious headache ahead of the new season.

The People discloses that Chelsea have already considered a move for Parker, who flopped during an 18-month spell with the club between 2004-2005, earlier this summer. Now his name will be back in the frame if the club need to get a replacement in quick for the tough-tackling Ghanaian. The paper claims Parker, 30, is available for a cut-price fee of around £5m with West Ham keen to get his £80,000-a-week wages off their books. Tottenham and Aston Villa have shown an interest in the England midfielder following the Hammers’ relegation, but only Turkish club Fenerbahce have made an official offer. Parker, though, is keen to stay in London and would relish a second chance to show Chelsea fans what he is capable of. He made just 15 appearances for the club after a £10m switch from Charlton in 2004.

The Mirror, meanwhile, think West Ham are poised to sign Eidur Gudjohnsen on a free transfer following his exit from Fulham. The 32-year-old Iceland striker had a one-year contract offer rescinded following Mark Hughes’s departure from Craven Cottage. Swansea tried to take Gudjohnsen to the Liberty Stadium and the former Barcelona and Chelsea star was on the verge of agreeing terms until the Hammers intervened. Gudjohnsen’s arrival would put more pressure on West Ham to compromise over their demands for Scott Parker, thinks the paper. The Hammers initially wanted as much as £10million, which was problematic given his age and wages. The article goes on to state that Allardyce, who worked with Gudjohnsen at Bolton, switched his attention after hitting problems trying to secure Stoke’s Glenn Whelan in the deal that will see Carlton Cole join Stoke. Tony Pulis reportedly rejected the offer and has secured straight cash for Cole.

Ignoring the fact that Whelan and Gudjohnsen are not positionally comparable, the fact Cole remains with the Hammers squad in Switzerland suggests his move to Stoke is still some way from being completed. Despite reports to the contrary, the West Ham striker joined fellow England internationals Rob Green and Scott Parker as part of the Hammers' 26-man squad at their six-day training camp near Bern. Stoke chairman Peter Coates has admitted the club is still negotiating for the player. "Cole's a player the club is interested in and Tony Pulis has liked him for a long time, we think he's a very good player," he said. "It's not done and dusted but it's work in progress."

Finally, West Ham are after Southampton’s England Under-21s attacking midfield player Adam Lallana, 23, who has scored 30 goals in the last two seasons, according to the Star. The player only recently signed a contract extension though so this is a non-starter, according to me. And that completes today's journey from pellucid alpine abstemiousness to steamy urban miasma.

The first time I passed through London I had the impression it was never swept at all...

Switzerland- Day One

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:51:00 +0000

Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? A decent training facility and the cuckoo clock...

West Ham United kicked-off their pre-season training camp in Switzerland with a busy and varied day of training on Saturday. According to the official site, the 26-strong first-team squad were up early for a session in the swimming pool before heading off to a nearby training complex for activation and an intensive hour-long football session. After a break for lunch and an afternoon of well-earned rest, the squad reassembled and returned to the training centre for another hour of circuit training and specific strength and conditioning work.

The likes of Robert Green, Scott Parker, new boys Kevin Nolan and Abdoulaye Faye and trialists Joey O'Brien and Hernani da Rosa were all put through their paces by manager Sam Allardyce, assistant manager Neil McDonald and the backroom staff. "Linking the staff and the integration of all the departments are very important at this time of year - the medical, sport science and football departments have created a very good working programme to encourage the football and fitness of the players in the build up for the start of our new season," said Allardyce. "We have had three very good sessions today which we will review at the end of the evening. All the players appear to have come through their sessions today and there are no injuries, which is one of the most important things in our pre-season. We are in a very tranquil spot in the mountains of Switzerland. We're training at altitude which is always good for the condition of the players. What little downtime the players have, there are good facilities at the hotel, a fantastic lake, outdoor swimming pool and a mini golf course where they can enjoy each other's company. This helps with the very important matter of team bonding that is vital."

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, several newspapers are reporting Carlton Cole is on the brink of joining Stoke City in a deal worth £4.5m up front plus an additional £1.5m based on appearances. Cole has been a Stoke target ever since their promotion to the Premier League and is expected to have a stringent medical over the weekend before signing a four-year deal. Newly-promoted QPR looked to be favourites to land the 27-year-old before Tony Pulis came back in with the money West Ham were looking for. Stoke had a £3m bid thrown back at them earlier in the summer, but club owner Peter Coates has now been persuaded to match the asking fee.

Stoke had been trailing Birmingham duo Scott Dann and Cameron Jerome in a double deal which could have risen to £16m with add-ons. When the two clubs could not agree on the amount of the down-payment, Stoke decided to switch their attention back to the United striker. Despite earlier reports suggesting the player was happy to stay in east London, the Sun quotes a source close to the deal as saying: "Cole was desperate to stay in the Premier League and was impressed by the plans manager Pulis has for the team. The club targeted him and went all out to get him, which he was impressed with." Stoke flew out to Austria for their pre-season training camp yesterday and hope Cole can join them within the next 48 hours.

Curiously, one-time reputed Hammers target Thomas Sorensen has been among the most vocal in voicing his opinion over the new arrival. The goalkeeper believes Cole, who he knows from a loan spell at former club Aston Villa, will prove a shrewd piece of business. "He is a much improved player," he said. "He was fairly young when I played with him at Villa. He was a little bit indisciplined and needed a lot of work. But he has definitely improved. The role he has had at West Ham has given him a lot of responsibility and you can see he has grown. He has been involved with the England team and, whenever we have played him, he has been a handful with his physical presence. He has also capped every season with quite a few goals. If he came to Stoke, I think he would be a great signing for us."

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce has always insisted his wantaway trio of Cole, Scott Parker and Robert Green would not be allowed to leave until the club’s valuation was met. That said, West Ham are reportedly 'desperate' to get the big earners off their wage bill following relegation last season. The 6ft 3in striker still has two years left on his Hammers contract but it is believed his wages would have been a concern. Cole also endured a disappointing campaign, finishing with only five league goals from 35 appearances, while there remains lingering doubts about the long-term fitness of the player.

Cole will be the fourth 'big name' to leave Upton Park since West Ham's relegation to the Championship, after Demba Ba, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Matthew Upson. The Sun suggests England goalkeeper Robert Green could make it a nap hand after moving to the top of West Brom's wishlist. Albion boss Roy Hodgson wants a new stopper - and is looking at Green and Birmingham City's Ben Foster. It is reported relegated Brum will not budge on their £9m valuation of Foster and that would price Baggies out of a deal. It is suggested Green would be available at less than half that and Hodgson admitted both are names on his radar. "There are good goalkeepers available at the moment in the sense that they don't want to play in lower divisions - you'd be talking about Foster and Green," he said. "And goalkeepers who are second choice at their club despite having a lot of experience. If anything we have a barrage of suggestions and possibilities."

The same paper also states West Brom have bid £2.5million for Jack Collison. The midfielder, 22, is yet to sign a new deal with the Hammers after two weeks of talks. Baggies manager Hodgson made his move this week in the face of competition from Stoke, Newcastle and Everton. The Wales star said: "It's flattering but I'm in negotiations over a contract at the moment. Let's see how that goes." Collison is one of West Ham's lowest earners on just under £4,000 a week but has two years left on his deal. Hodgson is offering to treble Collison's salary and Premier League football. The West Ham youth product only returned from a serious knee injury at the back-end of last season, and Allardyce is hoping he will forge a partnership in midfield with new arrival Kevin Nolan. Speaking on Twitter, David Gold responded to questions from worried fans by insisting 'Jack is not for sale'.

In other news West Ham have asked the Italian Football Federation to suspend Alessandro Diamanti’s registration with Brescia. The Italian left West Ham for the then Serie A side in August 2010, but the latest instalment of the £2m transfer fee has not been paid according to the club. Furious Hammers chiefs have accused Brescia of holding back the payment and are adamant the striker should be banned until the cash bust-up is resolved. A club spokesman said: "Due to the failure of Brescia to pay the latest instalment fee, West Ham have asked the Italian Football Federation to suspend the player's registration and requested that the national association and FIFA impose sporting sanctions until the matter is resolved." Diamanti hit six goals in 31 outings for Brescia last term, earning his first Italy cap.

Finally, Allardyce might be otherwise engaged at the moment but he still found time to blame Margaret Thatcher for the ruination of this country... sorry English football. Speaking in today's Sun, the West Ham manager laments the shutting down of extra curricular sports lessons and believes the country is "only producing half the players the school system used to". Allardyce believes former Prime Minister Thatcher "killed football" in England and is to blame for the lack of good young English players in the game. He also blamed cut-backs for a lack of homegrown talent coming through and a lack of opportunities for youngsters. "[Margaret] Thatcher killed football, no doubt about it," he said. "Since Margaret Thatcher stopped teachers being paid extra money for coaching sports after school, all sporting activities have diminished on a competitive basis. This was a working class game but it's only at private schools where the children get the sports opportunities I had - and even then a lot of them don't play football, it's mainly rugby. Despite putting in place all sorts of advanced academy systems at clubs we are only producing half the players the school system used to. Our [West Ham's] youth trainer, Tony Carr, is fighting to find the next [Rio] Ferdinands and [Frank] Lampards with one hand tied behind his back."

Backroom Business

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:17:00 +0000

We've had Fletcher and Mackay and now West Ham are looking to add Baraclough to their growing list of Slade Prison namesakes. The club are reportedly close to appointing former Scunthorpe boss Ian Baraclough to their coaching staff, according to several sources. Sam Allardyce is keen to bolster his backroom team after seeing Kevin Keen leave for Liverpool earlier this week and has lined up a move for the highly-rated coach as he begins his plans for next season. Baraclough took his first steps into coaching when he was named first-team coach under Nigel Adkins at Scunthorpe in 2006. The 40-year-old replaced Adkins as manager last September following his departure to Southampton, but he was dismissed by Scunthorpe in March with the club rooted to the bottom of the table. Sky Sports state Baraclough has gained the reputation as one the best young coaches around and Allardyce believes he will be a valuable addition to the Hammers set-up.

It is likely Baraclough would become the coach to link the Academy and developing players to the first-team squad; the only position Allardyce said he had left to fill in the restructuring of his immediate backroom staff. The new Hammers boss had initially been tipped to team up again with his former coach Sammy Lee at Upton Park. The former Liverpool coach left Anfield last week, and had previously worked alongside Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers. "We are looking to bring in one more coach, but it will not be Sammy," confirmed Allardyce yesterday. "Sammy is a first-team coach, but I have Neil McDonald and Wally Downes here already. We are looking at people at the moment though, and hopefully we will have someone in place in time for the trip to Switzerland at the end of the week."

The news comes just days after West Ham secured Martyn Margetson as their new goalkeeping coach and extended the contract of Tony Carr. Margetson, 39, held the same position at Cardiff, but has left the Welsh club to join Sam Allardyce's backroom team at Upton Park. He trained with the West Ham squad today ahead of making the move permanent. The Hammers boss had been in the hunt for a new goalkeeping coach after Coles was relieved of his duties along with first-team coach Paul Groves. Margetson, who also works with the Wales national team, will now coach the fit-again Peter Kurucz, Marek Stech and Ruud Boffin, although it remains to be seen how long the Welshman will have the chance to mentor Robert Green, who is expected to leave the club, should a suitable offer be received.

Meanwhile Carr signed a new five-year deal with the club. The world-renowned Youth Academy director, whose existing deal was up this summer, put pen to paper on a contract that will keep him tied to West Ham United until 2016. The 60-year-old has been employed by the club in a coaching capacity since 1973, and only last year he was awarded the MBE for services to football. Speaking to KUMB.com last year Carr admitted that despite the lure of offers from elsewhere, he always intended to see his career out at Chadwell Heath. "If the club want me to stay I'd like to stay," he said. "I'd like to go on for another three or four years, if I'm honest. I'm quite healthy, I still enjoy it, I still think there's work to be done. We've got good kids in the system and I want to see them develop. I hope there's going to be some good players coming through in the next three or four years and I want to be part of that. Obviously there comes a time when you go 'look Tone, as much as we love you you've got to pack it in'. And I understand that. But whilst I'm still quite fit and healthy... the day I stop enjoying it is the day I go 'thanks, but I've done my bit'."

If Baraclough does arrives it will be as direct replacement for the departed Keen. The Hammers stalwart left his role as first-team coach only last week to take up a similar position at Anfield, but is anticipating a return to the Boleyn Ground with his new club sooner rather than later. "I am extremely confident with the squad that is there, that even if West Ham lose a couple of top players, this time next year Liverpool will be playing West Ham in the Premier League and I can't wait to be back," he said. Having served the club for nearly 20 years as player and coach, Keen admitted he would miss the close connection with the passionate Hammers faithful and said they would always be close to his heart. "The supporters have always been fantastic. I thank them for their support. I have been at the club for nine years as a player and nine years as a coach and I have learned so much from good managers, the likes of Paul Heffer and Tony Carr and also from those people who don't always get the credit. A part of me will always be claret and blue. It is the right time for me to move on but you never know what will happen in the future."

Wally Downes is equally confident of the Hammers chances and told West Ham TV a strong squad will be key to getting the club promoted this season. Downes expects the club to hit the ground running in the npower Championship, with the first-team coach emphasising the need for a collective desire to get the job done. In short, he expects the story of the season to be about the team and not the individual. "This season it is going to be about how strong and how supportive the squad is," he said. "It is not about the eleven players or the 18 players, it is about 20 or even 30 players because of the amount of games we are going to play, it will be about 50-60 games a season on a regular basis. Players have to be ready to come into a successful side and perform to the level of whoever they are replacing."

With such an arduous challenge ahead, the work of United's Sport Medicine and Sport Science department will be of paramount importance. It is their hope that a unique new system will keep players out of the treatment room. In partnership with the University of Ghent (UGent) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium, the Hammers have introduced individual risk profiles for every professional. The profiles will cover two specific areas - injury prevention and performance progression - and allow head of sports medicine Andy Rolls and first-team physiotherapist Stijn Vandenbroucke to constantly monitor player's individual performances, risk areas and injury histories.

With the help of the two universities, each profile will be updated on a daily basis throughout the season and will be accessible via a password-safe website to enable players and staff to keep tabs on their condition from anywhere on the planet. To kick-off the project Rolls, Vandenbroucke and the Hammers' medical staff have started screening squad members using a range of balance, flexibility and strength tests. The test results will help them to identify areas of individual strength and weakness and tailor each player's training schedule to minimise their chances of being injured.

Following next week's pre-season trip to Switzerland, the players will undergo performance progression screening at Chadwell Heath later this month, adding to the data available. Regular tests will be held throughout the season. Vandenbroucke explained the purpose of the screening in detail . "We are testing for injury prevention because we want to create an up-to-date risk profile for every player for throughout the season," he said. "Therefore we need to know what their weaknesses and their strong points are, so we're testing their flexibility, strength, stability, core stability and balance, jumping and a few other things. From there on, together with the universities, we can work out what they need to do during the pre-season and the season."

Vandenbroucke said the pre-season tests would stand the players in good stead ahead of what will be a busy and demanding season in the npower Championship. "I think it's going to be a very tough season with a lot of games and physical demands on the players, so I think in the pre-season we have to grab the chance to make everybody as strong as possible so we can go as far as possible in the competition." Belgian-born himself, Vandenbroucke said the roles played by his fellow countrymen at UGent and VUB would be of huge benefit. "We have worked together with these universities because they have created an algorithm [list of instructions] which will help us on a daily basis with injury prevention and performance progression. "After each training session, they will help us to create an injury-risk profile for the following day so we know if players have trained well, if they are fatigued or if they are at risk of suffering a certain injury. We're trying to use evidence-based data and use Sport Science at a high level."

Having blogged two weeks ago about how Sam Allardyce has been in the vanguard of football's scientific revolution, it is the clearest indication yet of the direction the club is now moving. While Rolls and Vandenbroucke collate their data, the manager has been busy running the rule over his squad this week in training before they jet off on Friday. He has declared himself happy with what he has seen. "It has been lovely weather and the boys are looking very enthusiastic. Everyone looks like they are glad to be back," he said. "Last season was a miserable one, but we have to put that behind us and start to work on the task ahead and that is getting straight back into the Premier League." The trip to Switzerland, where they will play two games, is one Allardyce is looking forward to. "I have always gone on pre-season tours in the past and they are an invaluable way of getting to know everyone and improving the team spirit," he said. "We have lots of new faces among the players and the staff and this will be the perfect chance for everyone to get to know each other."

And with that it was off for a run through Hainault Forest, where back in the 60's it had been a common sight to see the likes of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters working to up their fitness levels ahead of another long and gruelling campaign. The tradition continued into the 1990s, when Paolo Di Canio was among those spotted jogging and sprinting through the trees. This week, the manager reinstated the old tradition with a modern slant, taking his squad for a 'speed play' sessions that include walking, jogging, high-intensity running and hill sprints.

Fitness coach Eamon Swift explained that the trip to the forest also provided the players with a welcome change of scenery as they stepped up their preparations for the 2011/12 npower Championship season. "The manager is very interested in the psychology of the players and very interested in changing environments, so the main focus of the session is to have a change of stimulus," Swift explained. "We went to Hainault Forest, which is something we haven't done for a while and wouldn't normally do, and while we were there we did a change of speed session. The players did a walk, a jog, a three-quarter pace run and mixed that into a 25-minute period. We then finished with some hill repeats - periods of climbing with some walk recovery. The players did not run for the full 25 minutes - it was a 'speed play' session including periods of walking, jogging, 75 per cent running and tempo running. It was not just one pace the whole way through. It was a 45-minute session in total with a warm-up and stretch recovery to finish."

While the sessions prove to be both testing and fun for those involved, Swift said it would also provide important performance data for the science bods analysing the players' fitness levels. "We used heart-rate monitors so there will be a conditioning response. The main thing is that we got the lads together in groups and they were geeing each other on and, in the bits when they didn't have to work so hard, they got together and were chatting while the staff followed behind on bikes and gave them extra motivation where necessary. It was a good morning. The lads were very happy about it afterwards, so I think the most beneficial part about this session was bringing them together and helping to enhance the team ethic."

West Ham start their pre-season campaign with a match against Young Boys of Berne on Monday, with a 6pm kick-off, before playing FC Basel on Wednesday.

Shadow On The Line

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:39:00 +0000

You see the truth is like lightning, it always follows the line of least resistance. So, for what we do, the trick is simple. All we have to do is find the line and then follow it back up. And, whatever it is, it's all going to be sorted out neat and tidy, 99% of the time. But with this, with what we see here. Well, you try and find the line on something like this and all it's going to do is fur up your arteries so thick you'd think you're a fucking werewolf. So, we just pass it on. And then we step right out of the picture because whoever it is who has to pick up this sorry rag of rope it'll sure as shit be the devil of them...

The Olympic Park Legacy Company has launched two independent investigations into its "internal stadium procedures" as the row over the Olympic Stadium continues to escalate. The quango, which awarded the 250‑year lease on the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United over Tottenham Hotspur, last week suspended its director of corporate services on full pay after it emerged she had been paid by the east London club to carry out consultancy work during the bidding phase.

An OPLC statement read: "The Olympic Park Legacy Company has launched an independent investigation into its internal stadium procedures as a result of the allegations made concerning employee Dionne Knight. The auditors Moore Stephens have been appointed to carry out this investigation into our procedures. They have put together a team led by their specialist forensic unit. We are also investigating the nature of the consultancy work that Dionne Knight undertook without our knowledge or permission. We will communicate the outcome of investigations when the work is complete. We remain confident that the integrity of our processes has not been compromised."

An independent barrister will also be appointed to conduct the "employment elements" of a separate investigation into how Knight came to be working for West Ham on the procurement process for the conversion work the club needed to do on the stadium. The OPLC has said that it had no knowledge that she was working for the Hammers. The club were told by the West Ham Olympic Stadium project director, Ian Tompkins, with whom Knight was in a long‑standing relationship of which all parties were aware, that she had obtained permission from the OPLC. Tompkins has also been suspended pending an investigation.

The OPLC continue to insist the decision to award West Ham tenancy of the stadium after the 2012 Games stands, despite them launching the twin-pronged inquiry. They remain confident that Knight was isolated from the Olympic Stadium decision-making process once she declared her relationship with Tompkins. The process was handled by a separate team based at its law firm Eversheds. Spurs will return to the high court this month in an attempt to force a judicial review of the decision-making process. The OPLC board voted 14-0 in favour of the joint bid from West Ham and Newham Council, with the decision rubber-stamped by the government and the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. West Ham have said they will sue the Sunday Times for claiming the payments to Knight were "secret" and have claimed they will also take legal action against Spurs, who have used a security firm to investigate the bidding process.

In the meantime, Tottenham continue to press ahead with their plans to build a potential new stadium at Northumberland Park in Haringey. They hope to fund the development by asking supporters to pay upfront for premium seat packages costing as much as £53,000 over 10 years. Writing in the Telegraph, Paul Kelso states the club wrote to supporters on Tuesday asking them to take part in a survey designed to determine the level of demand for premium packages including food and parking options.

The survey indicates that the club is pursuing the Northumberland Park development adjacent to White Hart Lane in parallel with its legal challenge to the loss of the Olympic Stadium bid to West Ham. It also reveals the club’s strategy for paying for a stadium development that as recently as January was described as unaffordable by chairman Daniel Levy. The survey offers 39 different seating and hospitality packages in a tier of premium seating that appears similar to the Club Wembley middle tier at the national stadium that effectively bankrolls the ground through the sale of 10-year packages. Spurs appear to be adopting a similar model, asking supporters to pay as much as half of the fees upfront to help repay loans incurred in stadium construction.

Finally, we have another shadow on the line as the London mayor has been persuaded to vociferously back Tottenham's bid for public funding to help develop their plans for the new stadium. It comes after Spurs insisted any public cash would only be used for improving the local area. "It has potential to inject investment in stadium-led regeneration in the heart of the community," Boris Johnson said. "This level of investment will safeguard existing jobs, create considerably more local employment opportunities as well as enhance the public realm and vibrancy of the whole of Tottenham."

Spurs had plans to develop the Northumberland Park site approved by the mayor in 2010 but escalating costs turned their focus towards taking over the Olympic stadium in Stratford. After appearing unsuccessful in their appeal against the decision to hand over the Olympic stadium to West Ham, Levy confirmed that they are investigating the development of the new site behind the Paxton Road end of the White Hart Lane stadium. Tottenham have now applied to the government's Regional Growth Fund for a grant to cover costs which would be associated with moving to Northumberland Park. They include upgrading public transport and providing training and employment opportunities for local people.

Eloquence Of Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Ministers are said to be closely monitoring allegations of inappropriate payments made by West Ham to a director of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, after the bitter public row over the future of the Olympic Stadium escalated yesterday. The Government is alarmed by revelations, first exposed on Friday, that an OPLC director was paid £20,000 while moonlighting as a consultant for West Ham, and has sought reassurances about the OPLC’s processes and the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham.

Writing in today's Telegraph, Paul Kelso states the revelation will ramp up the pressure on ministers and the OPLC to reconsider the decision to award the stadium to West Ham, which is already facing legal challenge from defeated bidder Tottenham. West Ham issued an angry statement yesterday denying that the £20,000 "consultancy" payment made to Dionne Knight, the OPLC’s director of corporate services, was improper and revealing they were opening legal proceedings against Tottenham and the Sunday Times following publication of details of the payments yesterday. The strongly-worded statement accuses Tottenham of behaving "illegally" and is an indication of how serious the dispute between the two rival clubs over the £500million stadium has become.

The couple at the centre of the row, Knight, at the OPLC, and her partner, Ian Tompkins, the West Ham Olympic project director who helped the east London club win the bid, have now been suspended. West Ham insist they had taken their director’s word that his girlfriend had received approval from her employers to be hired as a paid consultant by them. In fact, the OPLC learnt about the arrangement only last Thursday when the woman was contacted by the newspaper.

Ms Knight, 34, from Surrey, has been an £84,000-a-year director of corporate services at the OPLC since May last year. She declared her relationship with Ian Tompkins, 53, when she took on the role. The sensitivity of the relationship was such that the OPLC decided that the stadium bid process must be handled from its external lawyers’ offices in the City of London. The couple had previously worked together at Newham council, which is responsible for the Games site and West Ham’s ground at Upton Park. Tompkins, who served as the council’s director of communications, joined West Ham in 2008 and was given the job of handling the bid for the Olympic stadium. He was responsible for appointing Knight, and is said to have assured Karren Brady, West Ham’s vice-chairman, that she had permission from her employers. The Legacy Stadium Partnership was aware of their relationship.

On Friday, OPLC said that it was conducting a review of its procedures but that it was confident that its stadium tender process had not been compromised by Knight’s work for West Ham. Knight had declared her relationship with Tompkins to the OPLC when she joined the company but had not revealed that she was moonlighting for West Ham. The legacy company is expected to announce tomorrow which firm will conduct the independent audit.

Spurs will attend a high court hearing this month in a bid to force a judicial review of the bidding process, which they claim was flawed, biased and in breach of European law. On Friday they were granted permission to seek full disclosure of a deal between West Ham and Newham Council, which has agreed to provide a £40 million loan to finance the stadium conversion. The London borough, a host for the Olympics, is also embroiled in the controversy because Knight was formally hired by a partnership half-owned by the council and West Ham. A spokesman for the council reiterated: "Both West Ham and Newham had been assured that the procurement exercise had been fully authorised. The work that was procured by West Ham was of significant quantity. Neither party has ever sought or received any advantageous information in regard to the stadium bid. Both West Ham and the OPLC will now conduct detailed, robust investigations and we will co-operate fully with both."

Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales has since stressed the importance of putting plans in motion for the Olympic Stadium despite the protracted row over its ownership. He does not believe the controversy should be allowed to delay plans for the venue. The east London Olympic borough won a joint bid with West Ham to use the stadium after the Games. The OPLC board voted 14-0 in February to back this bid, ahead of Tottenham, as first choice to move into the stadium. Wales, whose board authorised the £40m loan to the joint venture company that will operate the stadium, declared: "The sooner we can get on with it the better for our country. Anything that delays it is not good for our country. It is a seriously hugely popular bid. Everybody thought it was the best - let's just get on with it. We are very keen to get started. Our bid is way the best. It works in every possible way. We will retain the stadium so we can use it nationally and regionally. Our community will benefit enormously from it. Any rational person will say 'it is a no-brainer, this is by far the best bid - let's get on with it'. Things will happen as they happen. It is the right bid for the stadium and we will work as quickly as we can to open it."

Also reacting today, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, insisted the revelations will not scupper the club's move into the Olympic Stadium. "There is no reason why there should be any deviation. The woman concerned made her relationship known to the OPLC and was immediately excluded from having anything to do with the bid process," said Johnson, who rubber-stamped the OPLC's decision to choose West Ham's joint bid with Newham council over the rival one from Tottenham Hotspur. "Obviously they took steps, quite rightly, to exclude her of any involvement with the bid process and it now transpires there was a financial relationship – that is a matter that is currently under investigation. I have no reason to believe that this in any way will blow the decision off course. Let's face it, two years ago no-one would have said we would have two top London clubs fighting it out for the right to use the Olympic stadium. It is a great tribute to everybody involved in the marketing of the Olympic Park that we have got a situation where we have so much interest in the stadium. Before then people were talking about mothballed white elephants."

West Ham said on Sunday it would sue the Sunday Times over the claim that the payments were made in secret and take legal action against Spurs over its use of a firm of private detectives. The club will report Tottenham to the police for allegedly accessing bank accounts and tapping phones as the dispute over the Olympic Stadium gets ever more spiteful. With the exception of Knight and Tompkins, Spurs remain the only major player involved yet to give a public response. They have declined to respond to the allegations that they had employed private investigators, although sources claimed the club had not spoken to The Sunday Times. In the words of Emily Dickinson, saying nothing...sometimes says the most.

When pressed, Tottenham would state only: "We are currently in a legal process and cannot comment on the matter." Given the new and despicable phone hacking revelations emerging today, and the highly sensitive nature of such activities in the current climate, that is probably a sound approach. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the paper said: "The Sunday Times stands by its story and will rigorously defend any action taken against us." It just might have to.

The Spook, The Chief, Her Strife and His Lover

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:52:00 +0000

West Ham United plan to sue the Sunday Times and Tottenham over allegations of corruption during their successful bid to take over the Olympic stadium. The club were awarded the right to move to the new stadium after the 2012 games, beating Tottenham in the process. A report in today's The Sunday Times claimed that secret payments had been made to an executive on the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), the body which unanimously made the decision, during the selection process. The article states:

A shadow was cast over the Olympic Games last night after it emerged that the £500m stadium is at the centre of a corruption scandal. One of London's biggest football clubs has been exposed for making secret payments to an executive on the body that awarded the stadium to the club after the games are completed. West Ham United made payments totalling £20,000 into [an OPLC] executive’s bank account before and after it was selected as the owner of the stadium in east London.

The money was paid to Dionne Knight, the Porsche-driving director of corporate services at the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), the quango that warded the stadium to West Ham. The arrangement was put in place by Ian Tompkins, a director of West Ham who masterminded its Olympic stadium bid. Knight and Tompkins are in a relationship together.

Both executives were suspended on Friday after The Sunday Times confronted them with evidence of the payments. They informed reporters that Karren Brady, West Ham’s vice-chairwoman, had known about the payments and insisted it was for "consultancy work". However Knight also admitted that she had not told her employers about the payments. The disclosures, states the Sunday Times, could force the government to reopen the bid for the Olympic stadium if West Ham is found to have acted improperly. Interestingly, the information- detailed in bank and telephone records- was obtained by corporate investigators hired by Tottenham Hotspur.

The north London club is currently seeking a judicial review of the decision. Although they refused to comment officially, a senior source said: "Clearly if West Ham had someone on the payroll from the OPLC and it can be proved she had access to confidential information relating to the bids, there is no way it can't go back and be reopened."

The story continues:

Knight, 34, who earns £84,000 a year, is one of a small number of directors on
the OPLC, a government body set up to manage the handover of the stadium and the
surrounding Olympic park. The investigators were hired by Spurs two days before
West Ham was voted the preferred bidder on February 11. Both clubs hoped to make
the stadium their home ground. West Ham was the preferred bidder because it
pledged to keep a running track inside the stadium.

Investigators obtained bank statements, credit reports, utility bills and telephone records for Knight and Tompkins. Knight was placed under surveillance. They established that four payments had gone into Knight’s bank account between December and April from a West Ham United account at the Bank of Scotland, for £566, £1,302, £3,400 and £4,600. They say there was a further sum of £4,800 in June.

This weekend Knight admitted receiving a total of £20,400 from West Ham and said it was for consultancy work. The arrangement was reportedly made two months before West Ham won the bid. Amusingly, this means the sum total of secret payments allegedly paid by West Ham to the OPLC's director of corporate services prior to United being granted preferred bidder status for the Olympic Stadium totalled just £1,868; the sum constituting two seperate payments of £566 and £1,302 and the rough equivalent of a weeks' wages. Knight had initially refused to say what the work was but yesterday her lawyer said it was "a procurement contract in relation to the stadium". Knight is said to have informed the OPLC about her relationship with Tompkins but admitted she had not told it about the cash from West Ham. She accepts this was wrong but denies leaking confidential information.

Conjecture surrounding the exact relationship of Knight and Tompkins has been rife for several months in certain quarters. As far back as early April, Mike Law made a Freedom of Information request to Newham Borough Council asking for clarification. His email reads:

Dear Newham Borough Council,

Please provide me with details of any and all visits made by Ian Tompkins, West Ham United FC’s Olympic Project Director (formerly Newham Council’s Head of Communications) and Dionne Knight of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (formerly, Head of Procurement, Legal Services, Newham Council) to Newham Dockside (or any other premises owned, leased or rented by Newham Council) - both individually and/or together – since 1st September 2010.

Would you please provide details regarding the dates of such visits; length of time of each visit; and, which council officers or elected members they met with.

Would you provide me with copies of all correspondence (including e-mails) - commercially confidential information redacted - between Ian Tompkins and any council officers involved in Newham Council’s Olympic Stadium joint bid with WHUFC from 1st September 2010 to 23rd March 2011.

Would you provide me with copies of all correspondence (including e-mails) - commercially confidential information redacted - between Ian Tompkins and any elected members (including the Mayor) responsible for Newham Council’s Olympic Stadium joint bid with WHUFC from 1st September 2010 to 23rd March 2011.

Would you also provide me with copies of all correspondence (including e-mails) - commercially confidential information redacted - between Ian Tompkins and Newham Council’s Communications Department from 1st September 2010 to 23rd
March 2011.

For their part, the Sunday Times want to know why West Ham commissioned work before it had even won the bid and why it sanctioned the payments. The club, relegated from the Premier League last season, said Brady had been led to believe that the OPLC had approved Knight's consultancy work. It would give only scant details of the work. In a statement, the OPLC confirmed Knight had told it about her relationship with West Ham’s bid director and measures were taken to ensure she had no access to sensitive information. Speaking on Friday when the first rumblings of this story broke, the OPLC were quick to address any suggestion of impropriety. "This individual had no involvement whatsoever in our stadium process," the OPLC said. "The individual concerned had declared a personal relationship with an employee of West Ham United FC when she joined the organisation and we therefore put robust measures in place to ensure our Stadium process was not compromised."

West Ham United have this morning said it is treating the claims made by the newspaper "with the utmost seriousness" and insisted it was "certain of the robustness" of its successful bid to take over the east London stadium following the 2012 games. Also in the firing line are Tottenham and the corporate intelligence company employed by the north Londoners to obtain private information in the cash-for-stadium scandal. A statement on the official website reads:

The newspaper's statement that Tottenham Hotspur employed the investigators who obtained private information illegally is one we are treating with the utmost seriousness and no doubt data protection and prosecution agencies may also do so.

The only wrongdoing here is by those who have broken the law and obtained private information. It would appear that no stone has gone unturned trying to find a way to undermine our bid including apparently targeting the 14 OPLC Board members who had voted unanimously on the bid in our favour.

The suggestion of 'secret cash' in the Sunday Times article is absolutely and categorically denied. As such, legal action is being taken against the Sunday Times, as well as Tottenham Hotspur.

The statement also dismissed suggestions that the OPLC's Ms Knight - who was suspended from her post on Friday - was given preferential treatment when offered consultancy work by the club. It stated her work for the Legacy Stadium Partnership (LSP) owned 50% by London Borough of Newham and 50% by West Ham United was in relation to the procurement of a construction partner after the Olympic Games. A number of companies applied for the procurement contract. It was awarded to Ms Knight as she was able to provide expertise at a significantly competitive price. The work that she subsequently undertook for the LSP was of a very high standard.

The OPLC has confirmed that Ms Knight had absolutely no involvement in the bidding process and we repeat that secret cash was not paid to her. Her work was very transparent and the bidding process was never compromised. The work was never hidden, for example she personally attended meetings. There is considerable documentation to confirm the existence and quality of her work. Two firms of solicitors are able to confirm those facts. The price we paid for the work was extremely competitive.

The LSP, including Karren Brady who is named in the offending article, has not paid any member of the OPLC for any information in relation to the bid process, and has not received any unauthorised information from the OPLC or any other source in relation to its bid.

The OPLC has further confirmed that she and other employees of the OPLC did not have access to confidential information as it was held at the OPLC’s external solicitors’ offices.

The LSP believed Ms Knight had authority to do the work as that was what it was informed. The fact that the work was undertaken is wholly irrelevant to the Olympic Stadium bid process and only raises issues of employment law.

The club insisted they are so confident in the probity of their actions that they would take the strongest action possible against any suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of West Ham United or its officers, as well as involve the police and the data protection registrar in regard to the accessing of private information by illegal means. To conclude, it was reiterated that the allegations are now the subject of legal action. If there is any further publication of the allegations, it warned, further action will be taken.

The Long Good Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:45:00 +0000

For years there's been peace - everyone to his own patch. We've
all had it sweet. I've done every single one of you favours in the past - I've
put money in all your pockets. I've treated you well, even when you was out of
order, right? Well now there's been an eruption... and believe me, all of you,
nobody goes home until I find out who done it, and why...

The Olympic Park Legacy Company is facing major embarrassment after revealing that it has suspended an employee who had been undertaking paid consultancy work for West Ham United during the stadium bid process. Writing in this morning's Telegraph, Paul Kelso states the revelation raises questions over the probity of the award of the Olympic Stadium to West Ham, who were selected by OPLC as the preferred bidder in a process facing legal challenges from Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient. It has also been disclosed that as well as working for West Ham, the suspended female employee- who is not being named- also previously worked for Newham Council, West Ham’s partner in the stadium bid. The revelation of the employee’s compromised position came as Tottenham were granted a court hearing to apply for full disclosure from Newham Council of details of the £40 million loan that West Ham are relying on to convert the stadium after the Games.

The OPLC board, in charge of securing the future of the Olympic Park site, voted 14-0in February to make West Ham United the first choice to move into the £486m stadium. The club was in a head-to-head contest with Tottenham Hotspur. It insisted last night that the employee, who works in the corporate services department, had not worked on the stadium process and had no access to OPLC’s systems or documentation, but it is understood that a review of its internal procedures has been launched. The employee is understood to be in a relationship with someone working at West Ham and to have declared that when joining the OPLC. The paid consultancy work, however, was not revealed. The employee’s compromised position only came to light only after the OPLC was contacted by a journalist investigating the conflict of interest.

The OPLC said: "This individual had no involvement whatsoever in our stadium process. The individual concerned had declared a personal relationship with an employee of West Ham United when she joined the organisation and we therefore put robust measures in place to ensure our stadium process was not compromised. The stadium team has been based at our law firm Eversheds’ offices in the City and only the stadium team had access to information about the bids. As soon as this new information came to light, the company took immediate action and launched an independent investigation. The employee has been suspended pending the outcome of this."

West Ham also released a statement, stressing their belief that the bidding process had not been compromised. The statement read: "We have become aware of inquiries being made in respect of a lady who has undertaken work for West Ham United on a consultancy basis relating to the Olympic stadium project. Having learned of the inquiries, we have undertaken an initial internal investigation. We have established that the work that was carried out was not connected in any way to the bidding process for the Olympic stadium, but procurement project management thereafter. We are of the firm view that the integrity of the bidding process has not been compromised. We consider that the bidding process was robust and believe that remains the case."

The decision to award the Olympic stadium to West Ham is still subject to possible judicial reviews. The OPLC moved the base for the Olympic stadium bidding process away from its east London headquarters to its lawyers' offices in central London. It is believed that this precaution has given the OPLC confidence that no information could be discovered, even accidentally. This week Tottenham went back to the high court to continue their bid for a judicial review of the decision to award the Olympic stadium to West Ham. Last week Judge Mr Justice Davis rejected Spurs' and Leyton Orient's challenge for the stadium. The north London club now have the chance to make a case in an oral hearing at the high court.

Although Tottenham continue to fight a legal battle over the Olympic Stadium, they also remain keen to resurrect plans to redevelop White Hart Lane, reports the Mail. Spurs first revealed their Northumberland Development Project proposals in 2008 to increase the stadium's capacity to 60,000 but the soaring costs saw their ambitions derailed. Spurs are now looking into a number of alternatives including reviving their original plan which involves building a stadium on the current site and its adjacent land. The majority of fans are desperate for Spurs to stay in their North London borough of Haringey, and the club intend to reduce to costs of the redevelopment by applying for public money.

According to the Mail, Spurs have applied to the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) for a grant that will help regenerate the area around White Hart Lane, which is one of the poorest in the capital. The RGF awards funding for projects that will directly create jobs through private sector enterprise and growth that will enable or unlock future private sector jobs growth, particularly in those areas and communities that are currently dependent on the public sector. The NDP represents a multi-million pound private sector-led regeneration scheme for North Tottenham, in an area where 40% of children live in households claiming benefits and a ward (Northumberland Park) where 71.6% claim employment and support allowance (national average 1.5%). The area is heavily dependent on the public sector.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said: "The NDP plans represent sport-led regeneration, anchored by our proposed new stadium. It would directly create thousands of new, private sector jobs, attract millions of pounds of additional expenditure in the local economy and lever further private sector investment into the area. As importantly, it would also protect the hundreds of current Club jobs, its existing economic impact and the valuable work of the Club's charitable Foundation in the local communities, by enabling us to stay in our current location. We are one of the few large private sector employers in the Borough and the NDP is currently the sole significant proposed scheme for creating sustainable private sector jobs. Quite simply the Club is the only private entity looking to invest, on this scale, in the Borough and reverse the decline of decades of underinvestment."

The timing of this development only adds to the suspicion that the ongoing legal wrangle has now become less about the Olympic Stadium, and more about securing recompense for the wasted resources, time and effort spent on a bid Daniel Levy feels he was solicited to make. Like a indignant Harold Shand manipulated into impotent rage by events he can't quite understand, Levy is lining up the meat hooks, intent on making a stand on a point of principle. If the corollary of this is to pressure or embarrass the authorities into greasing the wheels of financial aid then all the better. It can't hurt that half the people who work for David Cameron are Spurs fans. Arsenal got funding for their stadium and surrounding areas, West Ham got a huge loan and a brand spanking new stadium. It’s only right, thinks Levi, I should get a piece of that pie in developing one of the most run down areas in London. The government would eventually have to do it themselves anyway. It's uniting moral imperative and practical expediency in a simultaneous Pax and Pox realpolitik.

RGF monies would be used to deliver a package of major infrastructure improvements which are vital if the project is to act as a platform for wider regeneration and crucial if the whole project is to be made viable. These would include station upgrades, public community space, employment and training facilities, restored listed properties, Combined Cooling Heating Plant, site enabling and public realm works. In support of the bid, Claire Kober, Leader, Haringey Council said, "The Council and Club are doing everything possible to make this scheme a reality, but the hard fact is that additional public sector financial support is needed to stimulate regeneration in this area. Without this it will be difficult for the scheme to provide the catalyst to economic growth and job creation in an area of high unemployment. Approval to the RGF bid will help unlock the transformation of the area. RGF funds will contribute to vital infrastructure improvements which are key for the scheme to proceed in a sustainable way. This will then underpin not only the new stadium and associated developments but also further development of new homes and jobs in the wider area leveraging additional value from the RGF investment."

Levy added: "We are working hard to make the Northumberland Development Project (NDP) scheme viable and enable us to stay in Tottenham and redevelop our existing site. Public sector assistance for infrastructure and public realm works would enable us to deliver the project and the RGF represents the single most important route for funding. Our hope must be that there is a recognition of the real need for investment in the Northumberland Park ward and that this project presents a real opportunity to deliver sustainable long-term, private sector-led regeneration."

Tottenham MP David Lammy, who has long campaigned to keep Spurs in Haringey, stated: "I support this bid by Tottenham Hotspur, which has the opportunity to transform an entire community with the highest unemployment in London. The plan to redevelop White Hart Lane is far and away the most exciting regeneration project in London after the Olympics, and it is encouraging that it is private sector-led. This Regional Growth Fund proposal will benefit everyone in Tottenham and I urge the government to agree to Spurs’ bid."

Now find me Boris Johnson, I'll have his carcass dripping blood by midnight...

Silence Noise Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:41:00 +0000

It was full daylight at 7.40 this very morning in 1908 when an enormous pale blue fireball trailed by a 500-mile tail of bright light, shimmering, multicoloured bands hurtled across the Siberian sky and consumed itself in the greatest cosmic explosion in the history of civilisation. This cataclysmic detonation occurred four miles above the Earth's surface over a huge, inaccessible and almost uninhabited pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia. Equal to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs, the blinding flash could be seen from 500 miles away. The colossal blast produced no crater but its shock wave flattened half a million acres of forest, and more than twenty miles from the epicentre scorched and splintered trees lay pointing radially outward in a vast circle of destruction. Almost 60 miles away at the trading post of Vanavara people were knocked to the ground by the force of the blast, and an hour later the seismic wave was picked up at the South Kensington Meteorological Office in London almost 4,000 miles away.

The debate still rages about the true nature of this titanic explosion. Most agree that some sort of extraterrestrial body, travelling at perhaps 60,000 miles an hour, detonated when it collided with the Earth's atmosphere. Some maintain that it was a 100,000-ton asteroid, others believe that it was a football-field-sized meteorite, and some insist it was a wayward comet fragment composed mainly of ice and dust. A more abstruse theory holds that the cataclysm was caused by a chunk of anti-matter, but a few assert that it was the explosion of the main drive reactor in a UFO manned by aliens bent on invading the Earth.

In the same way that the Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council demolished Earth to make way for the building of a hyperspatial express route through its star system; all we can really say about the greatest cosmic explosion in the history of civilisation is:

There was a terribly ghastly silence.
There was a terribly ghastly noise.
There was a terribly ghastly silence.

Which probably also accurately describes the reaction of Tony Pulis when Sam Allardyce told him he would need to increase his offer to close to £7 million if he wants to sign striker Carlton Cole. The Potters are reported to have made an opening bid of £3million, plus various add-ons, for the 27-year-old England international. Although the Hammers boss declined to confirm the size of Stoke's bid, or reveal West Ham's asking price, he said Stoke's opening offer wasn't enough to prise the striker away from Upton Park. Despite being one of the highest earners at the club, the Hammers are thought to be looking for a deal almost double the money on offer before they will considering selling Cole.

Although Allardyce accepts the Hammers have to look at balancing the books after their relegation from the Barclays Premier League last season, he was keen to stress players would not be allowed to leave cheaply. "I believe at this stage that the offer is not good enough. It is not to the club's valuation," the West Ham boss said. "We are keen to keep our key players. However, we have lost our Premier League status and our financial position has to be addressed. A part of that might be players are sold back to the Premier League, but only so long as that is right for our club."

Stoke have tabled offers for Cole and Birmingham duo Cameron Jerome and Scott Dann as they attempt to make an early move in the transfer market. However, City are unlikely to be rushed into negotiations for a quick deal. They have shown in previous years they are prepared to be patient because they believe better deals are more likely closer to the August 31 transfer deadline. Stoke were keen on Cole last summer, but were put off by a valuation of more than £12m. Liverpool were also heavily linked to the striker last year, but Cole endured a disappointing season culminating in West Ham's relegation in May.

However, Stoke would hope to revitalise a player who has seven England caps, the last of which came against Egypt 16 months ago. City could offer Cole the chance to put himself back in the England frame by cashing in on service from wingers Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant. Cole, who has two years left on his West Ham contract, has also been linked with West Brom, QPR and Newcastle this summer. West Ham signed the player from Chelsea in 2006 and he scored 11 goals last season and has a total of 42 from 165 appearances for the Hammers.

If Allardyce is forced to sell Cole, Scott Parker or Robert Green then he has vowed to "splash the cash" this summer to rebuild his depleted squad. According to Talksport, the Hammers boss will hold showdown talks with the three players when they return for the start of pre-season training tomorrow. Parker is strongly expected to leave the club, with Tottenham leading the chase to sign him, while Green has been linked with a move to Aston Villa or West Brom. Stoke are also expected to come back with an improved offer for the Cole. Despite the huge debt, Allardyce has assured fans that he will still look to spend some money in the transfer market if they are forced to sell their best players. "If we sell, we will use some of that money to buy, there's no doubt about that," he said. "We have lost £40m of revenue. A lot of the finance will have to be stumped up by the owners to get us back into the Premier League."

The same media outlet claims some of that cash could be used to make an improved offer for Peterborough striker Craig Mackail-Smith. Allardyce is keen to bolster his forward line as Demba Ba has already left the club there is growing uncertainty surrounding the future of Cole. With Robbie Keane having returned to Tottenham following his loan spell last season, Allardyce knows he needs more firepower if West Ham are to bounce straight back into the Premier League. Mackail-Smith played a major role in helping Peterborough gain promotion into the Championship when he scored 35 goals last season and is keen to show he can play at a higher level. Posh director of football Barry Fry claimed earlier in the week that the club had agreed a fee with Leicester, but was expecting West Ham to come back with an improved bid.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Daniel Levy

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:51:00 +0000

Facts are the enemy of truth...

Tottenham Hotspur have decided to continue their battle over the Olympic Stadium, and have gone back to the High Court in attempt to force a judicial review of the decision to award the venue to West Ham United. Spurs are refusing to accept defeat after last week's decision by Judge Mr Justice Davis to reject their bid and that of Leyton Orient's. Backing the Olympic Park Legacy Company's decision, Judge Davis said there were no grounds for a review and dismissed Tottenham’s challenge as "more the product of ingenuity than of substance"; or the legal semantics equivalent of Todd Margaret protesting: "I didn't shit myself, I pissed myself. I just fell in some shit after I pissed myself." He subsequently warned both clubs that he hoped renewal [appeal] on all points would not be "a knee-jerk reaction and careful consideration will be given to the extent of renewal, if any." Failing to take heed, Tottenham are again challenging the legal process that gave the stadium to West Ham United, and will now have the chance to make a case in an oral hearing at the High Court. That could be held as early as next week and could potentially be heard by a different judge.

Orient chairman Barry Hearn revealed yesterday that his club would also be appealing the decision and had already lodged oral submissions. The club are concerned about the implications of having the Hammers moving closer to them, fearing the loss of support at the club. Orient's Matchroom Stadium home, which seats 9,271 supporters, lies within a mile of the Olympic site, closer to the Olympic Stadium than West Ham's Boleyn Ground. The club fear the implications of suggestions the Hammers could offer free or heavily discounted tickets when they move into their new home.

Having consulted with their solicitors, Hearn made it clear this was not a compensation claim, but an appeal made in order to protect the future of Leyton Orient. "We believe we have a strong case,” he said. "We need to make it clear we are not in favour of West Ham moving into the Olympic Stadium – it's not about compensation. We are trying to stop West Ham getting the Olympic Stadium. We made it quite clear from the beginning, the move by West Ham threatens the very existence of Leyton Orient. I suppose if every council in the country was able to loan their football club £40m we wouldn't have an objection. I believe in the medium term it will eventually put Leyton Orient out of business."

Now, their north London cohorts are following suit. A statement placed on the Spurs website this afternoon confirmed they have also applied to the High Court again to renew their challenge. It said: 'The club has today applied to the High Court to renew its application for permission to bring a claim against the London Borough of Newham and the Olympic Park Legacy Company, the Mayor of London and Government Ministers for judicial review of their decisions underlying the bid process for the conversion of the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games. Under this process the club now has the opportunity to present its case at an oral hearing at the High Court.'

Tottenham and Leyton Orient had until 4pm today to decide whether to appeal against last week’s rejection of their attempts to block West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium, writes Paul Kelso, but already attention is turning to their options if the move goes ahead. Last week the judge dismissed their request and effectively warned them to think twice before appealing. Should the West Ham decision stand, Tottenham face a major challenge to rebuild relationships strained by the judicial review process. The club’s decision to challenge the government and London mayor’s office in court has caused major friction, with Westminster insiders describing a "trust deficit" as a result of the legal process.

After Thursday's news was announced, the Olympic Park Legacy Company said: "We are pleased with the ruling and continue to make good progress in our negotiations with the preferred bidder in order to be in a position to agree the final terms for the stadium's lease." Newham Council have arranged a £40m loan to finance the move from Upton Park for West Ham, who are promising to develop a venue capable of hosting "world-class sporting events, including top-level football and athletics".

Spurs turned their attention to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, after deciding their plans for a new development at Northumberland Park - next to their existing north London White Hart Lane home - were not economically viable. Planning permission has already been granted but rising costs means the club would have to find potentially half a billion pounds to go ahead with the so-called Northumberland Development Project (NDP) - unless they manage to acquire sufficient public backing. The amount of residential property that could be built to offset the development costs has also been reduced, notes Andrew Warshaw, and Spurs will now step up talks with Haringey Council to try and strike a deal over the massive local infrastructure costs.

Tottenham’s other alternative site at Tottenham Hale would also require significant public subsidy to be viable, states Kelso, and diplomatic bridges will need to be built to achieve that. "Obviously we are taking a fresh look at things and are trying to find viability to drive the NDP, but it won't happen without public sector support," executive director Donna Cullen told insideworldfootball. Their original proposal, part of a joint bid with AEG sport and entertainment group, had been to knock down the Olympic stadium, rebuild it as a football-only venue and, by way of a commitment to athletics, redevelop the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace. Now, following the recent court judgement, their need to find an alternative strategy is even more pressing. "We never stopped looking at the NDP as an alternative option," insisted Cullen. "Of course we will have to fund a degree of it ourselves but no stadium ever happens in this country without public sector support. All we are asking for is the right balance."

Daniel Levy's need to expand is increasingly desperate as he aims to stay competitive with a stadium that holds only 36,000 fans, but Cullen insisted the club were not prepared to go heavily into the red to realise their dream of a stadium on a par with neighbours Arsenal. "We're going to go back and see what might be possible but there is only a certain level of debt the club can take on and sustain. It cannot and will not go beyond a peak level." She admitted the quest for a new ground had been made tougher by the failure to acquire a judicial review of the Olympic Stadium process. "We are not in an economic period where there is a situation of generous grants and we are obviously not asking at the best of times. However, our ask is very relevant. A stadium would absolutely affect the regeneration of an area of London that has long been ignored."

For their part, Spurs believe that they were receiving so little support from government that they had nothing to lose from the challenge. It is as if Levy has become locked in a Kafkaesque hell in which from a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. Playing Sancho sidekick to it's quixotic ally, Orient have asked the Football League to consider whether West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium should be permitted under their rules. Any ground move has to be approved by the board. They are currently appealing the Premier League’s decision to approve the move, and the Football League may wait until after an arbitration hearing in October before declaring its position.

Meanwhile, with West Ham’s move to Stratford looking increasingly likely to happen there is mounting talk in football and Olympic circles that shopping centre giant Westfield is set for an active, possibly decisive role in the club’s future. Westfield already own the shopping centre on the edge of the Olympic Park, notes Kelso, and there is speculation they could eventually add the club that will be playing a few hundred yards away to their London portfolio. The company has already been heavily involved as a partner in West Ham United's stadium bid, and are considering bidding for the contract to convert the stadium, as well as being linked with a naming rights deal.

Writing in today's Telegraph, Kelso states it has long been suspected that the Stratford move is part of a strategy by West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan to sell the club on. Given Westfield’s interests in the Olympic Park, and owner Frank Lowy’s football links – he is chairman of the Australian FA and headed its failed 2022 World Cup bid – they make logical suitors. According to the Londoner, the potential dominance of the Westfield brand in the Olympic east may well be counterbalanced by an increased presence in the former Olympic west as plans for expansion of Westfield at White City are also revealed. In this bullish spirit of expansionism, redevelopment of the site next to the complex could mean 1700 homes and a further 48,000 square metres of retail space. The plans go on display for public consultation in July.

The Circling Dog

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:23:00 +0000

This social media culture is wonderful. Twitter, for instance, brings friends closer, it's immediate, settles differences and it throws new people together. It can, writes Chris Lepkowski, be amazingly funny when people start to filter home from nights out. Yet, as the disgruntled football journalist from the Birmingham Mail points out, as far as the transfer circus and the media is concerned, they're not always the easiest of bedfellows.

He cites the example of Eiji Kawashima. The Japanese goalkeeper is a friend of his. Not in reality - but he does follow him on Twitter. Of course, this isn't the real Lierse goalkeeper, but a Twitter account set-up by someone to parody the real Kawashima, who for weeks has been telling everyone he will be joining West Brom. He was adamant that his signing was imminent. The Baggies, meanwhile, denied this when first put to them. Then they just laughed. These days it simply irritates them - especially when the real Kawashima issues an ultimatum telling the Baggies to decide whether they want him or not. Apparently, Eiji, they don't.

Such is the power of social media that a ridiculous story about Peter Odemwingie failing to agree terms with Arsenal - based on two 'friends' of his - was run by a Nigerian website. Not a usual news source, notes Lepkowski, just one which anyone of any age could set up in their bedroom and portray as a reputable provider of news. Trouble is that people get sucked in. They see the reports on NewsNow and assume it might, just might, be true. Such was the power of this report that again Albion moved to issue a statement denying it all. And who can blame them, not least when a UK-based agent is also repeating the false rumour on national radio to millions of listeners. As it happens Albion and Arsenal have had no discussions over Odemwingie, let alone got to a stage where he is quibbling over personal terms. Arsenal might yet want Odemwingie. But they've done little about it so far.

Herita Ilunga a £1.5m target for Greek champions Olympiakos? No, he isn't. Nor has he been. Julien Faubert about to move to Lazio? A club official reportedly met with the Frenchman's representative yesterday but that's as far as it goes. Which is what I told a contact in the print media this morning who emailed me asking for verification. That's not to say either story won't be true one day in the future, but for now that's guesswork. Which is where a lot of this fuels social media panic, be it on Twitter or on Facebook. A couple of websites report it in Italy and then it gets picked up and reported as news by the website branch of a national radio station.

The same has happened with the Samuel Inkoom rumour that broke a few hours ago. The Ghana rightback claims West Ham have asked about his availability, and is reported to have told MTNfootball: "Yes it's true Tottenham and West Ham and other English sides want to sign me, but at the moment I'm a player of Dnipro and will leave my agent to sort that out for me." The Dnipro defender insists he remains committed to his Ukrainian side, but in the same moment adds: "I will be going back to Ukraine and then I will decide what to do next." Whatever the truth of this story- and it has already started to be picked up by some of the major media outlets- the only thing that is clear is that the player is serving his own agenda in this instance.

Self-publicists and shop-windows, the trouble these days is that people are in such a rush to break stories that diligence no longer applies, moans Lepkowski. Nobody bothers checking with clubs to see if a story is true. They might check with an agent to see if it's true - and you can count on the fingers of one foot the number of agents you can truly trust - but even then they might not bother. Social media has not so much changed the way sports journalists work, it's shredded the rule book too. The growth of Internet and, more so, Twitter and Facebook leads to frenzied excitement and fevered panic. It's also fueled incorrect assumptions about the local beat writer's job. The implication being that many are out of the loop or manipulated because they are over reliant on getting stories from the club. That's completely wide-of-the-mark, states Lepkowski, lamenting the fact he doesn't get paid for such a relaxed lifestyle. The official websites of many, if not all, clubs churn out quotes from press conferences and interviews. Not always, but probably 90 per cent of the time, it's the journalists who drive the questions which will appear on your club's official website. Furthermore, if any journalist relied on club information as a sole source for their news then they wouldn't last 10 minutes in the job. They are simply more exposed now because others are willing to run stories without any checks.

In this climate of frenzied transfer activity - still a few day BEFORE the window officially opens - it's the local media who have to mop up the mess of others, all in the name of providing accurate news. The growth of social media, the expansion of websites who claim to carry the 'latest news' - it's immediate, people demand news. Let's not forget, says Lepkowski, that newspaper journalists are still working for print publications first and foremost. Some of them will sit on information for the sake of their newspaper deadlines - hoping that the story doesn't break elsewhere.

To get exclusives on every story would take some doing given the immediacy of news services who can report something (and then forget they ever reported it) - like the BBC did when claiming Martin O'Neill was to replace Avram Grant back in January- never to mention it again. Fast forward a few months and Sky Sports had Dave Jones installed in the same job. Never wrong for long, eh... Again, a few phone calls to the right people would have provided this answer, says Lepkowski. Again, it's about sorting out the truth from the non-truths, half-truths or the not-yet-truths.

Ultimately, all a football writer can do is run stories which he knows can be stood up, by several sources. If that means knocking down a rumour which isn't true, and he knows isn't true, then he will do so. Every day if necessary. Sometimes he can slip up, but it won't be through negligence. It's how the news business is supposed to work, when you're not in the market for 'Internet hits' or 'website traffic'. Others can fly the kites and get you excited or panicked about transfers which might or might not happen. These websites and social media networks have a place in society. And many fans love the speculation during the lull which is bandied around via various branches. But they can have a negative side too.

Take the example of Carlton Cole. The toblerone-booted striker doesn’t use Twitter any more and if you happened to come across some of the abuse which was directed towards him on the social network site, says Matt Diner, you would understand why. Accusations of laziness and not caring about the club were two of the less graphic statements directed at the 27-year-old, but while the likes of Manuel da Costa and Radoslav Kovac couldn’t wait to leave the club, Cole actually wants to stay. He understands he may have to be sold, but has no qualms about playing Championship football and helping the east Londoners get back into the top flight. Of course, this is no revelation for those truly in the know but it is still nice to have it confirmed.

West Ham were the club who gave Cole a chance, states Diner. He was never given a real opportunity to prove himself at Chelsea and after unsuccessful loan spells at Aston Villa, Charlton and Wolves it was at the Hammers who got the best out of him. There is no doubt that Cole is a confidence player and when the boss at the time Gianfranco Zola gave him that belief he repaid him. Twelve goals in the 2008-09 season and 10 the season after showed a rapid improvement from a player who had never been able to make double figures in his professional career, but it was ability in and around the penalty area which was so valuable. Super strong in the air he gave the side a focal point, while he was almost unstoppable running at goal. "Carlton is a humble boy and sometimes he’s too quiet. He just needed to realise how good he was," Zola said in September 2009. "He didn’t realise what he was capable of doing. We tried to stick with him and show him what he was doing and what he was good at, looking after him and every aspect of his game, including the mental approach. He’s realised he’s a good player and that’s made the difference."

Last season was a completely different story as Cole struggled to find any kind of form and although his power in the air could not be questioned his performances could. A lot of the blame for the Hammers’ poor scoring record was attributed to the striker, but playing him as a lone front man receiving little support was down to Avram Grant. His outburst after the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in November showed how much he cares for the club, argues Diner, while his claim that the team needed to 'change its attitude' showed his frustration at the manager’s tactics. It’s clear the Israeli failed to install the confidence in him that Zola could. Now, Sam Allardyce has a chance to do just that and if he manages to get near the production that Zola did, West Ham will not only have a player who would succeed in the Championship, but the Premier League as well.

It is clearly an opinion shared by Tony Pulis. According to this morning's Mail, Stoke City have made a £3million offer for much maligned United striker. The article states the former England forward is one of the club’s higher earners and the club are keen to offload him but want a fee closer to £7million. Besides, Cole, 27, may even struggle to pass a medical. A quick scan of Lepkowski's cultural circus reaction reveals most West Ham fans are sweating more than... well, Carlton in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The indignation of those Hammers supporters who have mercilessly harangued Cole for the last few months is equalled only by the indignation of those same fans who think the opening offer is insultingly lowball for a player of his 'ability'. Meanwhile, those Stoke City fans who had been teased into expecting a £10million move for Sunderland's Asamoah Gyan are threatening to stick their manager's cap 'where the sun don't shine'.

Of course, the line between social media and traditional print journalism gets ever more blurred when the likes of David Gold set up verified Twitter accounts and directly informs his followers he expects West Ham to announce some further signings shortly. The 74-year-old co-chairman said last night that despite no news on the transfer front since the confirmation of Kevin Nolan's arrival, hard work continues behind the scenes. "Many of you are asking about signings," he tweeted, "but please bear with us as we obviously can't reveal any details until a deal us virtually done. Negotiations for new signings are ongoing."

Since the end of last season West Ham have parted company with 13 first team squad members, with only two - Nolan and Abdoulaye Faye - coming the other way. No doubt Gold only intended to assuage the fears of those fans who have seen the squad descimated by a raft of departures; hardly surprising though that the real effect was to stoke up the already feverish speculation as to who might be arriving. By this morning, the Twitterati had convinced themselves a new signing would be announced by the end of today. Craig Mackail-Smith, it is suggested, is in discussions as I type, after West Ham and Peterborough agreed a £3million deal. I strongly advise someone do their diligence before running that particular story though.

It could also be Max Gradel, according to several of the Red Tops this morning. The club are reported to be leading the chase to sign Leeds' highly-rated rated winger. Gradel took the Championship by storm last season when he netted 18 goals and was voted the club's player of the season. The talented 23-year-old is out of contract with the Yorkshire club next summer and Leeds do not want to see him walk away as a free agent. Talksport state Sam Allardyce is looking to build a team that is good enough to bounce straight back into the top-flight and feels the Ivory Coast international would be a valuable addition to his squad. Swansea have also been strongly linked with a move for Gradel following their promotion into the Premier League, but according to the radio station, West Ham now look the favourites to clinch his signature. That may be the case, but I would think it unlikely that his signature would be imminent. As far as I know an offer has been made for the player but it was quickly rejected.

Finally, having used this platform to offer a post structural discourse on the friction between social media and the written press as it pertains to the transfer circus, by the medium of a cut and paste assimilation of an online critique of social media by a member of the written press, with the intention of circulating that discussion on said social media platforms to be reassimilated by said print journalists for further regurgitation, I'm off to find out what @jacquesderrida (he is real isn't he?) has been getting up to over in the not-so-real world before this particular circling dog finally catches its tail.

Oh and please feel free to follow me... @JLMDTrilby (beware of imitations)

Un Lion Ne Meurt Jamais

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:13:00 +0000

Sam Allardyce has confessed he still dreams of becoming England manager, writes Tom Hopkinson in today's People. The new West Ham boss even reckons that a successful debut season in the Upton Park hot-seat will put him in the frame to succeed Fabio Capello. The 56-year-old is on a two-year contract and his priority is to take the Hammers back into the Premier League. If he achieves that, thinks Hopkinson, with his England ambitions still burning brightly, then the West Ham/Allardyce partnership could prove very successful indeed.

Allardyce said: "Without any dreams or goals I would need to pack in management. It was a pretty distant dream that I might one day be considered for the England manager’s job when I started out at Limerick, but 15 years later I went very close. You have to reset your goals and your dreams, and my dream, first and foremost, is to make West Ham as successful as I possibly can – not only by getting promoted, but by establishing them in the Premier League. But if by fulfilling that dream you are brought closer to another one, then obviously that’s what you consider. In fact, it’s what you do the job for. That’s not being disloyal to any football club, it’s about always having ambition and striving to be better. If you have achieved, the club has achieved. You try to leave a club in a better position than when you acquired it and I’ve always felt that’s the one thing I have done. Winning leagues and cups is deemed the ultimate success, but when you re-invent a football club and start putting processes in place for when you’ve left, then the basis of a sustainable, successful football club is there for somebody else to take on. My job now is to re-invent West Ham in terms of stability."

Allardyce clearly still feels he has a point to prove to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, who sacked him in 2008, and to Venky’s, Blackburn’s chicken farmer owners who followed suit last season. Despite his experiences at those clubs, however, he didn’t have to give much thought to working for another set of high-profile owners in David Sullivan and David Gold. He added: "I like a challenge. This game is very challenging and I made a bad statement about 11 years ago when I said I would retire when I reached 55. This is the life I want to lead. As precarious as it might be, I have been doing it for such a long time and it is because of the feeling of winning and bringing success to a football club. There have been some decisions made that I couldn’t control and that hurt my reputation. Now I have to rebuild my reputation here at West Ham. This job is not very good for your health. It is pretty damaging but, unfortunately, it’s a bit like being addicted to cigarettes. You need the nicotine fix – and I need the fix. I need the adrenaline running through my veins on a Saturday and I need the feeling of guiding a team to victory. The only time I questioned if I’d had enough was when I had a couple of stents put in at Blackburn. I said to the cardiologist, Mr Rowlands, 'Is that enough for me?' and he said, 'Not really, you’ll be all right and you can’t do without it'. This game can be close to giving you a heart attack at times, but I’ve survived so far."

West Ham fans will be desperately hoping Allardyce survives – and succeeds – this coming season and keeps those England dreams bubbling. If he doesn't, then he can always seek sanctuary in David Gold's newly installed panic room. According to the Mirror, the terrified football tycoon has turned his home into a fortress after learning he is on the hit list of Britain’s most wanted armed robbers. The West Ham co-owner has spent £250,000 installing CCTV, a direct phone line to the police and the aforementioned panic room. Gold, 74, has been living in fear since being told by police that he was a target of the gang, who have carried out a series of violent raids on rich businessmen.

He was given the warning after a crowbar attack which almost killed Phones4u founder John Caudwell. Police believe the gang, made up of a hardcore of 20 thugs led by a 'Mr Big', research every aspect of their victims’ lives and movements before striking. Mr Gold, who is worth £360million, said his friend Mr Caudwell had spoken to him and left him in little doubt about the threat he faced. He told the Sunday Mirror: "From the information the police gave me, it was a question of when, not if, the gang would try something. When I spoke to John Caudwell he told me, 'you’ve got to take this seriously because this gang is going to kill someone'. I have been terrified."

Gold, who also owns the Ann Summers lingerie firm, has turned a suite of his 30-room Surrey mansion into panic rooms. In the event of a robbery, he will lock himself and fiancee Lesley Manning behind heavy triple-bolted steel doors. Once inside, he has a direct line to the police and can watch any raiders on a TV screen linked to more than a dozen CCTV cameras. Guards patrol the 55-acre estate 24 hours a day. Mr Gold said he improved security after a near-fatal bout of septicaemia in February. "It made me realise how vulnerable I am," he said. "I wanted to take whatever measures I could to defend myself and Lesley. I’ve done everything I can and I feel much safer now. But I’m still on red alert until this gang is caught." Police have been following up new leads on last November’s raid on Mr Caudwell’s Staffordshire home after it featured on Crimewatch. Three men from Liverpool were arrested but later released on bail.

Talking of robbery, Chris Hughton believes the Hammers have pulled off the steal of the summer in landing midfielder Kevin Nolan. Birmingham’s new chief says West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has pulled off an amazing Championship transfer coup and admitted he would have chased his old Toon captain himself if Big Sam had not snapped him up first. He said: "Kevin will be massive. He was outstanding in the Championship season and again last season. He will consistently score goals from midfield, doesn’t miss many games, and has a good influence on the dressing room."

In fact, Nolan could inspire West Ham the way Billy Bonds used to, agrees Sam Allardyce. The Hammers boss has tipped his new acquisition to bring Bonzo-style leadership to the Hammers cause next season. The manager was asked whether the club's new midfield recruit could be the one to show the drive and determination demonstrated by Bonds during his incredible Boleyn Ground career between 1967 and 1988. Allardyce said: "He is a great leader on and off the field. It is very important that we get a team spirit and unity. He could be that [Bonds style character], but I don't want to put too much pressure on him."

The manager, who helped Nolan rise to prominence during their time together at Bolton Wanderers, said he expected the 28-year-old to be "a much better player than one I last remember." He added: "He is in the prime of his career. He has chosen to pay me a really good honour. Not just that he wants to play for West Ham but that he wants to play for me again because he enjoyed his time. Hopefully we will both benefit by that."

While Nolan settles in, Scott Parker has reportedly been told he can leave for £7m as wage bill forces West Ham's hand. The Mail is running the same story it has been carrying for months; namely, the club are ready to listen to offers for the Footballer of the Year. The midfielder, 30, has been linked with Tottenham, but so far neither they nor any other Premier League club have made a positive attempt to sign the highly regarded England man.

New Upton Park boss Allardyce has still to discuss Parker's future with him, but sources close to the club have indicated that the player's wages, believed to be about £60,000 a week, would force them to let the skipper move on, especially now they have signed a ready-made replacement in Nolan. Allardyce, of course, has experienced the disappointment of losing Parker before. Despite being successful enough at previous club Newcastle to earn an England recall after a two-year absence, Parker did not enjoy on Tyneside the kind of popularity he later experienced at Upton Park and was sold by Allardyce to West Ham.

While the Parker story is the only West Ham related rumour to make the Sunday tabloids; the chattering Twitterati have been keeping themselves amused by breaking one tranfer story after another. It started this morning with news that West Ham had agreed a £2.5m fee with Leeds United for Ivory Coast winger Max Gradel (medical scheduled for Tuesday for the really ambitious ITKs). By lunchtime, there was a slew of reports that Peterborough striker Craig Makail-Smith had also agreed a £3m transfer (variously turning down Stoke City, Norwich City and/or Leicester City depending on who you happened to be following). A few hours later, came the distressing news that West Ham and Ipswich are locked in a tug-of-war over the free transfers signing of 34-year-old thug-for-hire Michael Brown. Followed by the claim this evening that an official 400k bid has been lodged for James McLean of Derry City; and tonight's story that Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen has been lined up as Rob Green's replacement.

From potential signings to a potential star already in the ranks with the news that Pablo Barrera was a stand-out performer in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final. The winger was the hero for Mexico as they triumphed with a 4-2 defeat of the United States. Barrera pulled his side back into a thrilling contest in Pasadena, California with Mexico's opening goal, having seen the US race into a two-goal lead through Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan. Mexico's equaliser came via Andres Guardado and, with the score at 2-2, Barrera then got his second - and the game's decisive goal - five minutes after the interval. Mexico never looked back from there and added a fourth via Giovani Dos Santos to claim a memorable victory.

Finally, it is 8 years ago today for the passing of Marc-Vivien Foe. God bless and RIP the most indomitable of lions.

King Of Kings

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:24:00 +0000

My name is Sam Allardycias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

...and for my next trick FC Basel will take Radoslav Kovac from this club and actually pay money for the privilege. You read that correctly. Radoslav Kovac is off to Switzerland and it's not to join Dignitas. The Sam Allardyce revolution gathered pace yesterday when the Czech Republic international, who made 13 appearances as the Hammers were relegated last season, ended his stay in east London by agreeing a deal to join the Swiss champions. Kovac, 31, leaves the Hammers after making 62 appearances since arriving initially on loan from Spartak Moscow in January 2009. He made the move permanent the following August.

With the Hammers now preparing for life in the Championship, Kovac said he wanted to embark on a fresh challenge. He had grown frustrated over the past few months at a lack of regular opportunities, having fallen down the midfield pecking order under Avram Grant. Basel claimed top spot in Switzerland last season and offered the former Czech Republic international a two-year deal as they prepare for UEFA Champions League football. Kovac could face the Hammers when Basel take on Allardyce's side in a pre-season friendly on 13th July, and is the second of West Ham's relegated Premier League squad to move on this week, after defender Manuel da Costa departed for Lokomotiv Moscow.

Curiously, Kovac hailed his days at West Ham as the best of his career; which given the ponderous ineptitude of his contribution is a sad indictment of the ability of both the man and the people who decided to sign him. The midfielder revealed his fond memories under the guidance of former boss Gianfranco Zola, but admits he and the Italian's successor Avram Grant did not see eye to eye. "The first two years were fantastic and were the best years in my career," he told isport.blesk.cz. "Those were great times under Gianfranco Zola. We had a good team and had good company. Then Grant came in and everything changed. I don't like to recall the final days and weeks but I was taking it as it was coming. Otherwise, life in London was great and my family was happy there. We learned a little bit of the language too."

Kovac also claims current boss Sam Allardyce wanted the 31-year-old to stay at Upton Park, but he found the lure of UEFA Champions League football too difficult to turn down. "Sam Allardyce came in and said he would like to co-operate with me," Kovac said. "They asked for €500,000 and Basel were willing to pay €250,000, but then they upped it and the deal was done. I felt how much they wanted to capture me. The talks with them were correct and very swift and, moreover, they are in the Champions League." Despite his affection for West Ham, Kovac was fully intent on leaving the club this summer, although he would have foreseen no problem in seeing out the final year of his contract had Basel failed to negotiate a transfer. He added: "Even though there was a managerial change, I still wanted to leave as I was not playing often. Naturally, if the deal had fallen through I would have stayed, it would not have been the end of the world." Well maybe not for you, Radoslav.

The news came on the same day that the club also parted company with first team coaches Paul Groves and David Coles. The pair arrived at the club a year ago next week as part of Avram Grant's backroom staff overhaul. Both followed Grant from Portsmouth, where they proved popular with fans and players alike. As is often the case when a new manager arrives, the exisitng staff are tarnished by their association with the previous regime. Coles, 47, is one of the country's most well-respected goalkeeping coaches and is widely regarded to have been responsible for David James' renaissance during his time at Portsmouth. 45-year-old Groves, a former Grimsby midfielder and player manager was hired by Grant in November 2009 as first team coach. He followed the Israeli to the Boleyn Ground last July.

Elsewhere, Marek Stech insists he is ready to stake his claim to become West Ham's first-choice goalkeeper next season, and in doing so seemed to indicate Rob's Green's imminent departure. The Czech Republic Under-21 international told Pravo: "Green wants to stay in the Premier League and he reportedly has an offer from Aston Villa. There are us three youngsters left for the position of No.1 and, besides that, there is also a new manager so I am optimistic. We have been relegated but the second division is more difficult than the top one. You play more fixtures, so paradoxically it is an advantage for me that we are not in the elite league as I have a better chance."

Stech could face competition from Ruud Boffin who impressed many fans after a solid debut performance against Blackburn last season. His situation is further complicated by the fact there is a clause in his contract that means the Hammers owe his former club Sparta Prague a fee once he plays five games. The 21-year-old played three Carling Cup games last term and hopes the two clubs can come to a compromise over the summer, but if not, he will push for a loan move after brief spells at Wycombe and Bournemouth in 2009. "West Ham are in talks with Sparta and the clause is still valid," he said. "It is a big amount of money and I am not allowed to be specific about it. I hope everything gets resolved before the start of the new season. I would not like to leave West Ham as I love the club, but I need to be a regular starter. I may have to go on loan somewhere. It would be difficult for me now to change clubs (permanently). After the Euro U21s, goalkeepers of my age will be in demand and they have been regulars. I am not a first-choice goalkeeper and that makes it a lot more difficult for me. I would then probably choose to go on loan in England. I want to start the new season as number one, no matter where that would be. I need to gain experience. If I'm playing once in 10 games it gives me nothing new. You lose self-belief, talent and confidence if you're not a regular."

Stech had been hoping to feature against Manchester United in the Carling Cup quarter-finals only to discover the Hammers' hierarchy wanted him to sit it out, but the young keeper is eager to put that behind him, even refusing to have an extra week off after the Euro U21s. "Green didn't do well in the World Cup and he wasn't overly confident after returning from that tournament," he said. "The third goalkeeper got injured too so I was in a good position. I was doing quite well in the reserves and putting pressure on Green in training sessions. My chance was coming closer but I simply couldn't play. I was fired up for that one (Manchester United) but then the club president came and told me that they would not pay Sparta," Stech added. "I didn't know there had been any clause whatsoever, I was shocked about that. I felt sorry about how West Ham acted in that issue, but it is gone now. There is still plenty of motivation left and it is no problem to stay and fight for a regular spot. England is the best place for football - packed stadiums and unbelievable fans. I will not throw in the towel!"

Similarly, defender Winston Reid has pleaded with Sam Allardyce to allow him to remain with the club next season. The 22-year-old is keen to stay at Upton Park, despite suffering relegation with the club last season, following a £3million move from Midtjylland. Reid, a New Zealand international, signed for the Hammers after impressing during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The new West Ham boss is understood to be keen on shipping the player out of the club or sending him out on loan. However, Reid told the Daily Mirror: "I want to stay. We have a job to do getting West Ham back into the Premier League. I have not spoken to the new manager but I don't think I will be loaned out or sold." The player failed to cement a regular first-team place and only made three appearances under Avram Grant after suffering a literal pain in the arse injury early on last season. He scored his only goal of the campaign in the club's 5-1 FA Cup victory over Burnley in the fifth round.

According to today's Sun, the club have already opened talks on a new deal for Jack Collison. Boss Allardyce met the highly-rated midfielder on his return from holiday this week and assured him he has a big future at Upton Park. Collison, 22, has two years on his contract but is one of the lowest paid at the club on around £5,000 a week. The paper reports the Hammers are likely to offer him a new four-year deal and double his wages, despite suffering relegation. Allardyce wants Collison to form the midfield backbone with new skipper-elect Kevin Nolan. The West Ham board plan to offer big bonuses and pay rises for a promotion in 2012, with Nolan in line for £500,000. Defender Jon Spector is also thinking over a new contract offer.

On the rumour front, West Ham have reportedly made a late bid to snatch Tranmere Rovers’ Dale Jennings from the clutches of Bayern Munich, according to the Mail. Sam Allardyce has signalled the offer after negotiations stalled between the Bundesliga side and the League One team over prospective add-ons. The 18-year-old former Liverpool trainee was all set for to fly out to Munich this weekend once the finer details were ironed out but West Ham have moved to trump the Germans with a £1.8million bid and will pay more cash up front. The paper claims the move has swayed cash-strapped Tranmere and they are now leaning towards accepting the Hammers' package. They already rejected a £600,000 offer for Jennings in January but realise it is a signing that can bring them a decent return. He has only made 29 league appearances but is seen as one of the best young talents outside the Premier League. Interestingly, football journalists in Germany have given Bayern's interest in the player little or no credence at all.

Other less substantiated whispers suggest a bid of around £750k has been placed with Southend United for 18-year-old midfielder Kane Ferdinand, which the Shrimpers are now considering; that discussions have been opened with Leeds United over wantaway winger Max Gradel; and that the club continue to monitor Peterborough United duo Joe Lewis and Craig Mackail-Smith. Also on the radar is free agent Jay Bothroyd. West Ham and Celtic are the two clubs thought to be closest to securing the signature of the former Cardiff striker. He held talks with the Scottish club this week but is yet to finalise any deal, leaving the door open for United. The little birds suggest Bothroyd would prefer to move to London. Lastly, the club are said to maintain a passing interest in defender Anthony Gardner, who spent last season on loan at Selhurst Park and is now a free agent following the expiry of his contract at Hull City. It was reported earlier this month that West Ham are ready to pounce for the player after a move to Birmingham City fell through following Alex McLeish's departure as manager.

Back to the courts, where Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient have effectively been warned by a High Court judge not to appeal against his rejection of their attempts to block West Ham United’s proposed move to the Olympic Stadium. Writing in this morning's Telegraph, Paul Kelso states an emphatic judgment by Mr Justice Davis dismissed their various challenges as lacking substance, and advised against a “knee-jerk” appeal. He also ordered both clubs to pay the legal costs incurred by Newham Council and the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which combined could approach six figures. The clubs had sought judicial appeal of the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s decision to select West Ham as the preferred bidder for the stadium, and of Newham’s proposed £40million loan to fund the conversion of the arena. Four challenges, two from each club, were rebuffed, though a fifth application by Orient against the Government is yet to be decided.

Dismissing Tottenham’s challenge as "more the product of legal ingenuity than of substance", Mr Justice Davis warned both clubs: "I would hope renewal [appeal] on all points is not a knee-jerk reaction and careful consideration will be given to the extent of renewal, if any." Tottenham and Orient now have until 4pm next Wednesday to appeal and will consider their options over the weekend.

In an unusual move, the judge included a proposed date for an oral hearing in the first full week of July, which would represent an extremely quick turnaround for cases of this complexity. It has led sources at the clubs to question if the case is being rushed through to satisfy a desire to conclude negotiations over West Ham’s lease as quickly as possible, and therefore allow London to bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championships. Deadlines for bids to the IAAF, athletics' governing body, close at the end of August.

The oral appeal could be heard by a different judge and both clubs believe they have grounds to dispute the ruling, writes Kelso; particularly with reference to state aid rules, but the strength of Mr Justice Davis’s findings will render any challenge a high-risk move. The judge was dismissive of many of Tottenham's arguments in their challenges to Newham, which he treated as the lead case of those before him. At different stages in the four-page judgment, he describes their arguments as "puzzling" and "unarguable", and declares himself "not overly impressed" by the case they level. He is equally sceptical of Tottenham’s challenge to the OPLC, describing one of their grounds as no more than "a quibble", another as "legalistic and of no actual substance".

Tottenham argued that Newham’s decision to agree a £40million loan to West Ham as part of a joint venture breached European Commission law banning state aid. The judge said he was "puzzled by the claim" and said the various points raised by Tottenham were "unarguable in the present claim". Spurs’ argument that the council acted beyond its powers in making the loan was also rejected. "I do not think this point arguable," he writes. He also dismissed Tottenham’s argument that the Newham was "irrational" and discriminated against Spurs by not offering them a loan as well as West Ham, and thus passed up the chance to have two Premier League clubs in the borough. "I simply do not understand the… suggestions that Newham’s approach was inherently discriminatory,” he said. In conclusion he stated: "Ultimately I have taken the view that the grounds advanced are more the product of legal ingenuity than of substance."

Finally, Sam Allardyce has been speaking about the "great thrill" of getting down to work at West Ham United after his first week in east London. The manager took time time out to speak to West Ham TV about the task in hand, with a week to go until the first-team squad report back to Chadwell Heath. "It is a great thrill to be here," he said. "Even in an empty Upton Park it gives me a thrill and gets me back in the mood again. I have been out of work for six months or so and I have missed the old adrenalin rush."

Allardyce said the club had already begun to take a hold over him, and he claimed the potential support was such that the club could have high aspirations. "The club is steeped in such history and tradition. It is the only club I would have dropped down for. It has got the fanbase to achieve something special. With the right guidance, right direction and right support in all departments, I hope we can give them that."

The hard work has obviously already begun and, after the weekend, Allardyce and his new assistant manager Neil McDonald will be stepping up the preparations at the training ground in readiness for the players' return. "As difficult as a job it is going to be from an early stages point of view, of finding out what everyone does and sorting it out, I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get through the work we need to get through as quickly as possible in how we need to change, change the mentality and how we need to drive the club forward at the first time of asking as quickly as possible. Come the kick off to the new season, we won't have done it all by then, but hopefully we will have done enough to start winning right from day one."

Allardyce said he is eager to ensure a return to the West Ham way of good football that is also winning football - and used an example of two former greats of the game that would not settle for anything less. "I used to play against Sir Trevor Brooking and Bobby Moore. I was fortunate enough to be on the same field as them. They were coming towards the latter stage of their career when I was just starting and it was a great honour to play against them."

My name is Sam Allardycias, King of Kings... and for my next trick, Olympiakos, you will be buying a decrepit Congolese malingerer but remember only his form from two years ago.

Hotspurned And Disoriented

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:45:00 +0000

West Ham have moved a stage closer to occupying the Olympic Stadium after a high court judge rejected applications from Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient to challenge the decision to select West Ham as the preferred bidder for the stadium after the 2012 Games. Hotspurned and Disoriented were both seeking judicial review of the OPLC’s decision taken in February and the Government’s endorsement of their recommendation, as well as that of the Mayor, and also Newham Council’s decision to agree a potential £40m loan to fund conversion of the stadium in a joint venture with West Ham. They also believed that the process by which the loan to the joint venture company that will operate the stadium on behalf of West Ham and the Olympic borough was unfair.

Mr Justice Davis rejected four separate applications for permission to seek judicial review of those decisions at a hearing at the high court. A fifth application lodged by Orient against the Government is yet to be considered by the judge. He is understood to have written to all interested parties yesterday afternoon informing of the reasons for his decisions. However, reports the Guardian, the long-running and bitterly fought saga over the long-term future of the stadium is not over, with both clubs expected to consider further legal steps. Tottenham and Orient have the right to appeal against the decision to reject their applications and can request an oral hearing to make their case.

Had they been successful there would have been a full trial of the decision-making process, but Thursday’s decision potentially clears the way for negotiations between the OPLC and West Ham over the stadium lease to resume. The Olympic Park Legacy Company welcomed the decision, with OPLC chairwoman, Margaret Ford, stating the decision over the future of the £486m stadium was taken in the proper manner. "The court has decided to refuse both Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient permission to pursue a judicial review challenge in relation to Legacy Company’s decision to select a preferred bidder for the Olympic Stadium," said a spokesman. "We are pleased with the ruling and continue to make good progress in our negotiations with the Preferred Bidder in order to be in a position to agree the final terms for the Stadium’s lease."

West Ham hope to move in for the start of the 2014-15 season, after spending £95m converting the 80,000-seat Olympic venue into a 60,000-seat football stadium. Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chairwoman who oversaw the club's bid, welcomed the judge's decision. "We hope we can now focus all our energy and passion on delivering a fantastic multi-use Olympic Stadium for the whole nation," she said. "We were honoured to be unanimously chosen as preferred bidder by the OPLC. Their decision, after a robust and diligent process, was subsequently backed by the Mayor of London and government. Our vision – in partnership with the London Borough of Newham – remains for a globally recognised destination for all, with community at its core, capable of hosting world-class sporting events, including top-level football and athletics."

Newham council, which has faced criticism from Spurs and Orient over its decision to partner with West Ham and inject a £40m loan, also welcomed the verdict. "We are continuing to focus on securing a lasting legacy for the stadium and, together with West Ham United, are progressing well with the OPLC on bringing the matter to a commercial and financial close," it said.

Spurs had proposed to dismantle the stadium and remove the track, while West Ham promised to retain the athletics facilities but faces questions over whether it will be viable as a multi-use venue. After losing out to West Ham, Spurs were left considering whether to reactivate plans to redevelop White Hart Lane or find a new site in Haringay or beyond. A statement from Tottenham read: "The club now has the option of renewing its application at an oral hearing at the high court and we shall give consideration to this in the next few days. As previously reported, the club continues to hold discussions with both local and national government bodies in order to seek to determine a feasible stadium solution."

Barry Hearn, chairman of Leyton Orient, has argued that West Ham's cut-price ticket offers in the new Olympic Stadium will decimate Orient's support base. They will now meet lawyers to decide whether they'll respond to a rejection for a review of the Olympic Stadium call. A club statement on Orient's official website read: "Further to the decision by the High Court to deny Leyton Orient leave to review the decisions by OPLC and London Borough of Newham, the club will be seeking advice from its solicitors as to whether it will seek an oral hearing in respect of either or both decisions. The club continues with its Judicial Review against the Government and arbitration over the Premier League's decision to allow West Ham United to move to the Olympic Stadium without taking into consideration the adverse effect on Leyton Orient. The club will be making no further comment on the matter at the moment."

The Art Of Reinvention

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Sam Allardyce is often mocked as a manager with ideas above his station, writes Paul Doyle in this morning's Guardian, so it perhaps surprised his detractors when he agreed to descend to the Championship to take charge of West Ham. True, he was unemployed until the relegated east London club came calling, but for a man who was once interviewed for the England job and who last year suggested he could win doubles with Real Madrid or Internazionale every season, if only they were savvy enough to look beyond his reputation and hire him, there must have been a temptation to wait for an offer from a better-placed club.

Allardyce says that belief in his own abilities and reassurances from the owners convinced him that he can put himself and West Ham back to where he believes they belong. He has been given a two-year contract and says he expects the club to be challenging for a position in Europe by the time that expires. "I've taken a risk by losing my Premier League status, which I'd built up over 10 years," he said. "I don't want to spend too long in the Championship. Without sounding too arrogant, my experience and expertise as a manager is trying to bring clubs together and get a team spirit and togetherness, to get back into the Premier League at the first time of asking."

If not, then certainly before moving to the Olympic Stadium in 2014. Then it is a question of challenging for honours and qualifying for Europe. You have to admire the self-belief of a man, notes Jon West in the Independent, who established Bolton as top-flight perennials but was subsequently hired and fired by Newcastle and then Blackburn. Especially as the Hammers flirted with disaster under Gianfranco Zola two seasons ago before embracing it whole-heartedly with Avram Grant last term. "It's a difficult task but it can be achieved and at a club the size of West Ham it needs to be done as quickly as possible," he admitted. "The team must be back in the Premier League when it moves into the Olympic Stadium. My ultimate goal is to be in the top half of the Premier League searching for European places or cup finals as I did with Bolton, although that is a long time off."

Allardyce's employers, David Gold and David Sullivan, plus the vice-chairman Karren Brady, often made life difficult for his predecessors by publicly criticising the team, but Allardyce says the backing of Sullivan in particular was one of the main reasons he took the job. "They're going to be no worse and no better than any owners I've worked with before," he insisted. "And I don't have a problem with Karren Brady having a column in The Sun. I spoke with David Sullivan at length about what we wanted to do and how we needed to do it. I believe the owners will give me the support I need to help the club be successful."

They have already demonstrated their backing by forking out £4m to reunite Allardyce with Kevin Nolan, the midfielder who worked with him at Bolton and Newcastle, and also by giving a contract to Abdoulaye Faye, the former Stoke City defender who has also worked with Allardyce before. Those arrivals go some way to offsetting the loss of Mathew Upson, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Demba Ba, plus the raft of players signed on loan last season. "They've supported me on the financial side by purchasing Kevin and giving Abdoulaye Faye a contract to come here," Allardyce stated. "I was impressed with the way they went about getting Nolan. There was no messing about. I mentioned it might be worth trying to sign him and two weeks later he was here. Every relegated club needs a kick-start and make sure we are not out of the Premier League for long as that could be a catastrophic disaster."

Allardyce hopes to persuade Scott Parker, Carlton Cole and Rob Green to stay but admits that given the cost of relegation, they may be sold if suitable offers are received. His first demand is no-nonsense, straight-talking from West Ham's England trio. Allardyce needs decisions quickly from his top stars and wants them to look him in the eye and say whether they still want to be with the Hammers. "In the middle of all the mayhem going on here, I need Scotty, Greeny and Cole to be honest with me," he said. "All the speculation is around those three - but we haven't had concrete bids for any of them yet. I don't want to talk to them on the phone. I want them to look me in the eye and tell me what they want to do. They might walk out of the office and say they don't really fancy working for me because I've got a northern accent. If that's the case, we'll sell them. But we can only do that if someone bids for them. But they're not going to be pinched. There's no fire sale at West Ham."

The newly-appointed Upton Park boss still faces losing up to 15 of the players who led the club to relegation, according to the Sun. "Other than that there is no rush to sell anyone else," Allardyce said. "We will probably look at moving some of the players on because their desire is to play in the Premier League. From a financial point of view, it suits us to lose that financial commitment because the drastic loss in revenue is what we all have to face at West Ham. It certainly suits the owners, who've got to really back up with their own money to help us try to get back in the Premier League. We will try and get as good a squad as we can. There's some very good players at the club. If we all want to work together and go in the right direction, we can give it our best shot and hopefully that will be enough next season."

If Parker goes, he said, Nolan is likely to be captain. "He's already guided Newcastle back to the Premier League and I see Kevin as not only a great player on the field, but a great captain off it," Allardyce added. "When you've got Joey Barton almost crying on the TV because he's left [Newcastle] it shows you the respect that he's gained and what a character we're getting in Kevin. He guided Newcastle back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, he was their top scorer last season and he looks after all the players and drives them on. He's not going to come telling tales to me. He sorts out the stuff I do not need to know about and creates the team spirit we'll need if we're going to get promoted. Kevin is the first to let you know if something isn't right and he clearly felt he'd been let down by Newcastle. That allowed us to move in and sign him."

Allardyce wants personnel turnover to be "minimal" because "it's very difficult to change around a club that has been relegated but even more so if you lose 50% of your players because that means you have to bring another 10 or 12 in and you've got a bunch of strangers that you have to mould into a team." Although he has yet to speak to any senior players at the club he admits there was still much to be done. "Before we all get together I've got an awful lot to sort out in terms of pre-season training, staffing, relocation for myself, so I'm going to try and do that before the players get back and then speak to them on an individual and group basis," he said.

Of paramount importance is the need to "reinvent" West Ham and dispel "the negative attitude" that has engulfed the club; to end the perception of the club being a 'soft touch'. West Ham's new manager insisted that no team under his control would throw away a 2-0 lead away from home to lose 3-2, as happened at Wigan to relegate the Hammers to the Championship. Talking about that fateful end-of-season defeat, Allardyce said: "Put it this way, if we are two-nil up away from home, under me I don't think we will lose. If the players understand how you need to change your tactics within a game of football then they will not lose that game again. I think that is their game intelligence, and really they should have said that to themselves on the pitch irrespective of what the manager said."

The Dudley-born Allardyce also revealed the tactics he employed as a visiting manager when his teams went to Upton Park. "When I was a player I always wanted to come and play at Upton Park," he added. "The legacy always impressed me as a young man - Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst and then players like Trevor Brooking and Billy Bonds. It was a pleasure and a privilege to play against players like that although I wouldn't say I enjoyed it too much because we didn't win too many. As a manager coming back to Upton Park, the plan was always to stop the way West Ham wanted to play - the West Ham 'way'. That used to frustrate the fans and the players and then we were able to take advantage of that. Some of the West Ham players didn't seem capable of handling the pressure that we put on them, they weren't able to do what they wanted. Now, I have got to get rid of the hangover which relegation brings and reinvent this football club," he said. "Too often they have had fleeting moments of grandeur and a lot of depression."

Allardyce appears aware that this is also a chance to reinvent himself and to banish what he insists is groundless negativity towards him. He naturally rejects the depiction of his arrival at Upton Park as a culture clash. In fact, writes Jeremy Wilson, it took just five minutes for the tone of Sam Allardyce to shift from sunny optimism to outright indignation.

West Ham United's reputation for a certain style of flowing football had been politely referenced and Allardyce duly seized the opportunity to defend himself. "When did West Ham play the West Ham way?" he said. "It can’t be the West Ham way if you get relegated, and the club’s been up and down like a yo-yo. The West Ham way is about winning football matches and the enjoyment of winning. If the West Ham fans are happy with what they see, they'll come back in their thousands singing and shouting the players' names. I’m in the game to play winning football and entertain the public, and that’s what I do. I have to instill a bit of discipline, magic and creativity to drive West Ham through a very difficult season. Everywhere I’ve been I entertain the public, irrespective of the perception from the media that Sam Allardyce plays long ball. It is only a perception but most of football is run on perception today."

Harsh sackings at Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers have clearly not dented Allardyce’s self-confidence and he also bristled at the suggestion that his speciality had been keeping unfashionable clubs in the Premier League. "I'm only remembered at Newcastle for one [angry] fan jumping up in one game, which TV keeps showing, but in the first 10 games I was the best thing since sliced bread because we had the best start in 10 years. At Blackburn we increased the average attendance by 4,500. Entertainment comes through what your fans tell you. And at Bolton only two of my seven years were about survival so I shouldn't be tagged as a 'survival manager'. I'm a productive manager who breeds success. I've got a vast array of skills and I'll put them to work here and hopefully at the end of the year we'll all be blowing bubbles."

With that, even the England job was not dismissed. "If I get West Ham up and then into the top half of the table in the first season, then you lads will be saying Sam might have a chance for the England job. My ultimate goal is to be in the top half of the Premier League and searching for cup finals, European places. That, though, is a long way off. My only aim at the moment is promotion for West Ham out of this division as quickly as possible. If I don’t do that, then I don’t expect to be here."

Da Costacutters

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:58:00 +0000

Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient face a crucial week in oppostion to West Ham's Olympic Stadium move, writes Paul Kelso in this morning's Telegraph. The clubs will discover within days whether their challenge to United's tenancy of the Olympic Stadium has been successful after a High Court judge spent the early part of this week considering their case. Mr Justice Davis will rule on whether to grant permission for a judicial review of the decision to declare West Ham the preferred bidder after considering four separate applications from Tottenham and Orient.

The clubs are challenging the decision of the Olympic Park Legacy Company to select West Ham, the Government and London mayor Boris Johnson for endorsing that decision, and Newham Council's decision to agree to lend £40 million to a joint venture with West Ham that will convert and run the stadium. If successful, reports Kelso, Tottenham and Orient will be granted a full trial at which their challenge will be heard, which is likely to be no earlier than October. Both have already won the first round of their challenge after the judged rejected an attempt by the Government and the mayor to skip the first phase of the judicial review and proceed straight to a substantive hearing in the autumn. Tottenham and Orient objected, arguing that the judge should decide whether to grant permission for the challenge before hearing the substance of the case. That process began on Monday when Mr Justice Davis began studying several hundred pages of documents submitted by the various parties.

The legal challenges follow the acrimonious bidding war between Tottenham and West Ham that culminated in February with the Hammers being selected as preferred bidder. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, desperate to develop a new stadium to keep pace with their Premier League rivals, believes he was encouraged to enter the Stratford bid, only to be used to drive a better deal out of West Ham. Orient, meanwhile, believe that West Ham's move to within a mile of Brisbane Road will have a huge impact on attendances and the club's commercial prospects. Orient are also challenging the Premier League's decision to approve West Ham's potential move to Stratford. An arbitration hearing will be held in the autumn.

The clubs' submissions, copies of which have been seen by Kelso, reveal that Tottenham and Orient are challenging both the process and the substance of the OPLC's decision, and Newham's financial support for West Ham which they say breaches European laws on state aid. The submissions also reveal that one of the OPLC's grounds for rejecting Tottenham's bid was that their plans to renovate Crystal Palace as an alternative to retaining the athletics track was "inadequate and under-funded" and "does not provide a long-term sustainable athletics legacy". Spurs reject this argument, insisting that they provided a £500 million guarantee to underwrite their bid and the Crystal Palace scheme.

The role of Newham in providing a £40 million loan to West Ham is at the heart of the challenge from Tottenham and Orient, while the legal process is understood to have exposed tensions between the OPLC and the council over the key issue. Without the Newham loan, West Ham cannot afford to take on the stadium, but Tottenham and Orient argue that it is an inappropriate use of public money and was made unlawfully. Given this, they argue that West Ham's bid, which relies on council funding, is not financially secure and should not have been approved.

Tottenham argue that the Newham loan breaches EC laws banning state aid for private companies; that the council acted beyond its powers by entering into the deal with West Ham; and finally that Newham should have considered offering similar terms to them as they would then potentially have benefited from having two Premier League clubs in the borough. Newham's defence is technical but crucial. The council argues that in fact it has not agreed to make the loan, but simply agreed that its chief executive could make the loan in future, if a suitable deal can be agreed with West Ham over terms and conditions.

Tottenham argue that this admission proves that the OPLC should not have approved West Ham, as without the Newham money the bid cannot satisfy the key criteria that any tenant has "committed, secure and agreed" funding. Newham's claim that the loan has not been agreed is understood to have greatly concerned the OPLC, which based its decision to award West Ham the stadium on the fact that the funding was in place. The council and West Ham are understood to have signed numerous documents to that effect.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the OPLC was so concerned that it has written to Newham demanding clarification of the status of the loan. The council is thought to have responded that the loan will be available to West Ham, but Tottenham and Orient will claim that that admission negates the council's defence on other points. Describing the OPLC decision as "irrational, discriminatory and unfair", Tottenham accuse them of displaying bias towards West Ham in the bidding process and of secretly changing the rules by which the preferred bidder would be chosen. Tottenham argue that in key areas they were not given vital information about how the decision-making process would be made, particularly in relation to the five criteria on which the final call was based. The OPLC set out the criteria at the start of the process, stating that they were listed in order of importance, with the financial certainty of bidders rated the most important.

Spurs say that "without warning" the OPLC changed the rules during the final bidding, judging the criteria with equal weight. This, they say, worked against them as West Ham should have failed the financial test, and the areas they were "perceived as failing" – reopening the stadium rapidly and flexible usage – were third and fifth on the list. They cite a letter from Johnson as evidence of the confusion, even among OPLC stakeholders. Explaining his decision to back West Ham, Johnson initially said the objectives "were listed in order of importance". In a subsequent letter however he has admitted that this was "a mistake and obviously so".

Away from the legal proceedings and West Ham have reportedly offloaded Portuguese defender Manuel da Costa to Lokomotiv Moscow for £1.3million. The Mail state the 25-year-old, who had one year left on his deal at Upton Park, has signed a four-year contract with the Russian club. Da Costa joined West Ham on a three-year contract in August 2009 from Italian side Fiorentina, as part of the deal that saw Savio Nsereko move in the other direction. He has been capped 22 times by Portugal at under-20, under 21 and under-23 level.

The French-born defender started his career at AS Nancy and has also played for PSV Eindhoven and Sampdoria. He missed three months of last season with a foot injury and was said to be keen to move on after starting just 14 Barclays Premier League matches as the Hammers got relegated last season. "It would have been a step backwards to stay at West Ham, where I didn't always get in the team," he said. "Going to Lokomotiv is a chance to improve my game. Many famous players have come to play in the Russian championship, where teams like CSKA, Zenit and Lokomotiv are the top three clubs. Alexei Smertin (the Lokomotiv sporting director) told me of the club's ambitions, that Lokomotiv have serious intentions and intend to fight for the Russian title. I want to play in a good team and win. This is what prompted me to sign the contract."

Interestingly, Da Costa is due to stand trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in a couple of months after pleading not guilty to sexual assault over an incident last October. The player has already admitted common assault on the female clubber after a row broke out at Faces Nightclub in Ilford. He was subsequently remanded on conditional bail to stand trial on September 12. He was also ordered not to enter Faces and not to contact the complainant. Da Costa is also yet to answer for his crimes perpetrated in the name of ball distribution, positional sense and defensive concentration; in all areas of which he has proved himslf to be a hopeless and futile recidivist.

Elewhere, the same paper insists West Ham continue to monitor Peterborough goalkeeper Joe Lewis; although some in the club's hierachy remain to be convinced about the 6ft 6ins stopper. The player has been on the radar of Premier League clubs for some time and some of the wealthier clubs in the Championship. He has developed a decent reputation and earned international recognition with England U21s and director of football Barry Fry has often been signing his praises with rumours of big clubs circling.

West Ham have repeatedly been linked but it is thought they have reservations about the 23-year-old following a few scouting reports from last season. Instead, claims the Mail, they are more likely to persevere with Robert Green if he is willing to stay and hope to develop a better defence under Sam Allardyce’s stewardship. That said, Premier League clubs are thought to be interested in Green. Aston Villa, West Brom, Newcastle and Manchester City all need goalkeepers of varying degrees as they look for either number ones or understudies yet Green will at least want to ensure he plays every week and that may keep him at Upton Park.

Talking of Peterborough, Talksport believe West Ham are ready to make a move for highly rated Craig Mackail-Smith. The striker, 27, has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, but as yet has failed to reach an agreement over a lucrative move into the top flight. Hammers boss Sam Allardyce has already seen Demba Ba leave the club and is looking for a quality striker to spearhead their attack as they look to bounce straight back into the Premier League.

Mackail-Smith scored 35 goals to help Peterborough gain promotion last season, but is keen to showcase his talents at a higher level and could be tempted by a move to Upton Park. The radio station states West Ham have already shown they mean business by signing Newcastle captain Kevin Nolan and Stoke defender Abdoulaye Faye and now hope Mackail-Smith will become their third major signing of the summer. Peterborough's director of football Barry Fry admits West Ham have enquired about his availability but have yet to make a firm offer. "West Ham did ask me what we wanted for Craig," said Fry. "They have not made a bid as yet, but they are having a serious go at getting back into the Premier League straight away."

Other reports today suggest Bolton midfielder Matt Taylor could be on his way to Upton Park. The versatile 29-year-old can also play at left back and is said to be 'in talks' with the Hammers over a permanent switch, according to Setanta. Taylor began his career at Luton back in 1999 and moved to Portsmouth three years later in a £750,000 switch. After 178 appearances in six years at Fratton Park he joined Bolton, having lost his place at Portsmouth to Niko Kranjcar.

Gary Megson paid around £4million to take Taylor to the Reebok Stadium during the 2008 winter transfer window. During his first full season Taylor scored ten goals from 34 league games, then eight from 37 the following season. Last season he appeared in 36 of Bolton's 38 league fixtures. Should he sign for West Ham, Taylor would be the third former Bolton player to arrive at the club since Sam Allardyce was unveiled as the new manger.

Of the players already here, Skysports understands Jack Collison's representatives have entered discussions with West Ham over a new deal for their client. The talented midfielder is a player the club are eager to keep at Upton Park as they look to win an immediate return to the top flight. With Scott Parker seemingly to depart over the summer as Tottenham continue to be strongly linked, it will be left to the likes of Collison to help lead a promotion push. The Wales international is still under contract at West Ham but the club's management are looking to tie him to a long-term deal. Talks are set to continue over the summer as both parties look to thrash out fresh terms for a player highly-rated in the East End.

West Ham are also reportedly hopeful that young forward Zavon Hines will sign a new deal with the club. Hines, 22, is currently a free agent after rejecting the first offer of a new contract at the end of the season. Sullivan said at the time the player wanted 'silly money' and the fans would all be shocked if he told us the figures involved. Yet Allardyce is thought to be keen on keeping the England Under-21striker at Upton Park and hopes he can persuade him to change his mind. The new manager wants Hines to see how the club is heading in the right direction following their relegation into the Championship, and remains hopeful that Hines will pledge his long-term future to the club before the start of the season.

Accidental Exposure

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:26:00 +0000

Only at West Ham United could the much heralded launch of the the new home and away kit- complete with countdown clock scheduled for 9.30 tomorrow morning- be scuppered by an enterprising Hammers fan who had the genius insight to type '2011/12 kit' into the search engine on the new online site. I mean seriously, doesn't every e-commerce package have a fail-safe time and date release mechanism that should make this kind of slip impossible? I can't decide whether the skull-crushing incompetence that permeates virtually every department at Claret & Blue Towers actually makes me love the club even more or a just little bit less. Oh wait, the fact we can't actually get the shirt until a month after its 'official' release just made my mind up.

The Damned Ignited

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:11:00 +0000

Up this corridor. Round this corner. Down the next corridor. The next corner. Kevin Keen at my heels. To the office. The empty desk. The empty chair. Avram's office. Avram's desk. Avram's chair. Four walls with no windows and one door, these four walls between which he etched his schemes and his dreams, his hopes and fears. In his black books. His secret dossiers. His enemy lists- Avram didn't trust people. Didn't like people. He dwelled on people. Hated people. This the office. The desk. The chair. The massage table. In which he schemed and in which he dreamed, with his hopes and with his fears. In his books. His dossiers. His lists. To exorcise the doubts. The codes and the road maps. To obsession. To madness. To here.

Karren Brady puts her head round the door. No knock-
'Any chance of a cup of tea, love?' I ask her.
Mrs Brady says, 'The chairmen are waiting for you upstairs.'
'For me?' I ask. 'Why?'
'For the board meeting.'
I take off my jacket. I take out my handkerchief. I place it on the seat of the chair. His chair. I sit down in the chair behind the desk. His desk. I put my feet up on the desk- His chair. His desk. His office. His vice-chairman-
'They are waiting for you,' says Mrs Brady again.
'Let them wait,' I tell her. 'Now how about that cup of tea, duck?'
Mrs Brady just stands and stares at the soles of my shoes.
I knock on the desk. Avram's desk. I ask, 'Whose is this desk, love?'
'It's yours now,' whispers Mrs Brady.
'Whose was this desk?'
'Mr Grant's.'
'I want it burnt then.'
'Pardon?' exclaims Mrs Brady.
'I want this desk burnt,' I tell her again. 'The chairs and all. The massage table. Especially the massage table. The whole bloody lot.'
'But...'
'Whose vice-chairman are you, duck?'
'Yours now, Mr Allardyce.'
'Whose vice-chairman were you?'
Mrs Brady bites her nails and stems her tears, inside her column for the newspaper already penned, just waiting to be typed up and sent.
'Change the locks as well,' I tell her as she leaves, Kevin Keen with his eyes on the floor and his hands in his pockets. 'Don't want the ghost of troubled Avram popping in now, do we? Rattling his chains, scaring everyone.'

There's a knock on the office door. Kevin looks up from his pens-
'Who is it?' I shout.
'It's me, Boss,' says Neil McDonald. 'I got it.'
I get up from that bloody chair. From behind that fucking desk. Neil comes in, brown parcel in his hands. He passes it to me.
'There you go.'
'What about the petrol?' I ask him.
'It's in the boot of the car.'
'Good man,' I say and unwrap the brown paper parcel- I unwrap the parcel and I take out the axe- 'Stand well back,' I tell them. 'Look out, Kevin!'
And I swing that axe down into that desk, his desk, Avram's desk... I swing it down and then up, up and then back down again- Into his desk and his chair. Into his photos and his files... Again and again and again. Then I stop and I stand in the centre of what's left of that office, panting and sweating like a big fat black fucking dog. Mrs Brady gone. Neil McDonald and Kevin Keen flat against the wall. I'm a dynamite-dealer, waiting to blow the place to Kingdom Cum...

Then Neil and Kevin help me gather up all the pieces of the desk and chair and massage table, all the photos and the files, all the bloody dossiers and every fucking thing in that office, and we take it all outside and pile it up in the corner of the car park, and then I go to the boot of Neil's car and take out the Castrol and pour it all over the pile, then I light a cigarette and take a couple of drags before I throw it on the pile and watch it burn-
To Kingdom Cum...
Burn. Burn. Burn.

Sam Allardyce officially began work as West Ham United manager today. With apologies to David Peace, the above is a fictional account based on that single fact.

Diamonds Aren't Forever

noreply@blogger.com (Trilby) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:23:00 +0000

Below is an article by Mark Segal concerning Joe Cole's frustrating descent to bit-part player...

"When you’re older, you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren you were at Upton
Park the day Joe Cole signed his first professional contract."
West Ham PA
announcer, 1998

"Lionel Messi can do some amazing things but, anything
he can do, Joe can do as well, if not better."
Steven Gerrard, August 2010

Still regarded by many as the most gifted player England has produced since Paul Gascoigne, hype is something Joe Cole has had to live with for a very long time.

This is the man parts of England’s World Cup squad almost went to war with Fabio Capello over last summer, and someone who can look in his trophy cabinet and see at least three Premier League and two FA Cup winners medals gleaming back at him, along with more than 50 England caps.

But while this time last year, Cole was seen as the saviour of England’s dismal World Cup campaign, this summer he is contemplating a backward step. A move away from one of England’s biggest clubs and into the second, or maybe even third, tier of Premier League sides.

So how has it come to this and what does it say about the development of English football that a player so gifted, and not yet even 30, is now being ignored and marginalised by some of the game’s top managers?

Cole has grown up as a footballer directly in the public eye perhaps a result of having the neither shy nor retiring Harry Redknapp as his first manager.

Even when Cole was a young teenager, he was talked up by Redknapp, who would let it be known Sir Alex Ferguson was a big admirer and willing to offer big money or big names to take the Islington-born youngster to Old Trafford.

Not that Cole needed any hyping from his manager. He was clearly a special talent from a very young age and he and Michael Carrick were the star turns in a West Ham youth side that thrashed Coventry 9-0 over two legs in the 1999 Youth Cup final.

But while Carrick was built by the Hammers academy as a latter-day Trevor Brooking, all controlled passing and midfield authority, Cole was quite different.

He had flicks and tricks but with a purpose. He would drop a shoulder and take players on, play incisive one-twos and create chances. He would also score goals. Cole didn’t have enough power to shoot from the edge of the box, but that would come with age.

By January 1999, he was ready for his West Ham debut in an FA Cup tie against Swansea and, at the end of that month, Redknapp took great delight in showing off his prize possession during West Ham’s trip to Manchester United.

Cole’s progression was rapid and he was soon a regular fixture in the West Ham side. Redknapp’s preferred tactics of attacking the opposition suited his play and he quickly became a fan favourite.

But while adored in East London, to many others Cole was seen as a luxury player and one who couldn’t be trusted.

This was a view reinforced in March 2002, when Cole, now an established international, gave the ball away in a dangerous area to allow Vincenzo Montella to score for Italy in a game England lost 2-1. Cole went on to play a minimal role in that summer’s World Cup.

To those who watched him every week at Upton Park, the luxury label was unfair, but it stuck. I was in an England press box when a journalist kept shouting “give us another trick, Joe” as Cole and the rest of the side struggled.

His final season at West Ham should have proved the doubters wrong once and for all. Despite big names around him, such as Paolo Di Canio, Fredi Kanoute and David James, Cole was named captain and worked tirelessly to try to keep the struggling Hammers up.

There was nothing luxurious about the way he battled away in central midfield in a relegation fight the Hammers ultimately lost. And with the drop came Cole’s departure to Chelsea. He was clearly too good for the Championship

Free from the shackles of a relegation dogfight, and surrounded by quality players, Cole was the right age and in the right environment to flourish.

His Stamford Bridge career began under Claudio Ranieri, who appeared a good fit for Cole’s natural talent. But lack of silverware led to the Italian’s removal and, while the incoming José Mourinho proved good for Chelsea, he proved a disaster for Cole and England.

Mourinho is a control freak. Granted, a hugely successful one, but a control freak none the less. Despite sitting on the touchline, he likes to be in control on the pitch and that means having players who follow his instructions to the letter.

He appears to distrust players who think for themselves and are unpredictable. At Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo is perhaps the first Mourinho player granted a free rein. But, rewarded with more than 50 goals last season, the coach can afford to make an exception. Cole, by contrast, was denied a free pass.

While Mourinho will point to the success Cole enjoyed under him at Stamford Bridge, he stripped the flair from the player and built him into a bog-standard wide midfielder.

For an easy comparison, look at pictures of the wiry, fleet-footed Cole who broke into the West Ham team with the bulked-up sturdy version who eventually left Chelsea in 2010. Of course, over the years Cole was bound to grow but, under Mourinho, his physicality changed and it affected his game.

Mourinho’s desire to play 4-3-3 also meant Cole was marginalised on the left-wing. While the likes of Frank Lampard, Claude Makélelé and Michael Essien would patrol the centre, Cole was directed to attack and defend along a narrow strip of the pitch, making sure he was always on hand to aid Ashley Cole should the opposition attack.

Defend first, then think about attacking a methodology completely at odds with how Cole should have been used.

While Cole was picking up trophies with the Blues, the fact he was having his natural flair coached out of him failed to register with the media and fans. Where it was clearly noticeable was with England, where supporters could not rely on Roman Abramovich’s millions to buy star players for them.

By rights, Cole should have been a sensation in an England shirt. His ability to open up tight defences would have been a huge asset at international level, but he was never entrusted entirely with the responsibility in a similar vein to creative gems Glenn Hoddle and Matthew Le Tissier before him.

Virtually unused at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, Cole, along with the rest of England’s “Golden Generation”, was due to come of age in Germany in 2006. Sadly, it wasnt to be.

With a stunning volley against Sweden, he was arguably England’s best player in the group stages. But as the tournament progressed, Cole’s influence diminished and his World Cup came to a disappointing end when he was substituted minutes after Wayne Rooney was sent off in the quarter-final against Portugal.

Four years later in South Africa, Cole was once again a peripheral figure in coach Capello’s plans. After opening draws against the United States and Algeria, there was a national outcry for him to be included in the vital game against Slovenia. Chelsea team-mate John Terry went so far as to call for his inclusion in a press conference, a move that clearly challenged Capello’s authority.

But sadly, by then, the Joe Cole who fans, the media and team-mates were demanding had long gone.

The tricky midfield dynamo with a dozen tricks up his sleeve, the player who would move spectators slightly closer to the edge of their seats when he received the ball, was no longer there. By 2010, Cole was just another in a long line of so-so left-sided midfielders who would do a job, but would not be expected to change the game.

Capello clearly understood what Cole had become and refused to bend to the will of media, keeping Cole on the bench until 20 minutes from time. He performed a similar role in the second-round defeat to Germany, to date Cole’s last England appearance.

Cole’s brief performances in South Africa came as an unattached player after Chelsea had refused to meet new contract demands and let his existing deal expire.

By the end of his time at Stamford Bridge, Cole was far from a regular. Injuries hampered his attempts to impress Carlo Ancelotti but, even when fit, the Italian chose to put his trust in the likes of Florent Malouda.

Despite brief interest from Redknapp, now at Tottenham, and rumours of a homecoming to West Ham, Cole decided his future lay with Liverpool.

The signing was portrayed as a great coup for new boss Roy Hodgson and with the likes of Reds captain Gerrard comparing him favourably to Lionel Messi, Cole was clearly rated by his team-mates.

But his first, and possibly only, season at Anfield proved a disaster. Sent off in his first game and then struck down by injury, by the time Cole was ready to resume, Liverpool were a club in crisis.

He rarely featured under new boss Kenny Dalglish and, with the rebuilding signs up around the Liverpool squad this summer, it looks as though Cole could be sacrificed.

He only turns 30 this November, but it seems Cole’s career has peaked and it’s only downhill from here. He has been linked with yet another reunion with Redknapp, but if that doesn’t come off, then Fulham or Queens Park Rangers are also mooted as possible destinations.

No offence to the two West London clubs but, by this stage of his career, Cole should be a regular feature in a title-winning side built around him.

So what went wrong?

Well, Mourinho must shoulder some blame for changing Cole as a player. During seven years at Chelsea, he went from midfield maverick to steady left-winger – a description which clearly doesn’t shout progress.

But Cole must also take some blame. Maybe he was never as good as we all thought. Maybe the excitement that caused the Upton Park PA announcer to talk so highly about him all those years ago was just hype.

Cole was clearly a class apart against players his own age but. when it came to the Premier League, maybe he didn’t have the tools to stand out on a consistent basis.

Perhaps the failure to marry the tactical discipline required by Mourinho with Cole’s natural creativity is more the fault of player than manager.

Or maybe it’s something different. Maybe there is just no room for the flair player in English football today.

Manchester United won the title last season with a functional side, while despite Roman Abramovich’s desire to see Chelsea play exciting, attacking football, they are still most comfortable in the tactical straightjacket imposed in Mourinho’s day.

Even Arsenal, the standard bearers for the type of passing football Cole would revel in, do not have a standout player. Cesc Fabregas and Jack Wilshere are clearly the best of the bunch, but are they exciting to watch? Is there a hush in the crowd or a rumbling of excitement when they get the ball?

Perhaps the only modern player comparable to what Cole could have been is Messi. Nurtured by Barcelona, and able to marry attacking verve with tactical responsibility, he has made his small size a virtue and is rightly seen as the best player in the world.

Could the young Joe Cole have developed into an English version of the great Argentinian? Possibly, possibly not. Sadly, we will never find out.