Comments on: Chelsea Afterthoughts: Proud to be a Hammer

By: new york

new york — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:01:18 +0000

fair comment vdm, that the red card keane got vs. birminghham was harsh. having said that , it seems so often to be the case that keane is at the center of controversy . the previous week it was against us. Keane seems to have a moan at the referee in many matches ,and this over time may be working against him. Referees may be tiring of his frequent complaining , and rightly or wrongly, this cud be starting to be reflected in decisions involving him.

By: new york

new york — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:15:22 +0000

reference the comment on zamora, curbishley has admitted that bellamy is still far from a return to fitness. adds to the case for holding on to zamora

By: vdm

vdm — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:11:32 +0000

To be fair and it goads me to say it Keane was a bit unlucky – when you look at Mikkel, Diouf and Hunt ‘s tackle a few weeks ago there’s no comparison

By: new york

new york — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:49:17 +0000

spot on , academy

By: The Academy

The Academy — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:11:32 +0000

Good performance and one to give us hope.
I have to say that I am continually disappointed by professional footballers. Firstly, John Terry. I feel ashamed of England with this man as our national captain. A good centre half (not great) who seems to have elevated himself to a position of immortality. Nearly every week he screams at referees from a foot away, swears at them because someone tackles him. This week took it to the brink as grabbing a player by the throat, for whatever reason is unnacceptable. How can we stand by this behaviour.
As a rugby player I would love to takcle him on the field of play. The great players, really great ones would not have behaved in this manner. I say rid him of the captaincy of his country. Between him and Robbie Keane I have seen two of the worst scenes by national football icons. A disgrace.

By: new york

new york — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:45:05 +0000

logical that as we get closer to the transfer window ,the rumor mill is building. if we cud receive reasonable money for davenport,quashie and pantsil ,perhaps it makes sense to sell those players, or failing that ,loan them. if they are unlikely to see action even as subs, it makes no sense to be obliged to keep paying their wages. the one which does surprise me, and seems to be picking up steam in the press, is zamora.

for a start ,we would need a minimum of 4 capable strikers even under normal circumstances. but these are anything but normal circumstances. our 2 best strikers are not fully fit, with one of them, bellamy potentially out for a bit longer. so it does not seem to be sensible to get rid of zamora ,given these injuries ,and ceratinly not before we acquire another striker. this does not even take into account the issue of whether one rates him as a striker or not, which appears to be a somewhat controversial topic.
i m favorably biased towards zamora because he s a local lad who loves the club and because his work rate is excellent. but i m realistic to acknowledge that his performance at the start of this season was not satisfactory. it s a difficult call, because in his time at west ham , in every season he has scored goals and contributed meaningfully to the team, but in every season he has also had a bad patch.

on balance , i d prefer zamora to camara, for teh reasons mentioned earlier, and because i think he s a slightly better player. but given the notable improvement of carlton,zamora will clearly be well down the pecking order if and when he gets fit.
complicating it further is that perhaps curbishley feels comfortable using boa morte as a striker on an “emergency basis.” Not to mention ,he may feel he cud use Ljungberg up front in an emergency as well. Not to mention ,what happens if Dyer s recovery gets him back sooner than we had imagined? So,all of the sudden come february ,or march ,we cud be much more “fully staffed” with respect to strikers ,especially if we manage to buy 1 in the window. hence the potential expendability of zamora.

i d like to see zamora be given another chance before the window ,if he recovers in time . in a sense ,i think it wud ashame to let him go based just on his indifferent start to this campaign. but one when looks at the evidence starting to accumulate,the media may not be exaggerating when they play up the odds of zamora departing.

in terms of bring a striker in, obviously bringing in a top player is not going to be easy ,even if we re prepared to spend, as january is never ideal for this. i do wonder if darius vassel might be available ,and if so ,wud he be worth a shot? i know he s taken stick for not really delivering when he was in the england side ,but ericsson still uses him and i think the guy can score and create chances for others as well. of course he s not a bellamy or an ashton, but i think he d add more value than camara, and much as i hate to admit it, might add more than zamora. and i don t think he d cost a fortune either.

By: new york

new york — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:19:55 +0000

i agree on darren fletcher- if we cud get him i think it wud be a great acquisition. he s going to struggle to get a chance to play at man utd ,so perhaps a move wud suit all parties.

well stated nr2iron,re that obnoxious west london post banging on about the so-called trophies won in that part of town.

agree with vdm-these upcoming matches are against clubs we re capable of catching.
below newcastle you have a group of 9 clubs potentially fighting the drop. above us you have 9 clubs all with a shot at europe in form or another.

By: Hammers Betting Boy

Hammers Betting Boy — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:06:24 +0000

Saw a comment further up about the green laser on Drogba, there was actually a clip that they played on Sky Sports that showed it. I suppose he had a right to complain but that takes nothing away from the fact that he is a moaning git!

Did anyone else see him after the match with the Man of the Match award? He said that he should not have had it and that the West Ham players deserved it. It was a total change of personality”

I agree with some other views and think Gabs was MOM on Saturday. Was worried before the game but he coped with Drogba better than most others have in the Premiership.

When I saw Collins at Old Trafford on the last game of the season, he was brilliant. A ManUre fan even said to me after the game “who was that ginger kid at the back!?” He has hardly featured this season, Curbs seems to be preferring Gabs. I’d like to see him given a game when there are injuries, though after the game at Stamford Bridge I can have no complaints.

Plaistow45, it’s interesting about Fletcher. Personally, I don’t rate the guy though I haven’t really seen him play. I’m not sure we particularly need him either, as I would be happy with Noble and Parker in the middle (I thought Scott was brilliant against Chelsea). And as for right wingers, I think we already have enough of them.

Stephen Carr is the latest rumour I’ve heard – another Newcastle reject! Cover for Neill probably, so wouldn’t want to pay more than a couple of million for him.

By: West_Ham

West_Ham — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:06:28 +0000

Well said Plaistow54. I had that very same thought about Terry when i watched the highlights.

Everyone has a real sense of us being on the up and will gradually progress over the next few years into competing in Europe and, dare I say, the Champion’s League!!

I realise a link has already been posted for highlights but more can be found here:

http://lizard.blogdns.com/

By: Plaistow54

Plaistow54 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:14:55 +0000

Yeah Ian, i reckon Chelsea were happy to get away with that one. Of all the ex hamsters around Cole is the one i still like a bit. He was our captain & went regretfully. At the start of the season i was like many others & was saying i would be happy with consolidation & survival but wouldn’t it be great if we could get into a UEFA spot. That was the dream. Well, if you look at it we have been averaging a point & a half a game apart from a couple of late slip ups. That would give us 57 to 60 points at seasons end if we can continue to win home games & work on the aways. If you look at past seasons tables on ESPN Soccernet that would give us 6th maybe 5th spot & UEFA. With the way things are going & players coming back that is still a real possibility. Who would have thought it with a third of the season gone. If you think that we are going to win the League next year you could be disappointed but if you think that we are going to win it in five years you could be right. People forget that football now is as much a business as it is a game. Curbs may be a traditional type, some say boring, manager but he is an astute businessman & exactly what we need to rebuild. I’m glad we didn’t pay 18 mill for Bent. We don’t need to pay fees like that. There are plenty of good players around for 5 to 10 mill who won’t break the bank & take us down to Div.3. Case in point, a rumour that Curbs has or is going to approach Fergie for Darren Fletcher who is struggling to get first team football because of Hargreaves. He is a fine player once touted as the next Beckham. For 5 or 6 mill or on loan would be a great addition to an attacking side. Any way you look at it, we are on the up. I could be wrong, i nearly made a mistake once, but based on what i read, see & the laws of probability, i think i’m right.