It’s not often I say something nice about the Daily Mirror, but today will be an exception. Read this piece by Ian Wilwood….

Sheffield United have a double standard for West Ham and Iain Hume
By Ian Winwood 28/11/2008

Sheffield United were unusually blasé this week following the FA’s decision not to take any further action regarding defender Chris Morgan’s elbow smash to the head of Barnsley striker Iain Hume earlier this month. Speaking on BBC Radio Sheffield, Blades assistant manager Sam Ellis said his club now consider the matter “closed.”

Actually, make that almost closed, because Ellis couldn’t resist one final parting shot. “We didn’t think there was anything more [to the incident],” he continued. “We think people have made a little bit more out of it than they should have.” Oh really, do you?

It’s a fact of football journalism that interviewers don’t ask those being interviewed to expand on their answers, so we don’t know who Ellis thinks these “people” actually are. But let’s try and have a guess.
Could Mr Ellis be talking about Iain Hume himself? Leaving aside the question of intent, the facts of the incident are as follows: Chris Morgan planted his feet on the ground and swung his elbow into the Barnsley player’s head with enough force to fracture his opponent’s skull, leaving a scar the size of a breakfast bagel.

It’s probably safe to assume that Iain Hume did not undergo this life-threatening misfortune so he could get himself on the telly. Is it, then, the FA who have made more of this matter than they should? No it’s not, because the FA have done nothing at all. Chris Morgan was awarded a yellow card for his foul (rather than a three month prison sentence) and that’s how it’s going to stay. The Football Association would consider further punishment were the ‘circumstances’ more ‘exceptional’, but everyone knows that in the Championship fractured skulls are as common as throw-ins.

So it must be that Sheffield United are referring to Barnsley Football Club as the people who have made too much of the unpleasantness at Oakwell. It is, after all, Barnsley who are threatening to bring a civil action against Morgan and his club. United obviously think this is all wrong, and that the FA’s ruling should be a final end to the matter.

This, by the way, is the same Sheffield United who refused the official ruling on the West Ham saga, and are using their own lawyers to try and grab £30 million. The double standard at work here is both hilarious and pitiful. If Sheffield United can have their day in court, then why can’t Barnsley? If an official ruling is the end of the matter in one thing, then why not in everything?

Why not? Because Sheffield United’s talk of fairness only applies when it’s fair to them, that’s why. Anything else gets the elbow.

Just a few days after Carlton Cole signed a new 5 year contract, Freddie Sears has followed suit and done exactly the same. Good man.

Sheffield United have succeeded in the High Court in their attempt to prevent West Ham taking their case to the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne. The BBC has the full story HERE.

Very worrying development, which can only hasten the sale of the club.

Received from a reader…

I am not sure if this is correct but are tickets for sports events, such as football matches, subject to VAT at the normal rate? If so, is there a way of checking if the prices of tickets for sports events are reduced from Monday following the announcement by the Chancellor. For example if West Ham are selling tickets for a forthcoming home game at £35, will the be reduced by 87p?

Perhaps you can look into this and invite examples to your blog. If prices aren’t reduced, it would blow a massive hole in the Chancellor’s announcement.

Without going into the politics of this, the cut in VAT will have absolutely no effect on ticket prices at football matches, except to give the club a small extra profit margin. If a ticket is sold for a game this Saturday for £45, the VAT on that is £6.70. For a game next Monday the same ticket of £45 would have a VAT component of £5.87. So the club makes an extra 83p profit for every ticket sold after 1 December. They may well, as a gesture, reduce ticket prices for the odd game so as not to be seen as profiteering. But in essence, they are only obliged to give the government 15% of whatever the same price is of what they are selling. They are not obligated to reduce prices by 2.5% from 1 December.

Can there be any doubt about the identity of the Man of the Match? Step forward James Collins. An immense performance, especially in the second half. OK, he was lucky not to have given away a penalty/been sent off, but other than that he (or rather his head) had a superb game. I can’t remember the last time I saw a central defender head the ball so often.

Make no mistake, this was a great performance by West Ham. In the first half we played some neat football but in the second half we were under relentless attack, but managed to thwart every wave. Indeed, I can’t actually remember Sunderland making Rob Green make a difficult save, apart from a header on 85 minutes. Green looked safe the whole game, and a second clean sheet in a row will do his confidence the world of good.

In defence Upson and Collins reigned supreme, while Neill was fairly solid. He retained possession more often than usual, while Ilunga on the other side was tough in the tackle, imposing in the air and positive on the ground.

The makeshift midfield did well, with Parker performing the holding role well. Behrami was all over the place (in a good way!) as usual, while Bowyer was busy on the left. Faubert didn’t really get into the game until the second half and didn’t really ever threaten in attack. Psrker was named Sky man of the match.

Up front neither player really performed at their best. Cole struggled with his first touch and didn’t really hold the ball up, while Bellamy’s only chance was the one on one which he then passed to Behrami who blasted over from two yards.

We deserved this win.

Green 8
Upson 8
Collins 9
Ilunga 7
Neil 6
Bowyer 6
Behrami 7
Parker 8
Faubert 6
Cole 6
Bellamy 6

It’s good news that Kieron Dyer is back in training. We could do with him on the right hand side at the moment. He won’t, of course, be involved against Sunderland.

We’re now only two above the relegation zone, but a win against Sunderland will only lift us to 13th. Diego Tristan is included in the squad for the first time but will start from the bench. The main question is whether Zola will persist with the 4-3-3 formation and start with a front line of Cole-Sears-Bellamy. Cole, it appears, will sign a new 4 year contract next week, and according to the Sunday Mirror is targeting an England callup.

I would expect the team to remain broadly the same as against Portsmouth. Ilunga’s injury wasn’t too serious and he is expected to retain his place at left back, although it would be interesting to see Walter Lopez get a run out. I saw him against Watford, as as the game went on, he became our best player.

Midfield is the only area where changes may be made. Personally, I’d play Etherington, Parker and Behrami, with Sears floating around the right hand side.

Come on you Irons!

PS You may have noticed that the Links have disappeared. I was trying to edit them, and the whole thing got deleted. Now I can’t seem to reinstate it. Doh!

Congratulations to Matthew Upson for his goal and performance against Germany. And wasn’t it nice to see Craig Bellamy bag a great goal for Wales? One on Sunday at Sunderland would be nice too!

All the papers have been full of speculation in the last couple of days about the future ownership of West Ham. The Holding Company, Hansa, has gone into administration, which has no direct effect on the day to day operation of the club, but is a very worrying development, nonetheless. It shows why two of the directors felt the need to resign recently for personal liability reasons.

Everything points to the fact that the club will, sooner or later, be sold. The longer it takes, the more desperate the board will be, and buyers clearly know this So they will take their time. The price is said to be £150 million, not far off twice the sum the Icelanders paid only two years ago. In a normal market, this would not be an unreasonable price, but we are not in normal circumstances. The papers have been remarkably free of speculation about the identity of potential buyers. You can interpret this in one of two ways. Either it is a good sign of a leakproof sale process. Or that there are no buyers’ names to leak.

I have no idea which is true.

BBC Sports Editor Mihir Bose reports that West Ham are ditching plans to move to the Parcelforce site or buy the Olympic Stadium and are now more likely to redevelop the East Stand and fill in the two remaining corners. He says that will bring capacity up to 50,000. I am not sure that is right. My understanding is that 42,000 would be the maximum capacity. Many will welcome these plans, if they turn out to be true, and in the present financial climate it would be a brave board indeed who made a commitment to move elsewhere. It was indicative that there were only 32,000 in the ground last Saturday for a fixture than in previous years was a sellout. Whether this is a reflection on the team’s current fortunes or a sign of the coming economic recession is difficult to say, although my betting is on the latter.

And a quick word of congratulations to Scott Parker for his England callup.

David Davies was a BBC journalist who in 1994 jumped ship to work for the Football Association, first as spokesman, then as Executive Director. His memoirs are a fascinating account of his twelve years working at the top level of the FA, and they reveal a shambolic organisation barely fit to run a whelk stall. Any attempt at change or innovation would be routinely resistant by the blazered brigades who run the FA more for their own convenience rather than the good of the sport. His vivid descriptions of the various personalities we have come to know through newspaper stories confirms many of the prejudices those who love the sport may have already harboured. Graham Kelly, Adam Crozier, Sir Bert Millichip, Geoff Thompson – they all feature heavily, as one might expect.

Davies’s love of the game shines through the pages, and this devotion to the sport always seems to triumph over his frustrations with the immovable objects which he felt prevented him from doing his job. He’s like the fan who gets to spend time with his sporting heroes, but that may be why he was so good at his job. He was the fans’ voice within the FA, and that was partly what many of his colleagues came to resent.

He speaks highly of Terry Venables and clearly tried to persuade the FA to keep him on after Euro 96. Sadly he was not successful. How things might have been different for the national team if he had won the day. His portrait of Sven Goran Ericksson is one of the delights of the book, littered with some hilarious anecdotes.

If you’re interested in sport administration you will enjoy this book. It’s one of the best football books I have read, and I read a lot of them. I interviewed David Davies on 18 Doughty Street 18 months ago and asked him whether he would be putting pen to paper. He said he hadn’t decided and seemed rather reluctant to. I urged him to do so and and delighted he did. I’m sure he has few regrets.

Buy it HERE.

UPDATE: See my 30 minute interview with David Davies recorded in 2007 HERE.

Let’s start off the the plus points. The main one was that for the first time in February – in 25 games, I think – we kept a clean sheet. And to be honest we never really looked under great threat. Defoe had a couple of opportunities but apart from that, we were fairly safe.

The second plus was the performance of Valon Behrami, especially in the first half where he was buzzing around everywhere, tackling everything that moved. He was hacked to the ground late in the first half and wasn’t quite the same afterwards, but it was the best I have seen him play.

Rob Green made two outstanding saves, and with the watching Fabio Capello there, I thought he did himself no harm at all. But is it just me, or do you feel slightly more nervous watching him than you used to? I have to say I thought David James was outstanding, apart from one of his typical flaps which nearly resulted in a goal. Needless to say, the referee gave a foul even though no West Ham player was anywhere near him. That was one of many decisions the referee got wrong, including not giving us a cast iron penalty in the third minute.

Defensively we looked relatively comfortable unless Defoe or their number 39 Belhadj had the ball. Belhadj was man of the match. I have rarely seen a quicker player. Needless to say, he ran rings round Lucas Neill who hardly contributed anything over the 90 minutes. He ambled around in the first half, doing his usual thing of misplacing passes down the touchline. When he moved to the left after Ilunga was substituted he seemed better, funnily enough.

Collins had a great first half, and Upson was solid. Ilunga had a quietish game until he was taken off in the second half, for what I can only assume was because of a knock.

The 4-3-3 formation saw Collison, Parker and Behrami in midfield. Parker was playing much more deeply than usual, but did very well. He was subbed with 20 minutes to go as he was clearly running on low. Collison didn’t really get into the game. He didn’t do badly, but clearly didn’t give the kind of performance he gave against Everton and Man U.

Up front we rarely posed a threat. The final ball was always slightly astray. The only real chance was a 20 yard free kick from Bellamy which hit the bar. Bellamy improved as the game went on, but didn’t really threaten. Freddie Sears was bright and buzzed around well. I couldn’t quite understand why he was subbed at half time in preference to Bellamy, but when Etherington came on and we reverted to 4-4-2 things did improve. Indeed Etherington was very lively indeed and staked a very strong claim for a starting place next week against Sunderland.

But we then come to the shambles that was Carlton Cole. This was his worst performance for a very long time. He failed to hold the ball up, direct any headers he won and didn’t have a single shot, bar a couple of miscued efforts. It really was an abysmal performance from the big man.

So overall, disappointing not to get more than a point, but if I am honest a draw was a fair reflection of the balance of play. We didn’t play badly, but we didn’t play well.

Green 7
Neill 5
Ilunga 6
Collins 8
Upson 7
Behrami 8
Collison 6
Parker 7
Etherington 7
Cole 4
Bellamy 5
Sears 6