Here’s the team playing Beijing Guoan, starting at 11am UK time.

Green, Spector, Tomkins, Gabbidon, Ilunga, Dyer, Noble, Parker, Collison, Jimenez, Cole. Subs: Kurucz, Stech, Spence, N’Gala, Upson, Collins, Faubert, Payne, Stanislas, Savio, Hines.

Let’s hope we get a better performance than on Wednesday! It’s great to see Danny Gabbidon back.

In a game of duplicity and dishonesty Bobby Robson stood out like a beacon. He was a true gentleman and one of the few people in football of whom no one could say a bad word. His achievements at Ipswich Town were legendary, and although he was attacked for his record as England manager, few football fans will ever forget the achievements of his team in 1990. The England v Germany semi final was a game that most of us will always list in our top five most memorable games of all time. I was an insurance reporter for Lloyd’s List, covering a brokers conference in Nottingham. I remember sitting in a room with about 800 insurance brokers watching the game, and when Gazza broke down in tears so did we. Bobby Robson was about the only person to keep his cool.

His fight against cancer lasted a very long time. He couldn’t quite believe he survived for as long as he did.

It really is true to say there will never be another Bobby Robson. He was a giant among footballing men.

All the West Ham sites are full of Zola’s comments this morning about signing Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli. He’s basically told him he is West Ham’s number 1 target. All well and good. By all accounts he is quite a player, and we’d be lucky to have him. But at 18 years old, and by all accounts a bit of a tricky personality, is he really what we need now? Shouldn’t we be trying for an out and out goalscorer. Admittedly his record for Inter is not bad – 11 in 33 appearances, but can we really be considering £8 million for a player who has only played 33 times?

Sorry to sound downbeat, and I really don’t mean to. Normally I would be really excited about signing a prospect like this – but that is all he is, a prospect. As is Savio, as is Nouble.

If we are able to get Balotelli and a proven goalscorer too, I’d be very happy, but I hope it is not one and not the other.

Well that was a load of old kack, wasn’t it? But let’s get it into perspective. It was our first proper game of the pre season warm up yet we restricted them to 1-0. Remember, Spurs have played several competitive games before arriving in China. Our first real game, against Werder Bremen, was postponed.

It looks as if Boa Morte will be out for six months with a cruciate ligament tear. You’ve got to feel sorry for him. He was apparently going to be a first eleven starter at the beginning of the season, ahead of Kieron Dyer.

Rob Green made a number of good saves, although the goal was a howler on his part. The only other performances worth noting were those of Noble and Faubert, both of whom showed real commitment and some nice touches.

And that’s all that’s worth saying about this game to be honest! For those who are writing us off after this game, all I can say is get some perspective. It showed how light we are up front, but we knew that anyway.

We have a strong lineup against Spurs this morning in Beijing.

Green
Ilunga
Faubert
Upson
Collins
Dyer
Stanislas
Collison
Boa Morte
Cole
Jimenez

Two years ago I went to Rwanda to make a series of three short films about the country as it is today, more than a decade after the genocide. This week a group of 100 Conservative Party volunteers have gone back for the third year in a row to undertake a series of social action projects.

What the hell has this got to do with West Ham, I hear you ask? Well, one of the volunteers is Man U supporting Conservative MP Alistair Burt, who is running a football training project for Rwandan kids. He has written about his experience HERE.

But it was this paragraph in his article which I wanted to draw your attention to…

When I asked clubs for help with the project, West Ham sent me a dozen shirts. I then had a call to say that their staff had had a close look at a picture I had sent them of children playing football in a village, and realised that they were not playing with a ball at all. They were so moved that they sent me 100 footballs, and, after a whip round, £1286 as well.

Every time I hand out one of those 100 footballs I will know that through football, Project Umubano is delivering for now, and for the future, just a little bit of the love, and the game, that binds the world a little closer together and I will be proud I am here.

Makes you proud to be a Hammer, doesn’t it?

If you’d like to see one of my films about the Rwandan Genocide, here it is…

Watch Documentary: The Rwandan Genocide in News  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

UPDATE: One or two people have asked me to post details of the other two films I made. For Life in Rwanda click HERE. For a film explaining the work of Project Umubano click HERE.

* The Sunday Mirror reports that West Ham may sign Bristol City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Adriano Basso, 34, after he failed to agree a new contract.

* Several papers speculate on a £15 million bid for Matthew Upson from Manchester City (if they fail to land John Terry) or Tottenham.

* News of the World is linking Julian Faubert with Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke.

* Eidur Gudjohnsen is playing hard to get according to Eat Sleep Sport.

* Several papers/sites report that Dean Ashton will sign for Stoke this week for £5 million.

No exactly an exciting day for West Ham transfer gossip, I readily admit!

How bizarre is this. I have a blog exclusive on my political blog announcing that the Labour MP for Thurrock, Andrew MacKinlay, is quitting Parliament. And now I can reveal that a new player called Andrea is making his debut for West Ham in their game at Thurrock tonight – and that is none other than Gianfranco Zola’s seventeen year old son. Let’s hope he enjoys his game!

Nigel Quashie and Calum Davenport are also playing and Frank Nouble, the new signing from Chelsea, is also making his debut. This is the lineup…

West Ham United: Peter Loveday, Tony Brookes, Calum Davenport, Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson, Matthew Fry, Cristian Montano, Nick Barrett, Nigel Quashie, Andrea Zola, Sebastian Huke, Frank Nouble
Subs: Deniz Mehmet, Callum McNaughton, Simone Bezzicheri, Eoin Wearen, Ahmed Abdulla

UPDATE: We won 3-2. Nouble scored in the last minute. Full match report HERE.

This is a new gizmo, called a Phlog. Ugly word, eh? Anyway, it allows me to phone through a podcast and then to upload it within a minute. I won’t be using it to replace normal, traditional blogging, but from time to time I might do this. What do you think? How would you like me to use this facility, if at all?

The Dean Ashton spin machine has been cranked up a gear in the last 24 hours. According to both the Standard and the Mirror he has been “left out” of the club’s pre season tour to Austria and will be “frozen out” of the club’s forthcoming trip to China.

Rubbish. His agent is doing him no favours by talking to newspapers in these terms.

Zola wanted Ashton on the trip to Austria even if he couldn’t play, as he regarded it as an important bonding session for the players. The club also wants him to go to China on Sunday. Any suggestion that he has been frozen out is ludicrous.

But if the club were losing patience with Ashton it would be entirely understandable. According to Rob Shepherd on TalkSport this morning, the player has shunned the club’s treatment regime, preferring to take advice from his own medical team.

The reappearance of an ankle injury doesn’t seem to have put off Stoke City though, although they will no doubt be using it hack down the price. Ashton has made it clear to various people that he wants out, yet no one seems to know why. The club has stuck by him through thick and thin, has payed him £65k a week to sit on a treatment table and yet he seems to think that loyalty is a one way street.

I know for a fact that Zola very much saw him as part of his plans. But he’s never seen him play and has never had him available for selection. It would not therefore be surprising if Zola treated his departure with a massive shrug of the shoulders.

I never thought I would see the day when I would say that I wanted to see the back of Dean Ashton. He’s one of the few natural goalscorers the club has had over the last few years. But he’s costing us upwards of £3 million a year in wages. If a player doesn’t want to play for the club we should sell him – but not at any price. Stoke must be made to pay the going rate for a player with the kind of goalscoring record Ashton has.

And now onto Lucas Neill. His agent says his player will make the decision within the next 48 hours. I’d say: too late. The club has offered him terms, and from what I understand that same offer is still on the table and hasn’t been improved. If Neill was going to accept it, he should have done so at the beginning of the month. he didn’t. He cannot now expect to waltz into pre season training half way through and resume his captaincy of the club. That role has now passed to Matthew Upson and must stay with him.

We have five players who can play at right back in Gabbidon (who has done well in Austria), Spector, Behrami, Faubert and Spence.

The club is concentrating on getting in at least one striker rather than looking at defenders. Gudjohnsen, Bojan and Mancini are all still distinct possibilities, with Gudjohnsen the favourite to sign first.

The next week should be quite an exciting one, with at least one player coming in and the club leaving on Sunday for the tour to China.