There were some interesting comments by Sir Trevor Brooking, this week, on West Ham’s unique contribution to the England set up. He argued that Capello was implementing a system where players throughout the team were comfortable on the ball, could play the ball out from the back and pass through midfield. Within that context, Sir Trevor argued that the ‘West Ham way’ of doing things fitted in perfectly with that ethos. And the Hammers had over 40 years experience of playing that way, since Greenwood embedded his footballing philosophy at the club in the early 1960s.
This observation illustrates the strength and continuing relevance of Greenwood’s ideas. He was probably the most innovative coach that England has ever produced and his ideas revolutionised coaching in this country. His indirect contribution to the 1966 World Cup victory cannot be over-estimated. Indeed, one could argue that the 1966 Final was won on the training pitches of Chadwell Heath! However, what a tribute to the man that his way of doing things is still contributing to England’s challenge for world football’s biggest prize in 2010!
Matt Upson is a quality centre back, there is no doubt about that. There has been some criticism of his recent performances. However, I think part of it is that he has been so consistently good over the last couple of seasons that if he has a dip in form then it is noticable. Ideally, we will retain all of our best players in January and the funds will be made available to further strengthen the squad (fingers crossed!).
However, it has been suggested that with Upson’s current contractual situation, and the possible need to raise transfer funds, he should be sold in January. Fair enough, but the issue for me is who is to be brought in to replace him? Where are we going to find an experienced, left sided central defender of comparable class, for the mooted £10-12m? It should also be a player that is used to the demands to the PL and can make an instant positive impact!
If we can pull that off then fine, if not then Upson should be retained until the summer at least. The summer is obviously the time to carry out a radical overhaul of your squad, not the winter transfer window. But I recognise that major surgery, and the upheaval that it entails, is sometimes unavoidable. The trick, however, is to improve the quality of the squad and not just make changes for the sake of change. If Upson’s sale does that then ok, but practically it is going to be a tough ask to replace him with someone better in January!
Predictably, rumours have started doing the rounds about possible Liverpool and Man Utd c.£20m bids for Carlton Cole. Well, I can understand why they would be interested in the most improved striker in the PL. However, West Ham need to firmly reject any such offer. Cole is going to be vital to our immediate plans to move up the PL and Zola and Clarke’s longer term strategies to bring success to the club.
Interestingly, in an interview with Zola on the club website, he states that the club has no intention of selling its best players in January and there is no compulsion to do so. There has been no separate club statement on this, but Zola was probably imparting assurances that have been given him in discussions with the CE and board. Heard that one before? Well yes, but last January they took a similar stance and, Bellamy aside, they were true to their word. Time will tell!
Obviously, our activity in the January tranfer window is tied up with the ongoing situation regardng the ownership of the club. Whether there is a takeover before Christmas, necessity dictates that C&B Holdings find the monies to invest in the squad or we have to sell to buy? Again, time will tell!
SJ Chandos.
I'm with you on the opinions you've put forward, SJ, and I believe that "Project Football" should stay on course – meaning that we don't sell our core players or academy prospects and "Grow" a team that can challenge domestically and in Europe on a regular basis. Three years left on the plan I think?
Why would we want to sell for a profit unless the muppets who are potless need some new year beer money!
Sell Carlton and the project does not grow, it is dead and I would expect the management to go with if they can see a promise never kept!
Good post SJ but I think the real problem comes from the facts that we don''t or haven't for a while known how bad the situation is and considering people are constantly trying to buy the club Dux can't come out and say how bad it is because it might effect the possibility of someone buying the club. Instability has been the watchword for West Ham since Brown took the money and ran to Iceland, to be totally honest Carlton Cole has to take so much credit for his improvement and the fact Man Ure or Cheatpool are even thinking of paying £20m should make a few people who booed CC a couple of seasons back feel a little stupid. So hear we go again January and the broken West Ham crest in the redtops every second day – debts can be made up by these guys to make us look really really on the porper line. There will be no funds for signings . . we had to sell Ginge to get money for Diamanti so its about who leaves! Next 2 games are World Cup finals for us . . how does that song go again . . fortune something something COYI
m8, i really dont Carlton to go, man u and liverpool can stick a red on there arse if they think there gettin there hands on cole.
sorry “i dont want carlton to go”
Media laundering is ready for another go on the swings & roundabout which is in need of a service. With nothing new to report they have now repeated the the G/S show looking to buy WH @80m with Intermarket apparently waiting in the wings.__CC is ready to pack his bags and drive up the M1/6 to MU&L/pool for a mere £20m come January. The likes of Upson & Green being consigned to the rubbish bin to be recycled when the other clubs have nothing worth reporting.__Heres to the old snakes & ladders scenario. The slide and climbing frame which we are playing on. Lol!
I'm really cheeeeeeezzzed off at the moment ,seriously us hammers fan's are being p—–ed around! there's no taker over,it's all complete waffle something more would of happened by now,strum are gunna strip us at christmas you wait and see,their a bunch of bankers for god's sake! cash is king.
apologes for the language, just a bit frustrated
chris, m8 i agree, we are in bad position, 3rd bottom, no money, Cole going or not, stramaur, what is he doing?
If man ure come in for Cole there will be no stopping him leaving,The classic comment from the club will be"You can't keep a player who want's to leave"
m8, if west ham had not sold there past stars, ie Defoe, lamps, terry, etc, Irons could have been a top 4 team., thats the problem, they cant keep good players.
The club must have new owners by Xmas.
The club cannot let Cole leave in Jan, or Green and Upson either.
The club must sign Collison and Behrami on improved contracts.
Below is what I regard as the heart and soul of our current squad and the spots that need to be filled.
Keepers – Green, ……….
Left backs – Ilunga, Daprela
Right backs – ………, Spence
Centre backs – Upson, Tomkins, De Costa, ………..
Central midfield – Behrami (future captain), Collison, Noble, Parker
Wingers – Stanilas, …………,
Attacking midfield – Diamanti, …………..
Strikers – Cole, Hines, Nouble, ……………
What do others think?
broganq I see where your coming from but I think that if Dixon stays fit he could really sort out or forward problem, agree on right back etc . . but unfortunately its all dreams at present as I can't see anything possitive coming out of the club for a while and we will have to live with what we have at present!! Its not like we haven't been through this kind of stuff before!! COYI
agree m8, need new right back, new striker, kovac, spector, must go, cole, upson and green must stay
If the takeover goes ahead as everyone has their fingers crossed for come December. However what we do know is that Duxbury&Nani will be looking for new jobs once we have new owners. Zola&Clarke with a positive transfer kitty will be able to pick those who will strengthen our squad for us to continue to climb the table and emulate last seasons finish.
WHUFC NEWS – Intermarket group to have bought West Ham by the start of December. Gianluca Nani and Scott Duxbery to get the boot. Zola to be given 20m to spend in Janaury AND 40M In the Summer. JANUARY INS– Marouane Chamakh – Bordeaux – 7m, Kim Kallstrom – Lyon – 6m, Steven Taylor – Newcastle – 5m + Gabbidon, JANUARY OUTS– Dean Ashton – Retire, Nigel Quashie – MK Dons – LOAN, Kieron Dyer – Wigan Athletic – 5.5m. SUMMER INS– Angelo Ogbonna – Torino – 5m, Marek Hamsik – Napoli – 18m, Angel Rangel – Swansea – 4m, Jonjo Shelvey – Charlton – 3.5m, Victor Moses – Crystal Palace – 5m, Roman Pavlyuchenko – Tottenham – 10m. SUMMER OUTS– Mark Noble – Manchester United – 12.5m, Radoslav Kovac – Napoli – 4m, Luis Boa Morte – Released, Guillermo Franco – Released, Peter Kurucz – Released, Nigel Quashie – Released.____We realise that the above is pure speculation, however a number of these transfers may come to fruition & will subsequently stop the media continually slating our great club.
12.5m for Noble!!! Or Kovac for £4m . . if Carlsberg did dreams they would probably be the best dreams in the World!! Would love to see it happen but . .
i like that but dont want noble to go
Interesting theory about who's coming in for the club here : – http://thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.com/2009/11/pri... .
Gav, nothing that clown says is interesting.
Seriously mate! That site is a joke! And the owner spends most of his (it's) time slagging off Iain!
He is pathetic!
Perhaps I should re-phrase interesting.
A good night for CC in Doha. He may not have played against Brazil, but neither did one of his England challengers, Darren Bent.
Here's the Sunday Telegraph's rating for the Spud misfit.
Darren Bent: Touched the ball 11 times and 10 of those were mis-placed. Constantly ran offside. Fluffed headed opportunity but then a good header to release Rooney. Too often he was chasing shadows and a frustrating night when he had hoped to make an impact. A thankless task – but poor. World Cup chance has now gone. 4/10.
Get your suitcase packed Carlton.
Lofty – a great night for CC. I honest;ly believe if he ,maintains his current level of play he will START the first game alongside Rooney.
Upson did well, also and I feel he can take Rio's position.
While we are at it, here's the rating for Upson. Shouldn't have too many January suitors after this showing.
Matthew Upson: Poor touch at start of game, surrendered possession and was then out-muscled by Nilmar. But recovered with a good challenge on Kaka which helped re-build confidence and he stuck to the task. By the end, he had been run-ragged by Brazil’s movement. 6/10.
That was a lesson in how to pass a ball Lofty. The difference between Brazil and England tonight was that we pass the ball in the vain hope that we'll find a team-mate, even when we're passing it backwards, and Brazil played precision balls that found another yellow shirt virtually every time. I'm confident that Fabio Capello will have given them a serious talking to about ball retention which they seemed to forget about after the first 10 minutes.
Completely agree about Matty Upson – definitely improved after a very shaky start but still far from impressed. I hope he regains last season's form and stays with us for the rest of the season..
upson did well to keep out kaka, good tackles, not bad, hope he can implement that 4 the Irons this season
sorry guys, im really confused about whats happening with the takeover, can some1 tell me clearly please, thanks…
I'll apologies about this comment in advance but I couldn't help myself.
Scared of the ball? http://www.whufc.com/articles/quartet-in-internat...
I'll apologies about this comment in advance but I couldn't help myself.
Scared of the ball? http://www.whufc.com/articles/quartet-in-internat...
England team B………….poo.
10mil for upson after that show,your having a bubble!
Unlike a commercial enterprise we cannot just simply trade out of our current situation. What we do on the pitch ultimately impacts our commercial activity….so, until we start winning, until we begin to show signs that we are a 'going concern' in the EPL then, and only then, will legitimate buyers come forward. Think about it…would you pump money into something you think may go down the toilet…I wouldn't!
Well if you are able to tbeleive what our media friends tell us Valon Behrami is now looking for a big money move to another club.
DREAM ON!!
Behrami will end up at a top 4 club one day! He is good enough! I don't think he will leave us just yet but I'm also not convinced he will sign a new long-term contract either!
If think Behrami may be off in Jan, as we have to sell to get some bodies in. We have plenty of midfielders and sort else where. Out of all the more experienced players who would Zola sell? Green no, Upson (is his contract running short? club might sell), but no, Parker no, Cole no. The rest are kids, just arrived or put politely put, rubbish. I can see Behrami going.
If we are not sold by January – and in the short time left it is becoming more unlikely by the day – the most important issue for Straumur will be for the club to stay in the Premier League. Any funds they raise from player sales will be negated with knobs on if we are then relegated and lose the income that comes from being in the top flight. For this reason I think that sales are unlikely (other than one or two fringe players) unless a really ridiculous offer comes in and the player in question can be instantly replaced by another as good, or better.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was interest in Carlton but Liverpool wouldn't pay £20m (Benitez would probably offer less than half of that). Man U might pay somewhere near that but I can't really see him going there.
If only the financiers/banks/Icelandic government, that are now the club's creditors, saw things that way – as far as they're concerned it's all numbers on a spreadsheet to be can be cashed in on. Let's hope the club's board can keep them at bay in January.
If we sold all our "gifted" players would we be in a different situation come the end of the season by utilizing the rest of the squad and others brought in on loan etc.
Maybe, maybe not. This is the situation the board finds itself in whilst trying to maintain a club in the premier league to get the best possible price on a sale.
The maintaining of a premier league position is of the utmost importance and any buyer of intelligence would not put pen to paper until they saw a safety net which made relegation impossible. Forget about new buyers until the end of the season.
As for the boards decision, I know which option I would take.
With regard to Cole, I dont think he will go anywhere. I simply dont think he wants to go anywhere. He knows how important Zola and Clarke have been to his improvement but I think he feels that he still needs them and a team who understand him and play to his strengths. I would be very surprised if Cole felt he was ready to step up to a top 4 club at this point in his career.
There were some nice comments made by Stan in a recent interview saying that although he scored a goal against everton he should have gotten 2 more and that he wasnt happy with his performance as we lost. The more I see of this kid the more I think he will be a massive massive player for us. I have commented before on the fact that he seems to have a great deal of self confidence and belief in his own abilities but it is obvious from his recent commments that his confidence does not extend to arrogance, he has his feet firmly on the floor and can offer a very honest assesment of his own game, which for a guy his age is very impressive.
With regard to the club I see that Intermarket Group have put the clubs debts at £48M which when viewed against our turnover and in comparison to other Premier League clubs is not only managabe it is hardly worth worrying about. Needless to the say the media have failed to pick up on this but that is hardly surprising. With reports of Intermarket providing proof of funds and a new far eastern consortium, Nuram Investments, who were interested in buy Liverpool now switching their attention to West Ham it seems that should Straumur decide to sell there are genuine buyers with the cash to buy the club.
Celtic – I know you have your finger on the pulse regarding the financial affairs of the club. Are both likely to actually put money into the club rather than purchase it with borrowed money thereby extending the debt?
Agree re Stan – we look a better team with him as he is the only player to give us any width and I am a great believer in getting balls in from wide rather than playing it through the middle as we seem to do all too often. He certainly brought something to the team last week – only problem is he doesn't fit into GZ's favoured diamond formation
Startford Intermarket have supposedly provided proof of funds and are looking to buy the club for cash.
Nuram were previously linked with Liverpool but like DIC they have been put off by the real cost of buying the club when debts are taking into consideration. Without investing a penny in players or infrastructure they would need £850M just to complete the deal and pay off the debts. I would believe that they have the cash to buy WestHam outright.
£850m – is that a typo?
Nope and thats doing it on the cheap. Liverpools owners want £500M for the club, there are debts of £350M (thats a very conservative estimate) and if they want a new stadium you can chuck £200M on top plus the almost £30M it would take to sack Rafa and his team of 20coaches. So if you want to buy Liverpool in style you need a spare billion knocking about!
Agreed CH – Plus Cole may not get as much game-time at Manchester United or Liverpool and would, therefore, put his World Cup prospects in jeopardy.
If Capello had picked parker we might of had more of the ball,sadly overlooked,lets hope Hargreaves recover's coz without him or someone like him I .E Parker ,It will be more of the same when we meet the top international teams,Barry great on the ball but to slow making the loose ball, and just generally to slow all round,Jenas no comment.
jenas, huddlestone, u gotta be kidding, Parker shouldve been playing on that field, them Spud midfielders are rubbish
news that Carlton Cole is back
I think it's criminal that Capello dosn't even give Parker a look. He is as good as anyone at the moment in his job/position. Come on Capello, get your head out of your bum and see what we all see every week. If he was a red or blue player he would be in for sure.
i cant see anyone who is hopeing to get on that plane to africa moving clubs this jan…it would be suicide for cole to take the risk of sitting on a manure bench watching berbatof and rooney every week.
thought of the week….stan and hines up front with diamanti putting the ball on a 6 pence for them? bugger ,where does cole go ? diamond 4 up front?
ps im now worth 40p !!!! wahooo !
Cole won't be going anywhere in January. I can't be so sure by next summer.
Regarding Parker's omission from the current weakened squad, I thought it was an affront that Capello (who I like a lot) selected Jenas & Huddlestone in front of him. Neither would get in the West Ham first XI. I had forgotten Jenas was playing until he was substituted.
Jusr read another article quoting Matthew Upson – I lost count of how many times he said "I" after the first two paragraphs.
Apparently he doesn't think he has made too many individual mistakes this season – anyone care to remind him?
With the reserves travelling to Norwich for a game tonight we hope that this will be another good run out for all concerned including Dixon & Nouble & for them to consolidate themselves into a potential call up to the first team squad as well as others in the team to boost all our defensive/attcking options etc and give GZ a selection headache.
I too have just read Upson's article. Of course the article could be the usual Journalistic rubbish that we are all well used to, but I certainly am not in any way convinced that he is committed to us which I think is appalling for our CAPTAIN! Devo pointed out the comments Upson allegedly made about himself playing well this season. He needs to be shown a few clips in that case. The Everton goals would be a good place to start. Watch his body language as they are teeing up to score. A committed central defender does not turn to one side as the Oppo is about to shoot. Instead he should be launching himself towards the ball with every possibility of getting hurt, (a bit like Parker actually), to prevent the player getting a clear shot on goal. Can Upson honestly say he tried his hardest there? It sounds like he is waiting for offers to me. He should either announce he isn't going anywhere, or not bother to comment, as it only annoys the hell out of those of us who really care about our club. I do rate him, but I don't think he is putting 100% in, which is a worry, especially as he is our Skipper. Parker would deal with this honour far better in my opinion. COYI
Well said HR and Devo. Upson has been of the boil this season. I can help thinking that some of it is down to Ginge upping sticks just at the beginning of the season, and being double minded about England and the WC possibilities.
If this is the case then he need a dressing down. Ginge is….was always in and out of the side and Upson had to cope with new defensive partnerships last season, but this season the defence is inexperienced (Tomkins & Da Costa) and players filling in (Faubert).
As for England and the WC. We all know that with everyone being fit and well Upson is not going to get a game next summer. If he doesn't know that then he is what we in our family affectionately call a Dumdum! I think he is one injury from starting the starting line up and this may be playing on his mind.
He should knuckle down and the place on the bench next summer will be assured, at the very least.
One last thing about Upson, I'm not sure how long he has on his contract (does any one know?) I'd be surprised to see him go (short contract permitting) But I can see Behrami going in Jan. We are loaded with midfielders and if we going to sell before buying he will be the one!
P.S. Parker would have urinated on the other England midfielders last Sat night.
I didn't see ANY england midfielders on Sat! All I saw was a bunch of B-teamers getting humiliated by Brazil!
And…….Bent was atrotious!
You are dead right. May be as I nodded off it was just the front two and the back four that got a bit blured!
Not dead keen on Bent but can not blame him much. He can run around as much as he like but if you don't get given the ball, there is not alot he could do. Anyhow Cole's stock rose just by not being there.
Absolutely! Cole did himself no harm by not being there on Sat!
I'm not Bent's biggest fan but he has been knocking them in for \\ssunderland so you can't really blame Capello for giving him a run!
It's a shame cos the team we played aren't a terrible bunch but they were up against a crap hot Brazil!
Oh well!
Although 1-0 down to Norwich at the moment it looks like Dixon is playing very well and causing a few problems. Watch this space, we could be seeing a few more goals today.
Commentator on the offical site says we're playing like Arsenal in this game. He may or may not be getting carried away. Kearns is the name that keeps coming up, seems like he's producing some moments of magic.
Well we lost the reserve game but we REALLY didn't deserve the loss! We were very good in midfield and up front! A bit dodgy at the bacdk but we could have easily nicked a point or 3!
I didn't go but my brother-in-law did! he has a friend that plays for Norwich! Was a good game by all accounts!
I wonder why Dixon was taken off tonight? would ‘ve thought he needs match fitness if he is to make the first team squad,hope he’s not injured as i would love him on the bench for our 6 pointer saturday.
Hi Celtic. I would be interested in your take on Neville Nixon's comments re takeover on WestHamFans.org He usually writes sense! Regards P