Blast from the past
In today’s preview, we travel back to 11th April 1990; Margaret Thatcher was in her final months as Prime Minister, Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ topped the charts and, at a time of Poll Tax Riots and the Strangeways Prison Riots, West Ham United decided to run riot as Bournemouth, competing at the opposite end of the Second Division, visited east London.
Billy Bonds’ Hammers ran out 4-1 winners in this Wednesday night encounter in front of 20,202 spectators at the Boleyn Ground. Jimmy Quinn’s strike was deflected in for an own goal by ex-Tottenham defender Paul Miller before Ian Bishop scored a beauty into the top corner from distance against his old club after 23 minutes. David Coleman, who had celebrated his 23rd birthday just three days previously, pulled one back before half-time for Harry Redknapp’s Bournemouth, lifting the ball over Ludek Miklosko after Luther Blissett had outmuscled Colin Foster. Coleman tragically died in 1997.
In the second half, Quinn won a penalty which was dispatched with the usual aplomb by Julian Dicks. The Northern Ireland striker was again involved for the fourth goal, heading Stuart Slater’s cross back across goal for Martin Allen (pictured) to nod home from close range.
The video below shows the goals from this game at the 1:51:04 mark. The Hammers would end the 1989/90 campaign in 7th place in the Second Division, two points adrift of the play-offs, while Bournemouth would finish 22nd out of 24 teams and were relegated.
West Ham United: Ludek Miklosko, George Parris (Steve Potts), Tony Gale, Colin Foster, Julian Dicks, Kevin Keen, Ian Bishop, Martin Allen, Stuart Slater, Jimmy Quinn, Trevor Morley (Frank McAvennie).
Club Connections
A decent number of players have turned out for both West Ham United and Bournemouth. Elliott Ward and Junior Stanislas are both Hammers Academy products who are currently on Bournemouth’s books while Carl Fletcher played for both clubs and is currently youth team coach with the Cherries. Ex-Bournemouth midfielder Paul Mitchell, who made one league appearance for the Hammers in 1994, is back with the Cherries as a correspondent for Opta Sports. Other players to have appeared for both clubs include:
Goalkeepers: David James, Stephen Henderson, Marek Stech.
Defenders: Everald La Ronde, Keith Rowland, Bobby Howe.
Midfielders: Ian Bishop, Bobby Barnes, Jimmy Neighbour, Emmanuel Omoyinmi, Tony Scott, Anthony Edgar, Scott Mean, Matty Holmes, Dale Gordon, Jack Collison, Patsy Holland, Tommy Southren, Trevor Hartley.
Strikers: Jermain Defoe, Nicky Morgan, Mark Watson, Zavon Hines, Steve Jones, Ted MacDougall.
Former Hammers player John Bond went on to manage Bournemouth, Jimmy Quinn played for both clubs and also managed the Cherries, while Harry Redknapp played for West Ham and Bournemouth and also went on to manage both clubs.
With a nod to the final season at the Boleyn Ground, this season’s match previews for home games will focus on one of the more high-profile names to have played for both clubs. Rio Ferdinand was born in King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill on 7th November 1978. He joined the West Ham Academy in 1992 having been scouted by Frank Lampard Senior and made his first team debut on 5th May 1996 as a 17-year-old, coming on for Tony Cottee in the 68th minute of the final day 1-1 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday. Ferdinand’s first appearance for the club coincided with legendary centre-back Alvin Martin’s final outing in claret and blue – it was hoped that this was a symbolic changing of the guard, a passing of the baton with Rio seen as the long-term successor to ‘Stretch’. Further substitute appearances arrived in the early stages of 1996/97 at both Arsenal on the opening day and Sunderland a month later before a League Cup appearance from the bench in a 1-0 win over Barnet, with the winning goal in that game scored by Slaven Bilic.
Ferdinand joined Mel Machin’s Bournemouth on loan in November 1996 and made his debut in a 1-1 draw at Blackpool. Rio played ten matches during his two months with the Cherries and, in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson who had Ferdinand watched during his loan spell, he was “graceful, balanced, first touch like a centre-forward”.
Having collected valuable first-team experience to go alongside his obvious natural talent, Ferdinand returned to Upton Park and made his first Hammers start in a disastrous 1-0 FA Cup third round replay defeat at the hands of Wrexham. With the Hammers also knocked out of the League Cup the previous month by another lower league side in Stockport and entrenched in a fierce battle for survival, Ferdinand had to grow up quickly. Coming on as a half-time substitute in midfield, he notched his first West Ham goal in a 2-1 defeat at Blackburn the following week, controlling a loose ball in the box expertly with his right foot before firing beyond Tim Flowers with his left. Ferdinand would miss only two of the remaining fourteen matches in 1996/97 (with the Hammers failing to win either of those he missed), with the young defender playing a crucial role alongside the likes of Bilic, Julian Dicks and new signings Paul Kitson, John Hartson and Steve Lomas in ensuring the Hammers successfully staved off the threat of relegation. The video below shows highlights of a crucial 3-1 win at Coventry in March 1997, when Rio grabbed his second and ultimately final goal for West Ham United.
After rounding off the 1996/97 campaign with a 2-0 defeat at the home of champions Manchester United, Ferdinand became a transfer target of Old Trafford boss Ferguson. Writing in his autobiography, Fergie states “Martin [Edwards, former Manchester United chairman] called the West Ham chairman, Terry Brown, who said: ‘Give us a million plus David Beckham.’ In other words: he’s not for sale”. Ferdinand made 35 Premier League appearances in 1997/98 as the Hammers improved and finished eighth and, at the age of 19, was voted Hammer of the Year by the club’s supporters – he remains, to this day, the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious award. Having handed Ferdinand his full international debut against Cameroon in November 1997, Glenn Hoddle named Rio alongside cousin Les in his World Cup squad for France ’98, although the young centre-half did not receive any game time at the tournament.
Ferdinand played a key role in securing West Ham’s highest-ever Premier League finish of fifth in 1998/99 and subsequently experienced European football with the Hammers the following season, playing every match in the successful Intertoto Cup campaign and appearing in three of the club’s four UEFA Cup fixtures. He played 47 games in total in 1999/2000, which was to prove his final full campaign in east London, but was left out of Kevin Keegan’s England squad for Euro 2000. His last game for the club was to be against his next employers, as West Ham went to Elland Road in November 2000 and beat big spenders Leeds 1-0 – Ferdinand was outstanding as Nigel Winterburn’s sole strike for the club won the match and, by the end of the following week, Rio was heading north for a fee of £18m, a transfer record between two British clubs and still the highest fee ever received for a player by the Hammers. It was also a world record fee for a defender. Rio had made 158 appearances for West Ham United in all competitions, scoring two goals. Chairman Terry Brown and manager Harry Redknapp claimed that, due to the uncertainty regarding the transfer system at the time, there was a possibility that no club would be in a position to be offered that type of money again. Nearly 15 years on, the current world record fee stands at £85.3m…
The transfer heralded the beginning of the end for West Ham United’s modern-day Golden Generation – six months later, Redknapp had left and Ferdinand’s team-mate from youth team to first team, Frank Lampard Junior, was quick to follow. Within two further years, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson had departed, with Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe also consigned to Upton Park history by the end of summer 2004. This collection of players have earned a total of 385 England caps, winning the Champions League, Europa League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup between them along the way. The proceeds from Ferdinand’s sale were spent on Christian Dailly, Rigobert Song, Titi Camara, Ragnvald Soma and Svetoslav Todorov – only one of those players (Dailly) made more than 25 league appearances for West Ham. The West Stand was coined by some fans as ‘The Rio Stand’ with many believing that some of the funds generated from Ferdinand’s transfer had helped complete a side of the ground which, by next summer, will have stood for just 15 years before it is to be knocked down.
As Leeds struggled financially, Ferdinand left the Elland Road club just under two years after signing for them, moving on to Manchester United for a fee of £29.1m – manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s long-standing interest had not waned. After leaving the Hammers, Ferdinand was named in the Premier League PFA Team of the Year six times by his fellow professionals, won six Premier League titles, three League Cups, six Community Shields, one Champions League and one FIFA Club World Cup. He won 81 caps for England, scoring 3 goals, and captained his country on numerous occasions (Rio is pictured here making his first competitive start for his country against Luxembourg in a 3-0 win in October 1998). After 12 years with the Red Devils, he left Old Trafford for QPR in 2014, spending one year at Loftus Road before hanging up his boots earlier this summer at the age of 36. Former Manchester United and England team-mate Paul Scholes said of Ferdinand: "He was such a pleasure to play with and play in front of. To play in front of him, he made your job so easy. He was a great player, without a doubt the best centre-half I ever played with. I would say for a time as well he was the best centre-half in the world”.
Referee
The referee on Saturday will be Jonathan Moss. West Ham lost all three games in which Moss officiated in during 2013/14 – a 1-0 home defeat to Stoke, the 3-1 loss at Norwich and the 1-0 reverse at Everton. Moss was the man in the middle for our 1-0 victory at Stoke the season before. He also took charge of our home draws against Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion last season as well as the 2-2 draw at Tottenham. Moss was the referee the last time West Ham won a Premier League game at Upton Park, against Burnley in May – he awarded the Hammers a penalty in a 1-0 win but harshly sent off the Clarets’ Michael Duff while Stewart Downing was unlucky to be booked by Moss for diving when tackled by Burnley’s Ben Mee in the area.
Possible line-ups
This weekend’s match will be only the second time West Ham United and Bournemouth have met in east London for a league fixture – the only other occasion, in 1990, is detailed above. Adrian is suspended for the visit of the Cherries after his red card against Leicester last week – Darren Randolph is expected to take over in goal and will hope for an improved performance after a shaky start to his Hammers career in the Europa League. Randolph has conceded 16 goals in his last three games against Bournemouth. Mauro Zarate joins Enner Valencia and Andy Carroll on the injury list while Diego Poyet and Reece Burke have departed on loan, to MK Dons for the season and Bradford for a month respectively. Manuel Lanzini is likely to start in place of his fellow countryman Zarate, while Pedro Obiang is expected to take Reece Oxford’s place in the XI. Oxford, who received his GCSE results on Thursday, has missed several days of training this week with a knock and may not be fit enough to even make the bench.
Bournemouth are set to be without Harry Arter, who is Scott Parker’s brother-in-law, for their trip to east London. Midfielder Shaun MacDonald and left winger Christian Atsu, on loan from Chelsea, are both doubts. Dan Gosling may come back into central midfield in place of the more defensive Eunan O’Kane, who started at Anfield on Monday night. Max Gradel missed a penalty for Leeds on his last visit to Upton Park, firing his spot-kick wide of Rob Green’s right-hand post back in August 2011.
Possible West Ham United XI: Randolph; Jenkinson, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Kouyate, Obiang, Noble; Payet, Lanzini; Sakho.
Possible Bournemouth XI: Boruc; Francis, Elphick, Cook, Daniels; Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, Gradel; Wilson, King.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!