Let me begin by selfishly congratulating my nephew Daniel to his 12th birthday today – he has gone through a few West Ham shirts (presents from his uncle) already in his lifetime and one fine day, despite Brexit, I hope to bring him to London to watch a game and pick up something in claret and blue from the club shop too of course. We’re having a lovely birthday barbecue with the family in the sun later today and it should be a jolly nice affair with some lovely food thrown in for good measure.
As for our final preseason game against the mighty Bilbao, well, it wasn’t exactly jolly but entertaining enough. Our goals were beautiful team collaborations while those we conceded were either unlucky or simply not defended well enough, but once again, you wouldn’t expect any defender to be as sharp in a preseason game as we all hope they are going to be once the league fixtures have arrived – which is basically not far off at all now. Only a few more days and life will be back to normal, with regular West Ham games at the weekend. It’s about time…
We also have the final stage of the transfer window to endure this week and, frankly, when it comes to West Ham I’m going into those final days with NO expectation or anticipation WHATSOEVER.
All those stories about us being skint, having blown all our money on Fornals and Haller basically, well, those stories no longer wash with me. But I also know there’s nothing I can do or write that’ll change anything in that regard. Our board will spend (or not) as they see fit which is their prerogative as owners.
If we make some more signings I will welcome them at West Ham with wide-open arms, if we don’t sign anyone else at least I will no longer be surprised or bemused by it…
Offensively our team could be a revelation this season, provided the main protagonists can stay fit, healthy and available. Just imagine the likes of Lanzini, Anderson, Fornals, Antonio, Yarmolenko and Haller developing some chemistry in training and the upcoming matches and right there you have a blueprint for most PL defenders’ worst nightmare.
On the other side of the ball though we (still) look shaky and highly suspect. Again, preseason games are not the best sample size to evaluate your back four’s true quality. Why bust a gut or over-stretch for a ball in a glamour friendly if injury could put you out for several league matches when things really matter ?
Also, Fabianski has been out for the latter part of preseason and we all know how he oozes class and competence which in return lifts the performances of his defenders and vice versa.
The Winston Reid issue though is a curious one.
He’s been out such a long time that people are always going to question whether he can ever return to the form we all witnessed when he was our best defender by a country mile.
Now we’re hearing he’s being rested regularly, his gametime monitored and managed, so he can ease himself into proceedings slowly which sounds like a straightforward and wise plan. I for one hope Reid can make a proper comeback as indeed we could do with another experiencedoption at CB this season.
Aaron Long has been rumoured to be a potential signing for us in the next few days, one of the best young-ish defenders in the MLS, who also has a fairly low release fee at his current club New York Red Bulls. There appear to be some work permit issues, but it doesn’t really sound like a massive hurdle at this stage which could prevent a transfer in the near future. To be fair though, we could also do with another striker and also a DM, but we are skint apparently, aren’t we ?
As always, at the start of a new season, I am both excited and optimistic, I fancy us to turn some heads this season, hopefully for all the right reasons.
I would expect us to improve slightly on out league position, but maybe not massively. Top 6 ? Not sure we have spent quite enough on new players for that to happen.
Our squad is too unbalanced for that to happen methinks. And we know that West Ham United as a club are topsy-turvy personified.
We’ll get injuries, we’ll still get bad refereeing calls, we may concede more penalties given by VAR this season than we are being awarded at the other end. I am fairly optimistic though that we won’t see a player throwing out his toys out of the pram this season, derailing our season in the process. One cannot be too certain of course, but again, I’m optimistic…COYI!!!
A heartfelt welcome to my fellow German Katharina Baunach, yet another Kraut lacing her boots for the West Ham Women’s team next season, three in total now! Baunach is 30 years old, she was a winner of league titles and cups both with Bayern Munich and VFL Wolfsburg and she is a super-solid no-nonsense defender. I didn’t find any videos of her on Youtube, showboating in front of supermarket entrances, doing backheels or scoring a multitude of goals for club and country.
That’s probably because her game is about defending first and foremost, not about flicks and tricks. But you don’t get to play for and win things at powerhouse clubs like Bayern and Wolfsburg if you’re a minger.
So Katharina sounds like another decent addition that will make our side a better one, on and off the pitch. And of course you can never have enough Krauts in your team, can you ? ;-))
Hamburg football update: A mixed bag really. St.Pauli lost 1:3 at home to Fuerth and the pressure is building already after just two games. With plenty of injured players, surely the club from the redlight district will need to make some quickfire emergency signings if they don’t want to find themselves at the wrong end of the table straight away.
Hamburg SV are hoping for their first win of the season when they take on Nuremberg, away, later this evening.
The Concordia first team are still in the local cup competition (where the games are coming thick and fast with the next one being played tomorrow evening), however, in the league calendar they have now suffered their first defeat, 2:4 away to Sasel. Tough game, but there is no time to mope and moan, as the next games are looming large already, the cup game tomorrow and the next league fixture at home on Friday evening.
The Cordi U23s meanwhile are suffering from numerous injuries and some ill discipline as well with sendings off galore, resulting in a tough start to their season. They lost their recent cup game 3:4, having two players sent off including the goalkeeper for handling the ball outside the box and then got walloped 1:7 against the same opponent a few days later on Saturday, having not a single substitute on the bench. At this point it’s all pointing towards an uphill climb for the boys this season…
And the Cordi Women’s team played their final preseason game, away to the third string of the mighty St.Pauli women’s side. They did Concordia proud, winning 2:1 not far from the notorious Reeperbahn.