Haven't been to a football game since the late seventies when I watched the Hammers beat Leicester City 3-2 at Upton Park. I was in Stockport many years ago when we got knocked out of the cup and I could hear the crowds from my girlfriend's apartment (not fun). So to nip down to Blackpool for the evening to see that was a real treat. I can't add anything insightful about the game but it was a good night for an Ilford lad who's now a naturalised northerner. Makes me hope that Blackpool can go up so that I can do it again.
Another silent reader. I come to this site a lot and read the posts by Iain and SJ. I've been checking in for a few seasons, and it provides me with the best way of keeping up with the world of West Ham from my exile here in Lancashire. In an area dominated by the big north west teams West Ham doesn't ever hit the news here.
I enjoy it because though not a football expert (I'm more of a pro cycling fan than a footy fan), my roots are in east London and I grew up going to Upton Park in the 70s, this site is a link with home.
I enjoy the passion on these threads and even the loss of perspective on match threads, which is often very funny, but on the whole I stick with the main posts and would like to thank you for the efforts you put into the blog.
That looks like a 4-4-2 to me. It's a nice line up. Let's hope that this is the beginning of a turn about in our fortunes.
I think that this game is one of those where the performance is more important that the result. The top teams are very intimidating and what I want to see is West Ham playing well as a team, being confident and adventurous. A victory over Liverpool will be a real feather in the cap, but a gutsy showing and good team awareness will be a confidence boost and help bring the new and returning players together.
A couple of tough games ahead where we will not be favourites but on our day we can take them on, and with the Diamond tugging at the leash we might just surprise the pundits.
I think that the poor guy has more weight of responsibility on his shoulders than any other striker in the Premiership. It would be brilliant to see him building a good relationship with someone along side him and scoring/contributing to a big tally of goals. Let's hope it happens with one of the youngsters.
I have a question of all of you. We're always talking about needing a player who can link up with Carlton Cole, or needing a player who can be a back up for Carlton Cole. I was just wondering (as you can see from my profile I'm not confident about discussing tactics!) has CC spent too long up front with no one to play with? Are we confident that he can play WITH someone else? He seems to have mastered the art of holding up the ball and beating defenders without scoring, but does he have the instinct to play and link up with another striker? Maybe an aging Argentinian/Mexican is what we need. Undoubtedly CCs stature has risen, but in a lone striker kind of way. Do you think he has the awareness of who else is out there to support him?
This is a hesitant comment, but it's something I've been wondering about and I think discussion (even if it's destroying my concerns) would be interesting.
I just read that article too CH and I too was impressed. I think it shows Nigel to be a very good professional footballer. Not everyone can be good enough to break into the first team, but a team is more than the eleven who go out on the pitch every week to play in the Premiership. it sounds as if Nigel has found himself a rewarding role in helping to bring on the youngsters and should be applauded for that.
It might be time to start thanking him for the work he puts in behind the scenes. If he can provide experience which helps to generate the West ham of the future which we're all anticipating he's palying as big a role as the first team squad is now.
Cheers Nige!
I think something to keep when the team has had a bad performance is perspective. All teams have bad days. If we supported any of the bottom 14 clubs we'd be tearing our hair out with frustration at every point lost and fearing for the club's future! If you were to analyse the results of any team you'll find games lost that on paper should have been won, and glorious unlikely victories over top clubs. It doesn't make sense to become despondent. If we believe in the management team, which most of us do, and feel that the team spirit is good and the players want to play for West Ham then we should be happy.
I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't discuss and criticise performances and fiercely put forward our ideas of what should have been tactics. Just that worrying too much about the bigger picture after scrutinising one or two weak performances seems a bit masochistic to me.
That's what i like about this site actually. The moans and groans are always followed up with optimistic support and excitement for the club and where it's going.
If you search Guilleframco.com on Google and then get Google to translate the page for you it's a bit more intelligible. He talks about having agreed the move on Wednesday, so why we haven't heard officially yet I don't know, but Zola did talk about looking forward to working with him.
The sooner the better if it gives us options.
Fantastic to see the site developing Iain. You said yourself that you felt it was outgrowing itself which I think we all recognised. It's very pleasing that you've decided to give it a bigger pot. Congratulation SJ. I'm sure you'll have a ball and I'm looking forward to seeing your posts as well as the future developments. If Carlsberg did football blogs...
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