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West Ham United

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19th August 2010 - from London
Sorry about the late start here. August, as I am learning is holiday season over here in the UK so not much happens unless you are in football!

West Ham as usual has flattered to deceive as our pre-season was creditable and this delivered some hope. Four wins and a draw, all away from home, preceded the controversial SBOBET Cup (replacing the Bobby Moore Cup much to the chagrin of Bobby's family) against Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday 7th August.

I attended that game, a dull 0-0 draw followed by a 5-3 win on penalties by the Hammers. To say we were uninspiring would be an understatement so much so that my first score prediction for the new season was a 2-0 loss to the Villa. Right on cue the Hammers even bettered that in what many reported to be a dire performance.

Our injury curse continued with new signing German international Thomas Hitzlsperger out injured for 4-6 weeks with a hamstring strain even before we start.

Normal service has been resumed and we find ourselves straight away in the relegation zone on the first weekend!

Pathetic...

I can't say that I am too optimistic both as our first six EPL games look absolutely horrid and I fully expect to stay in the bottom 3 until October. I must say that I don't mind losing if we play good football however this is something we simply have not done for ages.

The Players
Not enough has changed and even though my suggested departures back in May have so far failed to take place, I still expect Carlton Cole to depart with Behrami and more:

Carlton Cole
We have already turned down offers of £8m and £10m but its only a matter of time - I still believe that he will leave for less than previously thought at around £10m. This week we have been strongly linked with Man City striker Roque Santa Cruz. He is an excellent player and this would at least be a quality addition to our squad.

Robert Green
Had such a poor World Cup that any move is now impossible. He needs to re-establish himself and this is good news for us

Matthew Upson
Also had a poor WC. However, he only has a season to go on his contract and if he fails to signup to the offered extension, then we simply have to sell him. Problem is who would have him on his current form?

Alessandro Diamanti
Nothing has changed over the offseason - "Purchased for £6M and has been told he should find another club. Problem is he has a contract until 2014 and he is on a large wedge so he may be in no hurry to move! My guess is that he wont be able to be moved on."

Valon Behrami
Moving on for sure. This week there were reports of links back to Roma and he has publicly acknowledged that his partner is unhappy in London and they do not like living here. He's a great player but we'll take the cash!

Araujo Ilan, Guillermo Franco, Mido
All released.

Radoslav Kovac
Probably going to Stoke for £2M. With all due respect to the player who has I am certain given his all, he is not a Hammers player and just has not been good enough.

Luis Boa Morte
So pleased he has signed a new contract. Certainly lower wages but this guy is a good player and is well worth watching.

Danny Gabbidon
Seems I was wrong here and Danny is still with us and there has been no talk of a renewal so he must have had more time on his current deal. I met Danny in May 2006 and was very impressed by both his humble demeanour and professionalism. I hope he can recapture that form.

Scott Parker
Still Mr Untouchable! Spurs have made an approach and today Sullivan has again made it VERY clear that Scott is not for sale. Of course an offer in the region of £15M would test the club's resolve!

The rest are still there and to date we have sold no one and therefore MUST do so to balance the books. Below is the list of players signed and their actual or assumed fees.

Players In:

Player	Fee	Club
Winston Reid	£2M (?)	FC Midtjylland
Tal Ben-Haim	On Loan	Portsmouth
Frederic Piquionne	£1M+ (?)	Lyon
Pablo Barrera	£4M	Universidad Nacional
Thomas Hitzlsperger	Free	Lazio

It is unlikely that the club can afford to spend without selling so something has to give particularly if we do sign Santa Cruz for circa £8M!

Winston Reid is a young NZ international who had a great WC. However, his debut against Villa was awful and it looked like he was thrown to the wolves.

Tal Ben-Haim was with Avram Grant at both Chelsea and Portsmouth and is a quality player who has not recaptured his early form of a few years ago. He failed a medical at WHU and therefore is on loan pending a review of his condition.

Piquionne was also at Portsmouth with Grant and looks a squad player at best. Hope I am wrong.

Pablo Barrera is a Mexican international who again had a strong WC but is unproven in the Premier League.

The Manager
It's Avram - but is he the one?

Whether he survives past Christmas is another matter given that I expect we will be in relegation mode all season. After recent years I simply have no expectations anymore.

The current squad does not excite me - Collison and Hines remain injured and to be honest there is no one else who I really want to pay to go and watch.

THE Stadium
Some interesting developments here:

Coe backs West Ham Olympic bid
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 15th August 2010
By: Staff Writer

Sebastian Coe has endorsed West Ham United's proposed move to the Olympic Stadium for the first time. The 2012 Games committee chairman, who had previously appeared hostile to the Irons' bid to move to Stratford after the Olympic Games two years from now told insidethegames.biz that West Ham's move 'has got to be a good idea'. "I think it's obviously the situation that everybody is looking to and I think it's a sensible acceptance that we were always going to live within the bid commitment," he said, adding: "In fairness, this is a different West Ham to what it was a few years ago, where, with the best will in the world, it was fairly transient. "These are two owners that are committed to the club, committed to the community, that recognise there is a sensible mix here, of serving a community, but also of having a permanent tenant in there, which has got to be a good idea."

Coe's comments follow West Ham's recent public admission that the club would commit to keeping the running track in place after the games - an issue that Coe has championed from the start, yet one that is threatening to cause a rift between the club and its supporters, the majority of whom remain opposed to a move to a stadium with a running track in situ.

This is the first time we have heard positive support for the WHU bid. I agree we need to move as sad as it may be to leave Upton Park, we simply have to do so. The transport infrastructure there is inadequate, the local community does not generally support the club and a stadium in this area is now out of step with local needs.

Having said that, most fans and I are opposed to a stadium with a running track between the fans and the pitch. If this is what we get then the club will never fill the stadium.

Club Ownership
This week the Club also announced that it had finally wooed additional investors in the Club and it's 'back to the future'!

13th August 2010
W H Holding, the parent company of West Ham United, is pleased to announce the club has raised £4m in new equity through a placing of shares, primarily with new investors.

The proceeds will partly be used to buy in some of the shareholding of CB Holding EHF, with the balance available to fund the further development of the club on and off the pitch. The placing was conducted by Shore Capital and Corporate Limited.

The new investors are John Harris CBE and Daniel Harris, and Terence Brown, former Chairman of the club. Daniel Harris is joining the board and Terence Brown is becoming Honorary Life President of the club. David Sullivan and David Gold also subscribed for further shares.

Terence Brown is well known to supporters having been involved with the Club for many years. Father and son John and Daniel Harris are lifelong supporters of West Ham and will also be known to many supporters. They previously built up the publicly listed Alba Group, which was founded by John Harris, and currently run Harvard Medical Devices.

Daniel Harris said: "My father and I have considered investing in West Ham on a number of occasions. We chose to do so now because we have confidence in the new management team and believe they are capable of fulfilling West Ham's exciting potential. We look forward to the future success of the club."

As previously reported, Messrs Gold £ Sullivan had increased their shareholding to 60% and we assume that they have taken this marginally further. The remnants of the Icelandic foray into East London remains held by past entities and we are aware that the now eight month old search for additional equity partners continues.

Tickets to Matches
I am pleased to advise that WHU have softened its approach to access to Match Tickets for international visitors. I have been advised as follows:

Each member of the OzHammers may now contact the WHU ticket office direct, as WHU now acknowledge that they receive requests from fans travelling from over the globe and whenever they can they always look to accommodate requests and appreciate the effort international visitors put into attending matches.

WHU estimate that they currently allocate around 200 tickets to overseas fans each home match, mainly from groups around Europe but a number from America and Australia. Again, whilst WHU has commitments to UK members, when possible they will always look favourably on OzHammers and other international supporters.

With the above in place, whilst possibly less rigid than I wanted, there is now a mechanism in place for direct dealings with the WHU Ticket Office.

The best email address to forward any ticket requests would be hammersworldwide@westhamunited.co.uk this is checked daily and the supporter will always receive a prompt and informative response from a member of the ticket office staff.

Of course, if you don't get an adequate response or actual purchase of tickets, please get back to me and I will do my best to assist!

Refereeing @ Upton Park
I officiated at Upton Park on Wednesday 26 May in the aforementioned charity game! It was a great thrill to lead out the teams to the sounds of bubbles and it was a terrific night for all.

Further on the refereeing front, I have been invited by the AFA to advise and assist with the setup of a Referee Centre of Excellence in which we will train and develop promising young referees in England.

I am in discussions with several League and PL clubs and hope to be able to announce a partner soon.

I am very disappointed with the setup in this football market as it appears that there is no focus at all on grass roots. To have a successful system one needs foundations and that is sadly lacking.

Our NSW state system is vastly superior in this regard notwithstanding that the opportunities in the UK football market are significantly greater. I have penned a report for the FA but it appears no one is interested?

Conclusion
To date I have seen nothing that excites me at WHU for this season. We have started very poorly and that does not bode well. Our first 6 games are:

14 Aug - Villa Away - Lost 3-0
21 Aug - Bolton Home - our record against Bolton in recent years is terrible.
28 Aug - Man Utd Away - nuf said
11 Sep - Chelsea Home - ditto
18 Sep - Stoke Away - tough fixture
25 Sep - Spurs Home - In recent seasons Spurs has done the double

On Tues 24 Aug we have newly promoted Oxford Utd in the 2nd round of the Carling Cup after their 6-1 triumph over Bristol Rovers. It's a match we should walk through but then again...

This is where the manager has to earn his wages. We must get some form going in the above matches otherwise our season will be once again long and miserable.

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