Bournemouth 0-2 West Ham United

Goals from Nolan and Collison ensured West Ham continued their best pre-season form since the glory days of the Avram Grant (pre-season) era.

A few points of interest from this game:

Titus Bramble did not feature so possibly he really was just training with the club to maintain fitness.

Mo Diame came on after 60 minutes to make his first appearance since returning from the summer break (he was granted a couple of extra weeks due to international duty).

Trialist Orlando Engelaar came on for Nolan after 50 minutes. Engelaar is a 33 year old Dutch international central midfielder.

Jaaskelainen, Demel, Collins, Reid, Rat, Noble, Collison, Nolan, Vaz Te, Jarvis, Maiga
Subs: Adrian, O'Brien, Tomkins, Potts, Taylor, Diarra, Diame, Engelaar, J.Cole, McCallum, Morrison, Whitehead, Lletget

Boreham Wood 0 - 3 West Ham United

Goals by Morrison, Vaz Te and Nolan in a game dominated by the Hammers. Hopefully Morrison's second goal in successive pre-season games is a sign that he will be pushing for a first team place this season.

First half XI: Adrian, Guy Demel, Pelly Ruddock, Winston Reid, Razvan Rat, Mark Noble, Jack Collison, Matt Taylor, Ricardo Vaz Te, Paul McCallum, Ravel Morrison

Second half XI: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Jordan Spence, James Collins, James Tomkins, Dan Potts, Alou Diarra, Danny Whitehead, Kevin Nolan, Joe Cole, Modibo Maiga, Matt Jarvis

Subs (not used): Elliot Lee, George Moncur, Sam Baxter

Cork City 2 - 6 West Ham United

To end the week's training in Ireland West Ham played against Cork who are half way through their season so should be the fitter team. Having said that Cork did have a league game on Friday night so I'm not sure if all their first teamers played.

A few points of interest:

Titus Bramble played. I was a bit concerned when I read he was training with us, not because of lack of ability but because of his propensity to make blunders, not what you want from a centre back. I'm coming round to the possibility of him joining though. We do need another central defender and as we are still working within a budget he is probably the best we are going to get. I assume he would start the season as the fourth choice assuming James Tompkins stays.

Ravel Morrison scored one and also won a penalty.

Alou Diarra played and also scored a goal. Diarra is a top player, a French international. I saw him play in the League Cup last year and he looked good before he stomped off back to France.

If Bramble, Morrison and Diarra could prove they have overcome their various issues they could be good, cost effective additions to the squad.

Paul McCallum scored one and made one. It's widely reported that another striker signing is being sought but that's still going to leave us short on numbers up front. It will be interesting to see if McCallum can push for a first team squad place this year.

New signings Adrian, Rat and Whitehead made their debut's for the club.

West Ham United first-half XI: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Collins, Bramble, Potts, Diarra, Collison, Nolan, Cole, Jarvis, Maiga
Second-half XI: Adrian, Potts, Tomkins, Reid, Rat, Noble, Morrison, Whitehead, Vaz Te, Taylor, McCallum

David Sullivan now majority shareholder

Co-chairman David Sullivan has become West Ham United's largest single shareholder, having acquired a further 25 per cent stake in the club from CB Holdings taking his personal stake to 56 per cent and giving him overall control of the Club.

On the face of it a good thing, reducing the remaining CB Holdings (the Icelandic's) stake but I wonder what David Gold thinks about it. Presumably Sullivan discussed the move with him beforehand...?

Transfer rumours

Incoming

Wilfred Bony - West Ham have reportedly made a £10.2m bid for Bony. The official transfer twitter feed has denied the story though, stating we did make a bid but it was rejected so Bony will not be joining.

Titus Bramble - training with West Ham at their pre-season camp in Cork. West Ham fans will be nervous that this is more than just a way of helping Bramble to keep fit.

Gary O'Neil - O'Neil is our latest signing after his last contract ran out at the end of June. Presumably the new contract is at a lower wage rate and as he has proved his worth as a squad player since recovering from his long term injury in the promotion season I think this is a good signing for the club.

Outgoing

Matt Taylor to Newcastle - bit of a surprise this one, after a couple of years of Tompkins to Newcastle stories. If true it could mean the Geordies have changed their transfer tactics from buying young French players to old English ones, especially if the Darren Bent story to NUFC is true as well.

Rob Hall has left the club and signed for Bolton. Real shame this one as he was the youth player who we expected big things from. I suspect he calculated that Sam's preference for experience meant his first team chances would continue to be limited.

Allardyce the new Cloughie

The Mail reported Sam Allardyce as saying about the arrival of Andy Carroll, 'I look at Andy and think, “Is he better than what I already have here and the answer to that is yes”.’

Which reminded me of one of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor's golden rules of the transfer market. Taylor explained in his autobiography they would always give the same speech to a new signing: 'Son, the first time we can replace you with a better player, we'll do it without blinking an eyelid. That's what we're paid to do - to produce the best side and to win as many things as we can. If we see a better player than you but don't sign him then we're frauds. But we're not frauds.'

West Ham sign Danny Whitehead

Like London buses two new players have turned up more or less together. This one is a little lower profile than record signing Andy Carroll though. Danny Whitehead has signed from Stockport County (who were relegated from the Conference last season - just saying). Whitehead is a 19 year old attacking midfielder, he made 59 appearances for Stockport and spent 2 weeks on trial at West Ham at the end of last season. BFS and his coaches have obviously decided Whitehead has the potential to make an impact in the Premier although he will no doubt be in the U21 team next season.

West Ham confirm Andy Carroll signing

The official West Ham website has confirmed the news that was broken by the West Ham transfer news Twitter reporter Jack Sullivan yesterday. Andy Carroll has signed for the club on a six-year contract for an undisclosed fee,  widely reported to be in the region of £15m.

West Ham fixtures 2013/2014

I don't like the look of the last game, Man City away. I prefer a home game against a team likely to be mid-table just in case we need something from it. Hopefully we'll have the points on the board by then so we won't need to worry about it.

August
17/08/2013 15:00 Cardiff City (h)
24/08/2013 15:00 Newcastle United (a)
31/08/2013 15:00 Stoke City (h)

September
14/09/2013 15:00 Southampton (a)
21/09/2013 15:00 Everton (h)
28/09/2013 15:00 Hull City (a)

October
05/10/2013 15:00 Tottenham Hotspur (a)
19/10/2013 15:00 Manchester City (h)
26/10/2013 15:00 Swansea City (a)

November
02/11/2013 15:00 Aston Villa (h)
09/11/2013 15:00 Norwich City (a)
23/11/2013 15:00 Chelsea (h)
30/11/2013 15:00 Fulham (h)

December
03/12/2013 20:00 Crystal Palace (a)
07/12/2013 15:00 Liverpool (a)
14/12/2013 15:00 Sunderland (h)
21/12/2013 15:00 Manchester United (a)
26/12/2013 15:00 Arsenal (h)
28/12/2013 15:00 West Bromwich Albion (h)

January
01/01/2014 15:00 Fulham (a)
11/01/2014 15:00 Cardiff City (a)
18/01/2014 15:00 Newcastle United (h)
29/01/2014 19:45 Chelsea (a)

February
01/02/2014 15:00 Swansea City (h)
08/02/2014 15:00 Aston Villa (a)
11/02/2014 19:45 Norwich City (h)
22/02/2014 15:00 Southampton (h)

March
01/03/2014 15:00 Everton (a)
08/03/2014 15:00 Hull City (h)
15/03/2014 15:00 Stoke City (a)
22/03/2014 15:00 Manchester United (h)
29/03/2014 15:00 Sunderland (a)

April
05/04/2014 15:00 Liverpool (h)
12/04/2014 15:00 Arsenal (a)
19/04/2014 15:00 Crystal Palace (h)
26/04/2014 15:00 West Bromwich Albion (a)

May
03/05/2014 15:00 Tottenham Hotspur (h)
11/05/2014 15:00 Manchester City (a)

Transfer's update

Plenty of rumours but not much concrete news on the transfer front at the moment so I thought I'd give my take on players signed and those we are being linked with. As a West Ham supporter for over 40 years I naturally tend to be a little pessimistic at times:

Signed
Razan Rat - Veteran Romanian, two words to strike fear into any West Ham fan.

Adrian - worrying that he will turn out to be a dodgy keeper in the Allan McKnight mode.

Rumours
Andy Carroll - yes we want him but big money and injury prone. Already out with a heal injury for 3 months, he will miss pre-season so won't be fit when he does eventually return. Almost guaranteed to be another injury hit season next year.

Ambrosini - he's 36, nuff said.

Demba Ba - his knee injury that made him uninsurable has been forgotten because of his impact in English football. If we re-signed him the knee is bound to go.

Romelu Lukulu - Pace, power, young, scores goals. Would be a loan but no obvious downside, therefore won't happen.

Wilfied Zaha - see above

Wilfied Bony - has scored a lot of goals in Holland but then so did 'Mad' Marco Boogers.

Adrian signs!

It's being reported that 26 year old Real Betis goalkeeper, Adrian, has signed a three year deal. It worries me a bit this one as I think he's been signed because:

1. he's cheap
2. he had a good game recently against Real Madrid

He's only had one season playing for the Betis first team and apparently he was a bit shaky at first. Jussi will start the season as first choice and as he played every minute of every league game last season it may not matter how good Adrian is. Jussi showed last year though what a big difference a sound goalie makes to a team.

Carlton Cole

The official website has confirmed Carlton Cole has left the club at the end of his contract, having not been offered a new one. He's been at the club for 7 years, never a prolific scorer but always giving 100% he never wanted to leave the club even when we were relegated, unlike many others. He was one of the major reasons why we were able to achieve promotion in 2012 including a supurb performance in the play-off final against Blackpool at Wembley.

Personally I will remember him most fondly for his performance against Millwall last year when we were reduced to 10 men after only 10 minutes. Cole made sure that Millwall could never make the extra player count by sheer hard work and ability, running their defence ragged for the whole game and enabling us to get a vital victory against the odds.

Razvan Rat signs!

Apparently we have signed Romanian left back Ravan Rat, presumably nicknamed Roland. He will be the third Romanian to play for West Ham after Dumitrescu and Raduciou...third time lucky hopefully. I can't say I know much about him but he comes with a good pedigree having played 88 times for Romania and for Shakhtar Donetsk since 2003. He was in the team that won the UEFA Cup in 2009 and played in the Champions League this season just gone. Sounds a good player and left back is certainly a position that could be strengthened, my only concern is his age, at 31 does he still have the desire to make a success of this new challenge?

 

Andy Carroll - stay or go?

A few months ago the question would've been do we want Andy Carroll to stay or go. We always knew he was a good player but his injury problems alongside his cost, fee + wages, meant that it was a tough call and at one stage I got the impression that the owners had decided he was too costly.

However in the last couple of months of the season he has really proved his worth to the team and I think that his loan signing was the key point of the season for us, he really seemed to galvanise the whole club. His debut against Fulham was the best performance I had seen from a West Ham team for years. I don't think there's any doubt the owners now want to sign him, he was their player of the season after all and BFS certainly wants him so the big questions is will he sign? To be honest I don't think so, he has gone on record saying how much he enjoyed his time at West Ham but his tweet after the last game seemed to be goodbye and Kevin Nolan is now saying his signing is not the be all and end all for the club which makes you think he knows which way the wind is blowing as he is a good mate of Carroll's apparently.

It'd be a great coup if we signed him, a current England international and I personally think it would be a good move for the player as well but I'm biased. I suspect he wants to return to the Geordie Nation. If that happens we should thank him for his efforts and move on. The important thing will be to identify the right player and get him instead, there are other good players out there, our problem over the last few years has been getting too many average players in. To be fair BFS and the current owners have a good record on signings so far, especially as they are working on a budget.

West Ham United 4-2 Reading

The win we wanted to guarentee 10th place and a decent performance apart from the first 15 minutes of each half, although it has to be said that we were helped by some poor Reading defending.

A hat-trick from Kevin Nolan, often unfairly criticised by fans, meant he finished the season as top scorer and a couple of assists from Andy Carroll underlined his importance to the team.

West Ham v Reading preview

Nothing on this game as such as reading are already relegated and we are safe but this is a game I would very much like to win because:

1. A win would guarentee a top 10 finish which would be a great achievement the first season after promotion.
2. The difference between prize money for 10th place and 14th, the lowest we can finish, is over £3m.
3. It's against Reading and we never seem to beat them.

The move to the Olympic Stadium

The move to the OS is in the news again with the club revealing that the consultation carried out has revealed 85% of supporters in favour of the move. Nailing my colours to the mast, and the name of the blog might give this away, I am a supporter of the move and I will explain the reasons below. However the atmosphere of a traditional football stadium, like the one we experienced at Everton last weekend and our own Upton Park, puts up a strong argument for staying put and this is what really worries supporters of course, is the move purely a way for the owners to make money from their investment.

Ground moves by other clubs should also be a warning that things can go wrong. Coventry and Oxford both left traditional grounds within walking distance of their respective town centre's to move to sparkling new grounds out on the ring road. Coventry are now down in League One and have to find a new ground for next season as they can't afford the rent and Oxford have struggled since moving from what was, admitedly, a ramshakle but likeable ground.

So if there are risks involved why do I support the move?

1. The OS is known throughout the world and will become a destination that people will want to visit. Playing at a world class stadium will increase the worldwide marketability of the club and hopefully help to move us up from our present level.
2. The olympics showed the OS is an atmospheric stadium and the new roof and retractable seating should add to that atmosphere (assuming the majority of seats/standing areas? are sold).
3. I love Upton Park but to me it is no longer the amazingly atmospheric (and intimidating to visitors if we're honest) ground that I remember from the mid 70's to early 80's. It was run down but on it's day it was the loudest stadium in England, this is no longer the case.
4. Unlike a lot of the new grounds which are only easily accessible by car the OS will be one of the best connected stadiums in Europe, easily accessible by car and public transport.
5. Moving will enable the owners to pay off the club's debts and having £100m or so of debt is not a good position for any company to be in.
6. I trust Sullivan and Gold more than any of the other recent owners and therefore feel they will overcome the challenges and avoid the risks and pitfalls that the move will inevitably throw up.

Everton 2-0 West Ham United

As I suspected Everton and their crowd wanted to give Moyes a good send-off and we looked like we wanted to be on the beach. Can't complain too much I suppose as we've had a great season but still a little disappointing to be so thoroughly outplayed. The only consolation being that in the past we would probably have lost by at least five but thanks to Jussi and the defence, especially Ginge, the score was kept respectable.

Everton v West Ham preview

The big story of the week has been the departure of Fergie & his hairdryer from Man Utd and the imminent arrival of David Moyes from Everton to replace him. Let's be honest though, all we really care about is how that will effect Everton today and if we can sneak a win from what is a pretty barren hunting ground for the mighty 'ammers.

I suspect that an emotional Goodison will give Moyes a good send-off and get behind their team and with the well documented night out that the West Ham players enjoyed in the week this could be another tough one I suspect. It's nice that, for the first time in years, we don't have anything to be nervous about going into the last couple of games but we still want to win obviously and a top half finish would be beyond my wildest expectations at the start of the season.