tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49246489712520920472024-03-08T13:53:50.731+00:00West Ham UnitedHammers News is produced by John Simkin. The blog will provide everything you would want to know about West Ham United. This includes match reports, in-depth articles about the club, player profiles, player match-ratings, transfer news, book reviews, etc.John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-52441329946295387872015-07-02T22:12:00.002+01:002015-07-02T22:12:09.158+01:00Reece Oxford will tonight become the youngest player to play for West Ham <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">West Ham will play a very young team against FC Lusitanos at Upton Park tonight. This includes Reece Oxford and Lewis Page who have yet to play for the first-team. James Tomkins will captain the side for the first time. Several of the senior figures in the team were injured at the end of last season and therefore returned early this summer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reece Oxford is aged 16 years and 198 days making him the clubs youngest ever player beating a record set in 1922. He will be partnered at the centre of defence by Reece Burke who is only 18 but managed 5 appearances last season. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although Slaven Bilic will be present at the ground the team will be led by new Academy director Terry Westley, who recently succeeded Tony Carr in the post. Westley commented: "We've got some very exciting young players coming through. Lewis Page and Reece Oxford will get their opportunities tomorrow. Blooding young players is crucial. Lewis and Reece haven't played for the first team yet. We've got other players on the bench too."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is reported that the starting lineup for tonight's game is as follows: Darren Randolph; Joey O'Brien, James Tomkins, Reece Burke, Reece Oxford, Lewis Page; Morgan Amalfitano, Diego Poyet, Matt Jarvis; Diafra Sakho, Mauro Zarate.</span>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-71284667020672488152015-06-21T16:57:00.002+01:002015-06-21T16:57:14.944+01:00West Ham News<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slaven Bilic defends his record as a manager. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Gold said only a few weeks ago that West Ham United planned to appoint a manager who had achieved success in one of the major European leagues. It came as quite a surprise when Slaven Bilic was announced as the new manager. Although he did well with the Croatia national team he was far from impressive when he was with Lokomotiv Moscow and Besiktas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bilic has hit back at criticism of his lack of silverware from fans and says the only reason he did not win the league in Turkey is because the club did not have its own ground. Besiktas' Inönü stadium was being rebuilt during his two years there and will not reopen until next season leaving them to travel miles to play their "home" games in Istanbul, Konya and Ankara. He told Fanatik: "I can say this without any reservations one of the key factors behind Beşiktaş not winning the league was not having a stadium. (21st June, 2015) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will Charlie Austin sign for West Ham?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The striker Charlie Austin is wanted by West Ham with relegated Queen’s Park Rangers looking for a fee of £15m from the transfer of their most saleable asset. Other clubs are also interested in Austin who made an impressive impact in his first season in the Premier League with 18 goals. This includes Chelsea but it is believed that Austin will reject the champions because he wants to be a regular starter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Newcastle United have made the first bid but Austin went on Twitter to suggest that he is not attracted to the idea of living in that area of the country. Crystal Palace are also interested but Austin is likely to be more willing to go to a club that can offer him European football. Southampton, who are also rumoured to want him, can indeed offer him that but they cannot make a bid for him until they sell Morgan Schneiderlin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning it is reported in the Daily Express that Liverpool are interested in signing Austin. This of course depends on them selling Raheem Sterling first. Charlie Austin lives in London and I suspect that if a bid comes in early West Ham could get him to become their main striker next season. (16th June, 2015) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slaven Bilic's first signing might be Croatia's new young sensation, Alen Halilović.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is being reported that Slaven Bilic's first signing might be Croatia's new young sensation, Alen Halilović. He is the youngest ever debutant for the Croatian national team, and is considered to be one of the most promising young talents of European football and has been described as the “Croatian Messi” due to his overall skill and ability. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When he was seventeen Halilović signed for Barcelona in March 2014 for €2.2m. However, he still has not played for them and the increasingly frustrated Halilović might be tempted to join his fellow countryman at West Ham. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been suggested that other Croatian youngsters are worth looking at. For example, Andrija Balić and Nikola Vlašić both play for Hajduk Split. Some of the top European clubs have shown interest in these players and Valencia have already offered €10m for Balić and Vlašić. Balić's six goals in 18 matches from midfield looks especially impressive. (14th June 2015) </span>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-78914882522820372042015-02-19T16:06:00.000+00:002015-02-19T16:06:05.540+00:00Sam Allardyce – The Psychological Problems of Success<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do hope that Sam Allardyce does not get a new contract at
West Ham. To many fans this might appear
to be a harsh judgement on a man who got us promoted to the Premier League and
kept us there. I also expect him to keep
us in the top eight until the end of the season. In normal circumstances, a manager with these
achievements, would expect to receive a new contract. After all, one of Sam’s
proud boasts is that he has never left a club in a lower position than when he
took over. Blackpool (1994-1996), Notts County (1997-1999), Bolton Wanderers
(1999-2007), Newcastle United (2007-2008) and Blackburn Rovers (2008-2010). It
is statistics like this that unite the football pundits in criticising West Ham
fans for not wanting his contract to be renewed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, over the last two seasons Sam has shown that he has
a fatal flaw and I believe with another manager we can obtain even better
results than we have had over the last three years. Sam’s problems are located
in the success he has had in the past. It is a common problem with many
managers. Sam problem goes back to his time at Bolton, the place where he had
his greatest success. The person who was his commander on the pitch and in the
dressing-room was a young man by the name of Kevin Nolan. He was appointed
captain of the club at the age of 24. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bolton achieved great success under Sam - sixth in 2004–05, eighth in 2005-06. However,
he claimed that he knew he would never win anything important at Bolton and in
May 2007 he moved to Newcastle United. Although a much bigger club than Bolton,
Sam struggled at the club and with fan protests about poor results and a low
standard of football he lost his job in January 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was not out of work for long and he had soon signed a
contract with Blackburn Rovers. The club finished 15<sup>th</sup> that season.
This was improved to 10<sup>th</sup> in the 2009-2010 season. He was sacked the
following season with the club in 13<sup>th</sup> position.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although all these clubs marginally finished higher in the
league than when he joined them, only at Bolton was he really successful. It is
this success at Bolton that dominates his thinking. It was no real surprise
when one of his first signings for West Ham was Kevin Nolan. It is true that
Nolan did a reasonable job for Bolton when he was in his early twenties.
However, it was never good enough to get him into the England squad (he did
appear in two under 21 games). He was also 29 years of age and his recent form
had suggested that he was well past his best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It was not a real
problem when we were in the championship but he was clearly not good enough for
the Premier League. Despite this, Nolan
always plays except for when he is injured. This is usually when we play at our
best. Nolan was out of the side in the early months of the season with an
injured shoulder. Sam made a revealing comment on television when Chris Kamara complimented
him on this good run of form. Sam replied that it had given him a problem of
how he was going to get Kevin Nolan back in the team when he was fit. Of
course, Sam found a way, and it was at the detriment of the team. It is no
coincidence that Stewart Downing always plays better when Nolan is not in the
team. He likes the freedom to roam into
those areas that are normally occupied by Nolan and therefore tends to stay
wide too much where he is less effective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sam often claims that he is a keen user of stats. However,
he seems to have a blind spot when it comes to Nolan. The reason for this is
that he is making these decisions for psychological and not performance
reasons. Nolan is Sam’s man in the dressing-room. As long as this is the case,
he is confident that he will not lose the support of his team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Captains are important to managers. There is a very
interesting story that concerns Arsène Wenger when he joined Arsenal in 1996.
The team did not approve of his training methods and his strange views on diet.
A delegation of players went to see him to complain. He had a rebellion on his
hands. He solved the problem by persuading the strongest character in the
dressing-room, Tony Adams, that he was employing the right methods. It was
Adams who was able to convince the rest of the team to accept Wenger’s new
ideas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is no coincidence that since Tony Adams left the club,
Arsenal have gone into decline. It often has been said that his side lacks
strong characters such as Adams. That is surely true, but maybe that is because
Wenger does not want strong characters in the team. The problem with dominant
personalities is that they sometimes challenge the authority of the manager. Only
the really great managers are confident to have those types of characters in
his team. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kevin Nolan gives Sam Allardyce security. He does not have the intellectual confidence
to leave him out of the team. That is why we need a new manager who is more
flexible in his thinking. It is claimed that David Moyes is favourite for the
job. I would prefer Tony Pulis, who last week gave Sam a lesson on how to set
up a team. However, I suspect both will be unavailable. I would give the job to
Sean Dyche who has done a fantastic job with Burney. Only two players in the
team, Danny Ings and Kieran Trippier, would get into any other Premier League
team. Yet, they are still in with a chance of avoiding relegation. I have heard
him interviewed several times and I suspect he is going to the very top.
Hopefully, he does it with West Ham and not some other team. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-73052846386704567382014-08-04T16:33:00.000+01:002014-08-04T16:33:15.816+01:00West Ham United and the First World War<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August, 1914. Cricket and rugby competitions stopped almost immediately after the outbreak of the First World War. However, the Football League continued with the 1914-15 season. Most football players were professionals and were tied to clubs through one-year renewable contracts. Players could only join the armed forces if the clubs agreed to cancel their contracts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On 7th August, 1914, Lord Kitchener , the war minister, immediately began a recruiting campaign by calling for men aged between 19 and 30 to join the British Army. At first this was very successful with an average of 33,000 men joining every day. Three weeks later Kitchener raised the recruiting age to 35 and by the middle of September over 500,000 men had volunteered their services.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On 6th September 1914, Arthur Conan Doyle, appealed for footballers to join the armed forces: "There was a time for all things in the world. There was a time for games, there was a time for business, and there was a time for domestic life. There was a time for everything, but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war. If the cricketer had a straight eye let him look along the barrel of a rifle. If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle." Some newspapers suggested that those who did not join up were "contributing to a German victory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frederick Charrington, the son of the wealthy brewer who had established the Tower Hamlets Mission, attacked the West Ham United players for being effeminate and cowardly for getting paid for playing football while others were fighting on the Western Front. The famous amateur footballer and cricketer, Charles B. Fry, called for the abolition of football, demanding that all professional contracts be annulled and that no one below forty years of age be allowed to attend matches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">West Ham had high hopes that they could win the Southern League for the first time and refused to cancel the contracts of their professional players. In Syd Puddefoot they had the country's most promising young goalscorer. West Ham won six of their first 12 games. Puddefoot got nine goals during this period. George Hilsdon and Richard Leafe were also in good form and got 7 between them. Once again West Ham were challenging for the Southern League title.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In October 1914, the Secretary of State, Lord Kitchener, issued a call for volunteers to both replace those killed in the early battles of the First World War. At the beginning of the war the army had strict specifications about who could become soldiers. Men joining the army had to be at least 5ft 6in tall and a chest measurement of 35 inches. However, these specifications were changed in order to get more men to join the armed forces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bishop of Chelmsford paid a visit in Bethnal Green where he gave a sermon on the need for professional footballers to join the armed services. The Stratford Express reported on 2nd December 1914: " The Bishop, in an address on Duty, spoke of the magnificent response that had been made to the call to duty from the King. All must play their part. They must not let their brothers go to the front and themselves remain indifferent. He felt that the cry against professional football at the present time was right. He could not understand men who had any feeling, any respect for their country, men in the prime of life, taking large salaries at a time like this for kicking a ball about. It seemed to him something incongruous and unworthy".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under considerable pressure from the government, the Football Association eventually backed down and called for football clubs to release professional footballers who were not married, to join the armed forces. The FA also agreed to work closely with the War Office to encourage football clubs to organize recruiting drives at matches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Athletic News responded angrily: "The whole agitation is nothing less than an attempt by the ruling classes to stop the recreation on one day in the week of the masses ... What do they care for the poor man's sport? The poor are giving their lives for this country in thousands. In many cases they have nothing else... These should, according to a small clique of virulent snobs, be deprived of the one distraction that they have had for over thirty years."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Three members of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee visited Upton Park during half-time to call for volunteers. Joe Webster, the West Ham United goalkeeper, was one of those who joined the Football Battalion as a result of this appeal. Jack Tresadern joined the Royal Garrison Artillery. An intelligent man, he quickly reached the rank of lieutenant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">West Ham United supporters also formed their own Pals Battalion. The 13th (Service) Battalion (West Ham Pals) were part of the Essex Regiment. On 5th March 1915 the East Ham Echo reported that Henry Dyer, the Mayor of West Ham, held a concert on behalf of the West Ham Battalion: "During the evening the Mayor briefly addressed the men. He remarked that it was the first time he had the opportunity of speaking to the Battalion as a whole. He was proud of them and when they had gone away a close watch upon their movements would be kept."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his book War Hammers: The Story of West Ham United During the First World War, Brian Belton argues that the battle cry of the West Ham Pals was "Up the Irons." They saw action at the Somme, Ypres, Vimy Ridge and Cambrai. The war took a terrible toll on these men. Over the next three years the battalion suffered casualties of 37,404 killed, wounded and missing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not all the West Ham players joined the armed forces. According to Brian Belton: "Syd Puddefoot, worked long, exhausting and often dangerous shifts in munitions factories." Five former West Ham United players were killed in action during the war: Fred Griffiths, Arthur Stallard, William Jones, Frank Cannon and William Kennedy. West Ham's star forward, George Hilsdon, had to endure a mustard gas attack at Arras in 1917. This badly damaged his lungs and although he played briefly for Chatham Town after the war it brought an end to his professional football career. Fred Harrison was also badly gassed on the Western Front and never played football again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/WestHamHistory.htm">http://spartacus-educational.com/WestHamHistory.htm</a> </span>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-6139432685972922392014-05-10T03:48:00.001+01:002014-05-10T03:48:04.159+01:00Spartacus Educational<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Spartacus Educational has a new home:</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/">http://spartacus-educational.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-79390415330503251142014-01-27T10:49:00.001+00:002014-01-27T10:49:09.306+00:00Sam Allardyce is the sixth highest paid manager in the Premier League. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to a report published by Sporting Intelligence Sam Allardyce is the sixth highest paid manager in the Premier League. His £2.95m a year is behind Jose Mourinho (£8.37m), Arsene Wenger £6.89m, David Moyes (£4.92m), Manuel Pellegrini (£3.47m) and Brendan Rodgers (£3.25m). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allardyce, who is on the same money as Roy Hodgson, the England manager, is the 13th highest paid manager in Europe and receives more than Roberto Mancini (Galatasaray, £2.92m), Rafa Benitez (Napoli, £2.92m), Claudio Ranieri, (Monaco, £2.5m), Laurent Blanc (PSG, £2.5m), Antonio Conte (Juventus, £2.5m), Cesare Prandelli (Italy, £2.5m), Massimiliano Allegri (Milan, £2.34m), Felipe Scolari (Brazil, £2.3m), Harry Redknapp (QPR, £2.09m), Joachim Low (Germany, £2.09m), Walter Mazzarri (Inter Milan, £2m) and Vecente del Bosque (Spain, £1.96m).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.sportingintelligence.com/</span><br />
<br />John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-91366232413262422922014-01-21T14:39:00.001+00:002014-01-21T14:39:21.414+00:00The origins of the conflict between West Ham Millwall<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">I have recently been researching the origins of the conflict between West Ham United and Millwall. It has to
be remembered that Millwall was established in 1885, ten years before Thames
Ironworks and fifteen years before West Ham United.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Millwall were in
fact champions of the Southern League when Thames Ironworks was established.
Therefore the first game between the two clubs took place on 14th December,
1895. That day Thames Ironworks played a game against Millwall Reserves and
lost 6-0. A return match was arranged on 25<sup>th</sup> April, 1896. This time
the result was 1-1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Thames Ironworks won
the Southern League Division 2 in the 1898-99. That meant that in the 1899-1900
season they were playing in the same league as Millwall. The first game took
place on 23<sup>rd</sup> December 1899. Up until then Thames Ironworks had home
gates of between 1,000 (Chatham) and 3,000 (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Bristol</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>).
However, for this game they had an attendance of 12,000. John Powles, the
author of <i>Iron in the Blood</i> (2005),
does not report any crowd trouble in the game. Millwall won the game 2-0.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">That year Thames
Ironworks also played Millwall in the FA Cup. This time 13,000 people saw
Millwall win the game 2-1. It might be this game that caused the conflict
between the two clubs. Tom Bradshaw scored the Hammers goal. It was the last
game he played dying on 25<sup>th</sup> December 1899. Officially the 26 year
old Bradshaw died of tuberculosis. However, friends claimed that he had been
complaining of terrible pains when he headed the ball. This he blamed on a game
he had played several years previously when a member of the <st1:place w:st="on">Liverpool</st1:place>
team. Did he receive a blow to the head
while playing against Millwall? Bradshaw was a popular player and if the fans
thought this was the case might have caused considerable anger towards
Millwall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Interestingly,
Bradshaw’s death also increased hostility towards Spurs. In 1899, Francis
Payne, the club secretary, was given the task of finding good players for
Thames Iron Works to prepare them for the first season in the top division of
the Southern League. His record signing of £1000 was Bradshaw from Spurs. Hammers’ fans were convinced that Spurs would
have known he was suffering from tuberculosis when they sold him. Bradshaw only
played four games for Thames Ironworks before that fateful game against Millwall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The third game
against Millwall was even more important. Thames Ironworks was second from
bottom of the league when they played Millwall on 28<sup>th</sup> April 1900.
In front of 8,000 people the Hammers won 1-0. This stopped them from being
automatically relegated and had to play a “Test Match” against Fulham. The
Hammers stayed in the league by winning 5-1. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The following
season Thames Ironworks changed its name to West Ham United. For the next 14
years the West Ham v Millwall was the most important game of the season,
attracting nearly double the attendance of any other game. More importantly,
West Ham obtained dominance over Millwall during this period. In 1919 West Ham
joined the Second Division of the Football League. In the 1922-23 season West
Ham was promoted to the First Division and was beaten by <st1:place w:st="on">Bolton</st1:place>
in the 1923 Cup Final. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">After this, West
Ham was rarely in the same division as Millwall. Although we did beat them 4-1 in the FA Cup on
15<sup>th</sup> February, 1930. The next time we played them was in the 1932-33
season after we had been relegated to the Second Division. On 17<sup>th</sup>
September 1932 we beat them 3-0 (two of the goals were scored by the great Vic
Watson). The relative size of the two clubs is reflected in the fact that
30,000 attended that game, but the return match at Millwall only had a crowd of
5,000. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WestHamHistory.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WestHamHistory.htm</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHbradshaw.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHbradshaw.htm</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-7391043298355354862013-01-12T10:33:00.003+00:002013-01-12T10:33:42.775+00:00Martin Glover, head of recruitment at West Ham<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Martin Glover is head of recruitment at West Ham. Together with Sam Allardyce he drew up a list of ten men they wanted in the summer. This included Michu who eventually ended up Swansea. Allardyce blames Glover for not saying: "You must sign this player." They eventually decided on targeting six playerss. The only one on the list that West Ham signed was Mohamed Diame.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allardyce has signed Winston Paulista on loan. He has been playing in Brazil and Allardyce rarely buys players without Premier League experience. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is rather disturbing to hear that West Ham are not willing to offer Carlton Cole a new deal at the moment. His contract comes to an end in the summer. Allardyce is clearly taking advantage of Cole's comments that he really wants to stay at the club. </span><br />
<br />
John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-8790834046515558992012-09-25T09:43:00.001+01:002012-09-25T09:43:31.023+01:00West Ham BiographiesIt is true most West Ham biographies are very dull. This is definitely true of footballers who are still playing. However, there are some really good ones by West Ham players. This includes Bobby Moore's "Bobby Moore: The Life and Times of a Sporting Hero" (1997), based on his interviews with his great friend, Jeff Powell. See for example, his views on Ron Greenwood and Malcolm Allison.<br />
Here is a passage about Moore playing his first game for the Hammers. It is a game I still remember with great affection.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Malcolm had been battling for months to recover from tuberculosis. I'd even seen him the day he got the news of his illness. I was a groundstaff boy and I'd gone to Upton Park to collect my wages. I saw Malcolm standing on his own on the balcony at the back of the stand. Tears in his eyes. Big Mal actually crying. He'd been coaching me and coaching me and coaching me but I still didn't feel I knew him well enough to go up and ask what was wrong.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">When I came out of the office I looked up again and Noel Cantwell was standing with his arm round Malcolm. He'd just been told he'd got T.B.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">It wasn't like Malcolm to give up. By the start of that 1958 season we were battling away together in the reserves, Malcolm proving he could still play, me proving I might be able to play one day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">West Ham had just come up. They went to Portsmouth and won. They beat Wolves at home in their second game. After three or four matches they were top of the First Division, due to play Manchester United on the Monday night, and they had run out of left halves. Billy Lansdowne, Andy Nelson, all of them were unfit. It's got to be me or Malcolm.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">I'd been a professional for two and a half months and Malcolm had taught me everything I knew. For all the money in the world I wanted to play. For all the money in the world I wanted Malcolm to play because he'd worked like a bastard for this one game in the First Division.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">It would have meant the world to him. Just one more game, just one minute in that game. I knew that on the day Malcolm with all his experience would probably do a better job than me. But maybe I'm one for the future.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">It somehow had to be that when I walked into the dressing room and found out I was playing, Malcolm was the first person I saw. I was embarrassed to look at him. He said "Well done. I hope you do well." I knew he meant it but I knew how he felt. For a moment I wanted to push the shirt at him and say "Go on, Malcolm. It's yours. Have your game. I can't stop you. Go on, Malcolm. My time will come."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">But he walked out and I thought maybe my time wouldn't come again. Maybe this would be my only chance. I thought: you've got to be lucky to get the chance, and when the chance comes you've got to be good enough to take it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">I went out and played the way Malcolm had always told me to play. Afterwards I looked for him back in the dressing room. Couldn't find him.</span><br />
<br />
Malcolm Allison, Colours of my Life (1975) is another great book. As Allison once said, I think of myself as more of a teacher than a coach. This is supported by Moore and the rest of those who played under him. However, as John Bond once said, the problem with Malcolm is that he was good at coaching others but a disaster managing himself. <br />
<br />
Footballers are rarely great writers and the best books are like the one by Jeff Powell, based on interviews. A good interviewer can make most people articulate. Therefore, I highly recommend Brian Belton’s Days of Iron (1999). <br />
<br />
I agree that Charles Korr's, West Ham United: The Making of a Football Club (1986) is the most intelligent book written about West Ham. After all, it was Korr's Ph.D. <br />
<br />
If you like biographies shorter than book length I suggest you visit:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WestHam.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WestHam.htm</a><br />
<br />
John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-65272651807461880472012-06-02T16:54:00.002+01:002012-06-02T16:54:17.664+01:00JoseluSam Allardyce wants Real Madrid's striker Joselu. He looks good on the floor but he is 6 3 but does not score goals with his head. Maybe that is because of the way Real Madrid plays. That will have to change if Sam signs him.<br />
<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/west-ham-target-joselu-real-859405">http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/west-ham-target-joselu-real-859405</a><br />
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<br />John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-78676507065628251112012-05-22T07:16:00.003+01:002012-05-22T07:16:44.083+01:00Carlton Cole<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carlton Cole took a 50 percent wage cut to stay with West Ham. The 28-year-old striker turned down a move to Stoke after the Hammers were relegated at the end of the 2010-11 season, instead slashing his wages to £14,000-per-week from £28,000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I’ve kept my mouth shut for quite a while but I did take a wage cut to stay in the Championship. Half of my wages just went... 'I didn’t want to leave the ship, I am that sort of guy. I would not have been able to live with myself. It is just such a reward today to get to the Premier League again with West Ham at the first time of asking. This was D-Day for all of us. I can’t explain how proud as a player, person and family man I am to be here. Obviously I want to earn as much as I can in my career. But when you have been relegated, you don’t deserve it and you need to work back to where you need to get to. Then they give it back to you. That is the way I felt."</span>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-74347504956902061202012-05-21T06:57:00.001+01:002012-05-21T07:00:06.625+01:00Promoted to the Premiership<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Gold talking about why it was important to win promotion this year: "It would have cost probably another £30m.... If you own 150 oil wells, then it's no problem. If you own 150 Ann Summers shops... it is."</span>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-42944556009580512332012-04-16T08:14:00.000+01:002012-04-16T08:14:49.730+01:00Vic WatsonYou can see Vic Watson score both goals in West Ham's 2-1 victory against Huddersfield Town on 1st September, 1930. <br />
<br />
http://backup.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=3905John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-86680525294007932622012-02-21T08:17:00.002+00:002012-02-21T08:48:08.612+00:00Iain Dale's Interview with David SullivanIain Dale has managed to get a great interview with David Sullivan. It is one of the best I have read with a football chairman. Here is talking about why O'Neill did not become manager:<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.westhamtillidie.com/2012/02/18/in-conversation-with-david-sullivan-part-1-demba-ba-one-of-the-biggest-mistake-of-my-life/">http://www.westhamtillidie.com/2012/02/18/in-conversation-with-david-sullivan-part-1-demba-ba-one-of-the-biggest-mistake-of-my-life/</a><br><br /><br /><blockquote>It’s very hard to talk about third parties, but we were very close to having another manager come, who I can’t name for obvious reasons. We had 25 hours of meetings with that manager. Twenty-five hours! At every meeting, that manager said to us: “I will be the next manager of West Ham United”. And we kept saying: “When?” Had he come, we would have changed manager. The problem came when he finally said he wasn’t going to come until the summer, and only if we stayed up. At that point, we thought, probably wrongly, it was too late to bring somebody else in. The obvious alternative was Sam at the point, but I think that would have been unacceptable to the supporters last January. Whilst it was acceptable in May, Sam wasn’t the first choice in January. He was the backup choice. David [Gold] would have changed for the first choice manager, but he was unhappy to change for the second choice manager, and I didn’t feel strong enough to have a row about it. It was a very marginal decision. Whether Sam would have kept us up, who knows? To me there were enough good players to keep us up. Just with Demba Ba and Scott Parker – those two alone should have kept us up.</blockquote><br /><br />I agree with his comments aboout Scott Parker:<br /><br /><blockquote>This might not please many people, but if you look at Scott Parker’s performance in the first five games of this season. To me, it didn’t look like he was doing the tackling you’d normally expect him to do. He was running about, he was doing OK but he wasn’t doing the tackling we know he can do do, because he knew that the one thing that would stop a move for him would be an injury. To me it looked like he didn’t want to be there. He told us he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to play for the club. In the nicest possible way, he said “I’ve given you my all for the last 3, 4, 5 years, you owe it to me to let me go”. Now there is an argument that he’s right. There’s no player who has given more for the club in recent years, so to make him stay against his wishes… He was protecting himself either consciously or subconsciously. If you want to be kind, it was subconscious. If you want to be unkind, he was consciously protecting himself. His performances in those games were not the Scott Parker we know and I think most supporters could see that. He’s gone to Spurs and he is back to his old self. That’s football, unfortunately. I’ll be honest with you, in his defence he didn’t go to Spurs for any more money. He was the highest paid player at West Ham. All they did was add a year to his contract, so it wasn’t a financial thing with him, it was a football thing.</blockquote>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-50648649210020534362012-02-06T07:12:00.001+00:002012-02-06T07:18:41.751+00:00West Ham Youth TeamInteresting article in today's Guardian about the current West Ham youth team. On 15th February he will oversee West Ham United's under-18 side in a fifth-round FA Youth Cup tie against Chelsea. According to Tony Carr, the team are not yet on a level with the 1999 class, headed by Joe Cole and Michael Carrick, who won the competition; or the Frank Lampard-Rio Ferdinand crop who lost the 1996 final to Liverpool, but they are not far behind.<br /><br />Carr believes that, in Sam Allardyce, West Ham have a manager who can see the line from youth to senior player and who understands the value of a club being holistic in approach. On most Fridays Allardyce has the youth team line up against the senior players in training. "We go down there and the manager likes to re-enact the formation of the opposition the next day, do some match preparation. We try to mimic the opposition," Carr says.<br /><br />This was how Allardyce spotted Potts and Hall. "He has a close look at the players at that time and gives his opinion," Carr adds. "It's massive that the manager shows that interest. It shows the players there is a pathway, that we're not a team in isolation, we're a football club and everybody's important, and with Potts and Hall you can still be a youth-team player and make your way into the first team."<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/football-league-blog/2012/feb/02/west-ham-united-youthJohn Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-76200023325767434262012-01-30T15:02:00.001+00:002012-01-30T15:02:55.783+00:00Ze EduardoBrazilian striker Ze Eduardo is expected to arrive in London later today in order to join West Ham on loan for the remainder of the season. The 24-year-old forward, who is currently contracted to Italian side Genoa will arrive in the capital later today ahead of a medical that will see him join the Hammers for the remainder of the 2011/12 campaign.<br /><br />Astonishingly, West Ham will become Ze Eduardo's sixteenth club in just seven years should he complete the move - and the eleventh club he has joined on loan since starting his pro career in Brazil with Palmeiras in 2004. <br /><br />His showed good form when he scored 10 in 29 games for Santos (2010-11). While at the club he won the Copa do Brasil and the 2011 Copa Libertadores Final, which Santos won 2–1 over Uruguayan side Peñarol. He was sold to Genoa but has only started four games this season.John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-64090884220496424562012-01-23T07:54:00.001+00:002012-01-23T07:55:49.845+00:00Ernie GregorySorry to hear about the death of Ernie Gregory. Jim O'Halloran tells an interesting story about Gregory and Ted Hufton: "When I was a kid in the fifties Ernie Gregory was my hero. I waited outside the stadium after a match to get Ernie's signature . He had an old man with him and he said "You don't want my autograph son, you want his." Who is he?" I asked. "Ted Hufton the greatest goalie ever" said Ernie. It meant nothing to me and I persisted after Ernie's signature but he refused. Having never seen Hufton, in my books Ernie was the bees knees."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHgregoryE.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHgregoryE.htm</a></p>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-1455488993899621052011-07-05T06:35:00.002+01:002011-07-05T06:38:19.050+01:00John Charles: West Ham UnitedA talented full-back he played for West Ham Boys and in 1960 they reached the English Schools Cup Final. Charles also played for Essex Boys. Charles was spotted by Ernie Gregory and joined West Ham United after leaving school. He was one of the first black players recruited by the club. Ted Fenton was the manager at the time: "When I was taken on the ground staff, Ted told me that I would get called a few names, but to keep kicking them." <br /><br />John Charles won five Youth caps for England, the first black player to represent England at any level. At the age of nineteen he captained the West Ham team that beat Liverpool 6-5 in the 1963 Youth Cup. The first black player to lead a first-class side to a major trophy.<br /><br />Ron Greenwood gave John Charles his first-team debut on 4th May 1963. West Ham United lost to Blackburn Rovers 1-0. He did not make the team the following season but he did get to play against Liverpool on 15th September, 1965. It was not until the 1965-66 season that Charles became a regular in the side. This included the semi-final of the European Cup winners' Cup, against Borussia Dortmund. Greenwood described Charles as "a prince of a player; he was a good, strong, straightforward competitor whose influence was significant". His colleague, Brian Dear, argued: "John Charles was a great teammate who always gave 100 per cent."<br /><br />When he broke into the team there were very few black players in the Football League. John Charles recalls: "I never remember any real racism, certainly not from other players at West Ham or our crowd. Maybe some players respond to it too quickly and become a target when everyone knows it winds them up. If they'd just keep playing they would stop... The idea that West Ham fans are racist is rubbish! They didn't ask if you were black or white; they asked if you were West Ham." <br /><br />Charles argues that Ron Greenwood "was a great coach". However, he added: "I was never one of Ron's boys... I think a good manager gets to know the boys who they've got. He'll mix with them. The more you mix with them the more you know... Greenwood was a bit careful, maybe sly even. For instance, he'd just leave you out and not tell you. I hardly ever spoke to him, as it happens, no one did really. People did have a go at Greenwood every now and then. I think him and Bobby had their rows." <br /><br />Another problem was that Greenwood was unaware of the drinking culture at the club. John Charles, Bobby Moore, Johnny Byrne, John Cushley, John Charles, Harry Redknapp and Brian Dear were all heavy drinkers. Charles admits: "We were always on the piss. We went from the club to the pub. I was part of a hard-drinking crowd... Everyone liked a drink... You didn't even think about it. It was second nature." <br /><br />Moore claimed alcohol helped him unwind but admitted that some West Ham players drank too much: "Ron Greenwood said he felt we were getting a team of nice lads together. I sat and wondered who the hell had ever won anything in football with eleven nice people. But in the next room John Cushley and John Charles, two of the nice boys, were falling off their beds drunk at three in the afternoon."<br /><br />In the 1968-69 season Charles suffered a series of injuries. He was limited to just five games in 1969-70 season. At the age of 26 he decided to give up football: "I kept getting this hamstring problem." During his career he made 118 appearances for the club. His father-in-law had his own green-grocery business. "At West Ham, I was earning £65 a week. My first week as a barrow boy, I got £200. I started with Carol's dad. Once I got into that lark, I really loved it. I became my own governor."<br /><br />His business eventually got into trouble: "I soon had stalls all over Kent, but then they started to open the supermarkets and we went skint... I was an alcoholic and in the end I had a breakdown. I was so bad, once, in hospital, I dreamed I was eating my sister in a sandwich!" <br /><br />John Charles came out of hospital just before his 50th birthday, saying that the "idea of ever touching a drink again was frightening". He later became strong enough to get a job at a local supermarket. When a fellow worker discovered who he was he said: "Where I was born in East Ham, you're a hero amongst all the black kids."<br /><br />In October 2001, Charles, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer. He died on 17th August 2002. Brian Dear said at his funeral: "Football is surely indebted to him as he undoubtedly paved the way for his black brothers who now enjoy the fame, riches and adulation, which he most certainly helped make possible."<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHcharlesJ2.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHcharlesJ2.htm</a>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-86466119044476558182011-07-05T06:28:00.001+01:002011-07-05T06:34:21.106+01:00Ron GreenwoodCharles Korr, the author of West Ham United: The Making of a Football Club (1986) has argued that the appointment of Ron Greenwood was a break with the past: "When supporters think of managers it is usually in terms of the success of the club. There is little else upon which to judge them. West Ham had been different in this respect because its pre-Greenwood managers had been with the club for so long in some capacity that supporters could identify with them. The manager at West Ham was something much more than a transitory employee. Greenwood's employment changed all those perceptions. He was not 'an old boy', and he made no attempt to add affections that would give the impressions that he was part of West Ham tradition." <br /><br />Bobby Moore was pleased with the appointment. He told Geoff Hurst: "I've played under Ron at England Under-23 level. Things are going to change around here, this chap is incredible on the game." Moore informed his close friend, Jeff Powell: "Ron told me one of his major reasons for coming to West Ham was that he knew he had me there to start building his team around." Greenwood rated Moore very highly: "He was exceptional on the training ground, a coach's dream. Whatever you asked him to do, he could do it. Football came easy to him. It wasn't a question of teaching him, merely a question of honing his considerable abilities... I used him at West Ham as a sweeper, which was then an unknown position. He played loose behind the defence and he thrived there."<br /><br />Ivan Ponting has argued: "Now began the most productive phase of his career. Immediately he felt rapport with the most wholesome of clubs, which had a close-knit family atmosphere, a comforting bedrock of East London support and a playing staff oozing with potential, much of which had yet to be realised. It was the perfect setting for a man of Greenwood's ability and outlook, and he set about moulding the Hammers into a formidable, if somewhat inconsistent force. That entailed a little shrewd dealing on the transfer market but, more importantly, making the most of the talent already at his disposal." <br /><br />Greenwood sold Noel Cantwell to Manchester United and made Phil Woosnam captain. He also purchased the extremely talented Johnny Byrne for £65,000. He played him alongside Geoff Hurst. As Bobby Moore pointed out: "Greenwood turned Geoff Hurst from a bit of a cart-horse at wing-half into a truly great forward. None of us thought Geoff was going to make the switch... Playing up alongside Budgie must have helped. That man was magic." Greenwood also gave Martin Peters his debut. Moore claimed that: "He was virtually a complete player. In addition to all his talent he had vision and awareness and a perfect sense of timing."<br /><br />In Greenwood's first full season, West Ham United finished in 8th place. At the beginning of the 1962-63 season Greenwood sold Woosnam to Aston Villa and made Moore captain. Greenwood argued: "I made him captain because he was such a natural leader and had everyone's respect... He was desperate to succeed and was a good captain because he didn't ask anybody to do anything he couldn't do."<br /><br />Ron Greenwood alerted Walter Winterbottom, the England manager, to the rapid progress of his protégé. Winterbottom decided to take Moore to the 1962 World Cup in Chile. The football journalist, Ken Jones, who worked for the Daily Mirror wrote: "'Uncapped, pedestrian, not up to much in the air, suspect stamina. How could England select the 21-year-old Moore for the 1962 World Cup finals?" Moore made his début on 20th May 1962 in England's final pre-tournament friendly against Peru in Lima. England won 4-0 and as Moore pointed out: "Walter was pleased with the defensive performance and kept virtually the same team for all four matches in that World Cup."<br /><br />Greenwood slowly built a good team round Bobby Moore. This included Jim Standen, John Bond, Jack Burkett, Ken Brown, Eddie Bovington, Ronnie Boyce, Peter Brabrook, Johnny Byrne, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and John Sissons. Greenwood explained: "When I first went to West Ham they employed inside-forwards and wing-halves, but eventually we changed our system to a flat back four to encourage Bobby to play - he was the lynchpin. We set standards because we had players capable of it.... Our full-backs would push up and get forward. In fact, they were more attacking than some present-day wingers... At the back, Bobby could read along the line and cover the whole area. Everyone was tight going forward and Bobby played loose, free, behind everyone else, and the team could go forward with the confidence Bobby was always behind them, reading anything coming through, mopping up. It was a joy to watch him play." <br /><br />Despite this, West Ham again struggled in the Football League in the 1963-64 season, finishing in 14th place. However, they were much better in the FA Cup and beat Charlton Athletic (3-0), Leyton Orient (3-0), Swindon Town (3-1), Burnley (3-2) and Manchester United (3-1) to get to the final at Wembley Stadium against Preston North End. Moore later recalled: "We were playing against Preston North End, a Second Division side. We'd been magic in the semi-final against Manchester United. Wembley should have belonged to West Ham. We won and it was good to win the first major honour. Apart from that it was a wash-out. We played badly. We spluttered. We didn't fulfill anything we had promised ourselves. Most of us felt let down. We were lucky to beat Preston, and bloody lucky Preston were no better than they were."<br /><br />The score was 2-2 as the game approached the 90th minute. John Bond pointed out that both sides were extremely tired: "Tiredness and cramp was creeping in for some of the players on the lush Wembley turf. Extra time looked on when Geoff Hurst took the Preston defence on again, stumbled and recovered before sweeping the ball to Peter Brabrook on the right wing. Peter floated a great ball over the Preston defence; and then it all went into slow motion. As the ball floated across, everyone seemed to stop and watch it. Everyone except Ronnie Boyce that is, who came racing in unmarked to head past Kelly." <br /><br />Ron Greenwood had won his first trophy and he was determined that it would be the first of many. As winners of the FA Cup West Ham entered the European Cup Winners' Cup. Played over two legs, victories against La Gantoise (2-1), Sparta Prague (3-2), Lausanne (6-4), Real Zaragoza (3-2) resulted in a final against TSV 1860 München at Wembley Stadium on 19th March, 1965. <br /><br />West Ham won 2-0 with Alan Sealey scoring both goals. Ron Greenwood, later recalled: "Everything we believed in came true in that match." He added that it was Moore's greatest game under his management. Bobby Moore commented: "We benefited from the experience of the previous year and took part in what many people believe was one of the best matches ever played at the old stadium. There was a lot of good football and we played really well against a good side with a lot of good players." <br /><br />West Ham's victory made them only the second British club to win a European trophy. Bobby Moore commented: "It was probably one of the greatest nights for a celebration the East End had known since VE Night. In West Ham, Plaistow, Bow, Ilford and Barking the pubs were packed and you could not travel very far without hearing people singing the West Ham national anthem. It was a night to remember all right... Everybody seemed to think it had been one of the finest games of football they had ever seen." <br /><br />At the end of the 1965-66 season Don Revie, the manager of Leeds United, attempted to buy Bobby Moore, who wanted to leave the club. Moore, whose contract with West Ham came to an end on 30th June, 1966. Moore, who refused to sign a new contract, went to see Greenwood about the move: "There was no way we could negotiate. West Ham said they would not let me go in any circumstances. Ron and I had it out for hours. Finally we agreed to let it ride until after the World Cup." <br /><br />The 1966 FIFA World Cup was held in Britain. Moore joined the England team for pre-tournament training at the beginning of July. However, under Football Association rules, a non-contracted player could not play for England. When Alf Ramsey heard about this, he ordered Moore back to Upton Park to sign a new contract with West Ham. <br /><br />After their World Cup victory, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters returned to West Ham United expecting to have a great season. As well as the three World Cup winners, the team included several talented individuals, Johnny Byrne, Peter Brabrook, Ken Brown, Ronnie Boyce, Harry Redknapp, John Sissons, Jim Standen, Dennis Burnett, Eddie Bovington, Jack Burkett and John Charles. The club also had a manager, Ron Greenwood, who was considered to be one of the best coaches in the country. However, West Ham could only finish in 16th place and were knocked out by Swindon Town in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. Moore recalled that: "When we got back they had smashed in the windows of my sports shop opposite the ground. I couldn't be angry. It was as hard for us to understand how a team with three World Cup-winning players kept getting it wrong."<br /><br />In an interview he gave to Jeff Powell, Moore admitted that if "you looked at a few of the individuals and felt there might have been room for improvement." Moore named Jim Standen, Ken Brown and Jack Burkett as players who fell into that category. "If you wanted to be really critical you could find better goalkeepers than Jim Standen... Ken Brown was far from being everyone's ideal at centre half... Jackie Burkett at left back was a very limited player."<br /><br />Moore was also critical of John Sissons who never developed into the player he thought he could be: "He (Sissons) scored a goal in the FA Cup Final and was still only nineteen when he played in our European Final. At the time he would have been in my squad for the 1966 World Cup. But he never got any better... I'm sure there were many times in those five or six years when Ron made up his mind to leave John out of the side. Then you would see him Monday to Friday in training, up front in the road runs, fastest in the sprints, drilling them into the net with that left foot in five-a-sides, showing you ball skills which demanded a place in the team. Come the Saturday afternoon, nothing. John Sissons was non-existent. He was a thoroughbred who never matured." <br /><br />Bobby Moore thought that a major problem was that Greenwood could not communicate his ideas to most of the West Ham players: "Ron talked about the game at such a high level that sometimes he went straight over the head of the average player... Some days I believe there were only a couple of us who understood a word he was on about. He never seemed to realise that he should have been talking down to more than half the team... Ron needed to work with the best, the elite players."<br /><br />Ron Greenwood accused Moore of undermining his authority. Greenwood called Moore into his office and complained: "I know you take in what I'm saying, but will you please also look as if you're listening. How else can I make the rest pay attention." Moore told a friend: "Ron asked me why I didn't go to him any more, to ask about the game. He took it as a sign that I was turning against him... Although he respected me, he didn't like me."<br /><br />Moore claimed that the main reason why he did not talk to Greenwood about the players was because he did not want his team-mates to think he was being disloyal to them: "Perhaps I should have been a go-between. Perhaps it would have helped when things started to go wrong. But I looked on myself as one of thirty professionals, one of the chaps. I didn't want the people I had to play with thinking I was picking the team. Budgie (Byrne) was much closer to Ron, always in and out of his office. But he had a bubbling personality and could get away with it. Nobody would accuse Budgie of getting them dropped."<br /><br />John Charles argues that Ron Greenwood "was a great coach". However, he added: "I was never one of Ron's boys... I think a good manager gets to know the boys who they've got. He'll mix with them. The more you mix with them the more you know... Greenwood was a bit careful, maybe sly even. For instance, he'd just leave you out and not tell you. I hardly ever spoke to him, as it happens, no one did really. People did have a go at Greenwood every now and then. I think him and Bobby had their rows." <br /><br />In his autobiography, Bobby Moore argued that: "When we won the two cups Ron had a good team because he had a majority of good players. We could have gone on to dominate the game for a period, the way Leeds did later." Moore complained that Greenwood did not know how to motivate players: "The lads would come in the dressing room with their heads down and he would say we would talk about it on Monday. Why wait? Tell me what I did wrong. Tell another one he can't bloody play. Tell that player he bottled it. He knew, alright. No man never saw so much in a game as Ron Greenwood. But motivation was not his strength. Some games I would love to have done it. Perhaps he wanted me to. But I didn't see it as my job. Not even as captain. It wasn't up to me to slag another player, and God knows I played with enough who weren't good enough." <br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHgreenwood.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHgreenwood.htm</a>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-72239901000723856512011-07-01T05:41:00.000+01:002011-07-01T05:42:18.034+01:00Sam Allardyce and the West Ham WayIn the press conference that he gave on 21st June, Sam Allardyce asked the question: “When did West Ham play the West Ham way?” He then went on to say “The West Ham way is about winning football matches and the enjoyment of winning. I’m in the game to play winning football and entertain the public, and that’s what I do."<br /><br />It is possible to date the beginning of the West Ham way of playing football. On 16th March 1961 the chairman of the club stated: "For some time, Mr Fenton had been working under quite a strain and it was agreed that he should go on sick leave. For the time being, we shall carry on by making certain adjustments in our internal administration." The Ilford Recorder added that: "The Upton Park club are proud of their tradition of never having sacked a manager." This was untrue as Syd King had been dismissed in 1933. Ted Fenton had also been sacked and was replaced by Ron Greenwood. <br /><br />Malcolm Allison later claimed that "Ted Fenton got the sack. They were rebuilding the stand and he was pinching some bricks and paint. Putting it in the back of the car. One of the directors caught him." Ken Tucker thought he had been dismissed because he had negotiated a reduction in the price of equipment, but was only passing on a percentage of the savings to the club. However, Andy Smillie believes that Fenton was a victim of "player power". <br /><br />Fenton was an old fashioned manager who had been undermined by Allison's ideas on how the game should be played. Allison had made a tremendous impact on the young players at the club. This was especially true of the 20 year old Bobby Moore, who had grown disillusioned with the tactics employed by Fenton: "He wanted us to hit long through balls from the half way line. We became the world's best hitters of long through balls to nobody from the half way line."<br /><br />Charles Korr, the author of “West Ham United: The Making of a Football Club” (1986) has argued that the appointment of Greenwood was a break with the past: "When supporters think of managers it is usually in terms of the success of the club. There is little else upon which to judge them. West Ham had been different in this respect because its pre-Greenwood managers had been with the club for so long in some capacity that supporters could identify with them. The manager at West Ham was something much more than a transitory employee. Greenwood's employment changed all those perceptions. He was not 'an old boy', and he made no attempt to add affections that would give the impressions that he was part of West Ham tradition."<br /><br />It is not generally known but Greenwood, who was assistant manager of Arsenal, initially rejected the post. He told one journalist that he was not interested in the job because "If they can get rid of one manager they can get rid of another." He changed his mind when he discovered that Ted Fenton was only the third manager in over 60 years. The other attraction was the quality of West Ham's young players. In fact, Greenwood's first trophy came when West Ham beat Liverpool 6-5 in the 1963 Youth Cup. The score-line reflects the success and problems of the tactics used by Greenwood.<br /><br />Moore, who had played under Ron Greenwood for the England Youth team, was pleased with the appointment. He told Geoff Hurst: "I've played under Ron at England Under-23 level. Things are going to change around here, this chap is incredible on the game." Moore informed his close friend, Jeff Powell: "Ron told me one of his major reasons for coming to West Ham was that he knew he had me there to start building his team around." Greenwood rated Moore very highly: "He was exceptional on the training ground, a coach's dream. Whatever you asked him to do, he could do it. Football came easy to him. It wasn't a question of teaching him, merely a question of honing his considerable abilities... I used him at West Ham as a sweeper, which was then an unknown position. He played loose behind the defence and he thrived there." <br /><br />Greenwood sold Noel Cantwell to Manchester United and made Phil Woosnam captain. He also purchased the extremely talented Johnny Byrne for £65,000. In Greenwood's first full season, West Ham United finished in 8th place. At the beginning of the 1962-63 season, Greenwood sold Woosnam to Aston Villa and made Moore captain. Greenwood argued: "I made him captain because he was such a natural leader and had everyone's respect... He was desperate to succeed and was a good captain because he didn't ask anybody to do anything he couldn't do."<br /><br />Over the next couple of years Greenwood built a good team round Bobby Moore. This included Jim Standen, John Bond, Jack Burkett, Ken Brown, Eddie Bovington, Ronnie Boyce, Peter Brabrook, Johnny Byrne, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and John Sissons. Greenwood explained: "When I first went to West Ham they employed inside-forwards and wing-halves, but eventually we changed our system to a flat back four to encourage Bobby to play - he was the lynchpin. We set standards because we had players capable of it.... Our full-backs would push up and get forward. In fact, they were more attacking than some present-day wingers... At the back, Bobby could read along the line and cover the whole area. Everyone was tight going forward and Bobby played loose, free, behind everyone else, and the team could go forward with the confidence Bobby was always behind them, reading anything coming through, mopping up. It was a joy to watch him play."<br /><br />Despite this, West Ham again struggled in the Football League in the 1963-64 season, finishing in 14th place. However, they were much better in the FA Cup and beat Charlton Athletic (3-0), Leyton Orient (3-0), Swindon Town (3-1), Burnley (3-2) and Manchester United (3-1) to get to the final at Wembley Stadium against Preston North End. Moore later recalled: "We were playing against Preston North End, a Second Division side. We'd been magic in the semi-final against Manchester United. Wembley should have belonged to West Ham. We won and it was good to win the first major honour. Apart from that it was a wash-out. We played badly. We spluttered. We didn't fulfill anything we had promised ourselves. Most of us felt let down. We were lucky to beat Preston, and bloody lucky Preston were no better than they were."<br /><br />Greenwood had won his first trophy and he was determined that it would be the first of many. As winners of the FA Cup West Ham entered the European Cup Winners' Cup. Played over two legs, victories against La Gantoise (2-1), Sparta Prague (3-2), Lausanne (6-4), Real Zaragoza (3-2) resulted in a final against TSV 1860 München at Wembley Stadium on 19th March, 1965. West Ham won 2-0 with Alan Sealey scoring both goals. <br /><br />West Ham's victory made them only the second British club to win a European trophy. Bobby Moore commented: "It was probably one of the greatest nights for a celebration the East End had known since VE Night. In West Ham, Plaistow, Bow, Ilford and Barking the pubs were packed and you could not travel very far without hearing people singing the West Ham national anthem. It was a night to remember all right... Everybody seemed to think it had been one of the finest games of football they had ever seen."<br /><br />Greenwood later commented: "Everything we believed in came true in that match." I was at the game and it was truly a fantastic performance. You can find out yourself just how good it was as the match against TSV 1860 München is available on DVD.<br /><br />Greenwood was now considered the most exciting coach in the country and was invited to become technical adviser to the Football Association during the 1966 World Cup. His coaching methods were given a boast when three of his players, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, played vital roles in the England’s World Cup victory. <br /><br />Moore, Hurst and Peters returned to West Ham expecting to have a great season. As well as the three World Cup winners, the team included several talented individuals, such as Johnny Byrne, Peter Brabrook, Ken Brown, Ronnie Boyce, Harry Redknapp and John Sissons,. They also had a reliable goalkeeper in Jim Standen. However, West Ham could only finish in 16th place and were knocked out by Swindon Town in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup.<br /><br />Moore thought that a major problem was that Greenwood could not communicate his ideas to most of the West Ham players: "Ron talked about the game at such a high level that sometimes he went straight over the head of the average player... Some days I believe there were only a couple of us who understood a word he was on about. He never seemed to realise that he should have been talking down to more than half the team... Ron needed to work with the best, the elite players." <br /><br />Ron Greenwood accused Moore of undermining his authority. Greenwood called Moore into his office and complained: "I know you take in what I'm saying, but will you please also look as if you're listening. How else can I make the rest pay attention." Moore told a friend: "Ron asked me why I didn't go to him any more, to ask about the game. He took it as a sign that I was turning against him... Although he respected me, he didn't like me."<br /><br />Moore claimed that the main reason why he did not talk to Greenwood about the players was because he did not want his team-mates to think he was being disloyal to them: "Perhaps I should have been a go-between. Perhaps it would have helped when things started to go wrong. But I looked on myself as one of thirty professionals, one of the chaps. I didn't want the people I had to play with thinking I was picking the team. Budgie (Byrne) was much closer to Ron, always in and out of his office. But he had a bubbling personality and could get away with it. Nobody would accuse Budgie of getting them dropped."<br /><br />In his autobiography, Moore argued that: "When we won the two cups Ron had a good team because he had a majority of good players. We could have gone on to dominate the game for a period, the way Leeds did later." Moore complained that Greenwood did not know how to motivate players: "The lads would come in the dressing room with their heads down and he would say we would talk about it on Monday. Why wait? Tell me what I did wrong. Tell another one he can't bloody play. Tell that player he bottled it. He knew, alright. No man never saw so much in a game as Ron Greenwood. But motivation was not his strength. Some games I would love to have done it. Perhaps he wanted me to. But I didn't see it as my job. Not even as captain. It wasn't up to me to slag another player, and God knows I played with enough who weren't good enough." <br /><br />In 1967 Moore did go to see Greenwood about the team. He argued that the team needed more steel in defence. Moore suggested that the club should sign Maurice Setters: "I begged Ron to sign Maurice. He was tough and could play a bit and we needed to be harder at the back." Greenwood refused claiming that he was "too much of a rebel". Instead, he bought John Cushley from Celtic. Greenwood told Moore, "A nice boy. Been to college."<br /><br />Cushley was also considered to be a hard player: "Ron knew in his heart that we needed someone to do some kicking... Ron tried to close his eyes to it. In John Cushley he was buying a compromise which satisfied his conscience. A nice lad who could get stuck in... He couldn't expect everyone to be like me and win by intelligence." However, soon after joining West Ham, Greenwood told Cushley after one game: "John, I've bought you to be tough but sometimes you've got to take it easy." Cushley told Moore: "I'm playing it too hard. The manager doesn't like me."<br /><br />Bobby Moore argues that the same thing happened when Greenwood bought Alan Stephenson from Crystal Palace. Moore heard Greenwood saying to Stephenson: "Alan, you can't get stuck in like that all the time. Sometimes you've got to read it, hold off, use your brain." Moore commented that "Ron was looking for perfection, but it was another centre-half spoiled." <br /><br />Jeff Powell has argued that Greenwood was right to try to maintain this approach to football: "Those principles guided Greenwood through his coaching and management and won him the respect and admiration of hundreds of people deeply involved in the game. The flowing, open football which Greenwood's beliefs demanded of West Ham also earned him the gratitude of tens of thousands of football-loving spectators who relished watching his team. At times West Ham stood alone against the violence, brutality and intimidation which, in the late Sixties and early Seventies, threatened to bludgeon all the enchantment out of English football."<br /><br />Geoff Hurst has conceded that some critics, including Brian Clough, "felt that a West Ham team with Hurst, Moore and Peters should have had greater success." Hurst claims that: "What few understand outside West Ham was that Greenwood cared more about football's finer values than about winning for winning's sake. He was a man of principle and he cared about the sport in a way that many would not understand in the modern game." <br /><br />In 1967 Greenwood purchased Billy Bonds from Charlton Athletic. Three of the talented local young players, Trevor Brooking, Frank Lampard and Brian Dear had also become regulars in the first team. However, West Ham could only finish in 12th place in the First Division and were knocked out of the FA Cup in the 4th Round against Huddersfield Town. Greenwood persevered with these youngsters and the following season they finished in 8th place. <br /><br />It looked like Greenwood was building a team that might recapture the success of the mid-60s. However, the 1969-70 season was a disaster, with West Ham only narrowly escaping relegation. They also lost in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup to Middlesbrough. Moore blamed Greenwood for not bringing in the right players. Geoff Hurst was more supportive of Greenwood: "He liked young players with open minds. He challenged them to learn. I took up the challenge them to learn. I took up the challenge. So did others. It was no coincidence that Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and I were among those who flourished in the environment he created at West Ham... Some, of course, ignored the opportunities he presented. There were other talented youngsters at the club, such as Johnny Sissons, Brian Dear and Trevor Dawkins who may have made it to the very top of the profession had they applied themselves more diligently." <br /><br />Another problem was that Greenwood was unaware of the drinking culture at the club. Bobby Moore, Johnny Byrne, John Cushley, John Charles, Harry Redknapp and Brian Dear were all heavy drinkers. The situation was made even worse with the arrival of Jimmy Greaves in 1970. Trevor Brooking believed that before he left the club, Byrne caused serious problems for Greenwood. "Johnny Byrne was a delightful fellow whom it was impossible to dislike... but he was very undisciplined, particularly when it came to drinking."<br /><br />Bobby Moore, was one of Byrne's drinking companions. He admitted that Byrne damaged his career with his excessive alcohol consumption. However, he felt his own drinking never had an impact on his performance on the pitch. "When I first started out as a young professional I wouldn't dream of taking a drink after Thursday." This changed when Byrne arrived at the club. Moore claimed alcohol helped him unwind but admitted that some West Ham players drank too much: "Ron Greenwood said he felt we were getting a team of nice lads together. I sat and wondered who the hell had ever won anything in football with eleven nice people. But in the next room John Cushley and John Charles, two of the nice boys, were falling off their beds drunk at three in the afternoon."<br /><br />The problem was that as captain, Bobby Moore was setting a terrible example to the young players at the club. Geoff Hurst pointed out: "He (Greenwood) wanted players to accept responsibility for themselves. But there are risks involved... Players let him down. Some let him down spectacularly, none more so than Bobby Moore." Harry Redknapp admitted much later about the drinking habits of the players: "Did we have some nights out or what? There's a few that I couldn't repeat." After one bad performance the players were banned from going out while in a Stoke hotel. "We used to like going out in Stoke because there were a couple of good clubs, so some of us sneaked out the window at the back of the hotel, ran across the motorway and found some cabs. We had a good time and came back about four in the morning. Climbing over a fence to sneak back in, Bobby slipped and a spike went into his leg... When we got home we had to report back in the afternoon and Bobby turned up saying he had tripped in the garden and landed on a fence. But Bobby was out for three weeks before he landed on a spike while out on the booze in Stoke."<br /><br />By 1970 Martin Peters had given up of winning major honours with West Ham and was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur. As Trevor Brooking pointed out in his autobiography: "When Martin left West Ham in March 1970, the fee of £200,000, which included a valuation of £54,000 for Jimmy Greaves, was a British transfer record. Tottenham gained an international midfield player who was still in his prime whereas West Ham obtained the services of a once-great player who no longer had a zest for the game." <br /><br />Despite bringing in Jimmy Greaves and Tommy Taylor from Leyton Orient the club finished in 20th place in 1970-71 season. West Ham also lost 4-0 to Blackpool in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. Bobby Moore later recalled: "We were totally outplayed... They were steamed up to have a go and West Ham were never in it. We were left once again with the feeling of utter disappointment at being beaten by a team from lower down the League. Our position in the First Division didn't mean much at the time and everything that season hinged on a good Cup run. But those results had become a regular occurrence." <br /><br />On the Monday following the game, it was discovered that Bobby Moore, Jimmy Greaves and Brian Dear were out drinking the night before the game. Moore explained: "People will throw up their hands in horror at the thought of professional sportsman going for a drink the night before a game. But it was hardly a diabolical liberty. In fact we thought very little about it. We were in bed by one-thirty and got up about ten o'clock the next morning. That's a good night's sleep by anyone's standards.... The problem was not the drinking. It was the result."<br /><br />When the story appeared in the newspapers, Moore went to see Ron Greenwood about what had happened: "I've come to apologise. We know we did wrong but it wasn't done with any ill intent. All we can do now is apologise." Greenwood replied: "You've hurt me. Let me down. I don't want to talk about it any more. It will be dealt with in due course." The punishment was a two week suspension for Moore, Greaves and Dear, plus a fine of a week's wages, in Moore's case £200.<br /><br />This brought an end to the project started by Greenwood and Moore in 1961. Moore remained until leaving for Fulham half-way through the 1973-74 season. West Ham finished in 18th place and Greenwood was kicked upstairs. John Lyall took over as manager and despite winning the FA Cup in 1975, against a Fulham side led by Bobby Moore, the Hammers continued to do badly in the league for the rest of the 1970s. <br /><br />There is no doubt that the Hammers experienced success playing the “West Ham Way” during the early period of Ron Greenwood’s reign. But in truth it was all over by 1965. Although his attacking policy brought plenty of goals, he never discovered a way of stopping the opposition from scoring. In the 1964-65 season West Ham scored 82 goals in 42 games. This was not far behind Manchester United, the winners of the league that year. However, the champion let in only 39 where as we suffered 71 goals against and therefore finished half-way down the table. <br /><br />Geoff Hurst has suggested that: "The style of play he developed may not have been conducive to the nine-month slog of the league championship race, some of the football West Ham played in his time was the most attractive and memorable in the world. The Upton Park loyalists appreciated the way we played and, most tellingly, came back year after year because they knew they would see a good game of football. West Ham had a well-deserved reputation for high-quality attacking football and Ron was responsible for that."<br /><br />Hurst maybe right about the quality of the football but is clearly wrong to suggest that it led to large attendances. During the 1964-65 season, which ended with West Ham won the FA Cup, they had an average home attendance of only 24,704. The following season, when the club won the European Cup Winners' Cup, it was only 24,826. Remember, this was a ground that at this time had a capacity of over 40,000. <br /><br />A significant point is that at the beginning of both seasons the club had little difficulty in getting well over 30,000 for games. However, once it became clear that West Ham would not be challenging for league honours, the attendance figures went into rapid decline. Sam Allardyce is clearly right when he says that the fans want a winning team: “The West Ham way is about winning football matches and the enjoyment of winning. I’m in the game to play winning football and entertain the public, and that’s what I do.” He then added that to do that he needed “to instill a bit of discipline, magic and creativity." Greenwood was good at the “magic and creativity” but was a complete failure when it came to “discipline”. Let us hope that Sam Allardyce is the man who can bring all three virtues and maybe he will succeed, where Greenwood ultimately failed. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHmooreB2.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHmooreB2.htm</a>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-49503585864676114482011-06-30T07:24:00.001+01:002011-06-30T07:33:15.649+01:00Malcolm Allison and Bobby MooreMalcolm Allison and Bobby Moore<br /><br />Malcolm Allison was Bobby Moore's first coach. Allison later recalled: "He was very inquisitive. Even then I had spotted his awareness for the game, his ability to recognise things so easily. He had a clever memory and he was very bright. Allison told Moore: "You can read the game, you know what to do... Be in control of yourself. Take control of everything around you. Look big. Think big. Tell people what to do. Be in command." Noel Cantwell was one of the senior players at the club at the time: "Bobby didn't have exceptional ability as an apprentice, although he was always immaculate. He never said very much but was a great listener and a dedicated trainer, always very curious, inquisitive guy who wanted answers. He fastened on to Malcolm Allison and myself because we talked football all the time."<br /><br />Eddie Lewis was a member of the West Ham squad during this period. He observed the help that Allison gave to Moore: "The man deserves a great deal of credit for bringing on the likes of Bobby Moore. As a kid, Bobby was slow, he couldn't head a ball and he couldn't tackle, but such was Malcolm's dedication he was able to help Bobby to become the player he was."<br /><br />Allison told the manager, Ted Fenton: "I said that Bobby Moore was going to be a very big player indeed. Everything about his approach was right. He was ready to listen. You could see that already he was seeking perfection." However, Fenton was not convinced, nor was Moore, who at this time believed he was the least talented of the small group of school kids that had been invited to train with West Ham. Moore later recalled: "I was ordinary. I was lucky to be there. and every time I looked at one of the other lads I knew it. Every one of them had played for Essex or London, and at least been for trials with England Schoolboys. I had nothing. All around me were players with unbelievable ability. They were the same age as me and I was looking up at them and wishing I was that good, that skilful... "The first time I got a representative game I played for Essex over-15s because they needed a makeshift centre forward. I kept lumbering down the middle until our keeper hit a big up-and-under clearance which their keeper caught as I bundled him into the net... The referee was weak and gave the goal for Essex. Everyone knew it was a joke. Most of all, the lads who knew they were better than me."<br /><br />On 16th September, 1957, Malcolm Allison was taken ill after a game against Sheffield United. Doctors discovered he was suffering from tuberculosis and he had to have a lung removed. Noel Cantwell became the new captain. That season West Ham United won the Second Division championship. The authors of The Essential History of West Ham United point out that Allison was the main reason the club had won promotion: "A footballing visionary who in six short years would revolutionise the club's archaic regime and transform training, coaching techniques and tactics to secure promotion to the first division in 1958". <br /><br />Allison returned to the club and played several games for the reserves but with only one lung he struggled with his fitness. West Ham had an injury crisis for its home game against Manchester United on 8th September 1958. Malcolm Pyke, Bill Lansdowne and Andy Nelson were all injured. The manager, Ted Fenton asked Noel Cantwell who he should select for the game. Cantwell told Brian Belton, the author of Days of Iron: The Story of West Ham United in the Fifties (1999): "The game against Manchester United was on a Monday night. Fenton called me into the office asking who should play left-half, Allison or Moore. He didn't really want the burden of the decision." <br /><br />Cantwell added in another interview for the book, Moore than a Legend (1997): "Malcolm came out of hospital and trained while Bobby was cruising along in the reserves. Malcolm was ready for the United game but the vacancy was for a left-half. Malcolm was more of a stopper and it needed someone more mobile. When Ted asked me who to pick, it was a hard decision. The sorcerer or his apprentice?" Cantwell eventually selected Moore over Allison.<br /><br />Bobby Moore later talked about this decision to Jeff Powell for this book, Bobby Moore: The Life and Times of a Sporting Hero (1997): "The Allison connection could only be dredged up from the bottom of a long, long glass. Even then, Moore probed gingerly at the memory". Eventually Moore told him: " After three or four matches they were top of the First Division, due to play Manchester United on the Monday night, and they had run out of left halves. Billy Lansdowne, Andy Nelson, all of them were unfit. It's got to be me or Malcolm. I'd been a professional for two and a half months and Malcolm had taught me everything I knew. For all the money in the world I wanted to play. For all the money in the world I wanted Malcolm to play because he'd worked like a bastard for this one game in the First Division."<br /><br />Moore added: "It somehow had to be that when I walked into the dressing room and found out I was playing, Malcolm was the first person I saw. I was embarrassed to look at him. He said Well done. I hope you do well. I knew he meant it but I knew how he felt. For a moment I wanted to push the shirt at him and say Go on, Malcolm. It's yours. Have your game. I can't stop you. Go on, Malcolm. My time will come. But he walked out and I thought maybe my time wouldn't come again. Maybe this would be my only chance. I thought: you've got to be lucky to get the chance, and when the chance comes you've got to be good enough to take it. I went out and played the way Malcolm had always told me to play."<br /><br />Malcolm Musgrove was a member of the West Ham side that played against Manchester United: "He played in the game as though he'd been in the side for years. I was a lot older than Bobby at the time and I was still a novice, nervous as hell. At the kickoff Bobby stood in the left-half position just looking round. He had an unbelievable temperament. Lots of players have ability, but they haven't got the temperament to make them go even further, as far as they might want to go - Bobby had that temperament." <br /><br />Moore did a good job marking Ernie Taylor and West Ham won the game 3-2. After the game Malcolm Allison stormed into the dressing-room and confronted Noel Cantwell about the advice he had given Ted Fenton. Cantwell later commented: "How he got to know I had influenced Ted's decision for Bobby to play, I'll never know. I didn't say any more. It was an embarrassing position for me and it soured the night, although I had answered Ted's question with the right choice for the particular match. Later, Malcolm admitted I was right to choose Bobby."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHmooreB2.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHmooreB2.htm</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHallisonM.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHallisonM.htm</a>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-77866901858129459142011-02-13T12:27:00.001+00:002011-02-13T12:30:04.957+00:00Winston Reid, Jordan Spence and Mathew FryJamie O’Hara gave an interesting interview to the Guardian about the problems of young players given their chance at premier league clubs. He was complaining about how he was not given a real opportunity at Spurs. He had joined the club as a teenager and was a star of the youth team. He argues that it does not matter how well you perform at this level because manager’s give preference to young players they buy. O’Hara rightly argues that managers do that as they need to justify the money they have spent on bringing players in. If they buy them they feel they have to play them, otherwise fans will question their judgment concerning young talent. <br /><br />I thought about this interview while watching Winston Reid’s appalling performance against WBA yesterday. Reid was purchased by Avram Grant from Midtjylland in the Denmark league in August 2010. Reid (22) had lived in Denmark since a kid but when he realized he was not going to make the Danish team he offered to play for New Zealand, where the standards are much lower. In fact, New Zealand’s manager, Ricki Herbert, put him in his team without seeing him play. Apparently, Grant was impressed with Reid performance in the World Cup game against Slovakia (his goal secured a draw and gave New Zealand's first ever point in a World Cup finals match). <br /><br />It has been clear that even Grant now realizes Reid is a very limited player and only played him yesterday because of injuries to Matthew Upson, James Tomkins and Danny Gabbidon. However, Grant also has two very talented central defenders at the club. Jordan Spence (20) has captained the English team at every level he has played (U16, U17, U18, U19). He also has had two successful loan periods at Leyton Orient and Scunthorpe United. Mathew Fry is also 20 years old and is currently on loan at Charlton Athletic. Does Grant prefer Reid to Spence because he is trying to develop a reputation for being a good judge of a player? If so, it is not working.<br /><br />Carlton Cole’s interview after the game was interesting. He credited the speech given by Scott Parker at half-time for explaining the team’s dramatic recovery. He failed to mention the role played by Grant in the 3-3 draw. This is not the first time that Cole has given interviews that have criticized Grant and I suspect it will result in him being dropped for the game against Burnley.John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-29364750423862506272011-01-15T09:24:00.000+00:002011-01-15T09:26:29.333+00:00Martin O'Neill: Manager of West HamI believe Martin O'Neill will become manager of West Ham over the next few days. I know his friends have been telling the press that he is not interested in the job. On Thursday night Paddy Power had him at 20-1 to become the next manager. Last night so much money was taken on his appointment he was at 2-1. Clearly, the negotiators and their selected friends are making some holiday money.John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-34845222949588391092011-01-01T12:27:00.002+00:002011-01-01T12:38:03.152+00:00Hérita N'Kongolo IlungaAccording to Wikipedia, Hérita N'Kongolo Ilunga was born in Kinshasa on 25th February 1982. I wonder if the Congo record births of its citizens? Rumour has it he is really 38 rather than 28 years old. I must say, that since he signed his four year contract with West Ham in April 2009 he looks and plays like someone at the very end of their career. One wag has suggested he should be carbon dated? Is it possible to work out accurately how old someone is?John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4924648971252092047.post-53499855501036739642010-11-02T18:24:00.000+00:002010-11-02T18:26:33.814+00:00Malcolm Allison (1927-2010)You can find my tribute to Malcolm Allison here:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHallisonM.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHallisonM.htm</a>John Simkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13637387408439041634noreply@blogger.com0