Zavon Hines

West Ham's pre-season games have been disappointing so far. The one bright spark is Zavon Hines. Although he only played the last ten minutes in the two games in China, he looked very lively and was impressed by the way he took his goal. (You need to see it in slow motion to realise just how good it was.)

The Hammers handed him his debut at the start of the 2008/09 season as a 27th minute replacement for Valon Bahrami in a Carling Cup tie at home to Macclesfield. Hines scored the third goal in a 4-1 extra-time win.

Hines signed on loan for Coventry City on 27 March 2008. He scored his first goal in his second game for Coventry City on 1 April 2008 in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday. According to the BBC: "Substitute Zavon Hines looked to have snatched victory for the Sky Blues with his sublime left-foot volley late on."

Hines missed much of the 2008–09 season with a knee injury but signed a new contract in March 2009, keeping him at the club until summer 2010.

Hines was born in Jamaica and grew up in the East End of London. On 10 February 2009 Hines was called into the Jamaica team for their friendly international against Nigeria on 11 February 2009. However, he remained on the bench.

The way Hines moves reminds me of Ian Wright. He seems a confident lad, a vital ingredient if you are going to be a top striker. It would not surprise me if Hines is our breakthrough player this season.


Birth Date December 27, 1988
Height 5' 10" (1.78m)
Weight 12.2 st (77.6 kg)


http://www.whufc.com/page/PlayerProfilesDetail/0,,12562~43469,00.html

http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=48922

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zavon_Hines

History of Football

Here are some good web pages on the history of football:

http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/f/Football.htm

http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/a/Association_football.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Fhistory.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ENCfootball.htm

Luis Jimenez and Andy Carroll

The Times is reporting that Luis Jimenez's loan move to West Ham United is in the offing after his application for a work permit was successful, despite the fact the 24-year-old has not played in 75 per cent of Chile's matches in the last two years.

Jimenez has been little more than a fringe player during his two years at Inter and it is largely due to this that Marcelo Bielsa, current Chile coach, has not been selecting the player for international duty. There is also little chance of Jimenez finding any success with the Italian champions because coach Jose Mourinho is preparing to axe a number of fringe players from his squad.

With this in mind, the Chilean is favourable towards a switch that will guarantee him a place in the starting XI every week. West Ham are able to offer this.

Though the Hammers are confident of landing their man, Tottenham Hotspur are also looking to add Jimenez to their squad. Gianluca Nani, West Ham's technical director, has been tracking Jimenez for some time and this may be a crucial factor if and when the player is forced to choose between the two London clubs.

http://goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/06/15/1325815/inters-luis-jimenez-granted-work-permit-for-west-ham-united-loan-

West Ham United are lining up an offer for Newcastle United's highly-rated target man Andy Carroll, in news that is bound to disappoint Toon fans, who could point to a whole host of players they would rather see leave than the locally-born prospect.

Carroll had been viewed by many observers as having a key role to fulfill for the Magpies, as they look to bounce back from their ignominious relegation to the second tier of English football after a 16-year stay in the Premier League.

English tabloid The Daily Star is reporting that the Hammers, whose financial situation was stabilised somewhat by a takeover last week, are keeping tabs on Carroll though, with manager Gianfranco Zola apparently an admirer.

Newcastle are already looking short on striking options with Mark Viduka and Michael Owen set to be released, and Obafemi Martins, despite his assertions that he will stay, being heavily linked with a move to Arsenal, Aston Villa or Everton.

http://goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/06/14/1325168/west-ham-set-to-move-for-newcastle-united-striker-andy

Luis Jumenez

It is argued that Luis Jumenez of Inter-Milan will join West Ham soon. Here he is scoring for Chile against Venezuela:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Bb436HXEY

West Ham Player Ratings (2008-09)

Over the past few seasons I have collected the ratings of each West Ham players that have been assessed by 13 national newspapers and football websites, including KUMB. As this reflects the judgments of so many different people it is probably the most objective way of assessing a player’s performance over a long period. It also provides an insight into the performance of people like Zola and Clarke. I will comment on this later but here are the ratings of all those who played for West Ham this season. You can also see the player’s ratings for individual games and previous season’s figures here:

Craig Bellamy (6.93)

Scott Parker (6.86)

James Tomkins (6.69)

Matthew Upson (6.67)

Rob Green (6.66)

James Collins (6.63)

Jack Collison (6.55)

Carlton Cole (6.55)

Dean Ashton (6.46)

Mark Noble (6.37)

Junior Stanislas (6.35)

Freddie Sears (6.35)

Herita Ilunga (6.23)

Calum Davenport (6.23)

Lucas Neill (6.19)

Valon Behrami (6.16)

Radoslav Kovac (6.15)

Matthew Etherington (6.12)

Lee Bowyer (6.10)

Hayden Mullins (6.08)

Jonathan Spector (6.01)

Luis Boa Morte (5.94)

David Di Michele (5.94)

Julien Faubert (5.65)

Diego Tristan (5.54)

Kieron Dyer (5.46)

Savio Nsereko (5.37)

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2007WHsquad.htm

David Di Michele

I have never been convinced by Di Michele. He might have been alright at his peak but there is no way that he can be effective in the best league in the world. Zola has done some great things this season but he has a complete blind spot when it comes to his foreign loan signings. Surely it would be better to give some experience to Sears and Hines at this stage of the season. Would Collison and Tomkins have been given an extended run if we had a couple of foreign loan signings in the squad?

This is what Jonathan Northcroft of the Sunday Times had to say about Di Michele yesterday:

"David Di Michele is almost small enough to look Gianfranco Zola straight in the eye but for some time to come he may have trouble doing that. This was a forgettable game that contained a classic football moment - but not of the glorious kind. It was not so much a comedy as a whole six-season sitcom series of errors; first, in trying to accept an Alvaro Arbeloa pass, Jamie Carragher lost his balance inexplicably and swiped fresh air, allowing the ball to run free and Di Michele to collect it and bear down on Jose Reina. Di Michele lured the goalkeeper forward and nicked the ball past him with his right foot. So far so good. Then came the banana skin. The West Ham striker was four yards out, the goal was open and all he had to do was tap the ball in. Instead Di Michele lost co-ordination. His left foot came down in the wrong spot, he stumbled into the ball and it was somehow knocked wide of the goal. An attempt to retrieve the situation, and his pride, ended in further ignominy. Di Michele threw himself on the grass, looking for a penalty. Instead Alan Wiley booked him for simulation - Di Michele deserved punishment for trying to fake being a striker."

West Ham and Rory Delap

A football commentator at Sky recently said that no team has been able to deal with Rory Delap's long throws this season. It seems to me that West Ham did very well against it on Saturday. In an interview in the Guardian today, Rob Green explained the tactics employed by Zola and Clarke: "Everyone stood up to it and really took on board the information we were given" said Green. The article goes on to say: "The key to combating Stoke's dangerous long throws and set-piece deliveries, Zola and his assistant, Steve Clarke, had told them, was not to crowd the penalty area." Green added: "When we watched the videos, a lot of the time it was two or three of the opposition with one Stoke player, which didn't really make sense, it's better to have a clearer area and someone to head the ball... We went man-to-man and said 'We'll win the ball', and everyone today did that."

Green also gave an interview to John Wragg of the Daily Express: "The advantage of facing a long throw is they can't throw it straight in he net, whereas with a free kick they can. So you can afford to come off your line a little bit more and help the guys out. It's a massive part of Stoke's game. We took it on board what they had and knew what was coming. It was just a case of being organised."

Andy Wilkinson, Stoke's right-back, claimed after the game: "Green was more commanding than the other keepers who have tried to deal with Delap's throws. He came out and claimed a lot of them."