Happy New Year

Happy New Year all :)
Obvious hopes for the new year are the Hammers back in the prem with a team capable of staying there, and promotion for Southend.
As far as the Prem is concerned I'd go for a Man U win just to piss off the Scouses, although if they keep losing to teams like Blackburn it will probably be City.
Hopefully England can make us proud in the Euro championships or at least look like a team for a change.
It would be nice if an English team could beat Barcelona to win the Champions league, even Chelsea :)
Unlikely wishes - administration and relegation for Tottenham and Liverpool, West Ham to win the FA Cup, and England to win Euro 2012.

Anyway good wishes and good health to all :)

Forgot About Him

It seems every single time this season that the Hammers have a chance to go top they blow it?
Although they had to win by 5 today it wasn't impossible as we had won there 5-0 the last time we played them, but once again if Southampton drop points so do we, it seems that Fat Sam doesn't want us to hit the top until the last gasp.
Injuries and suspensions didn't help today with most of the first team missing but we still should have had enough to overcome a poor Derby team.
The problem now is that Middlesbrough have hit form and should overtake us later in the day and Cardiff are closing in as well, a few weeks back the top two were well clear.

I didn't see any prediction of forgotten man Frank Nouble making the team today, and even if we had all remembered he was back with us after multiple loans you couldn't see why we needed yet another tall centre forward when Cole, Carew and Piquionne were all fit and little man Baldock was back from injury, but I suppose anyone is better than Piquionne and Carew at the moment.
Maybe those two should be sent off to Gillingham or Barnsley to learn how to score again, so welcome back Frank.
As for the transfer rumours there are too many to mention, one I like the sound of is the possible Zamora/Cole swap although Cole is probably the best of the big men we have up front I can't help feeling a Zamora and Baldock frontline would be pretty good.

Premier Predictions (Week 20)

Better post these now as the next set of games starts on Monday!!
The freaky results are making this a lottery so good luck Longy :)

Monday 2nd January 2012
Aston Villa v Swansea
Blackburn v Stoke
QPR v Norwich
Wolves v Chelsea
Fulham v Arsenal

Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Tottenham v West Brom
Wigan v Sunderland
Man City v Liverpool

Wednesday 4th January 2012
Everton v Bolton
Newcastle v Man Utd

I Hate Rumours

I was told today the Hammers are looking at signing yet another Tottenham reject Giovani Dos Santos!!
Hopefully it's just a vicious rumour designed to piss us all off, but my source was an avid Hammers fan so I don't know?
The trail of crap we've signed from Shite Hart lane is long, while they continue to pick up all our stars at bargain basement prices.
Surely our current position, along with being one of ten best supported teams in the country and having a respected manager should be enough to attract some decent players to Upton park? rather than whatever player Redknapp is trying to get shot of.

Emile

Poor old Emile Heskey, always a figure of fun.
Should have been a great player but it never really happened?
Here's a nice lttle tribute vid I found.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas to all, no matter which team you follow :)
Especially Longy for being a loyal supporter of this blog :)

Premier Predictions (Week 19)

Early post for games starting next Friday.
I'm back at work on Wednesday :( but if your having a proper Christmas Longy you might be too pissed to remember this next week :)

Friday 30th December 2011
Liverpool v Newcastle

Saturday 31st December 2011
Man Utd v Blackburn
Arsenal v QPR
Bolton v Wolves
Chelsea v Aston Villa
Norwich v Fulham
Stoke v Wigan
Swansea v Tottenham

Sunday 1st January 2012
West Brom v Everton
Sunderland v Man City

Premier Predictions (Week 18)

Here's the Boxing day and Tuesday fixtures.

Monday 26th December
Chelsea v Fulham
Arsenal v Wolves
Bolton v Newcastle
Liverpool v Blackburn
Man Utd v Wigan
Sunderland v Everton
West Brom v Man City
Stoke v Aston Villa

Tues 27th December
Swansea v QPR
Norwich v Tottenham

The Arsenal and Chelsea games might be switched to Tuesday due to the tube strike?

Premier Predictions (Week 17)

Getting this one in early, these are next weeks pre-Christmas games.

Tuesday, 20 December
Wolves v Norwich
Blackburn v Bolton

Wednesday, 21 December
Aston Villa v Arsenal
Man City v Stoke
Newcastle v West Brom
Everton v Swansea
Fulham v Man Utd
QPR v Sunderland
Wigan v Liverpool

Thursday, 22 December
Tottenham v Chelsea

Premier Predictions (Week 16)

The games come thick and fast over the next few weeks so I've split them up and will post them 10 at a time.
Week 16 - Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th
Week 17 - Tuesday 20th to Thursday 22nd
Week 18 - Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th
Week 19 - Friday 30th to Sunday 1st January
Week 20 - Monday 2nd to Wednesday 4th January

Here's this weeks (week 16)

Blackburn v West Brom
Everton v Norwich
Fulham v Bolton
Newcastle v Swansea
Wolves v Stoke
Wigan v Chelsea

QPR v Man Utd
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Tottenham v Sunderland
Man City v Arsenal

What A Bad Week

The Hammers lose 2 on the trot but even after Saturday's disaster I'm still confident we can get promotion, But my local side Southend have had the week from hell :(
Going into the Johnson's paint semi final at home to Swindon last week they had a record equalling 17 games without defeat, a record equalling 5 straight away wins in the league and were also top of the table, and faced a replay in the FA Cup which if they won meant a trip to Anfield in the 3rd round.
7 Days later and 3 defeats see them out of 2 cup competitions and off the top of the league.

Last weeks 2-1 defeat at home to Swindon was harsh after leading especially as if they had won only Barnet stood in the way of a Wembley final (which I'm sure I could have got a ticket for), Saturday was a terrible performance at Cheltenham which saw a 3-0 defeat and a drop to 2nd in the league.
Tuesday's cup defeat at Oldham was a shame as a trip to Liverpool was there for the winner and up until Mohsni's sending off Southend were bossing the game.
Bilel Mohsni (pictured) rarely has a dull game, he is mainly a centre back but in 23 appearances this season he has played nearly everywhere, he's got 5 goals this term and always loks a handfull upfront but the guy is a total loose cannon :(
In the pre-season friendlies he was given a "final warning" and told to attend anger management as he lost the plot and got sent off again.
Last night after his 5th sending off in a season and a half at Southend it looks like it was the final straw, according to a friend who was at the game the whole team rounded on him in the tunnel at the end and manager Paul Sturrock accused him of costing the club £200,000 for missing out on the Anfield tie, also the story goes he was last seen outside Oldham's ground asking directions to the station?

Premier Predictions (Week 15)

This weeks "how many will Longy beat me by" competition :)

Arsenal v Everton
Bolton v Aston Villa
Liverpool v QPR
Man Utd v Wolves
Norwich v Newcastle
Swansea v Fulham
West Brom v Wigan

Sunderland v Blackburn
Stoke v Tottenham

Chelsea v Man City

Socrates

RIP Socrates :(

Another footie death although this one not as much of a shock as Gary Speed.
Socrates was the captain of the Brazilian team in the early eighties which was probably the best team not to win the World Cup.
I remember watching the World cup of 1982 when it looked like they were going to eclipse the Brazilian team of 1970 until they came up to the Paolo Rossi inspired Italians.
Socrates even in his peak was supposed to have been a 50 a day ciggie man, which was always an inspiration for all us smokers out there though his early death maybe proves it shouldn't be!! although it seems a lot of his recent health problems had been more down to alcohol and the final straw was actually food poisoning.
So the only certain thing in life is death :(

Premier Predictions (Week 14)

Back to the predictions game :(
I'm on the losing streak from hell and this lot probably won't break it.

Newcastle v Chelsea
Blackburn v Swansea
Man City v Norwich
QPR v West Brom
Tottenham v Bolton
Wigan v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Man Utd

Everton v Stoke
Wolves v Sunderland

Fulham v Liverpool

You can have first go Longy, I promise not to play for the draw :)

A Brucie Bonus

Now I can stop hating Sunderland in the same way I've stopped hating Birmingham and Wigan after he went (still not keen on Palace though) :)
Anyone that knows me will know I really can hold a grudge and after Wor Brucie slagged off the Hammers many years back I have detested this guy with a vengeance, so I am less than sorry he's been booted out again.
It will interesting to see which team I have to hate next? as no doubt like most failed useless managers he'll get another high paid job before the season is out.

Gary Speed

RIP Gary Speed :(

What a shocker, a great player for many years and he was turning out to be Wales best manager in many years.
Really saddened by this.

Gone To The Dogs

Premier Predictions (Week 13)

Got to end this serious losing streak :(

Stoke v Blackburn
Bolton v Everton
Chelsea v Wolves
Man Utd v Newcastle
Norwich v QPR
Sunderland v Wigan
West Brom v Tottenham
Arsenal v Fulham

Swansea v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Man City

Huddersfield

Congratulations to Hudderfield Town on breaking Nottingham Forest's record of 42 unbeaten football league games today.
They still need another 7 to break Arsenal's all time English record of 49 unbeaten which was achieved in the FA Premier league a few years back, but still a brilliant achievement so far.

One trivia fact from my youth - many years back around 1970? I collected footie cards in packs with bubble gum and had most of the cards from 21 of the 22 of the teams, for some reason no Huddersfield players were available?

Premier Predictions (Week 12)

Back to proper footie again and hopefully I can stop the rot :)
This weeks games over 3 days and sadly for me the Tottenham game could be the decider again (I might tip them to win so I won't feel so bad if I get that one wrong again).
Big games this week are Man U going to hard to beat Swansea, and Newcastle taking their unbeaten record to top team City also Torres v Liverpool :)

Norwich v Arsenal
Everton v Wolves
Man City v Newcastle
Stoke v QPR
Sunderland v Fulham
West Brom v Bolton
Wigan v Blackburn
Swansea v Man Utd

Chelsea v Liverpool

Tottenham v Aston Villa

A Rare Treat

England friendlies are usually pretty dull affairs and I expected this to be the same.
Odds were that Spain would play the ball about and probably snatch a winner after England had given the ball away on countless occasions but it ended up as a really good contest.
The first half was pretty even and a bit predictable, but the second half was probably England's best performance for a long while.
Lescott, Jagielka and Cole looked solid at the back and Parker despite him being a money grabbing judas was excellent.

Good Luck

Good luck to East Thurrock United who take on Macclesfield later in the 1st round of the FA Cup, it's the first time the Rocks have got this far so hopefully they can put in a decent display.
My interest comes from the fact they used to be the nearest club to where I grew up, although I've probably only seen them play half a dozen times as the Hammers, Southend, Grays and Tilbury were the teams I followed in my youth.

Premier Predictions (Week 11)

All the top sides play Saturday, and they should all win?
But it doesn't always work out that way :)

Newcastle v Everton
Arsenal v West Brom
Aston Villa v Norwich
Blackburn v Chelsea
Liverpool v Swansea
Man Utd v Sunderland
QPR v Man City

Wolves v Wigan
Bolton v Stoke
Fulham v Tottenham

Premier Predictions (Week 10)

Week 10 and it's all square 3 wins each and 3 draws.
Last week looked an easy one to predict but I only managed 1 point!! so I might have to go for a few results that I wouldn't put money on.
Games over 3 days including a Halloween special with scary Stoke and Newcastle who must have done a deal with the devil to be as high as 4th.

Everton v Man Utd
Chelsea v Arsenal
Man City v Wolves
Norwich v Blackburn
Sunderland v Aston Villa
Swansea v Bolton
Wigan v Fulham
West Brom v Liverpool

Tottenham v QPR

Stoke v Newcastle

Muppet

Losing The Plot?

Probably not a good idea to ask refs to keep a close eye on Luis Suarez because they might just notice what the rest of us see on telly, I admit he did actually stay on his feet once yesterday against Norwich when he had the opportunity to go down for a penalty but on the whole he hits the floor with ease.
Listening to Kenny recently I reckon a return to the retirement home isn't too far away.

Attendances

Top 20 average attendances so far 2011/12 season

1 Manchester United 75,478
2 Arsenal 59,995
3 Manchester City 46,905
4 Newcastle United 46,111
5 Liverpool 44,932
6 Chelsea 41,611
7 Sunderland 37,890
8 Tottenham Hotspur 36,184
9 Everton 34,707
10 Aston Villa 32,447
11* West Ham United 29,408
12 Stoke City 27,371
13 Norwich City 26,276
14* Derby County 25,847
15* Southampton 25,309
16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 24,779
17 Fulham 24,768
18 West Bromwich Albion 24,244
19 Bolton Wanderers 24,089
20* Leeds United 23,098

Premier Predictions (Week 9)

Highlight of the weekend is the Manchester derby, nothing much else to worry about so should be a good points week?

Wolves v Swansea
Aston Villa v West Brom
Bolton v Sunderland
Newcastle v Wigan
Liverpool v Norwich

Arsenal v Stoke
Fulham v Everton
Man Utd v Man City
Blackburn v Tottenham
QPR v Chelsea

The Big One

1 Southampton - PL 11 PTS 23 GD +13
2 West Ham - PL 11 PTS 21 GD +12

West Ham's second chance of the season to go top (they blew the first one against Ipswich a few weeks back).
Southampton are looking the best team in the Championship so far having just come up from League One and five straight league victories at home is pretty impressive.
The Hammers seem to be improving all the time and Fat Sam's squad are gelling together nicely.
The Hammers are unbeaten in five away games this season so something has to give.
Saturday's 4-0 win over Blackpool was probably our best game so far even without Lansbury, Green, O'Brien and Cole.
Would be a good game to win although there is still over three quarters of the season to go.

Premier Predictions (Week 8)

Back to the proper football this week :)
A few big ones this week with Man U off to Anfield, Chelsea at home to bogey team Everton, City playing unbeaten Villa and Newcastle's first big test.

Liverpool v Man Utd
Man City v Aston Villa
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Blackburn
Stoke v Fulham
Wigan v Bolton
Chelsea v Everton

West Brom v Wolves
Arsenal v Sunderland
Newcastle v Tottenham

Lucky Escape?

So the Olympic stadium move is dead in the water, although Mrs Brady old lady is still talking about us renting it for some reason?
Surely we should just back off for about 10 years when I guess we will have a big white elephant stadium making absolutely no money and we should be able to pick up the site for a fraction of the money and all this legacy crap has been forgotten.

I see Harringay council are bribing the scum to stay in Tottenham with a deal that would save them £17 million if they build a new stadium where they are? sounds like state aid to me?

Chelsea Travellers

Interesting pair of Chelsea stories this week.
One is about Chelsea asking shareholders who bought shares back in 1993 known as the "Chelsea Pitch Owners" to sell them back to the club for the same price they paid then £100. Considering Chelsea were in deep shit back then and are now one of Europe's big teams you would have thought they would be willing to pay a bit of a loyalty premium to thank their fans for keeping the club safe through the dark times, but it seems not? Chairman Bruce Buck says "the club would not be held to ransom, and there was no room for negotiation".
The other Chelsea story this week ties in with this one quite well, Roman Abramovich is currently in court accused of intimidating former partner Boris Berezovsky into selling his shares in a Russian oil company at a fraction of their value, sounds familiar.

Chelsea fans are going mad at proposals to knock down Stamford Bridge.
One fan said "You can't just bulldoze 7 years of history".

England

Friday at 8pm England play Montenegro in our most important game since last years World cup, but does anyone care?
Nobody at work has even mentioned England this week and even listening to Radio 5's football chat last night it was an after thought at the end of the programme just to remind you to listen on Friday.
I suppose England's dismal performance last year killed a lot of people's enthusiasm, but the fact that most England games are not even being shown as highlights on terrestrial television anymore means most people don't actually care anymore.
Darren Bent's best England matches have all been in games not shown and it has amazed me how many of my relatives and friends didn't know he was even an England player?

Sunday Football

No Torres = 5-1 away win for Chelsea, obviously AVB's boot up Lumpard's fat arse did the trick as he has returned from his spell on the bench with a hat-trick today after his goal in midweek.
Who would have believed after Bolton's 4-0 away win on the opening day that 6 games later they would have lost the lot and conceded 23 goals?

Fulham 6 QPR 0 !! Hahahahaha ... sack Warnock.

Swansea 2 Stoke 0 Nice to see Danny Graham finally managed to hit the target.

Spuds v Arses to follow ..... can't be bothered

Table Toppers

West Ham blew their chance of going top this week, but my local club managed it tonight after beating Shrewsbury 3-0 :)
I post this because I have a feeling they won't be there later in the season although I hope I'm wrong ... well done Southend :)

Premier Predictions (Week 7)

A few derby games this week.

Everton v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Wigan
Blackburn v Man City
Man Utd v Norwich
Sunderland v West Brom
Wolves v Newcastle

Bolton v Chelsea
Fulham v QPR
Swansea v Stoke
Tottenham v Arsenal

Premier Predictions (Week 6)

Wow, Friday morning already and nearly forgot to post this.
Hopefully we will improve on last weeks dismal performance :)

Man City v Everton
Arsenal v Bolton
Chelsea v Swansea
Liverpool v Wolves
Newcastle v Blackburn
West Brom v Fulham
Wigan v Tottenham
Stoke v Man Utd

QPR v Aston Villa

Norwich v Sunderland

Confusing

Just came back to check the latest scores on the BBC website, before I went out it had said Man City were 3-1 up, now I see that it was a 2-2 draw? might have been a disallowed goal I suppose but then checking the report it gets really confusing?? it says that Kompany scored City's 3rd goal on 2 different pages!!

Fantasy Football

As I think I said before I'm playing TFF (Telegraph fantasy football) this year for the first time in 3 years.
During the previous years of playing I was working regular hours (or not at all) so had the time to do those last minute transfers after seeing the team sheets, and had set up a pretty comprehensive Excel document to deal with all the info so I knew exactly what players were in each of the 20 teams I'd picked etc.
A bit of luck involved obviously but that level of attention is needed to get your teams into the top 10% as there are a lot of serious players around.

This year I'm winging it just using the web site as I never seem to have the time to set up the Excel spreadsheet and having to use this crap laptop is a pain :)
This years teams are doing reasonable with the top team in around 2,500th place with no transfers made (there are around 250,000 teams in the competition).
I've gone heavy on Man U and City players so that's worked out well so far although most teams have either Rooney or Agruero I don't think I've got both in any team :(
My worst team has Fernando Torres as the striker?? proving that taking chances doesn't always work :)
I think I might drop a few places this week as I missed the transfer deadline again, there was a chance to dump a few under performers before the big teams played today :(

Best Team so far -
Top points - Rooney, Nani, Young.
Worst - Malouda, Brunt, Kompany



Worst team so far -
Top points - Bent, Collins, Hart, Arshavin.
Worst - Surman, Torres, Riise

Millwall 0 West Ham 0

Tottenham loanee misses absolute sitter .... sounds like last season :(
Surely we should have learned the lesson after Keane and all those other crap players we've borrowed from the Spuds over the years.

Premier Predictions (Week 5)

Been away and just got back finally, so here's this weeks games.

Blackburn v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Newcastle
Bolton v Norwich
Everton v Wigan
Swansea v West Brom
Wolves v QPR

Tottenham v Liverpool
Fulham v Man City
Sunderland v Stoke
Man Utd v Chelsea

Paolo di Canio

Never a dull moment with Paolo :)
If you've sat up for the football league show every Swindon game has been a joy so far just to see Paolo's touchline antics.
The end of match argument with Leon Clarke was classic di Canio and most of their other games have seen a di Canio moment to talk about.
Tuesday should be interesting as Swindon take on rich kids Crawley, Crawley's manager Steve Evans has been critical of di Canio calling Swindon the "di Canio circus", di Canio's reaction was "who is he, I've never heard of him" :)

For no particular reason? I dislike Crawley and loved Saturday's 6-0 win by Morecambe which brought them back down to earth, hopefully Swindon can do a similar job.

Rugby

The Rugby world cup has started.
Loads of posh middle class men watching some fella kick a ball over a bar

Bit like stamford bridge when Torres is playing

England v Wales

Well we won
mainly thanks to this man :)

Premier Predictions (Week 4)

Arsenal v Swansea
Everton v Aston Villa
Man City v Wigan
Stoke v Liverpool
Sunderland v Chelsea
Wolves v Tottenham
Bolton v Man Utd

Norwich v West Brom
Fulham v Blackburn

QPR v Newcastle

Premier Predictions

International week so back on 10th September.

Parker

The Scott Parker saga should be settled in the next 2 days, it seems the Spuds won't pay the £8m asking price and hope to get him on the cheap as they did with Defoe and Carrick, the rumour is they are offering about £4m + a loan player.
Surely Gold and Sullivan should have learnt their lesson on Spuds loan players after Robbie Keane's obvious sabotage last season?
I don't mind Peter Crouch but we'll probably get offered one of the shite players like Modric (£40m!! even Chelsea aren't that stupid are they?).
I'm surprised Arsenal haven't come in for Parker, they can afford him and they really need some experienced players.

A Greater Power?

Thanks to Mr Billy Bragg for posting this story today, I was almost believing it until I saw some of the other posts at http://newsthump.com :)
Funny stuff and after all Wenger has come up with some great excuses over the years :)

Happy Sunday

Match of the day should be worth watching tonight.
Man U 8 Arsenal 2
Spuds 1 Man City 5

I would 8 2 be an Arsenal fan today :)

Arsene says he won't quit - I thought he was French?

At least you can't accuse Arsenal fans of being glory hunters anymore.

Gary Cahill handed in a written transfer request today, it said "anywhere but Arsenal"

No Place Like ...... Away

There's no place like home they say but the Hammers don't seem to think that is Upton Park anymore?

Home
West Ham 0 Cardiff 1
West Ham 2 Leeds 2
West Ham 1 Aldershot 2

Away
Doncaster 0 West Ham 1
Watford 0 West Ham 4
Nottm Forest 1 West Ham 4

Another great win on the road, shame we can't do it at home?
This one achieved without Parker who it seems is selling his soul to the Spuds although I can't understand why we would do any business with them after last weeks events.
Hopefully if he does turn Judas we will pass them at the end of the season after they suffered yet another stuffing by a Manchester club :)

Premier Predictions (Week 3)

Sorry Longy forgot what day it was, I put your predictions in the comments.

Aston Villa v Wolves
Wigan v QPR
Blackburn v Everton
Chelsea v Norwich
Swansea v Sunderland
Liverpool v Bolton

Newcastle v Fulham
Tottenham v Man City
West Brom v Stoke
Man Utd v Arsenal

Still At It

Bloody Tottenham fans can't leave anything alone.

Premier Predictions (Week 2)

This weeks games:

Sunderland v Newcastle
Arsenal v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Blackburn
Everton v QPR
Swansea v Wigan
Chelsea v West Brom

Norwich v Stoke
Wolves v Fulham
Bolton v Man City

Man Utd v Tottenham

Watford 0 West Ham 4

On the face of it this looked like being our hardest game so far but the result shows you really can't predict what's going to happen in this division.
Just one change again with Cole finally getting a start instead of Piquionne, Allardyce can't be accused of being a tinkerman and it seems to be working.
We have 3 more games until the transfer window closes and it remains to be seen if Parker, Green and Cole will still be here? but I get the feeling that we can still do alright even if they go.

So Far So Bad

The Prems back and watching MOTD last night it looks like it's gonna be the same old story.
Wenger's moaning, Barton's being a twat, Dyer's injured, the smaller teams are praying for the transdfer window to close, Fuham draw and the pundits all think the sun shines out of Kenny Dalglish's arse.
I was going to try to be more charitable about Liverpool this season, but after Suarez's dramatic fall and imaginary card waving after Richardson breathed on him that soon ended.
QPR as predicted were shit (at least I got one prediction right) and anyone that thinks Warnock isn't a wanker were proved wrong after he signed West Ham's injury prone pair Gabbidon and Dyer?
Bolton were impressive but I think anyone would be against that lot.
Wigan and Wolves surprised me and looked quite good, I'm a bit annoyed I forgot to pick Blackburn in my bottom 3 predictions they looked pretty awful apart from Hoillett.
Norwich played reasonably well although I guess they will end up struggling due to lack of top class experience.
Fulham and Villa looked comfortable and I expect them both to be mid table.
Sunderland looked pretty good and have made some good signings.
Newcastle I still think wil struggle this season but they weren't too bad against Arsenal, although Arsenal were a shadow of last seasons team and need several players.
I have to admit I'm starting to like Joey Barton? especially against teams like Arsenal, they like a dive and whinge so it's always funny to see it happen to them :)

Barton Returns

Joey Barton gets angry after realising Gervinho has beaten him to the "stupid haircut of the week award"

Doncaster v West Ham

1-0, 1-0, 1-0 .. Doncaster thrashed, OK we only managed one shot on target but that was all it needed :)
Collison for Sears was the only change from the Cardiff game, and Cole still on the bench and although I've yet to see the highlights it sounds as if it still didn't work so hopefully they will start to get their act together before next weeks trip to Watford, but the result is a first stepping stone.

Fantasy Footie

New season, new super duper live updates ... as you can see :(

Premier Predictions (Week 1)

Here we go again, join in if you want to and post yours before kick off Saturday in the comments.
Same rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result with the wrong score.
One change this year is that I'll post my score predictions in the comments so I'm not always first :)

- Saturday -
Blackburn v Wolves
Fulham v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Sunderland
QPR v Bolton
Tottenham v Everton
Wigan v Norwich
Newcastle v Arsenal
- Sunday -
Stoke v Chelsea
West Brom v Man Utd
- Monday -
Man City v Swansea

I suppose there is a chance some of the games might get postponed if the riots continue so they will just be forgotten as I can't be bothered checking back when they eventually get played.

Premier League 2011-2

Obviously as a Hammers fan the Premier league is not very important this year, but here are my expectations for the coming season.

The title - Hard to see past Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea as the only real contenders.
Man Utd seem to have bought well and I expect them to take the title again.
Man City can't be discounted just because of the quality of the players especially if they manage to talk Tevez around, although Mancini's negative tactics could cost them points.
Chelsea should be thereabouts although their ageing players are another year older, if Torres finally finds some form and Sturridge gets some games who knows? it remains to be seen if new manager Villa Lobos can cut it in England?

Next best - Probably between Arsenal and Liverpool for the 4th place, Arsenal again will probably play some nice football without ever being consistent enough to challenge, Liverpool have again spent fortunes and look to have a better squad than usual.
Everton and Tottenham should be just outside the top 4.

Relegation - Obvious candidates are Swansea, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan, West Brom.
I fancy Norwich to do quite well although they might have a Blackpool season starting well but then struggling.
I look at the QPR team and it still amazes me they got up let alone as champions? I think they will struggle.
Newcastle should have lots of money to spend but they don't seem to want to so they might have a rough season.

So my predictions for the season are -
Top - 1 Man Utd 2 Man City 3 Chelsea 4 Arsenal
Bottom - 18 QPR 19 Wigan 20 Wolves

So with my prediction history it might be worth having a couple of quid on Wolves making Europe :)

I Predict A ... Postponement

So tonights Hammers game v Aldershot is called off due to the police having other things on their minds, Charlton's game is also off.
I imagine most Premier league managers will hope that the riots spread to the Wembley area so the pointless friendly against Holland will be called off as well.

Oh Yeah

I've just seen our defence so the revised prediction is 5-2 :)

Half time 0-0, not ideal but a reasonable start.
The dodgy defence weren't that bad, Reid looking safer against championship attackers, Ilunga has remembered he used to be quite good, O'Brien hasn't gone off injured yet.
Piquionne started brightly but faded as usual, Parker still doesn't look fit, Taylor and Nolan looking the quality, and proper Hammers Sears, Noble and Tomkins not quite on their game.
Carlton Cole must be wondering where he stands after being left out and us signing Carew, maybe he should have gone to Stoke like we wanted him to?
I wonder if Pablo Barrera will come on and finally show us the quality he shows for Mexico.
Now for the second half with fingers crossed :)

Second half done and ..... the expected happened Cardiff nick a late winner :(
Defensive cock up and the ball goes through Green's hands, not too much to cheer.

Will hold on the 30 year old memory of us losing at home in the first game and then running away with the old second division (although we had a much better team then).
It should get better ??

Thoughts

Other than I really should go to bed as the Hammers game is on the Beeb at 1, why can't I say the name Carew without thinking of that kids tune "Kenny the kangaroo, Carew, Carew, Carew"? :)

Topical jokes -
The safest place to be in Tottenham tonight is the Spurs trophy cabinet, There's no chance of looters visiting there.

Tottenham has been set on fire, Police suspect Arsene.

Here We Go Again

One day to go and then 46 games to define if this is going to be a memorable season or another one to forget?
The Championship looks like being a dogfight again with some powerful teams involved.
West Ham's current squad looks as good as anything there although I expect a few "names" to leave before the transfer window hopefully we wil sign some defenders!!
Leicester, Ipswich, Southampton etc have all been spending and teams like Leeds, Derby, Birmingham, Cardiff all have big support should be a good season.

New Season

I'm still around although my computer went bang a few weeks back and I still can't figure out which bit went wrong? I've got a selection of broken computers to cannabalise but nothing has worked so far :(
I spent some real money the day before the computer went wrong on buying into this season's TFF (Telegraph fantasy football) a competition I've done well at in the past although I haven't played for the last 2 seasons, but haven't been able to actually pick my teams as my details are on an e-mail I can't access :(
So hoping I can sort that out before next week.

Anyway I've quickly borrowed my son's laptop and hopefully I won't break this as well!!

The Championship has just kicked off tonight with Blackpool winning and the rest play tomorrow, the Hammers have to wait till Sunday when they take on Cardiff.
Not sure what players we've actually got left as most of what I've read seems to be untrue although we seem to be a clone of Bolton from about 5 years ago with the players he's signed (shame we haven't got Kevin Davies as well).

The Charity shield starts the season for the Prem teams on Sunday with a Manchester derby, which should be interesting, not sure what's happening with Tevez? I still think that despite all City's money and signings he is the most important player they have.

Predictions to follow if anyone is still reading this :)

Friendlies

Although Fulham are doing well in the Europa league the rest are still playing friendlies against some unlikely opposition.
The best one I saw yesterday was a Tottenham XI losing to 5 pop stars :)
Liverpool beat the Malaysian All Stars! have they got any stars?
Arsenal scraped a draw with a Chinese team, Chelsea went to the far south and managed a win, my favourite name here is the North Sound Sea Wolves who sound like a bunch of pirates? turns out they are American.
West ham finally managed a win against Bishops Stortford after losing to a bunch of kids and getting robbed by FC Basil.

Big Sam's The Man

I'm warming to Sam Allardyce :)

Men Or Women? Same Old Story

No meaningful matches around to watch yet so to feed the addiction I've been watching some of the Women's World cup.
Just sat through the last hour of today's World cup quarter final clash between England and France and just like last years men's version I ended up with that empty disappointment you get from watching England in major championships.
Leading though an excellent Jill Scott goal with 3 minutes to go France snatched an equaliser to force extra time, by the end of the 30 minutes England were full of walking wounded but somehow managed to survive against the much better French making me think that it could just be one of those games where the better team usually loses on penalties?
It started well with England goalie Bardsley making a good save to stop the first French penalty, then England's star player Kelly Smith despite hobbling around for most of extra time with an injury banged in England's first.
The next 5 were scored leaving Chelsea player Rafferty to try and put England 4-3 up with one each left, sadly she missed the target completly :(
France scored and then England captain Faye White did a Waddle and hit the crossbar leaving the usual story of England out of a major cup on penalties :(

Spuds In The Dock

Seems that West Ham are taking The Sunday Times and Tottenham to court after the Spuds latest attempt to steal the Olympic stadium -
West Ham Statement

Season 2011/2

Thank god footie is back, it seems such a long while since last season :)

Fulham got the new season underway with a 3-0 win in the Europa league against some team from from the Faroe islands with a long name.
Looking at the rest of the results there was a whole pile of teams I'd never heard of with the exception of a couple of former big names and the Irish and Welsh sides, I have actually seen one of them play before Dinamo Tbilisi who played the Hammers in 1980 and went on to win the Cup winners cup that year, Ferencvaros from Hungary are another big name from the past who have obviously fallen on hard times if they have to play in this Mickey Mouse competition, although the winning teams manager could get a big money transfer into the Premier league so maybe it's worth playing :)
FC Honka and FC Banga are the stand out names in this round although both will be lucky to get through to the next round.

A Non Football Rant

Finally back on the net after 2 weeks of being offline :)
Partly my fault as I forgot to pay my Virgin bill and they cut me off in the early hours of Sunday the 13th, I paid them over the phone on Monday the 14th and was told it might take 24 hours to be reconnected (I know they can do it instantly but I accepted this).
By Wednesday I'm still not back on so I rang them back (the only number it lets you dial when you're cut off) and was told there was no reference of my payment? I pointed out that I had received a payment number which you only get if the transaction went through but they just told me to contact my bank which I couldn't do as they had cut my phone off :(
Anyway I get a statement that night from the bank and it shows that I had paid the full amount to Virgin Media, I ring them back but just get the "you haven't paid" line again.
I contact them again last Monday and argue the toss with various Indian call centre people (the first 2 cut me off despite the fact I have been reasonably civilised and not resorted to the full on expletive laden rant that I really want to use), eventually I am given a number for the credit department who have been told about my problem, I finally manage to get through to them last Thursday and it turns out that yes I had paid but my payment had been charged to someone else's account? meaning that I had paid another bill, they were very apologetic and instantly restored my phone and telly options but wouldn't give me the next months bill free which I asked for!!
I tried my internet and .... nothing, so I thought it might take a few hours for that but by Friday night it still wasn't on so it was back to the phone.
According to the "expert" at Virgin afyer going through all the idiot tests like "is your modem plugged in" there was a fault in the area connection down the road and an engineer would have to come and reset the box, but not until today :(
He turned up a few hours ago checked my modem and said it had developed a fault and fitted a new one and ... tada!! here we are :)
He did point out that I shouldn't listen to the call centre experts as they usually don't know what they are talking about :)
Rant over, back to footie :)

I've missed a lot while being offline with the added problem of my car radio also going wrong and the fact I never buy newspapers so I've got a bit of catching up to do.
Happy that Nolan signed for the Hammers, sad that Demba Ba went the other way.
Man U seem to restocking their English players, and the U-21's failed in the Euro championships, Chelsea have a new expensive unknown manager and Southend have signed Millwall's Southend based player Neil Harris and that's about all I know at the moment :)
Back soon after catching up with all the gossip :)

How Much?

Well some people who have read a few bits from this blog might think "he knows nothing about football" and after today's transfer dealings maybe they are right :)
It looks like £37 million pounds has been spent on these two in the picture and to be honest I wouldn't recognise either of them, yes I have heard their names Jordan Henderson the winger from Sunderland and Phil Jones the Blackburn defender but obviously I am not watching enough football to have been impressed by either.
Maybe they are the future of the England team, but I really haven't seen anything yet to set them apart from a whole host of others but with England in mind I hope I'm wrong.
For the record -
Phil Jones (19 Years Old) - Blackburn 39 Apps 0 Goals, England U21 5 Apps 0 Goals
Jordan Henderson (20 Years Old) - Sunderland 79 Apps 5 Goals, England U21 6 Apps 6 Goals, England 1 App 0 Goals

FIFA

Overheard in Zurich last December ...
"I've just bought FIFA "
"What FIFA 11 for Playstation or X-Box?"
"No, FIFA 22 ... it's great being the President of Qatar"

Chelsea - Contractual Obligation Album

A few months ago still feeling confident about the Hammers staying up I said to Longy "if West Ham get relegated I'll post a collection of Chelsea songs", well I never thought I would have to but .... :(
Anyway Longy has posted several good Hammer videos so fair's fair here are the tunes?, also consider it your prize for beating me in the predictions comp :)

I guess any Blues fan will have most of these but a bets a bet.
At least while looking for these in the archives I've found a bundle of old footie songs from many teams so I will eventually start posting some compilations.

There are a couple of reasonable songs here! ... no really :)

Big Sam

So within hours of Big Sam Allardyce finally agreeing to be the new Hammers manager news comes through that Malaysian Lotus boss Tony Fernandes is back in the running to buy the club.
I imagine Allardyce must be wondering if this will be the third time in 3 years that he'll be booted out by new owners?
As soon as Fat boy Ashley took over Newcastle Allardyce was on his way, and after 2 reasonable seasons at Blackburn the new Indian owners took an instant dislike to him and he's been on the dole ever since, now he gets himself a new job and it's a possibility that it could all happen again.

None of my Hammer supporting mates seemed over the moon about the news of Sam's appointment but we all seem to be saying the same things "at least it's not Dave Jones" and "he'll probably tighten up our defence" so reserved judgement on this one :)
I think he's a good manager and should be able to get us back in the Premier league, but not sure if he's ever going to be better than a mid table obscurity type, and his cup record is terrible, usually fielding weakened sides which won't please us cup run loving Hammers fans!!

A Bunch Of ?

These four have two things in common?

That's right they are all involved in football, and secondly they are all crooks ..
Garth's only crime is that he's as dull as ditchwater and able to make the most exciting games sound boring, but as far as I know he's never taken a bung.
The rest are all members of FIFA which seems to be run on bribes and backhanders?

Ready For Next Season

Here are the final outcomes of season 2010-11.

Premier League
Champions - Manchester United
Champions League Qualifiers - Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal
Europa League Qualifiers - Tottenham Hotspuds, Birmingham City, Stoke City, Fulham
Relegated - Birmingham City, Blackpool, West Ham United

Championship
Champions - Queens Park Rangers
Promoted - Norwich City, Swansea City
Relegated - Preston North End, Sheffield United, Scunthorpe

League One
Champions - Brighton And Hove Albion
Promoted - Southampton, Peterborough Town
Relegated - Dagenham And Redbridge, Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Swindon Town

League Two
Champions - Chesterfield
Promoted - Bury, Wycombe Wanderers, Stevenage
Relegated - Lincoln City, Stockport County

Conference
Champions - Crawley Town
Promoted - AFC Wimbledon
Relegated - Southport, Altrincham, Eastbourne, Histon

Blogger??

For some reason I can sign in and create, edit and post new stuff but it won't let me comment on my own posts?
As soon as I go to the comments page I'm signed out and I can't even post as an anonymous user, if I sign in at that point it takes me back to the main post and if I try to comment it's the same thing all over again .... I suppose I'll sort it out eventually?

Just found this in the "known problems" section of Blogger help -
"We're investigating an issue which is preventing login and comment posting for some users, and hope to have a fix released shortly.
Thanks for your patience in the meantime. — latest update on Tuesday, May 24, 2011"

Obviously "shortly" means sometime in the next few weeks :(

Sorted

So the last promotion spot for next season has been sorted, Swansea are back in the big time for the first time in nearly 30 years and the first Welsh team ever in the Premiership.
Although Swansea have looked very good when I've seen them they must be favourites for relegation already as I don't think they have the finances to compete next season, their current team is a collection of home growns, Spaniards from the Martinez days and League and Prem cast-offs who seemed to gel together pretty well.
Ex Chelsea striker Scott Sinclair scored a hat-trick today and seems to have finally found a home after being on loan for most of his career, it'll be nice to see former Southend star Mark Gower finally make the Premiership although he's nearing the end of his career along with ex Hammer Leon Britton.

... At least Liverpool get to play abroad next season ... :)

Champions League Final

Barcelona won .... here's the best of the jokes!!

At least Ryan Giggs managed to remain anonymous for 90 minutes last night.

My wife said to me this morning, "Man U were shit last night"
I was really upset 5 minutes is a personal best for me?

Mrs Giggs wants to know if anyone can vouch for the whereabouts of her husband, between the hours of 7.45 and 9.45pm last night.

Allardyce

The latest favourite for the Hammers hot seat is now Sam Allardyce.
Although I think big Sam is a good manager I'm not sure he fits with the West Ham style, but if he is the man and we go through next season with a trail of 1-0 wins and get promotion maybe we won't mind :)
Big Sam has been unfairly treated at his last two posts so I have sympathy for him, he really wasn't given a chance at Newcastle and I assume he just didn't get on with the Indian chicken farmers at Blackburn.
I don't think it's a done deal yet but he is a better choice than recent favourites Jones and Warnock, although I'd still prefer O'Neill.

Getting Worried

I have heard that the West Ham owners have made Dave Jones their preferred choice, although they have today denied making any approach.
This guy seems to have less charisma than Avram Grant so I'm not sure how he's going to inspire anyone? His managerial record is nothing to write home about either, yes he took Wolves up after spending a lot of money then took them straight down again and 4 years of promise at Cardiff have seen them blow out every year.
There are dozens of better candidates out there (is he cheap?), and if the story that Ancelotti would consider the job is true then he must be a better option than Jones?
We really need someone to bring through some of the young talent without fiddling with them too much.

High Brow Jokes

Obvious joke of the week.

Eyebrows were raised over the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti.

Best Chelsea joke of the season -

A Man walks up to the scouse salesperson - "I would like to return an item I brought from you several months ago, I have the receipt and all the paperwork"
- "Sir, we have a no return policy, I'm sorry I can't help you"
- "But I've spent way too much on it, it never functions, I've moved it everywhere, it doesn't fit in with anything else, it's waste of time and space, you misled me and overcharged me for it!!"
- "For the last time Mr Ancelotti ...... "

End Of Season Report

Well at least I got one prediction right this season and sadly it means it's goodbye to Blackpool and Birmingham who join my Hammers in the Championship (Division 2) next season :(
A few twists and turns at the end of the day, I was actually sitting in a boozer/restaraunt while most of this was going on and could just see a telly in the distance but heard the big cheer when Blackpool took the lead at Old Trafford, as I left Man U had just gone 3-2 up so it was looking like that was it for Blackpool.
As I turned on the radio in the car Birmingham equalised against Tottenham and Wigan scored at Stoke meaning Wolves were now in the final drop position.
Just as I was getting home Wolves scored again which pushed Birmingham back into the bottom 3 then a few minutes later another Tottenham goal made sure.
Elsewhere Man City secured 3rd place, Kenny Dalglish continued his 100% losing streak since signing a new contract, Arsenal scraped a point at Fulham, Newcastle blew a 3 goal lead at home to West Brom and then there was the Hammers :(
Probably our most embarrassing defeat of the season? the pressure was off Grant was gone they should have put on a good display to end the year but losing to a crap Sunderland side 3-0 at home is just a total disgrace.

I've just read that the Chelsea manager's position is now up for grabs so if anyone sees Avram Grant near Stamford Bridge you know what to do :)

Fever Pitch And The 1988-89 Season

I picked up a copy of Fever Pitch at a boot sale recently for 10p (one of those ones they give away with the Sun) and despite the fact that I have never have or will be an Arseanl fan it brought back some great memories of "that" match, the league decider between Liverpool and Arsenal in May 1989.
I remember the week well Arsenal had managed to blow the lead in the championship and if Liverpool could beat West Ham on the Tuesday night they would go top by 3 points, if West ham had managed an unlikely win we would have stayed up.
As it turned out it was a disaster and 3 goals in the last 10 minutes gave Liverpool a undeserved 5-1 win leading to our relegation and the unfair sacking of long serving manager John Lyall (which was the beginning of West Ham joining all the other teams who sacked managers on a regular basis).
That 5-1 win also meant that the Friday night decider would need Arsenal to win 2-0 at Anfield to overtake Liverpool.
1989 was of course the season of the Hillsborough tragedy so a lot of people were hoping for a league and cup double for Liverpool, they had won the cup the week before.
I have a long standing dislike of Liverpool so I was happy to cheer on the Gooners for this one, and as the match turned out it was one of the greatest matches ever.
Liverpool's style at the time was usually to pass the ball around the back four then kick it back to the goalie for most of the match (the backpass rule didn't exist at the time) and when the other team had fallen asleep they would hit them on the break, so the chances of Arsenal winning by 2 were slim.
Arsenal pressed them for most of the match never allowing them to settle on the ball, impressive tactics by George Graham.
Alan Smith put Arsenal in front midway through the second half but as 90 minutes came up it looked Liverpool had done enough then in the last minute of injury time Arsenal broke and Michael Thomas grabbed the second goal, brilliant stuff.
The film captures that moment brilliantly, I've been at West Ham matches where we've snatched a last minute winner and that feeling of it's like slow motion and you hold your breath as the ball goes over the line.

Interesting to look at the league table for that season, these were the days when leagues had sensible names like division 1 to 4.
Luton and Wimbledon were in the first division which was funny considering they played in the conference play off yesterday (yeah I know it's a different Wimbledon).
Only 8 of this seasons Premier league teams were in the top division then -
1 Arsenal 2 Liverpool 6 Tottenham 8 Everton 11 Manchester United 17 Aston Villa 19 West Ham United 20 Newcastle United.
Chelsea, Man City, Blackburn, West Brom, Sunderland, Stoke and Birmingham were all in division 2.
Wolves, Fulham, Bolton, Wigan and Blackpool were in Division 3

Predictions (Week 36)

The Final predictions competition .... ever.
They think it's all over ... it is now!!

A few things still to be settled, 3rd place between Man City and Arsenal, the unwanted 5th spot between the Spuds and Liverpool and of course 2 more relegation spots up for grabs between Blackburn, Wolves, Birmingham, Blackpool and Wigan.

If these predictions are correct (unlikely) then it's goodbye to Blackpool and Birmingham.
The Wolves v Blackburn game should be the big match but if Man U and Tottenham are professional it won't matter although both of those have reasons to field weakened teams, Man U already have the Premier league in the bag and won't want to risk any injuries before next weeks Gary Neville testimonial (and next Saturday's game), Tottenham had stated they didn't really want the Europa league spot although 'arry has changed his mind again this week.

3rd spot this year means not having to risk a tricky qualifying game so both City and Arseanal will hope for that, City should scrape it as they travel to neighbours Bolton who seem to be already on their summer holidays, where Wenger's lot go to Fulham who could still finish 7th which isn't bad for a team who have struggled a bit this season.

Aston Villa v Liverpool 1-1
Bolton v Man City 1-2
Everton v Chelsea 1-1
Fulham v Arsenal 2-2
Man Utd v Blackpool 4-0
Newcastle v West Brom 2-2
Stoke v Wigan 1-3
Tottenham v Birmingham 2-0
West Ham v Sunderland 3-0
Wolves v Blackburn 3-2

Good Sign?

That's nice the Villa fans have displayed this flag of Martin O'Neill in West Ham colours :)
Hope they are right, although O'Neill will probably have other things on his mind this week with a tribunal starting on Thursday over his leaving Villa Park.

You Gotta Laugh

Alright I've heard a ton of jokes this week all very predictable :(
This one made me laugh though -

Anyone had any luck with their tickets for Olympic stadium ??
I did, I got 55,000 tickets for West Ham v Doncaster.

Can't Keep A Good Man Down :)

Anyone Fancy A Managers Job?

I'd forgotten how many so called "experienced managers" were currently on the dole, mainly because they are a bunch of failures I guess.
Here are the latest favourites to take over from Avram Grant and take the poisoned chalice that is the West Ham managers job, once upon a time this could be viewed as a safe job but with the latest bunch of clowns running the show it could be a very short appointment.

Chris Hughton - Born in the area and played for us, very unlucky to be sacked by Newcastle and has the experience of the championship. Not my ideal choice but a lot better than most of the others on this list.

Steve McLaren - I think he's already ruled himself out, thank god :)

Malky MacKay - Current Watford manager, has not really done anything yet?

Martin O'Neill - Would be my choice but I doubt he'd want the job after the January fiasco.

Neil Warnock - You must be joking?

Kevin Keen - Liked him as a player but not really made a case for taking the bigger job, unless we stick ten past Sunderland next week :)

Gus Poyet - Can't see him leaving Brighton yet.

Sam Allardyce - Good manager but not suited to us.

Paulo Di Canio - Hammers legend but no managerial experience, would inspire but I doubt he'd have the knowledge or temprement?

Roberto Di Matteo - No more Chelsea rejects please.

Roy Keane - Great player, crap manager.

Martin Jol - If everyone else turned us down I'd take him, the Spuds connection bothers me.

Paul Lambert - The new Alex Ferguson, would be mad to leave Norwich.

Alan Curbishley - It was wrong the first time round, please don't go there again.

Slaven Bilic - Another former Hammer and big success with Croatia, a lack of club experience though and still the Croatian manager.

Ray Wilkins - Someone's having a laugh putting him on the list.

Wally Downes - Not sure he'll keep the coach job let alone be upgraded?

Julian Dicks - Another Hammer legend and has actually stated he wants the job, hasn't been much of a success at his current job managing Grays Athletic so managing West Ham is way beyond him.

Have seen many others listed and talked about but they just aren't worth a mention, can't believe Paul Ince would want to be anywhere near Upton Park but he did say last season he fancied returning as manager? even Avram would be more popular :)

Avram Grant Millwall Legend

I agree :(
Although with his Jewish roots I reckon he's pretty popular at White Fart Lane now, along with Robbie Keane .. job done.
Time to go now Avram and take Brady with you.

As I write this it seems he's gone already!! wonder who's going to be next on the conveyor belt of managers were hiring, I miss the old days when we only had 5 managers in 88 years, we are now looking for the 5th in the last 3 years :(

The End Is Near ... Live

Sitting here on the computer listening to West Ham v Wigan nerves shredded :)
An odd selection from Grant with youngsters Jordan Spence and Zavon Hines playing along with Jack Collison finally back, Parker Cole and Sears are on the bench along with wanker Keane.
4.13 pm and so far it's all going our way, Demba Ba has just scored for us and Fulham are a goal up at Birmingham .. so far so good :)
Tottenham are winning at Liverpool and Villa are a goal up at Arsenal.
4.15 pm - Arsenal are 2 goals down to Villa Darren Bent with both, proving again that if Wenger wasn't so scared of spending money it could have been a very different season for Arsenal, the 24 million spent on Bent might have been chicken feed if his goals had won them trophies this year.
4.26 pm - 2-0 oh yeah dream time :) Tomkins or Ba? scored it's a goal who cares, c'mon Fulham get another goal.
4.55 pm - Half time and so far it's as good as it can get, but I know if Birmingham score the Hammers and Wigan both go down so it's still nerve wracking stuff.
The Hammers kids are up for the challenge so finally it's looking like a good call from Grant, and even if things don't go our way maybe they might stay and be the base for our team after the "bigger" names go off to grab some premier league money.
5.07 pm = Brede Hangeland my hero :) Fulham 2 up, the miracle is still on.
5.13 pm - Penalty at Anfield, and it's for the Spuds!! didn't expect that away teams don't get penalties at Anfield .. 2-0 to them!
5.16 pm - SHIT! Nzogbia scores from a free kick, 2-1 now fingernails are disappearing.
5.20 pm - Spector off and Parker returns, is he fit? worth the risk I reckon to calm us down.
5.30 pm - Feeling absolutely gutted 2-2, credit to the Millwall fan who paid for the light aircraft to fly over the ground just as Wigan scored trailing the banner "Avram Grant Millwall legend", that's fucking annoying but quality and lightened my mood. Sounds like Scott Parker isn't fit and the gamble has backfired.
5.38 pm - Keane is warming up :( we need to score now to keep him there, Birmingham down to ten men against Fulham but at the moment that doesn't matter.
The only thing you can say about being a West Ham fan it's never dull! we don't do mid table obscurity.
5.42 pm - Keane is on, last chance to redeem yourself Robbie make us all eat our words please.
5.48 pm - Arsenal pull one back, still 2-2 at the WC stadium
5.52 pm - A minute to go, Fulham have done their bit we haven't so far.
5.53 pm - That's it it's all over Wigan have scored, start the riot .........
Millwall here we come :(

To be Updated

Another Bad Day

Hugely disappointing day, glad that Man U won the league but annoyed they didn't smash Blackburn and settled for the point they needed, wins for Blackpool and Wolves mean only a freaky set of results can save the Hammers now :(
Even if we win our last 2 games the chances of Fulham winning at Birmingham tomorrow are slim to non existant so relegation should be confirmed by 5.45 tomorrow evening .... Bollocks!!

The FA Cup final was another dull Wembley final with Man City deserving the win without ever looking that good, Stoke suffered the cup final nerves and never got going.
Slightly controversial as Yoyo Toure should have been sent off for the horrible challenge on Wilkinson before scoring the winner, to even it out Huth was lucky to still be on the pitch as well.

Predictions (Week 35)

A must win weekend for me and West Ham, and just to make it more stressfull Virgin have buggered up my internet connection and every webpage takes about 10 minutes to load and they say it won't be fixed until the 16th!!
Hopefully with enough irate callers like me they will get it fixed quicker?

A weird weekend with the FA Cup final being played as well as league fixtures? I can't remember that ever happening before and coincidently Man City were due to play Stoke which they have re-arranged for next week (can't check which day as that page won't load) but an early chance for revenge for the losers.
So hoping this actually posts here is this weeks predictions, hoping for a win to take it to a last week title decider :)

- - Saturday - -
Blackburn v Man Utd 1-2
Blackpool v Bolton 2-2
Sunderland v Wolves 1-1
West Brom v Everton 1-1
- - Sunday - -
Chelsea v Newcastle 2-0
Arsenal v Aston Villa 2-1
Birmingham v Fulham 2-1
Liverpool v Tottenham 2-0
Wigan v West Ham 0-1
- - Tues/Wed ? - -
Man City v Stoke 3-1

Robbie Savage

Quite sad that Robbie Savage has quit football although he has probably timed it right, One of the few "characters" in British football.
Like most people I hated him for a number of years but he won me over with one incident in the 1999 league cup final between Savage's Leicester and Tottenham, horrible little twat Justin Edingburgh liked to go round kicking people and crying when he was tackled, so after Savage went through him with a tackle Edingburgh took a swipe at Savage and Savage went down like a sack of spuds and Edingburgh was sent off, his wink when he was lying on the ground was a classic moment :)
Although I'm no fan of divers that one seemed justified and made me laugh so much I forgave him.
Playing for Blackburn he was excellent just for the amount of effort he put in, I would really have liked to have seen him playing for the Hammers at the time!! the type of player who motivates the crowd if he was on your team you would love him, while the opposition would totally hate him.
Hopefully he'll keep up the radio and TV work as he's always entertaining :)

Keane

I'm beginning to think it was all a cunning plan by the Spuds to help with their ongoing appeal for the Olympic stadium? "hey Robbie we're gonna send you to West Ham for a couple of months and you can score a goal early on to win them over then miss a pile of sitters later on in vital matches so they get relegated, then we can claim the stadium should only go to a Premier league club".

I'll hold on to the fact I told most of my Hammer mates when we signed him on loan that it was a mistake as he's way past his sell by date.

Prove me wrong Robbie by getting a hat-trick in each of the next 2 games, although if Avram has got any sense? you won't be near the squad again.

Predictions (Week 34)

3 Weeks to go and the score is - Lee 9 Longy 9 Draws 5.

The big game this week is obviously West Ham vs Blackburn :) if we lose this one I think that will be it :(
Also there is another game that might be of interest the Man Utd vs Chelsea title decider :) a win for United will leave them needing just a point, but a win for Chelsea throws it wide open.
Bonus game this week is the possible 4th place decider? depending on what happens Saturday, if City lose at Everton and Tottenham beat Blackpool 4th place could still be on for the Spuds so it might be an important match, if City win on Saturday I reckon Tottenham will field the reserves against City as I'm sure they don't want to end up in the Europa league and would gladly let Liverpool have that honour?

-- Saturday --
Aston Villa v Wigan 2-0
Bolton v Sunderland 2-1
Everton v Man City 2-0
Newcastle v Birmingham 1-1
West Ham v Blackburn 5-0
Tottenham v Blackpool 3-2
-- Sunday --
Wolves v West Brom 1-1
Stoke v Arsenal 0-1
Man Utd v Chelsea 2-1
-- Monday --
Fulham v Liverpool 2-2
-- Tuesday --
Man City v Tottenham 3-1