Category: Preview

Can West Ham win their second game this season when we face a spirited Ipswich team?

We haven’t played against Ipswich Town since our promotion winning season of 2011-2012 when we were both in the Championship. That was the season when we finished third (Sam Allardyce had been appointed as the new manager at the beginning of the campaign – the aim was to gain promotion at the first attempt following relegation under Avram Grant). Do you remember Big Sam’s first signings? They were four of his old Bolton players, Kevin Nolan, Matt Taylor, Joey O’Brien, and Abdoulaye Faye.

Despite losing just one of our last 18 games (to eventual champions Reading – yes you read that right – Reading) and leading the table at the start of that run we were unable to secure automatic promotion. However, we were successful in the play-offs defeating Cardiff over both semi-final legs and Blackpool in the Wembley final. We would have gone up automatically if we had done better in our two league games against Ipswich who finished in the bottom half of the table.

At Upton Park we lost 1-0, and then at Portman Road on 31st January we were thrashed 5-1. A certain Aaron Cresswell was in the Ipswich side for both of those games. Following the 5-1 defeat we began that 18 match run where we lost just once. Victory in just one of those games against Ipswich would have been enough to finish the season as champions. The home defeat was the most annoying one to lose. But all is well that ends well, we secured promotion and Ipswich spent many years in the doldrums. And despite promotion to the Premier League where are Reading now? In the lower half of league one.

The last time we beat Ipswich was in the Championship Play-Off Finals in 2005. After drawing the first leg 2-2 at Upton Park (we were 2-0 up in the first 15 minutes – Zamora and Harewood)), two second half Bobby Zamora goals secured a place in the final in Cardiff where we nervously beat Preston 1-0 – Zamora again.

Ipswich didn’t like playing us in play-off semi-finals. Two years earlier they had won the first leg 1-0 before we came back at Upton Park with Matt Etherington’s superb shot early in the second half and a winner from Christian Dailly following a corner 20 minutes from the end. Unfortunately, our trip to Cardiff for the final that time ended in a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. That season Ipswich had finished third in the league 12 points clear of us – we had finished sixth just scraping into the play-offs.

Those of you who are old enough may remember the two games against Ipswich in the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1975. The first game played at Villa Park was possibly one of the most tedious games of football I have ever witnessed. It ended 0-0 with neither side come close to scoring. The return at Stamford Bridge in the snow the following Wednesday was won 2-1 with Alan Taylor scoring both goals, as he had done at Highbury in the quarter-final, and as he did at Wembley when we beat Fulham 2-0 in the final. Ironically, a couple of weeks after our semi-final replay win over Ipswich, and a week before we played in the Cup Final, Ipswich beat us 4-1 in a league game.

Ipswich are now back in the Premier League for the first time since they were last relegated in 2002. They have achieved this with two record-breaking back-to back promotions under the impressive Kieran McKenna and have begun this campaign without a victory in their six games played to date. There was no disgrace losing their opening two games to Liverpool and Manchester City, but since then they have become the draw kings sharing the points with Fulham, Brighton, Southampton and Aston Villa. Their two defeats and four points leaves them 15th in the current table, one point below us in 14th. Five of the six teams they have faced so far are currently in the top nine of the Premier League including four of the top six.

In the first half of the season opener against Liverpool, Ipswich started strongly, nullified the Merseysiders attacking threat in the first half, but couldn’t quite match their stronger second half performance and went down 2-0. It didn’t get any easier for the Tractor Boys with a visit to face the champions Manchester City the following week. After surprising their hosts in the first few minutes taking a lead against the run of play, they were 3-1 down after just 15 minutes and ended up losing 4-1 which included a Haaland hat-trick.

They led against Fulham in the next game and were perhaps the better team but were pulled back and drew 1-1. A difficult trip to the Amex Stadium followed and Brighton displayed their attacking skills throughout the game. However a dogged defensive display saw Ipswich hold on for another point in a goalless draw.

Away at St Mary’s in their next game Southampton took the lead in the first few minutes but Ipswich fought throughout for an equaliser, and their relentless never give up attitude saw them snatch a deserved 95th minute equaliser. Last weekend they took the lead against high flying Villa, fell 2-1 behind and then rallied to equalise the game at 2-2 in the second half with both goals coming from ex-Manchester City player Delap who looks quite a handful. I don’t think he takes throw-ins like his dad though!

Their games to date sum up how it will not be easy for us to beat them this weekend. If we underestimate them they could make us pay. They’ve made some fine acquisitions in the summer to add to the players who have shone in the past couple of seasons. Apart from Delap from City, Hutchinson from Chelsea, Szmodics from Blackburn, the highly skilled Jack Clarke from Sunderland, Greaves from Hull, and Kalvin Phillips (who we never saw the best of, but who is a very good combatative midfielder), they have a superb attacking left back in Leif Davis.

Geoff’s excellent article (published on Tuesday) sums up our season to date. It’s well worth a read and really sums up the current state of affairs at the start of a new season under our new head coach. Excellently described as always Geoff highlights how the players don’t seem to understand much of what the coach is looking for, how the formation and tactics don’t appear to be clear to them, and how they don’t seem to be aware of their roles and responsibilities within the team. He questions whether they even have the necessary skills and ability to follow what the manager wants them to do. It seems like we are watching a group of individuals not a collective team, players not playing in their best positions where they can be most effective (e.g. Kudus), and I just don’t know what Summerville has to do to be picked in the starting eleven.

The sub-heading of Geoff’s article sums it up succinctly in a sentence: “As the stuttering disjointed start to West Ham’s Julen Lopetegui enters its third month we are still awaiting signs that the tactical plan and player capabilities are converging.” Following this game we head off to the second International break after just 7 games of the season. Ridiculous! Lets hope we go into it with our second league win of the campaign

Can West Ham improve upon four points from five games when we visit Brentford this weekend?

The sixth Premier league game of the 2024-25 season is also our sixth league game in London when we visit the GTech Community Stadium this Saturday. Even our second round league cup tie was at home when we beat Bournemouth 1-0. It must have been quite a shock to our players having to travel all the way to Liverpool on Wednesday night in the third round of the League Cup.

And what can you say about another five goals against, albeit to another of the top teams? Both sides started the game having made several changes so in many ways it was almost like two reserve sides in opposition. Was 5-1 a true reflection of the game? I thought not personally. We were fortunate with the own goal that gave us a lead, but the build up to the Liverpool equaliser was clearly offside. Where was VAR when we needed it? We could have had one, two or possibly three penalties but all were marginal decisions and not surprisingly weren’t awarded – we were playing at Anfield after all. How many opposing sides get given penalties there?

We were still well in it at 2-1 down but they were much more clinical in their finishing, especially Salah and Gakpo, whereas we spurned the chances we had. For me, I can’t excuse Alvarez – his tackling decision making leaves a lot to be desired as his bookings record shows. Although I was surprised when the commentator said that it was the first time that he’d been sent off in his career. The same is true of Paqueta – you can safely bet on him getting a yellow card and he came close to getting a red too!

Effectively Alvarez cost us and had he stayed on it would certainly have been closer. Taking everything into account Liverpool were the better team but they certainly had the rub of the green. I was amazed to see some criticism of some individual players online, especially Bowen and Summerville who I thought were our best players, and even Antonio looked much better when he came on than he had in recent games this season.

So now we move on to Brentford on Saturday. Fixtures against Brentford began well over 100 years ago in 1898, and we beat them the first six times that we played them. The early games were in the Southern League First Division where we met them 26 times up to 1913. We didn’t meet again until 1927 when they knocked us out of the FA Cup after a replay following a draw at Upton Park. From then until 1993 we met them from time to time when our paths crossed in the second tier of English football. It wasn’t until they were promoted to the Premier League in 2021 that we faced each other in the top flight.

We did knock them out of the FA Cup on their ground in 2023 when Said Benrahma ironically scored the only goal of the game, but that was the only time we have beaten them away from home since 1953 over 70 years ago.

This is now their fourth season in the Premier League, and in the six league meetings we have beaten them only once (losing the other five) – Our sole victory came the last time we met in February this year when Jarrod Bowen scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory at the London Stadium. The three away games were all defeats 2-0, 2-0, and last season 3-2 (when we led 2-1 at half-time). So very much a bogey team until our last meeting.

They have started the season well at home with two wins in their two games, 2-1 against Palace and 3-1 versus Southampton. They have lost all three games on the road, with difficult fixtures at Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham.

The feature of the City and Tottenham games is one that we need to be aware of especially as at times we are slow starters in games. Against City they took the lead in just 22 seconds, and against Tottenham almost the same in 23 seconds. Both games were lost 2-1 and 3-1 but nevertheless we could do without conceding an early goal.

Geoff’s excellent article published on Wednesday sums up very well what happened in the Chelsea game and where we are now. Although we were comfortable losers in the game the one decision that astonished me was the pullback on Summerville. Had the penalty been given (as it almost certainly should have been) then successful conversion would have reduced the deficit and perhaps it might have been a different game had we just been trailing 2-1 at the interval. Nevertheless, still a lot for the head coach and players to work on.

Brentford won’t be an easy fixture but it’s the kind of game we would hope to be winning (and definitely not losing) if we are truly going to improve on last season’s ninth place finish and push on towards European qualification. If we don’t then we will fall further behind the teams above us. The next international break comes up after this game and the one at home to Ipswich. It would be good to have ten points by then. The two games that follow the break are at Tottenham and then at home to Manchester United.

A winning run is needed and then we might begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel (a phrase coined by the new Prime Minister this week). What did he say? It needs to get worse before it gets better. Was he referring to economic prospects or West Ham?

In Summerville, Kudus and Bowen we have an attacking trio that will cause problems for most defences. I still worry about lack of pace behind them though. Perhaps Paqueta will start to play like the Brazilian international that he is? Perhaps Soler will turn out to be as good as he was touted to be? Perhaps Irvine will turn out to be the biggest surprise of all? It’s hard to work out the direction in which we are going but we definitely need to get it right soon.

For the third time in the first five games this season West Ham face an opponent who put five past us in the last campaign

For the third time in the first five games this season West Ham face an opponent who put five past us in the last campaign when Chelsea visit the London Stadium this weekend. Despite not being very convincing we avenged Palace and Fulham. Can we make it three in a row?

Considering the wealth at their disposal this Saturday’s early kick off opponents Chelsea have made an indifferent start to their Premier League campaign. In their first game they went down fairly tamely at home to (Champions elect, but facing 115 charges) Manchester City. The following week they won 6-2 at Wolves but then couldn’t beat Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge. Then following the international break they survived a Bournemouth penalty miss to snatch a winning goal in the dying minutes. They have seven points from four games and sit in eighth place.

Hopefully you read Geoff’s excellent article about our late equaliser to draw at Fulham. I have little to add to that. In many ways I am not surprised by our own indifferent start to the season given the changes of coach and influx of new players but my surprise comes with team selection. I don’t understand why Summerville is not in the starting lineup enabling Kudus to be better deployed. Nor do I see why Todibo has not yet been given his opportunity. Soucek and Antonio seem so out of touch (and their touch has been poor) that they must be left out soon surely? Mavropanos has been ok in some respects but is he better than Todibo? Despite Antonio’s poor form he does have a good goal scoring and assists record against the West Londoners.

I have seen numerous games against Chelsea in my time but one game stands out thanks to the superb performance on the day of one of our best ever players. The 1973-74 season had begun poorly and our first win at Upton Park came as late as December against Manchester City. We were dumped out of the FA Cup in the third round early in January 1974 by Hereford in a replay after a draw at Upton Park, but then we went on a nine match unbeaten run which began with a victory over a Manchester United team that would be relegated at the end of the season. 

In early March 1974 (hard to believe it was 50 years ago this year as my memory is still so vivid) we were still in the relegation battle ourselves. A song entered the top ten from Paper Lace entitled Billy, Don’t Be A Hero which was to become the number one for the next three weeks. The eighth match of the unbeaten run (and the fifth victory) came against Chelsea. We won the game comfortably 3-0 and it was one of Billy Bonds most memorable games for us (and he had so many) but in this one he scored a hat-trick from midfield. Yes, Billy really was a hero so many times for us. In the season he scored 13 goals and six came in the month of March. Quite rightly he was voted Hammer of The Year in 1974. It was one of the most memorable one man match winning performances I have ever witnessed.

How I’d love to see a repeat of what we did in the away fixture on Easter Saturday in 1986. Remember the boys of ’86? We won 4-0 at Stamford Bridge with goals from Alan Devonshire, Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie. 

Or the last home game of 2002-3 when Paolo Di Canio came on as a substitute and scored the vital goal to give us a win and a lifeline, which sadly meant nothing when we went down incredibly with 42 points the following week. That was his last goal in a claret and blue shirt. 

I also remember a cold December day in 2012 (when Benitez was temporarily Chelsea manager and was so disliked by his own supporters). They scored first and then we came back strongly with three unlikely goalscorers, a Carlton Cole headed equaliser, a fierce shot from Diame that was actually on target, and then finally a Maiga rebound tap in. That was our first win against them at the fourteenth attempt after the Di Canio goal that had given us victory almost ten years earlier. We then had another five winless games until our next victory in 2015 in the final season at Upton Park.

In my early days of attending Upton Park, Chelsea were one of the teams we always seemed to beat. From our promotion to the top division in 1958-59 through to the game I refer to above in 1973-74 we played them 14 times at home, winning ten, drawing two, and losing just two games (in successive seasons 1966-67 and 1967-68). In the twelve games that we won or drew we never failed to score at least two goals. But the Billy Bonds game is the one that sticks most clearly in my memory. We finished that season on 37 points (as did Chelsea), one point above the relegation places, so the victory turned out to be a vital one  in our fight to remain in the top division. 

In the following season Chelsea themselves were relegated. Throughout the 1970s we flirted with relegation virtually every season (except 1972-73 when we finished in the top half). It was a decade that saw not only Manchester United and Chelsea suffer relegation but Tottenham too after they finished at the bottom in 1976-77. We were relegated the following year 1977-78 and spent three years out of the top flight. 

By the end of the twentieth century our record against Chelsea was a positive one overall. In the years since that has very much not been the case. Money has been an important factor in that. But three excellent wins in recent years, Yarmolenko’s late winner in 2020, Masuaku’s late fluke in 2021 and our victory at the beginning of last season. Can we add another this weekend?

West Ham have already avenged the five goals conceded at Selhurst Park last season. Can we become repeat avengers when we visit Fulham?

Despite having a manager that was frequently described as cautious, one of the most disappointing aspects of the 2023-24 season was the fact that we conceded more goals in the Premier League than all the other teams with the exception of the three that were relegated. It didn’t take the new head coach very long after getting his feet under the table to decide that this was one area that needed urgent rectification.

Many thought we had paid over the odds splashing out £40 million on the Wolves captain, but early signs are good and Kilman would appear to be worth every penny based on his performances so far. Todibo is a player who was coveted by many, and although he has little opportunity to date, hopefully he can prove to be an equally astute acquisition. Wan-Bissaka has hit the ground running and has demonstrated his defensive capabilities already, plus surprisingly to some (perhaps the Manchester United management?) excellent full back attacking qualities. At £15 million for a 26-year-old he may turn out to be one of the best captures of the last transfer window. It was a surprise to me that he wasn’t coveted by more teams.

Two of the more depressing results last season came on visits to London sides who finished below us in the table. Who would have thought that we would go away to North London and return with six points from the games at Tottenham and Arsenal, but concede ten goals on our trips to Fulham and Crystal Palace? It was 5-0 at Craven Cottage which was then compounded by a 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium towards the end of the season. At least we managed to take a point off Palace in a 1-1 draw at home, before being thrashed 5-2 at Selhurst Park just a week after the dispiriting loss at home to Fulham.

After just three games this time we have already avenged last season’s humiliation at Palace with goals from Soucek and Bowen in a 2-0 win last month in our first away trip of the season. Game four of the new campaign, the first after the ‘ridiculously early in the season’ international break gives us the opportunity to take our revenge on Fulham too when we visit Craven Cottage this weekend.

It is astonishing how the fixtures computer has thrown up this season’s early games in that the first nine, covering a quarter of a season almost, are all in London! The game after this one coming up is a home game against Chelsea, and once again an early opportunity to remedy last season’s shocking visit to Stamford Bridge in May when they were another team to give us a 5-0 hiding. And the game after that is a visit to the Brentford Community Stadium where we went down 3-2 last season after holding a half-time lead.

We don’t travel for a Premier League game outside the capital until November when we visit Nottingham on Matchday 10. By then we would have already had two international breaks and a third will be just two games away. What a way to disrupt a campaign! Three international breaks will have been endured after just eleven games of the season. Ridiculous in my view!

Although a number of our key players have been away on international duty, I hope that the new head coach has had the opportunity to take stock of the situation. Yes, we have lost twice at home already, although they were fixtures against teams that finished in the Champions League qualification places last time around. However, we have already avenged the Palace debacle from last season, lets hope we can do the same at Fulham.

I’ve no idea what Mr Lopetegui has in mind for team selection but personally I’d like to see Kudus moved inside into the number 10 role where I think he can do more damage (he can’t perform at his best stuck out on the left despite still being a threat), and Summerville given a start on the left. Perhaps Kudus and Bowen can interchange between the centre and right throughout the game? I had hoped for Fullkrug to be given an opportunity from the start this time too but his injury picked up on international duty has put an end to that idea. Once again we are short of any real alternative to Antonio in the ‘number 9’ role. I wonder if Bowen will be pushed forward as he was at times last season to allow Kudus to play on the right and get Summerville into the team that way? Who knows? Another three points would be good though. What are the chances?

West Ham face the stiffest Premier League test of all when Manchester City are the visitors on Saturday

Last Weekend at Palace

Before last Saturdays game at Selhurst Park I asked the question as to whether more of our summer signings would make the starting eleven. The answer was no. That was disappointing but I guess the head coach either believes they are not ready or he wants to give every chance to existing players to stake a claim. I was unable to see the game so had to make do with highlights. From those I would deduce that both Soucek and especially Bowen took their goals well in the second half, Kilman had yet another excellent game and looks to be a superb acquisition, and Wan-Bissaka too looked very good in the limited time he was on the pitch.

Kilman’s drive forward with the ball and well timed pass showed what a good ball-playing defender can add to a team. And Wan-Bissaka (ironically described as a world class one on one defender but limited going forward – not good enough for Manchester United anyway!) proved doubters wrong with some fine work down the right flank which led to Soucek’s goal.

There seemed to be chances at both ends in the first half with Eze (unluckily hitting the bar with Areola well beaten), Edouard missing a relatively easy chance, and both Antonio and Kudus missing chances where they could have done better.

I would also assume that Health and Safety people will be visiting the ground in view of the barrier that gave way when West Ham fans were celebrating Soucek’s goal. Well done to both Soucek and Bowen for rescuing what could have been a very serious situation.

That was my interpretation of the highlights. What did I miss?

Carabao Cup v Bournemouth

 I was disappointed (I suspect not the only one) when the starting line-up was revealed for the Palace game. I had hoped for Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Fullkrug and Summerville to be in the starting eleven in place of Coufal, Mavropanos, Antonio and Soucek. But I am told that Mavropanos had a decent game (benefitting from playing alongside Kilman perhaps), and of course Soucek scored the opening goal so the right result was achieved. An important three points.

The summer signings who have yet to be involved from the start (or had minimal minutes on the pitch) will have been chomping at the bit to show what they can do in the all-Premier League cup tie against Bournemouth. The four I referred to all started in the game. The whole team looked rusty in the first half and it showed that they are not really up to speed yet in many cases. It didn’t improve much (if at all) in the second half until the substitutes appeared.

Wan-Bissaka was the pick of the four for me, I thought that he looked an absolute bargain for £15 million, once again showing attacking qualities as well as well-known defensive ones despite having to fill in at left back. For me he will provide so much more than Coufal. Once again Kilman looked very impressive. Alvarez was right on the ball from the off. For everyone else I’ll reserve judgement for the time being, although I thought that Coufal, Soucek and Mavropanos had very poor games.

Incredibly this is a competition that we have never won (although we have come close) yet in theory it is possibly the easiest trophy to lift with just a few wins needed to reach a Wembley final. Traditionally clubs field weakened teams in the earlier rounds to keep squad players happy and with the stronger squad that we appear to have assembled this time around you would hope that we would not be too disadvantaged, but at times in this game our team played like strangers who hadn’t played together (which I guess was the case!).

Bournemouth were rightly aggrieved to go out of the competition in the way that they did. After being robbed of a win last Sunday against Newcastle when VAR controversially disallowed a winner which went in off a shoulder, they would almost certainly have been saved by VAR this time, except it wasn’t in operation. Bowen was probably offside when the ball went in (it seemed) off his elbow, but neither of the two reasons that VAR would have found to disallow the goal were spotted by the officials and hence we went into the next round after a game that gave us little to get excited about.

The controversy doesn’t end there though. Winning the tie meant that we were ‘rewarded’ with a trip to Anfield in the next round, after a ‘rigged’ draw kept all the sides playing in the Champions League and Europa League apart. I remember the days when draws for domestic cup competitions were purely random! And don’t get me started about the draw for the Champions League and the other European competitions. To accommodate 36 teams in the Champions League which means more games (189 up from 125) and added revenue (£4.1 billion up from £3.1 billion) the draw for the new format (where ‘every game counts’) with a league phase replacing the traditional group games, was done using Artificial Intelligence. Apparently if the draw had been done in the traditional manual way with people unscrewing plastic balls taken from a bowl, it would have taken four hours with 1000 different balls in 36 bowls!

Historical memories of games v Manchester City

We have faced Manchester City 17 times in the Premier League since we last beat them in September 2015. Moses and Sakho put us 2-0 up in the first half that day before De Bruyne pulled one back just before half time. But we held on for a 2-1 win. Cresswell, Antonio and De Bruyne are the only survivors from that day that remain in the squads today. We did beat them 5-3 on Penalties in a League Cup tie in 2021 after drawing 0-0, and we have managed draws at Upton Park in 2016 and at the London Stadium in 2020 and 2022.

Back in March 1996 Niall Quinn deprived me of £400 in the fixture at Upton Park. City were a softer touch around that time and I had placed a £5 bet at 80-1 on us beating them 4-1 in the game. Unfortunately, Quinn scored with the last kick of the game and it ended 4-2! I should have repeated the bet four years later when, despite being 1-0 down at half time at Upton Park, we ran out 4-1 winners with goals from Lomas, Sinclair, Pearce, and a 90th minute penalty converted by Di Canio. But I didn’t.

In December 1994 Tony Cottee scored a hat trick in a 3-0 win at Upton Park. A year earlier in November 1993 we beat them 3-1 with goals from Burrows, Chapman and Matty Holmes. I remember that game as one of the first I can recall on Monday Night Football on Sky – it came shortly after Julian Dicks joined Liverpool in a swap deal which involved full back David Burrows and Mike Marsh coming to West Ham. To add some power to the forward line Lee Chapman was bought from Portsmouth.

A memory from the 1980s from September 1982 – at Upton Park we beat City 4-1 (that score has featured a few times hasn’t it in history) – Sandy Clark notched a brace (do you remember him?), Paul Goddard and our skilful Belgian Francois Van der Elst scored the goals.

In March 1970 we were struggling in the league and were 17th in the table. A new goalscorer was needed and one arrived when a swap deal was arranged with Tottenham as Martin Peters joined Spurs and the legendary Jimmy Greaves arrived at Upton Park. Greaves first game was at Maine Road in pouring rain on a mudbath of a pitch and was covered by Match of the Day in the days when only one game was shown on the programme. Greaves scored twice, Geoff Hurst scored twice and Ronnie Boyce scored from 50 yards volleying back City keeper Joe Corrigan’s kick from his penalty area straight into the net. An unforgettable game.

My memory stretches back even further to the 1962-63 season. We met fellow strugglers (we were 19th at the time) Manchester City early in the season (September) and beat them 6-1 at Maine Road. We faced them again on the final day of the season and again beat them 6-1 to relegate them from the top-flight. We had improved as the season progressed and finished twelfth.

Although City were co-founders of the initial Premier League when it was created in 1992 (they finished ninth in the first season) they then struggled and were relegated in 1996 – the season I referred to earlier writing about the late Niall Quinn goal – I won’t forgive him! After two seasons they then fell to the lowest point in their history when they were relegated to the third tier. Younger fans will find it hard to believe that City were that low at the end of the twentieth century, just a quarter of a century ago.

This Saturday’s Game v Manchester City 

Of course facing the modern Manchester City is an entirely different proposition to the fixtures against them in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s that I highlighted above. The revival began at the turn of the century and following purchase by the Abu Dhabi Group in 2008 they have gone from strength to strength with massive investment.

Following the appointment of Pep Guardiola in 2016 they have achieved unprecedented success. In the seven seasons from 2017 to 2024 they have won six league titles and finished second once. In 2022-23 they achieved the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. In short, they are almost unbeatable and, as I wrote earlier we haven’t beaten them in our last 17 attempts in the Premier League going back nine years.

They already top the Premier League after just two games this season following a comfortable 2-0 win at Chelsea and then beating newcomers Ipswich 4-1 last Saturday. Six points and six goals already – Haaland has four of them. He has also scored four times in four league games against us and is an obvious danger once again, although they are so strong throughout the team, we will have to be at the very top of our game and hope they are below par to stand any chance.

Once our newcomers have bedded in I have no doubt that we will be a stronger team (and have a stronger squad) than we have been in under the previous manager. However, these are still early days and perhaps it would have been better for us to face the stiffest test of all in the Premier League after more time together. Undoubtedly we have some excellent attacking players – let’s hope for an early season surprise on Saturday. Bookmakers don’t think there will be. We are quoted at about 6/1 to win the game with City at 1/3 and the draw at 4/1. Can we defy the odds? We’ll need to improve considerably on our performances in the past week to do so.

Will more of the summer signings make the starting eleven when West Ham travel to Selhurst Park this weekend?

Collins English Dictionary – “Inevitable” (adjective) – unavoidable, sure to happen, so regular as to be predictable, inescapable, certain, sure, fated, destined.

Take your pick. There were three things that many thought were inevitable in our first game of the season at home to Aston Villa last Saturday. Firstly, we would lose. I was optimistic prior to the game and hoped for a win as always, but past performances of the first game of a Premier League season already had us well clear at the top of the table for having zero points from the opener. It has happened so regularly as to be predictable.

Secondly, Duran might score the winning goal. As I wrote last week prior to the Villa game – “We’ve already had one Duran score against us this season (for Celta Vigo), let’s hope that Villa’s Colombian Duran doesn’t do the same on Saturday after all the early transfer window shenanigans”. When he came on (like many others) I just had the feeling … His cameo certainly showed the type of player we missed out on by not meeting Villa’s demands early in the transfer window.

Thirdly, that Paqueta would be booked. You could have bet on it – I wonder how many did? He was on the very edge of receiving a second yellow card too.

I was disappointed (I suspect not the only one) when the starting line-up was revealed. I hoped for Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Fullkrug and Summerville to be in the starting eleven in place of Coufal, Mavropanos, Antonio and Soucek but the manager thought otherwise (that’s his prerogative – he knows how ready the players are; he stands or falls by his decisions). To be fair I thought Mavropanos had a decent game but I wasn’t impressed with the other three that I had hoped would be on the bench.

So be it. Whilst not a massive fan of figures, the statistics of the game showed that we were virtually on a par with our (Champions League qualified) visitors in shots (14-15), shots on target (3-3), possession (51%-49%), passes (400-395), and pass accuracy (84%-84%). Considering Villa’s dominance in the first 25 minutes where they could have scored more than one it does show how we did improve as the game went on. I could certainly see why the manager wanted to buy Kilman who I thought was very impressive. Of West Ham players he had the most touches (82), passes completed (58), carries (55), clearances (7), interceptions (2), and blocks (2) whilst also being second with progressive passes (5), ball recoveries (5) and tackles won (2).

Despite the statistics Villa deserved to win, possibly because of superior tactics. They recognised that Coufal was perhaps the weak link, pushed their midfield attackers forward centrally to force our full backs narrow, and then used Digne and latterly Maatsen to exploit the width on their left (our right). Their winning goal was an excellent team move that Duran finished with a low shot straight through Areola. Their first goal was partly Antonio losing his man and Areola not commanding the goal area as perhaps he should.

Kudus stood out as our best player but to me he is not ideally suited to playing on the left. He’s so talented he could play in any forward position I reckon but I’d like to see him in the middle of the 3 behind the main striker (number 10 role). Summerville is perfect for the left side role to complement Bowen on the right. 

Onwards and upwards (hopefully) we visit Palace this weekend who share an equal position in the inaugural league table with us, having lost their opener 2-1 at Brentford. I watched that game and thought that they were unlucky to lose. Eze’s superb free kick was disallowed (wrongly the referee bravely admitted afterwards) and Brentford went down the other end almost immediately went ahead with a free flowing move which was finished well by Mbuemo.

Palace equalised early in the second half and began to dominate coming close to going ahead. Wharton was impressive, (surprisingly to me he was an unused member of the England squad in the Euros) and was running the game but (surprisingly to me again) was withdrawn with 15 minutes to go. Co-incidentally (or not?) Brentford notched the winner a couple of minutes later. Palace should have capitalised when they were dominating and came close to an equaliser but Brentford held on for what I thought was an unexpected and unlikely victory.

Guehi, widely regarded as one of the best centre backs around, played well at the heart of the Palace defence throughout but is the subject of transfer speculation. I wonder if he will still be there by the time of our visit. They do have some outstanding players. In addition to Guehi, Eze always looks impressive to me, Wharton likes to control the midfield and I think will develop into an excellent player, and Mateta is a dangerous striker. Olise left for Bayern Munich in the summer so he won’t trouble us any more.

Palace are one of those teams against whom we have a superior record in head-to- head encounters in history but in recent times we have not been dominant – in fact we have only beaten them twice in the last eleven meetings. Our last four visits to Selhurst Park have been goal feasts with 24 goals scored in those games. In January 2021 we beat them 3-2, repeating the score the following January. Then in April 2023 we lost the game 4-3 and then just a few months ago last April (2024) we were comprehensively beaten (slaughtered really!) 5-2.

One of my favourite memories of visiting Selhurst Park was a 3-0 victory there in October 1971 when Ade Coker, making his debut scored one of the goals with Clyde Best and Billy Bonds netting the others. Conversely, one of my least favourite memories of playing Palace was the trip to Cardiff for the Play-Off final in 2004 when a goal from Neil Shipperley beat us. The journey back was slow and painful.

Two great goals to remember in games against Palace – Payet’s magnificent free kick in our final season at Upton Park in a game that ended 2-2. Definitely one of the great free kicks. Also Andy Carroll’s stunning overhead kick the following season (our first at the London Stadium) in a 3-0 victory.

Like ourselves Palace will want to bounce back quickly from the opening day defeat. They ended last season winning five of their last six games including victories over Newcastle, Manchester United and Aston Villa scoring 20 goals in that run-in. They will be disappointed that they didn’t hit the ground running this time. 

My hope is that with another week for the new players to become accustomed to their new surroundings and their new colleagues more of them will be in the starting eleven this weekend, especially Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Summerville and Fullkrug.

Here We Go Again – Season 67 as a West Ham Fan begins with a 5.30 kick off on Saturday for the visit of Aston Villa

It all began for me on Saturday 23rd August 1958. 1958-59 was the first football season I remember. West Ham had just been promoted from the second division and I believe this was the first time back in the top-flight since the 1930s. After 6 games we were on top with a win and a draw against the champions from the previous season Wolves and a win against runners up Manchester United. It was a successful campaign finishing sixth, a feat we have only bettered twice since.

This season will be my 67th as a fan and I’m looking forward just as much as ever to see what it will bring. We were warned to be careful what we wished for but I am hoping for a more enterprising brand of football than that we have witnessed in the last couple of years. The appointment of a head coach who had been in charge at Seville, Real Madrid and the Spanish national team was not especially welcomed by many but I am happy to wait and see. I hope that he can deliver a more progressive style of football than his predecessor. I read some statistics (which I have not verified) which suggested that Moyes has a better goals scored per game record than Lopetegui, but concedes more goals per game on average than our new Spanish boss. Whatever, it was time for something different.

The recruitment in the close season after a sluggish start has picked up in the past couple of weeks (with eight new recruits at the time of writing and perhaps one or two more to come if some existing players can be moved on) and on paper it would appear we have a much better, bigger, (younger? I’m not sure) and more balanced squad than the previous manager had left. Tim Steidten would seem to have done a superb job bringing in the likes of the Championship player of last season, an Argentinian World Cup winner, a current German international centre forward, a highly rated French international centre back, and the head coach’s number 1 pick from Wolves into the squad. Guilherme has also arrived from Brazil with a big reputation (and price tag considering his experience) but he would appear to be one for the future, we shall see.

All the new recruits have joined us without the prospect of European competition this season. The lack of the Thursday / Sunday fixtures should however be an advantage in one respect though given the reduced number of games to play – our record in Sunday games (partly due I suspect due to the small size of the squad) was poor last time. Ten Thursday games in Europe were followed by just two wins on the following Sunday. Perhaps with a fresher and bigger squad we can have a better tilt at the domestic cup competitions than of late.  

Of course, this is on paper (and as Brian Clough and others have said the game is not played on paper). It remains to be seen how quickly the new boss can integrate the players into a cohesive unit. Many fans writing on social media are perhaps going a little overboard expecting a challenge for Champions League places but I believe that this may be a little premature. It would be great of course but it is likely to take time for the team to produce consistent results with so many new faces at once.

I am especially excited by Summerville who looked superb when I watched Leeds games on TV last season. He should hopefully provide the balance on the left that has been missing. With Bowen on the right and Kudus perhaps in a central ‘number 10’ role behind a goalscoring centre forward then our attacking threat should be potent and balanced. We have a number of alternatives in midfield – let’s hope that Paqueta can show his skills and best form alongside whoever plays there, probably Rodriguez to begin with while Alvarez is out. Unlike many fans (it would appear) I am a fan of JWP but he is likely to struggle to make the starting eleven such is the depth of the squad in the middle. For the times he does get onto the pitch I hope he rediscovers his free kick shots on goal speciality.

The central defence looks more solid than before with Kilman and the highly rated Todibo, and Wan-Bissaka should hopefully be an upgrade on Coufal, certainly in a defensive sense where he is highly regarded especially in one-on-one situations facing attacking wingers. Hopefully as a result we can improve considerably on our poor goals conceded record – the worst in the Premier League after the three relegated clubs. 74 was the biggest number we have ever conceded in the Premier League and the most ever since 1966-67! I’ve seen last season’s defence described as Swiss cheese – very apt.

The club were hoping that Zouma, last season’s strange choice as captain, could be offloaded to Saudi Arabia saving around £7million in wages. His legs seemed to have gone some time ago and it was no surprise when he ironically failed the CAT scan!  

The squad as a whole should give us a much stronger bench than Moyes’ thin numbers could ever achieve, and I wondered if any of the promising youngsters would find their way into it. There were high hopes for three or four of them to do so, but with the strength in depth that we are likely to have it seems that there may be loans to lower league clubs to ensure that they gain experience that they would not have if they stayed this season.

In his relatively short time at the club the new head coach has completely managed to revamp the team from front to back with just days to spare before the new campaign gets underway. A big improvement on previous campaigns where late arrivals in the transfer window after the season had already begun was the order of the day. Nevertheless not a lot of time for the players to gel as a team and it may take a while before we see the best of the new recruits.

Where will we finish? Last season we were ninth so with the changes and investment we’ve got to hope for an improvement. Seventh or eighth perhaps or even better pushing for a place in Europe the following season. And wouldn’t it be great to have long runs in both the League and FA Cups with perhaps a trip to Wembley in one or the other (or both!)?

The season may well turn out to be a transitional one but I’m hoping for visible progress, a desire to retain the ball and not give it away so cheaply, and football that is better to watch than it has been for the past couple of years. I fear that if it takes too long for the team to adapt to Lopetegui’s methods then the fans will get restless. We’ve got to be patient and allow some time for it all to come together.

Aston Villa, newly qualified for the Champions League, will be a stiff test for the first game. We’ve already had one Duran score against us this season (for Celta Vigo), let’s hope that Villa’s Colombian Duran doesn’t do the same on Saturday after all the early transfer window shenanigans! Some fans have complained about our pre-season performances and results but I seem to recall that we had a poor lead into the 1985-86 season where we achieved our best ever finish. Conversely in the Avram Grant year the pre-season went quite well. It’s not always a good indicator of what is to follow, especially this year with the late returners from international football and also the late transfer incomings. Aston Villa have also lost a number of games pre-season too by the way.

So here we go again. My prediction for the starting line-up: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Todibo, Emerson; Rodriguez, Paqueta: Bowen, Kudus, Summerville: Fullkrug. That would mean just five of last year’s regulars added to six newcomers.

That leaves a bench to be chosen from the following: Fabianski, Coufal, Aguerd, Mavropanos, Cresswell, Irving, Soucek, JWP, Guilherme, Ings, Antonio, Cornet plus any of our promising youngsters who haven’t been loaned out. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anyone. I’m not used to a full squad!

The new head coach may have other ideas, but whatever team is selected I’m excited and looking forward to season 67 as much as my first back in 1958. Who knows what we have in store? I’ll start this year’s score forecasts with a 2-1 win.

West Ham Season 2024/25: Hopes, Dreams and Expectations

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. But in the wake of the big kick-off will it be the hap-happiest season of all for the Hammers?

The numbers are in, the deals are done, and the collection of new home, away and 3rd kits have been revealed. Now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty business of the 2024/25 curtain raiser.

It will be a team of virtual strangers who take the field for West Ham at the London Stadium late on Saturday afternoon and then into the opening games of the new campaign. At best the coach’s preferred starting eleven will comprise only five or six survivors from last year’s ever presents. It is an unprecedented level of change usually only seen when a newly promoted club is desperately seeking to consolidate its place in the top flight. The extent of renewal that was necessary in the squad is a sad indictment of the mess left by the previous managerial incumbent. I still have to scratch my head when I read comments as to how he left the club in a good position, was underappreciated, or will be sorely missed. I trust I never have to witness a West Ham low block ever again.

On paper, the work done by Julen Lopetegui and Tim Steidten to refresh the squad on a tightish budget – without little in the way of saleable assets – looks impressive. How that translates onto the pitch will only become apparent over time. Once the players have become familiar with each other and the new style of play. A possession based game not only requires players to be comfortable on the ball but also needs far more movement off the ball than we have been used to. Attempting to play out from the back without at least a couple of passing options would be courting disaster.

The modern football supporter needs to understand finance and the intricacies of PSR and FFP as much as getting to grips with formations and tactics. While the media focuses mainly on transfer spend, the impact of player salaries cannot be overlooked. As an example, the recent transfer of Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been reported as £15 million (amortised at £3 million per annum over 5 years) while his earnings might well be in the range of £3.5 to £4 million (my estimate) for each of the seven years of his contract. Quite a commitment.

Views on the West Ham board are rarely positive but it is difficult not to be impressed by the sumer investment. And this time the spending looks to have been undertaken in a reasoned manner. In the past money has been spent, but unwisely. The current estimate of the club’s net transfer spend this window is £85.1 million. So what do we now have for the money?

The assumption is that Alphonse Areola will retain the keeper’s gloves with Lukasz Fabianski as deputy. Poor old Wes Foderingham will become the forgotten man of the transfer window like leftover Toffee Pennys in the Quality Street box at the end of the Christmas holidays. If there is a concern with the keepers, it is how well they can adapt to the passing out game having become so used to hoofing it long during their West Ham careers. Neither look the most comfortable with the ball at their feet.

With the exception of Emerson it will an all new back line. New recruits Wan-Bissaka, Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo making up the defensive quartet. The two full backs offer very different styles of play and it will be interesting to see how they are integrated into the Lopetegui’s system. We may well witness a great deal more fluidity in formation than in the past with Wan-Bissaka dropping into the centre a lot more often than he is bombing down the flanks. Todibo is an exciting prospect who will hopefully adjust quickly to the physical demands of the Premier League. There has already been a little negativity over Kilman (and the price paid for him) on the strength of a few kick-about friendlies but it is obviously far too early to draw any conclusions.

Backup defenders are in short supply. Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell can provide emergency cover as full backs but the situation in the centre is more confused. Both Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd are being ushered towards the exits while Dinos Mavropanos has proven accident prone inmost of the games he has played. If one or more are shifted, then there is still time to bring in another centre-back. Of those still being linked I like the sound of Nathan Zeze. Who wouldn’t want to nip down to the club shop to buy a Zeze top?

From what we have seen in pre-season, West Ham will be adopting a high defensive line. This will requires pace and alertness to deal with the ball over the top. In this respect, the Kilman – Todibo partnership will be key to plugging the leaks in the Hammer’s defence.

Defensive midfield duties will fall primarily to Edson Alvarez and Guido Rodriguez although we don’t yet know whether Lopetegui sees them playing as a pair of as cover for each other’s suspensions. At least one must remain deep to provide numerical support to the centre backs. I expect plenty of variation in the midfield while, in practice, most progressive sides now attack and defend as a team rather than being setup in rigid formations. Maybe Lucas Paqueta will also be deployed deeper in certain games where circumstances dictate.

Remaining candidates for defensive midfield duties are Tomas Soucek, James Ward-Prowse and potentially Andy Irving – provided they survive the transfer window cull. None have the look of regular starters to me but can make valuable contributions from the bench.

Attacking midfield provides the greatest selection conundrum with Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus, and “Jimmy” Summerville competing for three starting berths – with Luis Guilherme waiting in the wings to get Premier League minutes under his belt. Finding the right balance will be a challenge, especially in getting the best out of Kudus who (until now) has looked at his least effective when deployed on the left. But it would be a huge call to play him in place of Bowen or Paqueta on the right or in the centre resepctively.

This leaves finding a way to accommodate Summerville who is the one player capable of thriving out left while also contributing a decent goal return. It’s great to have option as long as the coach is able to keep everybody happy.

The signing of Niclas Füllkrug is the one that has most divided opinion among supporters, largely based on an apparent lack of pace. If the most pessimistic reports are to be believed he ranks somewhere between a snail and a glacier in speed of movement. He may not be a glamourous squad addition, but Lopetegui and Steidten clearly favoured experience over the potential of unproven alternatives. Hopefully attributes of strength, anticipation and instinct will see him make a valuable contribution in an exciting attacking line-up. It’s not only about pace!

There are outstanding decisions to be made on the futures of Michail Antonio and Danny Ings. One is likely to leave before the window closes. For me, Antonio still has something different to offer if he is happy to stick around in the role of impact sub. Ideally, I would still like to see an additional (younger) striker brought in as backup using any additional funds freed up by shipping out fringe players.

Hopes for the season are for West Ham to be in with a shout for the European places come the end of the season. A cup run would also be nice.  So much will depend on how long the new look team and tactics take to hit the ground. Offensively we should be capable of causing any opponent problems but cutting out the mistakes and the giveaways further back may take more time to eradicate. I can foresee plenty of gnashing of teeth in the opening weeks where a keeper mis-controls or a defender earns the assist for an opposition goal.

Overall, I am excited for the new season. Then again, the opening day is always the time of peak optimism. Typically, the optimism doesn’t survive past August Bank Holiday but who knows? This could be the start of something big.  COYI!

West Ham visit the Etihad Stadium this weekend, but it will take a miraculous turnaround in form and recent history of the fixture to deprive Manchester City of their fourth title in a row.  

It was back in early March as the season approached the three-quarter mark when I tried to assess our chances of finishing in the top seven which would probably give us the opportunity to qualify for Europe next season via our finishing league position. At that time I looked at the teams who were in 6th to 11th, and they were as follows (all had eleven games remaining apart from Chelsea with twelve)

6. Manchester United 44 points (27 games)
7. West Ham 42 points (27)
8. Newcastle 40 points (27)
9. Brighton 39 points (27)
10. Wolves 38 points (27)
11. Chelsea 36 points (26)

I looked at the degree of difficulty in the remaining fixtures for each side based upon the position in the league table of their remaining opponents at that time. The degree of difficulty factor suggested that Newcastle had the easiest run-in with the average positions of opponents as follows: Newcastle 12.2, Manchester United 11.7, Chelsea 10.6, Wolves 10.0, West Ham 9.5, Brighton 9.0.

I then predicted the results of each teams remaining games with a formula based upon fixtures remaining, whether or not the remaining games were home or away, and the results when the sides met earlier in the season. Additional factors included games against the top 5 teams, and games against each other. This gave me a prediction of the final standings:

6. Manchester United – 61 points
7. Newcastle – 57 points
8. West Ham – 57 points
9. Wolves – 55 points
10. Chelsea – 54 points
11. Brighton 51 points

Bookmakers at that time had Manchester United and Newcastle finishing sixth and seventh, Brighton and Chelsea above us in eighth and ninth with West Ham just scraping into the top half in tenth. It was just a bit of fun, and my gut feeling was that we’d be fortunate to do as well as this, I wrote that perhaps tenth was just about right. Football matches are notoriously unpredictable to forecast which stems from various factors like team dynamics, player and overall team form, European and FA Cup games to play, the Thursday / Sunday mix which is often an issue, injuries, and even unpredictable events during a game, as well as all sorts of other miscellaneous factors.

With the final games to play on Sunday, 6th downwards reads as follows:

6. Chelsea – 60 points (H v Bournemouth)
7. Newcastle – 57 points (A v Brentford)
8. Manchester United – 57 points (A v Brighton)
9. West Ham – 52 points (A v Manchester City)
10. Brighton – 48 points (H v Manchester United)
11. Bournemouth – 48 points (A v Chelsea)
12. Crystal Palace – 46 points (H v Aston Villa)
13. Wolves – 46 points (A v Liverpool)

My original thought that 57 points might just be enough for 7th was just a little short of the mark. Chelsea have finished the season strongly, and Newcastle have done well since the turnaround in their game against us, but other contenders such as Manchester United, Wolves, Brighton and ourselves have been inconsistent. After a poor start to the season Bournemouth have improved considerably, and Crystal Palace are second only to Manchester City on recent form with 16 points from their last six games, but their improvement was much too late.

We have 52 points and I will be very happy but massively surprised if we add to that in the final game. We are five points shy of my prediction; those five points were lost in two home games that I was hoping we would win, against Burnley where we drew 2-2 and Fulham where we went down 2-0. Other than that I would have been spot on. We might have even exceeded the 57 point mark had we held on to our 3-1 lead in Newcastle.

But it was not to be and our poor record in the latter half of the season has let us down after entering 2024 in sixth place. We are guaranteed to finish in ninth place (exactly halfway between my forecast and my gut feeling) whatever the outcome this weekend. We are eighth when it comes to scoring goals, but in the bottom four when it comes to conceding them, and therein lies the main problem.

In our articles throughout the season, particularly in the last few months, we have discussed what we believed were the shortcomings of the manager, but this will be his last game and we must now await was lies ahead in the summer and beyond.

Social media articles have already started the Lopetegui in / out debate before he has already been officially announced as the new ‘head coach’! The two sides have been debating whether or not he will lift us off our seats with enterprising, entertaining, attacking football? Will he be far removed from what we have witnessed in the past four years? How good is his record? To me on paper it looks very sound, but he has had some good teams / players to work with (Porto, Spain, Real Madrid, Sevilla). His overall record as a manager shows a 57% win rate from over 400 games.

Statistically, David Moyes record (in a West Ham context) is very sound too, but results in the last season and a half have been less than convincing apart from the European adventure and trophy. The football played in so many games has not been good enough, tactically he has been left wanting frequently, and we have suffered a number of heavy (embarrassing) defeats.

I won’t enter the debate on the new head coach until he is here and will wait to see what happens in the next few months. He certainly has a big job to do in overhauling the squad with many out of contract and ageing players. David Moyes apparently likes working with small squads and it certainly caught up with him in the end.

I have been thinking about some of the players that we’ve sold or sent out on loan in the last year. Pablo Fornals was a Spanish international when he came to us, did a reasonable if unspectacular job here, and now at Real Betis is creating more chances than virtually everyone in the Spanish league. Thilo Kehrer, a German international, never seemed to be at his best here, yet just take a look at his spectacular statistics at Monaco. Said Benrahma, superb for Brentford, comes to us, clearly not fancied by the manager, confidence disappears, is now turning it on at Lyons. Flynn Downes, always looked a decent player to me when given an opportunity here, but allowed out on loan to Southampton, where Russell Martin described him as their key player in the push for promotion. Freddie Potts, on loan at Wycombe, their player of the year. Perhaps one or more of these could have been more than useful in the squad in the disappointing second half of the season where a European place beckoned at the turn of the year but faded in 2024. But no we turned to Kalvin Phillips, a seasoned England international but way off the pace sitting on the Manchester City bench who has cost us millions. That turned out well, didn’t it?

Several positions need strengthening but for me a key priority is at the back, in particular central defence where for so long we have lacked pace to deal with the speed of Premier League attackers. Will Paqueta stay? Personally, I’m not bothered either way. He has undoubted talents but application can be lacking at times, and I’d hope that the £85million could be spent as wisely as it was when Declan Rice left a year ago with Kudus, Alvarez and JWP, all of whom I believe can offer much in the future if used in the right way, in the right positions, alongside Hammer of the Year Jarrod Bowen.

For some time now our Academy and youth teams have produced outstanding results, but this has not been reflected in players coming through into the First Team squad. There are high hopes for George Earthy and I would hope others too can get opportunities in the squad. Hopefully the new head coach will be able to bring on the youngsters more than has happened in recent times.

We’ve been known to spoil a Manchester party in the past but it is hard to imagine us halting the City celebrations this time around. At the end of the game at Tottenham they were celebrating as if the title was already theirs with just little old West Ham with the fragile defence to come in the final game. They were preparing their abacuses to take to the game.

Unlike a number of social media posts I’ve read where supposed West Ham fans want us to lose to deprive Arsenal of the title, because of their dislike or hatred of Arsenal and the Rice factor, I am in the opposite camp. You are entitled to your opinion but I hold an entirely different view. I may dislike some teams, but hate? No.

I would never ever want us to lose a game to influence what happens elsewhere. To any of you who want us to lose why not consider the bigger picture? If we did manage to hold or even (very unlikely) beat Manchester City then just think how brassed off Tottenham fans will be that Arsenal have won the title and West Ham were largely responsible for that happening. Surely you dislike Tottenham even more than Arsenal?

I always want us to win every game we play. I have no problems with Declan Rice and wish him well – he did a great job in a West Ham shirt. Personally I’d be more than happy if the Manchester City domination of the Premier League title was broken.

But realistically it would take a miracle. But miracles do happen very occasionally. Bookmakers have City at 1/12 to win the game (and the title) with West Ham at 20/1 and the draw at 11/1.

An interesting summer lies ahead.

West Ham Play Cameo Role In End Of The Piers Show

The curtain comes down on another Premier League season with the Hammers involved in final day drama at The Etihad. Is there any chance of derailing a fourth successive title for Manchester City?

So here we are again. The final Premier League weekend of the season and the now traditional shifting of the weekend’s fixtures so that supporters must make their way home on Sunday rail replacement bus services once the action is over.

With almost all of the league’s placings now settled, TV executives at least have a theoretical title-decider to ramp up the afternoon’s excitement. The helicopter will be parked up in Birmingham awaiting final instructions on whether the mad, last-minute dash with the trophy is to The Emirates or The Etihad. I say, theoretical, because all that sits between Manchester City and a fourth successive title are the serial roll-over merchants from West Ham.

The Super Sunday crew would have been furious with Son Heung-min for missing that late chance to equalise on Tuesday night. The prospect of the two protagonists going into the final day equal on points would have been mouthwatering (© Peter Drury.) Then it would have come down to a first past the post who can outscore who contest. Now Manchester City have the luxury of only needing to win by any score, in a fixture they have been triumphant in on the last seven occasions.

Among the straws being clutched at by Piers Morgan and his pals down the Hornsey Road is that David Moyes has a surprisingly good record in games against Manchester City, ignoring the fact that most of that happened while the Citizens were just another football club. When Moyes has faced Pep Guardiola, the playing field has been about as level as lion versus wildebeest.

The game will, of course, be Moyes final farewell and he may well be chuffed with a third top ten finish in four years. Looking back at my pre-season predictions I had West Ham down as finishing 13th. So, in some ways, he has exceeded my expectations. I just wouldn’t want to have to sit through it all again. At least he was able to sign off with a last home win last weekend once his side had woken up in the second half to ease past relegated Luton. No sooner had I been cursing the manager’s decision to opt for the terrible midfield double pivot of James Ward-Prowse and Tomas Soucek than both popped up to score. Yet, I shudder to think what might happen if he starts with the same pairing again on Sunday.

The decision to make Edson Alvarez the scapegoat for defeat to Chelsea was baffling. Alvarez has been one of the top performers all season and has sometimes acted alone in not treating the game passively. Maybe a ball-winner is surplus to requirements in a side set up not to have it.

It is hard to imagine Moyes making any radical changes for his last game. It will be the usual favourites playing their usual roles in the usual low block. My prediction is that it will hold out until the 17th minute – and will be downhill from there. City just have too much quality to resist the charge just by putting as many bodies as possible in the way. They will eventually find a way through, past, or around.

The best hope is that a Premier League lawyer will run onto the pitch in added time to announce that City’s punishment for 115 breaches of the rules is to award the game to West Ham. I wonder if City will be stripped of their titles if found guilty of cheating?

In conclusion, my 2023/24 awards go to:

Player of the Year: Jarrod Bowen
Best Goal: Mohammed Kudus versus Freiburg
Best Goal (Premier League): Mohammed Kudus versus Brentford (away)
Bench Warmer of the Year: Divin Mubama
Annual Roberto Shocking Signing Award: Kalvin Phillips

Wouldn’t it be nice to believe the Hammers could be worthy opponents today. Not for anyone else’s sake but our own. It doesn’t make much difference to me who wins the league. I see no lesser between the two evils. How about countering the earlier cynicism with dreams of a last-minute Vladimir Coufal winner? COYI!