Tag: #WHUWOL

Reasons To Do Nothing, Part 3: West Ham Win Against Wolves Gives Lopetegui Short Term Reprieve In Sack Race

West Ham are pleased to announce that the next game in the ‘one game to save his job’ series is scheduled for Boxing Day at St Marys Stadium, Southampton

Has there ever been a game, I wonder, where both managers have ended up losing their jobs after the final whistle? On the evidence of the first half, it wasn’t the most unlikely of outcomes as two extremely mediocre sides, who had conceded 63 goals between them so far this season, endeavoured to prioritise caution above enterprise.

The second half was thankfully more entertaining with three goals scored over eighteen frenetic minutes and various other incidents requiring the powers of VAR to intervene. Mohammed Kudus was so clearly offside for his disallowed goal that it is a mystery why the decision to derail his elaborate celebration took so long. As for the two Wolves penalty appeals, they could have gone either way – once again demonstrating the rather arbitrary nature of these rulings. The degree of contact, where it first took place, and whether it did or didn’t continue into the area must now all be taken into account when arriving at a split-second decision. Both were cases where the on-field decision was unlikely to be reversed no matter what. O’Neil seethed; Loppy was relieved!

The narrow Hammer’s win allows the can to be kicked a little further down the road before a decision is needed on Julen Lopetegui’s future. In times like these the Chairman likes nothing better than doing nothing. With each passing week the compensation for the Head Coach and his entourage reduces incrementally, and the list of potential replacements gets progressively longer – until they get snapped up by clubs more willing to pull the trigger. The view from the Boardroom is not of a team hovering just outside the relegation places, but one competing in an enthralling lower table mini league with the heavyweights from Tottenham, Newcastle and Manchester United. Let’s carry on limping along for now until the next “one match to save his job” event is scheduled against Southampton on Boxing Day.

There are, of course, significant financial consequence of jettisoning a coach or manager early in his contract and/ or buying another out of his contract at their exising. The costs involved must be accounted for under Profit and Sustainability Rules and will impact the amount available to spend in future transfer windows. It is said to have cost Manchester United £21m to ditch Ten Hag and recruit Amorim. A rounding error for the Red Devils but far more substantial for a club like West Ham with significantly lower revenues.   

Aside from the financial hit, the Board are no doubt reluctant to admit to making a mistake in appointing Lopetegui in the first place. Many supporters regarded it as an uninspiring choice at the outset. Arguably better than what we had, but never the right man for the job of building for the future. It is yet another example of a club without the vision or understanding of what it takes to compete regularly in the financially skewed modern game. Muddling through from one season to the next with no strategy for smart recruitment or youth development is doomed to disappoint. It has been the trademark of the entire 15-year Sullivan/ Gold/ Brady era. And who trusts the current board to make a sensible or enlightened choice when Lopetegui is eventually replaced?  

Monday Night football was once a highlight of the televised football week. But with more games now shown live and midweek action dominated by European competition, the Monday slot has become an anachronistic scheduling quirk. An opportunity to fill quotas by showing less glamorous sides compete in meaningless contests. A sign of the times that the Hammers will have been shunted to the Monday graveyard slot for three consecutive broadcasts. Given the late kick-off time and the number of added minutes that is now the norm, it is a wonder that anyone manages to get home afterwards.

Lopetegui made two changes to the side starting in the 3-1 defeat to Leicester. Emerson replaced Vladimir Coufal at full back and Crysencio Summerville came in for Danny Ings. The enforced absence of Michail Antoinio following his shocking road traffic accident is a huge blow to West Ham’s striking options and surely must be addressed in the January transfer window. It is difficult to imagine ever seeing Antonio in a West Ham shirt again and we wish him well in his lengthy recovery. He has been one the Hammer’s better signings of recent years, and his level of effort and commitment has never been in doubt.

The latest midfield ensemble of Tomas Soucek, Edson Alvarez and Carlos Soler failed to stamp their authority on thegame. Soucek continues to be an enigma. Playing in a more forward role, the game largely passed him by in open play with his lack of pace and mobility all too apparent. But then, up he pops to open the scoring with a looping header from Bowen’s corner. If that is typical of Wolves sleepy defending, it is no wonder they have shipped so many goals this season.

West Ham were once a team feared for their set piece prowess, but now it is only Soucek who presents an aerial threat. Although the benign floaty corners that have become the norm rarely trouble opposition defences, the current crop of centre backs appear reluctant to attack the ball in the style that endeared Craig Dawson to our hearts.

The Wolves equaliser and Jarrod Bowen’s winner were well taken goals even if you might question the effectiveness and quality of the defending for both. Bowen and Soucek remain neck and neck as the Hammers top scorers this season with four goals apiece.

Lopetegui’s obsession with always using his entire allocation of substitutes made for a very nervy end to the game. Replacing the pace of Summerville and Kudus with older, slower models gave his side few outlets for keeping possession during the 8+ minutes of added time. For the record, the average age of the 11 West Ham players on the field at the end was 29 years and 340 days.

Next up for West Ham is a trip to Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium next Monday evening. The Cherries have moved up to 8th, with a six-point advantage over the Hammers following a run of three consecutive victories. It came as a surprise when Gary O’Neil was replaced by the relatively unknown Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth but it has proven to be a masterful move.

When West Ham beat AZ  Alkmaar in the 2023 Conference League semi-final I suggested they should make a move for their Hungarian international defender, Milos Kerkez. Instead, he signed for Bournemouth and has become one of the best left-backs in the country – apparently attracting interest from Real Madrid. The type of in-your-face opportunity that our scouting regularly overlooks.

I am always pleased to see West Ham win, but it is frustrating to see our great club devoid of identity and direction. It is fairly obvious that nothing much can ever change under the current ownership while they continue to meddle in matters on the footballing side of the club that they don’t understand. Will we ever see a better time, when all our dreams come true? Or is that simply a Fairytale of Stratford? COYI!

Lifting The Lid On The Moyesball Paradox Of Dreary Football And Europa Success

West Ham regained some dignity with a fine performance against Freiburg in midweek. Now they face Wolves amid continuing speculation over manager David Moyes future.

It was interesting to hear David Moyes pre-match comment that although not personally worried about his current contract situation, he feared it might unsettle the players. Always good to get the excuses in early. His assumption, I guess, is that these highly paid professionals would be distraught at the thought of playing under new management. Moyes added that what he needed to focus on was picking up enough points to keep the Board happy.

Like many supporters I have this ongoing dilemma with Moyesball. It’s an internal conflict of never wanting West Ham to lose any game, but with an (apparently) delusional desire to be entertained in the process. It is the entertainment element that is generally overlooked outside those fans who regularly watch matches. It seems we should be grateful for any small crumbs of success that come our way even if the football is invariably dull and dreary. So, you get the situation where a pundit such as Jeff Stelling berates a West Ham supporter for wanting Moyes replaced, telling him he needs to ‘get a grip on reality’. Maybe the reality is that West Ham should be doing much better given the investment that has been made in the squad. Of course, there is no way that Moyes will lose his job before the end of his contract, but speculation will persist on whether a contract extension is conceivable.

If Moyes should leave in the summer, then the record books will show a respectable legacy from his time at West Ham. By almost all metrics, the 2020/21 season was the Hammer’s best ever in the Premier League. Most points, most wins, best goal difference and providing the sixth-place finish that would kick-start three consecutive seasons of European football. And then there was the success in last season’s Europa Conference that brought the club its first trophy in 43 years. In summary, that is not too shabby and, of course, this season is not yet over.

What the record books have no interest in, though, is the quality or style of football played during that time. And that is where the majority of disgruntled supporters take issue. Games are endured rather than enjoyed and results have rarely been good enough to gloss over that fact. Indeed, it has only been the European adventures that have served as Moyes ‘get out of jail free card’ over the past two seasons as domestic form flatlined.

The success of 2020/21 carried over into the early months of following season and after beating Crystal Palace on New Years Day 2022 the Hammers were handily placed in fifth spot. But then things started to change.  They were no longer a surprise package; opponents knew exactly how they wanted to play and were able to put a stop to the threat of rapid counterattacks. The opportunity to strengthen the squad in January was missed and both performances and results began to fall away. As the opportunity for breakaways receded the tactics lost their shine and simply looked negative.

An analysis of league form over two years since that Palace game, shows West Ham’s record as Played 72, Won 24, Drawn 14, and Lost 34. That’s a measly win percentage of 33% with an unremarkable average of 1.2 points per game. Is there no-one else who could have done better?

Throughout this time, Europe has continued to paper over the cracks. Excellent performances against Sevilla and Lyon and victory over Fiorentina in Prague being the standout moments. It would be wrong to belittle the European experience but equally going over the top about winning group games verges on embarrassing. With the exception of Freiburg, all opposition has come from the continent’s lower ranked leagues – Croatia, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Rumania, Serbia, and Greece. Any competent (and expensively assembled) Premier League side that took the competition seriously would be expected to come out on top. A team can only beat what’s in front of you but let’s not overegg the achievement. Even in the upcoming knockout round, West Ham should be easily among the favourites to make it through to the last eight.  

All that said, it was a fine professional performance on Thursday to secure top spot in Group A. The Hammers proving that when allowed to, they can play some decent football. The tie wrapped up by two excellent goals from summer signings Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez. I must admit I had pigeon-holed Alvarez as the typical defensive midfield destroyer and was both surprised and impressed by his contribution with the ball. All I had to go on were memories of him spooning long shots well over the bar earlier in the season.

In truth, Freiburg didn’t offer much and allowed West Ham far too much space in which to express themselves. It is maybe indicative of the strength in depth – and the amount of money available – in the Premier League compared to the Bundesliga.

The return to league action todays sees Wolverhampton Wanderers visit the London Stadium. Wolves have stabilised under the management of former Hammer Gary O’Neil and occupy a comfortable mid-table spot, thanks mainly to their impressive home form. The visitors will be without primary dangerman Neto, but Hwang and Cunha have been regularly finding the net. I watched them beat Tottenham a few weeks ago and was impressed by the way Lemina was able to boss the midfield.

Should West Ham beat Wolves today then they will be slightly better off than at the equivalent stage of 2020/21. On the other hand, they would now be below Everton had the Toffees not received a ten point penalty. A late run to qualify for Europe through league position seems unlikely however, especially in light of Moyes belief that he doesn’t need additional striking options. It will be interesting to see if any transfer activity takes place in January as it will undoubtedly be influenced by the manager’s contract position. The success of Kudus and Alvarez will surely have strengthened Tim Steidten’s hand in the leadership of future transfer business.

From Moyes point of view, his best chance of influencing the Board would be to win another trophy and extend the European adventure into a fourth season as a result. In that respect, he may view Wednesday’s league cup tie at Anfield as his most important pre-Christmas challenge. Whether that means resting a few of his favourites today will only be revealed once the teams are announced. We must wait and see.

More than anything I would hope to see more of the movement, space creation and interchange that we witnessed in the second half at Tottenham – and again on Thursday night. And without the lack of defensive discipline on show at Fulham. There are now enough talented players in the squad to break free of the Moyesball shackles, but will it be allowed to happen. COYI!

What West Ham performance will we get when Wolves visit the London Stadium on Sunday?

One like last Sunday at Fulham or a repeat of the excellent show on Thursday against Freiburg?

The Forrest Gump quotation suitably amended comes into play once again – “West Ham are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.” The debacle at Fulham last weekend was a shocker wasn’t it? A 5-0 drubbing and a terrible performance. Some fans writing on social media reckoned it was our worst ever. As a supporter for 65 years I would say that I’ve seen a few games like that over the years, but yes it was certainly near the top of the league of poor efforts by our team. A few excuses were trotted out regarding illness etc. but really there was little excuse for the shambles that we witnessed.

The following Thursday we had an important Europa League game against a German side higher in the Bundesliga than we are in the Premier League. They came into the game in good form with wins under their belt and as the top scorers in Group A, quite probably the top scorers in the competition as a whole. It was a one match shootout where we held the advantage (following our win in Germany) that a win or draw would see us top the group and go straight through to the round of 16 avoiding a potentially tricky two-legged play-off tie.

The West Ham team was changed a little in personnel from the weekend but totally unrecognisable in terms of performance. After a slow opening few minutes we turned on the style and entertainment that have been so lacking for the past year or more in the league. Not in Europe of course where we have won more games than any other team in European competitions (other than perhaps Real Madrid?). We joined an exclusive club of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United, becoming the sixth English club to top their European league for three consecutive seasons. Does that mean we are now one of the elite big six?

Two superb goals came from Kudus and Alvarez who turned in a man of the match performance before being taken off when the job was done in the second half. I’m not a big fan of assist statistics but they do mean something when the assists are as good as they were in this game. Alvarez to Kudus and Bowen to Alvarez were both inch perfect and the goals themselves were a pleasure to watch. We came close other times too, Bowen a yard offside for one, the bar struck by Paqueta with a fierce right foot shot in the opening minutes, and an easy chance that Bowen should have buried. The whole side looked good before easing up in the second half with the game over and the introduction of the (mandatory) substitutes.

The TV commentator commented that Ings was very important in the dressing room at West Ham. Am I alone in thinking that perhaps he should stay there? The substitutions disrupted the rhythm and the entertainment ceased as the game headed towards its conclusion. Ings was a fine goalscorer before he joined West Ham. What has happened? Is it to do with him or the West Ham style of play? Answers on a postcard. At least Moyes got around the criticism of sending Ings on as a substitute before Mubama by sending them both on at the same time in this game. I can’t see that tactic being tried again.

On the whole a very pleasing and entertaining evening but what West Ham will we see when Wolves arrive on Sunday? Following Wolves promotion to the top flight five years ago they had the upper hand in encounters against us at first but in recent times we have come out on top winning the last three. There’s no way the game can end in a goalless draw that’s for sure. We haven’t had a clean sheet in the league since September; Wolves have only had one clean sheet in their last 24 away games.

The worrying statistics for this game include the fact that Wolves haven’t won a Sunday game in their past ten league games played on this day of the week and have lost their last six Sunday away games. Sunday certainly hasn’t been a day of rest for West Ham as this will be our 50th Premier League game on the day in not much more than two years! Apparently that is 13 more than any other club! And our record when playing Sunday games following a European match on a Thursday night isn’t the best is it? David Moyes also has a very positive record when it comes to home games against Wolves. His positive records often come a cropper though. Before last week’s game I wrote that Moyes hadn’t lost in the last 13 times he had faced Fulham. Oh dear!

I’ve absolutely no idea what to expect in this game. I just hope that we see the same West Ham that performed so stylishly and entertained us on Thursday night, particularly in the first half. Not a repeat of Fulham please. What are the chances?   

West Ham’s season so far – poor performances, poor decisions or bad luck? Can we turn it around before the World Cup interrupts the season again in mid-November?

If you’ve been away to a remote island for the past couple of months and missed the beginning of the season then a quick glance at the Premier League table will tell you all you need to know about West Ham’s start to the 2022-23 campaign. Or will it?

Certainly it’s not ideal to be occupying a place in the bottom three at any stage, although only seven games in gives you the opportunity to put matters right by next May.

But after two consecutive seasons of qualifying for European football by virtue of a top 6/7 league position we have already given the rest of the teams a head start and made it difficult to achieve the feat for a third successive year.

So what has gone wrong? Why have we only collected four points from the opening seven games? For much of the time the players on show have not reached the levels achieved in the previous two campaigns either individually or collectively. For me, Fabianski, Coufal, Cresswell, Fornals, Lanzini, Benrahma, Soucek and Bowen all fall into that category to some extent and even Rice has not performed at the top of his game, but we can’t expect him to do it all! From reading social media I know that some will agree and some will differ with my assessment.

Our new recruits look good on paper with lots of international footballers, but have they been given sufficient opportunity yet to show what they are capable of? And have we bought the right players to blend together to become a top seven Premier League club? 

Many fans believe that the manager has continued to select out of form players that have done it in the past whilst being reluctant to throw new recruits into the fray claiming they are not yet ready. New signings at other clubs seem to hit the ground running!

So many poor decisions all round have contributed to our league position. Things might have been different if officials had not ruled out (controversially) Benrahma’s goal when Antonio was blocked, not the other way round surely? Or the failure of the referee to send Forest down to 10 men with the deliberate hand ball? Or Rice’s decision to take the penalty kick? Added to the bad luck hitting the inside of the woodwork twice and we could easily have collected 3 points from the opener at Forest.

It goes on. Poor finishing towards the end of the Tottenham game meant only one point when it could have, perhaps should have, been three. There’s no way Chilwell would have scored Chelsea’s opening goal If Fabianski had not left his line at the post. The refereeing decision to deny our late equaliser has been well documented and 99 per cent of people believe it was wrong. We should have had one, and possibly three points from that game too.

True, the luck did go our way in the Villa game with the deflected goal, but the inside of a post denied us a point at Everton in an uninspired performance from both sides. There was no way we would have beaten Harland-inspired Manchester City, and as usual we performed abysmally against Brighton and deserved absolutely nothing from that game which is exactly what we got.

In a parallel universe we might have had ten or twelve points from those first seven games, but the fact is we have just four points and sit in the bottom three.

In a season interrupted by a World Cup in November/ December the powers that be decided that there should still be an early international break. The additional interruption caused by the decision to postpone football matches following the sad death of the Queen will only add to the congestion later on, but I wonder if this will work in our favour in the long run?

I wonder if the lack of games recently in a period when we haven’t been playing well will give us a chance to regroup? Will our costly defensive signing Aguerd be back soon? Will the manager give Cornet more game time? Will Downes (who was my man of the match in his only start in a European game) at last be given an opportunity to show what he is capable of? Is it time for Areola to replace Fabianski? What influence will the European schedule (Thursday- Sunday) have? Can we start to retain possession of the ball more? Will bad luck convert to good fortune in the upcoming games? These and so many other questions will be answered in the next few weeks.

Wolves on Saturday, followed by Fulham, Southampton, Liverpool, Bournemouth and Manchester United are the six league games in October. They are followed by Palace and Leicester in early November. And then we break again for the World Cup. Five of the eight are at home. 

By mid November we will have played 15 games (8 at home). We could still have four points at that stage! If that were the case we would be in deep trouble. We could have won eight games in a row and have 28 points and be challenging near the top.

More realistically I reckon we would need to have picked up at least 16 points from the next eight games to be back on course for a potential top 7 finish.Can we do it? What are the chances? 

West Ham United face Wolves with both teams believing that a place in the top four is achievable

Here we are, the final game in February and just 12 games to go in the Premier League this season for West Ham. In view of the (mainly Covid) interruptions to the season that happened a few weeks ago some of the other teams competing for a place in the top four have either 13 or 14 games left prior to this weekend’s fixtures. I may be wrong but I can’t recall many (if any) Premier League postponements due to Covid since the transfer window closed. Interesting. No doubt someone will tell me if I am under a misapprehension here. Am I the only one who would have liked to see players recruited in the winter window stopped from playing in games that are rescheduled following postponements? Perhaps it is just because I am a West Ham fan and we didn’t have any additions to our squad? The only game I can remember being called off involving us was against Norwich and that was postponed at the request of our opponents and was quickly rearranged and played.

We currently sit in sixth place, still in touch and challenging for a top four place, although our recent indifferent performances mean that it would take a strong set of results in the run-in to achieve this. In many ways it is still in our own hands as we have to face seven of the top ten teams in our remaining 12 fixtures. Those seven teams are starred in the league table below.

The current league table – top 10 (games played in brackets)

Man City 63 (26) *
Liverpool 60 (26) *
Chelsea 50 (25) *
Man Utd 46 (26)
Arsenal 45 (24) *
West Ham 42 (26)
Wolves 40 (25) *
Tottenham 39 (24) *
Southampton 35 (26)
Brighton 33 (25) *

The form table (last 5 games of the top 10 in the current league table)

Liverpool 15
Man Utd 11
Southampton 11
Man City 10
Arsenal 10
Wolves 9
Chelsea 8
West Ham 5
Brighton 5
Tottenham 3

In addition to facing the seven teams in the top ten as outlined above, we also face five games against teams in the bottom half, and they too can be tricky fixtures with clubs fighting to retain their position in the top flight. Those games are against Villa (13th), Brentford (14th), Everton (16th), Burnley (18th) and Norwich (20th).

The form table, where I have collated the points for the last 5 Premier League games played by the teams speaks for itself to some extent. A few minutes from the end of their midweek game against Arsenal our opponents this weekend looked as though they would be recording their fourth win in the last five games and relegating us to seventh in the league. The Arsenal equaliser (had the game finished at 1-1) would possibly have been the best result for us but it wasn’t to be, and the Gunners very late winner puts them in the driving seat at this stage for the fourth spot but (as they say) there is still a lot of football to be played.

Unlike ourselves Wolves had a poor start to the season losing their first three games and finding themselves in 18th place in the table. But four wins in their next five league games turned it round, and by the time they beat us 1-0 in Matchweek 12 they had climbed to sixth place in the table, and they have remained comfortably in the top half ever since.

They have a mean defence and the 20 goals conceded in their 25 league games is bettered only (slightly) by Manchester City and Chelsea. But only Burnley and Norwich have scored fewer than Wolves (less than one goal a game) have scored – 24. Sa has been a revelation in goal and one of the mainstays of my Fantasy Football team.

I am hoping that the week’s rest (as opposed to Wolves game in the week against Arsenal) will work in our favour. I think that maybe we need a different approach, a change in personnel and formation perhaps, to try to recapture some of our early season form. No doubt the manager and his staff have been working on this, and I won’t try to guess what they have come up with. There is certainly plenty of conjecture on social media amongst our fans as to what this might entail. Or perhaps it will be more of the same, hoping that out of form players will regain their early season form.

Wolves games this season have been low scoring affairs and I doubt that this will be any different. It’s not a must win, but certainly a do not lose, if we are to stay in the hunt. I am hoping (as always) for a win but a draw is not out of the question. 0-0 or 1-1 perhaps? No, I reckon we’ll sneak a narrow win, 1-0 or 2-1.

But where will we finish come the end of the season? Top 3 is out of the question. 4th or 5th is possible although the odds are stacked against it at the moment. It could be 6th, 7th, 8th or possibly even lower. Surely not. I’ll go for 6th – the same as last season. I’ve noted the Europa draw. Sevilla could potentially be the best team in the competition. 2nd in the Spanish league, chasing Real Madrid at the top, and only two league defeats all season. We’ll certainly need to be at our best for that tie.

Can West Ham Be Hungry Like The Wolves?

What in heavens name was he thinking? For some reason only apparent to himself, our chairman chose to go on TalkSport on the morning programme of Jim White and Simon Jordan and proceeded to put his foot in his mouth. As a public relations exercise it was up there with Prince Andrew’s recent interview on Newsnight with Emily Maitlis. In both examples (Sullivan and the Prince) they were either very poorly advised, or more likely, they weren’t as clever as they thought they were. If there were any Hammers fans left who had any time for our chairman before the interview then I reckon there are fewer now. I even spotted on the internet that it even gave rise to a “GoFundMe” set up by a West Ham fan asking for humorous comments, and raising money for the Bobby Moore fund – “Mr Sullivan needs 50K to fly West Ham to Everton”.

At least there was some cheer in the week when West Ham “Reserves” thrashed Hull City to progress to the next round of the Carabao Cup where we will face an away tie at Everton, who, as I write this, sit at the top of the Premier League with nine points from their three games, after a 2-1 win at Palace. Were our talented fringe players trying to play their way into the Premier League starting line-up, or putting themselves in the shop window?

I don’t hold out a lot of hope of going any further in the competition, but having said that, few fans had a lot of hope when we went to Arsenal last weekend. But after dominating the second half, a combination of failing to take our chances, and poor defending let us down again, and we left North London with no points from a decent performance.

Of course this is West Ham. So the bad news doesn’t stop there. 45 minutes before kick-off in the League Cup tie, our manager and two of our players found out that they had tested positive for Covid-19 and had to go home at once. They are currently self-isolating and unable to take any part in this weekend’s game.

There doesn’t appear to be any progress on the transfer-in front either with no new bodies in positions where they are desperately needed – we all know where they are! Perhaps they will all appear next week with the club keeping quiet about the impending signings. I won’t hold my breath though. In the chairman’s radio interview he appeared to be blaming David Moyes for this. In fact he appeared to blame everyone (including the fans) for the state we are now in (except the board!). Is it really any wonder that there seems to be a reluctance on behalf of footballers who might want to join our club?

My earliest memories of our opponents today go back to the late 1950s when they took advantage of a new innovation at the time, namely floodlights. They were one of the top teams in England at the time and they invited a series of top overseas teams to come over and play in friendly games. Football matches were barely shown on TV then with the exception of the FA Cup Final and England internationals, but they managed to persuade the BBC to broadcast the games. I was very young at the time and in bed, but managed to set up a mirror that enabled me to watch via open doors in the bungalow I lived in. Wolves also won the first FA Cup final that I can clearly remember watching when they defeated Blackburn 3-0 with two goals from a player I recall as Norman Deeley.

Despite their success in the fifties and early sixties they went into decline but have recently bounced back, and in the past couple of seasons they (together with Leicester, and perhaps Everton) look like they will provide the biggest threat to the elite six in the Premier League. In competitive head to head matches in history, Wolves are one of the clubs against whom we have a positive record, beating them more often than they have defeated us. In the past two seasons that hasn’t been the case however, with four consecutive Wolves wins. We haven’t managed to score a single goal in those games and have conceded eight.

So far this season Wolves have won one (2-0 at Sheffield United) and lost (unluckily I believe) 3-1 at home to Manchester City. We had better be prepared at the very start of the game – the two goals against Sheffield United were scored in the first six minutes. We are not usually known for our start to a game. We also need to be aware of Jimenez who has been a prolific scorer for them and has scored in each of their opening two games. He has also scored three times in his past three Premier League appearances against us. One statistic that I read was that no Wolves player has scored a goal in each of their opening three top flight fixtures since Derek Dougan (remember him?) did way back in 1973. He will never get a better chance of equalling that record, and you’d think that this was a banker bet for this game.

On the other hand we have never failed to score in our first two top flight home games for even longer – going back to 1971. So we are bound to score then, aren’t we? My prediction is for us to build upon our promising performance against Arsenal and draw 1-1, with Antonio equalising an early goal from Jimenez. What are the chances? It would be a good result as I believe Wolves are an excellent side, destined for a top six finish.

As a club we create a lot of our own problems, don’t we? But it’s not always us. The season hasn’t started well. No points, no new signings, no decisions going our way from officials or VAR, no opposing players (who played for us) penalised for leading with their elbow, no opposition goals chalked off for dangerous (high) boot, no penalties awarded for obvious handball, no marginal offsides going our way. And we are only two games into the new season! At least the handball rule has been clarified this season! What a nonsense that is! We need all the luck we can get. Perhaps it will start to go our way in this game. Fingers crossed.

Mission Improbable: Sullivan’s Message Self Destructs As Hammers Prepare To Face Wolves

David Sullivan’s ill-advised, grotesque, and conceited radio interview casts an even deeper shadow at West Ham’s as they seek to book their first points of the season. Apparently, it is all everyone else’s fault!

Imagine this. You are the unpopular owner of a struggling Premier League side. You have recently sold a promising academy graduate much to the dismay of your fans. Your team has made the poorest possible start to the new season and are now one of the favourites for relegation. There are well-known and long-standing weaknesses in your squad, but you have failed to invest any money in the transfer market, even though the window is soon to close. What do you do: (A) Knuckle down, identify and recruit the desperately needed reinforcements, find creative ways to raise the necessary finance and hope to restore confidence; or (B) Go on national radio, blame everyone else for your perennial shortcomings and plead financial hardship?

No surprise then, that with a trademark lack of self-awareness, David Sullivan opted for route B. His interview with talkSPORT managed to combine the worst of Prince Andrew, Gerald Ratner, and Donald Trump – “I have so many wingers, literally, eight wingers. I have them all over the place. They’re virtually useless.”

Bottom line is that Sullivan considers himself blameless for the club’s current plight, despite the evidence ten years or more of erratic, short term mismanagement.

In Sullivan’s eyes, in fact, it is the fault of supporters for demanding he appoint a big-name manager and a Director of Football. That he appointed a washed up one with unrealistic ideas on how to compete in the mid to lower echelons of the Premier League – and then compounding it by taking on that manager’s best buddy as DoF – was not, it seems, relevant. He had no control (and, therefore, no responsibility) for the Pellegrini/ Husillos signings. It is now David Moyes fault for the absurd idea of wanting to sign players who would improve the first team, not just to put bums on the bench and allow the club to claim it had been active in the transfer market.

We can only speculate on what was he hoping to achieve by such a PR catastrophe? Did he imagine he would win us over by going on air? Any remaining shred of credibility that remained could now only be found by forensic science. There is no way back from here and it’s about time ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter’ replaced ‘The academy of football’ as the club’s strap line.

Despite frantic speculation, it is still all quiet on the transfer front as the clock ticks down to just over a week to go. As far as the outside world is concerned, the only newsworthy story of interest is whether Declan Rice will be eventually sold to Chelsea. Some news media, notably the Star and Express, are on a mission to make sure this happens. I am under no illusion that Rice will spend his whole career at West Ham, but it would be madness to sell him this late in the window. What over-priced, over-aged replacements would be we contrive to bring in with the money raised?

Elsewhere this week there was a comfortable EFL Cup success at home to Hull City, but not before the drama of Moyes, Issa Diop and Josh Cullen all being sent into isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. It’s a long time since the Hammers recorded four positive results in a single week. One anonymous source (@ExWHUtealady) tweeted that the three had previously shared one Ann Summer’s ‘Willy Soap on a Rope’ that are supplied complimentary in the Rush Green showers. All are unavailable for Sunday’s clash with Wolves, although apparently Moyes still intends to deliver his usual managerial address via Zoom. Perhaps images of him prowling the technical area of his lounge can be beamed onto the giant screens.  

On Sunday, it will be Chalk versus Cheese at the London Stadium as the downbeat Hammers face an effervescent Wolverhampton Wanderers for the fifth time since the visitors returned to the Premier League in 2018. West Ham have lost all of the previous encounters and failed to score on each outing – with an aggregate score of 0-8.  

There have been various comings and goings at Molineux during a close season that saw Jota, Doherty and Costa all leave to be replaced by Fabio Silva, Semedo and Hoever. However, Wolves still have Moutinho and Neves to pull the strings in midfield while Traore and Jimenez will be confident of causing alarm in the shaky Hammer’s backline.

For West Ham, it would be no surprise to see the same formation that performed well, but returned empty handed, from Arsenal. In Diop’s absence, the only alternative is a recall for Fabian Balbuena. Otherwise the back five is likely to be unchanged. Midfield protection will again be the responsibility of Rice and Tomas Soucek.

There could be scope for changes, though, in the forward three where Sebastien Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko made midweek claims for starts by showing they are more than good enough for League 2. I still struggle to see how and where Yarmolenko fits into a Premier League side. Despite his undoubted technical skills and accomplished finishing his lack of pace and work rate (particularly in tracking back) make him something of a luxury.

The situation with Haller is more complicated. In the right setup he will score goals but not unless he gets far better support. In addition to the much discussed defensive problems, we don’t have anyone with the right attributes to play just off the striker. In fact, the team have regularly struggled to get bodies into the box from open play – with only Soucek and Jarrod Bowen providing support to Michail Antonio. I feel that Bowen’s enforced defensive duties have detracted significantly from his goal threat in recent games, a situation that needs to be remedied if we are to see the best of him. Without doubt more goals are needed across the front three and we cannot continue to rely on Antonio’s heroics. Maybe a front three of Bowen, Haller and Antonio can be made to work.

It is difficult to know how much off-field calamity influences what happens on the pitch. It cannot be a force for good to have such disharmony coming down from the top. Own goals are never welcome in football and even worse when you find they are knocking them in in the boardroom. My only hope tomorrow is that the players can isolate themselves from the off-the-field mayhem and reproduce the effort and commitment that was shown at The Emirates. If they can then some sort of result is possible, even if it may not be very probable.

Alright, we’ll call it a draw.