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West Ham line up Anelka

November 12, 2012 By Iron Bobby 3 Comments

According the the papers today West Ham are looking to capitalise on the unhappiness of striker Nicolas Anelka who has failed to settle at Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.

Anelka, 33, only left fellow London Premiership club Chelsea a year ago, however due to the forward not enjoying his time in China, West Ham have held talks about bringing him back to the Premiership.

Crazy Wages

However, Anelka will need to take a huge paycut if any deal were to materialise, as he currently takes home £250,000 per week from Shanghai Shenhua! Although it is believed Anelka is in some sort of pay dispute with his current employer which may be another reason he is looking to move on.

Allardyce’s Track Record

Anelka will also be aware of West Ham manager Sam Allardyce’s excellent record in extending the careers of other senior players.

Jay-Jay Okocha, Ivan Campo, Youri Djorkaeff  and Fernando Hierro all enjoyed successful spells in the twilight years of their  playing days under Allardyce.

I am not sure how true this story is, however I do believe we will need to add some fire power to our front line  in January as most of our goals are coming from midfield this season.

On another note, how good is to be a West Ham fan at the moment? With the club up to 6th in the Premier League table and a fantastic 1-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend, the future is looking bright and if you offered me 4 points from City at home and Newcastle away I would have snapped your hand off! COYI!

Iron Bobby – West Ham United Blog

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Matt Jarvis eyeing England recall

November 5, 2012 By Iron Bobby 1 Comment

West Ham United winger Matt Jarvis is hoping his for and performances for the Hammers will earn him a recall to the England squad.

Jarvis, 26, moved to The Boleyn in August for a club record fee from Wolves, and has been impressive in his outings for West Ham.

England manager Roy Hodgson was at the game against Manchester City so would have seen Jarvis, Carroll, Noble and the forgotten man Kevin Nolan all put in good shifts against the current Premier League Champions.

Jarvis is looking to build on his one cap for England, which he gained in a 1-1 draw with Ghana under former manager Fabio Capello.

Jarvis said: Obviously, I just need to keep playing well for West Ham and see where that takes me. If I keep doing well then you never know.

I got one cap against Ghana so I’m always hungry to get more and I’ll be working extremely hard to give myself the best opportunity.

You’ve just got to be strong as a person and make sure that you’re working extremely hard day in, day out and you’ve still got the desire to go and show everyone what you can do and get yourself back in the squad.

If Jarvis can start picking out Andy Carroll on a regular basis and forge a really effective partnership with the big forward, then I am sure this won’t go unoticed by Mr Hodgson who could promote the duo from a club partnership to an international one.

 

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Allardyce: Fans Behind Carroll

November 2, 2012 By Iron Bobby 1 Comment

West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has stated that the fans are well and truly in support behind striker Andy Carroll.

23-year-old Carroll has yet to see the back of the net bulge in his West Ham career, however Allardyce is convinced that Carroll’s bustling committed displays have the fans 100% behind him.

The fans at West Ham love committed players and they love players who give their all and I think Andy wears his heart on his sleeve, Allardyce said.

I think a part of Andy’s frustration has been the amount of times he seems to be fouled these days but doesn’t seem to get the free-kicks against him that he deserves.

He has to understand that’s probably always going to be the case but for him it’s not to get frustrated by that it’s about making runs in the right positions and just keep showing that commitment and eventually it will pay off for him and for us.

What I do think is that he’s not just a goal scorer. That’s 90% of his game. I think he’s an all-round frontman in terms of his hold-up play and his movement as well as his ability to score goals.

I don’t know why any fans would be on Carroll’s back after such a short time and surely it’s only a matter of time before the big man gets on the end of a wicked Matt Jarvis cross and sticks one in, lets hope he can start by delivering against our toughest opponents of the season so far, the visit of Champions Manchester City for a Premier League tie this Saturday!

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Opposition View: Manchester City

November 2, 2012 By Iron Bobby 3 Comments

man city badgeWith Saturday’s home game against Champions Manchester City coming up, West Ham United Blog caught up with Ric from bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk to get some insight on the opposition.

After City’s amazing triumph on the last day of last season, how is going so far this season?

It’s been a relatively slow start to the campaign compared to last season, and we haven’t yet rediscovered our best form. We look more vulnerable at the back, and aren’t as fluent going forward. Having said that, we’re the only undefeated team in the league so the press talk of a “crisis” is a touch premature. We’re struggling once again in Europe though, but the draw wasn’t kind to us, and it’s taking us time to adapt to Champion’s League football.

How is Tevez doing after his exile last season?

Tevez started the season well, and was once again our best player in the last game against Swansea. The events in Munich last season were disappointing, but he seems to have made his peace with Mancini and played a part in the title run-in, so all is forgiven. Football fans are fickle like that.

Who will West Ham need to pay particular attention to on Saturday?

A player of Sergio Aguero’s quality will always be a threat, whilst Yaya Toure’s bursting runs from midfield are difficult to stop.

Do City have any injury worries or absentees for the game?

We’re suffering a bit of an injury crisis at the moment, although obviously we have the squad to cope so can’t really complain. At present David Silva, Maicon, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Micah Richards and possibly Pablo Zabaleta are all missing through injury.

What do City fans think about West Ham as a club?

Like many City fans, I’ve always had a soft spot for West Ham. For many years there were similarities between the two clubs, and they’ve always been the London team that we can relate to the most. Perhaps that’ll change with the new generation of fans post takeover, but I hope not. There’s still great respect for the ovation we got at Upton Park when you sent us down in 1987.

Likely team and score prediction for Saturday?

Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Milner, Barry, Yaya Toure, Nasri, Tevez, Aguero

Prediction: 1-1

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Jussi backing West Ham to bounce back

October 31, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

West Ham goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen is backing Sam Allardyce’s team to bounce back and learn from their mistakes following their defeat to Wigan.

Our boys produced one of their worst displays since returning to the Premier League and handed Wigan their first home win in the league this season capitulating 2-1 to the home side.

West Ham had been in a fine run of form until the Wigan match and blew the chance to go 4th in the table which would have been an incredible position to find ourselves in considering we have just been promoted and would have had a better start than many of the big guns.

Jaaskelainen, who has been in outstanding form this season for West Ham, believes the team did not put in the kind of performance the fans would have expected, but hopes that the experience will stand the team in good stead:

We did not really turn up in the first-half and in the second-half we gave them a soft goal which did not help.

After that I think we played OK. We created a few chances and as always when you are losing we would have liked to play for a few more minutes at the end.

We did not play well as individuals or as a team and we did not cope with the counter-attacking way in which Wigan played, so it is very disappointing.

The Hammers will need to raise their game for the next fixture which will see Sam Allardyce pit his West Ham team up against Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City. City will be without a few key defenders for the match so maybe this is a good time to play them, if there is ever a good time to play a team with their quality of players.

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