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Yossi Benayoun is back and Andy Carroll is a blessing

September 1, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

That’s right, Israeli Yossi Benayoun is back at Upton Park after Chelsea agreed to pay a bigger slice of the star’s wage -he’s on a succulent 90 grand a week.

Yossi is back for a season long loan from the blues after the two clubs reached a deal on how he should be paid after a few hours of negotiation.

It seems that with no permanent offers being tabled for the 32 year’s liking or Chelsea’s for that matter, a nice little loan deal was all that was left before the transfer deadline was reached.

He spent last season on loan to North Londoners Arsenal and stuck 6 goals in the net in 26 appearances. Apparently, there were a few enquiries from a number of Premier League clubs, but Yossi Benayoun favoured a return to Upton Park.

Regarding Andy Carroll I think we have found a winner. If anyone remembers Carroll’s superb header for England in the Euro 2012 Championship, they’ll catch my drift. he’s a big lad who’s strong in the air and creates presence up front and in my opinion will do pretty well at the Hammers.

We all know that Carroll had a really bad start to his Liverpool season last year and didn’t exactly live up to his potential or price tag. Many were thinking he was the next big signing flop – a bit like Fernando Torres. As it happens I also like Torres and he a Spanish Andy Carroll if you like and now that the Spaniard has found his feet after a long dry spell, I reckon we’ll see the player’s potential again.

Hodgson overlooked Andy’s poor start and his gamble paid off as Carroll had a nice Euro 2012 and stuck a lovely goal in to boot! Carroll also knows Hammers’ boss Sam Allardyce and skipper kevin Nolan from his days at Newcastle – so it’s a reuniting of the trio at Upton Park.

Andy Carroll is a quality player and will fit in nicely with Allardyce’s plans for the Hammers this season. We’ve a poor start but things are suddenly looking brighter with both Yossi Benayoun and Andy Carroll in the frame. I’m off as West Ham face a tough game against Martin Jol’s Fulham and Carroll is expected to make his debut.

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West Ham United lose 3 nil at Swansea

August 25, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

Michael Laudrup’s Swansea boys gave our lads a thrashing today and we helped them out with a couple of defensive mistakes, too.

Ok, so the Irons came through on the first game of the season and now we’ve been done by 3 goals. Swansea have also scored eight goals in two games and that just rubs it in, doesn’t it?

Two defensive mistakes by West Ham were punished effortlessly within 30 minutes by Angel Rangel and Miguel Michu.

West Ham tried to get their groove back in the second half but their efforts were wiped out by Swansea’s Danny Graham on 64 minutes. That basically put the game to bed and the Hammers were left picking up the pieces.

Hit man Miguel Michu

Laudrup has found his new hit man in the form of Spaniard Miguel Michu – who is quite the striker at the moment.He came from Spanish side Rayo Vallecano and has only made two appearances for the Swans. Apparently he is the talk of the Spanish press at the moment and the premier league may have a new hero.

All seemed to be going well for the Hammers and Swansea were only just ahead before Rangel’s cross-shot slithered under West Ham’s new keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. Just nine minutes later James Collins miss hit his back pass enabling a nimble Michu to sneak in through the back door and put it past Jaaskelainen who was rushing out to meet him.

The Hammers were offered some hope in the form of new boy Matt Jarvis who had some nice touches but nothing came from them. One of his best chances was a nice volley that kept Swans keeper Michel Vorm on his toes.

All credit goes to Swansea for an impressive display that takes them top of the league with six points. No one said the premier League was going to easy, did they?

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Match Report: West Ham 1 Aston Villa 0

August 19, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

West Ham captain came to the Hammer’s rescue yesterday with a decisive goal that has got the irons out of the Premiership starting blocks with a win over Aston Villa.

Kevin Nolan came to West Ham’s rescue yesterday against Aston Villa and got us off to a great start. it happened just after 40 minutes when the West Ham captain found Ricardo Vaz Té’s cross and all Nolan had to do was guide the ball into an open net. Nolan’s goal get’s the Hammers off to a flyer – that all important first game of the season, too!

Big Sam Allardyce had this to say of his captain after the game:

“Kevin’s a goalscorer. A lot of people look at him as a midfielder.
“But he is a David Platt. He gets on the end of things, ghosts into the box without people understanding how he got there. It was through instinct he found that chance. While all the other players are standing watching, Kevin is on the move and he pops it into the back of the net.
“Kevin is as good as any striker in the box. He’s a great finisher and that’s his outstanding quality, proven over many years.”

Nolan’s goal caused a bit of a stir, too. The linesman raised his flag as he thought Vaz T´was in an offside position from Mark Noble’s free kick up the right side of the box. Vaz Té kept a cool head as Ref mike Dean over ruled the linesman and found Nolan running toowrds the net to slot home the only goal of the match.

The controversy was later extinguished as video footage found the ref to be totally correct in his decision. Before Nolan’s goal the Hammers were pretty poor and many a fan could be heard complaining about Allardyce’s long ball game. it’s early days yet lads, let’s see what Sam has got in store for the season!

West Ham had more chances than Villa and although the Brummie outfit had the greater possession they never looked like bothering West Ham too much.

So that’s round one over and West Ham have a win in the bag

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Allardyce to sue Kean

July 19, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

Big Sam has taken out the big gun and pointed it in the direction of Steve Kean from Blackburn.

Yes, you heard that right, Allardyce is taking legal action against his old firm and against the man who replaced him as manager, Steve Kean. It appears that Sam’s move for legal action is in response to a video rant made by Kean in May and he’s having none of it.

The battle looks set to take place in the High Court, too. The video which lasts just over 4 minutes is full of rants and four letter words used by the Scot and Kean voices his opinion on why Allardyce was given the boot from Blackburn.

The clip was filmed in a Hong Kong bar and Kean can be heard talking with Blackburn fans. It was filmed on Blackburn’s pre-season tour of the Far East.

In the clip he is asked about his relationship with Allardyce, who appointed Kean as first-team coach, Kean responds like this:

“I haven’t spoken to him. He mullered me so I said f*** him.

“I worked my b***s off for him and then he had a go at me so f*** him.”

Nice one Keano. The 4 minute video ends strangely with Steve Kean boasting that his ultimately doomed outfit would win the Carling Cup. Alrighty then 😉

A spokesman acting on behalf of Sam Allardyce said:

“He has issued legal proceedings against Steve Kean and Blackburn Rovers but is unable to comment further at this time.”

I think it’s a clear cut case of jealousy and sour grapes on Kean’s part and I hope Allardyce “reams” him 😉

Check out the video below of Steve Kean slating West Ham manager Sam Allardyce

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McDonald happy with Hammers performance despite loss

July 8, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

Neil McDonald says he is happy with the Hammers’ performance against Austrian club FK Austria Wien despite losing to them 3-1.

This was the Irons’ opening game of the pre-season and it’s early days and Macca says that he’s happy and it was more about the taking part than winning.

Another thing about the game was that the Austrian side have 3 weeks fitness over the hammers’ and it showed despite the lads going 1 nil up.

The goal from West Ham United came courtesy from a header by Sam Baldock but once the Austrians found their groove the fitness levels started to show.

McDonald had this to say to West Ham news:

“The game went very much the way I thought it would go,” McDonald confirmed to West Ham TV. “We started off well and scored a really good goal through Sam and then their passing and moving took over.

“We conceded two poor goals in the first half. The goal they scored in the second half was a really good strike so probably, all in all, we’re pleased.

“We said before the game that it was all about improving our fitness and getting our endurance up and a lot of them played 45 minutes-plus so it finished off a good week, even though we got beaten 3-1.”

The Hammers were out of the blocks fast and furious and Baldock’s goal came from a nice little chipping cross from Carlton Cole. That was it as far as more goals from the irons I’m afraid and the Austrians scored courtesy of Roland Linz and Dare Srvic in the first half who were unfortunately allowed to put the ball away from inside the box.

The Austrian side’s second-half goal came 15 minutes from time from substitute Tomas Jun and this put the game beyond West Ham. New signing Jussi Jaaskelainen was well beaten by the strike, too.

Okay, so it’s early days, it’s been just one game so no panicking 🙂 Neil McDonald also confirmed that West Ham would be working hard to strengthen the squad ahead of the opening Barclays Premier League fixture at home to Aston Villa on 18th August.

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