West Ham United Blog | Analysis & News
News, Results, Transfers, Gossip
West Ham United fans received a timely boost with news that the clubs record signing Andy Carroll should be fit for the start of the season.
Carroll, 24, was signed from Liverpool for £15 million but has been struggling with a heel injury he picked up in the last game of season, with no prognosis of when he would be strutting his stuff for West Ham. [Read more…]
West Ham United’s Joe Cole has remarked that he was wrong to go to Liverpool stating that he wasn’t passionate about the Reds.
Joe Cole left Chelsea as a free agent and didn’t have much choice. He could not see himself at North London rivals Tottenham so chose Anfield instead and spent two and a half years regretting the decision. [Read more…]
Gareth Bale broke West Ham United’s hearts on Monday night and effectively turned Tottenham into a one-man team.
Despite a cracking goal from Joe Cole, it was not to be the Hammers’ night at Upton Park. It would have been nice to take three points off our London rivals if only for the sake of the 20th anniversary of Hammer legend Bobby Moore’s death. [Read more…]
West Ham United have officially re-signed Joe Cole on an 18-month-contract.
Cole, 31, is a former West Ham United Academy graduate and will once again don the number 26 shirt which he wore during his first spell at the club.
News broke on Wednesday that Cole was in talks with West Ham about returning to East London and yesterday it was reported he was undergoing a medical.
Speaking to WHUFC.com Cole said:
“It is a great move for me,” confirmed the 31-year-old. “Coming back here brings back all the memories of the pitches I learnt how to play on. This is where I learnt my trade and I’m happy to have another chance to be here. I’ve always loved West Ham and I hope I can give the club a few memorable seasons.
“The timing was right for me to come back and I’m happy. I’m back in London and I’m delighted to be here. I want to be here and I want to make an impact.
“The place has not changed much to look at, but I think Sam has done a great job with the team. A few years ago, the club was in a bad way and Sam has done brilliantly. All in all, it will always be West Ham and the history will always be here and everywhere I go around the world, people love West Ham. Everywhere I go, people know me for having started here.”
Cole also said:
“It was a big thing in me coming back – the fact that everybody here wants me to do well. The fans have always been great for me, whenever I have been back and also when I’ve been in the area visiting family.
“I feel like I owe the club a little bit as well because if it wasn’t for West Ham I wouldn’t be a footballer. This club’s great youth-team coaches taught me the trade.”
Cole will add some much-needed creativity into the West Ham team and I am sure his signing will give the whole place a lift! Welcome home Joe we have missed you!
Interesting reading today in the papers that Shaka Hislop has claimed that his former manager at West Ham, Harry Redknapp, is responsible for the failure of Joe Cole to live up to early hopes.
“Harry kind of liked Joe just to express himself, and we’d play around him, or around Joe’s unpredictability,” he said. “But encouraging him to be himself didn’t help him.
“Talented though he is, when you don’t have the ball he’s got to give you something else. Everything about his game on that side, when your team don’t have possession, he simply wasn’t good enough. Harry did not help him in that respect; I don’t think he was coached in that way.”
Cole, who moved to French club Lille on a season-long loan from Liverpool scored his first goal for his new club last weekend. Yet Hislop insists he could have enjoyed a far more glittering career had Redknapp utilised him better.
“Harry wants players to come and just play naturally and he would fill the gaps around that,” he continued. “It was the same with Paolo Di Canio. He would be allowed to do exactly what he wants and we would fill the gaps around him.
“It worked – you can’t take that away from Harry. But in Joe’s case, in terms of stepping up that extra level, it held him back. I know Joe well, I like him a lot and I hope he rediscovers his form. But you have to bring more than just that type of natural, unbridled ability.”
I always thought Joe Cole was going to be a far better player than he turned out to be. I really thought we had the next Paul Gascoigne on our books when I watched him play. It was like having a Brazilian player, fantastic skill and ball control and dribbling past two or three players.
To be honest I don’t entirely agree with Shaka, as when he went to Chelsea it was coached out of him to be the free spirited play maker he was for us, every time he got the ball he passed it straight back to the person who gave it to him and have very little conviction when trying to beat people, almost like he would be dropped for losing the ball.
