West Ham United Blog

Eggert Magnusson sells stake in West Ham

The man we have come to know and love as 'Eggy' has sold his stake in West Ham to Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, the West Ham owner who now becomes chairman.  Gudmundsson paid tribute to the Icelander, saying "Eggert Magnusson has done a tremendous job as chairman, often in difficult circumstances, since our consortium bought the Club 12 months ago. Eggert has decided to move on to new pastures and to pursue his other interests. We wish him well for the future and express our thanks for all that he has done for West Ham".  And it is true that Eggert did a great job for us, steering us with distinction through the Tevez/whining Sheffield United affair and keeping his head while Curbishley settled in at Upton Park.

Eggert is set to purse new interests but I for one would always give the scarf wearing one a warm welcome should he pop down the East End some time in the future.  So long Eggy and thanks for all the puffins.

West Ham 1 Everton 2

(To everyone who saw the earlier post, wishful thinking/denial on my part, apologies!)

I'm not really sure I want to talk about it really, needless to say it was typical West Ham.  Never really in control of the game and I must admit I had a feeling it wasn't going to be our night.  I do however think we will do them at second time of asking come Saturday, but I'll post about that later.  Just one thing, some fans seem to be criticising Ashton for looking sluggish, the boy has just come back from a long injury for crying out loud, don't expect a hat trick from him every week, give him time to get back in the rhythm.  And Robert Green is allowed to make a mistake once in a while.  If you want to read a full report, you can check out the Guardian or Times reports.  I'm off to sulk in my room.

Team news for Carling Cup match against Everton

Freddie Ljungberg is back on the squad for tomorrow night's game, with Nobby Solano cup tied, he was actually rested on Sunday, though resting from what I'm not quite sure, time to turn in a match winning performance Freddie?  Henri Camara is also cup-tied.  Matthew Etherington and James Collins could both be in contention following their recent groin strains but Ferdinand and Bellamy are still out.

It's up front and in goal that there are questions to be answered.  Richard Wright has seen us through thus far but it's now you could argue we need to take the competition seriously and so there is a case for the more accomplished keeper to be given the spot.  Having said that, I don't Wright has let us down thus far and he should keep his spot in the Carling Cup side for this match at least.  As for up front, Deano obviously pressed the case for his inclusion, having made the difference on Sunday.  He's a starter for me alongside Carlton, with an option to take him off if he starts to look knackered. 

A reminder the game is not live on Sky so get down Upton Park if you can!

Blackburn 0 West Ham 1 - review and ratings

Well, it's probably not the first time a crack gang of Eastenders have performed a smash and grab in the North West, but the boys in Claret and Blue did it again.  In truth it was a scrappy game with mistakes being made on both sides, mostly down to wayward passing.  However, like I've said before, the sign of a really good team is one that wins when they don't play at the top of their game and that's what happened today.

That's not to take credit away from some very good performances and no one in the team need hang their heads, it's just the game could have tipped either way and neither team truly dominated, one of those days where it could have fallen either way and luckily it fell ours.  Right, let's take a look at those performances...

Green - 9 - simply the best......

McCartney - 8 - stronger performance from the lad and had a key role in the goal, great performance

Gabbidon - 8  - a rock, top man

Upson - 7 - similarly cool and calm at the back

Neil - 6 - the return to Ewood Park seemed to unsettle him a bit

Etherington - 6 - seemed to want to get more involvded, shame he went off with a groin injury

Mullins - 7 - solid performance from Hayden yet again, wow, I'm starting to warm to the fella!

Parker - 7.5 - a very good game from Scotty, marred only by a couple of wayward short passes, but his long range passing and tackling was exemplary, showed some good leadership skills as well

Solano - 5 - his poorest display so far, his set pieces just did not hit the spot

Boa-Morte - 7 - good performance by LBM but I still want to see him starting on the left

Cole - 6 - not Carlton's greatest day at the office but as usual his application and effort were there

Subs; Ashton - 7 - Deano made the difference for us today with his goal and has to be a starter from here on - Spector - 5 - another anonymous performance - Camara - 5 - didn't greatly impress

It says alot that the boys at the back scored the highest today, with their excellent performances we are building a really strong foundation and if you keep a clean sheet, you have every chance of taking the points home.  And we took ours all the way down the M1 today....

Team news for Blackburn v West Ham

The physio room at Upton Park is getting quieter, with Ashton, Ljungberg, Bowyer and Noble all in contention for a place this Sunday.  News reaches us that Julien Fuabert is now rehabilitating at Chadwell Heath, so we hope to see him soon.  Carlton Cole is one booking away from a ban on Sunday but the good news is that Blackburn's David Bentley is out having picked up his 5th booking last weekend.  Bellamy, Zamora, Ferdidnand and Dyer continue to be out of the squad with their various ailments.

Bet on Blackburn Rovers v West Ham

West Ham take a trip to the North West this weekend for yet another televised game against Blackburn Rovers.  It’s nice to know that Sky Sports consider us to be the great entertainers.  The more nostalgic amongst you will cast your minds back to last season when we visited Ewood Park after the Spurs game and frankly got away with a cheeky 2-1 victory thanks to a penalty and a Zamora ‘goal’ with Carlitos did his best to stop going in on the line.  The even more nostalgic will recall a classic 5-4 encounter with Stuart Slater scoring one of his classic goals.  We’ll ignore the 7-1 defeat which does not bring nostalgia but tears.

So what will Sunday bring?  Certainly Rovers command respect but their recent form does not give away any clues.  It reads WDLDLW while we read a slightly more stable WDDWDL.  They are no mugs at their home ground and we can expect a pretty physical game.

As for the West Ham team, I’d go with the team that started on Saturday against Chelsea, except I would give Etherington a rest, put LBM into left wing and start with Deano and Carlton Goal.  These two have the physical presence we need to break down this tough side.

The result?  I reckon a tough fought out 1-1 draw with quite a few yellows and maybe even a red.  Coral will give you 5-1 for the result and as usual, you can get a free £10 bet with Coral by clicking the image below.  Up the Hammers!

West Ham Christmas gifts with a Kitbag Discount code

Smoe more suggestions for those of you eagerly anticipating Santa and his reindeer.  Here are the gift ideas that will make it a claret and blue Christmas for you.  And once again, we've got you a nice discount, this time our friends at Kitbag.com wiill give you £10 off any purchase of £40 or more by putting in the code Xmas10 at checkout, so enjoy...

First up is this classic 1980 retro shirt, as worn by the FA Cup Winning team.  It's one of the smarter retro tops around and is a quality item.  You can get hold of it in all sizes here

Next up is the Hammers calendar for 2008, put it in your house so you will never miss another fixture or in your office just to wind everyone else up.  Luckily Freddie is on the cover, so you won't have to look at him for too long!  There is currently a buy one get one free on these or you can choose a calendar from another team....but if you do that, I'll let everyone know! (joke).  To grab a West Ham calendar click here

Finally, there is a nice selection of ties, wallets, West Ham footballs and more, check out the selection here, West Ham blog would particularly like the hip flask, supporting the Hammers, I sure do need it sometimes, cheers!

West Ham Third Round FA Cup Draw

West Ham will face Manchester City at home in the FA Cup 3rd round during the 5th/6th January in a repeat of our first game of the season when City shook the Hammers with a 2-0 home defeat.  Not many other ties stand out with Villa v Man United possibly the pick of the bunch so we may well be live on TV.

Chelsea 1 West Ham 0 - player ratings

It would appear that once again the Sunday papers attended a different game to the one I saw at Stamford Bridge yesterday.  According to the Sunday Times for example, Chelsea 'cruised' to victory and the News of the World deems we never really troubled Chelsea.  Oh really?  I think we troubled them alot and that was one of the best performances from an away team you will see at Stamford Bridge all season.

Curbishley set his stall out and for the first half we stifled Chelsea's game and created snippets of opportunities for ourselves.  In the second half Chelsea came out at us alot more which opened the game up.  They were offside for their goal but let's face it, they have more quality in their squad than we do with ours and losing 1-0 is no great dis-honour.  When you have players like Drogba and Joe Cole and can bring on a 23 million pund substitute, you've always got another trick in your bag.  Our problem was once we'd hit the hour mark and peaked, there was no one really on the bench who could come on and see us through to the end of the game.  Anyway, let's look at the performances....

Green - 6 - not too much to do and did all he could when they scored, still love England's number one

McCartney - 6 - not a bad performance but not his best, solid would sum it up nicely

Upson - 8 - another good game from Matthew Upson who is starting to hit some great form, possibly our man of the match

Gabbidon - 7 - great performance from Danny G after I questioned his place last week, it was back to the Danny we knew a couple of seasons back, keep it up mate

Neil - 7 - A captain's performance from Skippy the Skipper though sometimes caught out of position

Etherington - 5 - another disappointing performance from Matty, ran into blind alleys and his decision making was poor, need to see some of the confidence from ealier in the season come back

Mullins - 7 - ah, mysterious Hayden put in another excellent perfomance here, don't think he put a foot wrong

Parker - 7 - showed signs of what we paid for with some neat passing, still seems a little out of sync with the rest of the team but over time could be a legend

Solano - 6 - not Nobby's best, worked his little Peruvian socks off and should have done better when presented with our best opportunity.

Boa-Morte - 6.5 - a strange game from LBM which I know has divided fan's opinions, but certainly caused Terry and his mob some discomfort

Cole - 7 - solid and hard working but not really given any opportunity to shine.

Subs - Ljungberg - 5 - seems a little disinterested, Ashton - 6 - needs to get back into full fitness but the flashes were there again, Spector - 5 - did nothing wrong nor anything especially right.