Mes: enero 2022

The formal name of the club is West Ham United Football Club, and they are known by several nicknames, the most popular of which is ‘The Hammers’. Other nicknames are ‘The Irons’ and ‘The Academy of Football’.

Founded in 1895, the squad were then known as Thames Ironworks. The Hammers train at the Boleyn ground, at their home venue, Upton park. The stadium has a capacity of just over 35,000.

The owners are David Sullivan and David Gold, both shareholders, alongwith companies called CB Holding Ltd, and Minority Investors.

West Ham are managed by Avram Grant, who came in recently after the previou manager, Gianfranco Zola, was dismissed.

The hammers have featured in all but three seasons of the Premier League. They have enjoyed greater success in the FA cup, winning it thrice, the last one in 1980.

They finished the last Premiership season in 17th position, while their highest was 5th in 1998-99.

The current campaign has got off to a horrific start for West Ham, losing all three matches played so far. They had an abject showing in their opening match against Aston Villa, losing 3-0. Therafter they lost 3-1 to Bolton and 3-0 to Manchester United.

Early Season Preview:

Early in the summer, Sullivan and Gold made known their transfer targets, and the list made impressive reading: Joe Cole, David Beckham, Ruud Van Nistelroy and Theirry Henry were all named. But that was the end of the story as none of them has signed to play for West Ham. If nothing else, the team bosses would have managed to enthuse home fans to reserve their seats at Upton Park.

The team that lost 3-0 to Manchester United comprised: Green, Gabbidon, Upson, Spector, Faubert, Ilunga, Dyer, Parker, Boa Morte, Noble, Cole, Stech, Da Costa, Barrera, Kovac, Stanislas, McCarthy, and Piquionne.

The club owners have great expectations from Scott Parker this season.

Thomas Hitzlsperger is one of the world’s most explosive strikers, but apart from his power, his game leaves something to be desired. That said, Hitzlsperger could be in the news for a sensational strike or two.

Apart from Hitzlsperger, the Hammers have also signed New Zealander Winston Reid and Mexican winger Pablo Barrera, on the back of good showings, at the World Cup, by the respective players.

Portsmouth’s Tal Ben-Haim and Frederic Piquionne have also been snared by Avram Grant from his former club.

West Ham have released striker Guillermo Franco.

The squad are relegation favourites, although they have a great manager in Grant, and some genuine talent that should have them for mid-table.

Hammers’ early results belie such optimism, though.

Newcastle United will host Stoke City at St James’ Park, this Sunday, in what will be the sixth match of their Premiership campaign.

Ahead of the game, Newcastle are gung-ho, thanks to a mid-week 4-3 win over Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge, in the Carling Cup. Ironically, Newcastle also lost at home to Blackpool, in the Premier League.

Chris Hughton’s squad have scored eleven goals in the first five matches of their Premiership season. Their defence has stood up when it counted and conceded just four goals, to give the Magpies a healthy goal difference.

Contrast that with Stoke’s six goals for, and eight goals against. Seven of those came in the first 45 minutes of the matches in which they transpired.

The Potters have been up and down this season. Following a last-gasp away win against Villa, they drew at home against West Ham.

James Perch will return to the Newcastle squad, from suspension. Sol Campbell who played the entire duration of the Carling Cup game is also likely to start. ‘Keeper Steve Harper has been advised 12 weeks’ rest after shoulder surgery.Tim Krul is likely to replace him.

Danny Simpson and Danny Guthrie have not returned to match fitness from their respective shoulder and knee injuries. Newcastle will also miss Steven Taylor nursing a shoulder injury and Dan Gosling who has a knee concern.

For Stoke, regular players should return to the starting eleven after they were rested during the Carling Cup match loss to Fulham, mid-week, chief among them is ‘keeper James Sorensen. Abdoulaye Faye will bolster the back line, while the forward line should benefit from John Walters’ return.

Manager Tony Pulis will also welcome winger Jermaine Pennant returning from a hamstring injury.

The Potters last won at St James’ in 1976. Their last win against the Magpies came in 1989, when they prevailed 2-1 in a Division 2 game. The sides have drawn three of their last four league and cup games.

Caroll is Newcastle’s man of the season, with four goals in five matches, while Jones has scored just one for the Potters in their five.

Stoke should consider themselves lucky if they got away with a draw; Newcastle should consider it as an opportunity lost if they didn’t bank three points from the game.

Newcastle will probably field these players in their starting eleven: Krul, Enrique, Williamson, Coloccini, Perch, Ben Arfa, Nolan, Barton, Routledge, Ameobi, Caroll

The Stoke City starting eleven will probably be: Sorensen, Collins, Faye, Shawcross, Huth, Etherington, Delap, Whitehead, WhelanJones, Walters.

The English premier league season is now in full swing and the rumour mill has gone into overdrive. We bring you a number of the more exciting rumours doing the rounds today.

Jose Mourinho to reunite with Didier Drogba?

Apparently, Jose Mourinho pleaded repeatedly with Florentino Perez the president of his new club Real Madrid to sign the Chelsea Ivory Coast striker, Didier Drogba. Remember, both Didier Drogba and Jose Mourinho teamed up at Chelsea in the three fruitful years that the latter spent with the Stamford Bridge club in the EPL. Jose was reported to have tried to persuade the money men at Madrid to bring in Drogba up to the very last minute of transfer day deadline. Of course, it’s one thing to say that Mourinho wanted the star striker but it’s an entirely different kettle of fish to imagine that Chelsea would ever want to part with their talismanic goal scorer.

Liverpool to get rid of two midfielders in exchange for one striker?

Another rumour doing the rounds is that Liverpool are ready to offer both Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva and Dutch forward Ryan Babel in exchange for West Ham striker Carlton Cole. While Carlton Cole is undoudbtedly a striker of high pedigree, one must wonder what Liverpool fans make of the proposed deal. Moreover, neither player apparently was keen to leave Anfield for Upton Park, which is probably not surprising given that West Ham are widely tipped to struggle this season having only barely managed to stay in the top flight of the English premier league in the last season.

Arsenal to sign a new goal keeper?

As any die-hard arsenal fan will argue, they only fell out of the running for the premier league title last season because of lax defending and rather glaring goalkeeping errors. Well, it would have been news to their ears to hear that manager Arsene Wenger was looking to remedy that situation as his team goes into the new season. Unfortunately, the word on the street is that Arsenal missed out on signing reliable goalie, Mark Schwarzer from Fulham as Mark Hughes, the new Fulham manager, was unable to find a suitable replacement in time for the English premier league transfer deadline of August 31st.

With the January transfer window now open, the big question on everyone’s lips remains the same. Will Chelsea FC sign any players during the window? Their team is nowhere near full strength at the moment, and with an aging squad the problem may only get worse. In my opinion, they need to sign a couple of players at least. Due to their transfer embargo they won’t be able to sign any players until 2011 otherwise.

Their best players are out of action right now. Drogba (their best striker), Kalou, Mikel John Obi and Essien (their best defensive midfielder) are all at the African Cup of Nations for the entire month of January, and Nicholas Anelka (their second best striker) is out with an injury he recently picked up whilst training. Many fans have been left bewildered by Chelsea Manager Carlo Ancelotti’s comments that he would ‘streak on the pitch’ if he signed any players during this transfer window.

That being said, they are top of the English Premier League, so maybe Carlo Ancelotti (who is, lest we forget a proven winner wherever he’s been) knows exactly what he’s doing. In the F.A. Cup against Watford FC he played the young striker Daniel Sturridge up front and he repaid the manager’s faith in him by scoring two goals in a 5-0 win.

News has leaked out recently that Chelsea are looking to buy Italian striker Giampaolo Pazzini from surprise Italian package Sampdoria. The deal would reportedly be for around £22 million pounds, although a potential stumbling block could be that Sampdoria would want Pazzini loaned back to them for the rest of the season.