Up The Hammers – Latest West Ham United FC News

Big Sam’s Negativity Preventing Progression If you’ve ever read any of my opinion pieces for Moore Than A Club in the past you’ll know I’ve always been an admirer of Big Sam. The stability and defensive resoluteness his setup has brought the club has been too long absent from previous West Ham sides. However, football is changing and so must he. Whilst the 4-6-0 deployed for the Spurs game was hugely successful, …

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All I’ve seen on Twitter and social media over the last couple of weeks is people blaming Kevin Nolan for West Ham’s run of bad form, and yes he’s not in his greatest form at the moment and he defiantly plays best when he has a target man to play off of which is actually when the whole team plays best. That’s the way we have worked for years play around a target man like Andy …

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It’s been a difficult start to the season for the Hammers but I think it’s time we look at the positives but not necessarily with the first team. We have an amazing under 21’s squad and a few in particular I think have the potential to be real future stars hopefully for the club. To start with Leo Chambers he’s played in a few of our Capital Cup games and has been amazing, he is a strong defender who’s looked solid in …

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Reid it and weep. It was only going to be a matter of time. We’ve been sussed out. Years after we West Ham fans worked it out, several so called bigger clubs have cottoned on to it too. And that is that Winston Reid is one hell of a good Centre Half. If we’re truthful to ourselves, we’ll admit it took us a while to unanimously agree on. A signing originally pitched to…

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Where Do We Go From here? As you have all figured out by now I tend to be an optimist when it comes to West Ham United. It is pretty clear after this epic collapse in the second half today though that things need to change. The question is what do we do? Where do we go from here? It seems that there are two key questions going forward: what do…

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Another 0-0, and it’s beginning to get get quite irritating now, when I tell my friends this they say, ‘at least you’re not conceding’, this makes it all the more annoying for me. If we’re not conceding then really, we’ve got to be winning. On wards to Norwich and I can see a similar game panning out. Should this happen we could become the first team to draw three Premier League games in a …

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Cole and Petric – what was the point? I recently tweeted that I was a fan of Big Sam Allardyce, and what he has done for our club, West Ham United. However, my only criticism of him so far has been the summer debacle surrounding the fact we didn’t sign a second striker while Andy Carroll was recovering from his heel injury. The week after the closure of the transfer window in August, saw us pick up former Fulham striker, Mladen Petric. Bearing in mind …

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Friend or Defoe? They say that the second album is always the trickiest. Sequels never live up to the original. That once you’ve gone, you should never go back . Try telling that to Julian Dicks. Or Tony Cottee. Both outstanding players who after brief forays at opposite sides of Stanley Park, came back to Upton Park and continued in the same rich veins of form as their earlier careers. However, players with such natural ability as Frank McAvennie and Joe Cole have disappointed…

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Nolan- Does Sam really see him as vital I don’t think that it comes as a shock to any West Ham fan that Kevin Nolan retains his place in the starting eleven week after week. Not because of his blistering form or ability which we would crumble without; but his relationship with Big Sam. Many of us would not be surprised to learn that the pair are related. The sad truth is…

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The change in Vaz Te Since West Ham United got promoted back to the Premier League, I have been a big critic of Ricardo Vaz Te and his laclustre performances. However, I’m also a big enough person to say that I have been impressed with his change in attitude since his return to the first team following his hissy fit on Transfer Deadline Week, whereby he handed in a transfer request. …

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It’s nice to finally see all the praise for Ravel he’s been great and scored that amazing goal against spurs. Being so young and so good we do have to be careful it doesn’t go to his head and I think Sam and our experienced players like Noble and Nolan can do that. He’s come a long way already this season, but what about when January comes around? The £19 million…

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Well, that was the Plan…but what next? I’ll be honest; I never thought it would happen. Sam unveiled his spectacular Plan B, and it has worked. 4 points from the last 3 games is a fantastic return considering the opposition we’ve faced. Even the most optimistic of fans would have probably predicted just the one point. The old tactical genius that is Big Sam pulled a masterstroke against Spurs. It worked well against Swansea, but the notion of…

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I went to the British Red Cross Awards the day after my Nanny’s birthday because I had been shortlisted for a fundraiser award.  I try really hard to make my Nanny and Bobby proud and I w as very proud that I was shortlisted. I won Young Fundraiser of the Year and when I sat down and was looking at my trophy they called me back up – I won National Young Humanitarian…

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After a fantastic result vs Tottenham I was thoroughly hoping for an even better one against Man City; sadly this was not to be. It wasn’t a bad performance but it was a true display of how different the class is at the top. It wasn’t a bad performance from West Ham but it was far from vintage. Swansea come into this game on the back of a bitterly disappointing late…

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Coming off of another home defeat isn’t great but considering it was against a city team tipped to win the league and a squad that cost hundreds of millions I’m not too disheartened but for the first time this season it’s called to questions our defence for many reasons including no Collins and Reid’s shocker. Our defence is normally first class so it’s down to one question Tomkins or Collins? Yes Collins was injured this week from…

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What West Ham United Means to Me As a fan from the United States who did not grow up as a soccer fan this is a question I struggle with regularly, not because I do not know the answer but because it is hard to articulate to my fellow American fans. Even the vocabulary is tough for me, because I find myself referring to the game as football only to have confused looks cast my way. {In America, football is an altogether different game of course, where the purpose …

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Who would of predicted an away 3-0 win at White Heart Lane? Certainly not me, who opted for a 3-0 loss in my prediction. Maybe I should predict us to lose more often. A memorable victory, a fantastic result and how about Ravel Morrison’s goal. Manuel Pellegrini will be only too aware of the immediate need to start taking maximum points on the road, if Manchester City are to live up to their title contender tag, and unfortunately for them, Upton Park is becoming …

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Fan expectation….Take a slice out of Kipling’s book. Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, we all have it. A newfound sense of optimism. Admit it – after the Hull debacle, I’ll bet you, like me were suddenly looking over the league table not with the usual early season glee, but in sheer desperation to find at least 3 teams that would be worse than us come what May. So it would …

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So West Ham’s marmite player has returned on a three month contract to cover the injured Andy Carroll who we hope won’t be out too much longer. I’ve never been one to sing his praises and I’m certainly not going to start now. I’m not overly happy that he’s back he’s just not the quality he need and we can’t rely on him to score every game. We need our squad to be improving not bringing back a…

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Ok, so it doesn’t take a genius to decipher why us fans were so delirious after West Ham’s victory over Tottenham earlier this month. Beating a local rival, particularly in their own back yard is always a joyous occasion, but putting three goals past an in-form Spurs squad which cost well north of £100m to assemble was an outcome none of us would have dared to dream of before the game. Factor …

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My problem with Ravel Morrison Our recent star performer and rising star Ravel Morrison made the headlines in the last week, for the right reasons this time, with a sterling performance against Tottenham. As a result of his brilliant start to the season he earned himself an England U21 call up, and by the sound of it impressed for some parts of the game. By now you must be wondering…

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Sunday’s game saw a fantastic result for the club and one that all fans will remember for a long time. It also saw Guy Demel and Razvan Rat play and I’m not sure that’s the best way to go, yes the results proved that it worked ok and they both played well but I would defiantly rather see the pairing on Razvan Rat playing left back and Joey O’Brien playing right back, like they did against Hull. Yes Demel has a …

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How do you solve a problem like Maiga? Unfortunately the question posed in the title of this article is one that I am unable to answer. In fact, it seems to be something that nobody can shed any light on at this moment in time. Sadly, the one thing that is for certain is that Big Sam’s total lack of any sort of a ‘plan B’ looks sure to prolong the mystery for the foreseeable future. Many frustrated Hammers have already taken the…

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Are you there Deano? In 2006, a West Ham cult hero Dean Ashton joined from Norwich for a then record £7.5 million fee. Goals, goals and some more amazing goals later (reminisces bicycle kick against United, consolation or not) Deano became a legend in his own right and if not for a devastating ankle injury, would probably have become not only one of the best strikers West Ham ever had, but a key player …

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Last weeks result against lowly Hull is a season low, and it can’t get much worse. Again us fans can feel robbed, another bit of bad luck has cost us. A poor referee has stolen any points from us. After last week’s disappointing result at Hull City, what better way to pick ourselves up than a London derby with Spurs. We now have a tough few fixtures ahead of us and I without …

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It was great going to the Everton Match and I really thought we would win.  I had new wristbands made for The Bobby Moore Fund and lots of people came to find me to buy some.  I also had a small auction that raised nearly £500 for the charity too. Last week was really busy for me, I got offered a part a new film that Cass Pennant is co-producing, the film is called Meet The Guvnors and it will be in the cinema.  Sometimes…

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