Breaking News: Sam Allardyce has parted company with West Ham United as of this afternoon. Reports are surfacing that Allardyce and West Ham owner Sullivan have had a difference in opinion over transfer dealings and Allardyce has resigned. However, Sullivan has moved very quickly to replace Allardyce, and has appointed the rookie manager William ‘Billy’ Jarvis. Jarvis enjoyed a short career in the lower reaches of English football, before being forced to retire at the age of 22 because of knee injuries. Jarvis then proceeded to gain his Continental A license. Now, at the age of 25, Jarvis has become the youngest manager in Premier league history.
West Ham United: Transfer budget: £0 Wage budget: £-6,000 So, as you can see, I havent been given much to work with. I will have to get rid of a few players in order to balance the books. However, I am very optomistic about this season as we have a good solid squad of players and I believe that I can take this team places in the following years. My aim is to have West Ham in European competition within 3 years. I think that my key players for the following season will be Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Mark Noble. The goalkeeping position is of some concern to me as I am not confident in Jussi Jaaskelinen, I think I may look to Craig Gordon who is without a club following his release from Sunderland last season. Tactically I will look to play a very direct game looking to make use of big Andy Carroll up front, playing on knock-downs.
I am really looking forward to a succesful career at West Ham, feedback is appreciated, thanks for viewing, come on you Hammers!
WHUFC – July
Friendlies
West Ham 3-0 West Ham Reserves Boreham Wood 0-2 West Ham West Ham 0-2 Ajax Babelsberg 0-1 West Ham
Quietly pleased about the results in July, the team are blending quite well and things are starting to take shape. Even against Ajax we had more shots on goal which I was very pleased about.
Transfer Business
Carlton Cole – Norwich - £4 million Piquionne – USBCO - £0 Jordan Spence – Hibernian - £500,000
I have also recalled Ravel Morrison from his loan at Birmingham as I believe that he has a part to play in the first team this season. The squad also travelled to Germany on the 28th and play 3 games there. The main aim of the training camp is for the team to bond before the season gets underway.
I am working hard on possible signings, in and out. It is good to have some money to spend now with the departures of Spence and Cole.
August
Friendlies
Dormstadt 2-1 West Ham
Bossed this game, very disappointing result but we move on into the Frankfurt game on the back of a good performance.
Frankfurt 0-2 West Ham
Went with a different tactic in this gme and it paid off very well. Also, more good news after the game as I have learned that Jack Collison has returned to first team training, a real boost for the squad. However Guy Demel got injured during the game and will be out for up to 2 weeks, a blow, but not a major one.
West Ham 0-0 Bayern Munich
Last pre-season game and im quite happy about the outcome. Holding a major european force to a draw and a clean sheet to boot. Andy Carroll has got injured and will be out for 5-7 days, so he may not be fit for the first game of the season.
Transfer business: I have completed the signing of Michael Lumb from Zenit St. Petersburg. He will give us more solidity at left back as I am not overly confident at having George McCartney there. Lumb has arrived for a miserly 110k, a real bargain as far as im concerned.
Hammers captain announced for 2012-13 season: Captain; Kevin Nolan, Vice; James Collins.
Premiership kicks off
Chelsea 4-3 West Ham
You couldn’t get any harder a start to a league campaign than away to the European Champions. However, we gave a very good account of ourselves and pegged Chelsea back three times before Fernando Torres stealing the points from under our noses in the 88th minute. Kevin Nolan put in a captains performance with two goals and he aslo assisted Mark Noble, im not worried about this result as we gave a good account of ourselves and taking any point here was never on the cards.
Lumb out for 2-3 weeks
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa
Good solid performance from the irons here today in our first home game of the season, we had more shots on goal and our all-round play was very good. We may not have been as potent in front of goal as I would have liked, but big James Collins headed home the winner and we take the points today.
Capital One Cup
West Ham 3-0 Bournemouth
We had a nice draw here and progressed comfortably into the next round. Goals coming from Vaz Te, O’Neil and Diarra. We have drawn Fulham away in the next round, which will be significantly tougher than Bournemouth.
Next month includes home to Arsenal and Man City, with the small matter of a trip to Old Trafford.