BLOWINGBUBBLES

MONTHLY

AUGUST, 2014 WWW.BLOWING-BUBBLES.CO.UK BY FANS, FOR FANS #39

Is Adrian really the new Ludo?

When will the Academy start to deliver again?

Keeper facing second season

Special report on the youth team changes

A NEW HOPE

SUPE

RMAN

Vale

ncia

jets

in to

Lond

on ~

EXCL

USIV

E Dav

id G

old i

nter

view

* Can Big Sam turn things around?* Do West Ham deserve better?

Oaka at the Mansion House offers a delicious combination of freshly prepared Pan Asian cuisine and award-winning real ales in a setting that’s perfect for both celebrating and relaxing.

Oaka at the Mansion House | 48 Kennington Park Road | London SE11 4RS | 0207 5825599 | www.oakalondon.com

Relax and enjoy our warm welcome

Being the London home of our sister company Oakham Ales, we always have a minimum of five Oakham Ales’ award-winning brews, including JHB, Citra, Inferno, Bishops Farewell and Green Devil. Each one as lip-smacking as the next, and a surprising but perfect accompaniment to Pan Asian cuisine.

At Oaka London we aim to bring you an interesting array of craft beers, alongside keg and bottled craft beers from the likes of Krombacher, The Kernel, Brewers Union, Brooklyn, Partizan, Curious, Camden Town Brewery and Sierra Nevada. We work closely with these independent brewers and suppliers to ensure that our range of craft beers is always changing and evolving.

A perfect solution for parties and BBQs - 4, 17 and 34-pint carry outs of Oakham Ales now available. Please ask a member of staff for details. Ten-Pound Tuesday - A popular weekly offer. An excellent opportunity to indulge and try out the adventurous flavours of our delicious two courses for only £10.

The London home of Oakham Ales…discover a new world of drink and food … right on your doorstep

SUMMER OFFER

BUY 1 PINT GET 2ND PINT FOR £1.50

This offer is valid until 30th September 2014

(This offer applies to Oaka at The Mansion House only)

Please bring this voucher with you to claim this offer (ASO14)

Visit our other venues with Oakham AlesThe Bartons Arms: 144 High Street, Aston, Birmingham, B6 4UPThe Brewery Tap: 80 Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 2AA | Charters: Town Bridge, Peterborough, PE1 1FP

We are just opposite toKennington Tube Station

WELCOMEEDITOR-IN-CHIEF: David Blackmore MANAGING EDITOR: Simon OsbornCONTRIBUTORS: Toby Fry, Geoff Hillyer, Andrew Hosie, Marcus Johns, David Meagher, Liam Newman, Emily Pulham, Chris Rann, Matt Santer, Chris Ste-venson, Brian Williams, Lucy Woolford

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: editor@blowing- bubbles.co.ukADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: advertis-ing@blowing- bubbles.co.ukWHERE YOU CAN READ IT: Blowing Bub-bles is available to buy prior to each home game and is also available to read on your PC, Mac, Tablet or Mobile.

Blowing Bubbles is published by Fanatic Media. Blowing Bubbles is a completely independent publication. The views expressed within Blowing Bubbles are not necessarily those of the publishers. Opinions expressed by companies and individuals appearing within the magazine are not that of Blowing Bubbles or the publisher. The publisher accepts no liability from any action raised in response to any such opinions. Readers are strongly advised that although we take every care to ensure prices and content, etc, are up to date, it is the responsibility to check with the advertiser before purchasing or travelling to view products. No reproduction, either in part or whole of the magazine is allowed unless written consent is obtained from the publisher. The publisher accepts no responsibility for any actions arising from articles or features or advertisements within this magazine. Readers are advised to pay by credit card when ordering goods as these are regulated under the Consumer Act 1974. Debit and charge cards are not.

(c) Blowing Bubbles

Welcome to our first issue of the

season. It’s been a very busy summer at Blowing Bubbles HQ with the decision to change the frequency of the mag-azine from every home game to monthly.

It wasn’t a decision we took lightly but we believe it will allow us to offer a higher quality product with more pages and articles and, at the same time, provide better value for money to our hard copy subscribers.

We spoke to as many of you as possible and the response to the move has been encouraging but, as always, we love

to receive your feedback because we want to make this publication the best it can be.

Looking at this issue, I hope you agree it is an excellent read from cover to cover.

I cannot thank David Gold enough for agreeing to sit down and have another interview with us. He has been a keen supporter of what we are trying to do with Blowing Bubbles and, as always, he speaks his mind in our exclusive interview.

We were also delighted that West Ham legend Julian Dicks agreed to continue his monthly column for another sea-

son and we were thrilled to hear the news he had been appointed West Ham Ladies boss. We know he is going to have a huge impact on the club and we’re looking forward to continuing our support of the Ladies as they strive to challenge at the right of the table this campaign.

Finally, Blowing Bubbles wouldn’t be where it is today without our pool of writers who constantly exceed our expectations with their work. They are passion-ate yet articulate and we’re very grateful for what they do for us.

David

A fresh start, for West Ham and us at Blowing Bubbles

The big interview - David Gold

‘It is time for West Ham fans to start enjoying football again’David Gold opens his heart to David Blackmore and talks Allardyce, the transfer window and why things will be better this time around

West Ham co-chair-man David Gold

has backed the club’s summer signings to shine and fire the Ham-mers to a top half finish.

In an exclusive interview with Blowing Bubbles, Gold also said the club was starting to build a squad that could soon challenge for one of the Premier League’s European slots.

He also heaped praise on under-fire manager Sam Allardyce for sign-ing more attack-minded players - and claims the Hammers will play with a freedom not seen at the Boleyn Ground for some time.

The club have been unusually proactive in this summer’s transfer window with several signings already having come through the door at Chadwell Heath.

Yet as we catch up, on a beautifully sunny afternoon just over a week before West Ham host Tottenham Hotspur in their opening Premier League game, Gold is confident there will be a few more new faces coming in before the

transfer window shuts on September 1.

‘Business has not fin-ished,’ he explained. ‘I’d still like to sign another striker and defender.

‘We’re not desperate for these players in fairness, and the odds are stacked in favour of it being a loan for the season with a view to buy, but I would like to think every West Ham

fan agrees with me when I say we have a much better squad than we had last season.

‘For those who perhaps don’t agree, you’ve just got to look at the players we’ve lost in George McCartney and Matt Taylor and the players we’ve brought in Aaron Cresswell and Cheikhou Kouyate.

‘Don’t get me wrong

both McCartney and Taylor were great ser-vants for the club but in Cresswell and Kouyate we’ve got two excellent players.

‘Cresswell has the po-tential to be a top player and there is absolutely no reason why he can’t be a top Premiership left back.

‘He is attack-minded, young, has lots of pace and energy and I’m really looking forward to seeing him play in the Premier League. As for Kouyate, he is a real dynamic, young player who I think is a very special talent and is a huge improvement to our squad.

‘Then we’ve got Valen-cia who you could argue is replacing Maiga.

‘Again with all due respect to Maiga, he just didn’t have the impact on the Premier League we thought he would which is sad because he came highly recom-mended but in Valencia, I think we have someone who can help drive the team forward.’

Gold also offered his support to manager

Hopes: David Gold says West Ham can expect a better season

Sam Allardyce, insisting the club were right to stick with the boss who has taken the club back to the Premier League and kept them in the top flight in the last two years.

‘The key to Sam is to look at what he has done for the club,’ he added. ‘What did the fans ask of him when he came to the football club? I’ll tell you what they asked, they wanted him to get us back up into the Premier League and he did that. Sure we made it difficult for ourselves by going through the play-offs but what a thrill and a bonus that was in a way.

‘We then asked him to keep us up in our first season back in the Premier League and not only did he do that but we finished mid-table. In our second season in the Premier League, we again asked him to keep us up and avoid second season syndrome and again that’s what he did.

‘David and I have been running football clubs for 20 years and we remain loyal. When I say loyal, I don’t mean blindly loyal but if someone has done what you required of them, it’s very hard to say sorry we will have to go our separate ways.’

Having said that, Gold admitted he wanted more from Allardyce and the players this sea-son and targeted a finish in the top half.

‘I want everyone to be enjoying the football be-

cause we are not under pressure of relegation,’ he explained. ‘When you face the threat of relega-tion, you become very defensive – just look at us and Crystal Palace last season.

‘The first thing Pulis did at Palace was tighten up the defence to stop leaking goals because he knew if they were going to survive, he had to stop leaking goals left, right and centre but it meant they relied on scoring with the one or two chances they created every game.

‘Now while he did remarkably well, as did Sam, in ensuring survival, what we want

to do is build a team that isn’t looking just for Premier League survival but looking forward and challenging for Europe.

‘It is at this point that players start playing with confidence and freedom and the fans start relaxing and really getting behind their team without being nervous that if they don’t beat this team their club could be in trouble.

‘Get a team with confidence and players don’t play it safe, they don’t pass back, they drive forward and take on their man.’

The simplest way to do that, of course, is to go out and invest heavily on

better players. Yet even if the club had the funds available to be more aggressive in the transfer market the Financial Fair Play restrictions (FFP)would severely limit what the board would be able to do.

Gold is in favour of clubs being forced to take control of their finances - but hoped this wouldn’t prevent wealthy entrepreneurs having fun with the football clubs they support.

‘I completely under-stand why clubs are being told they need to stop losing hundreds of millions of pounds every year,’ he said. ‘But sometimes they are

Exciting: New signing Mauro Zarate will add some flair to the West Ham attack

only losing that amount because their owners are pursuing success with their own money.

‘It’s not on a financial or economic basis, they are investing in their hobby from the pile of money they made elsewhere to ensure their club is successful and football as a whole is concerned about this and rightly so because otherwise you end up with the same team winning every year.’

Gold points to the example of Blackburn Rovers – a smaller club than West Ham – who

won the Premier League as a direct result of a philanthropist owner in-vesting in his home town club as a reason why not all money in the game is a bad thing.

‘We were all very excited years ago when Jack Walker went to Blackburn after he sold his business for hundreds of millions and had some fun with his football club and bought the best players available and achieved success.

‘We must make sure we allow that to happen again because I’m sure Accrington Stanley

would love a Jack Walker to walk into their foot-ball club and get into the Championship or even get into the Premier League.

‘We mustn’t supress the possibility of another Jack Walker or indeed another Dave Whelan who took Wigan from the depths of English football into the Premier League and Europe. We don’t want to stifle that.’

However, Gold is clear that something needs to be done to ensure clubs do not risk administra-tion and to ensure the general public are not

being priced out of the game.

‘In the Premier League we have, what I like to call, wage restraint which prevents clubs from spending more than they did the previ-ous season and stops an escalation of debt.

‘It is vital we clubs keep generating money because if you want to bring in better players, want to improve your facilities or stadium, you have to be making money.

‘Is it right, I ask you, for somebody to earn £3.5m a year for being a

Part of the queue: West Ham fans line up to get Big Sam’s autograph last season

Signing Andy Carroll was ‘not a mistake’ despite his dire injury record

David Gold claims West Ham will reap the benefits of a fully fit and injury-free Andy Carroll for seasons to come.

After the striker was hit with another long injury lay-off, co-own-er David Sullivan told talkSPORT at the end of July the club had ‘probably made a mistake’.

But Gold says that could be premature and has high hopes the former Newcastle United and Liverpool striker can reach his full potential.

‘Only time will tell whether or not it was a mistake to sign Andy and that will only be in hindsight,’ he said.

‘At the time every West Ham fan was thrilled when we got him on loan and delighted when we converted it to a per-manent deal.

‘If he never plays another day then we have made a mistake but it’s so easy with hindsight.

He has still got years to go on his contract and the injury he sustained last season was unique and one he has fully recovered from and is unlikely to happen again now that we are aware of

it and the fact he is strengthening it with exercises and wears footwear to protect and strengthen.

“His current injury is something which has been niggling away at him for most of his ca-reer and is essentially a severely sprained ankle which some people are over in a few days and other times it’s a few weeks.

‘Andy was suffering from these a few times a season so we took the view to send him to a top specialist and he has had an operation to ensure he doesn’t get these niggling injuries where he is out for a month.

‘It is our invest-ment in him for the future and it has to be remembered that when he is at his best, he is unplayable.

‘He is a mountain of a man, has got great presence in the dressing room and I’m certain he will play for England again.’

footballer and yet a chap can’t bring both his boys to the match? I don’t think it is. That wasn’t the case when I was a boy and, as a league, we need to start re-balanc-ing this.

‘I remember when it was wrong for a player like Johnny Haynes to be earning £20 a week or being charged a shilling to watch a game. The balance is still wrong now and I hope we can sort this out.

‘The Premier League is rightly saying clubs can’t spend whatever they like and go out

and borrow money to pay more than they can afford in salaries to bring in better players because what could happen then? These players don’t perform and you get relegated and go bust.

‘Now what happens? The fans end up outside the stadium shaking buckets hoping people will put money in to save their football club. We’ve seen it with Portsmouth who had fans going around the town with buckets and yet the club were paying salaries run-ning into the millions for players.’ BBM

Gone: George McCartney was not offered a new deal this summer

Sam Allardyce

Big Sam deserved his second chance - now he must take itAndrew Hosie on why Allardyce will still be in the dugout this season

The new Premier League season hasn’t

started yet but already it seems as though the knives are out for Sam Allardyce.

A poor pre-season, that included embarrass-ing defeats to Wellington Pheonix and Sydney FC on the other side of the world, has added fuel to the fire of those who want to see the former Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn boss sent packing back up the M6.

In many ways Al-lardyce’s association with the Hammers has always been a marriage of con-vince. The club turned to him, the antithesis of the passing game West Ham have long been associated with, at their darkest hour.

Until this point the marriage has lasted be-cause results on the pitch persuaded the pragmatic majority of West Ham’s fans to accept the end justified the means.

However, with results on the field failing to live up to the benchmark set in the 2012-13 season, it was clear the voices of dissent were growing louder.

Crucially they were

not just coming not just from the section of the support who had always been anti-Sam, but also from those who’d been, in the past, prepared to give Sam the benefit of the doubt.

The media were convinced Allardyce was on borrowed time and it was widely expected he would lose his job at the end of the season.

But after being hu-miliatingly summoned to ‘crunch talks’ with David Sullivan and David Gold at the end of the last campaign

it was announced that the manager would be allowed to keep his job after promising more entertaining football.

So why did the board stand by their Sam?

I think the best way of explaining the board’s loyalty is to look at the situation from a work-place point of view.

Say you’d been given by your manager at your appraisal three objectives to achieve and you achieved them.

How outraged would you be if your manager turned round to you and

said: ‘yep, you reached you sales targets, you introduced the new system we asked you to but we’re going to let you go because the way you reached those targets were rather mundane, and the system you introduced, well it was just simply functional wasn’t it, nothing we can get excited about?’

You’d probably be furious and you may well take your company to an industrial tribunal and probably win a case of unfair dismissal.

Indeed, could you fire someone for achieving the objectives you gave them?

However, you certainly could express your dis-approval in some of the methods used to achieve those objectives, and there would be nothing to stop you introducing new objectives.

The owners have done this with Allardyce.

It remains to be seen whether Big Sam can se-cure a top 10 finish this season, and whether he can do it in a style that is far easier on the eye.

But his record at West Ham means he deserved a chance to. BBM

Plenty to think about: What does the future hold for Sam Allardyce?

www.oakhamales.com Tel 01733 370500

Time is a funny thing.

Since our uninspiring 2-0 defeat to Man-chester City back in May a hell of a lot has happened.

We’ve had a belting World Cup with pre-cisely no West Ham rep-resentatives, Luis Suarez has been sent packing to Spain for turning into a vampire, we’ve hired Teddy Sheringham as an attacking coach and Julian Dicks now man-ages the Ladies’ side.

Add to that we’ve been polled on a new design for the club crest and the Hammers have splashed out more than £20million in transfer fees.

Yet it’s difficult to know what to feel at the start of this season.

I don’t want to make the same mistake as last time round, viewing it optimistically at first but then realising that we were just dragging the season through the mill.

Sam Allardyce is still in charge, to the sur-prise of many (myself included), but solidity and continuity is what is required at the Boleyn

Ground right now.I, for one, am glad

that the board got 100 per cent behind the manager.

Certainly, there will be a degree of unrest should we get off to a poor start.

Not to worry, though, as Tottenham are first up, complete with their new manager, Mauricio Pochettino, fresh from his successful stint at Southampton. Since we beat them three times

last year, you’d imagine confidence might be high for this one.

Following our London derby, we’re off to, er, another one.

Crystal Palace away is followed by Southamp-ton at home and you have to think these are both winnable games.

We might well have a clearer idea of where our season is headed even at the end of August.

Without doing a dis-

service to FA Cup final-ists Hull City, Liverpool will provide the first se-vere examination of our title credentials – sorry, mid-table credentials.

With no Luis Suarez to con the referee this time around, we obviously have a better chance of getting some-thing out of this one.

This is followed by an away match against Manchester United, which we will inevitably lose (well, if we can’t

2014-15 season preview

‘The annual defeat at Anfield and yet more wins over Spurs’Geoff Hillyer looks at what West Ham fans can expect from 2014-15

Business as usual: Steven Gerrard will no doubt hurt West Ham again this year

win when David Moyes is in charge, we certain-ly won’t with Louis van Gaal).

October looks a bit more comfortable with matches against QPR – and the return of Harry Redknapp – and away to Burnley.

The home match against Manchester City should be a corker and, let’s be honest; the team owes us one (or several) after several insipid performances against this opposition. The League Cup semi-final

still gives me sleepless nights.

November looks a slightly easier ride, with Stoke, Aston Villa, Everton and Newcastle providing the oppos-ition, and the first part of December brings us West Brom, Swan-sea, Sunderland and Leicester. If we’re not in a reasonable position after that run, we have problems.

The Premier League’s Christmas present to us is Chelsea away followed by Arsenal at home.

Happy holidays.Into 2015, and other

highlights include our annual defeat away to Liverpool (January 31), the Tottenham away match (and a fifth win in a row, perhaps?) on February 21, and the home matches against Manchester United (February 7) and Chel-sea (March 3).

At the start of last season, I suggested that we wouldn’t suffer the so-called ‘second season syndrome’ and we would survive.

Admittedly, it was a closer-run thing than we would have liked, but we did survive thanks to Norwich City, Fulham and Cardiff.

This time around, we should have a better season with the new additions to the playing staff.

If we don’t, expect significant change - and unrest - over the com-ing nine months.

Potentially, however, this could be the start of some exciting times at the club. BBM

More of this please: West Ham fans will be keen to see Kevin Nolan celebrating this term

Dear Sam,I’ve got to hand it to

you my friend – you’re no quitter, are you?

Hottest favourite in years to be the first Pre-mier League manager to get the tin tack; hated by the fans; a replacement reportedly lined up already – I really admire the way you refuse to let little things like that get you down.

In my book, that says a lot about you as a person (despite what the cynics may say, I’m sure the £3m pay-out that you’ll get if you stick around until you actually get the bullet hasn’t even entered your thinking).

The pundits have got it all wrong about that Scottish fella Mackay being the next manager, though.

I know he’s red hot on discipline, and I’m sure young Ravel Morrison could learn a lot from a man who held such a senior position at Slade Prison, but you’ve got nothing to worry about on that score. He’s definitely not coming to Upton Park.

The way I heard it from my brother-in-law, who knows a bloke who’s sleeping with the wife of the guy who does the catering at Chadwell Heath, the next manager is going to come from rather closer to home. Don’t let on you got this from me – that would drop my brother-in-law right in it. But it’s young Jack Sullivan.

Apparently, the ori-

ginal plan was for him to do his GCSEs first, but it all went so badly in pre-season they have decided to bring things forward by a few years and give him his head now.

Word is, he’s been lined up for the job ever since he discovered his old man’s porn stash and threatened to tell his mum about it if he didn’t get whatever he wanted from now on.

And as this particular stash filled three ware-houses on an industrial estate just off the A13, he had a fair amount of clout in the protracted father-son negotiations that ensued.

But, by all accounts, the little fella’s a wizard at FIFA 14 and is getting better at Football Man-ager by the day. It seems he’s got this radical tactic of playing two up front and, as a result, he scores goals for fun. Who’d have thought it?

That’s the advantage of a decent education I suppose.

You can tell the boy goes to a good school by the way he wears his uniform all the time. Even keeps it on at the weekends. There’s a few members of the younger generation who could learn a lesson or two from Master Jack, if you ask me.

Be honest, you don’t see many youngsters in the Trevor Brooking Lower wearing a blazer and tie on a Saturday, do you? No wonder this country is going to the dogs.

Dear Sam,

Brian Williams pens his monthly letter to the gafferNicely rested: Andy Carroll hasn’t had a lot to do so far

Have you given any thought to what you’re going to do after you’ve left West Ham? Now that Alan Hansen has jacked it in on MoTD there’s a slot going there, of course – and with your insight into the game you’d be a natural.

Let’s have no false modesty here Sam: no one knows more about the passing game than your good self. And the fact you try to reduce the game to one 60-yard pass whenever possible just goes to show how far ahead of the curve you really are.

I half expected to see you on the telly doing a bit of expert analysis during the World Cup, but it must have coincided with your summer holidays. Go anywhere nice?

Me and the missus tried something differ-ent this year and went to Germany for a few days. Stayed in a little place called Schalke.

I’d never heard of it before – so imagine my surprise when we discovered the West Ham youth team were playing a couple of games out there!

They looked a bit out of their depth, to be honest. Still, I’m sure the humiliating experi-ence of being totally outclassed by vastly superior opposition was good for their develop-ment. Where were the first team, by the way? You’d obviously given them a few days off

rather than put them through the rigours of pre-season training.

I guess that was all part of a cunning plan to keep them fresh for the league games. And no one’s going to be fresher than Big Andy Carroll, eh Sam? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you are one sly old fox!

Don’t think I’ll be bothering with Ger-many again, though. I’d

always heard the beer out there was brilliant, but the pint I had after the Malaga game was awful. It was so bad, in fact, I had to chuck mine away. Trouble was, I didn’t realise there was anyone below me and, between you and me, most of it went over some joker who was laughing his head off as he left the ground. I couldn’t see who it was, and I didn’t hang

around to find out. But, judging by the way the laughter stopped so suddenly, he wasn’t best pleased. That’s the trouble with some people – no sense of humour.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

Your mate behind the goal,

BrianFollow Brian Williams

on Twitter @Brian-Will26 BBM

Porridge fan: Mackay could be just what Ravel Morrison needs

JULIAN DICKSTHE TERMINATOR’S EXCLUSIVE COLUMN NEVER BOTTLES A CHALLENGE

Ladies job is a real honour

Cresswell is a top signingI don’t know a great deal about all of our signings but the young left-back Aaron Cress-well looks like the real deal to me.

He likes to play foot-ball, gets forward and most importantly can overlap on the flank which is something we’ve been really missing recently.

Hopefully he can come in and do a job and I’d like to think he will get a run in the team.

As I’m sure many of you know, I am now the West Ham Ladies manager, and pre-sea-son has gone well.

It’s tough only hav-ing training on Tues-days and Thursdays because there is so much I want to cram in - but they are a great bunch of girls who are working really hard.

The fixture list is on the website and if would be great to get a nice big crowd in.

Don’t blame poor Andy for being injuredMissing games will hurt striker as much as us fans

West Ham had hardly kicked a ball in pre-sea-

son when the news came out that Andy Carroll will miss up to four months with an ankle injury.

I have to say I felt really sorry for the lad. It’s a horrible thing when you are ruled out for a while as from a player’s perspective you don’t want to miss games.

It’s frustrating for everyone, and I can see why supporters are upset. Carroll was such a major signing but we are sadly getting used to seeing Andy on the touchlines now.

But these things happen. I had two big injuries which ruled me out for 14 and 18 months and it was really tough for me.

You have to work hard on your rehab and stay positive,

and the fans can play a big role in keeping your spirits up.

Andy will be a loss because he gives West Ham another dimension.

Now it’s up to the players coming in to do the business and play well enough to keep him out of the starting line-up when he comes back.

Despite this I still believe we are on track for a better season.

With the players we have bought, I hope and expect us to be better than last season.

Last campaign was really de-fined by one month - winning those four games in February was the difference between us staying up and going down.

Football is all about progres-sion so I am expecting us to kick on and finish in the top half of the table.

HISTORY. PASSION. PRIDE.

We have the widest range of official West Ham United retro shirts and jackets ranging from 1958 to 2000.

SHOP THE FULL RANGE at CAMPORETRO.COM

1980 FA Cup Final Track Jacket 2000 Home Shirt

1966 No6 Home Shirt1966 No6 Away Shirt

1980 FA Cup Final Shirt

Use the code BUBBLES to get 20% off your first order

Can Terry Westley get West Ham’s academy going again?

Academy in focus

Former Birmingham man has huge boots to fill replacing Tony Carr

However inevitable it may have become

the news was still some-thing of a shock.

This summer it was announced that, after 40 fantastic years of fantastic service, West Ham legend Tony Carr had been replaced as the head of the club’s famous academy.

The hugely respected youth coach, who had played a huge role in developing the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and even John Terry, has now taken an ambassa-dorial role at the club.

Terry Westley, who formerly ran the acad-emy at Birmingham City, will take charge of academy affairs from now on.

That’s probably not the news most of us wanted to start the sea-son with really, is it?

The looming move to Stratford, and the uncertainty that such a vast change brings to a football club, has left supporters clinging on to whatever it is that makes West Ham what it is.

Tony Carr and youth system, one great enough to be dubbed the ‘Academy of Foot-ball’, was very much part of it.

I think we’d all agree though that over recent

seasons the production line hasn’t been as effec-tive as it used to be.

The golden generation of Cole, Lampard, and Ferdinand are all com-ing to the end of their careers while it has been a while since a player of the quality of Michael Carrick, Mark Noble and James Tomkins has been produced.

Can we say that in recent seasons there has been any player to make a real, long-term

impact? Not if we’re being honest.

To have a quick scan over last season, there were signs of discontent within the youth side.

There was a very pub-lic glimpse into future in the FA Cup match at Nottingham Forest, when several of the academy played as West Ham suffered the heavi-est third round defeat of the Hammers since 1926 and let in five.

Add this to the fact

LUCY WOOLFORD@lucy_whufc

Big job: Terry Westley will be keen to follow in Tony Carr’s footsteps

the Hammers have let several young players go since the beginning of last season, and we can see that all is not well.

Rob Hall, Jake Larkins, Eoin Wearen, Callum Driver and Jordan Spence have all departed despite having been labelled the ‘next big thing’ at one time or another.

This is probably no fault of Tony Carr.

As optimistic as I am, and as far as I go to back Sam Allardyce, I can see that he might not be the right fit for the develop-ment of our youths.

Having said that, as the saying goes, a change can be as good as a rest. So perhaps to shake it up a bit in order to fit the policies of Gold, Sullivan and Allardyce might just work out?

This, of course, also depends on how Carr’s replacement gets on. But what do we know about the incoming Terry Westley?

Well, he’s brought a few names through the ranks at a variety of clubs including Tom Huddleston, Matthew Upson, Kieron Dyer and Giles Barnes.

He also, perhaps no-tably, has Titus Bramble in his portfolio.

The former Luton Town and Derby County manager held the academy director position at Birmingham City between 2006 and 2011.

He got his under-18 side to a quarter-final

and semi-final of the FA Youth Cup, a competi-tion which West Ham have always seemed to take seriously.

Gold and Sullivan ap-pointed Westley at Bir-mingham, and it seems he didn’t leave the club on bad terms with the new owners. This could

be a good opportunity for him to prove himself in football once again at a club that is looking to recapture its ambition and build for a brighter future.

Westley had told the Birmingham board that their youth system needed to be pushed

to the next level. This guy clearly doesn’t lack ambition and isn’t shy to tell it how it is.

He has also held the post of the Premier League’s head of pro-fessional development and was involved in the creation of the Barclays Under-21 Premier

Home grown: James Tomkins is one of the most recent graduates from the academy

League, another com-petition that our club is proudly represented in and is very interesting to spectators.

His theory in creating this competition was that the best young players in the top clubs were playing against one another, something that he said paid off when working with Birmingham.

Development at this level can only improve

your first team, so long as there is good com-munication and liaison between all parties.

From a sentimental point of view, it is very sad to see an influential and ambitious man as Tony Carr step aside from his role, especially one he has done so well.

But a fresh perspective may see West Ham’s academy get back on top of its game and once again produce the

kind of player who can shine for both club and country.

Westley has got a tough job ahead of him and he’s got a lot to live up to from years gone by.

If he proves to be half as successful as Tony Carr was in the role we might be in for an exciting ride. I for one am excited about what the future might offer. BBM

Local boy: Who will be the next Mark Noble?

Leo ChambersThe Brixton-born defender is a solid unit and has already showcased his tal-ents at England U19 level. He’s definitely one for the future.

Blair TurgottFans would have seen 11-year-old Blair in the film Green Street, which shows just how long he has been at the club, but the grown up winger is a seri-ously hot talent.

Raphael SpiegelThe 21-year-old goalkeeper will play first team football this season on loan at League One club Crawley Town.

Matthias FanimoFanimo has already made the news earlier this year for being tracked as the fastest player in world football.

Dan PottsThe young left-back is the son of former Hammers star Steve. Will look to put pressure on Aaron Cresswell for a place in the first team.

Liam Newman

Five youth team stars to keep an

eye on

How Saints created the best youth team in British footballSouthampton fan Chris Rann on what West Ham might look to copy

As a Southampton fan, it does seem a

little odd to be writing about what makes a ‘great Academy’ for a West Ham magazine.

Over the years the Hammers have had a fantastic reputation for producing talented young players.

But as yours was producing the last of England’s ‘Golden generation’, the Saints were just starting to sow the seeds in theirs.

In fairness, South-ampton’s youth team has always had a decent standing having pro-duced the likes of the Wallace brothers, Alan Shearer and, of course, Matthew Le Tissier.

Yet until the likes of Wayne Bridge’s emergence it tended to be one off players rather than a raft of talent coming through.

What changed around that period of the late 1990s into the new mil-lennium was the whole culture of the club.

Then chairman Rupert Lowe, much maligned by Saints fans for some of his other exploits has to be credited with the vision that was put into place, and although the board has changed several

times, the philosophy has not. Time has been the greatest investment at Saints, and the un-wavering dedication to the cause.

When other clubs have suffered financial difficulties, often the youth system is the first thing to go, but

Saints took the opposite approach, seeing the Academy players as the cheapest way to rebuild.

Lowes’s appointment of Georges Prost was the masterstroke and the catalyst to every-thing that we see now.

The Frenchman, who was largely credited

with the development of his country’s 1998 World Cup winning squad, changed the entire ethos of its recruitment policy in young players, selecting not the best players but those he thought most intelligent and the most athletic. At the same

European star: Gareth Bale started his career at Southampton

time the club built a ‘Satellite Academy’ to widen its small catch-ment area and the rest as they say is history.

Nicola Cortese arrived in 2009 and took everything at the club up a level in terms of preparation and professionalism. He sent people to the best Academies in the world, not to learn from them but to identify their mistakes.

By this time Saints was ‘the’ Academy be-ing favoured by young hopeful players and their parents alike. The ‘family’ atmosphere and philosophy of the club with a clear route plan

from youth team to first team meant that like a natural progression the standard of player arriving at the club was getting better year on year.

The focus for each individual is clear, and they are all working to a career plan set out for them by the coaching staff, and while the club does a lot to hone technical skills it also places an importance on making them decent people too.

The confidence in the players they are creating is clear, and a succession of managers has had no qualms whatsoev-er about using them.

That is one of the most attractive prospects for young players.

It might seem like a better idea to go to Manchester United. Chelsea or Liverpool but what chance is there in reality to make the grade? At Saints it is almost guaranteed.

I’m not sure what other clubs are doing wrong as I think by now most worth their salt are following a similar model to Saints, but they are certainly behind. I watched Liv-erpool play at Stamford Bridge last season and there was a member of the visitor’s academy, Brad Smith, who was

handed his debut. He completely froze, look-ing out of place on the main stage.

This is something that I can’t remember ever happening to a Saints debutant from the youth team. These kids are coming in tech-nically sound, full of confidence and look like they have been playing at the highest level.

The key to Saints success in this area are clear, investment in facilities, time and the right people. Couple those with a policy of using your young players in the first team and the rewards are fantastic. BBM

Big money: Adam Lallana was sold by Southampton to Liverpool for more than £25million

Our aim is to operate a fast, reliable and flexible service

to all cities in Europe and the rest of the world and to make

your bookings quick and convenient.

There are no call centres; just professional staff to accept

your bookings, answer your questions and to make sure

your consignments are handled and monitored efficiently

from point of collection through to delivery with a signature

on completion. In addition to this service, we can also

collect anywhere in the UK for international deliveries to

send anywhere in the world. We are just one phone call

away.

We can also provide a UK sameday and overnight service

Email: sales@aands-expresscouriers.com

Tel: 0844 800 6810

Visit: www.aands-expresscouriers.com

A & SExpressCouriers

Your Door to Door Link to the World

International Overnight

Sameday Passenger Cars

Adrián San Miguel del Castillo

Raise a glass of San Miguel! Adrian could be the new LudoHe may not ‘come from near Moscow’ but Marcus Johns says the Hammers faithful may just have found a new goalkeeping icon

The World Cup in Brazil had pretty

much everything.It was one of the best

tournaments in recent memory and bought us crazy score-lines, jaw dropping results and goals galore.

Yet it has also been a World Cup that has underlined the import-ance of one position: the goalkeeper.

For instance, would Mexico have progressed as far as they did without the exploits of Guillermo Ochoa?

Columbia’s David Ospina managed to stand out despite the attacking exploits of his countrymen, and what other superlatives are there to describe Man-uel Neuer’s perform-ances for Germany?

It’s fair to say that in order for any team to attack with any gusto, they must have confi-dence in the big man between the sticks.

So, with co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan reportedly insisting upon a more positive thinking West Ham this season, it’s

clear that we need a reliable figurehead in goal.

And it could well be that, for the first time in a decade, Adrian is a goalkeeper that seems to have all Hammers fans unified in their faith.

The Spaniard is an excellent shot stopper, a fine organiser of the defence and a seemingly

popular figure amongst the players.

Could it be that Sam Allardyce unearthed a little gem?

Any goalkeeper who comes to the Premier League from overseas can expect to have to go through a period of adjustment.

But, the odd mistake aside, Adrian’s intro-duction into the team

seemed to coincide with an upturn in West Ham’s fortunes.

And whilst it is still early days, there is a feeling that he could well be the best goal-keeper we’ve had in 20 years.

Fans of a certain age will always talk nostal-gically of the bygone days of Phil Parkes, or in the case of my father Mervyn Day, but for many younger support-ers the goalkeeping pos-ition has always been benchmarked by one man, a certain Ludek ‘Ludo’ Miklosko.

Similar to Adrian, he was a relative unknown quantity when Lou Macari performed his one of his only decent act as West Ham man-ager, and paid £350,000 to Banik Ostrava for the big man’s services.

Despite enduring a difficult start, Ludo soon became a popular figure amongst fans and players, and quickly developed an almost cult like figure.

While the odd ques-tion mark remained over his ability under

Fans’ favourite: Adrian has lots of admirers

the high ball, no one could ever doubt his shot stopping abilities or his natural agility to reach shots that looked destined for the top corner. Hero status was officially confirmed af-ter his outstanding one man defensive barrier against title-chasing Manchester United, provoking derogatory comments about the team’s mentality to just defend from the opposition manager Sir Alex Ferguson along the way.

Signed by unpopular manager, quickly de-veloped a popular cult following and excellent at shot stopping. The similarities between Adrian and Ludo are almost uncanny.

But will he prove to be

as popular, as good and indeed as long lasting as Miklosko was?

The early signs are good. High hopes have been held previously for the likes of Roy Carroll, Rob Green and Shaka Hislop – all of whom have flattered to deceive – but could Adrian finally be the one to take on the mantra?

Do we West Ham fans no longer have to watch through our fingers every time the ball is being launched into our penalty box? Will he still be sung about 15 years after his retirement?

Only time will tell, but the early signs suggest that West Ham’s last line of defence could rest in some fairly safe hands. BBM

By David Meagher

I honestly cannot remember exactly at what moment I realised that he was our man.

I guess it was half way through his first season when it dawned on me that Ludek Miklosko’s goalkeeping demean-our reflected that of a highly focused pro-fessional rather than that of a terrified giraffe.

Ludo always looked a bit twitchy and you were never totally sure he would come out on top when com-ing out for high balls, but as a shot stopper he was definitely up there with the best.

Ludo actually had almost a decade of quality experience under his belt with Banik Ostrava in the Czechoslovak-ian league when he arrived to Upton Park in 1990.

He quickly became a mainstay of the side that gained promotion and was voted Hammer of the year in 1991. Over a subsequent 375 appearances it is hard to remember a poor performance as the big man was super-vigilant and immensely brave.

The gentleman shot-stopper who won West Ham’s hearts

It’s childish we all know, but probably his finest hour was between the sticks when we denied Manchester United, and a furious Sir Alex Ferguson, the Premier League title in 1995

That day a brave Ludo pulled of a string of fine saves to keep United out.

Ludo finally de-parted at the grand old age of 37 and put in a decent couple of years at QPR before returning as our goalkeeping coach.

During this latter period, I had the great pleasure to meet him in the Upton Park dressing room before a match when my son was mascot.

He was a real gent and went out of his way to introduce us to the players, including his fellow countryman Tomas Repka who, incident-ally, was genuinely quite fearsome in the flesh. BBM

Club legend: Ludo Miklosko

Never miss a kick...

Subscribe to Blowing Bubbles Monthly’s printed edition for just £25 and take your favourite writers with you wherever you go

www.blowing-bubbles.co.uk

Mauro Zarate

Seven things you didn’t know about new boy Mauro Zárate Toby Fry gives us the inside track on West Ham’s Argentine striker 1) They really love him at Velez Sarsfield

Mauro played for Velez Sarsfield up until he was 20 years old, notching up 99 appear-ances before moving on to Qatari side Al-Saad.

But while you can take the boy out of Buenos Aires, you can’t take Buenos Aires out of the boy, and in 2013 Zarate returned to his home club after his European and Middle Eastern adventure turned sour.

He went on to score 13 goals in 19 games, help-ing his side to win the Supercopa Argentina. Expect him to return back to Velez once his playing days are over.

2) He has previous Premier League ex-perience

That’s right – it’s the same longhaired magi-cian who couldn’t keep Birmingham City in the then Premier League in 2008.

Zárate scored four goals in his short spell with the Blues and I personally remember his stunning free kick against Everton.

He also scored a brace against Manchester

City, although that is not the task it is today.

3) Zárate was once worth £13million

Al-Saad paid $22million for Zárate in 2007. He only played six league games and scored four goals before moving onto Birming-ham on loan.

4) He likes to come firing out of the blocks

Zárate instantly

endeared himself to the Lazio fans after scoring a brace on his debut against Cagliari, and dedicating the second goal to the supporters.

The move to Lazio obviously suited him as he went on to score against AC Milan at the San Siro, and another brace against Torino.

5) He has big-match experience

Zárate won the

Coppa Italia with Lazio, scoring a fourth minute opener in a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria. He then converted a penal-ty in the shoot-out.

6) He doesn’t know of any dictators - so don’t ask!

When with Lazio, Zárate caused con-troversy when he was photographed giving a fascist salute whilst watching his side lose with a group of fans.

A spokesman for Zárate claimed that Mauro ‘did not realise the significance of his gesture’, and even went on to claim that Zárate wasn’t aware of who Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini were.

7) He’s a World Cup winner!

There’s no disputing that Zárate is a World Cup winner, and he even scored the winning goal in the final.

I must stress that it was with the Argentina Under-20s, but he was playing alongside even-tual golden-boot winner Sergio Agüero and Real Madrid’s Ángel di María. BBM

New signing: Mauro Zarate

This son of a Gus could well be our best summer signing

Diego Poyet

Diego Poyet is one of the most exciting young players in England

Of all West Ham’s summer transfer

business, the signing that fills me with most excitement is the addi-tion of young midfielder Diego Poyet from Charlton Athletic.

On paper it certainly looks as though we have got a great deal.

Clinching the signature of Poyet for nothing – less some loose change for compensation – could potentially be one of the best captures of the summer.

I have had the pleasure of seeing young Diego, son of the legendary player-turned-manager Gus Poyet, on two occasions.

The first was a late substitute appearance for Charlton against Conference side Dart-ford in a pre-season friendly two seasons

ago and it’s fair to say he made quite the impact.

Despite it being a relative training session in possession terms, his youthful colleagues were struggling to put the pieces together in front of goal.

His addition on 75ish minutes completely changed the game.

Charlton had gone 1-0 down to an opportune Dartford strike early in the first half and were showing little sign of evening things up.

The Alice band-clad

19-year old strode onto the middle of the Princes Park pitch and, if you’ll pardon the cliché, began to ‘pull the strings’ within a matter of seconds.

My initial impression of Diego Poyet González (aside from assuming that he must be a bit handy on account of his surname) was that he seemed to do what all excellent midfield players are capable of – making the game look utterly effortless.

He reminded me a bit

of Michael Carrick in his Hammers days. He created space for him-self with a single touch or stride.

He found small pock-ets of space and made a beeline for them, whilst simultaneously being in complete control of the football without so much as glancing downward.

His teammates couldn’t wait to pass to him, or better still, receive one back. It was that same scenario which very quickly led to the Addicks’ equaliser.

To use the term ‘slide rule’ would not be an inaccurate way of de-scribing Poyet’s return pass to his striker.

All around me I had overheard the admiring chatter of Charlton fans from the moment he had come on.

And now it was quite clear what all the fuss was about. He was a very special talent, play-ing the game with total confidence and instinct and with the maturity of a player six or seven years his senior.

Before I prattle on any further with my barrage

@MattSanterMATT SANTER

Proud: Gus Poyet

of admiration, I will just report that he did the exact same thing to lay on the second and eventually winning Charlton goal.

He had given his team the extra bit of crea-tivity they had needed to win the game, which brings me on to why he can be such an import-ant player for West Ham United – and hopefully England.

The Zaragoza-born Diego considers himself English and has repre-sented the Young Lions at under-16 and 17 lev-els. He is by far the most continental English player I have seen in the flesh, understandably in the circumstances, so feel he could give us another dimension.

After a productive summer in the transfer market it still remains to be seen whether the investment will bear any fruit.

What we have seen of Cheikou Kouyate, Mauro Zarate and Aaron Cresswell so far is pretty promising, despite the pre-season results experienced on our Kiwi tour. Kouyate is physical, Zarate is sharp and Cresswell is assured.

Poyet, I think, will be the flair-filled glue which connects front to back.

The latter two play with exuberance and this is what I think has been a missing ingredient of the past five seasons.

We have to face up to the fact that our once famed academy has not quite repeated the success of years gone by, so poaching ambitious young Championship talent appears to be our only hope of achieving that same hungry squad make up.

Diego has a particu-larly promising future. He made only 20 first team appearances last season for Charlton, yet managed to win Player of the Year with 28 per cent of a fan vote.

Those very same fans will have been devas-tated to see the prodigy move on, having only had him for less than a season in the first XI.

The compensation figure of £2million paid

will seem paltry if he can fulfil his evident potential for us. Being the first Premier League club that he has signed for will be a big factor in seeing his best, so the long term challenge will be keeping hold of him.

It has been no secret that our middle four or five has always lacked a traditional flair player, perhaps barring Yossi Benayoun in his first spell at the club.

We have been known for more of a ‘bruiser’ figure (à la Nolan, Noble and Parker) which is not without its perks, but to move on as a squad, we need those which emulate the Mata-styled finesse players.

Poyet will give us just that. BBM

Talent: Diego Poyet looks to have a bright future

Why Valencia is going to feel right at home at Upton Park...Emily Pulham gives us the lowdown on West Ham’s big-money signing

One of more pleasant surprises this

summer was that West Ham managed to secure the signature of the decent-sounding Ecua-dorian striker called Enner Valencia.

The 24-year-old has joined the Hammers on a five-year contract and big things are expected of him.

But few know much about the man, the mystery, that is Valencia - except that he was brilliant in this sum-mer’s World Cup.

Well, Blowing Bubbles is here to help.

We’ve done our home-work on West Ham’s latest big money recruit and reckon he’ll fit right in at Upton Park. Here are five reasons the striker has everything it takes to be a cult hero.

1. He’s the new Andy Carroll

By that I mean that he sounds like a good striker and he cost an impressive amount of money, but is not fit to play at the start of the season.

The forward is appar-ently weeks away from being match fit.

It’s pretty incredible that a player who scored three goals in six days can possibly be unfit just four short weeks later (and yet Kevin Nolan is considered match fit) but hey, I’m not the expert.

2. He’s nicknamed ‘Superman.’

I mean, it’s no ‘Ginger Pele’, but it’s hardly ‘Nigel Medi-ocre’ either. As nicknames go we’ll take that.

You don’t just throw the name ‘Superman’

around. If people call him this, he has to be a super man, right? Right?

3. He’s versatileNo, not like a waffle,

but he is certainly ‘Big Sam versatile’.

He used to play as an attacking right-sided midfielder before switching to playing as a striker, which is ideal as Allardyce tends to just play one striker at a time.

This way at least his skills won’t go entirely to waste when Carlton

Cole starts every game.

4. He’s a goal machine. He scored 18 goals in

23 league games whilst playing for Mexican side Pachuca.

Yes, the Mexican league isn’t quite the same as the Premier League, but the Mex-icans did a lot better than the English did in the World Cup.

If he could manage 18 in the Mexican league, he sure as heck better to be able to score at least one against Leicester, Burnley, and Queens Park Rangers.

5. He’s not your average money-fluid footballer.

This man actually knows the value of a paycheck.

When playing for Ecuadorian club Emelec, he did not have a place to live other than in the team’s sta-dium—so that’s where he lived and slept. He also struggled to afford food.

That he’s managed to persevere in an athletics career under those circumstances is great testament to his work ethic. BBM

Big hope: Enner Valencia could be a Hammers’ hero

Enner Valencia

West Ham take Brazil

The stories and pictures of the fans who travelled to the Fifa World Cup

West Ham in Brazil

A ‘Brazil World Cup’ was always going to

have a certain glamour that no other destina-tion could match.

Being held in a vibrant and exotic country which is obsessed with football, this summer’s festival of football was always going to be an event I just had to attend.

So on the second day of the tournament, de-spite being newly mar-ried, I flew out with my friend John for 11 days of football, sunshine and caipirinhas.

This was my fourth World Cup and past trips (most notably South Africa) have

taught me that follow-ing England matches is the low point in an otherwise great holiday.

We were, however, not going to totally make that mistake again and so picked our destinations before any matches were drawn.

In total we planned six days in Rio and five more around Recife in the North West of Brazil.

However once England v Uruguay got drawn to play in Sao Paulo, a mere one hour flight from Rio, we couldn’t resist the temp-tation of a day trip.

With no West Ham players in the World

Cup, unless you count Pablo Armero, I didn’t even have the risk of mocking from all football fans that Rob Green’s error in South Africa brought on me in 2010.

We were destined not to watch the England v Italy game in any form.

Originally the game got drawn on the day of our flight to Rio (but af-ter our arrival time) but Fifa moved the match back the hours due to TV audiences in Europe so we were expecting to land mid-way through the first-half.

As it happened the flight was delayed by an hour and a half, so

an equally disgruntled group of England fans touched down in Rio, trying to work out who had the most reliable information source on how the game was going as it entered its final minutes.

Having consumed a few wines, my ‘amusing’ yelps of ‘goal’ were met with turned heads and anxious looks from people who didn’t know what to believe.

Slowly enough sources confirmed the 2-1 defeat, and people left the plane slightly disappointed but justi-fying why they hadn’t bothered making the trip to Manus.

The greatest show on

earthWest Ham fan Chris Stevenson on partying with Viera, police escorts and pretending England had scored a goal...

Until this point, my World Cup highlight was undeniably being in Sapporo, in north-ern Japan watching England beat Argentina 1-0 through a David Beckham penalty. It was a real ‘I was there’ moment.

However, our first night in Rio probably equalled that.

We watched the Gha-na versus USA match surrounded by locals in a reasonably low key street bar on the back streets of Copaca-bana before somehow blagging (well, finding a small gap in the barriers, out of view of the bouncers) our way into a private party on the best roof top bar in the city.

I am pretty sure Patrick Viera, Sylvain Wiltord and Fabio Can-navaro, who we spotted straight away, hadn’t used the same means to gain entry.

As I looked out over the panoramic view of Copacabana, sipping a free beer, I was really hit by what it meant to be attending a World Cup in Brazil. It was a special moment.

Our five days in Rio were the best of any World Cup I have been to.

The corporate fan park could easily be avoided in favour of deck chairs on the beach.

There is something pretty magnificent sitting in the sunshine being served drinks at your seat, watching the football and pondering a half-time dip in the sea to cool off.

My only disappoint-ment from this time

included not getting tickets to the Maracana and not witnessing a proper Brazilian victory celebration.

Their 0-0 draw with Mexico, also viewed from the beach, left them a little flat.

I remember being in Japan struggling to find a place to watch matches on TV - for one match resorting to watch in the window of their equivalent to Dixons.

In Rio every bar, restaurant, shop, office, laundrette seemed to have a TV showing whatever game was on. You can walk down the street and barely miss a moment.

Having been to Rio before we had already done most of the tourist attractions, and although we did have a repeat trip to Corcova-

do (the big Jesus statue) it left us free to watch football and just enjoy the atmosphere. And it was amazing.

Other World Cups are very much split in the areas of interest geographically. Many people had previously referred to this as the ‘Rio World Cup’, such was the interest in visiting Brazil’s most popular city.

It left it with an amazing vibrancy created by fans of not just the teams playing in the city, but those from around the world, whether their country had qualified or not. It was a party. A won-derful celebration of football.

Next we headed to Sao Paulo for a quick one day visit to the sixth biggest city in the world.

I was lucky, managing

Nice view: The fan park in Rio De Janeiro was a great place to watcg a game

Pals: Chris gets to know Arsenal legend Patrik Vieira

to be in the right place at the right time, to se-cure a face value ticket for the match from a fellow supporter whose friend couldn’t make it.

Buyers were outnum-bering sellers by a huge margin pushing prices outside the stadium up to levels around the £500 mark.

Sao Paulo stadium was not really for me. Indeed, the large open stands let most of the atmosphere out.

I was surrounded by a mix of reasonably uninterested Brazilians and some enthusiastic Uruguayans. To this day I can’t decide which was worse.

England performed how they so often do at World Cups, so sneak-ing in to the half-time hospitality suite for some food and a glass of red was probably the highlight!

It was again frustrat-ing to see England try and do the right things, but just not do them well enough. Maybe a defeat was undeserved but they didn’t do enough to win either. I didn’t hang around long.

A night out in Sao Paulo finished with a taxi straight to the airport (why spend money on accommoda-tion when your check in time is 5.30am!) for a flight to Recife.

Next we had tickets for the Italy versus Cos-ta Rica game. What was already a tight schedule to get from the airport

to hotel to stadium was made worse by two events.

Firstly they left my luggage in Sao Paulo before we realised we were staying opposite the hotel being used by Costa Rica.

The police had shut off the road so in the end we had police escort walk us through the barricades to drop off the single bag we now had at the hotel.

Due to England’s result, we now found ourselves supporting Italy… so it was obvious how the game would finish.

Italy were awful, it was very hot, and that is about all I really remember from a rather low key match.

The downside of the Brazilian love of the beautiful game is that they were very keen to

attend as many matches as possible. Therefore many of the matches, not involving the Latin American sides still had more than 50 per cent of the attendance made up by Brazilians fans.

It certainly didn’t help an atmosphere, and there were as many Brazil songs as there were from either of the two teams playing.

The next day we hired a car and drove the four hours to a place called Praia de Pipa.

It is kind of a hippy beach town 100km outside Natal.

When we arrived we still found it full of football fans though: mainly USA fans on their way to Recife, or Uruguayans on their way to Natal (again I wasn’t sure which was worse).

It had beautiful

beaches, great bars to watch matches and love-ly accommodation. It was a fantastic two day stop off.

Next it was back to Recife for Mexico’s final group game with Croatia. Croatia needed a win to qualify while a draw would see Mexico through.

The other large con-tributor to a fantastic occasion was Brazil kicking-off at the same time meant many locals with tickets were happy to sell them in favour of watching their team at home on TV.

Mexicans could therefore snap up all the available tickets and meant we experienced a proper world cup atmosphere.

The crowd was probably made of about 70 per cent Mexican supporters while the

Fun times: Mexican fans got right behind their team in Brazil

rest were generally Bra-zilians trying to listen to their team on radios. For a while it looked as though Mexico might top the group, but Brazil scored some late goals to seal the number one spot as both progressed through to the last-16.

It seemed as though there was an unofficial bank holiday whenever Brazil played.

They really do love their national team and, arriving back two hours after the match finished, I think many had used this time off to drink. A lot.

Parties were in full swing and we had the privilege of meeting many characters who spent a lot of time giving us bear hugs and the like.

Brazil 2014 really did feel like a festival of football. I saw no aggravation or violence. The quality of football was excellent.

It felt like I was attending the best party in the world.

But for the English, it was like one that, although we were more than welcome, we were not particularly invited

to. They neither knew nor cared whether we were there or not. I am sure for other nations they will look back at Brazil 2014 and struggle to remember if England were involved or not.

It was the world cup which justified my feeling that following the World Cup is better than following England in a World Cup. BBM

Lucky Hammers fans win trip of a lifetimeLee Sifford won a competition to go to Brazil courtsey of Adidas. The lifelong Hammer took his 14-year-old daughter Megan and friend Stuart to South America with him and despite England’s dire showing had a great time. A highlight was getting a guided tour round Sao Paulo stadium.

Thrilling: Lee and Megan soak up the atmosphere in Brazil

Mark Noble could be ready to join England’s new-look pride

Mark Noble

Our Canning Town born star desvers his chance for the Three Lions

As England trudged off the pitch follow-

ing another premature elimination from a Fifa World Cup, the faces of the captain and vice-captain painted a very clear picture.

For an entire decade, midfield duo Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard had been the heartbeat of England’s national side and this, their final swan-song, had ended in typically anti-climatic circum-stances.

In fairness, nobody expected Roy Hogdson’s side to go all the way in Brazil, but the manner of their early exit still came as another bitter pill to swallow in a long line of international disappointments.

With left-back Ashley Cole announcing his international retirement just weeks before the

tournament, the real-isation that England’s ‘Golden Generation’ had failed to ever win a trophy really begins to set in.

This was meant to be our national team’s great hope and yet, for all their promise, they never once made it past the quarter-final stage of a major tournament.

The dawn of a new era in Three Lions

history is upon us and the departures of key men offers fresh faces a chance to stake their claim as Hodgson looks to build a team ready to take on Europe in two years’ time. Could Mark Noble be the next man to join the pride?

As well as the with-drawals of Gerrard and Lampard, England could well have to deal with a number of other

international retire-ments. The ageing tal-ents of Gareth Barry, 33, and Michael Carrick, 32, could decide to join their fellow midfielders in hanging up their international boots.

This may force Hodgson’s hand into giving new faces a try. However, as we saw in his selections for Brazil 2014, this isn’t some-thing the England boss will shirk from.

In terms of at-tack-minded players, England are blessed with a number of young talented players with Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just three of the names on a long list of options available to Hodgson. However, when it comes to defensive midfielders the pool of talent is particularly shallow.

Despite playing a prominent role in the national setup at youth level, Noble has never had the chance to prove his worth in the inter-national arena.

The Canning Town–born Hammer has often been mentioned as a potential candidate for

LIAM NEWMAN@ThatLiamNewman

Hero: Mark Noble deserves a chance with England

inclusion in the senior squad but for whatever reason has been ignored by a string of England manager’s, who have often opted to employ a ‘big club bias’ when selecting their squads.

However, with the severe lack of home-grown talent amongst the top clubs at this current time, this new batch of England stars promises to be more diverse than any gener-ation since the Premier League’s inception in 1992. This may just offer our favourite Hammer one final shot at launch-ing an international career.

For a variety of reasons, most of En-gland’s young defensive midfielders simply have not blossomed into the stars that we’d all wished for. The likes of Jack Rodwell and Josh McEachran have yet to reach the heights that had been forecast while one of our other most gifted young talents in recent years, Fabrice Muamba, will never realise his dream of representing the senior side for much sadder reasons.

This leaves a huge void at the heart of England’s midfield and aside from Jordan Henderson there doesn’t appear to be many alternative choic-es in the bid to fill it.

At 27, some questions may be raised about the midfielder’s potential longevity as he’ll be 29 by France 2016 and 31 by the time the

next World Cup rolls around. However, man-ager Roy Hodgson has already shown with the introduction of Rickie Lambert that the door is open to any English player with the required ability and therefore age should not be used as an issue regarding Noble’s international credentials.

Besides, these should theoretically be Noble’s prime years and he shouldn’t be overlooked simply because he wasn’t embedded into the national squad early on. The two-time Ham-

mer of the Year has been one of English football’s most consistent per-formers over recent years and his tireless work ethic would surely benefit those players in front of him.

Noble may lack experience on the senior international stage but he more than compensates for that with over 200 Premier League appearances to his name.

Not only is he one of the top performing midfeielders that this country has to offer, his ability to influence

those around him has to be another potentially key asset to England’s youthful side.

The fact Hodgson afforded players like Luke Shaw and Raheem Sterling some valuable tournament experience will undoubtedly help the Three Lions in the long run, but you cannot overestimate the calming presence of a cool head when times are tough.

Again, despite lacking international experi-ence, Noble is easily one of the leading candi-dates for the role. BBM

Who else could Roy

turn to?Jack Wilshere

The Arsenal man has not lived up to expectations in recent years, but if he can stay fit has the potential to be one of the best in Europe. Tom HuddlestoneSince leaving Spurs for Hull City, the powerhouse has impressed and was key in the Tigers FA Cup run last year.

Tom CleverleyAlthough he lost both his form and his place in the United team last term he is highly rated by England.

Boots to fill: Who will replace Steven Gerrard in England’s midfield?

West Ham Ladies

Little by Little, West Ham are starting to make progressDavid Blackmore finds the Ladies team are in a confident mood

West Ham Ladies captain Stacey

Little hopes the Hammers will be able to leave last season’s disappointments behind them when they begin their campaign under the guidance of club legend Julian Dicks.

The Ladies endured a torrid season last campaign, finishing second from bottom in the FA Women’s Premier League South-ern Division, and saw senior players Becky Merritt and Toni Anne Wayne and manager Mark Saunderson quit the club.

But a strong end to the campaign with a Essex County Cup victory, and the appointment of Dicks as manager, has created a positive vibe and atmosphere around the club and Little reckons the Hammers will be able to use last season’s lows to fire them up the league.

‘Last season was awful for a number of reasons,’ the midfielder said. ‘It was bad for the majority of the season but ended on a high with us winning the Essex County Cup.

‘I think the girls who stuck with us deserved to win that trophy because we had worked hard but now we have got to forget about last season.

‘I’m just thankful there was one team worse than us in the league because we did struggle and people did jump ship when we needed them the most but now we need to focus on finishing a

lot higher up the league this season.

‘The seasons that I have been here, we have always been near the top and pushing for the title.

‘Maybe winning the league is too much of an ask this season but certainly I feel like we are heading in the right direction and I’d like to see us up at that end of the table come the end of this campaign

because it’s where we deserve to be.’

Little expects the club will sign a few new players this month but admitted she has been pleased with the players the Hammers have brought in and retained.

‘When you look at the core of our team, it’s strong,’ she said. ‘We’ve got a new keeper (Nikita Runnacles) who we know a lot about because we played against her enough times when she was Colchester United and she has always been a good keeper.

‘We have managed to keep Danica in defence, then there is Linds Morgan and me in the middle and we’ve been here for the past few seasons now and up top we’ve kept Kel Blanch-flower too.

‘It has been difficult for us to keep players because we are com-peting with the Super League and if Super League teams come in for players, it’s hard to turn them down and you can’t begrudge people for going to play in the Super League because that is what

Confident: Stacey Little is the West Ham Ladies captain

everyone should be pushing for but with Julian Dicks coming in, he has and will continue to attract players to West Ham.’

As for how the club managed to recruit the Terminator. Little smiles as she recounts the story.

‘We were on the way to our final away game of last season at Portsmouth and we were talking about who would be our new manager.

‘I said I would like to ask Julian Dicks to do it, then I tweeted saying ‘Retweet if you think Julian Dicks should do it’ and I got more than 100 retweets, including Julian himself.

‘I spoke to Julian and he said he would be interested. I was taken aback that he’d even think about it and then it sort of went from

there.’ And it seems the former West Ham captain, and Blowing Bubbles columnist, has already made an impact on the training ground.

‘He has been brilliant and worked us really hard. He certainly doesn’t take any rubbish from the girls and we’ve all got huge respect for him because he has played at the highest level and knows what he is talking about.

‘One thing I have enjoyed is watching him ping a ball across the training pitch because he is still so accurate – I just stand there and think wow.’ BBM

West Ham Ladies play their first league game on Sunday, August 24 away at Queens Park Rangers.

Their first home game is against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday, September 4.

Never miss a kick...Subscribe to Blowing Bubbles Monthly’s printed edition for just £25 and take your favourite writers with you wherever you go

www.blowing-bubbles.co.uk

Vital: Kel Blanchflower is one of the team’s best players

With Rihanna re-portedly still on

a high from this year’s World Cup and ex-pressing a desire to buy her very own football club, will West Ham’s chairmen be looking to send out an SOS or if approached by the pop star’s people, would Gold and Sullivan turn to each other and ask: ‘Who’s That Chick?’.

I think there would be many a West Ham fan who would line Green Street with ‘Umbrellas’, shout ‘Te Amo’ from their rooftops and invite the two Davids to ‘Take a Bow’ if the ‘Diamonds’ singer was to invest heavily in the club ahead of the move to the Olympic Stadium.

There would be others, however, who would say: ‘I’d rather have a Hole in My Head’ and some who would just ‘Shut up and Drive’ and not be bothered either way.

Personally if it’s her dream to become a chairwoman or team owner, has the money and doesn’t mind it be-ing spent by others and not see an immediate return or even success,

then I’d be all for it so long as her money was invested wisely.

Having said that, surely she isn’t the ‘Only Girl in the World’ West Ham could approach if in need of investment? Perhaps there might also be someone with a bit more business sense who, together with the

club, could ‘find love in a hopeless place’ – and by love I mean another Carlos Tevez.

Whether it’s in the UK or across the Atlantic, the singer is guaranteed to make headlines as a team owner if her World cup antics are anything to go by.

After Germany beat

Argentina with an extra-time winner from Mario Gotz, Rihanna celebrated their victory by flashing fans at Bra-zil’s Maracanã Stadium – I’m sure West Ham could accommodate that sort of behaviour if she decided to start blowing bubbles. But, please Rihanna, no ‘S&M’.

And if she did take an interest in all matters West Ham, she wouldn’t be the club’s only famous fan. After the Queen, other well-known West Ham fans have changed the face of comedy, won world championships, directed countless classic films, been nom-inated for Oscars and ascended to arguably the highest public office in the free world.

The latter being fellow countryman Barack Obama whose sister lives in East London. The story goes she and her family support the Hammers and on a trip to London, Obama sat down with the family, watched a West Ham match on TV and was hooked.

Only West Ham. BBM

Could RiRi be ‘the only girl in the world’ for the Hammers?

The last word

You just know which Premier League club is in Rihanna’s sights...

Superstar: Rihanna wants to own a Premier League football team

BARKINGDOGMEDIA

Barking Dog Media provides a range of media services to help you promote,market and represent you or your organisation, club or business in public.

Our experienced and friendly team of journalists, designers, photographersand PR professionals are here to help you maximise your exposure across

a range of traditional and new media.

Barking Dog Media’s tailor-made packages and competitive pricing structuremeans we’ll be able to help you achieve your ambitions – whatever your budget.

Articles and Press releasesBrochures and bookletsWebsite design & managementSocial MediaPhotography

Find out more

Email: BarkingDogMedia@gmail.com Visit: www.BarkingDogMedia.co.uk

@BarkingDogMedia

VideoPosters and artworkGhost writingCrisis ManagementReports and Applications

WHAT WE DO