West Ham thread

So Rafa Benitez was all signed up and then Real picks up the phone, Carlo Ancelotti wants a back operation, Jurgen Klopp needs some time off, Unai Emery stays at Sevilla to win more Euro gold and Bielsa's tactics are too radical for us. Last man standing is the 15th Manager of West Ham United. WELCOME TO EAST LONDON SLAVEN BILIC.

West Ham appoint former defender Slaven Bilic

West Ham really making moves. Happy to see Bilic as manager now and Obiang has signed. Need these extra players for Europa League this season.

"The public will end up paying at least another 100 million pounds towards converting the Olympic Stadium into West Ham's new home, it has emerged. ... taking the overall bill for the venue to 702 million. ... To compound matters West Ham will still contribute a grand total of just 15 million pounds under the terms of their 99 year anchor tenancy.  ... The LLDC admitted conversion costs could even rise further ... Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and LLDC chairman, said the blame for the soaring cost lay with those who allowed it to be designed without football in mind. They included former mayor Ken Livingstone, Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and London 2012 architect Lord Coe. "A very bad call was made when those in charge at the time backed a stadium construction plan that would leave the Olympic Park with a much smaller, mouldering and tumbleweed-ridden arena,' Johnson said."

UK Daily Telegraph latest.

oh dear, they need the Nimbys from Petone to move to the area!

great result yesterday - still buzzing from it. Was sitting with in the arse end, just above the West Ham fans and they were superb. "Are you watching Allardyce" and "we're West Ham United, we play on the floor" were both highlights for me. Reese Oxford was amazing. Unbelievable that he is just 16 years old. Him, Noble and Kouyate just gave the Arsenal midfield no time to settle on the ball. Payet was different gravy and is going to be great to watch this season. Sakho upfront - fudge it, everyone was brilliant.

Six points against Leciester and Bournmouth and we go to Liverpool top of the table.

As explained here, interesting watch

What did they found in Reece Oxford's pocket after the game;

Chewing gum

Cellphone

Mesut Ozil

Did you see Maiga bless him at halftime banging the ball up in the air all by himself? Should we get him to move in with Marco Boogers maybe? Great tactics by Slav; a whole new world and Fat Sam's only been gone 3 months. Loving it! 

Can sum up Saturday with one simple statement - poor in thefirst half, a lot better in the second.

No penetration in the first half, with lots of passing of theball from fullback to fullback (via the centre backs) in front of Leicester.Terrible defending for their second goal especially. Obiang came on for Oxfordat halftime and we looked a lot more positive, with more forward passing andsome urgency. Looking at things from the new managers point of view, it waspleasing to see a massive difference after a half time team talk.

Adrian's sending off was unnecessary given the type of challengeit was (accidental), the location of the challenge (edge of the oppositionpenalty area) and the time of the game (93rd minute). Was funny when Jenko went in goal, and the fans immediately started with "England’s Number 1"

My massive annoyance from the game was the referee's handling of time wasting. Leicester were doing it from the 30th minute, and very blatantly all through the second half. The referee was constantly telling them to hurry up, and making a big gesture of holding his watch up when they were strolling over to take corners/throw ins/goal kicks, but at the end of the game there was still only 3 minutes added time. That was for a half of football that had 6 substitutions, a couple of bookings and a goal. I thought it was supposed to be 30 seconds per sub, goal and booking? I don't blame Leicester for doing it while they were getting away with it, but surely if the referee books someone as soon as they start, it puts the whole issue to bed? Schmichael was the worst offender as everytime there was a goal kick he would wander off to talk to a defender, go and have a drink, walk to the other side of the goal to towel his hands, go and get the ball, place it on the furthest point of the 6 yard box (placing it very specifically), walk back and kick his boots against the post, before actually kicking it. All while the ref stood there holding his watch up in the air. Book him in the 40th minute (after he had been given a couple of warnings about this) and then he cannot do it again.

think Bilic's got the mettle to go the distance in the PL?

Looks like they played their cup final in the first week.

2 weeks in a row now we have been great for the first 5 minutes of the game (Reid had a goal ruled out this week), a fudgeing shambles for the next 40 minutes, great for the first 20 of the second half, and finally average for the remainder of the game. At least we are consistent. If we are going to take a sliver of positive out of these games, it is that Bilic has shown an ability to rectify things that have gone wrong at half time. I guess the negative is that he has allowed it to get to that position.

I think that Saturday was just one of those anomalies where both of our fullbacks, who are usually good players, had absolute shockers. Cresswell was at fault for the first 2 goals, and Jenko at fault for arguably the 3rd one, and definitely the 4th one. Out wingless system didn't help them - every time they got the ball there was no one in front of them as supposed wide players (Kayoute and Noble) were in the centre circle. We need to sign a striker, and a winger at minimum in the next week.

The good news keep piling up - Sakho has been arrested for threatening to kill his wife (following an assault against her he was just charged with), and we have to go to Liverpool next, where we haven't won since about 1963. Newcastle on the Monday night is now a massive game.

What. The. Fudge.

yeah...........I'm not going to lie, it's not a great look.

It's all right though. Adebayor is coming on loan to bolster the striking ranks. ;-)

To be fair, I quite like West Ham as a club. There is always some drama though - usually owners or managers.

It'll take a while to turn around a ship built by Fat Sam. Changing the style of play using the existing squad is hard enough but to re-build a starting XI from the ashes is tricky with meagre transfer funds (by Prem standards) and no one will stand by while you do it. I quite admire the steely determination of the man (Bilic); he wasted no time consigning Amalfitano to the development squad for attitude issues, although strangely any attacking options is what we're lacking right now. The truth is neither Leicester or Bournemouth are mugs and anyone can beat anyone on their day. So we'll happily give Slav the time to get the team to play the way they should. I only hope there's enough games to do that, coz next year is even bigger. Smile and wave boys and COYI.

I see Kevin Nolan has "left West Ham United by mutual consent" - I wonder if Winnie will get a shot as Captain?.Maybe Mark Noble

Nobes will be club captain. Reid might be vice captain.

Hurray up and take Rob Green back. Our near post would love you to considering he keeps on getting beaten there.

Away wins at arsenal and liverpool, home losses to leicester and bournemouth

Entertaining, that's for sure!

And the list of forwards out:

Zarate

Carroll

Maiga 

Valencia

and Sakho has just been in court

with Noble and Adrian also suspended

mental.

We want 4 We want 4 - brilliant

Noble played but got sent off.

in Croatia at the moment and walked past a pub on Friday that was advertising the game live yesterday. The wife asked if I was going to go and watch it and I said I wasn't going to bother, as we never win at Anfield.  Saw the result yesterday evening and felt a weird mixture of elation, disappointment and shame

That Noble red looked liked bollocks. Whistle already gone, then it looked like he got ball well before the player got there...odd decision, perhaps to do with the pressure of the Liverpool fans.

The other one was a second yellow and marginal, where Payet drew the contact, which made a bit more sense.

https://www.facebook.com/ynfathehub/videos/8942193...

should be a good game v the barcodes

Noble back in Carroll on board again & maybe some of the new signings

Check out our Facebook events page for details of next meet

KiwiHammers (Newcastle home) event

Meeting at The Pub Tuesday 7:00am 15th September 2015 for the Newcastle home game

How many games before Carroll is injured yet again?

West Ham v Newcastle, almost like being in Wellington again.

Glad you did not get Austin too! But I was hoping you would have taken Green back.

LG - he might still come in the Jan window if we can find his right knee ligament!

Austin - top scorer - again in the Championship,18 goals in the premier league - injury free - 4 million pounds worth of transfer fees and was available for 15 million pounds v Andy Carroll - injured putting his trainers on - 50 Million pounds worth of transfer fees.

As for Green, you can have him for nothing, our near post would be forever greatful.

Austin is still overvalued @£15M and Rob Green wants £50,000 a week to sit on the bench so atm no one is going anywhere. Actually we seem to have beefed up Randolph's confidence by playing him so with Spiegal as no 3, Rob Green and your near post will have to remain friends. Shame you lost Joey Barton too; I guess he was too good for us!

Went to Burnley to inspire them. He, like Greed...errr Green, wanted more than they are worth.