Premier League Football Tickets
Football Tickets, News & Commentary
From the category archives:
Manchester United moved to within a point of Premier League leaders Chelsea with a 3-0 defeat of West Ham United tonight.
A week after heading two goals in the 3-2 UEFA Champions League first knockout round first-leg defeat of AC Milan, Wayne Rooney did it again. His first came on 38 minutes, turning in Antonio Valencia’s volley at the end of a fine team move. Ten minutes into the second half, Valencia again set up Rooney to double the lead and take his season’s goal tally to 27.
Everytime an owner flaps his “yap” it gets harder for the players to take the field.
New West Ham boss David Sullivan is taking his new found power to the wrong level, at the wrong places, and the wrong times, with the wrong audience. It appears that Sullivan is content to use the media to run his club and since they are ALREADY in danger of relegation he may want to stop before he alienates fans who probably have no desire to come out and see a relegated club.
Fielding a team is only one part of running a professional sports club…
The ink on West Ham’s takeover isn’t even dry and David Sullivan is ALREADY going after top talent.
Ruud van Nistelrooy is the object of West Ham and Tottenham’s affections. (This goes right into my theory that Real Madrid will crumble, but we’ll discuss that later.)
Well, how did Sullivan plan on ripping van Nistelrooy from Tottenham’s clutches? He offered him a ton of money of course.
New West Ham United owners David Sullivan and David Gold have revealed that West Ham United are ion debt to the tune of £110m. Which begs the question: Why did they buy West Ham?
“It makes no commercial sense to buy this club,” said Sullivan after laying out the scale of West Ham’s borrowing. If there was any other club in this situation, then we would not be buying it. We bought this as supporters, not from a business point of view.”
CB Holdings, who retain the other 50% ownership in the club, had said the Hammers had debts of £38m, but Sullivan disputes that number.
Chelsea and ManU have had issues with lesser clubs this season and including Chelsea’s draw of West Ham we also have to include their recent draw to Birmingham. Manchester United has had their own issues (like losing 3-0 to Fulham) but this brings up the great paradox in pro sports: Why do good teams have a hard time with bad teams?
With Chelsea “accepting” a draw with Fulham and ManU getting blasted by West Ham I have 3 questions to ask (and yes, this goes back to the “picking the wrong team to crumble thing”.)
1. What does it say about the 2 best teams in the Premier League that they took a draw to a team that is pretty close to being relegated and losing (badly) to a team that will most likely be relegated?
West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola was over the moon after Zavon Hines’ last-gasp strike earned his Hammers their first win since the opening day of the season. England Under-21 striker Hines was the toast of Upton Park after he netted the winner in the fourth minute of injury time.
Zola said:
“This could be the turning point for us. We gave a demonstration of desire and belief and that’s what we want from our players. Everything else is there. It’s a fantastic game to win. Every time Zavon has played for us he has been good. He has character and personality and he deserves to be in the spotlight.”
Australian defender Lucas Neill has left West Ham after turning down a “significant offer” of a new deal.
The Hammers made a “significant offer” to the out-of-contract full-back, 31, who was keen to secure a 12-month deal in order to take him up to next summer’s World Cup in South Africa.
However, Neill, who controversially turned down an offer from Liverpool to join the London club in January 2007, rejected their proposal in order to pursue “other opportunities”, according to West Ham’s website.
Joining the former Blackburn player through the Upton Park exit are Diego Tristan, Lee Bowyer, Walter Lopez, Kyel Reid, Tony Stokes and Jimmy Walker.
According to The Telegraph West Ham could miss out on a place in the Europa League next season after doubts emerged over their ability to satisfy the demands of the Uefa Club licence required to enter European competition.
It’s all to do with the uncertainty over West Ham’s ownership and failure of the club to meet an application deadline set last month for the league.
West Ham occupy the seventh and last European qualification place in the Premier League, which would earn them a place in the competition that replaces the Uefa Cup, but they risk being barred from the competition if they do not meet the licence demands
Nickname(s): The Hammers, The Irons
2008/2009 Position: 13th
2007/2008 Finish: 10th
Coach: Giancarlo Zola (Italy)
Stadium: Boleyn Ground (35,647 capacity)
Key Players: Matthew Upson, Carlton Cole, Robert Green
History:
West Ham first played in 1895 as Thames Waterworks. They have been in the top flight since 2005/2006. Carlos Tevez helped them escape relegation until he was dealt to Man U. His loss prior to last season could have hurt the Hammers, but instead they played consistent football and finished tenth. Americans should know our future leader, Barack Obama, is a Hammers’ fan. Let’s all hope he is consistent too.
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