West Ham to Sign Nouble

Sky Sports are reporting that West Ham are set to sign young Chelsea striker Frank Nouble. The 17 year old Nouble declined to sign a professional contract with Chelsea, believing that his first team opportunities would be limited at Stamford Bridge.

Sky say that Nouble "is rated one of the best teenage talents in England" and "is tipped for a big future in the game".

He looks like a big pacey striker judging by this video:

Sir Trevor Brooking Stand

The Centenary Stand is being renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand.

There will be a formal renaming of the stand before the Bobby Moore Cup game against SSC Napolion Saturday 8 August. Sir Trev will be in attendance for the renaming.

Trevor Brooking said of the announcement,

"It is obviously a terrific honour which I am very grateful for because this is my club. It will be my club forever. The great thing was being able to spend my whole career with West Ham, having a stint as caretaker manager and as a director and then going to the FA.

"I still try and get to most of the home games. On my travels, if I am in a cab or something then everyone talks to me about West Ham because they know I am associated with the club. It is something I am only too pleased about whenever it happens. We have a very passionate and loyal support."

West Ham Takeover Non-Story

The Daily Mirror today are reporting on a possible Asian takeover at West Ham. The paper's 'exclusive' says that Pairoj Piempongsant, the Thai businessman who brokered two takeovers at Manchester City and was involved in the projected acquisition of Portsmouth, is playing a pivotal role in negotiations.

However, The Mirror say that at the moment the two parties are miles apart in their valuation with the group offering £75million and West Ham wanting closer to £125m.

Sounds like old news to me. I'm sure this rumour has been around for quite a while.

Werder Bremen Game Cancelled

Today's friendly against Werder Bremen has been cancelled because of heavy rain in Austria.

West Ham's next game on the tour will be on Wednesday against Turkish side Bursaspor in Bad Radkersburg.

Campaign for Justice

We want our money back you thieving Blunts !


West Ham have been cleared by a fresh FA and Premier League inquiry of further wrongdoing in the Carlos Tevez affair.

This latest inquiry looked at the changes to Tevez's contract that allowed the player to play in the final three games of the season. There were accusations that West Ham had not effectively changed the conditions of Tevez's contract for those games, however the club have now been cleared.

"The inquiry has concluded that, on the basis of the evidence available to them, there is no prima facie case that West Ham United and/or its officials did commit any further breaches of Premier League or FA rules immediately after the independent disciplinary commission's decision," the FA and Premier League said.


This statement is very important, as Lord Griffiths put huge weight on this very point in finding against West Ham. Here's what Griffiths' said when he found against West Ham,

"If the Premier League had known what Mr Duxbury for West Ham was saying to Mr Joorabchian's solicitor following the commission decision, we are confident that the Premier League would have suspended Mr Tevez's registration as a West Ham player.

"We have no doubt that those [Tevez's] services were worth at least three points to West Ham over the season and were what made the difference between West Ham remaining in the Premiership and being relegated at the end of the season."


Ever feel like you've been mugged!

Mancini Still Not Signed

Alan Pardew has become manager of Southampton.

Rumours persist that West Ham are interested in Gudjohnsen, all because Zola answered one question about the striker in an interview, and that Ashton is on his way out, all because he hasn't travelled with the rest of the squad to Austria.

Other than that Mancini has still not joined West Ham on loan.

SVL Flavia Solva 1 West Ham 1

West Ham fielded a young side in this evening's friendly.

Julien Faubert, Herita Ilunga, Georg Grasser, Marek Stech, Jordan Spence, Bondz N'Gala, Jack Collison, Ollie Lee, Anthony Edgar, Savio and Zavon Hines started for the Hammers.

Mario Ploschnik opened the scoring for Solva in the 16th minute. Collison got the equaliser with a penalty kick in the 30th minute, after Zavon Hines had been tripped.

In the second half Zola brought on Danny Gabbidon, James Collins, Kieron Dyer, Peter Kurucz, Josh Payne and Junior Stanislas

West Ham in Austria

West Ham kick-off their pre-season tour in Austria against SVL Flavia Solva this evening.

Don't expect many of the first team to feature. Steve Clarke said of the game,

"We're not going to play any of the boys who missed the first week of training. It will be a compilation of the players that played at Grays.

Come Saturday the international players that joined us late should be in a position to play 45 minutes so that would be the plan then. We will look to integrate them into the team for 45 minutes alongside the players that will have been there for two weeks."

Ashton Stays Home

Most of the rumours today seem to be about why Dean Ashton has not travelled with the rest of the squad to Austria.

Opinion on the matter seems to be divided, unfortunately for Ashton neither side of the divide seems to favour the West Ham forward. Most seem to think that either Dean is fit and has been left behind because he will soon be leaving the club or that he has picked up another injury and is therefore no longer worth the bother.

There is a rumour that Ashton has told Zola he has to be the first choice up front and that Zola has told him that he has to prove himself. This implies that Ashton has not travelled to Austria because of a rift between him and the management.

The other argument is that Dean is not fit enough to play and has stayed in London to work on an individual fitness regime. Ashton was supposedly more or less fit at the end of the season so the argument here is that he has picked up another injury.

Being an eternal optimist I'm hoping that the club have decided that Ashton is still not quite match fit and, rather than risk him picking up an injury, feel there is more benefit him working on his own programme of fitness.

Sunderland After West Ham Defender

The Daily Mail claim that Sunderland 'plan' / 'have launched' a £5 million bid for West Ham defender James Collins.

The Times say that Sunderland have actually offered about £5million for James Collins, who is also attracting interest from Celtic. The Times claim Sunderland have the option to sign Calum Davenport as well.

Finally The Times report that Bayer Leverkusen are interested in Julien Faubert.

Good Luck John!

Former West Ham striker John Hartson has been diagnosed with brain and testicular cancer. After suffering severe headaches Hartson was told that he had testicular cancer - and that the disease had spread to his brain. The Sun says Hartson will start chemotherapy today.

Good luck John!


The official West Ham blog have today announced the release of the new home kit. Pictures and prices are available here.


Most of the other news concerning West Ham today is in response to Zola's interview yesterday. Many of the papers have taken Zola's refusal to confirm a bid for Eidur Gudjohnsen as a statement that the club is interested in the player.

West Ham Still Wait on Neill

West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola spoke to Sky Sports yesterday. In the interview he revealed that West Ham are still hopeful that Neill will sign another contract with the club.

When asked about Eidur Gudjohnsen Zola said that, "Certainly we need to improve up front."