The silliest day of the silly season has started with FIFA ruling that Javier Mascherano is free to leave West Ham for Liverpool despite FIFA's normal rules.

They said: "The Fifa single judge ruled that Javier Mascherano is eligible to play in official matches with Liverpool with immediate effect."

So he's gone. It's a terrible shame I must say, as I think he's a very good player - maybe there's a "pay as you play" clause in his contract that was just too prohibitively expensive for the Irons, but would have been acceptable had we been battling for a Champions League slot. (So far away now, isn't it?)

Rumours also say that West Ham are looking for some last day massive transfers, most notably rumours of an 18 million pound (yes, eighteen million) rejected bid for Darren Bent. Whew!

Anybody else see the advert for this game this morning??

I definately saw it but just got an email from the Pig n Whistle saying it's not on the schedule. I just checked the schedule and it says Charlton vs Chelsea.

???Confused???

Edit: according to Melbourne Hammer these are generic ads direct from the UK feed not foxtel ads - most probably for the Asia market - very confusing & dissappointing :-(

It was a pretty fair result. Liverpool played quite well, and we played fairly poorly. It was weird seeing all the new faces! We started really poorly and for most of the match looked disinterested and slow. We had our moments though - Yossi's chance was great. We have GOT to win these next two games.

Player ratings

Carroll 6 - did OK, still want Green back. (har har)
McCartney 6 - well involved but got caught out.
Dailly 5 - not confident at all but won some headers.
Davenport 6 - some good signs but is not yet settled. Looks to be a good signing, as I thought he would be. He made some nervous mistakes, particularly giving the ball away, but more often he would put in some good tackles, work hard, and pushed forward. He passed well too, most of the time. I hope he settles in.
Spector 6 - not as good as I've seen him in the past, and caught out of position a couple of times.
Quashie 7 - looks like a great signing - runs a good 25% faster than Mullins, has better footwork, better and more incisive passing, and a better work rate. He gets tons of ball and got us out of trouble many times, and also always makes himself available for a pass. Not only that but he seemed to allow NRC into the game more. Excellent stuff. Not a world beater but I'm happy with him.
Yossi 6 - one or two flashes of the old Yossi but had trouble exerting his influence.
NRC 6 - got into the game better than previously. What's with the stupid decision making, i.e. shooting from 30 yards when there are three passes on? But seems to be coming back to form.
Boa Morte 6 - looking for trouble, and didn't do much. I was hoping for more from him and he was lucky not to get booked.
Cole 5 - tried hard.
Harewood 5 - poor. Took one decent shot and hardly involved - should have been taken off much earlier.

Z-man 6 - woke us up.
Kopa Blanco 7 - must say I was underwhelmed by his loan deal, knew nothing about him, and had no expectations. I groaned when I saw he was coming on. However from his first few touches - even disregarding the goal - he looked a cut above the rest of the team. Very professional and European. He looks very confident and just has a different manner about him. I was quite impressed and look forward to seeing more of him.

The first 70 minutes of this game was one of the most laclustre piss poor performances I've ever seen from the boys in the Claret n Blue. They looked scared and in awe of their opposition when they should've been at them challenging for every ball. I thought Liverpool looked fairly beatable and had we been beaming with confidence would have given them quite a game.

But it took until 70 minutes for us to wake up once we were already 2-0 down. Inspired by a double substitution of the ineffective Cole & Harewood replaced by new signing Kepa Blanco and Bobby Zamora West Ham decided to try and get back into this match. The newly introduced pair combined well in the 78th Minute as Zamora crossed for Kepa to stick out a long leg and smash the ball home from close range. The hammers then tried in vain to squeeze an equaliser but it was all too little too late.

I thought Reo-Coker had a good game in that he tried to play but he just didn't have the support. Quashie for me was dismal giving the ball away left right and centre and on this performance I can see why he has relegated 4 teams already.

Ratings:

Carroll 6
McCartney 7
Davenport 6
Dailly 7
Spector 5
Yossi 6
Reo-coker 8
Quashie 5
Boa Morte 5
Harewood 5
Cole 5

Zamora 7
Kepa 7

from icons.com

Training is going well; I have been doing lots of running and trying to build up the distance day by day. It isn't easy but I didn’t expect it to be. I can feel myself getting stronger though and I am improving.

The injury feels like it happened a long time ago now, but my recovery seems to be taking ages! But to be running again was a big target for me, and it's great to have got here.

I'm doing loads of shooting practice too, which I love. It can get a bit monotonous in the gym so to be out on the pitches doing ball-work really keeps things fresh. The injury feels like it happened a long time ago now, but my recovery seems to be taking ages!

I've been doing other things too, like running at the stadium on match days before anyone gets there. It's nice because it makes you feel like you are closer to being fit and it's lovely to get out onto the pitch again.

I'll be carrying on training this week and doing lots more running, I'll let you know how it's all going soon, so keep checking back!

Watford beat us 1-0 to ensure that the Hammers will not repeat the oh-so-near glory of last season's FA Cup run. This is like a bloody bad dream. Apparently we played all right. Zippedy doo dah.

Bit of a weird team if you ask me.

Carroll, Neill (Pantsil 48), Spector, Dailly, McCartney, Newton (Sheringham 65), Reo-Coker, Quashie, Boa Morte (Etherington 77), Zamora, Cole.
Subs Not Used: Green, Mullins.

Neill at right back, was it? He came off injured (of course) for Pantsil. I guess Spector and Dailly were our centres. Newton at right wing. Carroll in goal and he fluffed it, from what I've read, to gift them the game. Green has got to play, no question.

Well at least we can concentrate on the league. Bleh.

We all thought it wouldn't happen, but it did in the end. Lucas Neill has signed a £60,000 a week deal for a fee of about £1,500,000. I don't know how long he's signed for but my guess is probably either 6 months or about 2-3 years with a relegation "eject! eject! eject!" clause. I think he really believes West Ham can stay up and that he'll get games with us. Plus there's that big pile of money. I'm a bit concerned that Curbs is splashing this money around, especially on wages. I don't like big wage bills, but I suppose any price is worth paying to stay up..

We're also getting a striker from Sevilla called Kepa Blanco on loan till the end of the season with an option to buy. He's 23 but I can't tell you any more than that. It's a secret. (actually I don't know anything about him)

Doesn't get us our 2 points back though does it! I'll be well pissed if we miss out by 2 points at the end of the year - not to mention Poll's bullshit last week.

Demotion looms for Rennie over 'appalling' gaffe

Alan Biggs
Monday January 22, 2007
The Guardian

Uriah Rennie faces being dropped from the Premiership over the glaring error that enabled Newcastle to fight back for a 2-2 draw with West Ham. His mistake in allowing James Milner's goal to stand when Scott Parker was clearly interfering with play in an offside position is also likely to be used as a demonstration video for referees on how not to apply football's most complicated law.

The gaffe was described last night as "an appalling piece of refereeing" by one former official, Kevin Lynch. The referees' chief, Keith Hackett, has a policy of temporarily removing officials from the top flight in such instances and Rennie is almost certain to find himself demoted to the Coca-Cola League for a fortnight at least.

"People claim the law is confusing but in this instance it is very clear, leaving no room for misinterpretation, because there was interference," said Lynch. "The assistant was quite right to put up his flag, in my opinion. To overrule him was extremely poor refereeing - a big mistake."

West Ham's manager, Alan Curbishley, unsurprisingly concurred with this view. "I am so disappointed with their first goal," he said. "It changed the whole face of the game.

"The linesman put his flag up - he admitted he put his flag up - but because Scott did not touch it he [Rennie] did not give it. I do not know what Scott Parker is doing if he is not gaining an advantage.

"The rule is if you are looking to gain an advantage you are in an offside position. He was standing right in front of Roy Carroll and deliberately dummied it so it could go in the net.

"He [the referee's assistant] put his flag up and if he had kept it up I do not think anybody in the ground would have complained. But what can you do? We cannot do anything about it."

What is it with us and refs...you can spend millions of pounds on transfer fees and wages trying to make your club successful and ensure you stay in the premiership but all it takes is a pillock with a whistle to bring all the hard work undone.

It is absolutely unfathomable that Rennie could consider Parker was not offside and not interfering with play. He had to jump over the ball to allow it to go in and he was directly in front of Carroll.

Un-fucking-believable.

Newcastle 2-2 West Ham. "If we were midtable the off-side would have been given and the disallowed third goal would have stood, but when you're at the bottom, you don't."

It's always the way - nobody knows you when you're down and out, as Eric Clapton sang. But there's another cliche: you have to make your own luck.

We really, really need to get our shit in a pile, as of two months ago...

West Ham have signed former loanee Calum Davenport for an undisclosed fee. He has signed a 3 and a half year contract.

It has been reported that Lucas Neill has agreed terms on a 2.5 year deal but West Ham and Blackburn are yet to agree on a transfer fee. FFS - just get it sorted before the deal is hijacked I say!

Period! Don't even dream it!

I'm pretty fed up with Skysports and their bullshit reporting. Today they understand that West Ham have jumped to the front of the queue for Lucas Neill's signature because they are the only ones who can meet his massive wage demands.

Don't buy this! Lucas is using us and our money as a pawn in his Liverpool contract negotiations - he thinks if he says West Ham have money and are prepared to pay this much for me Liverpool will give in to his demands.

Skysports = 2+2=5

Congratulations everybody and thankyou for your continued support!

Incidently we are now top for a google search on "West Ham Blog" & "West Ham Australia"

Come on you Irons!

I was actually thinking about this post on my way to work this morning before Dave did his glass half full post...but as it happens we have a balanced editorial view here at whu-au. 50% up beat & 50% sad sack.

Let's take stock.

We have one keeper not long out of rehab who requires confidence to function and he's just conceded 3 goals.

We have as of last Saturday 3 injured centre backs and no cover at all. Zero.

We have a left back (PK) who the gaffer doesn't rate and many would agree with him. His replacement last saturday (GMc) didn't set the world on fire.

At right back we have two (2) guys who can't get a sniff and AC prefers Dailly to them even after Dailly features in a back 4 that concedes 6 goals.

We have a left winger who should be in rehab but the manager won't play him anyway so thats sort of ok.

We have a supposedly world class central midfielder who can't get a look in either through injury or being ignored.

We have a reliable central midfielder in Mullins who has done a job for us but now seems to be out of favour. Need proof? Well if being on the bench against Fulham isn't enough, try the fact that AC bought on Newton rather than Mullins.

We have a talented but young central midfielder (MN) who AC thinks is too young for the fight.

We have a bling bling central midfielder whose form in the 1st half of the season was a major contributing factor to our current plight. He seems to have rediscovered a bit of his fight but the chances of that continuing past the end of this month are 0%. He'll either be off or sulking cause he thinks he should have been off. His heart won't be in a relegation fight. Oh yeah and he's our captain.

Our headline striker is injured and is not the type to come back and have an immediate impact. I know he bounced back in the cup final after injury but that was one game. Trust me, Ashton needs time to get match fit. Serious time. When he's fit, he needs to stretch and warm up longer than any other player at the club. After the serious injury he's had, imho he will play no significant part in the campaign for survival.

Tevez is injured and out for 6 weeks.

Marlene is out of favour and looks to be off before the window closes.

We are 4 points adrift and we're off to Newcastle where Martins will show us exactly how to score. Follow that up with Liverpool. Nothing there. And then away to Villa who will be scrapping for their lives. I can see us getting nothing at Villa Park and that will be it.

We will need binoculars to see safety. Mentally the players will have a "we're fucked" mindset.

I don't see any way out - we're going down.

Simple - we must get results in crucial winable games. On one hand you can say this weekend was one of those games and was perhaps the game we needed to give our season a lift. On the other hand look at the circumstances of that game and one could say we did very well to even be in the position of holding on to that game.

Inside the first 10 minutes we lost 2 key players who were integral to our defense and attack in Collins and Tevez. On 15 we conceded a goal, and looked like we may struggle - how many games have you seen this year where we've conceded first then gone on to lose?? But we showed character in this game and clawed ourselves back into it.

I have previously dismissed relegation as a formality but I decided to look at the fixture list and see where we could get our points and I thought maybe we can do this. So here are my thoughts on how it can be acheived.

I'd say the next couple of games we are in a bit of bother. We have lost 3 players to injury and Bobby Zamora will be suspended. I expect us to take a bit of a beating at Newcastle and I don't expect much from our home game against Liverpool - if we get anything from those games it will be a plus.

Newcastle (A) L 0 points
Liverpool (H) L 0 points

Reports are suggesting Tevez & Gabbs are out for 6 weeks. We need to get in a new defender fast and and a striker would be nice. If we can do this by the end of the month I would expect us to get a rare away point at Villa and then go on to beat Watford at home. February we can expect the return of Dean Ashton hopefully on the back of finding some confidence from our home victory against Watford. We will now go on a little run beating Charlton away in a valuable 6 pointer and claiming our annual 3 points from Spurs at Upton Park. We will fight Blackburn in a rough encounter at Ewood Park to claim a draw whilst claiming the formalities of a home win vs Boro.

Villa (A) D 1 point
Watford (H) W 3 points
Charlton (A) W 3 points
Spurs (H) W 3 points
Blackburn(A) D 1 point
Boro (H) W 3 points

Our 6 game unbeaten run will come to an abrupt end as Arsenal look to punish us at Cashburden Grove for our streaky win at Upton Park and sealing bragging rights in our final encounter at Highbury. Chelsea will will be all guns blazing at Upton Park in their title bid which will surely end in disappointment for us.

Arsenal (A) L 0 points
Chelsea (H) L 0 points

Another six pointer at Brammal Lane will see the hammers grab a much needed victory before going on to defeat Everton at Upton Park. An away visit to Wigan will see us all but relegate the Latics as we secure our Premiership safety.

Sheff Utd (A) W 3 points
Everton (H) W 3 points
Wigan (A) W 3 points

Our final games of the season against our bogey team Bolton will wield little success and a mauling should be on the cards at Old Trafford.

Bolton (H) L 0 points
Man Utd (A) L 0 points

So you see the glass is half full - now we need to fill it to the top and get out of this mess!

I'm so fucking angry!

I just watched Yossi score two of the best goals and we still didn't win! I just want to rip somebody's head off but quite whose I'm not sure! Graham Poll's would be a start. Very scrappy game which was not refereed well at all. The thing from tring should be fucked off from the Premier League once and for all.

And Curbishley needs to take a look at himself for his team selection. I'm not saying Roy Carroll did badly but why has he dropped one of our best performers of the season?? And where is Paintsil?? Why play Dailly ahead of him? OK so all his substitutions were enforced but is Newton really a preferred substitute than Mullins when Gabbidon goes down injured??

You have to see Yossi's goals - they were awesome. Unfortunately I'd have said we were gonna stay up 10 minutes ago but with luck like this I think we're gonna go down :-(. When the luck is not with you it is very hard - luck breeds confidence and we looked pretty confident in the 2nd half after we'd got ourselves in front but that could be wrecked now. We would have been 1 point off Wigan but now we are 3 which is tragic and undeserved.

Just to mention in addition to his 2 goals Yossi also made a goalline clearance in the 91st minute! Good to have you back Yossi.

Here's some Youtube highlights

They equalised deep into injury time. We led 2-1 & 3-2. Zamora sent off. Several injury worries.

Gutted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team News

Carroll
Dailly - Collins - Gabbidon - McCartney
Benayoun - Quashie - Reo-Coker - Boa-Morte
Cole - Tevez

bench - Spector,Newton,Mullins,Zamora

No place on bench for Teddy or Marlon

Carroll instead of Green is madness. I don't care he conceded 6 last game or not.

Surely Noble did enough to hold his spot or at least on the bench...so much for Quashie having to earn his place.

Curbs places high importance on experience doesn't he, persisting with Dailly :(

Happy with Tevez & Cole up front.

I was feeling positive about 3 points until seeing the team sheet. Very nervous now.

Fans of the Academy of Football love a good passing game, of course, so I thought some of you might be interested to read this. Les Murray (of SBS fame) has recently penned a good article about this style of play and related it to the recent successes of the New Zealand Knights. While not directly relevant to West Ham, it's a pretty good summary...but I'd sure like to get back to winning ways, long term...

Not a passing phase - Les Murray

Ricky Herbert, coach of the revitalised New Zealand Knights, on a recent edition of The World Game program, explained the technical transition that took the Knights to two straight wins under his guidance, including an away shock against Sydney FC.

“I told them that we have to dictate play if we are to get results,” he said.

It’s a simple, maybe even obvious thing to tell players but there is something of substance in those words. For ‘dictate play’ read holding on to the ball, possess it and do something with it. That is, do precisely what the Knights have not been doing for the best part of two seasons, during which they have been mostly losing.

Johann Cruyff once or twice said, in a quip of the bleeding obvious, that you can’t win or score goals without the ball. It was not one of those classic Colemanballs, a dumb slip of the football tongue we love to laugh at. It was simple football wisdom, condemning the opposing ideology, which disdains ball possession and technique and suggests the only way forward is to thump it forward.

The Knights’ quick-fire metamorphosis from chronic losers to some kind of winners is at the core of a debate that has been recently simmering among observers of the A-League.

On one side of this debate are the noisy critics of the league’s technical quality, those who suggest (me among them, I confess) that too many teams and their way of playing are characterised by blood and thunder in the absence of finesse and brain.

On the other are the contented, for whom a weekly war of muscle and sweat is good theatre and is all the entertainment the comp needs to win hearts and minds and ‘build its brand’.

What defines ‘entertainment’, of course, is strictly in the eye of the beholder and there is legitimacy to both sides of the argument.

It has been said, for instance, that the Australian sporting culture, honed on the rugged, bruising pastimes of rugby league and Aussie Rules, is preconditioned to look for similar qualities in all sports, including football, before it is prepared to be entertained.

This line immediately throws up a puzzle and a paradox: why for instance is cricket, a game of grace, skill, elegance and tactical intellect, and of no physical contact, so immensely popular in the same Australia that so readily gets off on the chaotic mêlées that characterise sports in which the oval ball is the medium of contest?

Why, in the same Australia, are golf and tennis such princely of sports? Why is Greg Norman still such a deity here for being able to steer a sphere sweetly to a target like few others could before him? Why do Australian crowds flock for a glimpse of Roger Federer, he who manipulates a round ball, deftly, as though his racquet is part of his anatomy? Why is Rod Laver, he of the soft drop volley, astute lob and graceful stroke play, still such a legend in a land where, we are told, machismo reigns and anything different is for limp-wrists and pansies?

The answer, one has to suspect, has to do with achievement. Australians, like most others, are partial to achievers. That is what entertains them. Winning reigns.

But there is also the way of winning that matters to them. A serve-and-volley slammer, lacking in touch, will always be an also-ran for Australians, inferior, compared to a Ken Rosewall whose small frame could rise to heights of fancy due to the subtlety and accuracy of his strokes.

In this Australians are not unique and no different to others. To suggest that Australians disdain skill, elegance and style in sport, in preference to some kind of singular yen for bloody bruising and thumping is inaccurate and silly in the extreme.

Winning is good, but winning with style and aplomb is even better.

But that is the subjective matter of what defines entertainment. More importantly, this debate should extend also to what is best of those two ways of playing in order to win, a matter that is not subjective.

Recently a viewer wrote to me suggesting I had blinkered views on this topic, implying that, in my view, ‘entertaining soccer is about stringing passes together even when players are under no real pressure’.

In his view entertainment comes from ‘fast, skilful, attack minded football where fans can see a genuine commitment to winning the ball and moving forward.’ No argument with that. But moving forward how?

He added: ‘That is why crowds are consistently strong in the UK’’

He’s wrong. Attendances might be high in the EPL but they are highest at games involving Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, all of whom play what in this debate we call a ‘passing game’, never give the ball away by aimlessly thumping it forward, and, critically, win most things.

These are teams that play with high levels of velocity and mobility, but always with intelligence, crisp, accurate passes, mostly on the floor, put together by players of tactical intelligence and optimal technique.

It’s the entertaining way, but it is also the winning way.

Indeed, nothing is more foolish than the proposition that the ‘passing game’ and the winning game are somehow mutually exclusive. It’s rubbish.

Few teams in football’s history have ever won anything by rejecting the ‘passing game’. A good example is Arsenal, which shed its ‘boring Arsenal’ tag after Arsene Wenger arrived, created a team that actually passed the ball and the Gunners suddenly began collecting trophies.

One can lump in to this argument all World Cup winners, including even the England of 1966 which, although it played ‘route one’, knew how to pass accurately. Few sights were sweeter than a long ball by Bobby Moore from deep, sailing with slide-rule accuracy on to the head of Geoff Hurst or Roger Hunt.

But what exactly is the ‘passing game’?

Actually it’s not rocket science. Just look at how easily Ricky Herbert made the correction with a bunch of players, which at best, could be described as modest in ability.

Gary Van Egmond, the Newcastle Jets coach, gave a clue when he said prior to the recent game against the Mariners that because of the bumpy pitch, on which short passing was risky, there might be more of a case for playing the ball ‘up the channels’, ie a diversion from the Jets’ renown ‘passing game’.

Playing the ball up the channels means playing the ball forward, usually long, either on the flanks or through the middle, in preference to securing possession by playing it short to a team mate, on the floor, forward, sideways or even backwards.

But it was not a successful ploy. Ironically the lone goal that won the Jets the game was the result of a crisp, short-passing move, finished off by Milton Rodriguez. Attempts to play the ball up the channels, by both the Jets and the Mariners, came to nothing.

It’s simple, and maybe my viewer correspondent needs to be drawn some pictures.

In the ‘passing game’ when a player has the ball in midfield or deep in his area, under challenge from an opponent and with the ‘channels’ blocked, he will not thump it forward in hope but will play a pass, to an unmarked team-mate. He will play it short, forward, sideways or even backwards, for playing the ball back, rather than stupidly hoofing it forward, is a lot smarter, and safer, then recklessly giving it away.

In this way ball possession is retained and eventually a way is found, provided there is intelligent movement off the ball, via team mates in space who can conjure a scoring opportunity.

That is all there is to it. A bit more of a thinking game but it’s simple, a mixture of short, accurate passing and optimum movement by players off the ball. And you don’t have to have ten Ronaldinhos to execute it.

It’s the essence of how the world’s most successful teams play or at least forage an attack, including how Guus Hiddink had the Socceroos doing it during his short reign.

And, getting back to a previous theme, it entertains. That is why pockets of Knights fans were chanting ‘ole ole’ as New Zealand galloped to its 3-1 victory in Auckland over Queensland, and found a new way. They found a way to an upper hand, to dictate the game.

According to Skysports Arsenal right back Lauren is currently in talks with Curbishley and is expected to sign for West Ham. I think Lauren wll be a good addition to the squad and will be a solid right back that we don't seem to have established since the departure of Tomas Repka.

* Eggy has denied we are bidding for Freddie Ljungberg.

** Again according to skysports Fulham have hijacked our bid for Alexey Smertin and he will sign for them in the next few hours.

Curbishley has made another signing - not Alexey Smertin, nor Alexei Sayle, but Nigel Quashie from the Baggies. The 28-year-old midfielder has signed a 3.5 year deal for 1.5 million (which will be 1.75 million if we avoid relegation or get re-promoted while he plays for us.. if that makes any sense).

"We've signed Nigel because he is an experienced player who will add competition to our central midfield positions," quoth the Curbs. "I have not promised him anything in terms of first team football - he will have to earn it like the rest of the players - but he brings vast experience to the club and has shown me that he is eager and hungry to do everything he can to help us. I want to reiterate that new players coming in doesn't mean I've got to let people go. The competition for places is a factor that will be important to us as we fight to move up the table, and it's up to every member of the squad to prove that they deserve to be in the starting line-up."

*******************

We have drawn Watford at home in the next round of the FA Cup. This is a good draw for us and gives us a chance to move ahead.

In a short media conference after the Brighton game where no questions were allowed Curbishley used his time to have a pot shot at the press.

He defended NRC saying he was 'outraged' at the criticism he had received and that it was nonsense to suggest he was the reason we were in the bottom three. He implored everyone connected with West Ham to 'leave him alone'

His other bug bear with the press was the way they screwed his words around a couple of days ago to make it sound like he was blaming the summer signings for our problems. He said he was merely pointing out that they had not established themselves in the team (with the exception of Green) and that he intended to sign experienced players in the January window who could step straight into the team and do a job for him straight away.

He said I'd like you to print that and that is the end of my press conference.

Read the full spiel at Knees Up Mother Brown.

It would have been interesting to here the answer to the question the Sunday Times said they would have asked if allowed. "In that case, why wasn't Reo-Coker even on the substitutes’ bench yesterday? (after rumours that West Ham did not want him to be cup-tied in case they decided to sell him.)"

[Insert lame joke about giant-killers West Ham]

OK, now that the funny part is over, I'm sure I'm not the only one who is hugely relieved. I was really worried about this game but we got through, not quite with a second-string side but with some players who wouldn't normally be first choice.

Academy hotshot Mark "Gerrard II" Noble played from the start and scored his first competitive goal for the club. Good onya laddie.

NRC didn't play as he would be cup-tied if he had... Or maybe he's just crap.

Boa Morte made his debut and made an impact, crossing for the first two goals, while Tevez was also influential.

Cole scored the second and Muggers the third.

A good sign, keep it up boys!

In other news, ex-Academy graduate Izzy Iriekpen helped his League One club Swansea overcome Sheffield United 3-0 - take that, Warnock!

According to Skysports he is expected to sign a 2 year deal today.

Go Curbs!

29 year old winger Luis Boa Morte has become Curbishley's first signing for West Ham, from Fulham for an undisclosed fee (but probably around the 5 million mark). Fulham wanted to keep him but the player wanted to leave, so there you have it. A positive sign for us!

It's a lot of money, but a very good signing, and one we really needed. He should hit the ground running and lift the team. As a "bonus" we keep Etherington as Dave said we would, and I'm very pleased about this.

More to come?

Ok here is our light at the end of the tunnel. Egghead is apparently going to give Curbs 20 Million pounds to spend in the January window instread of the original 15M promised after our embarrasing defeat at the hands of Reading yesterday. Maybe a 6-0 reverse has a silver (or in this case gold) lining.

Please post all transfer rumours and discusion on this thread! :-)

Need I say more????

I want to vomit!

Sell them all!