BB 021

The Number One West Ham United eFanzine! Get it: Online • On Your Mobile • Delivered

David Gold on:

Player loyalty & Luis Suarez

Signing another striker

Our summer signings

Breaking into the top 10

& much more

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

WELCOME

Before the first ball was kicked in anger at Upton Parkearlier this month, if anyone had offered me four pointsafter our two opening fixtures I would have gladly taken it.

Given the fact that Cardiff are a newly-promoted side andNewcastle were probably looking to get revenge for ourvictory at St James’ Park last season, I felt we approachedand handled both games very well and we should bedelighted with both performances.

As for the visit of Stoke this weekend, I believe we havethe perfect opportunity to continue our unbeaten run

From what I’ve seen of the Potters so far, they are notthe same side they were a few season’s ago under Pulisand if we can take the game to them from the off, I can onlysee us securing three points.

Looking at this week’s issue and we’ve got anotherexclusive interview with David Gold. This time he has spokento us about player loyalty and why fans should stopworrying about it as well as buying Stewart Downing andhis quest to sign another striker. He also spoke to us aboutScott Parker and the work happening at the OlympicStadium. I’d like to personally thank him for taking the timeout of his busy schedule to meet and talk to me.

Elsewhere, we’ve got a brilliant piece from Colin Steelwho has started a campaign to get the club to name theEast Stand after Billy Bonds as well as another letter toSam Allardyce by Brian Williams. We’ve also got anexclusive chat with the new West Ham Ladies captain BexMerritt and much, much more. Enjoy the game!

EDITOR: David BlackmoreNEWS EDITOR: Alex ShillingCONTRIBUTORS: Colin Steel,Lucy Woolford, Thomas Johnson,Brian Williams, Neil Chatterton,Andrew Hosie, Christian Gare,Bill West, Tim Holland

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES:EMAIL: editor@blowing-bubbles.co.uk

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES:EMAIL: advertising@blowing-bubbles.co.uk

WHERE YOU CAN READ IT:Blowing Bubbles is available tobuy prior to each home gameand is also available to read onyour PC, Mac, Tablet or Mobile.For more information visitwww.blowing-bubbles.co.uk.

TO CONTACT BLOWINGBUBBLES:Email: editor@blowing-bubbles.co.uk

Blowing Bubbles is published by BarkingDog Media. Blowing Bubbles is acompletely independent publication. Theviews expressed within Blowing Bubblesare not necessarily those of the publishers.Opinions expressed by companies andindividuals appearing within the magazineare not that of Blowing Bubbles or thepublisher. The publisher accepts no liabilityfrom any action raised in response to anysuch opinions. Readers are stronglyadvised that although we take every careto ensure prices and content, etc, are upto date. It is the responsibility to check withthe advertiser before purchasing ortravelling to view products.No reproduction, either in part or wholeof the magazine is allowed unless writtenconsent is obtained from the publisher.The publisher accepts no responsibility forany actions arising from articles orfeatures or advertisements within thismagazine. Readers are advised to pay bycredit card when ordering goods as theseare regulated under the Consumer Act1974. Debit and charge cards are not.

(c) Blowing BubblesDavid BlackmoreEditor

Ask David Gold whether ornot fans should expect foot-ballers to remain loyal totheir employers and his an-swer is simply for fans to“stop worrying about it”.

The days where footballwas graced with the likes ofTom Finney, Stanley Mat-thews, Bobby Moore, BillyBonds and Matthew Le Tissi-er are no more, West Ham’sjoint chairman claims, andthere is only one person toblame.

“There was a time whenlocal people played for theirlocal clubs but then a personcalled Bosman came alongand messed it all up,” MrGold toldeditor David Blackmore dur-ing an exclusive interview.

“I believe he is solely re-sponsible for loyalty going outof football because it is veryhard for somebody that wasborn and bred in say Senegal,who has never heard of Mil-

ton Keynes or Middles-brough, to come to thiscountry and play footballthousands of miles awayfrom his home while missinghis family and all we talkabout is loyalty. It’s not theirfault; it’s Bosman’s.

“Loyalty in football hasn’tcompletely gone but it’s verylimited today. I’ve got playersat West Ham who will walkover broken glass for theclub but equally I knew play-ers in the past who wouldn’twalk two yards for my club.

“We’ve got to, as fans,move on because the days ofTom Finney and Stanley Mat-thews are gone. The thing toremember is that when youand I die, our children will bethe next generation of fansand their children will be thenext generation of fans ofthis football club. This is theheart and soul of any club.

“Players will come and go,managers will come and go

and even owners will comeand go but generation aftergeneration of fans will contin-ue to support the club andthat is why every football clubtruly belongs to the fans.

“The family tradition goeson and on but things change– even stadiums.

“The only thing that re-mains solid forever is thefans of the football club so weshouldn’t focus too much onplayer loyalty. We have to, asfans, just live the momentbecause football has changedand it is what it is.

“But I promise you they areout there fighting to win. Theywant to win for you, they wantto win for the football cluband they want to win forthemselves because theymight then get to play for thecountry or get a move to helpsecure their financial situa-tion for the rest of their lives– that’s no different to every-one else.”

The Big Interview: David Gold

Player loyalty?Stop worryingabout it!

Asked about the Luis Sua-rez saga which has led tomany columns dedicated toasking if there is any loyaltyleft in the game, Mr Gold con-tinued: “From an owner’spoint of view, you have to tryand make everyone happy.

“We want to make the fanshappy as well as the players,the manager and the board.

“There are some playersout there who I would neverwant to play for my footballclub but I have to take intoaccount the feelings of boththe board and the fans.

“You have a responsibilityto all these people and alsothe reputation of the footballclub is very important but it isvery difficult to sit here andcriticise the Suarez situationbecause it could happen tome in the future.

“You can’t say if I was atLiverpool and I had the Sua-rez situation I would do thisand that because there are100 elements to the debatethat we aren’t aware of andwithout that information it isvery hard to stand as judgeand jury.”

Moving onto how he felt thesummer has gone for WestHam from his point of view,Mr Gold said: “It’s been a bitof a problem in the sensethat we made a record sign-ing but fans haven’t reallybenefited from it becausethey already had Andy Carrollso the fact we converted hisloan into a six year contracthasn’t really changed any-thing.

“You make the club’srecord signing but it hasn’thad the impact for the fans

that you would get if youbrought in a brand new play-er but to the club and theboard it’s been a massivedeal.”

And asked how the Down-ing deal came about so quick-ly, he continued: “Sam cameto us and said he wantedStewart Downing and thereason it was done quicklywas a number of reasons.

“Firstly Stewart Downingwas happy to move and hap-py to move to a London club.

“Secondly he was happy tomove to a club where he be-lieves he is going to play on aregular basis which wasn’tthe case at Liverpool and

thirdly he is joining his oldteammates in Joe Cole andAndy Carroll.

“From our point of view, hecan play either right or lefthand side which is good be-cause we can switch himbackwards and forwards withJarvis and he is a quality play-er. It was also quite clear, inmy opinion, that he wasn’t inBrendan Rogers’ plans andLiverpool want to reducetheir wage bill because of thenew wage restraint rule andthis was an opportunity whichsuited them.”

He continued: “I’m thrilledwith the fact we’ve brought inAndy Carroll and Stewart

Downing and I’m delighted webrought in the experience ofan international left back inRasvan Rat.

“I think it’s great we’ve alsogot a ‘keeper in Adrian who ishighly regarded and in thefew minutes I saw him play inpre-season, I could see he is avery commanding young manwith a bright future.

“But the fans will say, and Isympathise with them on thisargument, that we need astriker. We need a striker toplay when Andy Carroll is in-jured or suspended but it’shard to get a quality centreforward when you are saying‘Centre forward required. Notto play but to sit on the benchand maybe get a couple of

games when Andy’s injuredor suspended’.

“There were a number ofplayers who wouldn’t join uson the basis that they eitherhad to play wide right and bea back-up centre forward orsit on the bench. What wehave got to hope is that someof the younger players com-ing through become that sup-porting striker.

“The bottom line is no strik-er of any quality wants to siton the bench so that’s beenvery hard for us and that’swhy we made the decision togo for a quality player in Stew-art Downing.”

Looking ahead to the sea-son and Mr Gold said therewas “no doubt” in his mind

that the squad is strongerand hopes the boys in claretand blue can break into thetop 10.

“Last season I think weover performed and we wereflattered with our 10th finishand I think that’s being realis-tic,” Mr Gold said. “But thisseason if we finish 9th I willbe absolutely thrilled.

“There are people who aresaying we can do better thanthat but equally you can havea bad run of injuries and youcould find yourself struggling.Having said that I think thesquad is stronger this seasonso I think we are more capa-ble of coping with injuries andsecuring our Premiership

status compared to last sea-son.

Mr Gold also denied therewas any chance Scott Parkercould make a return to WestHam before he signed for Ful-ham. He said: “There were notalks with Scott. I think itwould have been very difficultfor him to return.

“We wished him well whenhe left and we understood hewas leaving because of hisinternational career and Idon’t think Scott Parkerwould want to return to WestHam.”

Asked about what work willhappen at the Olympic Stadi-um over the next year, MrGold continued: “Work will goahead to ensure the roof ison in time for the RugbyWorld Cup in 2015 which willbe a great opportunity for allof us to go see the roof.

“The seating is currentlybeing worked on off site andthen will be brought in hugechunks like a Meccano setand put together. There isalso work going on at thepark itself. I was there a fewdays ago and there’s workgoing on all the time.

“The thing is this isn’t justgoing to be a stadium, it’s go-ing to be a place where youcan say ‘Look guys let’s meetat 11am’ and there are 100different combinations youcan do in that wonderfulplace.”

He added: “The only thingthat’s pressing at the mo-ment from our point of view isto ensure that we are astrong Premier League foot-ball club when we move tothe Olympic Stadium.”

If you are young enough toremember the 70s and early80s when cup finals were 10a penny for West Ham, thenyou would have beenfortunate enough to haveseen William Arthur 'Billy'Bonds in his prime.

Arguably West Ham'smost influential player of alltime, you knew that whereveryou were watching WestHam, at home or abroad, thatBonzo would give nothing lessthan 100 per cent once hepulled on that shirt.

Billy Bonds MBE will be 67in September. He spent 27years as a player andmanager at West Hammaking a record 793 firstteam appearances over 21seasons - 10 of those ascaptain. He is the only WestHam captain to lift the FACup twice and won Hammerof the Year four times in1971, 74, 75 and 87. Hewas also runner-up threetimes in 1969, 70 and 88.

I have been banging onWest Ham's door abouthonouring Bill since 2006when I asked if he would beguest of honour for the FACup final at Cardiff.

No-one at West Ham hadeven given him a thought,instead Billy went to a familybirthday party on the day andpresented the FA Trophy toGrays at Upton Park the dayafter.

All requests were falling ondeaf ears for years but I nowfeel that we are gettingsomewhere. In February Iwent to a ceremony markingthe 20th anniversary of

Bobby Moore's tragic death,which was held at the statueopposite the Boleyn.

It was a bitterlycold Sunday morning butDavid Gold, Martin Petersand Bobby's daughter andgrandchildren turned up.

Phil Bayles from ITVLondon News was thereinterviewing fans and I toldhim it was a shame that nocurrent players were there topay their respects and that Ihope West Ham do not leaveit too late to honour BillyBonds as they did withBobby.

Later that evening my rantabout the current playersmade the news but they cutout the bit about Bill. I wascontacted by a number ofpeople who had seen me andI decided to give the BillyBonds Stand idea anothershot and got many people totweet David Gold that evening.

Two weeks later WestHam announced the LifetimeAchievement Award forBonzo - this may have beenplanned for months but itencouraged me to get movingagain and a month later I met

Colin Steel

Let’s giveBilly thehonour hedeserves

David Gold at his book signingat Upton Park.

I hung around until the endknowing that would be mychance to have my say and,fair play to the co-chairman,he listened and agreed withme that Bondsey kept theteam going for years.

I suggested that the EastStand should be renamed theBilly Bonds Stand for threeyears until we went toStratford. David Gold agreedand promised to think aboutit.

Personally I have beengoing to West Ham since the1964/65 season with myfirst game being a 0-0 drawagainst Leicester with GordonBanks playing in goal forLeicester.

Like the majority of WestHam fans it's in the blood.Along with my three sons, my

brother and his two sons -we're all just carrying on afamily tradition that goesback to before the 1923 FACup final.

In all those near 50 years, Ihave never seen a player thatinspires and leads by exampleas much as Billy Bonds.

In his early days at rightback he sent many a leftwinger - including GeorgeBest - over the Chicken RunWall and it would be poeticjustice that the same standbe named after him.

The comments we aregetting on our Twitter pagehave been fantastic and Billlooks like he was a hero tomany.

They say that you shouldnever meet your heroes andbefore I met Bill about fiveyears ago I was worried that Iwas doing the wrong thing,

but Bill was just what Iexpected - an old school,unassuming, modest,thoroughly decent man.

West Ham fans are aspecial breed and really knowour history, we are Moorethan just a football club.

The fans are rarely wrongabout players. Having saidthat I'm not sure if 6'2" Billhas eyes of blue or brown(but then again Ludo comesfrom the Czech Republic andthat's 1,000 miles fromMoscow!)

Please support us and signour Twitter campaign andlet's give Billy Bondsthe recognition that hethoroughly deserves.

Follow us on Twitter:@billybondsstand

Dear Sam,

Great start to the seasonwith that win over Cardiff, BigFella! But I hope you've se-verely reprimanded thoseplayers who forgot the sys-tem and tried a spot of illicitpassing?

That young Noble was theworst offender – you're goingto have to have a word withhim before he gets ideasabove his station.

Cutting out their full-backwith slide-rule precision? Aninch-perfect crossfield ball?Where does he think he is –Barcelona?

Luckily Ginge kept his head,though, and didn't try any ofthat Continental rubbish.

Now there's a lad whoknows how to put his laces

through the ball. Good onhim, I say.

In James Collins, my friend,you truly have an Iron with ahoof.

Still, while I think of it, youmight like to warn City Air-port of the kick-off time forthe Stoke game – low-flyingaircraft won't want to be any-where near the BoleynGround while that's inprogress.

Anything below 30,000ft isin danger of being broughtdown by a ball played into thechannels (or maybe playedinto THE Channel if Collinsgives it any more welly whenwe're facing south).

How are things your end?I'm still not getting any emailsfrom you. I've had anotherword with our techies, and

now they're saying it's alldown to some sort of cyberterrorism.

According to them, ourplace has come under attackfrom an outfit called the Syri-an Electronic Army, and allthe servers are down.

Between you and me Sam,I reckon that's a serious pork-ie. We've got more chance ofbeing attacked by the ElectricLight Orchestra than a bunchof poor sods from Syria whothink themselves lucky if themains is up and running inDamascus for more than acouple of hours a day.

But that's the trouble withthese computer monkeys –they'll tell you anything ratherthan get their hands dirty.

They're not like you and me,eh? Most of 'em have neverdone a hard day's work intheir lives!

They go to some fancy uni-versity, get a degree in IT, andthen the best they come upwith is telling you to switch offyour computer round theback and give it a few min-utes before logging on again.

Funny thing is, my mateAngela is getting emails fromyou – and she's never setfoot inside Upton Park in herlife.

The closest she ever gotwas the West Ham shop inLakeside when she boughtme the Santa gnome forChristmas a couple of yearsago, yet she's treated like roy-alty.

I've been supporting theHammers for 50 years, and Idon't get a dickie bird fromyou. Now I'm not one to com-

Dear Sam: Brian Williams

plain, but that doesn't seemright to me.

Not that I'm blaming youpersonally. I'm sure it's atechnical problem and they'llget it sorted out soon.

Meanwhile, I'll keep writingto you as promised.

Would you like my mobilenumber in the meantime?That way, we could keep intouch by text. We could evenhave the occasional chat!

I know you're a busy man,so I'll ring the main office andget them to give me yours.Let me know if there's a badtime to call you.

It was good to see Bonzofinally getting a gong for hisservices to West Ham. If any-one deserves it, he does.What a legend! Nobody men-tioned the fact that he oncesmacked useless Ted Mac-Dougall in the north andsouth, though. He shouldhave got a medal for that!

If you ever find one of yourteams mullered 4-1 and thestriker clearly doesn't give atoss, do what Ron Green-wood did and look the otherway when a rather morecommitted team mate de-cides to point out the error ofhis ways. And they try to tellyou Ron didn't have a clueabout man-management!

Strictly entre nous, who'syour enforcer? My money'son Winston.

Hard to see anyone takingliberties with a nine-foot-threeKiwi who's got eyebrows likethat. Is it true he was makinga living as an Orc in the Lordof the Ring films before wepicked him up in Denmar? I

got that from the brother-in-law, but I don't always knowwhen I should take him seri-ously.

Hope the trip to Newcastledidn't bring back too manypainful memories. For whatit's worth, I think the way theGeordies treated you wasbang out of order. Don't theyrecognise quality footballwhen they see it?

How's Pards enjoying lifewith Mike Ashley, by the way?I trust they didn't try to talkyou into a friendly game ofthree-card brag. My under-standing is that a sessionround the green baize withthose two can get a bit lively.

Still, Mr P has only got tostick it out in the frozen north

for another six years thenhe can come home again.

That'll teach him to goblind while the other bloke'sholding a pryle of threes.

You've got to be happywith a point up there, butthey look like they could be infor a tough season.

Pardew needs to get hisplayers motivated, I reckon.

Perhaps he should remindthem that now they're play-ing with Wonga on theirshirts, 100 per cent effort isno longer enough.

These days, they've got togo out there and give it4,117 per cent.

Be lucky,Your mate behind the goal

The Grumpy G33k@TheGrumpyG33kPleased with our start to theseason, 4pts and two cleansheets is not a bad start! #COYI

David Hales@westhamster2Our big problem is we've gotwidemen who hardly ever scoreand a star striker who's injuryprone with no back up. Gooddefence though

Pinball Wizard@Jenky67West Ham played Newcastle offthe park! If AC was playing itwould have been 3 points forthe Irons! #COYI

Sam Hunt@SHunt_92I'm pleased with a draw today,another point another cleansheet, third in the league after 2games! #coyi

Ben Rose@coyi1895Newcastle has to be 1 of if notthe best away day in a season,great ground bang in the middleof the city and bars near as well.

Cholmondeley@KnoxRoverHow can Hammers be thatdisappointed? Imagine if youcan average two points everygame for a season. Europe.#COYI

Luke Sheppard@LUCINO1014 points. 2 games. No goalsconceded #whatastart #COYI

Cumbrian Hammers@CumbrianHammersGot lucky at the end there butCollins and Reid best playerson the pitch for us! Second halfMaiga might as well went off#COYI

Vans Braddock-Mead@VansbmNothing wrong with a cleansheet and a point. Solid startand something to build on

James May@JimMay89Would have loved to win thatbut 4 points from first 2games is a top start. Lookingvery solid, just need a bit moregoing forward

Bygones@Bygones_TorquayWill take an away point evenagainst a poor Newcastle#westham #COYI

Chicago Hammers@ChicagoHammersA decent point on a rainy dayat Newcastle. Thought wewould push for more but agood result #COYI

Howard Webster@AitchwebWest Ham still well on coursefor Champions League footballnext season!

Bones4624@Bones4624To be honest 4 points out of 6and two clean sheets, think wecan all be happy with that

Dan Springate@dcsWHUFCTwo clean sheets in a row is abig positive. Defence lookedsolid throughout, still disagreewith the Downing substitution.#COYI

Twitteraction

There was delight on the wonderful world of Twitter at ourperformance away at Newcastle United last weekend with somefans disappointed we didn’t take all three points. Here are whatsome of our followers tweeted after the game

@bl0wingbubbles

Say it quietly but West Hamcould be targeting a place inthe Europa League in the nexttwo or three seasons. But weshould be very cautious as tonot rush our return toEuropean football.

Firstly the ways in whichthe club could gain entry intoEurope could disrupt ourPremier League season. Justlook at both Wigan andBirmingham who went on cupruns winning the FA Cup andthe League Cup, respectively,only to be relegated at theend of the season.

Every fan would love a cuprun but there are risks, withthe Premier League ever-emerging as the powerhouseof British football, to thedetriment of the cups It takesits toll on a squad, and itcould affect our leagueperformances.

As co-chairman David Goldsaid in Blowing Bubbles Issue#19: “I fear of the dangers ofthe Europa League on afledging Premiership club.”

He says “fledging” becausewe must remind ourselvesthis is just our second seasonback in the Premier Leagueso whilst optimism breathesconfidence into the club, it isone that should be wrappedin cautionary cotton wool.

Teams in a similar situationto ourselves, Newcastle andStoke, proved that playingThursday night football had aserious impact on the playingsquad and leagueperformances.

The St James’ Park sidewe have just faced finished

16th at the end of lastseason where they spent thefirst few months in theEuropa League, and faced areal threat of relegation forsome time, whilst Stoke Cityfinished 14th in theircampaign featuring Europeanfootball.

At this current time we donot have a squad capable ofplaying three games a week,Big Sam cannot affordinjuries to our key players andit is well known that he feelsthe club’s priorities lie inremaining in the PremierLeague and building on lastseason’s impressivecampaign.

European football wouldnot be a completely bad thingof course. Fans would flock tothe East End fo night timeperformances, with thepossibility of playing againsttop sides from Italy, Spainand Germany.

Fulham proved that theEuropa League can be ablessing to a mid-table side.

There’s no doubt that theCraven Cottage side enjoyedtheir run to the final, beatingthe likes of Juventus,Hamburg and ShakhtarDonetsk before just losing outto Atletico Madrid in the final.

In the summer time theclub have done well inimproving the quality of thesquad, Downing, Carroll, Ratand Adrian bring in goodexperience and great abilityso an improvement on lastseason’s 10th placed finishmust be in the pipeline.

A good season for WestHam would be finishingaround 8th and a cup run,but talk of going for Europemay be too much too soonfor Big Sam’s Claret and BlueArmy.

Follow me on Twitter@SoundOfVinyl

Thomas Johnson

The perils of Europe

As a West Ham fan, BexMerritt always speaks of herpride at pulling on the claretand blue every Sunday toplay for the West HamLadies.

So it was little surprise theforward beaming from earto ear when she met

editor DavidBlackmore after it wasannounced she was tocaptain her side this season.

She said: “It was a greatfeeling when I was told I wasgoing to be captain.

“It’s massive for me as aWest Ham fan to be giventhe chance to captain theside and I’m very grateful for

the opportunity and for thenew boss putting faith in me.”

As well as continuing tolead by example on the pitch,Bex hopes her new role willfurther encourage theyounger members of thesquad to come to her withtheir problems.

Bex continued: “I havealways had a few of girlscome to me about things offthe pitch too and I thinkbecause I am one of the olderplayers they come to menaturally for advice so I hopethis continues now I’mcaptain.”

As for pre-season, thingsdidn’t quite go to plan for the27-year-old despite the fact

she started her training a fewweeks before the squad firstmet.

She said: “From my point ofview it wasn’t the bestbecause I missed a couple ofgames during pre-season –one was because I was ill andthe other was with thedevelopment squad to try andget my fitness back – so thefriendly against NottinghamForest earlier this month,which we won 3-0, wasmassive for me.

“It was great to get 90minutes under my belt beforethe Charlton game and It wasa great game against Forestbecause I haven’t playedthem before and I’m not surehow long it has been sincethe club has either – if weeven have.

“Northern teams arealways tough to play againstbecause they are morephysical and play a completelydifferent style of football so itwas good to play in thatgame.”

She added: “Overall, I thinkit was a really good pre-season for the club.

“With the changes inmanagement there were alot of new faces about and wenow have a great medicalstaff but everyone has settledin well.

“Mark [Sanderson, WestHam Ladies manager] hasbeen setting standards for usall pre-season and then whenwe hit them, he ups it again.

“We have had some goodsignings and the squad isreally beginning to gel nowand we are all beginning tounderstand how we all play.”

West Ham Ladies

Picture byMickeyCartwright

Forward is thrivingin new roles

As well as her new role ascaptain, Bex has also beengiven the task of adapting toa new role - a challenge she isthriving on.

She continued: “I haven’tbeen given a goals target thisseason but personally I wouldlike to at least equal my goaltally from last year – I think Igot 15 in all competitions.

“I am, however, playing aslightly different role thisseason which will allow me towander a bit so I won’t beplaying right up top whichcould impact the amount ofgoals I score.

“But I’m really lookingforward to the seasonbecause I think this rolesuites my game better ratherthan playing as the topstriker.”

The Ladies didn’t get off tothe new season off to thebest start last weekend -losing 2-1 away at CharltonAthletic.

But with games at homeagainst Portsmouth andLewes, the Ladies will feelthey have a chance to kicktheir season into full gear.

Bex continued: “AfterCharlton we do have a fewtough games coming up butthere are no games in thisleague that are easy anymorebecause of the introduction ofthe Women’s Super League2 has meant a greater rangeof teams have been broughtinto one league which I thinkwill be better for us.

“I think we play our beststuff when we are playingagainst tougher oppositionrather than games where weare expected to win.

“It will be frustrating if wewin the league this seasonand can’t get promoted tothe WSL until the followingyear but we have a plan as aclub which goes beyond thisseason.

“We will very much betaking this season week byweek and see how we go.

“If at the end of the year weare picking up medals forwinning the league and a cupcompetition than that will bebrilliant and it’ll do wondersfor attracting more players.

“The cups are always greatto take part in because itgives us the chance to seehow far we can go and it’sbrilliant for the squad totravel together and playteams above us or in a

strong position. It also givesus a test to see where weare individually and as ateam.”

And reflecting on how lastseason’s squad compares tothie season’s, she continued:“The difference is we havegot a lot of strength in depthwhich a lot of other women’steams don’t have. At themoment there is a brilliantvibe at the club and everyoneis fighting for the shirt.”

The West Ham Ladies playtheir home games atThurrock FC, Ship Lane,Aveley, Essex, EM19 1YN.They play Portsmouth onSeptember 1 and Lewes onSeptember 8, both at homewith kick off at 2pm

We have many favouritecrowd chants at Upton Parkwith “Bubbles” of coursebeing our favourite and mostfamous.

We have funny ones, cruelones, player specific ones andeven ones to declare our lovefor all West Ham. So, whatare we missing? A chant forour manager.

Last week I sent out atweet that gained mixedreaction. The tweet inquestion read: “Man Utd hadthe same manager for 20years yet still sing Moyes'name before he's doneanything. Shouldn't we singAllardyce's name by now?”

I had a few retweets, andfew favourites and a fewnegative return tweets.

First game of the season,David Moyes has proved

nothing (no, CommunityShield doesn’t count). He’smade no transfers andmanaged no Premier Leaguegames, but fans who haveworshipped the bestmanager in the world for thelast 20 years have still movedon.

It doesn’t matter who theirmanager is, the importantthing is that he’s theirmanager, and they need to beon his side for success.

I’m really not sure whywe’re not singing Allardyce’sname week in week out.

How many other teams arethere that don’t even mentiontheir manager’s name in achant?

If there are some, we asfans probably hate them andcall them miserable (orwords to that effect).

In two seasons, Big Samhas won us promotion andgot us to the top half of thePremier League, that’s worthsinging about, right?

The last time we really gotbehind a manager, we weresinging “Alan Pardew’s claretand blue army” and shouldPards return, we’d probablyput on our rose tinted specsand sing it again.

I can understand why wenever really got to grips withchanting Avram Grant orGianfranco Zola’s names,because they didn’t reallymake any impact and only hadtheir foot in the door beforethey were turfed out again.

But Allardyce has earnedthe right to hear his nameringing round Upton Park.There’s only a few more yearsleft there, it’d be a shame to

Lucy Woolford

BigSam’sClaretandBlueArmy

not be proud of everything wehave inside those stands andto let every set of away fansknow about it.

I’m not for a secondsuggesting that everyoneshould love Allardyce like noother manager and claim thathe is the be all and end all, Iknow that’s never going tohappen.

I just think that he deservessome respect and love. Somemight think that “We play onthe floor” counts as amanager chant - it doesn’t.That just satisfies thearmchair managers amongstus.

As for the argument thatour manager has anunfortunate name that won’tfit easily into a tune, I beg todiffer. Unlike Alan Curbishley,there are options for our manin charge now.

There’s “Allardyce’s claretand blue army”, “We are BigSam’s claret and blue army”,or even play-off final favourite“Allar-Allar-Allardyce”.

Maybe poor Sam suffersfrom the fan consensus thatno one is good enough for thisclub if his name isn’t Paolo DiCanio.

One day in the future, it willbe great to be able to singthat from the stands in theknowledge that he is incharge, but the reality is he’snot our manager, neither ishe ready to be our manager.

We can’t keep sulking bywithholding our tuneful praisefor a man who is reallyenjoying his managerialcareer with the Hammers.

This isn’t the first appeal ofthis nature by a Blowing

Bubbles writer. You mayrecall an article last year thatasked that fans sing for ourmanager.

Next season, there will beanother article asking for thesame unless we all just jointogether to sing for Sam. Infact, that’s the hashtag -#singforsam.

Make today the day. Let’slet the Stoke fans know who’sthe boss, and moreimportantly who’s the WestHam boss.

Follow me on Twitter@lucy_whufc

Who Are Ya?@king1416Gonna be a long journey homeup the M4 for them Cardiff fanslol! Welcome to the PremierLeague Cardiff #GoingDown

Bygones@Bygones_TorquayGreat start to the seasonthought we looked comfortable,still a forward light even withCarroll fit #COYI

West Ham Dan@danwhufcfleminBrilliant opening day win for themighty hammers! #COYI

Ed Harris@EdHarris_We are top of the league, saywe are top of the league #BPL#topoftheleague #COYI#WHUFC

James Robert Page@Pageyyy3Good team performance.Downing looked good when hecame on. Diame was my MoM.Good finishes from J Cole andNolan #COYI

Tom Edwards@Tom_Edwards1997Good win today was promisingdowning jarvis and Carroll onthe same pitch will be veryexciting good for nolan toscore and JC was top.

Michelle Winters@Michellewin99I want to really thank Liverpoolfor AC Joe Cole and StuartDowning. Sorry you lost over35 million but it was to a goodcause WHU thanks

West Ham Transfers@westhamtransferWest Ham played 1 = 3 pointsjoint topMillwall played 3 = 0 pointsBOTTOM!

Las Vegas Hammers@LasVegasHammersSo pleased to see the GreatBilly Bonds honoured at UptonPark today, Mr West Ham!They don't make em like himanymore. #whu

Cumbrian Hammers@CumbrianHammersNow that’s what you call a niceteam goal! Who said WestHam can't play good footballlong ball team my a***

ExWHUemployee@ExWHUemployeeThought Downing looked classwhen he came on and thinkwith him supplying a fit AC weare in for a good season.Defence very solid too #coyi

John Tomlin@johnnytomo05The cameo from Downing tellsme we can be a threat awayfrom home this season he'space and will to beat he's manwill be great

Slaphead@michaelsearle21Downing owned the right wingwhen he came on today, ACwill have a field day when he'sback! #coyi

Jason Holmes@JasonTomHolmes1Great result this weekendBring on Newcastle!

Twitteraction

Following our opening day victory against Cardiff, the wonderfulworld of Twitter was awash with praise for the team’sperformance and delight at Stewart Downing’s debut. Here arewhat some of our followers tweeted after the game

@bl0wingbubbles

Last season, it is fair to say,West Ham were quite simplydire away from home.

Over 70 per cent of ourpoints came at home lastseason and we scored fewergoals away from home thanany other team in England.

It is clear that our awayform has got to improve thisyear as we cannot solely relyupon our performances atUpton Park again. Perhaps achange in tactics will achievethis.

Throughout the transferwindow West Ham havebeen linked with a fair fewstrikers: Remy, Hooper,Vydra, Cardozo and, morerecently, Fabio Quagliarellaand Roger Rojas.

It is clear that theseplayers will be playing secondfiddle to Andy Carroll (whenhe is fit) as Sam Allardycegenerally plays a 4-2-3-1formation with Carroll as thelone striker. Some of theplayers are big names and Ipersonally cannot see themwanting to come to WestHam if they are going towarm the bench.

Furthermore, the majorityare also small goal scorersrather than target men.Therefore I believe that it iswithin West Ham’s awaystrategy that they shouldmainly be implemented.

Seeing as we have beenheavily linked withQuagliarella, I will use him asthe example.

At Upton Park I wouldcontinue with the 4-2-3-1formation: on our thin pitch itworks a charm with Carroll

up front and I believe it wouldhave a similar effect evenwith the smaller striker.

However away from home Iwould switch it to a 3-5-2formation with this as thelineup: Jussi, Reid, Collins,Rat, Jarvis, Noble, Diame,Downing, Nolan, Carroll,Quagliarella.

With the three at the backit will give us more flexibilityup front and also more of adanger, especially on thebreak. In some away games itmay well backfire and we endup letting in three or fourgoals, however I believe thatthe increase in goalsconceded will be offset by thegoals we will score againstthe teams around us.

Furthermore it doesn’tleave us that vulnerable atthe back because Jarvis andDowning can both play aswingbacks. Most importantly

our front three look incrediblydangerous; Nolan and Carrollalways play well together andthe second striker (in thiscase Quagliarella) would havea field day, latching ontoCarroll’s knock downs; it’s anattack that has goals writtenall over it.

If needs be and we are oneor two goals to the good thenwe can return to the 4-2-3-1to hold on to a lead,something which I feel muchless anxious about underAllardyce than under pastWest Ham managers.

Most importantly, what inessence it will do is changeour mindset of going into anaway game desperately tryingto maintain the clean sheet.

We would approach it froma more attacking and, quitehonestly, positive view and Ithink it would genuinely helpus to win more away games.

Christian Gare

3-5-time-2changeawayfromhome

How do you rate Stokes’sstart to the season and preseason?

We had a pre-season tourof the USA which went well –two wins and loss as well asa win at Wrexham and adraw against Genoa. Itcould’ve been better andcould’ve worse but ultimatelyit has set us up for what willbe a mediocre season and adefeat in our first gameagainst Liverpool was alwayson the cards.

Tony Pulis has beenreplaced by Mark Hughes.What are your thoughts onthe appointment?

I think Tony was a greatservant to the club for many

years and our transformationto a Premier League clubwas down to him but I thinkhis time was up. A lot of fanswanted a new direction butI’m not sure we’re going toget that with Mark Hughes. Itdoesn’t feel like the mostinspiring appointment.

Hughes has made a couplesummer signings includingyour namesake Erik Pietersand Marc Muniesa. Howhave they settled in andhave they improved oursquad?

Given our recent transferpolicy, I thought it might havebeen me who’d been signed!I’ve taken quite a ribbing frommates about the Erik Pieterssigning but in fairness he

looks a really good player.Marc Muniesa is a youngdefender from Barcelonawith a lot of potential. I’m alsoexcited about Juan Agudelo,the U.S.A forward we’ve goton a pre-contract agreement.Overall the signings haveimproved the squad but westill need a few more faces.

What other area of thesquad do you think Stokeshould improve in thesummer?

Last season we needed agoal scorer and unfortunatelythat hasn’t changed.Hopefully Juan Agudelo willbe that player.

Jermaine Pennant left theclub and was re-signed by

Opposition View: Stoke City

Tim Hollandspeaks to EricPeters, StokeCity fan andBritanniaStadium seasonticket holder,aboutuninspiring MarkHughes, signinga namesake andOwen retiring

Hughes. Do you think this islast chance at the club?

In a word, yes. I wassurprised to see us re-signhim given his performanceslast season but if Hughes hasseen something in him andcan get him to up his gamethen we have to trust him.

Michael Owen retired in thesummer. Was that a blowfor Stoke?

In another word, no. Hecontributed very little lastseason and it was good to gethim off the wage bill especiallywith the new regulationscoming in.

With the arrival of JackButland in January have youbeen surprised that AsmirBegovic hasn’t been soldthis summer?

I thought that was Tony’splan for this summer but it alldepended on Asmir wantingto go which he didn’t. JackButland is still young and willbe our number one in yearsto come.

Who should West Ham fansbe wary of?

Peter Crouch can causeproblems for defenders andso can Walters (as long as hedoesn’t take a penalty!).Kightly has also been in goodform in pre season.

Which West Ham playersstand out for you?

I’ve always been a fan ofAndy Carroll - he reminds meof a good Crouch! Other thanthat I like Winston Reid andam surprised one of the bigteams hasn’t come in forhim.

Last season you predictedthat Stoke would finish 10thand West Ham would slip to15th. What is yourprediction for this season?

I think we’ll be 14th and you’llfinish 12th.

Questions over MobidoMaiga’s ability to lead the linewhen Andy Carroll is injuredhave been posed many timesover the transfer window.

This question also may beirrelevant amid rumors thatthe Mali International may beshipped off before thetransfer window shuts, withclubs in France reportedlyinterested.

Many have doubted histalent because of hisperformances last year but Ithink this is unfair, Last yearSam played Maiga out ofplace a lot of the time, havinghim play on the wings.

There is nothing worsethan a player being playedout of position if he does notenjoy the position.

However Maiga manytimes has been quoted to

look like a headless chickenand lack composure in frontof goal.

Maiga has proven himselfin pre-season and has shownthe claret and blue faithfulglimpses of talent. Forexample his goal againstSouthampton and his pinpoint cross to spot Nolanagainst Reading on the lastday of the season.

Personally I believe weshould have played Maigainstead of Cole.

If you look at Maiga's statshowever, they aren't that bad.He has scored three or fourtimes in pre-season. And inthe league last year hestarted two times andscored two times but hecame on as a sub 15 times. So that's two goals in twostarts.

Also it is two goals in twostarts in the League Cup.

Maiga should be given asecond season at least toprove his worth, after all hecost us around £5 million.Don’t forget it took Parkerabout a year to get in to hisgroove after signing for us inthe summer of 2007.

It does look like we will besigning a new striker but asthings stand, Maiga looks setto be playing the Stokematch.

We all beamed with joy lastseason when we saw Maigatake it round Given and nearlymake it 2-0 on our first dayback. And Neil McDonald hassaid if Maiga wants to provehimself his chances are therethis season.

It would be nice to seeMaiga do well this season.With Carroll likely to remainout for a few more games,what better an opportunity toshow us that he is goodenough.

In terms of covering forCarroll, Maiga certainly hasmore pace and could dribbleor take it round a player ortwo. If he can get on the endof some of the crosses andwork on his finishing I thinkMaiga is adequate enough forcover for big Andy. I would liketo see him stay for at leastanother year.

Follow me on Twitter@All_WHUFC_Fans

For more articles like thisvisit

www.moorethanjustaclub.com

Moore Than Just A Club

Is Maiga good enoughcover for Carroll?

After a decent 0-0 drawagainst Newcastle lastSaturday, the Hammers havea good chance to get anotherthree points against StokeCity in our third league matchof the season.

The Potters are under newmanagement in MarkHughes, having replacedTony Pulis in the summer.

The Staffordshire side willbe confident ahead of thegame at Upton Park aftergetting their first win of theseason against CrystalPalace at the BritanniaStadium, which followed anarrow defeat to Liverpool onthe opening day.

They may have a differentman in the hot-seat, butStoke will still be a test forany side. The 2011 FA Cuprunners-up may not have agreat deal of attackingprowess, but with a centre-back pairing of Robert Huthand Ryan Shawcross, a ball-winner in Steven N’Zonzi anda top-class goalkeeper inAsmir Begovic, they’ll be atough nut to crack for anyside.

Mark Hughes has a lot toprove as a manager after hisdisastrous spell in charge ofQueens Park Rangers. TheWelshman has a decentPremier League record asboth a player and manager,but he will want to rebuild hisreputation that was sodamaged in West London.

But this won’t be easy atStoke, a club that had analarming dip in form in thefinal third of last season,

which ultimately cost TonyPulis his job.

Over the season, Hugheswill probably try and changeStoke’s style of play from adirect team to one that canplay football on the floor. Theidea sounds good but this willtake time.

Tony Pulis tried to changehow Stoke play football inrecent seasons by bringing intechnical players such asCharlie Adam.

But the results didn’t cometo fruition and they ended upreverting back to the triedand tested direct approachthat has served them so well.

The Potters have a decentdefensive unit but theproblem last season wasscoring goals.

They only netted 34 goalsin the Premier League, whichwas the second worst in thedivision after QPR.

Jon Walters was the topPremier League scorer forStoke with eight goals whilePeter Crouch bagged seven.Hughes has signed

defenders Marc Muniesa andErik Pieters, but hasn’tstrengthened in the attackingdepartment, so goals couldbe hard to come by again inthis campaign. As for WestHam, a point was gained onTyneside but it so easily couldhave been three. Kevin Nolanand Stewart Downing bothmissed chances which theywould have buried on anotherday.

The Hammers go into thismatch with a good record athome against Stoke. In fiveprevious Premier Leaguemeetings at Upton Park,Stoke have won on only oneoccasion.

If West Ham are to get intothe top ten this season, weneed to beat teams like Stokeat home.

The finishing needs toimprove from last weekendbut if the wingers get plentyof crosses into the penaltyarea with plenty of supportfrom midfield; we shouldcreate plenty of chances andhopefully a few goals.

Bill West

We must finish better

It's two hours to kick off. Asmattering of claret and blueshirts mingle by the bar,West Ham United coloursare draped over a table infront of a telly showing theearly kick off.

There's an air ofexcitement in the room, ananticipation of what's tocome, a general hubbub ofchat and laughter filling theair.

But this is not a pub onGreen Street. It's not theDuke of Edinburgh, it's notthe Queen's and it's not theBoleyn.

This is Nelson's, a bar3,000 miles away in Dubai,the home of the DubaiHammers Supporters Club.

It's last Saturday, the earlykick off is a rain sodden

Fulham v Arsenal and theDubai Hammers aregathering to watch thematch against Newcastle.

The weather could not beof greater contrast to thedownpour we're seeing onthe TV. Indeed many havearrived in West Ham shirt,casual shorts and flipflops,testament to the 40 degreeheat and 70 per centhumidity outside.

But inside we might as wellbe back in E13.

The Dubai HammersSupporters Club is in itssecond season and hasgrown rapidly since itsinception, now boasting morethan 230 members on itsFacebook page.

It's fully recognised byWest Ham United Football

Club as the officialSupporters Club for theUnited Arab Emirates and therapid growth is entirely downto the efforts of Tony Sutton,Dave Leader and Stuart Bell,who work tirelessly topromote the club week inweek out ensuring theNelson's meets are alwaysmentioned on radio and thelatest gossip and chat isconstantly being updated onFacebook.

Gone are the days, as theywere, when I first arrived inDubai nine years ago, when Ilooked on enviously as friendswho inexplicably followedother Premier League teamswent off to their respectivealehouses and joined their allencompassing rabble onmatch day.

Indeed, people looked atyou quizzically when youmentioned you supported theHammers, but if, lo andbehold, you met someoneelse who was an Iron yougasped in disbelief that youactually weren't the only onein the city.

Now that's all changed,Dubai appears to be teemingwith Hammers fans andthere's a place we can gowhere no-one minds a wholeheap of people wailing "Comeon You Irons' and other suchditties on a Saturday evening.

Indeed, it would appear themanagement of Nelson's areHammers fans too, orsomeone in the managementhierarchy must be, as theDubai Hammers areassigned their own bar staff,their own TV screen (being

Tales from the Sandpit

Bringing theEast End to theMiddle East

upgraded in size in the nextweek or so), chip butties athalf time and a 20 per centdiscount off the bevvies andpre match dinner.

Chuck in the fact you canhave a go at guessing whattime the first goal's scored towin the kitty, East End humourat its best, the gentle ribbingof opposition fans (yes, theyare very welcome), and thewhole match day experienceis given a great East Endsheen.

Incidentally, if no goal isscored (alas, Saturday!) the

kitty is rolled over to thefollowing week and if the firstgoal is scored in the 6th or66th minute the kitty moneyis donated to the BobbyMoore Fund - a nice touch.

So if you ever get to Dubaimake sure you head toNelson's, Media RotanaHotel, on matchdays, (kick off3 hours ahead in summer, 4hours ahead in winter) andjoin the Dubai HammersSupporters Club cheering onthe mighty Irons.

A load of us will be downthere later!

So the Premier League haskicked off, as has NBC’s cov-erage, having taken overfrom Fox Sports and ESPN.

NBC will show three livegames on Saturday, at leasttwo on Sunday and then theMonday game, which is notmuch different from what wehad in the past.

What is different is thatNBC is offering every gamelive via their “NBC Extra” app,and so while watching Arse-nal v Villa on the networkchannel, I was able to watchWest Ham v Cardiff on mytablet. No complaints afterweek number one!

My various football RSSfeeds this week almost mir-ror last week; with the topstories being about transfersin and out, strengtheningsquads before the deadline,which is now only only a fewdays away.

Brendan Rogers is worriedthat Liverpool don’t haveenough depth and Spurs arespending money like water,but probably losing Bale.

Meanwhile Chelsea are stilllooking at Rooney and havebecome late buyers in therace to sign Willian, upstag-ing Spurs in the process.

In Manchester, City loseKompany for a month andare now searching for a re-placement and United arestill interested in buying twoof Everton’s best players.

As I’m reading I comeacross this interestingquote: "If you remember, Isaid I am happy with mysquad but every manager

says we are happy but wealmost want something moreand we never close the door.Before the game I told youthat we had Plan B and PlanC. The point is not to sell; Iwant a 22-man squad. Wedo not need to sell."

Another quote read: "I'vegot no money left, I've got thesquad I've got, so that's it"

And another read: "If thereis to be a new player comingin, we have to sell some play-ers but I'm not looking at do-ing it because I'm happy withthe squad I've got at the mo-ment”

Then I came across thisquote: "(It is) unlikely there will

be any ins or outs, you neversay never, but we're not ac-tively looking for any playersto bring in and we're not ac-tively looking to sell any play-ers either."

And another read: "I'm notanxious about any transferslike a lot of managers willhave because we've done allour business as quick as wepossibly can and I think we'vegot a very good squad.”

Finally I came across thisone: "Other teams arestrengthening their squadsconsiderably and obviouslyspending a lot more thanwe're spending but that'ssomething you just have to

Neil Chatterton

Rewind and play, repeat

deal with as the season goeson. We'll decide whatstrength all the other teamsare once the window isclosed."

Obviously, the differencebetween the first quote andthe rest, is as wide as the gulfis between the two clubs, andmore importantly, the twosquads.

Jose Mourinho has every-thing that Big Sam doesn’t.

Mourinho worries about asquad with so much depth,that playing time, chemistry,egos, wages and expectationsdominate his world. Allardyceon the other hand is broke.

Let’s list the West Hamstarters from last weekend’sgame against Cardiff thatcould start for Chelsea… ex-actly.

So here we are going intothe Stoke game and alreadyknowing that West Ham hasno money left for transfersthis summer, and under-standing that the club willhave sell players in order tobuy.

Last week I had my rantabout the money we spentthis summer versus what oth-er teams did, and also high-lighted the revenue given toWest Ham by the PremierLeague.

It wasn’t my intention tomake this a weekly crusade,but Big Sam’s messageshould be a warning to usfans.

The Premier League sea-son is a marathon, full of upsand downs, but the most im-portant thing to me is depth,and I am not going to pretendthat I am happy, when it’s al-

ready obvious, that unless wehave an injury free season,we are once again going tobe mired in the bottom third.

Carroll, who spent last sea-son on loan at West Ham,became the club-record buywhen he was brought in on apermanent basis fromLiverpool earlier in the sum-mer and he was joined byformer Anfield team-mateDowning. Unfortunately, Car-roll is still injured and will notplay this weekend.

Even though the transferwindow remains open andWest Ham had been linkedwith Juventus forward FabioQuagliarella, Big Sam knowsthat will not be happening.

“It's not frustrating for me,it's a fact of life. There is anew set of regulations thatsay you've got a limit on yourwages set by these new rulesthat the owners have decidedto put into place. I've hit mylimit and that's it, we moveon.”

So based on this quote, arewe to assume that WestHam has hit the wage limitimposed by the new rules, orthe limit imposed by the own-ers?

There is no doubt that theowners have given Big Sam amaximum wage bill and hehas no room left to strength-en the squad. Which again,begs the question, why signCarroll, when he’s neverhealthy and gets injured everytime he sneezes?

I sense frustration in thequotes by Allardyce, and heunderstands that to compete

you need depth and money tospend.

Not having Carroll to startthe season must be weighingon him too.

It’s one thing to beat a poorCardiff team, who along withHull look likely to be “one anddone” in the Premier League,but here we gearing up toplay Stoke, and he’s still miss-ing.

Here’s what he said, whenasked about his ailing for-ward: "Andy has had an injec-tion to finally finish off the lastbit of pain and suffering inthat area.

"Within the next few dayswe'll expect him to step up histraining, and then we'll take itone day at a time from therein terms of his progression.

"I think now it could be pret-ty quick but it could be some-thing that takes a little bitlonger. We just do it day-by-day based on how Andy feels.

"If he's feeling good fromthe day before, we'll step thetraining up a little bit moreand we do that each day. Aslong as he's not feeling anypain in that area we step it upuntil he joins in with the lads."

Who out there reading thishas ANY confidence that Car-roll will start a game beforethe end of September?

Based on his transfer fee,let’s say he plays 5 years.Each game he misses costsabout £100k. The clock isticking and has alreadyreached £200k that can nev-er be recouped.

Finally, a comment on BigSam’s 50 point target for thisseason. You’ve got to love hisoptimism.

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: David@BarkingDogMedia.co.uk Visit: www.BarkingDogMedia.co.uk

@BarkingDogMedia

VideoPosters and artworkGhost writingCrisis ManagementReports and Applications

WHAT WE DO