Carlton Cole and Lee Bowyer celebrate a placid victory obver Macclesfield this week. The desease at the heart of English soccer probably has its most vivid symptoms at West Ham. The Hammers for those you who are not as yet old enough to recall fed the English World Cup winning team of 1966 with Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. West Ham used to be known as the academy of football. This was how the game was supposed to be played. They didn’t win much, true but the philosophy was entertainment.
Take a look at this, almost English team, team:
David James, Glen Johnston, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Nigel Rio Coker, Frank Lampard, Xavier Mascherano, Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, Jermaine Defoe and Frederic Kanoute. Subs: Benayoun and Michael Carrick…and quite a few others
In fact Fabio Capello could take a look at this team and swap the Argentianians for Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves and you sort of think they could play like a good team at international level
All sold by West Ham. You might say that is a team capable of breaking into the top four instead of scrabbling around mid table. And they they even have an English manager to boot. And you could say ex managerHarry Redknapp has probably got the edge on Alan Curbishley too and might have masterminded just such a bid .
All were sold for less than perhaps they were fully worth in an open admission that this club is just a feeder facility for richer men. The poor men of the East End. Poor in terms of ambition, for sure.
Unlike Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, they have not really swapped like for like. Wenger’s belief in youth relies on a certain amount of churn. It is part of his philsophy. And he has tended to sell on players past their prime, or for outrageous sums of money, or both. West Ham have done neither. Joe Cole was £6million. Lampard looked expensive at £12million but with hindsight he was a snip. And so for the rest too as Manchester United sealed the deal on Carlos Tevez at £32million.
Of all the clubs in the Premiership, this is the one that deserves a new board of directors. For English football’s sake and for Fabio Capello’s sake.
Bet West Ham? There’s £10 for nothing, so you are not risking too much!
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There will be no love lost when Spurs face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea had the hoodoo on Spures for many seasons until the spell was broken at Wembley in the Carling Cup Final and the arrival of Juande Ramos and the svengali and ex Chelsea maestro Gus Poyet. The league game at Spurs last March ended 4-4 and paid out a beautiful 125/1. A repeat perfromance is currently 149/1. Spurs have no points and look blunt in attack. Chelsea under Big Luiz Felipe Scolari look fluent and sharp. But three games and zero points is not quite what Ramos or Spurs were expecting to start the season and there will grit to stop it happening. Ramos may park el autobus across the park and trust to a David Bentley flyer.
