jimmymag

Smith will do a lot better for us than Dire ever did. Smith has the right attitude, he's a team player, he's selflessly said that he'll play wherever the manager wants him to play even though he prefers playing up front. Unfortunately players of this ilk are usually underrated. To say he's a "huff a puff worker who produces little" is total rubbish imo and I'm sure he'll prove this in the coming weeks and months. There's no doubt in my mind that Smith will very quickly become a key member of the team and a crowd favourite.

The same was said about Jon Dahl Tomasson when he was here, it didn't mean he was well-suited to playing as an out-and-out striker either. Jon Dahl was a great finisher. Wasn't his fault he was asked to play as frontline striker when he clearly wasn't one. Didn't he miss a sitter against Sheff Wed early in his Newcastle career which seemed to knock his confidence and from that moment he was doomed here.

Only time will tell, I understand where your coming from, but I think that this is the last chance saloon for most of these. Put money aside for the moment, who would want to sign the likes of Dyer and Bellamy if they fu*ck up again. This is make or break for them...... Or a chance to pick up big wages, see the Big City Lights and PAARTYY!!! Spot on! Those 3 epitomise the modern day millionaire footballer where their wages, cars, bling etc come a lot higher up their list of priorities than performances, results and fans.

I find it incredible that Dire, Bellamy and Bowyer have been reunited at West Ham Disunited. I thought we were cursed when we had these 3 together in our changing room. Dire's not wrong, there are a lot of players there with a lot to prove, and I'm sure that they'll continue to prove that they haven't got the drive, ambition and team ethic to transform West Ham into a successful football club.

Sparkle and creativity??? Surely you're not suggesting we've lost these due to Dire's departure! I'm ecstatic and relieved that the waster is out of my club! Things just keep getting better and better under Big Sam.

Yes we all knew he could finish. No he wasn't given a real chance here. As for the sell on clause, who gives a toss if it would have scuppered his move to the mackems? Cardiff were smart enough to install a £5m release clause and hats off to them for doing it. Compare that to our bumbling board of clowns who backed gormless managers in getting rid for next to nothing. Outsmarted by Cardiff which tells you a lot surely. Well done Chops but I hope he now breaks a leg. It just confirms what I always thought of FFS's business acumen!

Hopefully the Dire saga is nearing an end and £7 million is a very good piece of business. It just shows that it's easier to play poker when you have a billion in chips to back up your decisions.

I can't remember seeing him play although I must have. No one can deny he's got an impressive CV so he's obviously got the class. If he's still got the desire he should do well here.

Well done Chops! Never had the chance to make it here because of the impatience of the "greatest football supporters the world has ever had". He is a natural goalscorer and was always going to improve as he gained experience and confidence. As Toony said above, a sell on clause would have been prudent, but I wonder if this would have scuppered his move to the Mackems.

Like you said it's a big if when it could have been a certainty and we would have had £6 million in our bank account. To jepordise the deal for another million based on appearances isn't worth the risk imo, so I stick with my initial reaction, WE FUCKED UP!!!

Alan Smith.

thats right. We could have been spending the last decade floundering in the lower leagues like Sheff Wed and the mackems to name 2, just like we were pre-1992. Just to prove such things are still possible when you have a s**** board. Oh. And facing extinction, or a club sold for a paltry 10m quid, instead of 130m, such was its value. Proven by the 1991 share issue that couldn't even raise the amount of money that we got when we sold Gazza. Just the way to run a football club. No trophy players. Plenty of average ones. Ritual annual FA Cup humiliations against the likes of Exeter, Chester, Swansea etc etc .... selling our best players, and 20000 crowds. I know that MICK will never acknowledge this, as he either doesn't believe it through not being there, or likes to continue to pull the wool over you younger lads eyes and have you believe differently. Pleased you think we should have bought Miguel instead of Carr mind, increasing the same debt you are criticising. So you're happy the club is £80 million in debt because we've made an attempt at winning things? Would you have been happy to borrow another £30 million to give Allardyce to spend? What do you think of Ridsdale at Leeds and Bates at Chelsea? They borrowed millions to back the manager, I suppose that makes them ambitious chairman too in your book? Would you prefer either of them to Ashley? I'd prefer them to Bob Murray, or the directors we had before, and a canny few other chairman knocking around. Its not so simple as this, I thought someone like YOU would have known this. Would you have preferred these people to Shepherd and Hall, or Belgravia ? The majority of the debt is "manageable" based on season ticket sales, like your mortgage, if you have one. Even macbeth admits that. As it happens, I think Ken Bates is another stupid cockney bastard, but I feel sorry for Ridsdale, he got carried away with being chairman of his club, I think the Irish gasbag O'Leary was just as much to blame as he must have known he was outspending the clubs resources. Just goes to show you that even the best laid "plans" come unstuck. At least we had a better "plan" than they did eh ? I'm afraid feeling sorry for Ridsdale is rather pathetic, and to suggest he was somehow duped into overspending by O'Leary is laughable. I wouldn't trust Ridsdale to manage a corner shop and I can't believe he's been allowed such high office at another professional football club. Anyway that's not our problem.

That's just the point I came on here to make. I think there could be a very good chance. Perhaps we'll not be lumbered after all. Here's hoping!

I'd say £4 million is overrating him by about 100%.

It's call positive discrimination.

I've been told that we've done nothing wrong by somebody I trust so I'll accept that we haven't done anything wrong until somebody else can prove the opposite. We did nothing wrong apart from not banking £6 million for a player with a suspect medical history, poor temperament, and who the vast majority of fans have lost faith in.

Great challenge from Geremi that poleaxed their centre half allowing Martins the chance.

Fergie really fucked up letting Smith go. Nice!!

What a poxy question! f****** writers group bollocks! Calm down its nowt to do with the writer's group I'm bored out my f****** head You shouldn't be in the writer's group if that's an example of your original thought!

What a poxy question! Fucking writers group bollocks!

You don't know any more than he does tbh No, but I don't believe Mort was lying when he said this had been done as a response to dodgy behaviour on their part. yeah, lawyers never lie. What sort of response is upping the price?? in my book, either fucking childish, or stupid. Pull the deal, fair enough, but to turn round and go "nah, we want more now"...that sounds more like a group of people too used to getting their own way, not good business sense. I don't think Ahsley is stupid, not by a long chalk, but i think what he did on taht occasion was very stupid. Yeah, and you don't know what happened either, but go ahead and believe Magnusson/Curbishley and the cockneys rather than our people, if that makes you feel good. What could West Ham have done that would make us up the price by £2 million and, potentially, leave us lumbered with Dire??? No one's come up with an answer to this question because there isn't one!!! We fucked up and, even though I'd be sorry to see him go, if we got £6 million for Dire and Nobby I'd be happy.

http://www.virginmedia.com/sport/football/match-highlights.php 100% legal too Quality link that and looks good full screen too.

Well, he was instrumental in propelling Newcastle and Blackburn up the league, so who's to say he won't with West Ham. They have a shite manager though, so he probably can't do it on his own, even though this is undoubtedly the "plan" I don't think they will get relegated, but when whatisnameiclandicman realises Curbishley is mediocre at best he'll be gone On what are you basing your opinion that Curbishley is a shite manager? His achievements at Charlton were as good if not better than Big Sam's at Bolton. And he kept them up last season, with a little help from Tevez, which was nothing short of a miracle.

Well done to Chopra, great start for the kid. I don't think he'll stop them getting relegated though.

I was most impressed with our determination and desire right from the kick off. For the 1st half hour we closed them down quickly and we were first to every 2nd ball, this was in stark contrast to our sloppy starts in the vast majority of away games over the past 4 or 5 seasons. Bolton didn't know what had hit them and we made them look shite. I would have liked to have seen us keep possession better in the 2nd half when they started to come at us, instead we reverted to type and started to lump the ball aimlessly up field. We now have enough good footballers to be able to play it from the back and if we'd done this we could have made Bolton look like mugs. I think this will come when Sam's had some more time on the training ground with the squad. We can take a lot of positives out of the game though, Rozenhal, Viduka, Smith and Geremi look good acquisitions. Martins looked lively and he could grow into that right sided position and, with his pace and shooting power from either foot, could become almost unplayable. Big Sam's imposing himself on the club and it's looking good, but there's still a lot of work to be done but I've not been this optimistic for a very long time.