Avram Grant The New West Ham Boss

It’s Avram Grant.  There’s a shocker!!!! didn’t see that one coming, ok I know sarcasm doesn’t always do well in print so lets cut to the chase and try to be sensible.

He has signed on a four year contract I believe.  After Zola left I must admit I did wonder who would be mad or desperate enough to take the hot seat but I suppose considering the opportunities out there West Ham isn’t such a bad proposition even if it does mean putting up with Sullivan.

He has an ok track record and after going through the usual media merry go round of being linked with every out of work or recently sacked manager, including some random ones that I had never heard of this does seem to be the sensible choice.  I am going to reserve judgement as the guy has only just got the job so lets see how he goes because in all honesty I haven’t really got any feelings on his appointment yet apart from what I have already stated.

There are things that are concerning me, these are only based on the usual media speculation though and that is we are now being linked with half of the recently relegated Portsmouth team. you don’t need to remember back that far to remember that with the team we currently have (at the time of writing) we just about stayed up by the skin of our teeth on a measly thirty five points and yet we are being linked with a whole host of players who couldn’t keep their team up.  I know they had the nine point deduction but they still would have been relegated without that so you can see where my concerns are coming from.

SUGO don’t need to come out and tell us there isn’t going to be a lot of money available as they have been making that all to clear already and with the comments that apart from Scott Parker the rest of the team are all up for sale suggests that to buy we will have to sell.  This also comes as no shock, so I wonder where all this will end up? I just hope we don’t have another season like we have just had.

I wish Avram Grant good luck as on and off the pitch I think he is going to need it.

COYI

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iTunes®

For a long time I have had a problem with iTunes®. I just don’t like it and I know that I am not alone. I have thought about this for a long time but after a quick few tweets between myself and westhamprocess tonight on twitter I felt the need to write something.

As far as media management software goes there are far far better options available to us out there and yet Apple force us to use iTunes. Now this wouldn’t be such a problem if it was a well designed and slick piece of software but lest be honest, it’s not.  Only the most ardent of Apple fanboys would argue with me that it’s good.

Apple as a company are the masters of media hype and it works for them, just look at the products they have launched and the storm they create amongst the masses.  People queue for days and would do almost anything to get their hands on the latest and greatest Apple product, just look at the iPhone® and iPad® for example.  I am not going to argue that these products are not great, those days are long gone for me as it’s like fighting a losing battle.  I am still not over enamoured with the products but as an owner of two iPods® and an iPhone along with an iPod for my missus I would be a hypocrite to criticise the products too much.

Herein lies the problem though, iTunes!!!!!

for want of a better phrase, I have sat here for a while writing and re-writing what I was going to say but it still comes back to the same stock phrase that is going round and round in my head:

IT’S UTTER SHITE!!!!!

From the very start of booting up iTunes the problems start.  As I have previously mentioned there are a couple of Apple products that rely on iTunes in this house and yet you still can’t get the bloody software to auto detect what product has been connected and load up the right iTunes library, what’s that all about? Once connected you know the individual serial number and can even show a picture of the right product and even the colour but you can’t tie that into an individual library? I still have to keep my finger on the shift key when clicking the iTunes icon and then manually select the library I want.  Seriously this is schoolboy stuff and it really does make you look like amateurs.

The software is a resource hog, I’m not kidding does it really need to hog so much of a computers power just to fire up and browse the store? And the controls and just general layout and feel are so tired now it really need a major overhaul.

I don’t understand a company that puts so much effort into it’s media hype and design of their hardware products but can’t sort out one of their most used and main pieces of software.  It’s one of the main reasons I still will not buy one of the Mac range of pc’s (apart from still being way too overpriced for what they are of course) I have this feeling that if they are so blaise about something as important as iTunes then how do they treat the rest of their software? it’s a reasonable question I think.

I could look elsewhere for software to manage my iPods and iPhone as it is out there and does a good job but you still need iTunes in the initial set up process and yes, I buy my music so it’s convenient to do it all in the one place although I do buy from play.com and Amazon more now and then just import in as well as buy traditional CD’s .  My iPhone needs the app store so again it’s kind of difficult to ditch iTunes altogether even though I tend to browse the store from the phone more than I do the pc for this reason.

This is not an Apple bash post so I am not going to over rant and start picking up on every single thing that needles me about iTunes but I am being honest when I say that Apples attitude towards iTunes does stop me from making the final step over to the darkside and try out a Mac in whatever guise I choose.

How about it Mr Jobs, how about you stop focusing on the hardware just for a while and get one of your most important pieces of software sorted out.  you have pulled it off with the iPhone and by the looks of it you have done it again with the iPad so why not get a team together and really overhaul iTunes from the top to the bottom and give us a piece of media management software that resembles the rest of the Apple portfolio and not what seems to be an afterthought these days.  We get updates from time to time but an educated guess tells me that its more about stopping jailbreakers than sorting out iTunes.

Sort out iTunes Mr Jobs, I am not alone in my hatred for it.

I will leave you with a quote that I wholeheartedly agree with.  Charlie Brooker is a TV Personality who also writes a newspaper column for The Guardian newspaper.  Now I don’t know how tech savvy Charlie is but that is not the important thing here, he recognises just how woeful iTunes is and when someone writes it in a newspaper column then others will take note.

You’re required to use iTunes during the setup process, which is like being forced to eat a handful of mud. iTunes is twice as awful as any software crime Microsoft ever inflicted on the world.

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neighbourly rivalry

Originally uploaded by evissa

You know it’s going to happen, I know it’s going to happen. Every couple of years we see this when a major football competition comes around.

I avoid it like the plague and as mentioned in my previous post I have never done it and will never do it.

I bet there were cars parked out the front with England flags protruding from them.

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England

Before we start lets get one thing straight, I have never been one of the “we are going to win the world cup” brigade who blindly goes around prophesying that we are going to go all the way.  I don’t harp on about a certain date back in the 60′s as I wasn’t even born.

I have never flown the flag proudly from my car or hung it from the windows for all to see.  the fact is I like to think of myself as a football realist (as a West Ham fan you have to be, it’s ingrained).

I love the world Cup I always have and of course I would absolutely love to see England win it, I will scream from the rooftops if we did go on to win it but lets be honest we are not even favourites, I reckon we are in the second group of “possibles who may sneak up but are really outsiders”

Capello has announced his squad today and here it is for all it’s erm Glory:

Goalkeepers
Robert Green, Joe Hart, David James
Defenders
Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock
Midfielders
Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Forwards
Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney

I am uninspired and it feels like same old same old England.  Sod the real creativity and the players who have shown promise this season and go for the safe same old faces approach.  I should try and remain positive but I cant when I see the likes of Heskeys name on the sheet. If one more person tries to reason with me that Heskey should be on the plane because “Rooney scores more goals with him” I will go apoplectic with rage.  I don’t care! Rooney will score goals anyway, Heskey just doesn’t as simple as that he falls over and gets injured at the slightest touch (a bit like our Carlton Cole) hes a big lump who goes down far far too easy. Here’s a statistic that popped up on twitter:

Emile Heskey, striker, 58 caps 7 goals; Jose Luis Chilavert, keeper, 74 caps 8 goals….

See what I mean!

Lets look at the rest of it shall we? The keepers are no surprise and think we have the best of what’s on offer.  Ledley King for a start, great player but he is so injury prone with those knees is he really worth the risk? I mean the player can’t even train any more. I have no doubt over his ability but surely we need 100% fit players in the squad, and that brings me onto Barry, Ferdinand, Joe Cole and Lennon, all players who have struggled with injury this season.  I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be going but I really hope we have fantastic medical staff and facilities as I think we are going to need it.

Micheal Carrick is another player who I have always been a fan of but what has he really done this season? and yet our own Scott Parker has been left behind, now thats not favouritism because he is a Hammer but he played out of his skin and showed what a truly great committed player he is this season. Darren Bent had a great season for Sunderland but again they prefer HESKEY, sorry but I just cant get past the fact that he will be there.

Lampard and Gerrard, ah that age old question: can they play together? that question will always pop up and I have to say that I’m still not sure.  Lampard has had a good season with Chelsea and will be on a high but Gerrard this season by Liverpools standards has been woeful, again I’m not saying Gerrard shouldn’t be there but I have to question whether he will really be up for it.

I could go on and on but you get the gist of it.  Westhamprocess made a good quote on twitter:

Let’s be honest – if Liverpool made the Champions League this year, Carragher wouldn’t be bothered about the World Cup.

I now have a few days to try and get my positive head on and throw my full support behind the team, and I will because as fans that is what we do.  I hope that we have a good competition and that all my fears and gripes are proven unfounded as I have no problem being proven wrong but at the moment I just feel a little bit MEH.

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A Cross(ed) Sullivan

So after being linked with Thierry Henry which has seemingly gone quiet and by that I guess that I was right in the fact that it was never going to happen we are now being quoted as trying to get Joe Cole back and old golden balls himself David Beckham.

I would say “you just couldn’t make this up” but obviously you can but it is pure comedy gold.  Again I would like to see it happen but I can never see it happening in all honesty.

I have respect for Sullivan and Gold because of what they are trying to do for the club and having so far saved us from doom then I have a lot to thank them for but  I just wish that Sullivan would get some PR training or leave the newspaper quotes to someone else who is a bit more media savvy.

He just doesn’t think before he speaks and it makes him and us look like jokes.  for example these are just two quotes from this weekends newspapers.

“Hammers striker Benni McCarthy is “nearly as fat as me,” says West Ham co-owner David Sullivan. “He’s the one West Ham player I want to go to the World Cup because he might come back fitter .”

And on the proposed announcement that Avram Grant will be our next manager by next week:

“I like him very much. He’s completely the opposite of what I imagined. I imagined a dour, boring, serious man with no humour. In fact he’s got a very dry sense of humour with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of football. Wonderful. He tells jokes and stories. He’s led a full life and he’s learned from that”

You just know what he is trying to say but its the way he comes out with it that makes you cringe.  Some thoughts should just be kept in house and not media sound bites for the world to read over.  IF you were a player and was looking for a move and West Ham were a club that was interested in you, would you want to sign for a club whose chairman was so open about his personal thoughts on people?

Please Mr Sullivan take a breath before you speak and give your mind time to catch up with your mouth.

Thanks

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Thierry Henry A Hammer LOL

Sullivan and gold have made a bid for Thierry Henry and offered him a two year deal for £75k a week …. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  See what I mean about silly season!

OK to use a much worn out phrase “Strange things can happen” I really don’t see this one coming off but I do believe that Gold and Sullivan think they can actually pull this off, and by pull it off I mean convince the fans that they are trying to build a superior football club knowing full well that this deal is most probably dead in the water before it even hit the media.

Don’t get me wrong I would like to see someone of the quality of Henry leading the attack for the Hammers even if it hasn’t been as successful at Barcelona as he would have wanted it to be there is no doubting that he could do a fantastic job for us but the cynical side of me can’t help thinking that this is just a publicity stunt by the clubs owners to appease the fans a bit.

SUGO will do what they want and appear to be thick skinned enough for any rants by the Hammers faithful but they must realise that the fans have voiced their disaproval at some of the comments made in the press, primarily from Sullivan and I see this as Sullivan making lots of positive noise to quiten the fans only to turn around after Henry goes to The New York Red Bulls for example (as has been mentioned) and Sullivan being quoted as saying:

“We can offer the money but if they don’t want to come what can we do”

Any owner can use this ploy and offer what they like knowing full well it will never happen but it keeps the fans wishing and maybe believing that the owners are trying to push the club in the right direction.

I am trying to remain positive and maybe just maybe SUGO are being 100% faithful and honestly trying to pull this deal off and bringing in a quality striker like Thierry Henry but I just can’t see any possibility of it happening, If it hadn’t of been so widely reported by some of the more respectable sports writers then I would have laughed harder at the kind of made up BS the media come out with.

Look at it this way, from Mido to Henry in the space of a couple of months!!! see what I mean? it just doesn’t read or sound right.  I think we have more chance of Mido announcing he is a vegetarian and giving up on the kebabs than Henry wearing the Claret & Blue next season.

But heres hoping as it would be good, Right?

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May

Ah May, the month where you start to get decent weather and look forward to the summer.  What a crock, so far it’s rained far too much and where I am we are still getting sub zero temperatures.

It’s been a crap month so far as the title says.  Where do we start? Well lets start here:

West Ham:

Yeah I love this club and lets be honest we have more ups and downs every year that the bloody tide, but this year has been very difficult.  It’s all over now and we managed to stay up but it’s a hollow feeling as we finished one place above relegation.  It was always on the cards that Zola would be sacked and I do feel for him and wish him all the best for the future.  With that we have had our outspoken Chairman Reg Varney … sorry, I mean David Sullivan embarrassing us at every opportunity in the press.

Players not performing and with the speculation that just about everyone is up for sale it doesn’t bode very well for the new season.  Now we are being linked with Avram Grant.  Not sure how I feel about this at the moment, I suppose we will have to wait and see what happens over the coming weeks.

So one very slight high as we stayed up but more lows than you can shake a stick at.

Politics:

The Conservatives snuck in the back door.  Nuff said. They still couldn’t win it outright though and had to squirm to the lib dems to help them out.  Has this damaged the Lib dems? I reckon so as over the years they have steadily progressed and now I feel that Nick Clegg’s deal with the devil has set them years back again.

No highs just bloody great lows.

Redsox:

Hmmm not exactly an inspiring start to the season and I fear that they have done there Challenge for the World Series playoffs too much harm already but things have started to pick up including a sweep of the Angels.  Big Papi has started hitting again after what can be considered a disastrous start for him.  Hopefully now though people will lay off him and let him get on with it.

Some lows and some highs but things are looking up a bit.

Work:

Meh, heh still working far too many hours and spend more time there than anywhere else but I guess thats the same for many of us?  It has nothing to do with May it’s an all year thing but I am fortunate to be working unlike many and the money is good so no complaints really.

No highs or lows really, just the same old same old, I work to live not live to work.

I am now looking forward to June.  The World Cup is coming, have no idea how many highs (if any) or lows that will bring but at least we have some football this summer to tide us over before the season starts again. Wimbledon Tennis will be on again towards the end of the month and I have to admit that I do love to watch, I will be praying for better weather in general but especially for Wimbledon as I hate all the rain delays play stuff.

Bring it on! I am off to skulk around for the rest of May as I don’t see it getting much better than it has been.

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That is the question but it seems the nation cannot decide.

All this political merry go round is getting on my nerves but you have to take it all in and pay attention as it is important to all of our lives.  One thing that I find fascinating and funny in a way is that with all the criticism that Gordon Brown has taken and for everything that the other parties have blamed Labour for they still are not strong or convincing enough to take a majority and gain full control of the country.

This has to be a bigger smack in the chops for the like of Cameron than Brown surely?  Yes the Cons have got the bigger share but it’s not enough, and I still strongly believe that they have only gained this ground because of the angry/protest vote rather than people voting because they believe in Cameron.

For today at least or maybe the next few days is Nick Clegg the most powerful man in Britain? I think he is because he hold the countries future in his hands and depending on who his party decides to back will make all the difference.

I hope they form a coalition with Labour, there I said it because I just have no faith in Cameron and the Conservative party.  The thing that stuck out for me more was all the “change” comments that Cameron threw about but with very little substance.  Businesses have been using this buzzword bingo favourite for years and Cameron seemed to have decided it was the key buzzword for the Tories but not once did I hear him say “Change For Good” it was always just change and for me we know that change can always be bad just as much as good and this was a deciding factor for me.

So for the next few weeks in the Big House will Gordy be able to retain control or will Davie boy keep sniping away about change, Nicky is the outsider but seems to be holding all the cards.

Who will come out on top YOU DECIDE, oh wait we couldn’t.

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It finally felt like spring this weekend, the sun was shining with the added extra of some warmth to go with it, I can honeslty say this has been the best weekend so far this year so lets hope for many more.

It’s been a great sporting weekend for me which I think has more than contributed to my good mood, so where do we start? I know, it’s obvious really heh at Upton Park the home of the Mighty Hammers.

Every point is much needed but we picked up an oh so valuable three points this weekend against Sunderland. There were some shaky moments and the final 10 minutes were heart stopping at times but we picked up a 1-0 win with the added bonus of another clean sheet. we are now sitting in 16th and four points above the relegation zone so we are still deep in it and nothing is guaranteed but one thing is for sure, the team once again fought for everything which is all we can ask for at the moment.  I was worried with Parker being suspended but Mark Noble more than stepped up to the plate and filled his boots by bossing the midfield and putting in the kind of display that we need the whole team to put in.  Ilan scored his second goal in as many games after a decent headed knock on from Carlton “Ballet Slippers” Cole.  One thing that has bothered me though is newspaper gossip that Ilan has criticised Zola and stated that he has favouritism and lost the dressing room.  I hope this is wrong and something just lost in translation or made up but I whole heartedly agree with with MR G’s tweet.

Wish people connected to West Ham in any instance would just shut up,not talk to the papers and just get on with what they’re supposed to do

Next up is the Boston Redsox.  Now what is it with teams I support? They have had a real shaky start to the new season after beating the Yankees in the opening day game they proceeded to losing their next three including the first game of the series against the Kansas City Royals which really really shouldn’t have happened.  As of tonight though they have pulled it back and won the next two so hopefully it was just early season nerves and they will now pull their sox up and play baseball.  Offensively they have looked good and Pedroia etc have been hitting for fun but defensively we have been a bit lacking and the pitching seems to have been shaky at best.  Still onwards and upwards the wins have started to roll in so Go Go Lets Go Redsox.

More football related smiles but I was chuffed for Portsmouth today as they beat Spurs *snigger* to reach the FA Cup Final.  Now if you think that West Ham have had a bad season then Portsmouth’s has been a total nightmare.  From nearly being out of business a month ago to being docked nine points for going into administration they were finally confirmed as relegated yesterday (unfortunately due to our result against Sunderland).  Now I have always had a soft spot for Pompey which is a long story that I may go into one day but for now I truly wish them all the best and hope that they make it back to the premiership as soon as they can.

The spirit they have shown over the last month or two has been amazing and to pick up a 2-0 win today to take them to the FA Cup Final was fantastic for the players and for the fans.  Yes ok they beat spurs which puts a smile on my face but more so for the fact that they dumped out their ex manager Arry Redknapp in the process and for those that know me knows why this made me laugh hysterically especially as he keeps being implicated and he keeps denying being part of Pompeys problems at the moment.  Play Up Pompey and come back soon.

And Finally, I took the bookies for £111 this weekend for a £3.20 bet on the football which makes me extremely happy.  Told you it was a good weekend.

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I read with interest today that Football Referee Mike Dean has been demoted from officiating at premiership games for the foreseeable future due to a couple of dodgy decisions in recent games along with Assistant Referee Simon Beck.  I am not going to go into their full transgressions but if you want more information then you can read The Guardian news reporthere

Every week we see dodgy decisions dished out so what makes these events so special that determines that Dean etc. are being punished? I don’t want to be cynical but is it because the final straw was a top four club?  Howard Webb who is another Premiership Ref gave our own Scott Parker a yellow card at the weekend for a foul which now means he serves a two match ban as it was his tenth, at a very critical time for us.  Now the accumulation of cards is not Mr Webb’s fault but the fact that it was never a foul is what irks me, in fact I would go as far to say that Mr Webb was the only person at Goodison Park who thought it was.

The big thing for me around this though is the demotion to the lower leagues. It doesn’t make sense, Is the League saying that his performance wasn’t good enough but it’s ok to give bad decisions in the lower leagues as it doesn’t matter as much? I hope that’s not the case I really do because that is totally unfair on the teams in the lower divisions.  Bad decisions can cost money and the lower in the leagues you go then the more critical it is around finances.

Surely if a referee is guilty of making mistakes on a regular basis then they should also be banned totally for X amount of games just like players are for totting up cards, that to me should be the way its done and would send a clear message to the ref’s that mistakes would not be tolerated.

I know that referees are over protected and it just seems that they are unapproachable and totally blameless, yes we all make mistakes but surely someone should be held accountable for their mistakes and I see this as the only fair way of dealing with officials when they mess up.

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