My Sporting Views
This page was launched on Wednesday 20th January 2010 and reflects my opinions on the sporting world as I see it, I start off this page with some comments on my beloved West Ham United after the news of the recent Gold/Sullivan takeover and no doubt over the forthcoming months the clubs ups and downs will be a regular contributor to the My Sporting Views comments.
All sports will get a mention Football, Angling, Cricket, Rugby, Golf etc etc
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Regards
Russ
(By the way that photo is me on the front cover of Pole Fishing mag Oct 09)
A sad season for Pompey fans
Pompey on the way down this week
By Russ Evans
24th February 2010
All real true football fans will be sympathising with the Portsmouth football clubs demise this season. With administration just a matter of hours away it must be a terrible situation to be in being a Pompey fan. While it is hard to be too sympathetic with the way the club has been raped to being put financially in its position, my thoughts are with the fans, the real life and blood of the club. Relegation was virtually guaranteed for the club after the poor start but with a 9 point reduction for going into administration their fate is now sealed.
A fire sale of players will almost now be done in the close season to pay off debts in attempts to stabilise the clubs future success but whilst that may be a crumb of comfort in the sense that the club will survive, what part of the squad will be left and more importantly what players will be brought in to try and compete in a tough Championship league season. Whatever the outcome this Friday when a final decision is made, it will be a sad day for the clubs passionate fans.
So West Ham have won two games in the row at home to boost their fight against relegation and despite the fact that any points away from home look difficult to achieve looking at the opposition coming, lost 0-3 to Manchester United last night, it�s the home games coming up against teams lower in the league that will define the Hammers final finishing position. Like I have already said, there are poorer teams than West Ham in the Premier league and with Bolton, Wolves, Sunderland, Stoke, Wigan and a final game against Man City all still to come to Upton Park, there should be three or four wins in that lot to keep them up. Away trips to Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool will not probably see the men in claret and blue pick up anything but a final away game at Fulham, a normally good hunting ground for them, is their only hope of an away point or three should they need them that is.
Assuming West Ham survives and they should, the new owners quickly need to put the house in order during the close season. I suspect the East End club were not that far away from a Portsmouth scenario themselves so tightening of the belts and offloading some dead wood must be first on the list before anymore fancy talk about a ground move and change of name.
The World Cup is looming and I can already feel the sense of media glorification building up on the strength of Wayne Rooney�s spectacular goal scoring season. Granted Rooney is in great form and scoring goals for fun so providing he keeps fit he should be one of the leading lights on the World biggest stage. But, what about his team mates? The chaps needed to build around him? missing aren�t they. Captain Terry has been dethroned and making mistakes in the defence for his club, Cole is injured and surrounded in controversy like Terry about his private life, new captain Ferdinand can�t stay fit for five minutes. The same questions about Gerrard and Lampard playing together in the same team are still unanswered and unsolved. On paper it does not look very good and their bookmakers odds of third favourites look pretty skinny and laughable. Nothing would please me more than to see England win the World Cup come July 2010, we have good players, we battle when the chips are down, we have fitness, but we have not shown the most important quality. Mental strength to defend when under pressure, mental strength to close out a game against top opposition and the mental strength to out think sides who can move the ball around us with pace. We may have the right man in Capello and we may have the right backroom staff to prepare our best team on the day against any opposition, but it�s hard to get in the brain and install character and inner strength to topple the very best in the World. Rooney looks the complete package, a winner at all costs, but for his team mates, the question marks are still there.
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How to upset the applecart
Wednesday 10th February 2010Sullivan upsets Zola with pay cut news
I have mixed views on the latest news media surrounding West Ham United, The Sun newspaper issued reports that via a concerned source within the club, information on the clubs financial matters on players wages were released. It would not surprise me one bit if the leaked source was instigated by one of the three musketeers (new owners) so they could then report back with answers that this kind of news would raise. Now this is where my mixed views clash, I think footballers/managers wages are way off the scale and players transfers are simply ridiculous if not obscene, so if the news is true on what the staff at West Ham are on then all the Hammers fans are being stuffed good and proper. Top wages requires top football and trophies in the clubs cabinet. How on earth can any club pay those sort of wages and bonuses on a bunch of mediocre players with a few exceptions, Green, Upson and Parker plus Noble and not demand some sort of success. Four wins all season in the Premiership along with Pompey, the bottom team, is skant reward on a pay packet almost on the verge of milking the club dry, correction £110 million in debt, the club is already milked dry.
My only sympathy with Zola is how the news was leaked and the timing of the damning prospect of having a fair old wedge of your pay deducted hours before a big home game with Birmingham City, a must win game. How refreshing it was to read that new signing Mido will only be earning £1000 a week, still good money but peanuts when you think other new signing Benni McCarthy will earn Mido's annual salary in less than two weeks. Zola is miffed about the news and quite right in my books however my beef is about the timing of the news before the game not with Zola losing 25% of his pay, my concerns are always about what goes on the pitch but the media circus that is going on at the moment is bound to cause a stir of distraction.
If West Ham lose this evening to the new owners old club then expect more bad news in the press for the rest of the week, a win will boost the team but the rumblings will still go on I am sure. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the dressing leading up to this evening kick off, priceless.
Russ Evans
Posted 10th Feb 2010 (1410)
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Are fans happy with talk of name change
Sunday 24th January 2010
Propaganda machine is already rolling as the musketeers take centre stage
Following on from my first piece on this new page all I can say is “It did not take long did it” the three musketeers are already spilling out fantasy signings and also thinking of re naming the club. It’s important to always think positive and good for the club, but the dross coming out of some of the national newspapers is so predictable and laughable. Lets go back a few days when Sullivan took over the club, a damning shot at past leader Eggert Magnusson for splashing too much of the cash on players wages was muted as the main reason why West Ham United are 110 million in debt. I have no doubt that statement is correct and the fines incurred over the Tevez affair as also added to the cash stockpile.
So when, plastered across the back page of The Sun “Hammers to splash out £100,000” a week wages on Ruud Van Nistleroy came out, my first reaction was anger before I started to laugh. At 33 years of age why would Ruud want to come back to
The following day in The Sun Karen Brady is dreaming of the day when the club is called “West Ham Olympic” you can go where the sun don’t shine my love. It’s reference to the musketeers wanting West Ham to move in and rent the Olympic stadium after the 2012 games. If that happens with a name change it will be a sad day in my eyes, West Ham United is fine thank you, although in the very early days Thameside Ironworks (hence the nickname of the Irons) was the name of the club when it was set up as a firms clubs before the professional stage took over. I have no doubt over the following weeks that more fantasy fan pleasing headlines will be splashed on the back pages of the sports news, manufactured and driven by the media machine that is Sullivan, Gold and Brady…………….. try not to embarrass us long suffering Hammers fans, please!
Russ Evans
Wednesday 20th January 2010
A golden lining, I don’t think so!
I have supported West Ham United all my life, even represented them as a youth team player for nearly three years in the mid 70’s before they let me go and over the years I have suffered and enjoyed the ups and downs of being a passionate supporter. The last few seasons have been painful to say the least especially in the present time when football in general has pressed the financial destruct button. Since Redknapp was sacked very little has gone right, relegation with one of the best teams on paper, inexperienced managers coming and going in the shape of Roeder and Pardew who both took the club backwards more so Roeder. Curbishley had a mixed time before being undermined by the board in player’s sales, yes he was pushed out. During this period the club were took over by Icelandic millionaires and new optimism engulfed the club and fans but it was not long before normal service was resumed with devastating consequences. Two little Argentineans nearly brought the downfall of the club despite Tevez being regarded as a hero by the adoring fans. The Sheffield United affair was up next and rolled on for ages when it seemed everyone including the tea lady wanted to sue the Hammers for loss of earnings by their club being relegated from the Premiership, at the hands of an illegally signed Carlos Tevez. It became so annoying, stressful, far fetched that I could barely look at the back pages of the Nationals as more and more, jump the band wagon, ridiculous stories came out.
When an odd day appeared without any news of the club, I saw it as a bit of a result and that it would all blow over. It did not last long however and what was actually going on the pitch paled into significance, so much damming was the stories. Time and I guess a lot of hard work put the sagas to bed but at a high cost to the club. What with the extravagant wages being paid plus the fines on top, interest and God knows what other misdemeanours the club is reportedly £110 million in debt.
Yesterday (
The papers report that Zola’s job is safe, good! I am ok with that for now as I think under the circumstances Zola and Clarke have done the best they can with an injury plagued and modest squad. 8 million will be presented to Zola to spend to help him keep the club in the Premiership. As we all know 8 million will not stretch that far and will not make a great deal of difference to the player’s staff. However on a positive note, the amount of cash to spend is worth its weight in Gold compared to the other option Zola had from the Icelander’s of no cash to bring in players but the possibility of having to sell key players first.
Talk of the club moving into and renting the Olympic Stadium after 2012 is less important in my view as consolidation of the team and club is paramount first. Getting relegated and moving ground is of little importance in the grand scheme of things but surviving is number one in the present climate.
The next few months are going to be very interesting as the three new musketeers of the Boleyn probably want to be in the limelight as it is their nature on past media goings on with Birmingham City.
They are not a silver lining in my view or a Gold one as well, and unfortunately it appears they do not have enough cash in the first instant to make a notable impact for the club. It will be a struggle for the rest of the season, but there is a big silver lining in that there are at least six other teams worse than the boys who wear the famous claret and blue of West Ham United and that alone should be enough to guarantee another season in the Premiership elite.
Up The Hammers
By Russ Evans
Posted
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