West Ham United: Hammers News..!!

Alan Pardew credits Crystal Palace with making him the man he is today - but the West Ham manager will have no room for sentiment when the two sides meet in Cardiff next Saturday.

Pardew made his name as a player during a four-year spell at Selhurst Park, but it took until his memorable goal in an FA Cup semi-final win over Liverpool in 1990 for him to win over the fans.

Now he is out to do the same thing at Upton Park, where the West Ham faithful were slow to take him to their hearts when he replaced crowd favourite Trevor Brooking as manager.

But Pardew takes the Hammers to the Millennium Stadium bent on becoming a local hero by restoring the club to the Barclaycard Premiership - at the expense of Crystal Palace.

Pardew has unhappy memories of finals. He was seven minutes away from lifting the FA Cup at Wembley in 1990 until Mark Hughes scored to take Palace to a replay which United then won.

And he was a loser again in Cardiff as manager of Reading in the 2001 Second Division play-off final against Walsall. It is an experience he does not want to repeat.

West Ham winger Matthew Etherington aims to repay the Hammers for rescuing him from his Tottenham nightmare by firing them back to the Barclaycard Premiership in Cardiff.

Etherington's career had stalled at White Hart Lane and he was low on self-belief when he dropped out of the top flight to join West Ham for 500,000 at the start of the season.

But regular first-team football and the guidance of Upton Park boss Alan Pardew restored his confidence and Etherington goes into Saturday's play-off final as the club's player of the year.

Big day today.....Playoff finals.

West Ham v Crystal Palace kickoff 3pm

Well this is it shyte or bust. We need to win and get back to the Premiership. The money it will generate if we go up will get the club back on a even keel.

West Ham boss Alan Pardew believes winning Saturday's Division One play-off final could signal the start of a successful era for the Hammers. Lets hope so!

Well i am off to the Pub/Bar to watch it as i couldn't get a ticket. Well i could but i wasn't paying 500 pounds for a VIP ticket...

C'Mon you Irons!





[Edited on 29/5/04 by TRD]

West Ham don't get promoted just as I predicted, the LOSERS!!!

We didn't want their stink around the premiership, thank god we don't have to put up with it now.

Yep we lost....what a bad game it was disgraceful. No fight in us at all and we didn't deserve to go up.

Hats off to Ian Dowie and Palace. Great achievement to get into the premiership. It's a shame they will go down in history as the worse ever premier league side they are so shyte it's unreal. Well i bet all the managers are rubbing their hands together...Norwich and Palace hrmm yea great sides NOT!!!!..Most of the managers in the prem = jobs safe for another year.

Oh yea John if ya think you can wind me up..Think again son...At least i admit we was bad eh? There is alway's next season. Something to aim at and play for...it's 1st division so what who cares.

At least we have something to aim for not like some teams in the premier league. All they got to look forward to is sniffing the backsides of Arsenal and Man U.....

We'll see bitch, we'll just see...

We've got a shed load of money coming in as well as a class manager, and I doubt West Ham will even get into the play offs next season. Goodbye Darlings.

Well i see the knockers are out. Yea you alway's get them. I agree we played badly and didn't deserve to go up but i think if we did we would have had more of a chance to stay up than the ones who did get promotion.

Well when reading TRD's last post i agree...

At least we have something to aim for not like some teams in the premier league. All they got to look forward to is sniffing the backsides of Arsenal and Man U.....

Yep West Brom, Norwich, Palace will all be doing this and will be straight back down again. I think thats what TRD meant. But i love it when people come with insults hey John Nada. Looking at ya avatar you WON NOTHING last season, Lost your manager who you all loved and had a pretty piss-poor season. Yep you got into Europe so i suppose thats some sort of achievement but it will only be when ya actually win the Cup.

Ha all talk, lets see next season how well some teams do eh?

Meanwhile in the news............


West Ham could be in hot water with the Football Association after the Football League confirmed that assistant referee Trevor Massey was hit by coins thrown from the Hammers end at the Millennium Stadium in Saturday's Division One play-off final. The east London club missed out on an immediate return to the Barclaycard Premiership when Neil Shipperley hit the winner in Cardiff for Crystal Palace. David Connolly and Bobby Zamora put the ball in the net for West Ham shortly afterwards, only for both strikes to be ruled out for offside by Massey, who was pelted with coins and bottle tops as a result.

You shouldn't assume too much Sir, I'm an Arsenal fan.

Arsenal fan LOL! how could you even joke about that!

Thing is now i wonder who will go now at West Ham...Carrick is the only one who would command anything half decent..maybe 2-3 million if we are lucky. Also they might trim the wage bill again with Dailly (linked with Pompey), Hutchinson and Repka all going.

Michael Carrick is uncertain whether he will be at West Ham next season. The twice-capped England midfielder is one of several players who could leave Upton Park this summer after the Hammers were beaten by Crystal Palace in the Nationwide First Division play-off final in Cardiff on Saturday.

I would have thought Carrick will go. So will a few other so they can trim the wage bill again. They are not saying much as to who will go but it could be Hutchinson, Dailly, Repka, Carrick and Lomas.

Veteran midfielder Rob Lee is among five West Ham players released by Alan Pardew after the Hammers failed to reach the Premiership.

The 38-year-old joined his boyhood idols last August after his release from Derby but has been plagued by injuries and has only been able to make 14 starts this season.

Also heading for the Upton Park exit are full-back Wayne Quinn, utility man Shaun Byrne, midfielder Daryl McMahon and goalkeeper David Forde.

Veteran striker Brian Deane has also been released, while a host of youth team players are also leaving.

Defender Liam Parrington, midfielder Ian Tucker and striker Marce Collington have also been released and keeper George Sealey and defenders Phil Lumsden and Brent Tattum have not been offered new contracts.

However, Graeme Carrick, Richard Garcia, Darren Blewitt, Tommy Laws, Greg Pearson and Elliott Ward will all sign new contracts in July.

How badly do you think the releasing of these players will effect their promotion hopes next season?

Looking at the ones that they have relesed so far Brian Deane is the one they will miss the most. I know he is getting on a bit but he did a great job for us last season. He came on and scored some important goals for us and change the games around. Rob Lee hardly played all season and he is past it so thats no great loss and Quinn in my opinion was pretty crap. Most of the others were fringe players and wouldn't have made it into the first team. The real Question is they need to get in a few replacements and who are they going to offload to trim the wage bill out of the better players.

Yeah I'm guessing Brian Deane was one of those old heads who you need in a team like Sheringham. Someone who doesn't play much but can come on in the last 10 minutes and win you games. Got anyone in mind for who can replace him?

We had that with Gary McCallister at Liverpool. He was a great player for us, in fact I'd go as far to say a Liverpool legend even in the short space of time he was here and his age.
His influence and calm won us matches, and that one time were he went on a run of scoring 5 free kicks in 5 matches didn't hurt either.

That last minute free kick winner against Everton will be cemented in Anfield folklore I'd like to think. So yeah, you definately need an old head, I know Liverpool haven't been the same since.

I remember that goal like yesterday amd he was a great player i always liked him.

Well as for replacing Deane i dunno. We had Ferdinand the season before who did just as well. Rumor has it we offered Teddy Sheringham a deal it's on the table for him but he hasn't decided yet. There is even worse news in the papers today about Etherington who was our hammer of the season not being offered a new deal. What?? how can they do that he was our best player all season. Also Carrick and Reo-Coker as well. Coker looks a good young prospect so i havn't a clue what to expect. It's going to be nailbiting like last season as to who they are going to hold on to. Don't expect any activity yet as they will want to sell as many season tickets first. They will leave it untill the last minute to get rid of them bstards!

Yeah well as I said earlier bringing in Sheringham would be a good idea. He may be getting on but he's still up for the big occassions, especially coming on for the last 20 mins or something. Hopefully you can get him, and also hold onto some of your better players.

West Ham have confirmed they are listening to offers for midfielder Michael Carrick.

The Wallsend-born Hammer was part of the side that failed to gain instant promotion back to The Premiership and had a decent penalty shout turned down during the 1-0 play-off final defeat to Crystal Palace.

Inevitably, the East Londoners' failure to reach England's footballing elite will mean Carrick moving on in the summer as his present deal is due to expire at the end of next season.

That will be a bad one is Carrick goes. It looks like he is definatly going. I'm hoping they manage to keep hold of all the others. Maybe they could let Lomas and Hutchingson go that would be no great loss. It will be interesting to what developes over the next so many weeks.