Real Madrid confirm they will NOT sue West Ham over Tevez

STOP PRESS: Spanish super-club Real Madrid have confirmed tonight that they will NOT be sueing West Ham over the Carlos Tevez affair.
Real president Ramon Calderon said the club's team of high-powered lawyers had scoured all of the papers looking at every possible angle - but they were just unable to come up with anything concrete.
In fact they couldn't even come up with anything wood, cardboard or paper.
Unlike Leeds United chief Ken 'litigate to accumulate' Bates. Or Fulham supremo Mohamed Al Fayed, or Sheffield United player Michael Tonge, or Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock or the bloke down the road from me (he had a couple of quid on West Ham to go down and is now sueing the club and William Hill for loss of earnings).
Still at least we won't have to hear about the whoel 'Carlos Tevez thing' anymore - not now it's been settled eh!
PS - Real Madrid said they might still have a case aainst West Ham concerning Julien Faubert - apparently they can sue under the trade descriptions act because West Ham said he was a professional footballer.

Zola looks for four more wins to make European gravy train

After watching Monday night's abysmal performance against West Brom i'm not confident of getting much at Blackburn.

Rovers are fighting for their lives - but unlike West Brom they are dangerous going forward.
Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz ( who may not play through injury) are lethal.You have to wonder what Blackburn are doing down there.
West Brom nearly scored against us - hitting the bar when Green was clothes-lined - and they have no-one up front.

Zola says four more wins and we will be in Europe.
"The supporters can be optimistic as long as we manage to get all the players back from injury," he told the club's official website http://www.whufc.com/
"Obviously we have had big problems and in the next few weeks we are looking forward to getting a few players back. When we have all of them available again then we really have a good chance because the team is looking well.
"The team has shown me that it is a strong team and also mentally they are strong because we lost a few games. We lost to Manchester United and at Bolton and the FA Cup game at Middlesbrough but we had a very difficult game against Manchester City and on that occasion they performed very, very well. It was a very good indication to me about how strong they are mentally.

"First of all we need consistency. It is a very, very important thing.

"They need to perform all the time. That is the main thing. We have achieved the first target which was to get to at least 40 points. Now they need to push even more because we want to reach 52 points. I believe that will be the quota we need to achieve if we want to go into Europe, so they need to push themselves even harder.

"At this point of the season we have less players because we have a few injuries and people are starting to get tired so they really need to be demanding of themselves.

"I believe that 52 points will be the target we need that might take us to the Europa League so we are 12 points short. It is achievable. We have to think in this way. We have to have targets and try everything to achieve them."

"For me, it is very much worth qualifying. We haven't been in Europe for a while.

"I played in Europe for many years as a player and I know very much how good it is to play in that kind of competition not only for the silverware you can get but also for the opportunity it gives players to improve. If you play abroad you always improve so I wish that we can achieve that."
So here are our remaining fixtures - i challenge you to pick the four wins.

Saturday, 21 March 2009Barclays Premier League Blackburn v West Ham, 15:00

Saturday, 04 April 2009Barclays Premier League West Ham v Sunderland, 15:00

Saturday, 11 April 2009Barclays Premier League Tottenham v West Ham, 15:00

Saturday, 18 April 2009Barclays Premier League Aston Villa v West Ham, 15:00

Saturday, 25 April 2009Barclays Premier League West Ham v Chelsea, 15:00

Saturday, 02 May 2009Barclays Premier League Stoke v West Ham, 15:00

Saturday, 09 May 2009Barclays Premier League West Ham v Liverpool, 15:00

Saturday, 16 May 2009Barclays Premier League Everton v West Ham, 15:00

Sunday, 24 May 2009Barclays Premier League West Ham v Middlesbrough, 16:00

Tevez: Unsatisfactory ending to unsavoury affair

I know things could have been a lot worse. I know that our Icelandic owner would not be able to sell the club - something he desperately needs to do - if it hadn't been settled. And i know that the money is being paid in stages - BUT - i'm not happy with the ending of the 'Carlos Tevez Affair'.

£10million, £15million, £20 million... whatever. It's the fact that i think given better circumstances West Ham should and could have gone all the way with this - instead they've been forced to pay Sheffield United's loveable chairman Kevin McCabe - who is certain to invest EVERY penny in new players.

The problem with the deal is it leaves a nasty stain on West Ham's character. A stain which i'm not sure should really be there.

The judgement - leaked by Sheffield United and therefore no use in any future cases as a precedent - was a complete load of gibberish written by a man who clarly has little or no knowledge of football.

He actually worked out how many points West Ham would have won if they had not played Tevez!!! How the hell did he do that?

How can you say what would've happended had someone else been playing for the club in those last few weeks - granted it is probably fair to say any replacement would not have had Tevez' skill - but how can you say they would have scored fewer or more goals???? You can't.

You can't change history and in the same way you can't look at history and say how it would've been different if you'd taken someone out of it.

Not with any degree of certainty anyway.

So West Ham should have fought to overturn the ridiculous ruling - but they couldn't - they needed it settled.

Mr McCabe says: "We are happy and satisfied with the settlement with West Ham.
"Throughout the finalisation of the terms for the agreement, the discussions were friendly, co-operative and in the best of spirit with both the Blades and Hammers advisory teams.
"We are two clubs with a fantastic footballing history who now want to move on and focus on the business of playing football - hopefully for us against the Hammers in the Premier League next season."

Well Mr McCabe - if you take ALL the money and invest it in the team then i'm sure you'll get up no problem - so let's just wait and see what happens eh.....

West Ham's Europa League/UEFA Cup chances boosted by FA Cup results

West Ham’s chances of a surprise European qualification were given a boost at the weekend even though Gianfranco Zola’s side did not kick a ball in anger.
The weekend’s FA Cup games all went the way Zola would have hoped as he looks to lead his side to a seventh place finish and a place in the re-vamped UEFA Cup, the Europa League.
The Hammers currently occupy seventh place which would be enough for European qualification if the FA Cup is won by a team which has already qualified for Europe through another route.
Of the five teams left in the competiton following this weekend’s matches only Hull City – still to meet Arsenal in a delayed quarter-final – look unlikely to make European qualification through their league position.
The chance of entering the Europa League qualifying rounds is a carrot which the Hammers players are focussed on.
“It is massively in our mind,” said England defender Matthew Upson.
“It is a target of ours.
“We sat down and have talked about it. We are heading towards them and when you set targets you want to achieve them and that is what we want to do at this club.
West Ham’s next outing is a home match on Monday against strugglers West Bromwich Albion – a potential banana skin - but Upson insists he and his team-mates will not lose focus.
“We have a couple of fixtures coming up where we can pick up points,” said Upson.
New signing Savio is also targeting a dream debut season and a return to the continent – this time in a West Ham shirt.
Speaking about his first few months in the Premier League the German said: “It has been everything I expected. It is fantastic to have the opportunity to play in a team like this and to do the things we are doing now.
“It is very good that we are seventh and we have a great opportunity. I am sure we can finish seventh and nothing is impossible.
“We have only to focus on the next match and doing well and at the end of the season we can see if it's enough.”
Seventh should now be enough - all they need to do is hold on to it!

What happens to the UEFA Cup spot that Spurs lost yesterday?

I am sure someone - and i meet a lot of people who claim to know what they are talking about - told me that if Spurs lost yesterday then the UEFA Cup places would go to fith, sixth - AND SEVENTH in the Premier League.
But, this morning i can't find any evidence of such a thing....
I will keep looking and may even place a call to the club if i can't find anything elsewhere but you'd have to say seventh is loking like a real possibility now.
West Ham's rivals for seventh place are Wigan, Fulham, Bolton and Sundays vanquished foes - Manchester 'ambitious' City.
Sunday's win puts West Ham four points clear of City - with a nice run of games coming up.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO UEFA PLACES NOW? please use comments button or email me iainoneil@hotmail.com
Cheers