Posts Tagged ‘West Ham United’

West Ham in talks to sign Luca Toni

• Carlton Cole injury leaves Hammers short of strikers
• Toni has fallen out with Bayern’s manager, Louis van Gaal

West Ham United are in advanced talks with the Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni about bringing the Italian World Cup winner to Upton Park in next month’s transfer window. Any move may be dependent on how soon Carlton Cole returns from injury. The England striker limped out of West Ham’s 5-3 win over Burnley at Upton Park on the weekend at half-time after suffering knee ligament damage, having earlier scored a seventh goal of the season.

Initial reports suggested he may be ruled out for four months. Yet after these were scaled down to around six weeks, the club’s website confirmed tonight that, though Cole will miss Manchester United’s visit on Saturday, the 25-year-old, “having being closely assessed in recent days, will start his rehab soon”.

Yet even if Cole does return over the coming month, Gianfranco Zola, the West Ham manager, may still move for Toni, with the club having engaged in talks with the player and his representatives for the past two weeks. As reported in the Guardian, the 32-year-old was a summer target for Zola, who is a friend of the former Fiorentina centre-forward.

Two years ago Toni finished his debut season at Bayern as the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 24 goals. Yet, despite collecting 14 more in 25 league appearances last year – which allowed him to lead Munich’s scoring charts for consecutive seasons – in a campaign disrupted by an achilles tendon injury, Toni fell out of favour with Louis van Gaal, once the Dutchman became head coach in July.

Toni has since featured only occasionally and his rift with Van Gaal became public last week when he criticised him. He said of their relationship that it “was good as over”, having had “problems” with him for months.

After Toni was subsequently fined €25,000 (£22,600) for the outburst he closed the door on any possible future at Munich when he said: “I have no problems with the club and fans but the coach prefers other players. Fortunately soon the market will re-open. I will talk with the club because I don’t like this situation.”

In January Toni will have around 18 months remaining of his four-year deal, which may make any potential fee nominal, should West Ham decide to firm up their interest with Bayern.

Hammers to sell Katy Perry lingerie

• American singer wore West Ham basque to MTV awards
• Club commission limited-edition range of £300 replicas

Katy Perry’s appearance at the MTV Awards earlier this month in West Ham United lingerie – a tribute to her boyfriend Russell Brand – has provided the club with an unlikely new revenue stream.

The American singer appeared at the ceremony in a West Ham basque, complete with the team’s badges on her chest, prompting the club to commission a special limited-edition range of underwear for sale to fans. West Ham say they were “responding to huge demand”.

The designer Siobhan Dillon’s creation, made from replica shirts, was seen by millions of viewers around the world: a limited-edition run of copies will be sold for £300 each.

“I thought it would be cool to try and make the shirt as football-oriented as possible,” said Dillon. “So, I used the collars along the top of the brassiere and used the two badges on the front. It was made entirely from the three shirts, but we had to take the Airtex out and replace it with some lining.”

Ashton on the verge of early retirement

• West Ham examine possible compensation claim against FA
• Striker suffered injury on England duty in August 2006

Dean Ashton’s career as a professional footballer seems likely to be ended prematurely, with the 25-year-old West Ham United striker having struggled to recover from a debilitating ankle injury he first suffered on England duty in August 2006 following a training ground tackle with Shaun Wright-Phillips.

West Ham are now examining whether they are able to launch a compensation claim of around £7m against the Football Association for a player who cost them £7.25m when he moved to Upton Park in January 2006 from Norwich City.

Ashton, who may also consider lodging his own action for damages, is faced with being forced into retirement after consultation with several specialists including the surgeon who performed the original operation, Niek van Dijk. He is thought to believe that Ashton’s career is now in doubt due to the injury he suffered with England, though any claim from club or player is complicated because he did make an initial recovery.

The advice Ashton received from Van Dijk was that he is unlikely ever to be able to twist the ankle again properly and, indeed, risks rendering himself permanently unable to walk should he continue.

Ashton suffered the injury during an England training session after receiving a first international call-up under the former England coach, Steve McClaren, ahead of a friendly meeting with Greece. It ruled him out of playing for 11 months. But on returning Ashton made a further 35 appearances and scored 11 goals — form which earned him a fresh five-year deal from West Ham last summer that placed him among the club’s highest earners.

He also received an England recall from McClaren’s successor, Fabio Capello, who hoped the striker might become Wayne Rooney’s partner ahead of Emile Heskey, and finally made his debut in June 2008 against Trinidad & Tobago before the ankle injury recurred early last season.

Although he underwent further surgery in February this year and attempted rehabilitation with the former West Ham physiotherapist John Green, who had worked with other long-term casualties including as Kieron Dyer and Michael Owen, Ashton has not played since.

While West Ham and Ashton’s agent, Darren Bossons, declined to comment it is thought they will meet with the forward this week to discuss his next step, with the club and player preparing to reluctantly accept that his career is over.

The news is a further blow to the West Ham manager, Gianfranco Zola, whose team lost against Everton on Sunday to leave them on 10 points and in the relegation zone. The Italian is also without the England striker Carlton Cole, who has a hamstring injury, leaving the club with no established Premier League forwards available for selection. Against Everton Zola was forced to select Zavon Hines — for what was the 20-year-old’s 10th league outing – to partner Guillermo Franco, who made only his fifth appearance.

“Carlton Cole is a big player for us but what can we do? It’s something we have to cope with,” Zola said.

While Cole — who is out of England’s friendly against Brazil in Doha on Saturday — may make a return against Hull City on 21 October, Zola is also without Luis Boa Morte until the new year due to a knee injury. West Ham’s only other injury-free forward is 26-year-old Alessandro Diamanti, who came on as a substitute on Sunday. It is unclear when Freddie Sears can be recalled from his loan at Crystal Palace, should Zola decide he requires the 19-year-old.

O’Neill rues yellow card rules after Cuéllar’s red

• O’Neill frustrated as he cannot appeal yellow cards
• Change to rules unlikely, says LMA vice-chairman

Martin O’Neill has expressed his frustration that clubs are able to appeal against yellow cards only in cases of mistaken identity and has urged the League Managers’ Association to take up the issue with football’s authorities to campaign for a change in the rules.

The Aston Villa manager was speaking in relation to Carlos Cuéllar’s dismissal at Everton on Saturday, when the Spaniard was sent off for two bookable offences, both of which appeared to be dubious.

Had Cuéllar picked up a straight red card, Villa could have challenged the decision but, because of guidelines from Fifa, football’s world governing body, the Midlands club have no option to appeal against either of the defender’s yellow cards and have reluctantly accepted he will be suspended for tonight’s match against West Ham United.

“It’s an anomaly that someone can appeal a straight red when you can’t do the yellow cards,” said O’Neill. “Look at Carlos Cuéllar – any of the two decisions would be considered harsh and he misses a game through no fault of his own. That’s hard. You would think common sense would prevail and somewhere along the way the hierarchy would look at the situation.”

The Villa manager, who said that Lee Probert, the referee for the Everton match, had contacted the club to admit he made a mistake when he booked Stephen Warnock instead of Stilian Petrov, believes that the subject of appealing yellow cards will be “top of the list” at the next LMA meeting. He pointed out the technology is in place to review decisions and claimed that referees “should not go into a little corner and think they are being speared at all sides”.

Frank Clark, the vice-chairman of the LMA, admitted “this complicated topic comes up every time we have a meeting” but said previous attempts to lobby Fifa had proved unsuccessful. Clark described the process as “torturous” and does not imagine that Fifa — which believes the referee’s decision should be final except in the case of “obvious errors”, namely mistaken identity — will alter its stance.

“It’s a very common complaint with all our members and it does seem unfair,” said Clark in response to O’Neill’s comments. “But our members are fortunate that they can appeal a red card. We are one of the only countries to allow that, and that’s only because the FA has obtained dispensation from Fifa. If we try to start expanding it to yellow cards, I think Fifa would crack down on everything.”

Indeed the LMA may not even be able to count on support from the FA, who would be concerned that allowing clubs to appeal against yellow cards would lead to an avalanche of complaints being made because of the number of bookings. There is also an argument that deciding what constitutes a yellow card, compared to a red card, is much more subjective.

“If the feeling with the members is strong enough, we’ll look at it again,” said Clark, “but I see very little chance of it being changed. Fifa’s viewpoint is that the referee is always right, even when he’s wrong. I have some sympathy with that. I think you have got to be careful with going down the other road, where you might end up with anarchy.”

Curbishley wins wrongful dismissal case v West Ham

• Curbishley resigned after players sold against his will
• Club found guilty of ‘fundamental breach of contract’

Alan Curbishley has won his case for wrongful dismissal against West Ham United after claiming he had no option but to resign.

The ruling, from the Premier League’s arbitration tribunal, unanimously upheld Curbishley’s claim, relating to his decision to resign last year after the club sold Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney against his wishes. The tribunal, which dismissed a counter claim from West Ham, will now assess how much compensation the club will have to pay.

A statement from the LMA said: “The tribunal found that the conduct of the club amounted to a fundamental breach of contract and that Alan Curbishley was therefore entitled to resign.”

Alan Curbishley said: “I am obviously delighted with this result. I very much enjoyed my time at West Ham and never wanted to leave, but on joining the club I insisted that my contract contained a clause confirming that I would have final say on the selection of players to be transferred to and from the Club.

“The club completely ignored my contract when selling Anton Ferdinand, and when George McCartney was then sold, the club having given me assurances that no players would be leaving after the sale of Anton Ferdinand, I had no alternative but to resign.

“My authority and integrity were undermined and my position was made untenable.”