Acquaintances Renewed

Matthew Upson says he is relishing the prospect of facing Craig Bellamy when the hot-blooded striker returns to Upton Park for the first time since his move to Manchester City. Upson will have the job of quelling the Welshman who has scored four goals in seven games following a £14 million transfer and is confident he will not succumb to the pantomime villain's wind-up routines. Speaking in this morning's Telegraph, he stated: "I am sure Bellers will get a bit of stick from our fans and maybe he will be in my ear too but I don't take part in all that," the England centre-half said.

"He is very funny. He's gone to Manchester City and for all his faults, he has a desire to do well and to win. That stands out. He brings a lot to any team and has already made a big impact there, in the changing room which looks to be quite volatile at the moment. But it's what he's doing on the pitch that is most important. He doesn't care what people say or think. That's him. He's old enough now to know what is going to be said about his behaviour. The dressing room at West Ham is still good. Yes, he is a different type of character but we have adapted well. I'll probably be marking Craig and it will be good to see him. He's a good player, makes clever runs but we play against decent players every week in the Premier League."

Predictably, Bellamy is not helping the situation. He stated he would have 'bottled it' had he stayed at West Ham when Manchester City came calling and is relishing the prospect of a hostile reception when he returns tomorrow. "To me, it’s about not settling for second best," he said. "That’s why I came. I could be sitting at home now, still a West Ham player. Expectations on me and the club were completely different there. No disrespect but I don’t regret what I did. I’m happy, my kids are happy and so is my wife. This is a new test for me."

Upson and his colleagues will be aiming to put their FA Cup exit at Middlesbrough behind them as they aim to arrest a run of five games without a win. "We need to regroup and address what went wrong," Upson said. "We never got going at Middlesbrough and it was a real disappointment. We wanted to put on a good performance and it was a wasted opportunity to do something in the FA Cup. We may have been a bit jaded from last weekend at Bolton perhaps but this is the hard part of the season and we have to deal with it. There has been no room for squad rotation in the last few months but now we have to dig in and improve. We need to raise the standards of everyone around us. We didn't have the sharpness at Middlesbrough, we have been punished two games in a row now, both times by free-kicks. What made it worse was we had such an awesome away following. It felt twice as bad to lose, we had let the fans down."

After a decent run of results around the turn of the year, the Irons have now gone five games without a win. However, victory on Sunday could lift Gianfranco Zola's men back up into the top eight, and possible contention for a UEFA Cup place. "We are really dying for it [a win] again, and that is the kind of feeling we must have," said Zola. "The guys are not willing to sit on this too long and we are determined to put another run of good results together. We know what we are capable of achieving and will work very hard to make this happen."

To that end, insists Zola, he wants his side to focus on the game against City on Sunday, rather than worry about the return of Craig Bellamy to Upton Park. "I hope he [Bellamy] can have a good reception, but that is not down to me," said the West Ham manager. "However, it is not my concern. It is important we focus, I focus, on winning the game. He is a big player and he is one of the City players we will have to look after. But I have already spoken a lot about him leaving and now that is it on that subject."

Mark Hughes persuaded Gianfranco Zola to eventually sell Bellamy but insists the Welshman has nothing to prove. "People tried to make a nuisance of themselves, saying he was going on strike, which wasn’t the case," stated Sparky. "I hope his record against former clubs continues this weekend. He’s in fantastic form at the moment and so it’s a good time to play West Ham. If we can get him in the right positions and provide him with the right service, hopefully he can get us the goals. I think he’s a player who could play at any club in the Premier League and have an impact. He’s been a great signing for us. People say we paid £14million for him but actually it was nothing like that. It was more like £10million."

So Sunday will give Zola the chance to renew acquaintances with City boss Hughes. The Sardinian played alongside the Welshman when Chelsea won the FA Cup at Wembley in 1997. "It will be a pleasure to see him and to shake hands with him again," said Zola. "We were partners - and had a very good partnership together. When we were playing together, he always had the attitude and the qualities to be a manager."

While Hughes has a wealth of riches at his disposal now following City's takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, Zola maintains he is fully focused on getting the best he can from what he has available rather than worry about who might have more funds at other clubs. "I am really enjoying my experience here because I have got fantastic players," he said. "They are making it very, very enjoyable for me, so I do not envy anybody."

West Ham will be without midfielder Mark Noble for Sunday's game, as he serves a one-match suspension. Jack Collison looks set to return into the starting XI having been on the bench on Wednesday, but defender James Collins is still out with a hamstring problem. Luis Boa Morte (groin), Danny Gabbidon (stomach/back) and striker Dean Ashton (ankle) remain sidelined. Kieron Dyer is back in light training and will hopefully give West Ham a boost by returning to action next month. The injury-jinxed midfielder has played just five times since a £6million move from Newcastle 18 months ago. After returning from a broken leg, Dyer, 30, injured a calf but fears he needed an op proved groundless.

Team from: Green, Neill, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga, Behrami, Parker, Collison, Kovac, Cole, Di Michele, Lastuvka, Lopez, Savio, Spector, Tristan, Sears.

I Envy Spurs' Day Out At The Wee-Wee Cup

Spurs fans shouldn't bother watching their team dismantled by United's kids. If that sounds bitter, yes, it is because I'm jealous
By Russell Brand

It's the Carling Cup final, a competition as weak as the lager it promotes. A tournament so insignificant that Tottenham are able to muster up enough consecutive victories to reach its climax. My mate Mick supports the "Mighty Spurs" and will be going with his son Yiodis (they're Greek and Mick's full name actually has enough syllables to fill this page) to see Spurs take on Manchester United. Will it become a cherished memory of a Wembley upset? Or a day where they share in defeat and console each other that it was "a lovely day out".

I reject the "lovely day out" philosophy; failure pains me. I don't enjoy watching West Ham lose, I'd rather not go. On days where I've debated attendance then declined I feel strangely comforted when I learn that we lost. "Good," I think, "I saved myself the aggravation."

Witness, for example, the fans who travelled to the Riverside this week to see West Ham capitulate before Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round, I would've resented that if I'd been there.

If I'd been stood in that cold midweek monument to the decline of England's premier domestic Cup, watching the one remaining narrative thread of our season being jizzed out like grey sperm into the drab hankie of the fifth round I wouldn't turn to my companion and say "well, that was a lovely day out". I'd probably weep, or worse, begin the introspective dig through the flaccid tendrils of wasted hope which must be discarded to cope with yet another loss.

Dismantling dreams in the face of the corporeal is an exercise in bereavement. The realities we envisage but do not live leave tearful traces in our memory of what never was. Frankly I regret watching it on the telly, it was obvious we would lose.

Boro typically do well in cup competitions and in spite of a Hammers victory against them in the 2006 semi-final I intuitively knew that we'd be knocked out on Wednesday. Well not intuitively, rationally because I'd already made tentative plans to watch the quarter-final tie against Everton should West Ham triumph.

I've got a couple of friends who follow the Toffees and I allowed myself to indulge in the reckless fantasy of speculating beyond the game in hand.

Any manager will tell you that's foolish. "We're taking it one game at a time," they say - and they don't mean the next game but one, they mean the game directly in front of them.

You'll never hear a manager's adrenalised pontifications on what the future holds, well not now Kevin Keegan's resigned. By contemplating a trip to Goodison Park I was not only counting my chickens before my eggs had hatched, I was naming the chickens and signing them up for university.

Well now those eggs will never hatch, they're barren, brittle ova of nothing. In fact, worse than that, they're them eggs where there's a spot of blood in the yoke. Yuk! A tiny scarlet speck of unfulfilled potential.

How can Spurs fans be excited about winning the warm wee-wee trophy? They won it last year and look at subsequent events: boomerang transfers, sackings and disillusionment. They should refuse to attend or just send mascots, that's what United will do; field a team of children and cuddly twerps in foam suits and they'll still stuff the cockerels of north London. Mick and Yiodis are countenancing a day where their side is laid waste by toddlers and cartoon red devils and paying good money for the privilege.

I suppose all this sounds rather splenetic. Well yes, that's because I do feel a bit jealous and the more I decry it the more a shot at a trophy, any trophy, sounds inspiring. Perhaps we should invent something that West Ham can win: "most rapidly balding manger" for Gianfranco Zola, who is vehemently adhering to the cliche of the stress-ridden gaffer by ageing a generation in three months like some half-arsed, lottery-funded parody of Benjamin Button.

Yes, a trophy of that nature may seem hollow and, to a point, in bad taste, but at least it would be a victory, something to cling to, a marker of the passing days and our inevitable, unremarkable trudge towards the grave. Not to mention "a lovely day out".

Guardian column

The Bill Is In

Sheffield United will be claiming £45.5million over the Carlos Tevez affair when they face West Ham United at an arbitration hearing next month. According to several newspaper reports this morning, the Blades have finally submitted the 'official bill' for the cost of their relegation from the Premier League two seasons ago and will now face the Hammers at a hearing due to begin on March 16 to decide how much compensation they should receive.

The Hammers have already been fined £5.5million for breaching League rules over third-party agreements and now the Yorkshire club, who were originally claiming £30million, have produced a detailed breakdown of figures showing what they claim to have lost, taking into account forfeited TV revenue, falling gate receipts, depreciation in player values and a decline in sponsorship.

The Sun reports that Argentine striker Tevez, now a Manchester United player, scored the winner at Old Trafford on the final day of the season to keep the Hammers up and send the Blades down. A subsequent tribunal, chaired by Lord Griffiths, then ruled Tevez would not have been allowed to play if West Ham had been honest about the status of his third-party registration. Of course, we should not let the fact that West Ham United only needed a solitary point to survive in the final game and would've achieved that regardless of Tevez's strike cloud a good story here; nor the fact that Sheffield United would've survived regardless had they managed to beat Wigan Athletic at home.

It is now up to Lord Griffiths to decide the final payout to the Blades and he will take into account evidence from expert witnesses. The article states that the signs are not good for West Ham as Lord Griffiths has previously been critical of their behaviour, particularly that of chief executive Scott Duxbury. He insisted: "We have no doubt Tevez’s services were worth at least three points to West Ham over the season and were what made the difference between them staying in the Premier League and being relegated."

The Hammers have already failed in attempts to get the case referred to the High Court and the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. On each occasion they were told to abide by the tribunal decision. In the meantime, a new probe has been launched by the FA and Premier League as a direct result of Lord Griffiths’ findings.

In related news, the man in the middle of this wretched drama says the demands of winning trophies with Manchester United is far easier to cope with than the gut-wrenching pressure of fighting relegation with West Ham. Carlos Tevez played a controversial part in keeping the Hammers in the Premier League before his protracted switch to Old Trafford and he is quoted in the Express as saying: "The pressure I felt at West Ham when we had to keep them in the Premier League was intense. When you are at the centre of a team that is fighting to stay up that is much harder pressure to deal with. The pressure builds up match by match, especially when so many people love the club and want to see it survive. It is not pleasant. It is much easier when you are fighting for trophies. It is a nice kind of pressure and the sort of thing I have been dealing with since my time at Boca Juniors. Win, win, win – that’s all you have to do!"

Middlesbrough 2 West Ham United 0

Middlesbrough Enjoy Night Of Light Relief by George Caulkin

Just when their despairing supporters must have expected it least, belief returned to Teesside. After a victory over West Ham United that was remarkable for its dominance, Middlesbrough will play Everton in the FA Cup quarter-finals. It was some performance... Times

Stewart Downing Fires Middlesbrough Into FA Cup Last Eight by Rob Stewart

So much for the romance of the FA Cup. Gianfranco Zola last night admitted his love affair with the competition had suffered a major jolt. The West Ham manager twice won the competition with Chelsea in 1997 and 2000 but his dreams of emulating those feats by guiding his club to Wembley this season are over for now... Telegraph

Downing Delight As Boro March On by Colin Young

Why can't life in the Barclays Premier League be this easy for Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate and his underachieving stars? Anyone watching last night's fifth-round replay at the Riverside on television could be forgiven for thinking that Middlesbrough are a team without a care in the world as they now contemplate their fourth successive FA Cup quarter-final... Mail

Fortune Smiles On Tuncay As Boro End Goal Drought by Michael Walker

Buses from London transported 4,000 West Ham United fans to Teesside last night, but it was Middlesbrough goals that came along in London bus fashion. Boom boom. Boro fans have not seen a goal here since 10 January but two appeared from nowhere in the first twenty minutes and the goals, from Stewart Downing and Tuncay Sanli, meant that Boro made it to their fourth consecutive FA Cup quarter-final. They go to Everton on Sunday week... Independent

Downing Gives Boro Fans Something To Cheer About by Jason Mellor

Middlesbrough belied their wretched league form to secure a fourth consecutive appearance in the last eight of the FA Cup with some ease, much to the relief of the club's public relations department. This week's demand for their most vociferous supporters to act with a little more decorum and make themselves audible only when their previously far from prolific heroes scored a goal has already secured PR gaffe of the season... Guardian

Philosophical In Defeat

Carlton Cole has been speaking about the fine line between victory and defeat on the official site today, and pays tribute to the performance of the team as a whole in last weekend's reverse at Bolton Wanderers. The England forward is in the squad that heads off for Middlesbrough today and is determined to get a positive result in tomorrow's FA Cup fifth-round replay on Teesside. Cole was a surprise inclusion at the Reebok Stadium after struggling with a knock all week, but he led the line with strength and skill and came close to scoring on several occasions; including two headers cleared off the line by Matthew Taylor and goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

The frontman admitted he and his team-mates were gutted to come away with nothing from a game that they dominated for long periods. "You could tell that the boys had come off the field really disappointed. As was said in the dressing room, it was the finer details in the first half that cost us," he said. "We started really fast [erm, we were two goals down within the first 15 minutes, Carlton], pressurised well [apart from those two goals in the first 15 minutes], but the fine details between the lines were the difference [details like TWO PESKY GOALS IN THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES]. When you are involved in a game like that, you know what they are all about and they just got a few decisions their way as well which didn't help.

"I'm not really bothered about my performance. I'd rather be talking about the team as a whole. I felt we knocked it around well and got about them but sometimes you just don't get the luck or the rub of the green. I had a chance cleared off the line, David Di Michele had two good opportunities and Nobes had an opportunity to shoot. These are the details that we need to brush up on because they win games. Even when we went 2-0 down everyone involved knew we could still get a good result. We still felt we weren't out of the game, which you sometimes feel against other Premier League sides at 2-0. Scotty got his goal and we felt it was our chance to progress and get an extra goal or two but it just didn't happen for us the way it should have."

So two single-goal defeats ten months and one manager apart, and the devil in the detail, as revealed by the majesty of the Guardian Chalk Board, illustrates the transformation in United's footballing philosophy as preached by Messrs Zola and Clarke. Defeat is still defeat, of course, but there are ways and means of accepting your demise that ameliorates the pain for the travelling faithful. Almost 70 more attempted passes and nine additional attempts on goal compared to the previous visit to the Reebok under Alan Curbishley, underscores some of Cole's sentiment and speaks volumes to the positivity sweeping through the ranks.

Now on to the FA Cup where an equaliser seven minutes from time at Upton Park 10 days ago gave West Ham United a second bite of the cherry and a fifth round replay against Middlesbrough for the right to battle Everton in the quarter-finals. Amid suggestions that the romance of the cup must be subjugated to the pragmatism of the Premier League, both Gianfranco Zola and Gareth Southgate have been at pains to insist that, after an Herita Ilunga-rescued 1-1 draw, this is not one game too many.

Zola insists those who devalue the FA Cup make 'no sense' - and he is determined to capture the trophy as a manager. Having won it twice as a player with Chelsea, including one Wembley victory over Middlesbrough, the Italian puts a huge importance on the trophy. "It means a lot, an awful lot," he said. "It is a fantastic competition and some say it is losing something but that makes no sense. We have to make sure everyone values it very much. It's unique. If I can win this as a manager then that would be great. I always say it was one of my best achievements to win it as a player."

Middlesbrough have gone 14 games without a victory in the league and are intent on climbing from the lowly station of second from bottom. They will be without Didier Digard, possibly for the remainder of the season, while Marlon King is cup-tied having already played in this competition for Hull. The good news for Southgate is harder to ascertain, although Andrew Taylor is fit to return following an ankle injury. The Hammers need less recourse to positive news from the treatment room. James Collins is ruled out for the next month due to a hamstring injury but James Tomkins is on standby to deputise and Lucas Neill returns from suspension and could replace Jonathan Spector.

Finally, the Mirror reports West Ham almost sold rising star Jack Collison to League One Peterborough for just £300,000. The article insists the clubs agreed a fee back in August when Alan Curbishley was still Hammers manager but Posh boss Darren Ferguson was frustrated when the Upton Park board changed their minds. Gianfranco Zola is quoted as saying: "Jack has been a real surprise for me - not just because of his qualities but also his personality. He will be a very important player in this country and for West Ham for a long time."

An American In London (part two)

Mention of the National Team leads on to talk of a certain tournament in South Africa next summer where Spector could well be playing for the US, a long way from getting up at 5am in June 2002 to watch the games on TV with his friends in Arlington Heights. "Bob Bradley will pick the team he thinks will best represent the United States at the World Cup and I think I could contribute," he answers politically. "It is not my decision, but yes, it is a goal of mine. My versatility could help me out in that I can play anywhere along the back four, but there is still a long time to go. Anything could happen between now and the World Cup."

And as if to prove his determination is unbreakable, he adds: "If I do make the World Cup, it will be fantastic and a great accomplishment for me, but if I don't then it will be that much bigger an incentive for me to make the next one. It was certainly a disappointment to miss out on the last World Cup but with a little luck and some hard work, I hope to be a member of the team that represents the US in 2010. There is a talented pool of players, and that competition for places will make for a strong side that gets sent to South Africa. If I don't make it, then I will still be supporting them as I feel a part of that set-up - and deep down, I am an American."

National team call-ups or not, West Ham United does appear to fit Spector like a glove. "The team spirit has been fantastic and all the players have been very supportive even though each player wants to play," he noted. "Everyone goes about their way in a professional manner and I think that is the main thing here." If that is one reason he can go far, another is his conscientiousness. "I think there is always something to improve on physically, mentally or technically as a player," Spector asserted. "If I stop doing anything particular, then I will lose certain aspects of my game."

After playing sparingly for the Red Devils in 2004-5, Spector spent the following season on loan at Charlton Athletic. "I had got some games with United my first season, but then it kind of came to a point for me that I decided I didn’t want to sit around," Spector said. "They spent a lot of money on a lot of guys who play my position. I wanted to go on loan, but after last season I had every intention of going back to Man United. They even offered me a new contract. But I felt it was time to move on. It wasn’t that I felt unwanted. I just couldn’t go back to sitting on the bench. Sir Alex understood that I wanted to play; he has always been up front with me and said that I still had a future at the club.

West Ham kind of came from nowhere. It was a disappointing end to that season for me. I dislocated my shoulder in the second to last game, against Portsmouth. I couldn't have played in the last game anyway because it was against Man United [as part of the loan agreements Spector was precluded from facing Manchester United]. I missed an opportunity to play in the World Cup for the United States and that was disappointing to me. Other teams found out I wasn't going to be going back to Manchester and that's when I met with Alan Pardew in New York when he was traveling after the season. Once I met him I felt the club would be a good fit for me."

In many ways, Jonathan Spector seems tailor-made for West Ham. Like his club, the Illinois-born defender is brimming with talent, but for some reason has not quite yet stamped his presence on the Premier League. Since he first made the move to Upton Park the US international has been an intermittent fixture in claret and blue, playing 28 games for the Hammers last season in a year truncated by injury. He endured a frustrating second half to 2008, suffering a hip flexor injury that ruled him out of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the opening half of the new Premier League season. Now, the 23-year-old is finally back to fitness and enjoyed his first start in claret and blue (at Bolton) since appearing in a 1-0 defeat against the same team in April last year.

Spector has played most positions on the field, and this could be a potential ace up his sleeve when it comes time for impressing his new manager. "I think my versatility is an asset," he agrees. "I can play anywhere along the back four, and my left foot is as good as my right as I have worked on that a lot in training. Hopefully I will find a position and be able to stick with it whether it is center back, left back or right back, but I am just happy to be on the field, to be honest, and getting the experience."

Left back seems to be the position he is edging towards in his mind, which brings up some interesting competitive scenarios with both West Ham United and the US. "Even though I have only had a short career, I have played left back for the National Team, and for Man United, Charlton and West Ham," pitches Spector. "I am fairly quick and good in the air, so those are obviously good for a center back. But at the same time I like getting forward as an outside back, so that could be why I am torn between the two positions right now. I feel that my versatility has enabled me to play in a number of different roles. As most people know, I can play anywhere along the back four, but I've played a number of games in the center of midfield, which I have enjoyed and where I felt comfortable straight away."

While his dreams remain on two fronts - holding down a starting spot with his club, while establishing himself as a first choice for his country in the race for 2010 tickets - he has at least achieved one literal goal in a Hammers shirt. Spector chalked up the first strike of his professional career at Pride Park in early November 2007, notching the third for the East Londoners in a 5-0 mauling of luckless Derby County. When the Rams failed to clear a corner in the 55th minute, Spector pulled the trigger from around 20 yards, his shot ricocheting off fellow American Eddie Lewis before crossing the line. Lewis was credited with an own goal, officially denying Spector the glory, but the man from Arlington Heights has already seen enough setbacks to know when not to give in. "I'm certainly claiming that goal against Derby," he grinned, "Although, some may think that I'm biased! I think it’s a conspiracy against Americans to upset both of us! I did an interview with Match of the Day afterwards. They said ‘one American scored today – which one was it?’

Now he is back playing again, US soccer fans can resume skimming their eyes over the Hammers starting eleven on a Saturday, hoping Spector will be listed among them. "I'll never be satisfied with playing time until I'm starting every game," Spector declares. "Each opportunity I get, no matter where I am playing, I try and make an impact and contribution to the team. I feel that I am continuing to learn and improve each season, which is important for any player, particularly at my age."

Indeed, and at still just 23 years old, time remains on his side. In the days of squad rotation and a fluid international market, no player is guaranteed a shoe-in. Now at his third club in England, however, the former Charlton and Manchester United defender is eager to cement a starting spot at West Ham United, even if he is still hop-on, hop-off for now. So eager, in fact, a few months ago the American signed a contract extension with the club until the year 2011, with Gianfranco Zola apparently seeing a lot of positives about what Spector has to offer, even from the treatment table. "I appreciate their confidence in knowing I was going to be making a full recovery and knowing I was doing everything I could possibly do in the U.S. for my rehab to make it back," Spector said. "I’ve certainly enjoyed playing for West Ham and it’s somewhere I want to be. I feel I have some things I want to accomplish at West Ham, and I was happy that the club gave me the opportunity to do that.

"I think when things are going well at a football club, it is generally going to be a more enjoyable atmosphere and experience than when things aren't going well, just as it would be at any place of work," offered Spector. "It's hard to say why we didn't perform particularly well last season. You can point to injuries and things of that nature, but we've had a number of injuries this year as well, yet we have been able to cope. With Gianfranco and Steve arriving, the dynamic of the club has changed and there is a great team spirit at the moment."

Whatever happens on the pitch, the next few years will also see Spector continue to develop as an impressive young man away from the glare of the Sky cameras. When conversation turns to his life outside football; the answers might disappoint the tabloids, but will impress his manager. "I take college courses from Indiana University," he reveals. In history and philosophy if you are curious. "They keep me busy. I like reading magazines and books, all sorts of stuff. Now I am on my own I do all the cooking, cleaning and domestic duties that most people my age don't have to do. I am starting to enjoy cooking and my mom sends me new recipes. Even though it is a shorter working day than most people have, it is an exhausting day so every once in a while I have to take an afternoon nap."

You can hear the tabloids buzzing already.

"Musically, I listen to a little bit of everything," continues Spector. "I like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and I used to play the trumpet, so I like jazz. I also like fat bass and punk. They mainly play hip-hop in the West Ham dressing room, which I can listen to although it is not my favorite. I am not sure who it belongs to, but it is the same CD and I am starting to get sick of it!" He also dabbles in piano and has a soft spot for “non-mainstream” rock. Notably, his favourite bands, like Good Charlotte and Lucky Boys Confusion, are steadfastly American.

So given his relocation to England, what cultural aspects, if any, of UK life might be rubbing off on him. "Well, cricket I just don't get!" he kicks off. "But I am beginning to appreciate English food, I hate to say. When I first came over, I stayed away from the entire Shepherds Pie, and fish and chips. We had a dietician at Bradenton, so I know all about that unhealthy eating!"

What about the accents? Will Jonathan emulate Brad Friedel, who sounds as much Lancashire as Ohio these days, and develop a Cockney twang? "Some people do tell me when I go back to the US, my American accent is starting to disappear," he sighs. "And I say a few things in an English way and use certain British phrases, but they said after I had spent time in Bradenton that I had picked up a bit of a Southern accent. Hopefully, I will keep my own identity," he says with mirth on his mind.

Visiting family and friends apart, the only Americans Spector sees are the other Yanks Abroad, with fellow Arlington Heights boy Brian McBride a particular source of help. "They are all really friendly guys and I go to them if I have any questions as they have been through it all over here, especially Brian who comes from the same town as me," he says. "I have talked to him a few times and he has been extremely helpful. He is a great person and player and always has some good advice to pass on."

While his work ethic is beyond question and Spector has enjoyed a fair slice of luck ("I feel very fortunate in my short career to do what I love, especially playing professionally in England, which is the place to do it"), you leave thinking what success he may achieve in the future will be as much down to the soccer gods smiling on him as anything else. His famous halftime conversion to playing defence in the presence of a Manchester United scout there to watch his opponent was one such stroke of serendipity. "That happens quite a bit," says Spector. "Maybe if he had not seen me there, someone else might have seen me eventually, but I was just happy he had in that game."

Even if we were to hear no more of Jonathan Spector, he has at least already made his mark on the Premiership with what that infamous 'dodgy barnet'. More Phil Spector than Premier League footballer, the hairstyle he sported during those years in England has been described as 'screaming out country singer.' "I don't listen to much country," he laughs. "And it was not a true mullet anyway! But it was my own personal style. I am not one to go along with the pop culture and what everyone else thinks is right. I am my own person and I am sticking with it!"

An American In London (part one)

The setting amidst the wide avenues and skyscrapers of Canary Wharf in London's Docklands is atypically English. In fact, it looks and feels American, an appropriate setting therefore to meet the player who calls the Windy City home. What first strikes you about Jonathan Spector is how young he looks. Despite his experiences in the tough arenas of the Premier League and international soccer, he still wears the boyish manner and unblemished face of a teenager. But as soon as he starts talking, Spector at once displays a professionalism that recognizes no boundaries. "London is a great city and has a lot more going on than Manchester," he states. "But it is more about where I am playing, not where I am living right now. I would be happy living wherever I am playing football."

Footballers of all ages feel homesickness, and Spector would not be the first high-profile American in Europe to feel it, but a 4,000 mile relocation seems to have had little effect. "Being here is doing what I want to do, so when I am over here I do not know I miss America too much," revealed the defender. "I miss my family and friends, but I am gaining more being here than losing anything. I was in Chicago last summer and I'm not sure when I'll be back. I think it is a great city, but what I enjoy most is being with my family and friends, not the actual city."

Spector's love of football took root at his family home in Arlington Heights, Illinois, only a few doors away from another man whose path in the game Jonathan would come to follow. "I come from Arlington Heights, where the racetrack is. The Fire almost moved there, but I am glad they did not as I like going to watch the horse races when I am back there. Soccer is a big thing in that area. Brian McBride is from Arlington Heights and actually lives about five minutes from me. I would have gone to Buffalo Grove High School where he went had I not gone to St. Viator, a private Catholic school. We grew up in the same area, but played for different clubs."

Sport was a consuming passion for the young Jonathan and his elder brother, especially as their grandfather played professional basketball, but soon enough the football came to dominate. "I did track, cross-country, basketball, volleyball, a bit of tennis and I tried to play golf, but I think I always had a soccer ball," he recalled. "I played basketball with one of my teddy bears and one of my mom's chandeliers and I played soccer in the house all the time. She did not like it although I can't remember actually breaking anything. Then I played in a kind of league when I was four years old.

"Both my parents liked football," Spector continued. "My dad is of Irish/English origin and grew up in Philadelphia, which was a melting-pot like Chicago so he was open to a number of international influences. There were a lot of Italians and Germans there, so obviously football was big." And the German connection turned out to be the key one, cementing his love for football and later freeing him to bypass the paperwork to play in England.

"I could get a German passport because my mother was born in Siegen, Westphalia, so that helped further my career as a professional footballer in Europe. I have my mom to thank for that. I was extremely fortunate. My first football club was Schwaben A.C. in Chicago and it was unique because all the coaches and the families involved were from a strong German background and they all spoke German to each other. It was my first international footballing experience!"

With Germany based in Chicago during World Cup USA '94, Spector's Teutonic heritage paid dividends again as he got to meet his football hero. "One of the coaches on the team knew Jurgen Klinsmann's father when they were in Germany together and he was able to arrange for me to meet him at the team hotel before one of their games. I had always grown up a supporter of the German National Team, and in particular Klinsmann, so it was a big experience to meet him. He was the player I looked up to the most because I played striker like him when I was younger. Because of my strong German background I have always supported the German National Team and German football in general."

After Schwaben, Spector graduated to Chicago's Sockers F.C., a renowned source of youth development and a "turning point" for the young German-American. "I was there as an Under-13, and then for two or three seasons before I joined the National Team. Everything really took off for me there." In 1999-2000, the Premier Cup, the biggest under-15 tournament in the world, was Spector’s first exposure to international competition and helped change him from a Chicago high-school kid, with no designs on becoming a professional footballer, to the determined young talent he was to blossom into. He played at the finals held in Amsterdam when the Premier Cup was run by Nike. Set up in the early nineties by the US sportswear giant to help demonstrate its commitment to youth, alumni include Jose Antonio Reyes, who played in the Premier Cup for Sevilla in 1996-7 and 1997-8, Fernando Torres, Andy van der Meyde, Mikael Forssell and Carlos Tevez.

"It was the first time I’d been exposed to soccer of a really high standard," he said. "Kids playing soccer in the US don’t get the chance to play too many international competitions. We won the Nike National Tournament, the National Kellogg's Title, and I played in my first international tournament. It was an eye-opener to see how competitive and talented the other players were and I think that was the moment I decided this is what I want to do. I wanted to be a top player at the top level."

Professional football now his chosen career path, the next step was to decide between high school and a college career or a place at US Soccer's residency programme in Bradenton FL. He chose the latter and graduated in their class of 2003 alongside Freddy Adu and Eddie Gaven. "I did consider going to college as I had a number of great schools that were interested in me like Duke and Princeton," he recalls. "It was difficult to say no to Princeton, but I have no regrets. Instead I got to play with the top players in the country at the time and I improved a great deal. The experiences I have had are amazing compared to most people my age. I would have liked to have the college experience though. I was pretty close to going. I visited a bunch of schools: Boston College, Notre Dame and UVa. I was at Princeton right when A Beautiful Mind came out, so it was cool to see the campus. But I wouldn’t trade what I have done.

"I worked with sports psychologists, did weight training, speed training and the national team coaches helped me out a lot. John Ellinger, John Hackworth, Peter Miller and all of those guys did a great job and I cannot thank them enough for the knowledge that they passed on. It was also a great life experience for me moving away from home, aged fifteen," says Spector. "A lot of people ask me if I miss not having my high school experience, but I would not change a thing - no regrets. I had a great time down there and played with some great players. The experience I have had with the national team in general has been fantastic. There are not many kids who can travel the world and see so many different countries. I had a plan, but that all kind of got turned upside down," he explains. "When I first went to Bradenton, I figured I would be there until my junior year, play in the Under-17 World Championship, go back to St. Viator High School in my senior year, go to college for four years and then play professionally."

Given his experience of Manchester United's famous youth set-up and latterly the even more revered West Ham United Academy, it begs the question of how Bradenton compares, yet his recollection is very positive. "Nowhere else in the country is there a programme where the top players are able to train together," noted Spector. "In England, the clubs have great youth programmes, but in America we don't have that. And because we are such a big country, scouting is so difficult with so many players to watch, so Bradenton might be the best solution for now. US Soccer has done a great job building it up and they have put a lot of money into it so hopefully it will pay off."

While Spector's route to the top seems an obvious one to follow, he is surprisingly not quick to agree: "Claudio Reyna opted to go to college first, but he was still successful. Brian McBride went to college first and look at him – he has had a great career. Tim (Howard) did not go to college either and went to MLS and now he is playing for Everton. Top players find their way to the top. And some would do better in the MLS – Landon Donovan, for example. He had trouble when he went to Germany, but he is obviously a great player, has been successful at World Cups and is still a great player in MLS. I just felt it was better for me personally to come to Europe."

Spector is primarily a defender for West Ham and the US now, but it was not always so - playing for the US Under-17's at the Ballymena international tournament in 2002, he made perhaps the quickest conversion from a striker to defender in soccer history in all of ten minutes. "That is right!," he laughs. "I was a striker, and at half time, (John) Ellinger pulled me aside and said 'You're gonna play center half, and Hackworth is gonna tell you everything you need to know'. Hackworth did a great job. He set up the cones and said positionally 'you have to do this and that', 'when this is here, you have to be there' and so on... he only had ten minutes as I had to warm up as well. Actually it was in the next game against Austria that the United scout who was there to watch the forward I was marking, noticed me instead. So it was kind of lucky how it worked out. We had a shutout and I don’t think they had any shots on goal. That was the first time I had ever played defence. It was big ask, but I guess it worked out."

Not long after came the approach from Manchester United, in September 2003. "As soon as they offered me a contract, I could not say no to them - although, I thought I might have to persuade my parents!" he chuckles. "It was on my last day of being on trial that they offered me a deal." Arriving at Old Trafford it seemed a dream had come true, but a FIFA rule on overseas players aged under 18 meant Spector found himself on the sidelines unable to kick a ball in anger. "I actually came over quickly because Steve (Kelly, his agent) told me FIFA were about to implement that rule so for the first couple of months I was just training without playing. It was extremely frustrating, but I was not going to complain as I figured 'How many 17-year old Americans are playing in Europe for Manchester United?' I thought 'make the most of the opportunity while you are here and keep working hard'. So I stuck with it and eventually they gave me clearance and the first day I was allowed to play, I was in the starting line-up."

Spector's debut for the Red Devils came in Manchester United’s opening 2004 US tour game against Bayern Munich in Chicago, where he looked like he had been a centre-back since wearing nappies. Even with 58,000 watching and, perhaps more frighteningly, Roy Keane alongside him, he purred through the game, demonstrating poise on the ball, speed on the ground and an eye for the tackle. "He spots danger quickly," enthused Sir Alex Ferguson at the time. It was a rather uneventful 0-0 draw that day at Soldier Field, but Spector recalls it differently. "It was a dream," he said. "It could not have been more perfect to be honest. My favorite clubs growing up were Bayern Munich and Manchester United because they were always on TV a lot. I never thought I would be able to play for and against my two favorite teams in my hometown with all my family and friends there. I had not even thought about until it happened. I never get nervous before games, but I was really excited before playing in that one."

A teenager who does not get nervous on the big stage, even when representing his country at age 18? Perhaps the main reason Spector has got where he is and will go further. "I never really worry about how big of a game it is, no," he explains. "I have never really gotten nervous before big games. I am just quietly confident in that sense. I think you have to be to be successful at this level. I never get too worried or concerned about anything to be honest. Some people feel nervous before games and that may be a good thing for them. But I never get nervous and that is a good thing for me. It is a great thing and I don't know where I got it from, but I guess I am fortunate to have that disposition."

Most people saying these words would come across a touch arrogant, but that is the last impression you would get about Jonathan Spector. He is such a level-headed and pleasant young man to meet that you come away with the firm impression that there is no chance of success going to his head. "I am quietly confident, but try not to feel arrogant about it," he confirms, in case there was any chance of being misunderstood. "You have to feel confidence in your own ability and feel somewhat arrogant on the field, but once you step off I do not see any reason why you should have that attitude."

But defenders by nature 'get stuck in' and Spector is professional enough to know when to leave his nice guy persona in the dressing room. In doing so, he reveals a tigerish determination to succeed. "I have a competitive nature, so I do become a bit of a different person when I step across the white line. I want to win and I will do whatever it takes for my team to win whether it is jumping in front of a shot or whatever."

And to mischievously puncture the clean cut image further, you could bring up his sending off for the Under-17's in 2003's Dallas Cup, when he indulged in some 'afters' on a Newcastle United striker. Spector laughs at the mention of the incident. "What is funny is that when I came to England, I actually came up against the guy in a Man United reserve match! But it was very pleasant and we chatted before the game," assures Spector. "There was nothing negative. It had just been the heat of the game and we had both wanted to win and I was unfortunate in that game but I was happy we beat them in the reserves! I do not agree with going after someone, but you do what you do if you have to win. If you commit a professional foul, as long as you don't want to hurt someone, well sometimes you have to do that."

So Spector may look and sound young and amiable, but he is a fighter on the field and an intelligent one too. Sigi Schmid, respected former coach of the US Under-20 team once observed: "Spector is our only defender who really organizes and talks at the back. Even our team doctor, who has little soccer experience, noticed that." Perhaps learning good behavior through football is a staple of youth coaching manuals in the US, but remains largely absent from their English equivalents? "Absolutely," agrees Spector. "The cultures are slightly different. And in America, one thing I notice is a lot of positive reinforcement from coaches, but in England it is more 'this is what you have to do to win.' They are more hard-nosed here. But I think that mentality makes the English Premier League so competitive and so exciting to watch."

Which is not to say that American culture has not permeated other areas of British football. "In England it’s massive," he smiles. "American culture is so big here. It’s way worse at my club team than it is with the National Team. I don’t spend much money on jewelry but there is certainly a lot of bling floating around West Ham though. I won’t say who, but I did see a diamond grill (shaking his head)." So if not jewelry, what indulgences doesn't he like people to know about? (Which of course, they will now…) "On the bus going to our games, it’s amazing the amount of chocolate bars we eat," he confesses. "Say we are going from London to Birmingham. It takes three hours to get there, mostly because we always leave at rush hour. Explain that! Anyway, when you’re bored you eat, and for some reason there are always chocolate bars around. The average player consumes 2-3 per bus ride. Fortunately I can hold myself to one a trip."

Apart from candy-infused theobromine and tryptophan rushes, could he sum up the formula for football success? Spector replies: "For me personally, the most important thing is hard work. I have had that drilled into me by my parents. Each team needs someone who is just going to work hard. The mental aspect is important too. You have to be mentally strong enough to be successful in your own right and confident in your own ability because there will always be people who say you are not good enough, not big enough, not strong enough or not fast enough. A player must be strong in more ways than one."

Such assuredness implies a young man mature beyond his years, who perhaps has already distilled a formula that could be useful one day in management. For once, he sounds less sure, as if suddenly looking down the mountain he has just climbed. "I do not know if I have focused in on the exact formula that I could pass on yet. I am still learning, but I hopefully have a long and successful career ahead."

Jonathan Spector's grandfather, Art, was an old-time basketball star for Boston Celtics. 'Speed' Spector they called him. He was the first player to sign a professional contract for the Celtics and features heavily in an official history of the franchise. From time to time, Speed’s grandson gets the booklet out and leafs through it for inspiration.

Maybe there is an ingrained professionalism that can take you far? "That is one thing I would attribute to US Soccer," he replies. "When you watch the National Team play, every one of those players works extremely hard whereas certain countries have a few players who feel they do not have to do this or that because they are so talented. The one thing with American teams is that every player is going to work as hard he can. The work ethic is more important in the United States - not just for athletes, but for everyone actually. That is definitely one of the culture differences. Whether it is right or wrong, who is to say? But one thing you are going to get from Americans is a team who are going to work hard no matter what the score is."

From Adversity To Opportunity

An MRI scan has revealed that James Collins will likely be missing for up to four weeks with a hamstring tear in his left leg. The Wales defender was injured early in Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers when he went in for a tackle with Johan Elmander. An MRI scan confirmed the injury this afternoon, and it means he could miss the next three league games against Manchester City, Wigan Athletic and West Bromwich Albion before the international fixtures against Finland and Germany in Cardiff on 28 March and 1 April respectively.

Gianfranco Zola has "plenty of options" to replace Collins according to the official site, with James Tomkins reportedly impressing as substitute at the weekend. The England Under-19 centre-back was called upon after just 16 minutes on Saturday and by that stage, Matthew Taylor and Kevin Davies had already given the Trotters a 2-0 lead at the Reebok Stadium. After that it was all about the visitors and Tomkins looked very comfortable. "James Collins has been playing very well. He is a big asset for us but the way James Tomkins came on and played was very encouraging for me," said Zola after the game. "I am sure he will do his job properly."

With Collins now sidelined, the youngster is eyeing a starting place in the fifth-round replay at Middlesbrough and hopes to stake his claim for a regular spot in Gianfranco Zola's side. However, he is mature enough to concede that he will need to work as hard as ever to stand a chance. "Obviously Ginge has been doing very well when he has been playing but maybe there is going to be a chance for me," said Tomkins. "You obviously feel for the lad and hope he's not going to be out for too long because he's been doing really well for us. If I get my chance I've got to take it, but no place is guaranteed at the moment. It was quite a surprise to see James go down but you have to knock out the nerves and take it as it comes. We were 2-0 down so it was fairly hard circumstances but you have to put that behind you and play the game as you do."

Captain Lucas Neill and new recruit Radoslav Kovac could also play at centre-back alongside Matthew Upson if called on, while young defender Bondz N'Gala, 19, has been travelling with the first team of late after an impressive run of performances for the reserves. A further option could be Jonathan Spector, who admitted to having mixed emotions after making his first West Ham United start in ten months on Saturday. Spector played at right-back for the Hammers in place of the suspended Lucas Neill, and responded with an encouraging performance capped with an inch-perfect cross for Scott Parker's 66th-minute goal. However, it was not enough to stop Gianfranco Zola's side from falling to a 2-1 defeat.

The United States international endured a frustrating second half to 2008, suffering a hip flexor injury that ruled him out of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the opening half of the new Premier League season. Now, the 23-year-old is finally back to fitness and enjoyed his first start in claret and blue since appearing in a 1-0 defeat at the same venue in April last year. "On a personal level it was good to be back because it was my first game in a long while but, more importantly, the team was very disappointed with the result," he told the official site. "We went 2-0 down very early on and gave ourselves a mountain to climb and made it really difficult for ourselves. I think it was difficult from then on but we fought back and were on top for the majority of the game but just weren't able to get it back.

"I couldn't be happier to get my first start under my belt but it's more important to be winning the game but we didn't do that so it's a little bit of a bittersweet moment for me. All things considered I was pretty happy with my personal fitness. I felt good throughout the match. If you put the work in then you hope that when the matchday comes you feel good, and that was the case for me on Saturday. It was a great run by Scotty to get across the first defender for his goal. I put it into the right area and he was there with a perfect finish. I put another one in for Coley and he was a little bit unlucky not to score. We had quite a few opportunities to score but it just didn't happen for us."

Lucas Neill will be available again for Wednesday evening's FA Cup fifth-round replay at Middlesbrough, but Spector is just glad to be in contention again. "Of course it's frustrating when you're not playing but you just keep going," he said. "We've got a great team here and a lot of strength in the squad. The team has been playing extremely well and winning games so it's understandable that I wasn't able to work my way in. I've just got to make the most of my opportunities when they do come. I'm a West Ham player and it's a great club and I'm more than happy to be here. Obviously my aim is to work my way into the starting eleven, just as every other play wants to. That's what makes the squad so strong. Everyone wants to play and that's what has spurred our success this season."

Whether he is selected or not, the defender says it is important for the Hammers to get back on the pitch and get Saturday's scarcely-deserved defeat at Bolton out of their systems. "It may be a cliché that it's good to be playing again so soon but it's very true. We've had a good cup run this year and we want to continue that. It's a game where we're going to go up there looking to win. I think we've got every chance to do that."

Another defender on his way back is Danny Gabbidon. The Welshman has not featured for the Hammers since suffering a serious groin injury in December 2007, but is now stepping up his rehabilitation following a long lay-off. Wales boss John Toshack was not alone in voicing his doubts over whether Gabbidon would ever return to competitive action having not made an international appearance in over 15 months. Yet the 29-year-old says he is happy with his progress and has been encouraged by the patience shown in him by West Ham boss Zola. "I've been to see a few different people and the club have been really good and anything that I've wanted they have done," he said. "I'm working hard and trying to get back to training and once I get to that stage it's about getting back into the team, which is doing very well at the moment. I've spoken to the manager a few times and he has been really good to me. He asks how I am and how I'm feeling, when I'm coming back and he's been really good."

In other news, Gianfranco Zola has reportedly joined the race to sign highly-rated Wolves defender Kevin Foley in the summer. Several media reports have linked the Hammers, as well as Everton and Blackburn, with a move for the player who is rated at around the £2.5m mark. Foley, who cost Wolves £6,000 when they signed him from Luton in August 2007, is out of contract at the end of next season and Wolves will want to keep him and hand him a new deal at the club. Whether he accepts is likely to depend on if they are successful in their efforts to win Premiership football this season.

Bolton Wanderers 2 West Ham United 1

Loss Leaves Gianfranco Zola In State Of Disbelief by Gary Jacob

As a player, Gianfranco Zola could always run off any frustrations on the pitch, but losing a ridiculously one-sided match presents different problems as West Ham United manager. The Italian emerged from the dressing-room more than an hour after the match in stunned disbelief, head shaking, bemoaning the injustice of a farcical result that spoke volumes for Bolton Wanderers’ sole ambition of staying in the top flight with little regard for their football... Times

Bolton Hang On Despite Scott Parker's Toil by Mark Ogden

There is something about the Reebok Stadium that brings West Ham United out in a cold sweat. Not a single victory has been secured in Bolton since Burnden Park was vacated for the Reebok in 1997, but that could all have changed had there been eleven Scott Parkers in Gianfranco Zola's team on Saturday... Telegraph

Trotters Boss Megson Urges Fabio To Call Up Kev by Chris Wheeler

Very few defenders come out on top in a head-to-head with Kevin Davies - just ask West Ham's Matthew Upson. But there is one battle he seems destined to lose. A senior England cap remains a faint hope for the combative Bolton striker, despite his call-up to Fabio Capello's extended squad for the friendly against Spain earlier this month... Mail

Bolton Stir From Hibernation To Nail Hammers by Guy Hodgson

No one would mistake muscular Bolton Wanderers for a bunch of northern softies but they do not like the cold. Their form dropped like the temperature during the recent freeze so there is no need to look at the thermometer this morning. Just check this result. With the first breath of Spring in the air they recorded only their second win in eight Premier League matches yesterday to soothe relegation concerns that seemed a distant fear when they had six Premier League wins to their name by the end of November. This victory pushed the total to a princely nine... Independent

Taylor And Davies Give Bolton The Points Despite Parker Strike by Steve Bierley

Gary Megson may have felt the need to chant "Remember, remember the wins in November" before this important victory over West Ham United. That had been a golden month for Bolton Wanderers, with four wins out of five, and before this match Wanderers had only won twice since. A dreadful performance away to Everton had piled on the worries and there was huge need for a turn of fortunes... Observer

Hammers Bring Me Back To Reality On Bleecker Street
By Phill Jupitus

New York has hitherto been a place where I have had the word “brash” completely redefined. Imagine the pissiest waiting staff you ever had to deal with. Now imagine a city full of them. However, over these past few days, locals have been helpful, courteous and even, dare I say it, smiling! This proved to be such a culture shock that I craved some negativity just to put my world back in order. I knew just the thing.

Paul Blackman is the former artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre and now lives in Manhattan. Over dinner, talk turned to football and he breezily told us about a bar on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village that shows Premier League games.

So two days later we found ourselves speeding down Park Avenue in a yellow cab, the driver bemoaning the lack of Test match coverage in America. He then mused philosophically that having two jobs and a family, he wouldn’t have much time for cricket anyway. The bar was sparsely filled with various Brits and interested locals.

A smiling girl in a West Ham hat wandered in from the cold and took a seat. Steaming mugs of decent tea were put in front of us and a full English was served. The Fox Soccer Channel is a very American-looking network, hosted by a very upright chap called Christian Miles (which sounds like an evangelical bus company) and Warren Barton, the former Wimbledon player, who has rather fallen on his feet with this gig.

Alongside us was Martin Bashir, the expatriate British journalist with whom I appeared in the UK soccer flick Mike Bassett: England Manager. Being a Chelsea man, he’d just seen them get three points and stayed on to watch us, presumably to look who they’d be buying in the summer. Right up until Matt Taylor’s free kick I was having a laugh. Then the second Bolton goal made me realise it was going to be one of those games and I felt oddly at home.

Hat girl got up and wandered out. “Where are you going?” we asked. “They’re losing!” she whined.

Not having the time to explain the practicalities of life as a Hammer, we let her go. After the final whistle, I realised the things I now hated most about New York were the Yankees and Gary Megson’s smiling face.

Times column

The Siren Song Of Stamford Bridge

Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never.
Kafka

Gary Megson reckons football management is a suicidal occupation and that his days are numbered — along with fellow ‘kamikaze pilot’ Gianfranco Zola. Bolton boss Megson believes he and his West Ham opposite number will soon be for the chop because of the lack of job security for Premier League managers. "You look at Chelsea and Portsmouth sacking their managers in the past couple of weeks and you start to wonder why we put ourselves through this," reflects Megson. "Myself, Zola and countless others, we’ve got the job security of a kamikaze pilot but everyone accepts it. You can have a long-term plan but whether you get the chance to see it through is open to doubt."

If Gianfranco Zola is feeling particularly self-destructive then he should probably avoid all newspapers for the foreseeable future, so intent are they on ushering the Sardinian towards the mantic siren song of Stamford Bridge. The latest beguiling susurration comes via Bill Bradshaw in the Express, who reports that on the day that Guus Hiddink stressed in his first press conference that he would not seek to stay at Chelsea beyond the end of this season, Roman Abramovich has already earmarked Zola and Steve Clarke as his replacement in the summer.

Zola is widely regarded as one of the most successful foreign playing imports into the Premier League during his seven years at Chelsea and his ability as a manager is now having an impact at West Ham. While Clarke, another former Blues player, left Scolari’s coaching staff in fairly acrimonious circumstances earlier this season and many now recognise that his worth as an on-pitch organiser was greatly undervalued during his final months at Chelsea. Bradshaw suggests West Ham United are sure to try to resist any approach for the pair but 'understands' discreet soundings have already been taken about following up Chelsea’s interest at the highest level.

Over at the Sunday Times Juventus Ranieri has added to the insidious media chorus by stating his belief that the Hammers boss is capable of taking charge of Chelsea. "Gianfranco Zola is doing very well as a manager," Ranieri is quoted as saying. "Could he be a good choice for Chelsea? Why not? He has a great history with the club and the fans would be very happy." Ranieri admits, though, that he initially doubted Zola’s suitability for top-flight management. "At the beginning I didn’t think Gianfranco would do so well," he revealed . "I don’t know exactly why I have been surprised by how well he has done, but I just didn’t think he could do this for a big team. Yes, I thought he may be a good coach for younger players, like the under-21s, because he sets a great example. But I’m very happy for him, surprised and very happy."

Away from such choppy waters and Zola hopes to have Kieron Dyer available again next month. The fragile midfielder ended 17 months of injury frustration last month when he returned from a double leg fracture but after making a brief appearance against Barnsley in the FA Cup, picked up a calf problem. Zola has now confirmed that he has undergone another operation, but he should be back in March. "Kieron had another operation which went very well and it wasn't a big thing," the Hammers boss told the Sunday Mirror. "He is already doing something with the physio again and should be available soon." Hopefully also back soon will be James Collins, who is due to undergo a scan today on the hamstring injury that forced him out of yesterday's game. Zola said: "I do not know how long he is going to be out but it does not look good. He will have a scan tomorrow. It is a pity that we will lose him for a while as James has been playing well."

In other news, Histon youngster Lee Brennan is heading to Upton Park for a two-week trial in east London. Brennan spent a week with Manchester United in the summer and Histon manager Steve Fallon believes it is testament to the hard work that has gone into developing his club's youth academy. The talented young striker was one of four promising players to sign a contract at the start of the season and his two-week stint at a Premier League club is a great opportunity for him to further his career, while giving the Stutes' reputation for developing players a significant boost. "Lee has done well and the club have been monitoring him," said Fallon, who believes Brennan could follow in the footsteps of Jack Collison, who was spotted by the Hammers at Cambridge United in 2005. "They will have a look at him over the two weeks and see if they can push him on and be another Jack Collison. Hopefully they'll like what they see. It's great for the Academy."

Finally, United management are said to be delighted with the goalkeeping talent currently at the club. Young stars Adam Street and Deniz Mehmet have been called-up by Canada and Turkey respectively and Academy goalkeeping coach Jerome John said the call-ups were a boost for both the players involved and the club as a whole. He told whufc.com: "Adam has been doing really well. He has worked really hard and has been rewarded with a couple of reserve team appearances. When he has been called upon he has done well and we have high hopes for him for the future. Ludek Miklosko is excited about his prospects and the fact that we have another good young goalkeeper coming through. Deniz has also played well for us and is going to represent his country at an age-group a year higher than he could be playing in. He has recently come back from a successful tournament in La Manga in Spain and is full of confidence. Myself, Ludek and all the coaching staff at the club are all very excited about the promising crop of young goalkeepers we have coming through and there are more to come."

Alongside Street and Mehmet, West Ham also possess England international Robert Green, former Czech Republic Under-21 international Jan Lastuvka - who is on a year-long loan from Shakhtar Donetsk - Czech Under-19 international Marek Stech and Hungary Under-21 international Peter Kurucz. Gianfranco Zola included Kurucz in his squad for yesterday's defeat at Bolton. The 20-year-old goalkeeper has joined on loan from Ujpest in his native Hungary until the end of the season with a view to a permanent transfer. An Under-21 international, Kurucz warmed up with No1 Robert Green and understudy Jan Lastuvka as goalkeeping coach Ludek Miklosko put the shot-stoppers through their paces.

Roger And The Pole Dance

Gianfranco Zola admits he cannot understand those who see the UEFA Cup as a nuisance and is desperate to take his West Ham United side into Europe as soon as possible. Victory at Bolton could lift the Hammers into seventh place in the Barclays Premier League - firmly in contention for next season's rebranded Europa League. For Zola, that would represent a significant triumph. While the Champions League remains a coveted prize, Europe's second competition has suffered from a downgraded status in recent seasons, with Wanderers boss Gary Megson placing it firmly below last season's relegation scrap and Harry Redknapp selecting a shadow Tottenham side against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Zola, who won the UEFA Cup during his time with Parma, insists any continental cup deserves the utmost respect - even if the standard is not quite the same as when he lifted the trophy in 1995. "For me the UEFA Cup is not the same as the one I won with Parma because it is a different story," said Zola. "Only the teams which finished first in their leagues were in the Champions League and those who finished second and third were in the UEFA Cup, so it was a strong competition. Now it is different but it is still a European competition and I would love to be involved in a competition like that. I don't understand why people don't like it but I am sure there are still plenty of teams who want to be in it. Being in the UEFA Cup would be a nice problem to have. If teams don't like the competition, then maybe we should change the format, but for me it a good tournament to be involved in because it can make your team better."

Zola also finished as a UEFA Cup runner-up in 1994 before enjoying success in the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea. He believes the experience of playing overseas can only be good for players. "It's not just the silverware you can get but the chance to give you players some European experience," he said. "I'm not the kind of manager to stop the players from thinking about it. It's good to have ambitious targets and work hard to achieve them. If they want to be ambitious then I am very happy if they work hard to make their ambitions happy."

Meanwhile, things have gone from bad to worse for Julian Faubert. The United loanee has contrived to ease himself out of Real Madrid boss Juande Ramos' plans after just three weeks and about 30 minutes of first-team football. The French midfielder was a substitute in his first week at the club and was then an unused substitute last week. Now Faubert has not been named in Ramos' 19 man squad to play Real Betis tonight despite the fact that the Spanish coach admits he is considering rotating players with one eye on Wednesday's Champions League tie with Liverpool. Ramos said: "Possibly playing one big game and then inside a week being properly recuperated to play another one is too much so there could be rotations."

Elsewhere Pawel Brozek has shamelessly reciprocated the come hither glances of Roger Cross with the player's agent indicating his client would be well up for a move to Upton Park. The Polish striker's goalscoring exploits for Wisla Krakow has brought him to the attention of a plethora of European clubs. He was also the star turn in Poland's recent international game against Wales, earning rave reviews after yet another powerful display. West Ham's chief scout was one of those watching and he has spoken favourably of the players abilities. "I have heard the rumours about interest from West Ham and I believe they watched him playing for Poland," Agent Osuch the Panda told Sky Sports. "Of course Pawel would be interested in a move to West Ham. They are a nice club, they are in London and they are playing good football under Zola. Pawel is the most talked about player in Poland and there are a lot of clubs interested in him from Russia, Germany, France and England. He will stay at Wisla until the summer and then we will see what happens."



Brozek is a combative centre forward who shares some similarities to Dean Ashton (though hopefully not in the ankle or groin department). He has been something of a well kept secret back in his homeland, and only really come into prominence in the last couple of seasons. Now he has seemingly decided it could be time to leave his beloved Krakow and seek a new challenge elsewhere. That's not to say that Ashton no longer figures in Gianfranco Zola's future plans. "For me it is unfortunate because I have not had Ashton in my side before," the Italian said yesterday. "It's a big blow because I know how important he can be for us. I'm sorry especially for him though, being out so long is not an easy thing. He is one of those player whose qualities would be perfect for this team. I'm sure he would like to be involved but when he comes back he will make up for it I'm sure."

The comparatively chaste Ivory Coast international Gervinho has demurred at the possibility of moving to the Premier League after a month of speculation linking him with West Ham United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hostpur, Manchester City and Newcastle United. The 21-year-old striker, who turned in several eye-catching performances for his homeland at the Beijing Olympics, looks set to leave French side Le Mans in the near future as he looks to take his career to the next level. Speaking to Sky Sports, Gervinho revealed: "My future is at Le Mans at the moment. It is here that I belong. Anything else is just a dream at the moment. The Premier League? That is just a dream. One day, maybe next year, maybe in two years, I will go."

Another unsubstantiated report has West Ham United joining Everton in the race for Roma forward Stefano Okaka Chuka according to reports in Italy. The Italian press reported Everton's interest in January and now claim Gianfranco Zola is supposedly ready to join the battle for the Nigerian born striker. Okaka Chuka is an Italian citizen which would allow the striker to move without a work permit. Zola has reportedly been aware of the player's talent since he was the Under-21's boss for Italy and sources on the continent suggest he is now among the front-runners to sign the starlet. Other reports continue to credit the Hammers manager with an interest in Sampdoria's Italian international Antonio Cassano.

Finally, is it possible that someone has miraculously discovered the secret of Danny Gabbidon's mysterious 14 month absence? Speculation is rife across several West Ham forums, sparked by a source claiming to have close connections to the player, that Gabbidon has been suffering from a painful spine alignment problem that was finally identified by the Italian medical staff when carefully analysing his gait. This, according to the physios, was the main cause of his hernias. The source was then isolated to his neck bone alignment, and ultimately, to his jaw. The end result of all that is he had six, or possibly seven, molars removed to realign his jaw, which in turn has got his neck back in kilter. He is now reportedly back in training and has been trying to adjust to a new running style by pounding the roads around Cardiff. Gabbidon apparently has no other issues but is obviously nowhere near match fit yet. I have no idea as to the voracity of this story but it seems genuine and it is nice to have some news of the player (rather than spurious claims of terminal illness, drug abuse, marital problems and debilitating bouts of depression) following such a prolonged silence.

Rising To The Challenge

Gianfranco Zola is all too aware of the challenge posed by Bolton Wanderers on Saturday but is confident his West Ham United side can rise to the occasion. "We know what kind of team they are," stated the Sardinian. "We know they are very physical and we need to find other solutions to get round their physical aspects. We've been working and we will try and surprise them if we can." Zola was just four games into his reign as manager when Gary Megson's men won 3-1 at the Boleyn Ground in October, but the Hammers have evolved as a team since then and go into the match on a lengthy undefeated away run that stretches back to 29 October - just over three weeks since that reverse fixture in east London. United currently sit in eighth place in the Premier League table, with 33 points from 25 matches. A victory could lift the Hammers above Wigan Athletic into seventh position should the Latics fail to win at Middlesbrough this weekend.

Speaking on the official site, the Italian said: "It's going to be a tough match. They are a tough team to play against and this occasion may be a little tougher. But we are going there to do a job and to get the three points that will be vital for us. We will give them all of the respect but we will play our game and try to win. We have quite a good record away from home so it's an opportunity for us to extend our record away from home in a tough match. It's a very important test for me."

West Ham may have to do without Carlton Cole, who had to leave the field against Middlesbrough with a bruised ankle. The Hammers' leading scorer this season has been hard at work at Chadwell Heath, although the game may have come too soon for him. "Carlton Cole, is making very good progress but we don't know if he's going to be available for this match or the match against Middlesbrough," admitted Zola. "He is working very hard and is getting better. Luis Boa Morte is going to be out for two or three weeks due to a groin problem and Lucas Neill is suspended. Apart from that everyone else is available"

If the England international does not recover sufficiently in time for the trip to the north-west, then Zola has faith in the rest of his players, with James Tomkins and Valon Behrami fit again and January recruits Savio and Radoslav Kovac itching for their first starts. "We have enough without Carlton. This team has been doing well because of Carlton but also because of the other players. They have all been very good and I'm sure if Carlton cannot make it, the rest of the team will give an extra bit and we will make sure we will do the job."

Diego Tristan insists he is ready to answer West Ham's striker crisis and shoulder the goalscoring burden in the absence of Cole. The former Deportivo La Coruna forward has vowed to pick up the slack and become the club's new target man. The 33-year-old Andalusian has yet to start a first-team game for the Hammers, but seems certain to be handed a chance after replacing Cole against Boro last weekend. "I have not played much up to this moment, but I hope that now I can play - I'm totally convinced of my abilities," he said. "I have always played [in my career] and it's not something you forget. I'm getting used to being a part of the team and to English football, which is very quick and played at tremendous speed. It is difficult for technical players because the referees never blow the whistle. But I hope I can show my abilities."

Meanwhile, Robert Green insists Gianfranco Zola is the man to bring stability to West Ham. The keeper has served under three bosses since moving from Norwich three years ago and wants the Hammers to shake off their ‘crisis-club’ tag. Reports of boardroom instability from the Carlos Tevez transfer saga has seen the Eastenders lurch from crisis to crisis but Green says that Zola, who has been at the helm for just five months, can take the club to the next level. "It’s been topsy-turvy since I arrived," he told the Daily Star. "Everyone is looking for a crisis-club – and sometimes it’s been West Ham. But we’re on an upward curve, one where we’ve been picking up results with a fairly settled team and managerial staff, and it’s been an enjoyable recent experience."

A further indication of this new found stability has been the decision by Scott Parker to sign a new four-and-a-half year contract. Gianfranco Zola has described his pride at convincing the midfielder to commit his future to West Ham and has urged the club's other stars to follow his lead. Parker was linked with a move to cash-rich Manchester City in January but remained at Upton Park and last week signed a new deal keeping him with the Hammers until 2013. For Zola that represents a significant triumph and he is now hopeful that other key men, including England goalkeeper Green, Lucas Neill and Matthew Upson, will join the midfielder in agreeing extensions.

The Italian insists that tying down Parker, who had a largely unhappy stint with Chelsea following his £10million move from Charlton in 2004, is a step in the right direction. "We are very proud to keep a player like him. It shows we are doing a good job and the players appreciate what we are doing," said Zola. "It's not a matter of money because if it was he would have gone. He likes what we are doing here and that's a positive sign."

Zola enjoyed a rather more distinguished career at Stamford Bridge than Parker and is still looked upon as arguably the club's finest foreign import. But he insists that players should look for time on the pitch more than the glamour - not to mention the financial rewards - available at the likes of Chelsea and City. "I would personally not go to a team who can give me a lot of money but not play me," Zola said. "That is the problem with the squads at the big teams. They have 24 internationals, sometimes more, so they don't get many games."

On the ongoing negotiations with his other top players, Zola added: "Robert Green is due to sign a new contract and the club are also speaking to Lucas Neill. I think they are happy to stay. I don't think he (Neill) asked for a pay rise but I think the club have tried to make him happy. He is a player who has done a lot for us this year and the club want to extend his contract."

Zola also had praise for 20-year-old midfielder Jack Collison, who is likely to remain in the side to face Bolton at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday. Collison, already signed to a lengthy contract, has unexpectedly emerged as a central figure for West Ham this season due to injuries and Zola thinks there is even more to come from the Wales international. "Jack Collison has been a real surprise for me, not just because of his qualities but because of his personality," Zola said. "You can play good matches and bad matches but you can see a player with personality, who is willing to give everything to the game. He has been fantastic in this way. He's a player who is going to become a very, very important player in this country and for West Ham for a long time."

Lastly, Sergio Ramos has hinted that Real Madrid are simply using Julien Faubert as a stopgap on the right wing. Los Merengues right back Ramos feels that Faubert is a long way from being a key player at the Bernabeu and believes that the Frenchman, who is on loan from West Ham, was signed primarily as cover. "A right winger was missing, and we needed a player that wasn’t cup-tied in the Champions League," revealed Ramos. "We play him when needed and he won’t necessarily play every game. Tactically, when we will need to play someone at right midfield, he could be an option."

The Godfather Of Green Street

Ever since Ron Greenwood sent forth Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters from Upton Park to win the World Cup, few teams have done more than West Ham, as their most celebrated fan, Alf Garnett, might put it, "for Queen and bleedin' country". A grateful Buckingham Palace responded when they made them the first club with two former players elevated to the rank of knight, Sir Geoff and then Sir Trevor Brooking. Recognition, perhaps, that throughout the eras, West Ham United have always played as though their famous claret-and-blue shirts were edged in ermine.

They may never have won the championship, but the Hammers have acquired a reputation for doing things in a certain style while producing a constant supply of dazzling young players. According to Greenwood's philosophy: "The crowds at West Ham have never been rewarded by results but they keep turning up because of the good football they see. Other clubs will suffer from the old bugbear that results count more than anything. This has been the ruination of English soccer."

Greenwood's personal epiphany came on a dank November afternoon at Wembley in 1953 when Hungary's Magnificent Magyars trounced England 6-3 in a display of football the like of which the world had never seen. It changed Greenwood's philosophy of the game. Within a decade West Ham, the club he now managed, were imitating the best bits of Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis, sweeping the ball around in intricate patterns, and winning the FA Cup, European Cup-Winners' Cup and providing the backbone of England's successful World Cup-winning side.

That style has continued to evolve over the years, and the name of West Ham is synonymous with open, attacking football. It doesn't always show itself in results, but it is pretty to watch for those who prefer aesthetics. Greenwood died at the grand old age of 84 in 2006, but his life's work still breathes. One of the most adherent of disciples, Tony Carr, is still preaching the Greenwood philosophy six decades on.

Carr, 58, is now the godfather of Green Street, the man who has nurtured the talent emerging from West Ham’s youth academy over the past 35 years. Born in Bow and a lifelong fan he joined West Ham as a 15-year-old apprentice in 1966, polishing the boots of the three returning World Cup heroes. But competition was fierce and the young centre-forward found himself looking for a new club just four years later, ending up at then non-league Barnet. He admits that he did not have the ability to play at the highest level and a broken leg left him considering his future in the game.

"I just didn't have what it takes to be a West Ham player, it's as simple as that," muses Carr. "But I'd been a Hammers fan all my life – one of my earliest memories is gazing in wonderment at the glow of the floodlights from our council estate in Bow – so when John Lyall rang up to ask if I fancied doing a bit of coaching, it was lovely to be given the chance to come `home'. He said 'I heard you broke your leg, what are you doing?'. I said I wasn't doing anything at the moment and he asked me to come and do a little bit of coaching. There was an opportunity of a part-time job. I went for a chat and I took the job on a part-time basis, which was as assistant then to the youth coach, Ronnie Boyce. That was in 1973 and I've been here ever since."

It proved to be an inspired decision by Lyall. The job became full-time in 1980 and Carr's dedication has helped mould some of the greatest players ever to pull on the claret and blue. Of the recent players to have emerged from the self-styled Academy are Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson and Michael Carrick, England internationals all. They say that if West Ham had managed to keep them, they and not Manchester United or Chelsea would be Premier League champions, and at a fraction of the cost; that if you could bottle what Carr knows about football, you would make a fortune.

To a certain extent, Carr did bottle it by producing How To Coach A Soccer Team, subtitled 'Professional advice on building a winning team'. It is a veritable coaching bible; a distillation into 144 pages of more than 30 years' worth of practical knowledge gained on the playing fields of metropolitan Essex, a welter of drills and tips for coaches on how to get the best out of players at all levels. Diagrams, photographs and a simple narrative break the game down into bit-sized chunks that can be integrated into match play. There is even a diagnostic section where common failings are analysed and suggestions offered.

Among many common sense pieces of advice, Carr stresses the "importance of constant practice of the basic skills and techniques of the game by players, no matter how experienced they are - repetition becomes permanent". Rio Ferdinand endorses the approach: "Tony was always brilliant at reducing the game to its vital components - movement, control, passing - and designing drills and games that would hone each of them. It was always both demanding and fun."


Although he is far too modest to admit it, as a polisher of youthful diamonds Carr may be the most influential coach in the land. "No way is it all down to me," he claims. "It's very difficult to say why we've been so successful in youth terms; I suppose it's down to a number of factors but, most importantly, our recruitment area of east London and Essex is really fertile. Also, Upton Park was known as `the academy of football' right back to the days of Bobby Moore – and long before academies became commonplace – so youngsters know they'll be given an opportunity, no matter what age they are. The key is finding the talent – and we always had an outstanding recruitment officer in Jimmy Hampson – then, having found them, nurturing them and giving them the chance when the time is right."

Yet Carr is not resting on his laurels because he knows the work he and his staff do is of incalculable benefit to the club, especially in the economic climate. "You can get mugged with young players – some just don't develop for whatever reason – but you can usually tell when a lad has that something out of the ordinary. Tony Cottee and Jermain Defoe were scoring goals as 10-year-olds, while Rio Ferdinand was a fantastic athlete in the centre of midfield. We only converted him to centre-back when he became a full-time professional."

Freddie Sears, James Tomkins and Jack Collison are the latest academy graduates to make an impression on the first-team squad but Carr is determined to keep the conveyor-belt of talent turning. "We impose a target on ourselves to produce one player every year good enough to go into the first team squad," he says. "Not just signing as a pro but good enough for the squad. That’s a minimum requirement. You’re not going to produce players every year, but if you’ve got five, six, seven or more in the last five years then job done. You might have two years when no-one comes through, but in other years you have two or three. Last year we had three making their debuts – Jack, Freddie and James."

Carr, now 58, has nurtured the fledgling careers of a dizzying array of talent since those salad days of the early seventies, so does anyone really stand out? "There are many players for different reasons," he posits. "When we first spotted Joe Cole it was obvious he had unbelievable talent. But even at that age you can never say this player’s going to play for England or our first team. It’s a gradual process and you never really know if they’re good enough until you put them in the first team, that’s the bottom line. What we do year-on-year is make a judgment using our past experience, assess each individual and see if he’s got what it takes to be a top player – if he’s got the talent and impact in the game."

Glen Johnson is a good example, thinks Carr. "He came here as a centre-forward aged 10, played on the right wing, then centre-back and ended up at right-back in the first team where he made an immediate impact. Now he’s playing for England." Johnson was sold after the Irons’ relegation in 2003, along with Cole, Jermain Defoe and Michael Carrick. Selling academy players swells the club’s coffers, but Carr admitted he would prefer them to stay. Like most West Ham supporters he is all too aware of how the stream of talent he has helped produce has moved on to pastures new and it is only natural to think 'what if...? "Yes. We've often sat around the dinner table with friends and family and said 'If those players were playing for you now, think about that. It's a nice dream over a glass of wine but it was never going to be a reality. I have to be a realist and accept market forces dictate, such as the fire sale we had to have when we got relegated," he reflects.

Carr understands there may come a point when a player has to move on. "If we’ve had good service from him and we end up getting a fair transfer fee for him the fans should accept it’s part and parcel of the game," he says. "It’s up to the youth academy to find the next one. It opens the door for someone else so you mustn’t get too sentimental. I’m a West Ham supporter and always have been, so I’m disappointed in that respect, but I have to put my director’s hat on and say that’s the name of the game. It is sad when you see them move on. You’re not going to get a Bobby Moore or a Trevor Brooking that sign at 16 and stay to 32. That’s not going to happen now or it’s going to be very rare. The ultimate success is they play 500 games for the first team and you sell them for £10million or you win the Champions League. But in terms of getting them in the team and getting a financial return the academy’s given good value."

One aspect Carr would like to see is the replacement of the reserve league with an under-21 league, giving clubs the chance to hang on to late developers. "There are too many people within football who want to discard people too quickly today," notes Carr. "We should keep them until they’re 21, because some people develop late. Not everyone is like Joe Cole, going straight into the team at 17. An under-21 league in place of the reserve league would be great because we may unearth a player later in the system we may have discarded at 18. It may never happen. If there’s a big enough ground-swell from the clubs it’ll happen, but if the clubs don’t want it it’ll not happen."

One player who did slip through the net was England skipper John Terry, who spent five years at the Hammers' academy before heading west to link up with Chelsea at the age of 14. His decision to move still baffles Carr. "You'll have to ask John [about] that," he smiles. "I've never really found out the reason why. I think Chelsea lured him and he felt perhaps a change is what he wanted. You'll have to ask him and his parents because I really don't know the exact reason. I still bump into John now and again and he's still John from east London. He's still the same guy. There's no animosity there. I'm pleased for him. He's done fantastic. He's a great player, a great servant for Chelsea and for England."

Terry is not alone, Kieran Richardson, Jloyd Samuel, Freddy Eastwood, Jimmy Bullard all fell through the Upton Park cracks for varying reasons. Yet Carr is determined to keep unearthing the best young talent for a few more years to come, whether they become international players or not. "I'm still enjoying it. From the day I walked in here I've loved it because every year is different. Every year I have a different squad and every year I have to develop different players. The strategy remains the same but it's just a matter of getting your next group of players to emulate the group who've gone before, so the challenge is always there."

And Carr is certain new manager Gianfranco Zola will be keen for the academy to continue producing top-quality players for the first team. "He's been quoted that he's a great believer in youth development and the academies so I'm sure the relationship with Gianfranco, like it's been with all the other managers I've worked under, will give me the same support at the Academy as all the others did," states Carr. "The club is steeped in that tradition and in my opinion it would be a fool that would try and change that. We have to tinker and change and we have to go with the way the game develops."

One of those developments is likely to be an increase in the number of overseas players finding their way to the Hammers academy. Hungarian teenager Balint Bajner and Holmar Orn Eyjolffson from Iceland are already starring for the youth team and more are likely to follow. It's something Carr accepts as part of the modern game, particularly considering the example of Arsenal, whose success is based on cherry-picking the best young talent in Europe. "There are more foreign young players in the game than there ever was," said Carr. "We won't ever say no to that, and we have brought in one or two young foreign players just to see how we can develop them. But there's nothing like bringing your own through from home. Bringing a kid in at nine or 10 and nurturing him right through like Freddie Sears last year. I remember him coming here as a nine-year-old, a little tiny tot, and to see him score that goal against Blackburn in the Premier League and now establish himself as a good squad member, that's a fantastic pleasure."

There's a strong case for saying Carr is a major influence on England's bid to make South Africa in 2010, although he naturally plays down his role. When the national side runs out to play their World Cup qualifiers he is one man who can perhaps feel prouder than most when he sees Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Jermain Defoe all prominent in England colours, as well as variously Joe Cole, Glen Johnson and Michael Carrick. "I wouldn't like to take the credit for it," he says. "West Ham's youth academy has in some respects produced half the England team, and we take great pleasure in that, especially as the previous youth academy produced the Moore, Hurst, Peters era. We've got a fantastic tradition and I'm just lucky enough to have been in it this long to carry on that tradition, which is what our club's all about.

"There's been some great individuals along the way, like Paul Ince and Tony Cottee, but that little crop that came through - Frank and Rio, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick, then Glen Johnson and Jermain Defoe - are the crux of the England team and you could say they are the best crop [we've had through] because they are that close together. Those six alone are enough to be proud of and I follow all their careers."

So Should England return from South Africa in possession of the World Cup next year, you can expect to hear Garnett's voice reminding the nation, in his own inimitable fashion, that Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, John Terry and Sol Campbell all began their careers as schoolboys in London's East End, as did fellow-England internationals who, for one reason or another, were left behind: Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson and Michael Carrick. Even David Beckham is recorded as having made a few appearances for the West Ham youth team before being snaffled away by Sir Alex Ferguson.

"For a club like ours, I think we can feel rightly proud that we've produced so many England players over the years," says Carr. "It's fantastic that such a large number of the squad have a West Ham connection but, to be honest, I can't remember Beckham ever being with us. I've heard the stories that he played once or twice but I was probably involved with another age group at the time. When I watched Rio, Frank, Joe and Michael all walk out of the ground to join their first England camps, I felt immensely proud for them as people. With Jermain and Glen it was slightly different because they'd moved on to Tottenham and Chelsea by the time they won their caps, so I had to congratulate them by phone. Everyone at the club knew they were all very special young players, but we were obviously biased so it's nice when the England coach shares your opinion."

Since 1973 six managers of the first team squad have come and gone, but Tony Carr remains at his post developing the players of tomorrow. He faithfully begins his work anew every July, when he casts his unerring expert eye over the latest intake in the hope of finding another Bobby Moore in his midst. "That's the really exciting thing about this job, that you start out every new season in the hope of uncovering a little nugget. There's another Frank Lampard out there somewhere and our task is to find him, teach him to take his first steps in football, then sit back and watch him run…" And with that, the lineage conceived at Wembley in 1953 is still alive and kicking.

Learning Lessons

As attention switches to Bolton Wanderers this weekend, and a ground where West Ham United have never won, Robert Green has been talking about the need to heed the lessons from Saturday's draw with Middlesbrough. The Hammers go into their Barclays Premier League clash at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday looking to end a run of two matches without a win, and Green believes he and his team-mates need to start more positively and take the initiative if they are to get one over Gary Megson's side this weekend.

"It was frustrating [against Middlesbrough] as we didn't play nearly as well as we could do," he admitted. "We gave it a go in the second half and, without playing well and not being at it as much as we should have been, we created more than enough chances to win the game. With Carlton [Cole] going off injured, the one positive we can take from it is that we didn't lose. I think we've learnt a lesson that if we aren't 100 per cent on our game we won't always win. If we can take that from it into Saturday's game at Bolton - which is a massive game for us - and then Middlesbrough again then we'll have learnt a lesson and really go for it. In that respect there is something to take from it at least.

"We didn't lose and it carries on the good run we've been on, bar the Manchester United game. If we can carry that on and learn our lessons then we'll take each game as it comes and keep taking steps forward. Saturday wasn't the best performance but there are going to be games like that. We know where we've gone wrong and if we didn't know then we'd start to worry. But we know we didn't start well and didn't get hold of them. We'll take that as a positive and as a lesson and keep practicing in the games to come."

James Collins is the first to admit his own culpability in that disappointing display against Middlesbrough. The 25-year-old Welsh defender stated: "It was one of those games really. We knew we were shocking. The first half was terrible and the worst we've been for a long time, but luckily we got the late goal and we're still in the hat." Both Collins and Upson were at fault for the Boro goal on 22 minutes as Gary O'Neil's cross evaded both defenders before finding Stewart Downing on the far post to nod home. But the Welshman may have an explanation for the unexpected mistakes. "I'm not making excuses, but those balls really aren't the best," explained Collins, who has now amounted 27 caps with the Welsh national team. "Matty looked as if he was going to head it clear and then before you know it, it was right on me, and I've missed it as well. It's just one of those things, but to concede a goal like that was disappointing. It was bad defending and we should have cleared it."

Collins will be desperate for the Hammers to get through in their replay next Wednesday as he has the added incentive of having missed out on a place in West Ham's final team back in 2006. The Welshman played the semi-final, but Anton Ferdinand and Danny Gabbidon got the nod for the final at the Millennium Stadium, leaving Collins as an unused substitute. "It was a fantastic time in my career and that will stay with me for a long time, those celebrations after the semi-final," reminisced the defender. "Not being in the final was hard to take, so I'd like to go there and get as far as possible. Some of the boys haven't been to a final before, it's an amazing occasion and hopefully we can do it this year."

With Dean Ashton and Gabbidon on the long-term injured list, Collins is the only player left in the current squad who was at that cup final against Liverpool less than three years ago. "I think I'm the only one in the squad that played in that semi-final," said Collins. "Players come and go and you sign new players, but I'm just delighted to still be involved now." It hasn't been an easy West Ham career for the giant Welshman. Injuries as well as dropping down the pecking order, has meant just 58 appearances in three and a half years of football, and even this season Calum Davenport was preferred to him at the beginning of the campaign. Collins, though, seems to have finally cemented his place in the starting line-up and he is certainly enjoying his football under manager Gianfranco Zola. "Everyone knew Gianfranco's name was going to be linked with Chelsea," said Collins. "But he's come here and done a fantastic job and all the boys are buzzing playing their football under him and long may that continue."

Zola, himself, insists he has ‘toughened up’ and learned a lot during his first six months in charge, and he claimed that the team would go from strength to strength as the players grow more accustomed to his methods. "At the beginning for me it was all new and obviously I had to improve certain things, learn certain things," he said. "I had to learn something more from my players and from the job and everything. I think it toughened up myself and also the team. But now we are going to get better."

Finally, the club have been linked with a £5million summer move for Poland striker Pawel Brozek as the club continue the search for a long-term replacement for Craig Bellamy. Brozek has been on the radar of a number of leading European clubs during a prolific career at Wisla Krakow, where he has netted 58 goals in 130 games and earned 16 senior caps for his national team.

Now several media outlets have suggested the Hammers have joined the chase for the 25-year-old forward after sending chief scout Roger Cross to monitor Brozek in Poland's friendly international against Wales last week. Despite making only a brief appearance as a late substitute, Brozek's performance reportedly convinced Cross that the striker can be a hit in the Premier League. "His first touch is among the best I have ever witnessed," Cross told polishsoca.com, a football website. "The lad knows when to place a solid touch on the ball, as well as when to play a deft flick it on in the lightest manner. [His display was] very pleasing." West Ham would have to wait until the summer to finalise any deal for Brozek, who is also attracting interest from French outfit Nancy, but Hammers technical director Gianluca Nani is reportedly confident that a £5million bid would secure the player's signature.

Zola's Core Values

West Ham United have been boosted by the news that Carlton Cole has not broken his ankle, after it was originally feared the Hammers striker faced a long spell on the sidelines. Cole hobbled out of United's fifth round FA Cup draw with Middlesbrough on Saturday with an ankle injury, but an X-ray showed no breaks and, subject to a scan, the striker is targeting a return against Manchester City on March 1. A statement from the club read: 'A positive X-ray on Sunday showed no fracture and, ahead of an MRI scan to come, it is hoped the sprain could lead to only a two-week absence at worst.'

That will be a huge boost Gianfranco Zola, who is momentarily left with veteran Diego Tristan, 33, on-loan David Di Michele and youngster Freddie Sears, 19, as his only options up front. Perhaps mindful of the lack of depth, Zola has been keen to express his delight with Savio Nsereko's recent contributions. The United boss insisted the new recruit is "learning quickly and ahead of schedule" although reiterated the exciting forward still needs time. "He has been playing in a second division team in Italy," Zola stated on the club site. "I see he has good qualities but he needs time to settle. The game here is such you can't even imagine the difference in speed to Serie B in Italy. The best is to come from him. When he came on [against middlesbrough], he made a difference so I am sure that is going to be a big boost for him."

Carlton Cole's fitness has been brought into even sharper focus following the revelation that Dean Ashton will not play again this season. West Ham’s injury-jinxed hitman is still recovering after undergoing a third operation on his troublesome left ankle. The Hammers had hoped Ashton would play again this term after he first suffered the injury in training back in September. Yesterday, however, the England star admitted: "I’m looking to get myself back for pre-season now. I don’t want to come back unless I’m right."

In the meantime, Ashton has urged West Ham to ease his Upton Park injury hell by qualifying for next season's UEFA Cup. West Ham sit eighth in the Premier League and are currently seven points behind Everton, who currently occupy the final assured UEFA spot. A seventh-placed finish could be enough to qualify for Europe though, should Tottenham fail to retain the Carling Cup when they face Manchester United on March 1. Ashton has watched in admiration as United have lost just once in their past 10 games and still harbours hopes of winning the FA Cup. "With the position we're in at the moment, I don't see why we can't strive for Europe," Ashton said. "The team has been doing really well. Slowly but surely, the manager and Steve Clarke have really put their mark on the side. You can tell that by the way the team are playing and passing the ball about. It looks like a really good team to be playing in and the boys are doing really well. I'm not sure what has changed. I think a few wins boosted our confidence, we've had some good results and the defence has done really well. At the moment we've done well to get away from the relegation places and cement ourselves in mid-table but now the players can strive to do even better."

Elsewhere, Gianfranco Zola has hinted that England pair Robert Green and Matthew Upson could soon be offered new, long-term contracts. Green and Upson were two players who attracted interest during the January transfer window. A third, Scott Parker, has just signed an improved deal and captain Lucas Neill could soon follow. "There are players that have been very important this season on and off the pitch," said Zola, whose team, provided they beat Middlesbrough in next week's FA Cup replay, have been drawn away to Everton in the quarter-finals. "They are the core of this team and I believe they can be the core of this team for a long time. The club knows this and they are offering them contracts and they deserve that. It is good for stability. They are positive players and they will help us to build something important."

Zola has already stated that captain Lucas Neill remains a much-needed player at the club. Constant speculation has had the Socceroos captain linked with a move away from Upton Park but he has confirmed that he wants to stay at the club and now his manager has publicly revealed his desire to retain Neill. "Hopefully soon Lucas Neill will be signing a contract," he said. "Things are going well here we just need to understand that we want this to be for a long time. The idea is to make a blend of experienced players and young talented players to mix together and perform."

Frissons Garantis

The latest entry on Herita Ilunga's personal blog carries a brief video of the Hammers faithful giving full voice to I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles. It is chills guaranteed says the Irons left-back, who is clearly embracing the fire and the fury of English football, and in particular, the FA Cup. The Congolese defender scored United's 83rd-minute equaliser to salvage a 1-1 fifth-round draw against Middlesbrough at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday. The goal was Ilunga's second for the club - the other coming in the 3-0 third-round victory over Barnsley last month.

Naturally, says the official site, the defender was delighted to get his name on the score-sheet for a second time, but Ilunga was even happier to have ensured the Hammers were in the sixth-round draw and contemplating a possible tie away at Everton. "The most important thing for me is to play well and help the team achieve our targets," he said. "If I can score a goal then that's even better. The most important thing is for us all to do well as a team, but of course I am happy to have scored."

Ilunga's late header from substitute Savio's curling free-kick cancelled out Stewart Downing's first-half opener and, at the same time, ended the home side's frustrating search for a vital equaliser. Now, the two teams must face each other again in a televised replay at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday week. "Of course it is important that we are still in the FA Cup but it would have been preferable for us to win the game instead of having to play an extra game with the replay. But as we have to play them again, I am confident and hope that we can go up there and get the win."

Before that replay, however, West Ham have the tricky prospect of a Premier League trip to Bolton Wanderers to attend to. United have never tasted victory at the Reebok Stadium but Ilunga, who has committed his long-term future to the club, is confident that unwanted record can be laid to rest this coming weekend. "We are still thinking positively as we have been over the last few weeks and even though we drew against Middlesbrough, it will not take our confidence away from us. Now we are looking forward to playing at Bolton in the Premier League and then after that we will think about Middlesbrough and the replay."

Gianfranco Zola was again full of praise for the popular defender yesterday, reiterating that Ilunga "is going to stay with us for a long time". Addressing the media, the Sardinian enthused: "He is playing well. I don't think there are many left-backs playing as well as he is now. He is very good defensively but also very good coming forward. He is a very good player. His character is unbelievable. He has played all the games and he is always manages to get something out of them. I am very pleased with him. He is a very good signing for us. He doesn't speak much English but it is not down to the language. It is just the way he is. He doesn't speak very much but he is one of those people that acts more than he talks."

One man who not quite so pleased with Herita Ilunga's latest goal-scoring contribution is comedian Phill Jupitus. Writing in his Times column, he explains how the Congolese defender has ruined his next two weeks...

While I’m not a superstitious person, I have tempted fate in a fairly massive way this week and I am starting to get a slightly uneasy feeling.

Every year the beautiful Irish town of Kilkenny becomes a focal point for comedians from all over the world. Drawn by the promise of sold-out gigs and free-flowing drink, it’s less like a festival and more like a massive three-day bender with punchlines. So it was with some delight that I took a phone call from my agent saying that I’d been invited to perform there this year as part of their improvised comedy show.

This was brilliant news; not only would I get to do some gigs, but I’d also get the opportunity to see brilliant American stand-ups such as Lewis Black and Dom Irrera.

I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to ask me. Of course my answer was an enthusiastic yes. “There is a catch though mate . . .”

Catch? What kind of catch could there possibly be? Was our venue going to be a dry Catholic church hall? Were they paying us in flimsy sterling instead of the ever-dependable euro? Would we have to learn Gaelic?

There was a pause before he said: “It’s Cup Final day . . .” Vastly conflicting thoughts go through your head almost immediately. Surely the likelihood of us getting to Wembley is fairly slender.

There’s still plenty of meaty opposition to get past, we’ve got injury troubles, so being realistic we’re not going to get to the final. I’ll take the gig. But then you start to think that actually we’re playing really well. The side is defending well and we can create problems for teams when we’re going forward, we’ve got a few England squad members, so being realistic, we’ve got every chance of getting to the final.

These contrary ideas then bang back and forth like an interminable Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe rally. I know that for many people there would be absolutely no question and they would not take anything else if their team was in with the slightest chance of a place in the FA Cup Final.

I am not one of these people, so I took the gig and for a while on Saturday while Middlesbrough held the lead, shamefully thought that I had been sensible in doing so. Then Hérita Ilunga scored his late equaliser and in doing so, ruined my next two weeks.

Facing The Boo Boys

Gianfranco Zola has backed Luis Boa Morte to beat the West Ham hate mob which is making the winger’s life a misery. The Hammers boss has been stunned at the stick Boa Morte has taken this season and he wants fans to get off his back. The player was serenaded with a chorus of boos and ironic cheers when he limped out of Saturday's FA Cup draw with Middlesbrough with a groin injury that will keep him out for a month.

The injury is the latest in a series of niggles that have dogged the Portuguese international's miserable stay in East London. In addition, a series of erratic displays and a paucity of goals (One in 30 league starts to be precise) has hardly endeared Boa Morte to the Upton Park faithful, who have never really embraced him in the way Fulham fans did at his previous club.

During those tumultuous six and a half years at Craven Cottage, Boa Morte thrilled the home fans with his mixture of speed, skill and spite. The latter quality has always been a distinguishing feature of his game, leading to a relationship with referees which once prompted former Fulham manager Chris Coleman to joke that his side would never have a chance of qualifying for Europe through the fair play trophy while Boa Morte was in the side. Balancing the indiscretions, however, was a sequence of performances which yielded a regular if modest contribution of goals but always a major contribution in terms of influence and dynamism. Boa Morte always had the power to transform football matches.

It was a power which Arsène Wenger appreciated very early on, as, in one of his first signings upon joining Arsenal, he paid Sporting Lisbon £1.75m for their hugely promising 20-year-old winger in 1997. In the two years Boa Morte spent at Highbury he picked up Premiership and FA Cup winners' medals as part of the 1997-98 Double squad, although he missed out on the FA Cup final itself. Let go by Arsenal after he failed to earn a regular first-team place, he was signed for Southampton by Dave Jones in August 1999, but by January of the following year Jones had been replaced by Hoddle. And Hoddle, as Boa Morte recalls with a wry smile, was not a fan of his style of football.

"I only played three times for him, and at the end of the season he told me I wasn't part of his plans and I could go," recalls Boa Morte. "But it was the end of July and I had difficulty getting another club. Even Huddersfield said no, they had a full squad, they didn't need anyone. I was struggling to get a club and I got a bit lost. I thought to myself, 'What am I going to do?' And then it came to my mind to phone Mr Wenger to ask for his help. He was always very clear with me when I was at Arsenal. He was very good."

Wenger contacted his fellow Frenchman Jean Tigana, then in charge of Fulham, and arranged a trial, after which Boa Morte joined on a year's loan. That move became permanent after a season in which Fulham won the First Division with a record number of 101 points, with Boa Morte contributing 18 goals in 39 appearances. Thus was launched a Fulham career which ended only when Boa Morte moved across London to Upton Park in the January transfer window two years ago for a fee believed to be around £5million. He was plunged straight into a relegation battle, but played a part in West Ham's unlikely recovery as they remained unbeaten in their last nine games, contributing a crucial first goal in a 3-0 win at fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic which seemed to convince players and fans alike that Premier League status might yet be retained.

Yet the boos never relented and Boa Morte's form has continued to be sporadic, especially in front of goal. "It's been one of my most difficult periods in football since I came to West Ham," he says. "But I'm always able and ready and up for the fight, you know, I'm not going to turn my back away. We are in a better position as a club, so of course I feel better. Personally I just need to score one or two goals to get the thing going because I have been putting in the hard work to get back from my injuries but it is just the scoring bit that hasn't come along. It's been my fault because I have had a few chances, so I'll keep working hard."

Zola says he just doesn’t understand the boos from the fans for him. "He has been fantastic for us and every time he has played he has done a proper job for the team," he points out. "In the dressing room he has been great, too. Every manager wants a player like him in their squad. He does not deserve the treatment he is getting right now and, of course, it affects him — it would affect anybody." Boa Morte turned down a move to Hull last month over personal terms, the decision of a distinctly unambitious player on ridiculous wages scoffed the Mail at the time. Not so, insisted Zola yesterday. "Luis wanted to prove he can be useful rather than leave. He has my utmost respect."

It is not a view shared by a vociferous section of the West Ham support. "I will take the blame," says Boa Morte. "That's a side of football that exists, and we are here to take that. My back is big enough to take the boos for missing chances. But it is not big enough to take the boos for not working hard. That I won't take from the West Ham supporters or any other person. If someone says that, I won' t turn my face away."

As he speaks, his expression hardens, and you begin to see how this slight, amiable character becomes someone else on the pitch. He is unapologetic about the aggressive side of his game, which he believes stems from the attitude he established as the second youngest of 10 boys being raised by his mother in the Lisbon suburb of Quintela. Speaking to the Independent last year, he said: "Whatever people think of me, my way to be on the pitch is my way and I'm not going to change. My way to be in football is working hard and fighting, because whatever I have got in life in these days, it's because I did work hard and fight for it.

"My dad wasn't at home all the time, so my mum looked after us. I used to lie to my mum about how I'd done in my exams and when I was going to school. She couldn't keep up because she was so busy working. She would get up at 6.30am in the morning and be back home at 7.45pm to cook for all the kids and get things ready for the next day. I gave up school when I was 15. It's something I don't want my kids to do. I would like them to have a good time at school and then good careers and university. I did some naughty stuff as a kid. I told my mother recently what we used to do. She almost had a heart attack!"

But the young Luis had a big talent – he was signed up by Sporting at the age of 11 and was soon playing in one of their junior teams. He also had the determination, or pig-headedness, observes Mike Rowbottom, not to let his opportunity go to waste. "One thing that was hard in my life was to leave school and start working. I worked in a supermarket, then I worked repairing engines on fridge-freezers. Then I was working as an electrician. So one thing that really hurt me was to get up at 5.30 in the morning and catch the bus at quarter past six. That was hard because by the end of the day, when I'd finished work, and when I'd finished training, I would get home about 10pm and I'd sit and try to watch TV and I would just go to sleep.

"My mum said to me 'It's hard, isn't it? Go back to school...' But because I took the option to start working I was not going to give up. I never give up. I always try to get a better job, better conditions. So that was the same thing in football. To move to Arsenal was a big surprise, a big gamble for me. I never had any regrets about going to Highbury because it was a big help to my career to play with people like Marc Overmars and Dennis Bergkamp. Then I move to Southampton, it was smaller than Arsenal. Then things didn't end up well at Southampton and I ended up going lower to Fulham because they were in the Championship. But then from Fulham I start building up again, because we fought and we did all we could and we got promoted. Then we were fighting for our lives in the Premiership every single season, apart from when we had a great season and finished ninth.

"That's the way that things go. You find sometimes you have downs in life, but you can never give up. You keep fighting to get back to the top. And because I have achieved, I am not going to give up now. I'm expecting to play until I am 35, 36 so I have to keep going." Boa Morte, who has a year and a half remaining on his current contract, added that he has looked into the possibility of returning to Portugal to end his career - but admits that he has received no rock-solid offers as of yet. "At the moment nothing’s for sure," he added, "but whatever happens, West Ham United will need my agreement if they want to make a deal."

And now Boa Morte, glancing at his watch, has to get going – back home to Romford, where his wife, Sarah, is looking after their two lively young daughters. With a nine-year-old son in Lisbon, Luigi Jnr, this most committed of midfielders has plenty of motivation to maintain his career, even with the Upton Park boos ringing in his ears.

West Ham United 1 Middlesbrough 1

Gianfranco Zola Breaks Boro's Hearts by Nick Townsend

By half-time the mood was nudging the mutinous in the toilets of the main stand. It wouldn’t have surprised Gianfranco Zola. The Italian already knows enough about the vicissitudes of Premier League club management.

“He needs to make some changes if he’s going to turn this round. We can’t lose to this lot,” muttered one Hammers’ fan darkly, alluding to a manager who, he had obviously quickly forgotten, had turned derision to approaching deification in recent weeks... Sunday Times

Middlesbrough Fail To Capitalise As Sorry West Ham Eke Out A Draw by John Ley

The curse of Gianfranco Zola returned to haunt Gareth Southgate again when Middlesbrough were seven minutes from confirming their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the fourth year in succession, before a woefully inept West Ham won a replay they did not deserve when Herita Ilunga stole a late equaliser... Sunday Telegraph

Zola's Core Values Give Hammers Reason To Be Hopeful by Simon Cass

The last time these sides met in the FA Cup, West Ham progressed to the Millennium Stadium and a heartbreaking shoot-out defeat by Liverpool, while Middlesbrough rounded off their season with a UEFA Cup final thrashing at the hands of Sevilla.

A measure of just how much West Ham and Middlesbrough have struggled for stability in the three years since is that they each started with just one player - James Collins and Stewart Downing respectively - from the teams who met in that semi-final at Villa Park... Mail

Ilunga The Copycat Leaves It Late To Keep Zola In Hunt by Daniel King

Both Gareth Southgate and Gianfranco Zola have had cause to be grateful to the FA Cup and they will live to fight another day after Herita Ilunga's late equaliser snatched a draw which West Ham just about deserved. Under Southgate's stewardship, good cup runs have acted as a catalyst for the improved league form which has saved Middlesbrough from relegation, and Stewart Downing's first-half goal seemed to have earned them a third consecutive place in the sixth round... Mail on Sunday

Ilunga Strike Keeps Zola's Dream Alive by James Wrigley

Gianfranco Zola has great affection for the FA Cup and spoke about its "unique" traditions after seeing his team stay in the competition with a late equaliser against Middlesbrough. He is finding a global audience for his passion, too. West Ham earned a replay thanks to a goal from the Congolese defender Herita Ilunga created by Savio Nseroko, a German youth international of Ugandan origin... Independent

Ilunga Strikes Late To Deny Battling Boro by Jamie Jackson

Gianfranco Zola stated ahead of this FA Cup tie that he was "very curious to see how the team reacts to a defeat." Well, what he saw will have heartened him because despite leaving it late to avoid a second consecutive defeat, broadly speaking at least, West Ham were very good. Especially because after Middlesbrough had scored when nothing seemed less likely – Stewart Downing's first-half header profiting from an amateurish attempted clearance by James Collins — Zola's team went to sleep before Herita Ilunga's 82nd-minute header levelled the tie to force a deserved replay... Observer

Brown Fizz And Green Street

Brown fizz and Green Street is the real thing: Joseph Gobbels would have felt the grooming of a five-year-old to be 'one-sided and prejudicial'
By Russell Brand

Last Sunday I took a friend's five-year-old son to Upton Park to see the Hammers beaten by Manchester United. It was part of a campaign to indoctrinate young Oliver into a life of supporting West Ham and the vehemence with which I undertook his inculcation would be frowned upon by even the most ardent stalwarts of al-Qaida; "Calm down," they might say, "let him make his own mind up."

The first half was goalless and Oliver was sat with his father and was far more interested in Coca-Cola, which he, like most children, unquestioningly regards as some celestial liquor; were he not so stupidly young I would assume that he thought it to contain properties that grant eternal youth – perhaps it does, he does look young, perhaps that's his secret. Somehow Coca-Cola, which is essentially just a brown drink, has successfully convinced a five-year-old that their product is more important than a Premier League clash between the champions of Europe and the most romantic club in the world.

The young man's mind remained enraptured with effervescent sludge through the first 45 minutes and during the half-time interval – usurping even the presence of West Ham legend Tony Cottee, who visited us in our corporate, corporeal box (sorry, it's just you get a cup of tea with crossed hammers on the saucer – who can resist that? Who?). Tony may, in dimensional terms, be smaller than a sexy little bottle of Coke, but he certainly has a lot more fizz, but in the eyes of a child "there ain't nothing like the real thing".

I determined that in the second half I would enthuse the youngster with the prospect of a squandered life of unfulfilled potential; following West Ham is the football-supporting equivalent of glue-sniffing, so obviously the first thing I had to do was separate him from his fuddy-duddy daddy, who was granting the malleable tot all manner of superfluous autonomy and care.

With him safely perched upon my knee I had full access to his brain via his little lughole. I gave him his own whispered, personal, highly partisan commentary which made up for what it lacked in factual accuracy with bone-chilling propaganda, anti-Manc-scaremongering and filthy lies. Here are some exerts from that commentary which Joseph Goebbels would've called "one-sided and prejudicial".

First I had to set up the distinction between the teams – "the ones in white, Ollie, usually they wear red and are called the Red Devils – because they are so evil. In fact that fella way out on the right, No7, juggling the ball, see him? He can only do that as he makes daily, human sacrifices to Satan." He looked up at me with his beautiful, open face: "Really, uncle Russell?" I stared into the perfect eyes that searched my own for signs of duplicity. "Yes." I replied unflinchingly "Usually little boys." He nodded nervously. "The ones we like are in claret and blue, they are brave men and they love children." He eyed me quizzically: "They seem confused – they keep kicking the ball out." "They're just excited," I said.

When Ryan Giggs scored a rare right‑footed goal, I told Oliver that Manchester United win matches because they have more money than us and they cheat. I pointed to Mark Noble and said: "He's from Leytonstone, where you're from – one day you could play for West Ham." I don't know if Mark Noble is from Leytonstone or if Ollie could ever cut it as a pro, but I said it with commitment and I saw that he was beginning to be seduced.

When vocal waves of disapproval went around the ground – condemning the woeful refereeing – Ollie took his hands from over his ears and began to join the mob; I rewarded his compliance with more delicious cans of tooth decay. By the match's end I had entirely brainwashed the innocent – we stepped into the disgruntled, ambulant sea that is post-whistle Green Street while I louchely tattooed the willing youngster with the insignia of the ICF. The process made me question my own inherited allegiance; was I conveying a valuable gift to the next generation or bequeathing a miserable burden upon the progeny of a chum?

Has supporting West Ham made me a happier man? This can never be ascertained, of course, and was only even examined in retrospect, after I'd been into the club shop and bedecked the boy in claret and blue from the top of his head to the tip of his shoes. Having learned the lessons of the carbonated sex-pop company that consumerism is the way to a child's affections, I served up cuddly toys, pencil cases, kits and an alarm clock – all tokens of his new enforced identity.

Richard Dawkins rightly scoffs at the idea of "a Muslim baby or a Christian birth", observing that these attributes are acquired and not innate and that it would be absurd to refer to a baby as a "Stoke City fan" or a "violinist" – perhaps that's why these non-genetic traits are so zealously pushed. As yet I have no sons and thus hope in my dotage, should that ever be achieved, I'll seek comfort as the light dies from a man I once held, amidst a crowd that to him then seemed infinite, and we'll talk of faded dreams in claret and blue.

Guardian Column

Visions Of Sparky

Gianfranco Zola reckons he can see shades of Mark Hughes, his old Chelsea team-mate, when he watches Carlton Cole in action and he is hoping West Ham's fledgling England striker will prove just as adept in helping him savour more FA Cup glory.

The fifth-round meeting with Middlesbrough at Upton Park today rekindles special memories for Zola since it was against them that he celebrated what he calls his happiest hour in football, Chelsea's 2-0 victory in the 1997 Cup final at Wembley. Hughes picked up a winner's medal alongside him that day and now the Italian cannot help comparing Cole, who earned his international debut against Spain this week, to his brilliant Welsh former team-mate.

Speaking in today's Telegraph, Zola said: "More than any other player, he reminds me of Hughes, especially when he's holding the ball up. Hughes was fantastic at holding and protecting the ball; Carlton may be not as good as him but he's very close. He's also very fast. All he has to improve is his finishing, which is maybe not as good as his control of the ball, but he's on the way, he's working hard and I'm sure he'll fill that gap."

Zola is credited with bringing the best out of the 25-year-old whose career began at Chelsea just as the Italian's was nearing its conclusion. He has been impressed by a recent hot goalscoring streak during which Cole has netted in six of the last nine West Ham games and was disappointed that his one opportunity in England's match against Spain ended with his goal-bound shot being scrambled off the line.

Yet he is convinced that Cole will continue to improve dramatically. "He is one of those players who doesn't even realise how good he is," said Zola. "He doesn't realise completely but he's getting better and better and, for me, he's not even near to his peak yet."

In other news, West Ham midfielder Scott Parker signed a new contract which ties him to United until 2013. The England midfielder, who put pen to paper on the new deal yesterday afternoon, said on the club's official website: "I am very happy, pleased and excited – especially after all the speculation in the transfer window – that I can now put that to rest and sign a new long-term contract. In the last few weeks, the way the club is going and the direction that the manager and the board want to go is something I want to follow."

The former Charlton, Chelsea and Newcastle player continued: "By signing my new contract, it says that I want to do this as well. It also says a lot about West Ham. There have been a lot of negative things written, saying there was a crisis and all of that. This shows that West Ham are in a position to keep their players when others want them and as a player and for the fans, that is a great thing. The manager showed a real desire to keep me. He sees me as a massive part of the squad and that meant a lot to me, especially when there were things being written everywhere. So I am delighted to sign."

Parker follows England strikers Dean Ashton and Carlton Cole in committing himself to the club long-term, while Herita Ilunga and youngsters Jack Collison and Freddie Sears have done likewise. Zola said: "This is great news. Scott is an excellent player and it is good to have him at our service for more years. We have a long-term view, and we need time to set up our project and give it a chance to grow. The club are sticking to this policy and it is brilliant. It means we are really serious about everything that we have said."

The club's chief executive Scott Duxbury said: "Scott is a hugely important player and his belief in the club's vision is a fantastic boost for everyone at West Ham. He has been tremendous this season, not only with his individual performances but for his example and leadership to the talented youngsters we have coming through. Added to the absolute assurances Gianfranco has given fans this week about his long-term commitment, this agreement is a further sign that we can all look forward. Today's news underlines that a lot of nonsense has been written and said about this club in recent weeks. It is clear that even if external forces try to destabilise us, nothing will stand in the way of our football project and our efforts to bring success to this club and our supporters."

Easy-Peasy Street

Even for the nicest bloke in football, it must have been hard for Gianfranco Zola not to scream at his interrogators, writes Ian Chadband in this morning's Telegraph. If he was asked just once for his thoughts on the Chelsea situation, he must have been asked a dozen times. "Look, [Chelsea] is a club that I wish they do very well and I think Clarkey feels the same, but I would like to talk about West Ham," the United manager pleaded not unreasonably. Sorry, no chance, Franco.

So he obliged the press obduracy as he always does. With charm, patience and a smile, telling them how he wished his old employers the very best in their current maelstrom. Still, the more he then started enthusing about his grand project in east London, having only been appointed in mid-September to a first managerial role, the more the favourite player in Chelsea's history gave his audience reason to wonder why the hell he would ever want to go west again after the latest happenings in the Stamford Bridge madhouse.

It was summed up in one lovely phrase, observes Chadband, which he can only have picked up in a former life from Dennis Wise. Was he enjoying his time at West Ham? "For me, it's easy-peasy," he grinned. Easy-peasy because he could wake up every morning feeling his job was secure and his players were all batting for him. Easy-peasy because the West Ham hierarchy "like my ideas and have let me do my job the way I want". Easy-peasy because he could go to the Chadwell Heath training ground, confident he was going back to "one of the best environments and happiest dressing rooms" he had experienced in sport.

Zola, of course, has slowly turned things around following a difficult period before Christmas, with the Irons currently sitting eighth in the Premier League and preparing for an FA Cup fifth-round tie against Middlesbrough this weekend. The former Chelsea man, though, is aware things could have been very different. He has already seen five Premiership changes so far this season and looked on shaky ground when West Ham went on a disastrous run, winning just one game in 12. His mind wanders back to those first couple of months at Upton Park when the results weren't coming. "A manager cannot do a job that easily in football. You need to plan, you need to be allowed special time just to change your players and the shape of the team. For me, it took a long time and, maybe if I'd been at another club, after two months I'd have been sacked," he mused.

Another club like, er, Chelsea. Luiz Felipe Scolari coached Brazil to victory the 2002 World Cup and yet was given only 36 games before being sacked by Roman Abramovich.

Of course, Zola couldn't possibly say that. He refused to be drawn on just what he thought had gone wrong at Stamford Bridge under the Brazilian, with reports of dressing-room unrest. "It is very difficult for me to get into the opinions," said the Hammers manager. "Chelsea are a winning side and want to stay on that side most of the time. It is not easy because things are so competitive, but the club has got its own way of running things and if they believe it's not right, they can change."

The affable Sardinian enjoyed a hugely successful spell with Chelsea, and is still revered by the club's supporters – with a banner unfurled at the game against Hull calling for his messianic return. "Its very pleasant and means they have a lot of faith and trust in me," said the 42-year-old. "The only thing I can express is that Steve [Clarke] wants to say, [we] wish them to do very well." Zola is not about to throw darts in the direction of his old worshippers with a potential scenario this summer where West Ham's financial problems have taken another turn for the worse and Chelsea are looking for an old heroic saviour after a failed stopgap Guus Hiddink experiment, one who's just completed a hugely impressive first season in the Premier League with another old Bridge favourite Steve Clarke.

So could he give an assurance that he would be still at West Ham next year, he was asked. Naturally, he couldn't – and why should he in this fickle business? asks Chadband. "No, I'm here and that's the important thing. That's all I can say about that," Zola said. "I'm enjoying myself and my job here isn't finished. My duty now is to improve this team so it gets better. So far I haven't given this club enough; this is just the beginning. I am very happy with what I am doing here. We have a project and we are still starting. I don't like planning long-term. I always like to stick to the present. I don't know what the future holds. If you asked me seven months ago if I would be a manager I would have said no. There is a long way to go and I have got a lot to learn and a lot to give to the club." He is easy to believe, especially when he talks about repaying faith and loyalty "absolutely" to the club whose gamble on him has resulted in returning flair at the Boleyn and a recent run of just one defeat in nine matches.

And anyway, the experience of Scolari, turfed out while lying fourth in the league, has evidently made him realise that the grass is not always greener. Could he imagine what it was like to be the Brazilian? "Yeah, but I'm not in Scolari's place. Chelsea is a place I care very much about and all I can do is wish them well. Hiddink I'm sorry for, Scolari as well," shrugged Zola. "He's gone to a team that wants and expects to do well – I suppose there's a price to pay."

Of course, it's too early to judge how fine a manager Zola will be. He's so accommodating, so pleasant to everyone, you do wonder if he might not have the necessary streak of arrogance and ruthlessness in him which drives the very best. His reputation as a great player, he could see again this week with Tony Adams's dismissal, is no protection. Yet perhaps his shining humility – they reckon he's still the best player on the training ground at Chadwell Heath but would never dream of showing up his charges – could be his strength, creating the concept that an anti-Mourinho could also become a special one. Imagine how refreshing that would be says Chadband.

'Franco' is simply a man players will not want to let down. He offers them responsibility and they are desperate not to disappoint. He is such an honest, genuine man that his players give their all for him. Yet Zola's former teammates will warn against being hoodwinked by the Italian's 'Mr Nice Guy' image. There is a view among Chelsea fans of Zola as the Knight of Stamford Bridge, a hero as pure as the driven snow. But the fact that he is one of the game's nice guys does not mean he is not a bloody-minded winner.

"On one occasion in our six years together at Chelsea", recalls Graeme Le Saux, "we were playing a training game under Claudio Ranieri – seven-a-side and next goal wins. Franco had the ball on the wing and ran it out of play. I stopped trying to tackle him, but he suddenly cut inside and unleashed a beautiful curling shot to win the game.

"It went out, Franco," I told him. "No, no, no," he said. "Was in." I looked to the manager for salvation, but he simply said: "Franco wouldn't lie." They saw him as so honest that the very idea he may have pulled a fast one never even entered their heads.

"One day I'll write a book and tell everyone what a cheat you are," I said to him afterwards.

"OK, you write your book," he replied. "And when I write my book I will say you look at me in the showers." That isolated incident aside, Franco is self-effacing, humble and incredibly hard working. The essence of Franco is that he never took his fantastic ability for granted.

At Chelsea, he paid his own money for a wooden defensive wall to practice his free-kicks because they didn't have one. He even took it home at the end of the day. When people see someone that talented working so hard to hone his craft, they want to practise even more to be as good as they can be. That is how he approaches management – leading by example. He was never satisfied with the physical side of the game or ever thought he had perfected something. That desire for constant improvement rubs off on people.

Joining West Ham was a decision Zola really thought through. Le Saux remembers he spoke to him on the Tuesday as Zola was preparing his Italy under-21 side to face Croatia. He was exhausted, not having slept for days thinking about whether he should take the post or not. That is not to suggest he didn't want the job. He just wanted to make sure whatever decision he took would be right for him, his family and for West Ham. He weighed up every eventuality and based his decision on that. "The only advice I gave him was that whatever decision he made would be the right one," says Le Saux. "I believe it's a great fit, but there are two factors that need to be right if he is to fulfil his potential. Firstly, he must make sure he can manage expectations. Any success he has will be relative – what do the club want? Secondly, the support structure around him has to be right. I can see why he wanted to bring in Steve Clarke from Chelsea, and understand why Steve wanted to go."

Clarke has been a great stabilising force at Stamford Bridge for almost 20 years but under another regime it was no surprise he questioned what his role was. Management now is not about one figure, but the backroom team. There is a view that Clarke's departure to join Zola last September has been a defining element in Chelsea's decline. "For me he is a big part of the job we're doing here," Zola said. With good people around him, you would bet on it being a great move for Franco, West Ham and for football.

Zola is one of those people who takes the tribalism out of sport thinks Le Saux. There is a lot of goodwill because people want to see him do well – and he needed that goodwill while he found his feet in those traumatic early months. So what's the attraction of a cut-throat business to this gentleman, ponders Chadband. "My main motivation is that when I was a player I always wanted to learn something new. So I went into managing because I had that same idea. But I know nowadays it's difficult. People want results straight away from day one. In football, it doesn't work that way. I don't think there's any manager in the world who can change a player or a team in a few weeks."

The implication was obvious; for Chelsea, it's not going to be that easy-peasy.

The Waking Nightmare

Dean Ashton's injury nightmare has been prolonged after West Ham confirmed he has had yet another "very successful" operation on his ankle this week. The England striker has been sidelined since September with his current problem and the Hammers had hoped that following previous surgery he would now be back in action. But Ashton has been forced to go under the knife again and the club have yet to put a date on his return.

Ashton is reported to be recovering well after the surgery and remains in good spirits. World renowned specialist Niek van Dijk flew to London to work with the highly regarded James Calder. Van Dijk has previously operated on Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Ballack and Robin van Persie. The England striker was pleased to get the procedure out of the way and is already focused on getting back on track with his rehab, which had been progressing well. "It was disappointing to have another operation. But it had to be done and was only a minor thing, a small problem that had to be dealt with and I am glad it is all done now," he said. "I was also very pleased to have the two of the best ankle specialists in the room at the same time when I had the operation done. The feedback I have had from everyone has been great, so that is very good for me."

The 25-year-old will be reassessed later this month before flying to Amsterdam to meet Professor Van Dijk for further examination in around four weeks. That could give a clearer indication of when he might be able to return to action. James Calder said: "This type of procedure has been performed on a lot of top European sports professionals and it has proven very successful. It was a complicated injury but we are confident that Dean will recover well. The mental approach is as important as the physical and Dean is very focused in that respect. He has the right attitude to rehabilitation and is as strong in mind as he is in body. He deserves every success and I hope he is back playing for West Ham soon."

Ashton is yet to play for Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola; his last appearance, in the 3-2 defeat by West Bromwich Albion on 13 September, was two days before the Sardinian took charge. He is hopeful he is now on the road to recovery. "When you are out this long they wonder what is wrong especially as I started the season OK," he said. "But as any player will tell you, this is what it can be like with any injury you pick up. The important thing is I am working hard and looking to be firing on all cylinders when I come back. Another good thing is that I have not lost any of the fitness I had gained before the operation, so I can get back to everything again soon and continue to work hard."

On to the international round-up where Carlton Cole made his England debut as a late substitute while Robert Green and Matthew Upson both played the whole of the second half for England in the 2-0 defeat by Spain. Cole came on in the 75th minute and looked lively during his late run-out, showing some nice early touches to bring others into play. The striker then so nearly marked his first appearance with a goal two minutes from the end when he picked up David Beckham's through-ball and rounded Pepe Reina, only for Carlos Marchena to clear his goalbound effort off the line.

Green and Upson joined the fray at half-time with the visitors already a goal down from David Villa's superb 36th-minute opener. Green looked assured on his second appearance for his country and could do nothing about young substitute Fernando Llorente's header with eight minutes to go. The West Ham No1 made several well-taken catches and kicked well throughout. Upson played confidently alongside captain John Terry in central defence on his 13th cap for the Three Lions. The 29-year-old did not allow the Spanish forwards any space and zipped several smart passes forward.

The game was the first time three West Ham United players have been on the pitch at the same time for England in seven years. The last occasion saw David James, Trevor Sinclair and Joe Cole line up in a 1-1 draw with Portugal at Villa Park on 7 September 2002.

Elsewhere, Radoslav Kovac took another vital step towards first team fitness by playing an encouraging 90 minutes for the Czech Republic as they secured a goalless draw in Casablanca on Wednesday night. New recruit Kovac played in a holding midfield role and more than played his part in a tricky encounter that saw the African nation dominate the play. Morocco went close four times in the second half after a quiet first 45 minutes but the fact the West Ham United No14 got his first full competitive run-out since 27 November will be a big boost to the club ahead of the weekend's FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough.

Having played at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008, Kovac has every chance of playing for his country again at next summer's global finals in South Africa. The 29-year-old, on loan from Spartak Moscow with a view to a permanent transfer in the summer, has helped the Czechs to third place in qualifying Group 3, two points behind leaders Slovakia ahead of the trip to Slovenia on 28 March. He has been capped 29 times with two goals.

Jack Collison continued his excellent season with a fourth cap for Wales last night as they went down 1-0 to Poland in a friendly played in Portugal. The West Ham United midfielder has established himself as a first-team regular for the club under Gianfranco Zola and looks to have done the same for John Toshack's Welsh side. Collison played 45 minutes in Vila Real before making way for Arsenal starlet Aaron Ramsey in a match that saw Roger Guerreiro hit a late winner for the Poles. The 20-year-old Collison was the only Hammer on view with James Collins remaining at Chadwell Heath for treatment - although he should be OK for the weekend - while Danny Gabbidon is STILL working his way back to fitness after a long-term abdominal injury.

In the same game Craig Bellamy was involved in an angry touchline confrontation with a fan. The ex-United forward, who had passed a fitness test on his right knee, was the subject of some abuse while doing a television interview and reacted by gesturing at a spectator before being led away. "These things happen, I don’t want to make any fuss about it," Bellamy said. "Maybe it was because of a few drinks. It always seems to be me, though. I have shown my commitment to Wales by turning up for these sorts of games, but it is me that always seems to get picked on for stick. I’m passionate about my country, maybe too passionate at times."

We Can Rebuild Him

West Ham United have completed the signing 19-year-old Irish striker Terry Dixon on a three-year contract. The Republic of Ireland youth international was released by Tottenham Hotspur in March of last year because of recurring knee problems but has proved his fitness to The Hammers' medical team after a two-month visit to a knee specialist in Belgium.

The official site states the United medical team, including head of rehabilitation Giorgio Gasparini, have worked tirelessly during Dixon's recovery and have been rewarded by the Archway-born player's dedication to proving he still has what it takes to make it at the highest level. Dixon's right knee has now been fully assessed and he just requires conditioning work to prepare himself for a playing return in the hope of catching Gianfranco Zola's eye.

Dixon was highly regarded a youth player and represented Ireland at every level before being called up to the full squad at 16 by the then manager Steve Staunton in May 2006, who at the time described him as a 'special talent'. He was then named on the bench for his country's friendly against Chile that month and was rewarded for his progress by being named Ireland's Under-17 Player of Year for 2006.

The flame-haired striker, who cites Wayne Rooney as his favourite player, is delighted to have committed his future to West Ham United and is looking forward to getting back on the pitch. "I'm pleased to have signed the contract and I'm glad to have got it sorted," Dixon said. "I'm back in training next week and hopefully I want to push on to the first team towards the end of the season. I'm so relieved to be back to fitness as it's just so annoying to have those niggles because you have been out for so long. My aims for this season are to get matches under my belt for the reserves and if I do well there, hopefully I can get into the first-team squad. I want to repay the faith the club have shown in me, if not this season then season after."

Dixon also paid tribute to the medical team at Chadwell Heath that has aided his comeback. "The fitness team have done a lot of work with me to make my leg a lot stronger and my knee never swells up now. It's just like my other one, it feels fine. I'm just glad West Ham took the chance on me and hopefully it will pay off. I'd like to thank Christian Lattanzio and Giorgio Gasparini for all the work they have done."

The former Tottenham Hotspur starlet was forced to curtail his fledging career at White Hart Lane after an endless flurry of injury problems left the player unable to be certain of a long term future at the club. The academy striker had consistently been touted as one of our most promising potential talents during his time in North London before the decision was taken to let Dixon further his career elsewhere.

"Following meetings with Terry Dixon, his family and his representatives at which his long term recovery and future well being after an unfortunate sequence of severe injuries were discussed, the Player has now left the club," a Spurs statement read at the time. "The Academy striker, who featured on a number of occasions for our Reserve side, suffered a dislocated kneecap, which ruled him out for the entire 2006-07 season before he was able to return to action at the beginning of this campaign. The 18-year-old, however, suffered the same injury again in mid-September during an Academy League fixture and underwent further surgery and extensive rehabilitation. We wish Terry every success for the future."

Dixon had been called up to the Republic of Ireland squad two years ago and had made numerous appearances for the Tottenham Hotspur reserves however had never managed to break through into the first team squad with Spurs. With all the furore that surrounded the call-up of Theo Walcott into Sven-Goran Eriksson's England World Cup squad in the same week, Dixon's shock international selection went largely unnoticed. Yet the noises coming out of White Hart Lane at the time suggested Dixon's potential was just as big. At age 16, the second-youngest player ever to be called into the Republic's senior squad, the striker had already impressed many with a series of starring performances behind the front two in Ireland's Uefa Under-17 European Championship qualifiers. Strong and skilful, his play drew comparisons to England's Wayne Rooney. The consensus back then — among his coaches, his fellow players and the senior Irish internationals who were knocked out by impression the big, red-headed lad made on them in Portugal — was that Dixon would go on to become not just a successful professional footballer but, potentially, a great one.

Then came a succession of horrendous injury setbacks which turned his life upside down, replacing the buzz of training and matches with the torture of surgery and rehabilitation. It’s understood that the specialists who had tried to rebuild the player’s shattered knee were of the opinion that it would never stand up to the rigours of intensive training, never mind the pressure of top-flight football itself. The clear implication then was that, at the age of just 18, Terry’s career as a professional footballer was effectively over. People close to the Londoner suggest that he never fully absorbed the news and always believed he could continue to play at a high level in the game.

"People knew that I'd had injury problems for the last while," Dixon explained. "People within football knew that I had left Tottenham so word got around that I had finished, I had retired, but that's not the case. There are no guarantees and I have a bit of a way to go, but I do hope that I will be able to play football again. At what level, and with any success, I don't know, no one knows that now. I had a real high in my career, in my life, when I was in the Ireland squad and on the bench for a game at Lansdowne Road. If that was the high, the real low was leaving Tottenham. But I do have a real hope that I will be able to play football, at least earn a living from football and see where it takes me after that."

Dixon remains mentally strong and is determined to fulfill his ambitions. "At the moment I can do some jogging and some work with leg weights, I have done a bit of passing and some ball work so that was good for me, to work with a ball again," he enthused. "There's a long road ahead of me and I have a good family and friends around me but it's good to know that people in football were also interested and wanted to sign me. I will try and get fit and give it a go. This could be my last chance, so I have no reason not to try. I haven't achieved anything in football really, I haven't played a club game and I haven't played for Ireland, I want to do both of them so hopefully the knee can clear up, I can get fit and achieve my goals. If I can't play again and if I have to quit, at least I know that I tried, and I will do something else. I have been doing coaching courses and I want to stay in the game so I'll see what the future holds for me."

West Ham United CEO Scott Duxbury added: "This signing is a testament to our medical and technical departments for all the work they have put in to get Terry to this point. He has worked very hard in the past few months and we have all been impressed with his determination to start playing again. His talent is undoubted. We know that Tottenham felt they had reached the end of the road with Terry but we are hopeful he can yet prove himself and build a successful career. He is certainly in the best place to do that and I am sure if anyone can get the best out of him it will be Gianfranco Zola and his coaching staff."

The Perfect Footballing Tool

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
Redemption Song

The chronic shortage of established forward options for Fabio Capello means there could be a striking role for the Premier League's most in-form hitman in this evening's hotly anticipated friendly with Spain, reports the Times. Carlton Cole arrived in Seville with the hope of coming off the bench on a night when Capello will use his maximum six substitutes, but the sight of Emile Heskey sitting out last night’s training session in the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium to protect his sore Achilles tendon has raised the prospect of the United striker starting alongside Gabriel Agbonlahor.

It would be a partnership with just one cap between them — from the Aston Villa forward’s bright debut against Germany in November — and England’s striking options, or lack of them, may seem stark when set against those of Spain, the European champions, who have Fernando Torres and David Villa. In the absence of Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch is another alternative if Heskey is forced to sit on the sidelines, but it was Cole and Agbonlahor who were paired in training yesterday, both bounding around with wide-eyed enthusiasm. And if Cole does not get his chance now, states Matt Dickinson, on the back of good form for West Ham United, he probably never will.

At 25, it is quite late for Cole to be making his senior debut, but then he did choose a roundabout route, with loan moves to Charlton Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa, after he failed to make the grade at Chelsea through lack of application. Cole's career has been nomadic; a striker with undoubted talent trying to settle. Chelsea saw promise but the Croydon-born forward made only 25 league appearances in five years, scoring four goals. Cole was loaned out to try to provoke a reaction, but all those spells combined failed to trigger his career, with a modest return of eight league goals in 55 games.

That poor return continued for two seasons before Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke came along, familiar faces and men prepared to give Cole a cuddle. Prior to their arrival as manager and assistant in September, Cole had managed one more goal in the league, but all that has changed now. An impressive return of six goals in seven games, from December into January, signalled Cole's arrival, although his performance against Manchester United on Sunday, in front of Capello, showed both his physical attributes as he brushed off Rio Ferdinand but also the lack of killer instinct as he attempted to score with an over-elaborate chip.

That said, the West Ham striker has come a long way since his days at Chelsea, when he was headstrong and behind Gianfranco Zola, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for a place in the team. Five years previous, at Stamford Bridge, Claudio Ranieri would call Cole ‘My Tyson’ and little wonder. His young striker had just laid out a senior professional on the training ground and there were no regrets. Jesper Gronkjaer had been getting on Cole’s nerves during a practice session, nipping the young cub’s ankles so often that he snapped and punched the Chelsea winger in the face. "It might have looked vicious and some of the lads said it looked like I was going to 'do' him but, hand on heart, it wasn’t like that," Cole, just 20, said at the time. "Everyone was gearing up for the West Bromwich game and things got pretty heated among the players."

As a first-year professional, he struggled to get out of bed in Brentford to make the five-mile drive to Chelsea’s old training ground in Harlington. He was frequently late, fined for snoozing by a manager who still regarded him as the best young striker he had worked with. "I’ve never coached a young player as good as Carlton," claimed Ranieri at the time. "He’s fantastic and he has a very big future at Chelsea."

That was in 2002. Not long after, Cole would play on a Wednesday for Chelsea reserves at Aldershot and then turn out for his uncle Duncan’s Sunday League side in Greenford. He was jeopardising his career, but Cole is anything but a conformist. "The penny has finally dropped but it has taken a long time," said Alan Curbishley, who managed the striker at both Charlton (where he was on loan) and West Ham. "He has everything you want in a modern striker. He is strong, he has pace and he is difficult to mark but the one area of his game he needs to improve is his goalscoring."

Cole was the recipient of the Golden Boot when he was in Chelsea’s youth team, an in-house award given to the club’s leading scorer, and his career was expected to blossom. After he made his debut as a substitute against Everton in April 2002, Ranieri put him in the same bracket as reserves team-mate and future England captain John Terry. But Cole took it too easy, buying a Mercedes 4x4 with his first pay packet and back-chatting opposition defenders with some west London bravado during his frequent run-outs with the reserves.

By then he had a taste of first-team action and believed he was good enough for a place in a side challenging for Champions League qualification without putting in the hard graft with the second string. Eventually, he was loaned to Charlton, then Wolves and Aston Villa, before eventually signing for West Ham. Trouble with a long-standing knee complaint allowed the then Upton Park manager Alan Pardew to negotiate an attractive performance-related arrangement with Chelsea, highlighting why clubs prefer the details of such deals to stay ‘undisclosed’.

Off the field, Cole sometimes struggles with the complexities of day-to-day life, shrugging off a visit from the bailiffs to West Ham’s training ground in 2007 when they were chasing him over unpaid congestion charges. He claimed his friends were driving his car through central London, failing to pay the £8 toll, but he eventually forked out for the heavy fine. His lifestyle remains an area of concern. He was arrested for drink-driving in September last year, but believes he is on the straight and narrow under the pastoral care of Zola.

It helps that he held the former Italy forward in such high esteem when they were together at Chelsea, listening to Zola’s guidance and becoming a more rounded. "He doesn’t have to be nasty to be a very good player," insisted Zola last week. Cole’s performances on the field have improved this season. He scored a notable goal at Newcastle when he controlled the ball with the outside of his boot before lashing it beyond Shay Given. His form has elevated him into the England squad, a reward for the hard work that he has put in this season.

Now 25, Cole is a coruscating mountain of muscle, something Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand will readily testify to after he roughed up the best central defensive pairing in the Barclays Premier League at Upton Park on Sunday. "He has grown in stature, but that’s because he is working for a manager who understands him," said Ferdinand. "He is appreciated and working in an environment that suits him. He is a young player, he wants to learn and he is better for it."

Of course, some footballers are born unthinking competitors – like Michael Essien who apparently sleeps all day until you wake him and stick a football before him: instant intensity. Some are less fortunate, condemned to struggle with doubt and insecurity. While most are rarely troubled by physical uncertainty- their bodies are tools, trained through unvarying repetition into automatic muscle response- the training of the mind is much trickier. Just ask Cole. He is 6ft 4in, searingly swift at full lope and blessed with the co-ordination to instantly tame the blur of a passing ball; in short, the corporeal embodiment of the perfect footballing tool. However, he has never managed to master those physical gifts and he confesses to have become plagued by the idea of his own unfulfilled potential. Yet in the past months and weeks something has happened to Cole: he has begun to shed the skin of his old timidity and the result has been revelatory.

He is now the in-form striker in the division, his five goals in seven Premier League games attracting the curiosity of Fabio Capello. Through the faithful cajoling of Gianfranco Zola and his coaching team, combined with the advent of a greater maturity, Cole has flourished into the footballer he has always threatened to be. When he arrived at West Ham, Zola knew there was real ability trapped inside Cole. He had played alongside him as a rangy teenager at Chelsea, seen his capabilities but also how he inhibited them. "The manager knew what I was about, knew I had to build on what I had done last season," Cole said. "He said in front of the whole team that he has 100 per cent faith in me and that if you get the ball up to Carlton, he'll cause the opposition problems. I had to change my mentality. I had to become more selfish. It is hard to change your mentality after playing three or four years in the same way but it's happening now."

Kevin Keen and Steve Clarke have stalked Cole on the training ground with the mantra: "goals, goals, goals". With training becoming more intense, with lots of fast ball-work, Cole has been part of a general elevation of expectations and ambitions. But it has been establishing a personal commitment to improvement that has allowed him to thrive in Zola and Clarke's team. He takes home and studies DVDs of his own performances and works closely with a sports psychologist. He says he "has read whole a host of books" to help with motivation and focus.

Books? Most players prefer the bookies. "I've read about the greatest people in sport. I read about the lives of Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, people like that. I'm not saying I'm going to get up there but I'm going to try and get up there. That's the only way you progress in life is if you aim for the highest point. If you keep striving and are never satisfied then you'll do well in your career. I know how important it is for me to take my life seriously. Things happened off the field that were out of my control. It set me back a bit. I don't want to go back into it. A few things have happened away from the field made me realise how important football is and how many people would love to be in my position. There are a lot of people who would rather not think about football, go home and relax. At this stage of my life, I think I have pissed away a large percentage of my career. Well, maybe not pissed away but not been focused enough. I'm making up for lost time, trying to get to a level where I can say I have achieved a lot."

Those troubles off the field – the most recent being that arrest in September – are, he insists, behind him. Cole seems a man finally at peace with himself these days, unlike those early years at Stamford Bridge. "I am unrecognisable as a person from then," he insists. "When I was at Chelsea I was really immature. I made my first team debut at 18 but soon got involved in stupid stuff off the field."

Cole makes special mention of one example of 'stupid stuff' when he and Wigan defender Titus Bramble were among those questioned over an alleged rape case in a London hotel back in 2003. In the event the case was dropped and neither man faced charges. "I've had loads of really low times," he says. "I would get back on track for a while and then go off the rails again. It was partly my fault and partly those around me. I've ditched loads of so-called friends since those bad times.It's unbelievable how many friends I thought I had but turned out to be hangers-on. My life is back on track now and I'm never going back. There was a lot expected of me at a young age at Chelsea. Some people cope with that pressure but I didn't handle it well, I realise that now. In the end I was shipped out so many times to various clubs that I never really found my feet.

"It's only now that I'm getting my life back on an even keel and I'm so happy here at West Ham. I've never played so many games in a season before and that has meant I've grown up on the pitch as well. It's a great feeling, knowing you are one of the team's main strikers. It does my confidence so much good. It's only now I realise I can have a good future in the game and I want to carry on as long as possible. I feel really solid in myself, content." He has a young son with wife Sophia, which puts a new perspective on things, and what he calls the "support system" of his mother and uncle to help maintain his new-found "drive". His mother, who still buys her boy his Marks and Sparks underpants, is from Sierra Leone and he visits relatives there every year. He has also begun to visit Nigeria, his father's home country.

"I go back to Sierra Leone every year. It's funny, I saw Craig Bellamy there last time. He's contributed a lot to a football academy there. I didn't know he was doing it until I saw him there! I said to him, 'You come to my country and don't even tell me!' I've got a lot of family there. I've been going to Nigeria for a couple of years now, straight after Sierra Leone. I was there in the summer and played in Jay-Jay Okocha's testimonial match. The fans are unbelievable. I didn't realise people knew me there. It's crazy. That spurred me on – they worship you. It opened my eyes to another side of football. They approached me to play for the Nigerian national team. At the time I was nowhere near the England set up so I agreed to it. However there were some complications with Fifa. I had represented England under 21s and been captain so it was a bit unfair."

The flirtation with playing for Nigeria shows how far Cole thought himself to be from the England reckoning. How things change. Capello has been impressed with Cole's pace and power and the quality of his approach play, while expressing reservations about his composure in front of goal. He should keep watching. Cole is coming into his own. Not only that, he is finally letting his feet do the talking.

Zola: Quietly Committed

Gianfranco Zola has moved to reassure West Ham United's board that he has no intention of quitting the club, amid fevered speculation he is a contender for the managerial vacancy at Chelsea. It was inevitable that Blues legend Zola would be linked with a return to Stamford Bridge following the surprise dismissal of Luiz Felipe Scolari yesterday. However, Sky Sports News 'understands' that Zola has privately given his word to West Ham chief executive Scott Duxbury that he remains firmly committed to the Upton Park outfit, although he will not comment officially on the Chelsea link.

As recently as this weekend Zola made a public declaration that he owes United a great deal of debt for giving him his chance in management. "In football you never know what lies round the corner but I have no intention of walking out on West Ham," he was quoted as saying. "I owe a lot to them. Not many clubs would haven given me this opportunity. My main aim is to do well here and repay the faith West Ham and their supporters have shown in me. It's not in my nature to walk out on something that has only just begun."

As of last night, unnamed senior West Ham sources had informed Sky Sports that there is no need for supporters to be concerned, as Zola will definitely not be lured from East London. The feeling, they say, is that he is 100 per cent committed to West Ham and feels no need to comment on every story.

Which is not a sentiment necessarily shared by the Sardininan's legal representative. Within an hour of the formal announcement of Scolari's departure, Fulvio Marrucco had spoken out to confirm that no contact has yet been made between his client and Chelsea, but he was equivocal in the extreme about any possible switch by Zola. "At the moment we know nothing about the link between Gianfranco Zola and the vacant position at Chelsea," Marrucco was reported as saying. "Gianfranco is very happy at West Ham and still thanks them for giving him the opportunity to be a coach in the Premier League. It is very difficult to say if anything will happen but Chelsea is a special place for Gianfranco Zola."

As might be expected, this morning's papers are rife with speculation as to the identity of the next Chelsea manager, though few are considering Zola a viable prospect. The Times claim Chelsea are primarily searching for a short-term managerial appointment to salvage their season by qualifying for the Champions League. Frank Rijkaard and Roberto Mancini are the leading contenders as Chelsea focus on finding a coach who is available to start at Stamford Bridge immediately, but several other permutations have been discussed as they seek to fill what has become one of the most difficult jobs in football.

Chelsea’s intention is to appoint an experienced manager with a proven track record on a caretaker basis until the end of the season, with the carrot of a lucrative permanent contract and huge funds to reshape an underachieving squad in the summer if they are successful. Whether a Champions League winner such as Rijkaard would accept such unusual terms remains to be seen. Plan B is to muddle through with a less illustrious temporary coach — Avram Grant, Scolari’s predecessor, is available and has retained his home in London, while a seemingly outlandish pairing of John Terry, the captain, and Ray Wilkins, the assistant first-team coach, has been mentioned but discounted — in the hope that Carlo Ancelotti will be available at the end of the season.

The Mail think Guus Hiddink has emerged as the favourite to take charge at Chelsea, although hiring him when he remains Russia’s national coach was being described as ‘complicated’ by Chelsea insiders last night. The Dutchman is the manager club owner Roman Abramovich wants after losing patience with Scolari, and ignoring the advice of chief executive Peter Kenyon and chairman Bruce Buck by sacking him after only seven months in charge. Chelsea need to make a quick appointment and accept it would be difficult to secure the services of another club manager.

Instead, claims the article, Abramovich wants to reach an agreement with the Russian FA that allows Hiddink to continue leading their World Cup campaign while taking the reins at Stamford Bridge in time for their Champions League game against Claudio Ranieri’s Juventus on February 25. It has proved impossible for Abramovich to poach Hiddink from Russia in the past but Hiddink is in a pay dispute that could be to Chelsea’s advantage. If Hiddink can’t be hired, Chelsea will examine a shortlist that includes Roberto Mancini, Frank Rijkaard and Bernd Schuster, while Sven Goran Eriksson is in a precarious position with Mexico and Avram Grant has not yet found employment after leaving Chelsea last May.

It is Grant who may be regarded as a safe pair of hands to steer the club through to the end of the season if other, stronger candidates are not hired. The Independent has the Israeli on a short-list of six potential candidates, which does not include Gianfranco Zola. As much as Chelsea supporters would like the club to make a move for the United manager, says Jason Burt, there seems very little chance the Italian will walk away from West Ham United. Instead Roberto Mancini and Frank Rijkaard are mentioned again, while agents are also discussing the possibility of an approach for three other managers, perhaps in the summer more than now, who have been linked with Chelsea in the past. They are Milan's Carlo Ancelotti, the Russia coach Guus Hiddink and, surprisingly, Manchester City's Mark Hughes. As the trio are all in work they are unlikely to be approached immediately, with Chelsea hoping to have a new manager in place in time for Saturday's FA Cup tie away to Watford.

Burt agrees with the prevailing thought that Chelsea want an experienced, currently unemployed coach to take control for the rest of the season. The new man will be asked to make sure Chelsea remain in contention for trophies – although he does not have to win one. If he is successful, then a permanent contract will be offered in the summer. However, the interim measure also raises the prospect that Chelsea already have another possible manager in mind, but that the individual will not be available until the end of this campaign. It does, indeed, point towards Grant taking over for now unless someone of the calibre of Mancini or Rijkaard can be persuaded to take over in such circumstances.

The consensus is supported by the Guardian, who insist the search for a fifth Chelsea manager in as many years has begun with the club wanting a quick appointment, most likely someone currently unemployed and considered a "firefighter", to be taken on initially on a short-term basis. If the appointment proves successful the candidate would have a chance to earn a longer deal. Frank Rijkaard, the former Barcelona coach, is again fingered, together with the ex-Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini as Chelsea embark on a familiar recruitment process.

While there is a sense of surprise at the timing of the dismissal given that Chelsea are still competing in the Champions League and FA Cup, concern had been growing behind the scenes as the side slipped seven points behind Manchester United in the title race. Unrest had swept through the stands at Stamford Bridge as the team toiled against Hull on Saturday, with Scolari enduring chants of "You don't know what you're doing". One banner was unfurled championing former Chelsea players Gianfranco Zola and Roberto di Matteo, although, states the article, neither is in serious contention to return to the club at this stage of their fledgling managerial careers.

Current betting on the next Chelsea manager before the market was suspended over night:

Frank Rijkaard (Fav)
Guus Hiddink
Sven Goran Eriksson
Gianfranco Zola
Roberto Mancini
Carlo Ancelotti
Alan Curbishley
Gianluca Vialli
Avram Grant
Louis van Gaal
Steve Clarke
Jose Mourinho
Slaven Bilic
Didier Deschamps
David Moyes
Marttin O'Neill
Mark Hughes
Marco Van Basten

It's Only Just Begun

It is Mop-Up Monday where we apply a thickly cut slice of Blogger rye to the left-over Hammers related slop from the weekend's football fare.

First up, Gianfranco Zola insists he will not walk out on the Hammers after Chelsea fans called for the Blues legend to become their new manager. With Luiz Felipe Scolari's position at Stamford Bridge becoming increasingly unstable, reports suggest the Blues may be in the hunt for a new boss in the near future. Supporters reportedly hurled abuse at Scolari after Saturday's 0-0 draw at home against Hull City and displayed banners demanding the Brazilian be replaced with former fans' favourite Zola. The Italian was voted Chelsea’s greatest player and would be an obvious choice, helping to appease those supporters who have grown disillusioned with the club.

Zola has certainly made a positive impact with the Hammers this term, his first managerial post, having stepped into the void created by Alan Curbishley's departure in September 2008. He has led the club into the Premier League's European hunt and has received widespread acclaim for the manner in which he goes about his job. Now he has made it clear that an emotional return to Chelsea is out of the question, insisting he has every intention of repaying West Ham's faith in his credentials. "In football you never know what lies round the corner but I have no intention of walking out on West Ham," Zola said in the Mirror yesterday. "I owe a lot to them. Not many clubs would haven given me this opportunity. My main aim is to do well here and repay the faith West Ham and their supporters have shown in me. It's not in my nature to walk out on something that has only just begun."

The Sardinian declared himself proud of his side's performance after a Ryan Giggs goal was all that separated them and Manchester United. "For me it has been a positive match, forget about the result," Zola said. "I know we lost but I don't just watch the result, I also make other considerations as well. We were playing against the best team in Europe, if not the world and we just lost by one goal in a very tight match. I am very happy for my team, despite the fact we lost the game." West Ham challenged the champions in every department and the match was a good indicator of how far West Ham United have come under his stewardship. Zola said: "I am sure it won't be easy for anyone to come here and beat us. But they [Manchester United] did it in a very professional way. They punished us in the only mistake we made. Our goalkeeper hardly made any saves, so I'm very complimentary to them as if you can win games like this you are very strong."

Jack Collison, for one, has vowed to take the positives from the experience of facing Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. United's Wales midfielder played a full part in the Hammers' encouraging performance against the Premier League champions on Sunday. Afterwards, the 20-year-old was impressed by the displays of the 35-year-old Giggs and 34-year-old Scholes, both of whom were at the hub of the visitors' best moments at the Boleyn Ground. "It was obviously a tough game," admitted Collison. "Coming up against Manchester United you know what to expect. They hadn't conceded a goal in 12 - now 13 - [Premier League] games so we knew it was going to be hard, but looking back on the game we were disappointed not to come out with more than nothing.

"I think we created a few half-chances but against a team like them it takes someone to take one of those half-chances to maybe put one over on them. It took something special to unlock us too. Ryan Giggs scored a great goal and, from a Welsh point of view, it's a bit of a shame he's retired [from international football] to be honest. He and Paul Scholes were fantastic. Scholes is someone I also look up to as he's been at the top his whole career. Trying to get close to him was a great experience for me. The way he keeps it simple and keeps the ball moving is something I can learn from."

While it is unlikely that Ryan Giggs’ status as English football’s most decorated player will ever be beaten, Collison believes he can trump the great man on at least one front. Collison is one of a group of young Wales stars with their eyes on a major international tournament — an experience denied Giggs despite his heroics for his country. Along with Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey and Cardiff’s Joe Ledley, Collison is part of a gifted Welsh brat pack emerging under John Toshack.

The Bedford-born West Ham youngster, who qualifies for Wales on the grandparents’ rule, has been a revelation over the past three months under new boss Gianfranco Zola. His credentials came under further scrutiny against Giggs and Manchester United yesterday but the 20-year-old displayed talent, self-belief and determination. "For players of my generation, Ryan Giggs is an obvious inspiration," he said. "He is one of the greatest-ever players, not just for Manchester United but for Wales and the rest of the nation. A great role model as well. He has won so much but maybe I could do something that he hasn’t. With Wales we now have a lot of good talent coming through. England only just pipped our under-21 side to the Euro finals in a play-off and that has given us belief that, in the next few years, we can qualify for a World Cup or European Championship. There is a real good chance under John Toshack because he has not been afraid to give younger players a chance, even in the big games."

Neither, of course, has Zola. After a poor start under his guidance, the Italian and assistant Steve Clarke abandoned a Chelsea-style 4-3-3 in favour of a diamond midfield — with Collison an integral part. Incredibly, he was on the verge of being farmed out on loan to Peterborough until an impressive performance at Old Trafford against yesterday's opponents. He explained: "It was towards the end of October but the day I was due to go to Peterborough, Mark Noble got a knock, so I was pulled back. The next thing I knew I was coming on as a sub against Manchester United at Old Trafford. I haven’t looked back since."

Collison’s emergence has coincided with a return to form for the Hammers. Since that 2-0 defeat by United on October 29, they haven’t lost an away game and have earned 14 points from the last 21. "The management and the coaching staff have got their tactics spot on and all the players are willing to work hard for each other," Collison explained. "That’s been one of the main reasons why the form and results have improved."

With England under-21 star Noble a major influence, Collison and two 19-year-olds — Freddie Sears and James Tomkins — knocking on the door, there is the feeling the famed West Ham Academy is producing another group of star graduates. This time around, it is the club’s intention to hang on to their starlets, building a successful team around them, assuming the club’s uncertain ownership and long term finances are resolved. Collison added: "When I left Cambridge after their academy folded, there were a few teams interested but I was well aware of West Ham’s history when it came to bringing players through the youth system.

"Looking back at the past decade there’s Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick, then Frank Lampard and Joe Cole. They all played in the same side and look at them now! They haven’t done bad. They remain an inspiration for someone like me. And then you look around at what is happening here at the moment and you think that maybe my generation could do the same — but this time stay around for longer and bring success to this club. I suppose in some ways it puts a bit of pressure on us to produce the goods if comparisons to the past are made — but we can thrive on it. Sometimes it is hard to blood youngsters in the Premier League but the manager has done that. It bodes well for the future."

Meanwhile, at the tender age of 21, West Ham midfielder Mark Noble is adapting well to playing for his fifth managerial team at Upton Park. On the youngster's seventh birthday, his dad bought him tickets to his first football match: West Ham against Manchester United, writes Paul Doyle in the Observer. Noble's heroes were vanquished that day, but the boy would grow up to become something of a rarity – a player who has beaten Manchester United more often than he has lost to them.

"I've played them three times and been on the winning side twice," grins Noble, who thinks that despite that improbable record his career has witnessed far too many disappointments. While only 21, he is the longest-serving player at Upton Park and has seen much upheaval, from managerial instability to reports of impending financial ­meltdown. "I feel a lot older than I am," he admits. Now, however, he believes manager, Gianfranco Zola, and his assistant, former Chelsea No2 Steve Clarke, are in the process of rejuvenating him and his beloved club.

"I'm on my fifth manager now. I've seen Alan Pardew and Alan Curbishley and I also travelled a few times with Trevor Brooking and Glenn Roeder, but the way these two [Zola and Clarke] bounce off each other is brilliant. They complete each other and know exactly how they want us to play. The gaffer came in and he put so much belief into everyone that we go out and play freely. You listen to him when he talks to you and he builds that confidence inside you to go out, try your best for him and play with a smile on your face. If you look at our matches against Fulham, Stoke and Hull, for example, we played good football as well as scoring goals. People keep coming up to me and telling me this is the best they've seen West Ham play in years and years."

While acclaiming the manager's motivational skills, Noble has no doubt that the main cause for the improved performances is improved training. "The standard and speed has gone up massively from the first day he came in," he says. "The drills we do, and some of the passing exercises, are fantastic. We do so many keep-ball practices. It just gets into your head that if you stay on the ball for more than a couple of seconds you're going to lose it and if you lose it against the likes of United and Arsenal, you're going to get punished. So everyone's got better with the ball. And because we've also got more confidence, you see boys who were playing within themselves have really come out of their shells. Look at how Carlton Cole has been lately, for example. I think we're really creeping up in the right way."

Fabio Capello is beginning to believe Carlton Cole could have a big England future after naming the West Ham striker in his squad for the friendly against Spain. On a night when David Beckham will be hoping to equal Bobby Moore’s record as England’s most-capped outfield player, Cole is looking increasingly likely to win a cap on Wednesday evening. An injury to Emile Heskey- who reported to the England team hotel in Hertfordshire yesterday with an achilles tendon problem- has dramatically enhanced the striker's chance of featuring in Seville.

Capello is desperately short of striking options for the friendly against the European champions, with injuries to Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Michael Owen and Theo Walcott forcing the England chief coach to travel with just Gabby Agbonlahor and Peter Crouch in addition to Heskey and West Ham’s Cole. "Cole gets better and better in every game," said Capello. "His movement and his strength impress me. When he is in front of goal he has to be calmer. Sometimes he is too fast and he wants to shoot too quickly. But he is young - he is interesting."

Cole has scored ten goals this season, with six goals in his last eight appearances. Zola, speaking after yesterday's narrow 1-0 defeat against reigning league champions Manchester United said of his in-form striker: "Carlton is a player that is improving all of the time and getting better and better. If I was Fabio Capello I would have had a very good impression. He kept them alert all the way through the second half. I think Carlton is going to be a very good player for him; whether he plays him or not I don't know."

Cole, who received his first ever international call-up on Saturday night joins Robert Green and Matthew Upson in the England squad. Also in international action this week are Valon Behrami (Swutzerland v Bulgaria), Radoslav Kovac (Morocco v Czech Republic), Lucas Neill (Japan v Australian) and Jack Collison (Wales v Poland).

Finally, Juande Ramos has declared that Julien Faubert did not pull up any trees during his first ever appearance in Real Madrid’s shirt. West Ham right midfielder Faubert made his debut in the Spanish league on Saturday night, in Los Merengues’ 1-0 win over Racing Santander. The Frenchman came in as a substitute for Arjen Robben with 30 minutes to go, and helped his team claim a seventh consecutive win in the Primera Liga. For his part, Ramos, who is massively criticized in Spain for playing ‘boring football’, said about the Hammer after the game: "He didn’t show anything, as well as the team at the end of the game. We would be better not to speak about his display because it was just his first match."

West Ham United 0 Manchester United 1

Giggs Takes Manchester United Back To The Top by Oliver Kay

At the end, as the final whistle was blown, four West Ham United players flocked towards Ryan Giggs, all of them asking whether they could have the shirt off his back. It was like seeing a Western tourist being pestered on a beach in Koh Samui, but, charming to the last, Giggs offered an apologetic smile and a handshake and continued on his way, accepting an embrace from Paul Scholes and, finally, the adulation of the celebrating Manchester United supporters... Times

Manchester United Back On Top After Ryan Giggs Brilliance by Henry Winter

The old ones are the best – and Manchester United’s veterans are laughing all the way to another title. The three most experienced performers at Upton Park on Sunday, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Edwin van der Sar, excelled in subduing a lively West Ham, reclaiming the Premier League high ground from Liverpool and sending out a message that no one, not even Father Time, can catch them... Telegraph

It's The Great Wall Of Manchester by Matt Barlow

One is plenty for Manchester United these days. After all, Edwin van der Sar kicked the irritating habit of letting in goals months ago. Well, three months and a day to be precise. That’s how long it is since Arsenal’s Samir Nasri fired a couple of 20-yarders into Van der Sar’s net at the Emirates Stadium. That’s 1,212 minutes of Barclays Premier League action without conceding... Mail

Giggs Summons Up Old Title Magic by Sam Wallace

At the final whistle, Ryan Giggs was inundated with requests for his shirt from West Ham players all eager to get their hands on a piece of Premier League history. Giggs is 35 years old, the hair is greying at the temples, but there are still few more evocative sights in English football than when he jinks in from the touchline to score the goal that decides a match... Independent

Giggs Defies March Of Time by Kevin McCarra

Manchester United, with their heritage of panache and romance, are unlikely number crunchers. The statistics they now churn out are relentless, though, and rivals have been cracking up in the effort to keep pace. This was their fourth 1–0 win in 2009 alone. There is much to respect in the outstanding technique exhibited by so many of their players. If exuberance shows up less frequently these days, a scrupulous United have established a two-point lead in the Premier League, with a game in hand, and look virtually impregnable... Guardian

Record-Breaking United March

A second-half winner from Ryan Giggs sent Manchester United back to the top of the Barclays Premier League following a 1-0 win over West Ham. The 35-year-old captain struck the decisive blow in the 61st minute to put United two points clear of Liverpool at the summit with a game in hand on their rivals... Express

Prima Della Rivoluzione

When Gianfranco Zola became West Ham United's first foreign manager in mid-­September, the club sat seventh in the league, having won twice at home and lost twice away. Now they are eighth, and have still lost as many league matches as they have won. Talk of a transformation, then, is over the top reports Paul Doyle in this morning's Guardian. Yet significant change is clearly under way at Upton Park. Where once there were forebodings of doom, now there is optimism, as reflected in a belief that the club can extend their eight‑game unbeaten streak when Manchester United come calling tomorrow.

"We are playing good football at the moment and the players are determined to continue," Zola says. "We will certainly try to win because I never play to draw. Even away to Arsenal last week we went to win and we only ended up defending so much because Arsenal forced us backwards." West Ham's resilience in emerging with a 0-0 draw at the Emirates came as no surprise to Arsène Wenger, who had already hailed Zola's team as "probably the best in the Premier League right now".

The Hammers boss has presided over a tactical, culinary and psychological revolution. At first he tinkered heavily with the team, causing many to wonder whether his lack of managerial experience meant he was unsuited to guiding the club through turbulent times. However, once he settled on his preferred line-up, results improved and, what is more, the slick play with which he has always been synonymous followed.

Doyle reports Zola's commitment to cerebral, on-the-deck football has clearly found favour with his players. Formation diagrams usually assign Jack Collison and Valon Behrami, for instance, to unfamiliar wide roles, but in reality they tend to dart all over midfield, sometimes augmenting the dynamic Scott Parker and Mark Noble in the centre, sometimes switching flanks entirely. The manager gives them licence to indulge their talent and instincts without diluting the emphasis on solidity. With David Di Michele flitting around Carlton Cole in a free role, West Ham's movement often ­confounds opponents, while their work ethic means they rarely leave gaps.

"I can't really compare with what has gone on here before, but I think we're now training more with the ball," Zola says. "We have it for at least 80% of our sessions and I think the players enjoy that." Integral to that training is the former ­Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke, whom Zola insisted on hiring as his No2. Just as West Ham's results have improved since Clarke's arrival, Chelsea's have ­deteriorated since he left Stamford Bridge and Zola is happy to give credit to the Scot. "I've always considered him one of the most important parts in what I'm doing," Zola says. "That's why I said I was only going to take the job if I had somebody like Steve by my side."

Their differing playing careers, observes Doyle, meant the assumption has been that Clarke takes charge of the defence while Zola looks after the attacking side of things, but the manager claims that the opposite is true. "The defenders and attackers all train together because it is all about cooperation," Zola says. "Only one day a week do we separate them and – you won't believe me now – but on that day I take the defence and Steve works with the attackers." Decidedly, the little Italian keeps on showing that there is more to them than meets the eye.

While doubts persist about the club's long-term financial sustainability if their owner fails to find the buyer he seeks, the anticipated mass exodus of players ­during the January transfer window did not happen. Whereas Zola's predecessor, Alan Curbishley, quit at the start of the season in protest at players being sold against his wishes, the Italian's only regrettable loss was Craig Bellamy, and he consoled himself with the loan capture of Czech international Radoslav Kovac, securing the excellent Herita Ilunga to a permanent contract, and the club-record purchase of Savio Nsereko. If that unexpected extravagance hints that the chalice he inherited may not have contained as much poison as originally feared, it is also true that Zola himself has come up with an antidote to many of the team's ills.

And it partly includes pizza. West Ham’s Italian boss now feeds his players the bread-based treat after every home match, ordering a delivery of pizzas from a local takeaway for the first-team squad after games to refuel tired players. Zola naturally takes his players’ diet extremely seriously and the club allow the exhausted squad to eat pizza only after a game because it gets their carbohydrate levels up extremely quickly. West Ham chef Tim De’Ath revealed: "The Italian way of eating is good. Since Gianfranco has been around we have served up less fatty foods. But there are certain foods which the players do eat following a match as it is the best type of food for them when they are refuelling."

Now concerned Hammers chiefs fear the walls at Upton Park will be left smeared with pepperoni and mozzarella if the table ‘topping’ visitors lose their cool tomorrow. Writing in today's Sun, Andrew Dillon recalls how warring United and Arsenal stars hurled slices of pizza at each other in the infamous ‘battle of the buffet’ in October 2004 at Old Trafford, after the Gunners had their 49-game unbeaten run ended in controversial circumstances. A Hammers insider is quoted as saying: "The players love their pizza after a game. It is the only time they are allowed to eat stuff like that. But United and pizza do not mix well and seeing how United have a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way, especially if they lose, there are fears it could all go off like it did with Arsenal. We will be monitoring the situation."


The other clear change Zola has effected is ­psychological, with the striker Carlton Cole being the most obvious beneficiary of his infectious bonhomie. For so long a frustrating player because a lackadaisical approach seemed to undermine his undoubted potential, Cole has struck six goals in his past seven games and improved to the extent that some are tipping him for an England call-up. "It's about attitude," Zola says. "You just have to keep telling him he can do it. It was not that he lacked aggression before, more that he was never truly convinced that he could always be a problem for top opponents but the fact is he can be as good as he wants to be."

Zola believes that Cole is approaching the game in the form of his life and is convinced that if United shut out the big man, they will deserve their points. "When Carlton is in form like he is right now he is very difficult to handle," said Zola. "He just wants to score and is determined to get the fame from the game. He wants to be the main man and the one who can turn Manchester United over." Cole will be hoping Capello is similarly convinced as to his talents even if Emile Heskey and Peter Crouch look set to get the nod ahead of him. Either way, Zola will not push his credentials over the coffee. "I am not the one to give Capello any advice," said Zola. "He knows a lot about football and much more than me."

Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho will be in the stands as Manchester United lay their defensive credentials on the line with the former looking to fine tune his England squad to be announced tonight and the latter continuing his scouting of United ahead of their Champions League clash at the San Siro on February 24. As a result both will be looking to see how Carlton Cole gets on against a United defence that has not conceded a goal to an Englishman since West Ham’s perma-crock Dean Ashton scored at Old Trafford on May 3 last year.

And if it is true that you can judge a man by the company he keeps then Zola’s credentials as a manager destined for the very top of the game look set to receive the ultimate boost tomorrow, says Gideon Brooks. In between playing host to Manchester United, West Ham manager Zola will have pre-match coffee with Capello, share a post-match bottle of wine with Sir Alex Ferguson and then join Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho for dinner.

And if further proof was required of his single-minded trajectory, it came at his pre-match assessment yesterday when Zola suggested that Ferguson might just be set for a carry-out and Mourinho a no-show if the result goes the wrong way. Unlikely as that may sound given that Zola’s smile is never far from breaking out, there is a definite belief from the Italian that West Ham are in a vein of form that would be capable of rocking the champions tomorrow.

Zola has spent the week poring over videos of Manchester United’s recent games and while his eyes may have looked tired there was a definite sparkle in them after spotting what he described as weaknesses. "I have watched their videos and I’ve spotted some things that can be good for us but I won’t tell you because otherwise you will write and they will take measures," smiles the Sardinian. "But while we will give them plenty of respect we are also sure we can really cause them some problems. We have a lot of confidence right now."

West Ham are unbeaten since they reversed a run of one win in 12 with a 4-1 victory at Portsmouth on Boxing Day. Manchester United are unbeaten and unbreached since losing at the Emirates nearly three months ago. It is a clash, therefore, in which something has to give. And Zola is confident that he could be opening a bottle of Italian red rather than merely handing it over at the end of play. Solving the sorts of problems that United will bring down to the capital tomorrow will not be an easy job, though. They are, as Zola said, the team having the least number of problems at the moment.

In addition to a productive but exhaustive video search this week, Zola is hoping that, having finally broken the record for minutes without conceding last weekend, there may be an element of relaxation about the champions of Europe. "Knowing their manager, he will be pushing them very much but we are hoping that that could be one of the things. But he also knows that in the last few games here the record is good for us so I’m sure he will be making the team very aware. It’s going to be a tough match and we will have to give the best of ourselves but this game comes at the right moment for us. We are playing our best, so it is perfect.”

Ferguson, Capello and Mourinho. Zola might not have noticed yet, but his reputation is clearly growing.

Hammering Out A Rhythm

On a busy day for West Ham United related articles- look what happens when Manchester United come to town- there is a nice little interview with Scott Parker in today's Telegraph that I couldn't fit in anywhere else. So I'm fitting it in here...

West Ham the winners as happy Scott Parker finds his rhythm
By Alan Smith

With the transfer window shut, Scott Parker can relax, at least in terms of his immediate future. West Ham made it clear that their most experienced midfielder was going nowhere, even though Manchester City waved a large wad of cash.

"I didn't see it coming," Parker explained this week. "Before I knew it, bang, the speculation was everywhere."

Yet unlike Craig Bellamy, who threw a strop, who insisted on leaving Upton Park when City's interest surfaced, this equable character proved far more conciliatory.

If he was not going to be allowed to join the oil-rich City revolution, he wanted reassurances that a club supposed to be in financial strife still harboured the ambitions that originally made him join.

"As soon as I was put in the picture about things here – because you hear the club need to sell – it was fine," he says.

"City is obviously a big club that's going places but I'm happy here. As long as West Ham were stable and the manager's views were the same as mine then it was OK."

Bellamy, of course, didn't quite see it like that.

"Yeah, that was a severe loss," Parker admits. "It's different circumstances as well. I'm sure Craig's were different to mine. I know people say there's no loyalty in football but that's just the way it is. It was a big opportunity for Craig and he felt he had to go. We just have to get on with it now."

It is a challenge that continues with the visit of in-form Manchester United on Sunday. A good job for West Ham that they are in decent nick, now playing attractive, winning football under Gianfranco Zola.

"It's obviously a tough game this weekend but you look at our fixtures after that and they're winnable. The way we're playing, the way we're organised, I think we can stay in the top half, maybe get in the top eight. That would be good for a season when the manager arrived after the start."

So what of Zola? Parker has played for some strong managers in his time, including Jose Mourinho during an unsuccessful stint at Chelsea. How does the Italian compare?

"Mourinho is the sort who draws a line that you know not to cross. It's the same here with Franco. There's definitely an edge there that you don't mess with. At the same time he gains respect from the players through how he was as a player and how he is as a person. He's never going to be one for throwing tea cups around but when he speaks, you listen. As a manager, that's a good knack to have."

Parker should know. At 28, this modest lad from Lambeth, reared through the system at Charlton, brings great experience to the party after that spell at Stamford Bridge (hindered by a metatarsal break) and a more fulfilling time at Newcastle where, as captain, he enhanced his reputation with some stirring displays.

"Chelsea didn't work out. The injury killed me in the end, just when I was starting to turn the corner, getting a little run in the side. I went to Newcastle and contrary to what people say about not settling in the North East, me and my family absolutely loved it up there. Then a new manager comes in [Sam Allardyce], has different ideas and sells me."

So from the Geordie soap opera to EastEnders in meltdown, that is if you believe all those cash-strapped stories about the Icelandic owners. Parker, however, prefers to concentrate on what he can control.

"The stuff you read in the papers – if it can't influence you as a player, you don't take much notice. If you get dragged down by something that might never happen, and there's a lot of rubbish written about this club, then you'd be a nervous wreck."

Mind you, Parker is no longer the sort to totally immerse himself in the sport. In fact, the following thoughts offer an interesting insight into how some modern-day players tend to handle the pressure.

"When I was younger, football was the be-all-and-end-all", he explains. "I used to watch it on tele all the time. But I never watch it any more. Never. You get to a point where you need something else. It's such an intense world. You pick up the paper and football is everywhere. If your mind is constantly on it, I think you can just get tired of it all."

Especially for someone who, from the age of 14, attended the Football association's now-defunct National School of Excellence at Lilleshall.

"I suppose football got very serious for me at that age; even at 13 when I was going up for trials and worrying whether I was going to get in. From then until now it's been full on so, yeah, I do like to get away from it. I don't want this to come across as me not liking football because I do still love it, but you do need other interests."

For Parker, three sons under six, plus a bit of golf, are more than enough to keep him going when he is not putting in a shift at the base of West Ham's midfield.

"For me, when my family is happy everything else runs smoothly," he concludes. "Any stresses outside football affect me on the pitch. Some players can handle that, with all sorts going on in their life, but I'm the sort of personality who needs a routine, some stability."

West Ham fans must hope he will always have that in their manor.

Elsewhere, footballers and the arts are not often paired together. The laddish nature of the sport is regarded as the antithesis of high culture, yet West Ham United striker Carlton Cole is adamant on bucking that trend and is sponsoring a 12-year-old piano prodigy.

Nuron Mukumiy is ever-grateful to Carlton Cole for backing him financially so that he is able to participate in a competition in Germany. "Carlton Cole, I am very thankful to him," Mukumiy told Sky Sports. "He is going to help me."

Cole said, "He touched my heart really. Me and my agent came up with the idea of sponsoring him as he is really talented and I'd like to get involved with under-privileged kids in that area."

Hostilities resumed

Gianfranco Zola has called on his West Ham United team to go out and beat Premier League leaders Manchester United on Sunday. The Hammers manager has guided his players through an eight-match unbeaten run in all competitions and believes they have both the confidence and ability to upset Sir Alex Ferguson's side. The Red Devils have won their last seven league matches and kept 12 consecutive clean sheets - allowing goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to set an English record of 1,122 minutes without conceding a goal - but Zola insists he will not be sending his team out with a defensive mindset.

"I never play for a point not even when we played at Arsenal," Zola told the official site. "I went there to try and win the game but at the end they forced us to defend a lot because they are a good team and we'll have the same attitude against United. We play at home and we want to win the game. The approach will be that. We will see what the momentum [of the game] will be. We will try to get the momentum on our side otherwise we might need to defend but the idea is to win the game."

While Manchester United are top of the Premier League form table with a maximum 18 points from their last six fixtures, the Hammers are tucked in just behind with 14, having won four times and drawn twice. With both teams producing superb performances and results in recent weeks, Zola is expecting a closely-fought yet entertaining game of football at the Boleyn Ground. "It's certainly a game where there are two teams who are in very good form playing each other and that makes the game even more interesting. I'm really looking forward to this game. We will try [to beat them] but it will not be easy because right now they are very strong but we are confident and are playing good football and the players are determined to continue on this way. It will be an interesting game. I'm sure that if Manchester United wants to get away with this then they have to play their own best. I'm sure that our own players will be very happy for it."

The Hammers have brushed aside the challenge of Portsmouth, Stoke City, Fulham and Hull City since Christmas, while also securing creditable draws at Newcastle United and Arsenal. Zola puts his team's fine run down to the confidence instilled in his players by their recent performances and results. "Certainly confidence helps and when you play with your own confidence everything comes together very well and it's one of the factors that is making a big difference for us. The players are really improving and enjoying what they are doing and that is making a big difference."

Another major influence has been that of first-team coach Steve Clarke and his fellow support staff. In typically modest style, the manager paid tribute to the hard work done by those working off the pitch to improve his team's chances on it. "Steve is a great man and I have always considered him one of the most important parts in the job I was doing and I told the club I was only going to take the job only if I got someone like Steve by my side. He's a friend first of all but he's great at what he does. Everyone at the club is doing a fantastic job - Antonio Pintus looking after the fitness side and also Kevin Keen and Ludo Miklosko. I think it's the secret of this club that everyone is doing a good job, like Gianluca Nani. It's what we said at the beginning that this is what would happen here. Steve Clarke is top class."

Zola has reported no fresh injuries ahead of Sunday's clash with Manchester United at Upton Park. Midfielder Radoslav Kovac, who has joined on loan from Spartak Moscow, is in the squad and could make the bench. Midfielder Kieron Dyer (calf), defender Danny Gabbidon (groin) and striker Dean Ashton (ankle) remain long-term absentees.

Team (from): Green, Neill, Collins, Upson, Ilunga, Behrami, Parker, Noble, Savio, Collison, Cole, Di Michele, Boa Morte, Lastuvka, Lopez, Spector, Tomkins, Tristan, Sears, Kovac

Elsewhere, Sir Alex Ferguson has been discussing his team's chances ahead of their West Ham clash this weekend. For once he was stumped when the former Hammers manager Alan Pardew dropped in to see him this week and they began discussing the peculiar intensity of Manchester United's games at Upton Park which, Pardew told him, get Irons fans more worked up than the arrival of either Arsenal or Tottenham. The Reds, of course, are used to receiving negative reactions on their travels, but it is one of the game's more curious phenomenons that the Boleyn should rank alongside Anfield and Elland Road as a ground where the atmosphere is at its hottest. Perhaps the rivalry is borne of the vitriolic reception Paul Ince received from West Ham fans for years after he had moved to United; or else the east London club's knowledge that twice, in 1992 and 1995, they killed United's title hopes in the home stretch. "I've no idea. I can only throw ideas out," Ferguson said yesterday. "I could be a million miles out. I just know it's unusual."

United have an unimpressive recent record in the capital and they will find Gianfranco Zola's West Ham confident and injury-free on Sunday, while Cristiano Ronaldo will have memories of his missed penalty in last season's 2-1 defeat at West Ham. Since the Portugal winger's late winner at Craven Cottage in February 2007, which set Ferguson's side on the way to their first title in three years, United have won just once in nine trips to London. This season's games in the city have brought draws against Chelsea and Tottenham and defeat against Arsenal. "I was not aware of the record," insisted Ferguson. "It happens. We have had good runs down there in the past. But it doesn't concern me. We are in good form so why should we not want to play anyone." The Scot said he is "prepared to take this team anywhere at the moment, with the form of the team as it is." This is, he justifiably said, "a great moment, a great period we are going through".

The 'great period' has raised talk of an unprecedented quadruple, in addition to the Community Shield and Club World Cup that already adorn the Old Trafford trophy cabinet. Ferguson has only loosely accepted it is a possibility and the spectre of Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan hanging over the Champions League holders' defence is enough to keep such talk at a minimum. But Scotland star Darren Fletcher is at least alive to the opportunity. "It is definitely possible," he said. "Nothing is close and there is still a lot to play for but if we can keep everyone fit who knows? This squad is capable but we are going to need numbers. It couldn't be just a core of 13 or 14 players. There will be so many games to keep everyone fresh will take a real effort."

Manchester United's problem is that domestic rivals such as West Ham, while not in a position to claim a trophy such as the Premier League, will be trying their damnedest to halt the Red Devils. The Hammers, of course, boast those back-to-back home wins over Ferguson's men and also still fondly talk of the two league titles they deprived Ferguson of in 1992 and 1995 with heroic performances in the last week of the season. In addition, the gloom that accompanied the Icelandic banking collapse and subsequent fears over the Hammers' finances have eased and Gianfranco Zola has taken his side to the fringes of a European place.

The Italian's work has not gone unnoticed by Ferguson, who acknowledges what a difficult test lies in wait for his men. "Zola has done a remarkable job to get West Ham to the level they are playing at just now," said the Scot, once more crowned manager of the month. "They are undefeated in the last eight games and have only conceded three goals in that time, which is a fair indication of the work they have been doing. It can't be easy in their situation. We have all been watching West Ham's difficulties in terms of finance and having to sell players, so Zola has done very well. We have lost two leagues down there so we know how hard it is. But if we are going to go to grounds where that team is playing at its optimum you also hope you are in your best form. That is where we are at the moment."

While the recent plaudits have been reserved for that defence and the burgeoning Dimitar Berbatov, Manchester United's man of the moment is the unsung Michael Carrick, whose six years at West Ham propelled him on his way in football. In many respects, the 27-year-old is Old Trafford's anonymous man; the one left behind in Manchester during international breaks like next week's, whose No 16 you don't tend to see adorning replica shirts. Ferguson yesterday compared Carrick to Dennis Irwin – both "the quieter types [who] sometimes get overlooked by fans and the press," as he put it. Irwin, Ferguson recalled, "used to give me eight or nine out of 10 performances every week. But he didn't have the celebrity status of others round about him – like Ryan [Giggs], David Beckham, Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes. He was a quiet lad who went about his business. Michael Carrick may come into that category." The quality of Carrick's distribution has never been in question, though he has added a defender's vision to it this season. One thing is for certain. When he steps out on to the field on Sunday he is assured a slightly warmer reception from the home faithful than the one reserved for Paul Ince.

Money Can't Buy You Standards

"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money."
Pablo Picasso

Be The Best You Can Be: a rather hackneyed expression applied in most walks of life, conveying corny overtones of some self-improvement guru from across the pond. In sport especially, we hear it all the time, so much so, in fact, that it is difficult to believe that the people aiming for this goal are actually doing everything humanly possible to fulfil their potential. With Matthew Upson, however, things seem slightly different. An hour in his company confirms he can't do much more to, yes, be the best he can be at his profession. The defender has used his own initiative, not to mention his own money, to try and reach the level he has always regarded as reasonable.

And by his own admission, it's beginning to work. Having established himself as one of the Premier League's most reliable defenders and on the verge of another call-up by Fabio Capello, the centre-half feels great, more confident now than ever, thanks mainly to a couple of experts in his employ. To start off with, Upson simply had to get fit, find a way of curing a mysterious calf injury that wrecked the beginning of his Upton Park career.

Running out of options, he finally phoned up a specialist in South Africa he'd heard about on the grapevine, a kinesiologist who, as it turns out, deploys an unusual method to construct the orthotic inserts that realign the body when placed inside someone's shoe. "He uses the Yellow Pages to build them up and then wraps them in masking tape," Upson explains, removing a wedge from his training shoe to let me have a look. "Taking out just one page would knock you off balance. That's how delicate it is. He'll gradually reduce the number of sheets as my body realigns itself. Now I fly him over whenever I need to see him. Before, I was constantly overusing my calf because my body was so far out of line. One side of my jaw was cracking, my neck was hurting, one groin was constantly tight. It all adds up to a pretty cloudy picture of how I was moving. I think it started after my cruciate operation at Arsenal. When you start running again, you're bound to protect that side a bit. It's only natural."

It is over a decade now since a highly promising 18 year-old, a rare Englishman in Arsene Wenger's cosmopolitan plan, arrived at Highbury from Luton Town. Five years on and standing in the back row for Arsenal's official squad photo at the start of another season, Upson was doing his best to raise a smile, but only had to glance around for uncertainty to kick in. Down at the front with the Premiership trophy, FA Cup and Community Shield were two England internationals in possession of the central defensive positions, Sol Campbell and Martin Keown; fair enough.

Yet here was Upson, firmly ensconced at Highbury, a championship medal to his name and ready to fight those two for a place, and still Arsène Wenger had deemed it necessary to buy another centre-half. It seemed reasonable to assume that the Frenchman Pascal Cygan, 28, with Champions' League experience as captain of Lille, had not been signed to play in the reserves. And just look along that back row: Igors Stepanovs, Stathis Tavlaridis, Oleg Luzhny... It wasn't that Upson was paranoid - just that he felt everyone was out to get his place.

All's well that ends well; eleven months later came a transfer to Birmingham City. Scarcely had Upson found his way round Spaghetti Junction than Sven Goran Eriksson did the same, and fast-tracked him into the England squad against Australia. It was a good game not to play in, whereas 45 minutes against South Africa's unthreatening strikers enhanced a swiftly growing reputation. Solid in the tackle, good in the air and blessed with pace - he comes from a family of sprinters - he effortlessly jumped a queue of international contenders that even a couple of months previous had looked more formidable than Arsenal's.

Naturally, he would rather have made it at Highbury, but is not going to cry about that, nor, refreshingly, sound off about the club's strange treatment of him. Intelligent, as well as reluctant to bear a grudge, he will admit only to a slight disappointment that the club concluded a deal with Birmingham at board level before even consulting him. "I wasn't really getting the information I needed from the manager at Arsenal, so until I got that I couldn't really make a decision. Once I sorted that out and met Steve Bruce I was impressed, and thought it was a good opportunity for my career."

Wenger, he felt, "never really backed me and believed in me 100 per cent", though to be fair, the Arsenal manager suggested hanging on until the end of that season - did he have a premonition of the defensive problems that would strike? - and would have been happy to keep him. All this time later and press speculation during last month's transfer window, linking Upson with a return to the red half of North London, suggests even now Wenger regrets the split.

The key points of Upson's Arsenal career were two injuries just as he was on the point of establishing himself, and then a successful three-month loan to Reading at the start of his last season. For a couple of years after the £2million move from Luton Town - then a remarkable fee for a player barely 18 years old, who had one substitute appearance to his name - he was prepared to bide his time and take what few chances came along. In the end it was surprising to realise he had played a part in as many as 56 games in five years before Birmingham stepped in. Crucially, only one of them had been in his final season, in the FA Cup third round against Oxford United, and it proved to be his last.

He left with mixed feelings: "The set-up is fantastic and in Don Howe they had one of the best coaches, but playing the odd game isn't really enough for most young players to progress. Unless you've got an absolutely outstanding talent on show I think most young players need 40 or 50 games to really establish their ability. At that time, in the case of someone like [midfielder] David Noble, how would you play on a Saturday when you've got Vieira, Edu and Gilberto? The only way you can get in front is to play games. It's a no-win situation. But in my time at Arsenal they won two championships and I had a great time."

So off he went to Birmingham where, after a couple of good years, this honest, clear-thinking individual lapsed into a period he describes as 'stagnant'. "I wasn't going downhill but I wasn't progressing", he says. "Sometimes you need the help of someone to explain why you're not achieving what you want." Cue the input of Mike Griffiths, a "performance consultant" who still works closely with Upson to try and maximise potential. "He analyses all my games and comes with me home and away. Do I need more aggression? What's the body language like? Does it need to be more authoritative? All these things are really important and reasons why maybe I wasn't being as successful as I could have been. He's taught me how to achieve my goals. You start at the end, at what you want, and work backwards, thinking about what we need to change."

Upson says changing your mentality is the biggest test; far harder than anything you'll do physically. "Everyone's got something in their mind that's holding them back a little. You've just got to figure out what that is and how to change it, turn it into something that's going to improve you." Upson definitely has improved as well - by a noticeable margin. Capello, for one, has been sufficiently impressed to make Upson a familiar figure on the international circuit.

"I feel I have given a good account of myself and from what I've heard I think he is quite pleased with me," smiles Upson. The feeling is mutual. The Italian has made a lasting impression during the few days he spends with the players. "I think he is excellent, structured and very authoritative. He's got a presence about him due to his track record and the players he's worked with. I think he understands how to win. At times it may be ugly but that's life, isn't it? With the team we've got and the type of nation we are, it sometimes needs to be like that. Look how we won the rugby world cup. At times we were really ugly to watch, weren't we? Really horrible. But they knew what it took to win and that's really important."


Without wishing to be trite, Upson also knows what's important when it comes to his career. He is being paid a wonderful wage. He is playing in the Premier League. Many would be delighted to settle for that. "That's never going to be enough for me", he insists. "I've always wanted more. I want to play for England. I want to play in a World Cup. I'm desperate to do that and I'll do whatever it takes to achieve it."

Upson lives in a £1.5million five-bedroom, detached house – a new-build, Georgian-style property in Essex with girlfriend Elena, who last year gave birth to their first son. The impression you get when visiting their home is that it is a little out of the ordinary for a footballer's abode. There is, for example, a liberal scattering of books wherever you look. "I like reading because you can interpret what you read in your own way and it also broadens your knowledge," he says. Upson picks up a copy of Slaying the Dragon. "Michael Johnson is someone I respect as an athlete and the way he talks about his achievements can be applied to any walk of life," he states. The influence is clear. "I'm a completely different player, on another level to the one from three or four years ago. I'm going into games not questioning anything. I know I've done the work. My belief levels are high. I just feel now that I can fulfil my potential. I feel I can piece things together and become the player I always felt I could be but didn't quite know how to achieve it." He seems to know now that's an achievement in itself.

Back in December, the Boleyn Ground was an anxious place. With the Icelandic owners feeling the pinch and West Ham up for sale, the Hammers were expected to be at the focal point of the New Year player sales. Upson, Scott Parker, Robert Green and Craig Bellamy were the prized assets most sought after but only one first-team regular - Bellamy - left. He joined the billionaire revolution at Manchester City but for the rest Upton Park remains the place to be. Upson may still become a target for Arsenal again in the summer but, for the time being, his footballing ambitions override any desire to chase big-money contracts on offer elsewhere.

"It starts as a football ambition," Upson says. "At nine years old you're not thinking about how much money you want to put in the bank. Then, when you leave school and you're with a club's academy, the question becomes 'Can I make a living out of the game?' Once you get your first professional contract and make the first team, then you begin to think about how to make yourself financially secure. For some of the top international players, it gets to the stage where they have so much money that, financially, it doesn't really matter if they have more success or not. Then it has to be back to a football ambition, otherwise you wouldn't drive yourself on to greater things."

It should be clear by now that Upson doesn’t fit the popular stereotype. He grew up in the market town of Diss, in Norfolk, before being spotted by Luton Town in 1994 where he developed as a trainee. "When I first went to Luton there were times when I had to manage my money carefully, but I’ve never found myself in a difficult financial position. There’s a lot of money in football, but everyone is an individual. You will always see laddish behaviour, but there are many footballers I know who are very careful and are making good, long-term decisions. I don’t socialise much with the England team, but they know how to have fun - it’s their money and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to spend it."

Far from extravagant, Upson displays the same care in life as he does on the footall pitch. When questioned, he says he rarely carries more than about £200 in cash and does not even own a credit card. "I don’t like to spend what I don’t already have," he muses. "It’s due to my upbringing I think. My parents are good savers and they plan things well. My dad was a sales representative for Shell. He retired a couple of years ago. My mother looked after the children, then ran a sports-retail business." Upson agrees he doesn't quite fit into the popular stereotype of footballers. "I’ve been saving ever since I started earning money at 16. I moved from home to Luton as part of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS). They paid £40 a week and set me up with a family. I also put a lot of money aside into my pension - roughly 15% of what I earn. I also have a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) but I still like to splash out occasionally. I bought a silver Aston Martin a couple of years ago for £120,000 - it’s beautiful."

Not that he has always had such good judgment with cars. "About two years ago, I was sitting around at my mum’s house after an injury," he explains. "I was watching a lot of Top Gear and for some reason I decided to buy a bright orange and black Lamborghini. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit into it. It was beautiful but I only did about 400 miles in it before I had to sell - it was killing my back. My family seemed to think it was hilarious."

So back to football and back to those dark days of pre-Christmas. Upson had said off the record he would "be very disappointed if I was still at the club in January and others were sold". Now, he is just relieved that all the speculation is over and he can get back to playing for Zola. "The person who has the biggest headache in the transfer window is undoubtedly the manager," reflects Upson. "He may have to make a decision on a player who wants to leave but he doesn't want to let go. As far as I am concerned there was never, ever a genuine enquiry. There were quite a few rumours but as far as I am aware, that's all they were."

The Italian manager has led the Hammers on an eight-match unbeaten run and it is clear that the pull of playing for Zola is important to Upson. "I have to say the club have done a fantastic job in what could have been a difficult month," he said. "They've done the right thing and maintained their ambition on the pitch, which is something I was concerned about back in December. The one player who's gone was out of their control really. It was a situation where the player [Bellamy] took things into his own hands."

Upson, who scored in a West Ham victory over Manchester United last season, now cannot wait for Sunday's game with the champions. "The reason why things are so enjoyable is because we're doing well and that's down to the job the new management team are doing," he added. "People who know about West Ham and who have watched us regularly will have noticed that we're playing with a bit more positivity and confidence and in a fashion which is more attractive to watch. They've been drilling these messages into us from the day they arrived."

The defender looks certain to be included in Fabio Capello's England squad for next week's friendly in Spain, when it is named tomorrow. "This is a huge 18 months for me, both on a domestic and international level," says Upson. "The 2010 World Cup, for example, is something which I'm looking forward to every day and preparing myself for. The football I'm playing every week for West Ham is no less important. I'm very near my peak now. I still think there are improvements to be made but my form this season has been very consistent, which is a sign I'm more mature as a player and a person."

And what Upson has learnt about life? "Simply be the best you can be," he offers, "because money can’t buy you standards."

Playing With A Smile

West Ham United midfielder Valon Behrami trudged off the pitch at the Emirates Stadium last weekend feeling disappointed. Nothing unusual there, one may feel, plenty of players troop off disappointed after playing Arsenal. However, Behrami was disappointed because he and his team-mates had managed merely a draw against the mighty Gunners, a measure of the progress that he feels the Hammers have made since Gianfranco Zola took over as manager at the Boleyn Ground. "It was a good result, but I think we didn't play very well," Behrami told the gathered media. "We know we can keep the ball better than we did today and we can play much better than we did today, so it's a little bit strange, but the positive thing is the point we got."

So West Ham took their unbeaten sequence to eight games with arguably their most resilient performance to date. Despite the off-field dramas – there has seen growing speculation about the club’s financial position circulating the air waves, as well as five players leaving Upton Park for pastures new this month – the team have blossomed in the face of adversity. Goals have started to flow from the boots of resurgent pair Carlton Cole and David Di Michele, while the back four of Lucas Neill, Matthew Upson, James Collins and Herita Ilunga are developing into a resolute unit.

Behrami insists there is no mystery behind the side’s impressive recent run of results, putting it down to nothing more than good, old-fashioned team spirit. "We are a good team," said the Switzerland international. "When we work all together we are a good team and I think the most important thing is our team spirit. Every single player is fighting together to do better every day so our secret is our team spirit." That approach has paid dividends for Behrami in particular, as the 23-year-old has been the embodiment of hard graft in a West Ham shirt. Despite arriving in East London with a reputation as a ‘pretty boy’, the midfielder’s refusal to shirk a tackle and his tireless displays have seen him become an instant hit with the fans.

Yet more than anything else Gianfranco Zola has encouraged his players to play with smiles on their faces since his arrival in October last year. Behrami admits it is that enjoyment factor which has seen the team escape the throes of a relegation battle and put themselves in contention for a UEFA Cup place, with the team currently occupying eighth place in the table. "During the negative moments, when we lost four games in a row, the manager was always saying positive things to the team," he added. "Every time he would laugh with the team, so when we go to the training ground you enjoy working harder. This spirit is stronger than before and I think that is his secret."

Talk in east London has recently switched from discussion of a possible relegation battle to the rather loftier dreams of European qualification, but the Swiss thinks that it is far too soon for talk of such things. "I think we shouldn't worry about looking at the table now," Behrami continued. "We have to work hard every day and then maybe at the end of the season, hopefully we will have a chance to get into Europe. But it's too early to talk about it now - we have to carry on doing what we're doing."

And what they are doing is keeping clean sheets; three in row since Paul Konchesky's wonder strike for Fulham in mid January. Bar a brilliant reflex save in the 2-0 win at Hartlepool United and a 58th-minute stop from Jimmy Bullard in the 2-0 victory against Hull City, Robert Green has enjoyed superb protection from those in front of him. Such was the strength and organisation demonstrated by his team-mates in Sunday's game at Arsenal, the keeper only had to make routine catches and clearances despite the home side seeing more of the ball. "It's a tremendous effort by everyone and it shows if you don't concede goals you're not going to lose games," Green said. "The main thing is we keep going and keep the momentum going in the team and everybody is really encouraged by our recent run of form. We're playing as a team, everyone in the team is a happy camper and everyone is playing well."

The 29-year-old Green will face another test when the might of Manchester United visit the Boleyn Ground on Sunday, but Green is, understandably, optimistic about the Hammers chances of making it nine games unbeaten. "Confidence is good. The lads will get a rest before that game and Upton Park will be rocking. They're [Manchester United] are on a tremendous run of form but we're not doing too bad either. It's competitive so it should make it a great game."

The draw at the Emirates demonstrated another side to Gianfranco Zola's team, after they had impressed so much when going forward in recent weeks. Although Green was happy to pick up the point in north London, he, like Behrami, says the players were disappointed not to have created more going forward. He said: "We took 20 minutes to get going really, but after a while we started to play. Going to Arsenal and getting a point is pleasing. I think we could have done more on the ball but we defended well and we limited their chances when they attacked. We'd have taken a point at the start but we're disappointed we didn't do ourselves justice in the footballing sense and the lads feel that. Disappointed is not really the word as we're walking off the pitch saying 'tremendous point' but we feel we could have played more football."

New signing Savio got his second taste of the Barclays Premier League and Green was impressed with the new No10's attitude in what could have been a daunting occasion. "Everyone was working hard and when Savio came on he was working hard and chasing. I'm sure it's a bit different from Brescia as running out at the Emirates is a bit different from playing in Serie B." Green cautions West Ham fans though, saying the youngster might not be ready to make an immediate impact on the Premier League as he adjusts to the rigours of the English top flight. "I'm sure he knows he's still got a lot to learn but he's very young and I think he knows he's not the finished product just yet," said the keeper.

That said, Savio has settled quickly into life at West Ham United and is relishing the prospect of this Sunday's visit of Manchester United. The Germany Under-20 star has made two substitute appearances for the club since his move from Brescia Calcio last month and is understandably eager for more. "I was very excited about being able to get on against Hull, where we won the match in a magnificent way, and then against Arsenal, where again we played a very good game and the team did a very good job."

In particular, coming on in last weekend's run-out at the Emirates with the match finely poised could have fazed Savio, but he said Gianfranco Zola had given him confidence. With the crowd singing his name again, the forward entered the fray with 20 minutes to go and was a lively presence. "He just said go on and show what you can do - the rest of the players also helped me a lot and it was easy for me to get involved straight away. Everyone has been helping me since I arrived, the manager, players and staff have helped me settle in straight away and that has been very good for me. I am looking forward to the next match against Manchester United and if I can play a part in this that will be good also."

Elsewhere, several of today's newspapers have run with the story about United extending the stay of Herita Ilunga. The Sun states the defender has snubbed Liverpool to sign a four-year contract at Upton Park and the Hammers will pay Toulouse £2million when the Congo left-back’s loan runs out in May. Ilunga’s impressive performances had reportedly alerted Kop boss Rafa Benitez but West Ham chief Gianfranco Zola said: "We really wanted to keep Ilunga. He has done fantastically well." The article also claims Matthew Upson, Robert Green and Scott Parker are all expected to sign new contracts.

Meanwhile, West Ham sporting director Gianluca Nani has shut the door on the hopes of Sam Dalla Bona, who had spoken to West Ham coach, and close personal friend, Gianfranco Zola with a view to returning to London. The Italian midfielder, who spent four years at Chelsea before joining AC Milan in 2002, offered his services to West Ham having recently cut short his contract with Napoli. Yet Nani insists United have no interest in the player. "I'm sorry to disappoint Dalla Bona's dreams, but there is no chance he can play for us," Nani told Radio Kiss Kiss. "It's true that the player has asked to train with West Ham but we still have to give him a response. Technically he doesn't enter into our plans and anyway we can't even sign him until July. If he came to London, it would only be to continue to train." Dalla Bona, who joined Napoli from Sampdoria in the summer of 2006, has failed to make a single appearance this season and rescinded his contract with the club earlier this week.

Waiting For A Chance

West Ham United's new signing Radoslav Kovac may have to wait for his chance to break into the Hammers' starting line-up, but assistant boss Steve Clarke is convinced that he will be a good addition for the club. The 29-year-old Czech Republic international signed on a loan deal to the end of the season with a view to a permanent transfer, and the former Chelsea coach insisted that Kovac is just what they were looking for. "He is a good signing for us because he can play in the midfield where we are a little bit short just now," Clarke told the Newham Recorder. "He can also play at the back and he is a very experienced player, a Czech Republic international, who passes the ball well, which is the way we like to play."

Kovac is a statuesque six foot plus midfielder with experience of playing for his country at the 2006 World Cup and the 2008 European Championships. He has also made 14 Champions League appearances for his parent club Spartak Moscow. "He is not a forward-going player, he is more defensive, but he gives us good balance to the squad, and we have lost a few players in the window, so it is nice to bring one in," said Clarke.

The midfielder will have to work on his match fitness however. The Russian league has reached its close season and Kovac has not played since before Christmas. "It has been the close season in Russia, so we will have a look at him this week and assess him, but I'm sure it won't take him long," explained Clarke. "I haven't seen him in training, but I saw him the day he signed and he looks in good shape physically."

The player himself was keen to experience the Premier League. "I was happy in Moscow, but England is a new call," said Kovac. "I will be 30 soon and after four years in Russia, I want to revive my career and there is nothing better than the Premier League. Moreover, West Ham are a famous club, they are playing at the top of the table, competing for a place in Europe."

So where is Kovac likely to fit into the team? "Ideally he is a central midfield player just sitting in front shielding the defence, but he has to get past Scottie Parker first," insisted the assistant manager. "He knows he is coming into a team that is doing very well, so he will have to be patient and wait for his chance."

West Ham will hope that he fits in as well as the Hammers' other new signing. Savio played only a few minutes against Hull City last Wednesday, but came on for 20 minutes at the Emirates and showed some useful touches to suggest that he could make an impression at Upton Park. "He's settled in okay," said Clarke. "I think you can see he is not the tallest or the biggest, so he will find the intensity and power of the Premier League a bit of a shock. But I thought when he came on he was bright and lively, good on the ball and showed he is not afraid as he got stuck into a few tackles - he will be okay for us."

While Gianfranco Zola and Clarke run the rule over the new recruits, Alan Curbishley has been expressing his reservations about the dwindling squad number at Upton Park. The Hammers held on to most of their top stars despite constant speculation that the current financial climate would force big-money sales, but the wage bill was still heavily reduced, with nine members of the first-team squad leaving. Craig Bellamy, Matthew Etherington and Hayden Mullins were sold for a total of £17million, while Lee Bowyer, Julien Faubert, Calum Davenport, Nigel Quashie, Kyel Reid and Jimmy Walker have been loaned out.

Curbishley, who quit the club earlier in the season after disputing player sales, believes West Ham may regret allowing so many players to leave Upton Park in the January transfer window if they suffer injuries. Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said: "I don’t think they could have let any more players go. Quite a lot of the fringe players have left and I think it’s left them a little bit short. They seem to be having the luck I never had regarding injuries, they have a settled side and they are playing well. But a few injuries here and there can change all that."

Chief executive Scott Duxbury revealed the Hammers had been hoping to add more players to the squad before Monday’s deadline. Panathinaikos defender Bryce Moon and Dinamo Bucharest’s Sergiu Homei were both linked with moves to Upton Park, but Duxbury revealed: "We’d been looking at a couple of the manager’s targets but a deal couldn’t be concluded."

With regards to Homei, there appears to be a sense of unfinished business. Reports emerging on the continent yesterday suggested the problem surrounds the issue of a work permit, with the player having already signed the relevant paperwork. It would have been a loan deal with a view to a permanent transfer in the summer for a fee just under £1million and there is still hope the deal can be revisited.

Elsewhere, the Mail reports tonight Sam Dalla Bona has failed in a bid to revive his career at West Ham, who have said they are not interested in signing him. The article states that the 27-year-old former Chelsea midfielder is without a club after being released by Napoli but had hoped West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola would give him a trial.

Dalla Bona - who made 55 appearances for Chelsea between 1999 and 2002 - was approached by Serie B side Triestina on transfer deadline day, but was known to favour a return to the Premier League. Only yesterday the player confirmed that he had discussed the possibility of linking up with Zola. "In the last hours of the transfer window, Triestina did approach me, but I have another idea in mind," he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "I spoke with Zola and I asked him about the possibility of training with West Ham because free agents have until March to find a new club. Zola told me he will ask the officials. I wait for an answer."

New Faces On the Way?

Less than 24 hours since the window slammed shut and various media outlets have been linking West Ham United with a couple of players who hadn't previously warranted a mention, even by the club itself.

Sky Sports report that United have completed the signing of goalkeeper Peter Kurucz on loan from Ujpest FC, citing confirmation from the Hungarian club. It is claimed the Hammers have been monitoring Kurucz since Ujpest played two games in England in January and have now moved to secure the 20-year-old until the end of the season. Ujpest FC claim the 20-year-old has moved to Upton Park on a six-month deal with an option to make the move permanent in the summer. A statement on the Ujpest website reads: "Ujpest and West Ham United have today reached an agreement for the talented goalkeeper to continue his career with the London club. The 20-year-old player has a half-year contract with the Premier League club, which has the option to purchase. If West Ham exercises this right, Peter will join for a further four years."
Kurucz is unlikely to challenge West Ham's first-choice keeper Robert Green but will be keen to gain experience in England.

Elsewhere, there have been several whispers, chiefly emanating from Sky Italia, that claim the club is in talks with former Chelsea midfielder Samuele Dalla Bona. Reports before Christmas suggested Dalla Bona, 28, would be allowed to leave Napoli in January and that the player was targeting a return to English football. He was quoted at the time as saying: "I would love to come back to the Premier League - that can motivate any player. Chelsea is still in my heart and I am following my former team-mates Frank Lampard and John Terry. But in that squad there was also Gianfranco Zola and I would like to work again with him at West Ham. He is a great man."

Dalla Bona was a teenage sensation after he joined Chelsea in October 1998. The young midfielder was blooded through the youth and reserve team squads at Stamford Bridge, gaining a reputation for prolific goalscoring and winning the club golden boot in 1998-99. In the same season, he was voted Chelsea's young player of the year. He subsequently made his senior team debut for the club against Feyenoord in the Champions League a year later and in 2001 got an extended run in the side, making 32 appearances and scoring 2 goals. He also played during some of the matches in Chelsea's 2001-02 FA Cup run; the team were eventual runners-up to Arsenal, though Dalla Bona didn't play in the final.

The following season, Dalla Bona turned down a contract extension, citing his desire to return to Italy, and was placed on the transfer list. He moved to A.C. Milan for around £1million in July 2002, and made his debut in October of that year as Milan defeated Torino 6-0. During his first season at Milan, he received Champions League and Coppa Italia winners medals along with the rest of the squad. Facing competition from a star-studded AC Milan midfield containing the likes of Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo, Dalla Bona's opportunities at the club were limited and he spent various seasons on loan at different clubs in Italy, the first of which was a year long loan at Bologna. The following season he was loaned to Lecce having made just a handful of appearances for Milan and in 2005 he was loaned to Sampdoria for a season.

At the end of the championship he returned to A.C. Milan but after a few weeks he was bought by S.S.C. Napoli, in the Italian Serie B league. Dalla Bona had a positive start at Napoli, with the club performing well in Serie B. His contributions to the team included a particularly stunning goal, a left footed volley from outside the box against Treviso. However, as Napoli made their return to Serie A, Dalla Bona was again regularly left out of the starting line, with Napoli signing new players. It seems now that he is ready to embrace a new challenge and has made no secret of his admiration for former Chelsea team-mate Zola.

In other news, the BBC are reporting that West Ham United have been invited to play for the 2009 Asian Trophy this summer, alongside Chelsea, Hull City and unnamed local team. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore claimed after the 2007 edition that the Hong Kong event had been very successful, but the 2009 version might be staged in Beijing or Shanghai instead. The 2009 tournament will be the fourth time the Premier League Asia Trophy has been played. The contest began in 2003 in Malaysia where Chelsea were the eventual champions. In 2005, Thailand were the hosts where Bolton won top honors. And the 2007 tournament in Hong Kong was the most successful one to date. If the 2009 tournament isn’t played in China, the next likely host countries will be South Korea and then Hong Kong.

Finally, there is a piece in today's Standard titled 10 reasons to be a happy Hammer: After enduring a torrid time in 2008 - both on and off the field - West Ham have finally come good under the guidance of Gianfranco Zola... After several months are mostly negative press, it certainly makes a pleasant change to read something with a positive spin.

Meeting Adversity With Personality And Style

No one, he knew, was going to pay much attention and, still less, do anything about it, but Gianfranco Zola said it anyway. He said it would be very nice if they got rid of the January transfer window. Then you could judge how well a manager worked with his players, how he could develop a team from the optimism of late summer to the realities of the spring. He wasn't railing against how money wields such influence in football. No, Zola was simply saying that if the game has never been so transparently a rich man's world there is still no reason why, without even attempting to close fundamentally the huge divide which, say, separates, the recently colonised Manchester City and his own club, we might still be able to restrict the plutocrats to one spending spree per year.

Zola, of course, is from Sardinia, a place which is well versed in the iniquities of life. This is why quite a number of Sardinians still arm themselves to the teeth when they go about their daily business. Indeed, it was to the picturesque Mediterranean island that he returned over the weekend; content to spend a few precious hours with his young family while the footballing power-brokers embarked on the final frenzied hours of transfer business.

As it happens West Ham concluded their transfer business for the January transfer window without landing either of their deadline day targets. The club confirmed last night that efforts to sign a replacement for the outgoing Julien Faubert had failed despite a day of negotiations in East London. United had been talking to at least two players - Panathinaikos' Bryce Moon and Dinamo Bucharest's Radiu Homei - but failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion in either case, meaning that Savio and Radoslav Kovac are the only two new faces to be added to the squad.

In addition, the club announced the signing of Herita Ilunga on a permanent deal after it was decided to exercise the 'right to buy' option at a cost of around £1.5million. The Congolese full-back was a post-deadline day capture last September, arriving from Toulouse as a replacement for George McCartney who joined Sunderland for £6million. Since moving to East London Ilunga has been a virtual ever-present in Gianfranco Zola's first team, drawing plaudits from supporters impressed by his attacking forays and battling qualities. The 26-year-old defender is understood to have signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the Hammers.

Scott Duxbury, talking on the official site confirmed that the club's transfer window business had now been finalised, saying: "We had been looking at a couple of the manager's targets but a deal could not be concluded. Rather than rush anything through, and with the manager happy with his squad, we felt it best to wait until the summer when we can take stock of the squad and spend our money wisely."

It is reported Premier League clubs spent an estimated 175million this month, according to analysis by the business advisory firm Deloitte, appearing to fly in the face of the worldwide recession with an increase of £25million on last year. Dan Jones, partner in the sports business group at Deloitte, said: "The record level of gross spending has largely been driven by transfers between Premier League clubs [about £105m], in particular fuelled by the activity of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur."

In 2008 the figure was £150m; in 2007, £60m; in 2006, £70m; in 2005, £50m; in 2004, £50m; and in 2003, £35m. The top reported transfer spenders in January 2009 were Manchester City (over £50m – the highest level of spending by any club in a January transfer window) and Tottenham Hotspur (about £45m). There have been six transfers reported with values of at least £10million in January 2009 – seven if the Arshavin deal goes through. Before the January 2009 transfer window, there had been only six moves for reported values of £10million or more since the mid-season window was introduced in January 2003.

Premier League clubs' transfer spending in the January window has again far exceeded that in other European leagues, with the 20 Premier League clubs committing more than the aggregate disclosed amounts spent by all top division clubs in the other "big five" European Leagues in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. When the Deloitte Football Money League is published later this month, it will confirm the position of several Premier League clubs among the "Top 20" highest revenue generators in the world.

Reflecting on the overall financial position of Premier League clubs, Paul Rawnsley, director in the sports business group at Deloitte said: "The level of transfer spending is far in excess of spending by clubs in other European leagues. With the majority of their revenue streams already secured for the current season, while clubs are not recession-proof, they are relatively recession-resistant. Looking forward, while the clubs will not be complacent, the latest transfer activity re-emphasises the financial strength and global appeal of the Premier League competition."

The top six reported player moves total about £90million and account for over half of the total January spending. As it works, said Zola, the January window permits the rich clubs to top up their resources, correct mistakes, and wipe out at least some of the effects of injury. It also means that his West Ham United lose a player as talented as Craig Bellamy at a pivotal point in a remarkable recovery to eighth place in the Premier League after being locked in the jaws of relegation. Zola was forced to scout for an emergency replacement, eventually securing the largely unheralded Savio Nsereko from the less than salubrious environs of Italy's Serie B. As good as Savio may eventually become, he is also considerably younger and less experienced, and invariably represents a considerable risk (in every sense) when compared to the proven Premier League performer whose shirt he must fill.

This, Zola further contends, builds in still more imbalance between those with generous resources, as West Ham briefly once had, relatively speaking, before the Icelandic economy descended to the value of not much more than a packet of fish fingers, and those who are obliged to live within their own self-generated means, as the club are forced to do now. "No one will listen," said Zola with a shrug, "and no one will do anything about it, but it is still true. The January transfer window is only for the rich. For those who are not rich it is just another handicap."

It is not an original view, of course; you can just hear the groans of all those worldly characters who keep telling us that money has always been at the root of the highest football success – even, presumably, when Jock Stein raised a team exclusively from the environs of Glasgow and whipped the hind legs off Internazionale in the 1967 European Cup final or when Alf Ramsey led Ipswich Town to the First Division title a few years earlier. But then money realists are not the kind of people who have ever held much sway in the thinking of Gianfranco Zola, who while at Napoli used to stay behind after training to do ball work with Diego Maradona.

Certainly, he was impervious to advice that he should renege on a verbal promise made to Cagliari of his native island when Chelsea came back for him in the wake of Roman Abramovich's Chelsea takeover in 2003. If Zola had any strong sense that for a while at least Stamford Bridge would be awash with roubles, he ignored it, stayed as good as his word and led Cagliari to Serie A. His last game for the club was marked by two goals against Juventus, a splendid farewell which prompted a season's retirement for his No 10 jersey.

Czech Republic international Radoslav Kovac admits that it was largely Gianfranco Zola's presence at West Ham that played a big part in persuading him to come to the club. Kovac has joined the Hammers on loan until the end season from Spartak Moscow but revealed there were other offers on the table when he decided to link up with Zola's side. "There was interest from other big clubs but when West Ham showed their interest, it felt like the right move for me and a chance to come and play in the Premier League," he said. "Of course I know a lot about the manager and also the player he was. It is a fantastic opportunity for me to come and play under him and I am very excited about this."

Zola's attempt to throw a brick through the transfer window would not be to Sir Alex Ferguson's particular benefit but this is scarcely likely to reduce the United manager's affection for the diminutive big man who he once described as a clever "little so-and-so". Ferguson adores Zola, rates him one of the best pros he has ever encountered and, arguably, the most honest. "I love Gianfranco," Fergie once said in a moment of post-prandial expansion. "I've never seen him do or attempt to do anything dishonest on the field – he plays with all his heart and tremendous honesty and if everybody in the game was like him it would be a truly wonderful place."

No one has been known to be in a rush to reproduce that last part of Ferguson's praise in connection with Bellamy, and certainly not his former Newcastle manager, Graeme Souness. Bellamy, whose acrimonious transfer to Manchester City was preceded by the player apparently packing his bags and storming out of Upton Park in a dark mood brought on by West Ham's refusal to let him move to White Hart Lane, escaped public criticism from Zola. Before a national television audience, the West Ham boss said merely that Bellamy was a fine, valuable player. His eyes may have hinted at a less favourable wider assessment but what they seemed to represent mostly was sadness – regret, perhaps, at the transitory nature of so many football lives, among whom Bellamy is more notable than most.

Thus far, though, Zola, as a prudent Sardinian, has not poked his nose in other people's business. He has merely voiced that it is regrettable that for a month a team like his own, one which in difficult circumstances has found a rhythm and a self-belief that seemed so remote so recently, should be picked over like the shelf of a super sale. It wouldn't happen, he was saying so quietly he might have been speaking to himself, in a sport which understood the real meaning of competition.

Instead Zola says only that he is "proud" that his West Ham side have survived the transfer window with "personality and style". Although Bellamy went to Manchester City, the anticipated fire sale of top players did not happen as five fringe players were loaned out or sold. "It hasn't been simple and all the stories in the newspapers did affect the players," Zola said. "But every morning I wake up with the idea that we are stronger than our problems. I am proud to have come through so much confusion, and we have done so with personality and style. Things are falling into place, but the credit goes to the players who have always worked hard even when we weren't getting any points."

Moon Landing And Pie In The Sky

Former Coleraine favourite Bryce 'Alfie' Moon is poised to become a happy Hammer, reports today's Telegraph. The South African, who spent a season at Ballycastle Road as a flying winger when on a one year exchange program from college, is now plying his trade as a defender with Greek giants, Panathinaikos. The Independent agrees the club are close to agreeing a deal to sign the 22-year-old to provide cover at right-back and midfield following the departure of Julien Faubert to Real Madrid on loan for the rest of the season. Moon would cost less than £1million and has been tracked by West Ham's technical director Gianluca Nani for some time.

Moon is described as an attacking right-back brimming with technical ability. When the player originally sealed his move to Panathinaikos it was off the back of a trial in which he impressed the technical staff with his speed off the mark and his tactical awareness. Although comfortable in defence, Moon built his early reputation as an attacking right-sided midfielder for Ajax Cape Town, where he made a telling contribution to the success of the Urban Warriors in the 2007 Manguang Cup, the ABSA Cup and the ABSA Premiership.

The Bafana Bafana international has captained his national side at three different age groups and has the sobriquet 'Scooter' (presumably because of his renowned speed rather than his love for Teutonic techno or an interest in modernist subculture). He was a 100 metre national sprint champion at under-17 and under-19 level and will link up with fellow countrymen Steven Pienaar, Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena in England's top flight if the deal is completed in time.

Apparently, you can go and poke the poor fella if you feel so inclined.

Elsewhere, West Ham also hope to sell Calum Davenport before the deadline passes although, as of last night, no deal had been concluded for the £3m-rated central defender who has been deemed surplus to requirements by manager Gianfranco Zola as he continues to re-shape his squad. Sunderland were credited with an interest in the player last week but reports this morning have United rejecting an approach from the Black Cats for defender Jonathan Spector instead. It is rumoured Ricky Sbragia wanted to take the USA international on-loan for six months, but the move was blocked by Gianfranco Zola, who sees Spector as an important squad member for the second-half of the season.

Other unsubstantiated stories have West Ham contemplating an improved a bid for Cardiff City midfielder Joe Ledley, and a move for an unnamed Argentinian with hair accessories that is so exciting it will drive the Hammers faithful into the streets of East London for a mass spontaneous public bout of backstroke roulette.

Various snippets that conceivably (but in all probability will not) have West Ham United implications (to be updated throughout the day):

*Tottenham striker Darren Bent is the subject of a tug-of-love between three different clubs.

*This from our Leander Schaerlaeckens, a man with far too many 'a's and 'e's in his name, and our Dutch correspondent with responsibility for all things low-lying, McClaren-esqe and Hollandaise (including sauce): "Rob Jansen, Holland's premier football agent, said on a chat-show last night that a top Dutch Eredivisie footballer - who isn't Ibrahim Afellay - would most likely be joining a 'mid-table Premier League team'.

*Brian McBride and Stephen Appiah seen getting out of a Landrover Defender at Putney Bridge station

*Inter have left out-of-favour Ricardo Quaresmo out of their updated Champions League squad

*Due in no small part to the appalling weather scuppering the travelling arrangements of players who need to do medicals, there's talk now that the transfer deadline will be extended. Some men in blazers are discussing the matter with some other men in blazers and will get back to us shortly.

*Sky say no offers for Leeds' Fabian Delph yet, but "big offers are expected" before 5pm.

*Henrik Larsson vacillating about a return to the Premier League

*West Ham tells BBC Sport they are not expecting anything to come in to the club today, but they do expect defender Calum Davenport to be on his way out of Upton Park. He is due to have a medical at Sunderland today.

*Calum Davenport having medical at Sunderland. An initial loan agreement with view to a permanent £3million deal in the summer.

*The Premier League have just announced that they are extending the transfer window beyond 5pm provided the clubs involved can prove that the snow has prevented them completing the deal on time.

*Javier Saviola still hopping round the countryside looking for a club.

*West Ham in talks with Dinamo Bucharest over defender Sergiu Homei, an U-21 Romanian right-back.

*Danny Gabbidon spotted in Cardiff. This is not an indication that he's on his way back to Cardiff City in the transfer window, and more a sign that his injury problems are so chronic he's allowed home to Wales for long spells. Still, he was jogging quite enthusiastically, so Hammers fans and Gabbidon well-wishers everywhere can keep their fingers crossed for the lad.

*SSN saying that, as of 4.45, the deal to bring Homei to West Ham was 'slipping away'

Arsenal 0 West Ham United 0

Arsene Wenger Finds Dogged West Ham Blocking Way To Victory by Kaveh Solhekol

Arsène Wenger came close to admitting that Arsenal are out of the title race after his players failed to beat West Ham United on Saturday. Asked to explain why his team were ten points behind Manchester United, the Arsenal manager did not mince his words. “You look at the cost of their team and you will understand why,” Wenger said. “Manchester United bought Dimitar Berbatov for £31.5 million — we have gone a different way.”... Times

Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger Plays Down Andrei Arshavin Importance by John Ley

The most prolonged transfer in the latest window is set to come to a conclusion with Andrei Arshavin expected to complete his £15 million move from Zenit St Petersburg to Arsenal before Monday’s 5pm deadline... Telegraph

Wenger Must Face Up To The Goal Drought by Neil Ashton

The ball bounces off the shins of the centre forward, the former captain no longer talks to any of his team mates and the best player was named as a substitute. So what makes Andrei Arshavin so sure about this move to Arsenal? ‘Of course we can compete, but we have a young team and we have gone about the development a different way,’ pleaded Arsene Wenger... Mail

Wenger Rages As Saga Of Arshavin Transfer Adds To Woes by Jason Burt

Maybe this contest should have been subtitled "the curious case of Robin Van Persie" or, as a consequence, "the baffling saga of Andrei Arshavin". Having, probably rightly, decided not to expose Van Persie, whose physical fragility has dogged his Arsenal career, to a third start inside a week, Arsène Wenger then left his team exposed... Independent

Wenger Calls For Patience From Restive Arsenal Fans by Dominic Fifield

Arsenal's recent history had been about pizzazz and, for a while, Premier League titles. These days the buzz word that crops up after spluttering performances and squandered points is "patience". There was frustration as their latest opportunity to gain ground on the Champions League positions was passed up, grumbling discontent surfacing on the final whistle. "We must not go overboard with the crisis we face," said Arsène Wenger. "Let's judge our team at the end of the season."... Guardian

West Ham Deny Arsenal Home Victory by Amy Lawrence

Come in Andrei Arshavin. Whatever your number is, Arsenal really must dig it out. Any more of this reversion to the boring days of old and Arsène Wenger will have more than just failing title aspirations to worry about. Although there was a respectable turnout here, life at the Emirates has become so mind-­numbingly predictable, so lacklustre, that people may well ask themselves serious questions when it comes to renewing their expensive season tickets in the summer... Observer

Sorry, Tone, I’d Rather You Didn’t

Another piece for the celebrity files, this one a little story recounted by comedian Phill Jupitus in yesterday's Times.

I’m like a little kid meeting former players
by Phill Jupitus

Despite being a West Ham fan, I have wherever possible tried to avoid meeting players. By retaining your “mere spectator” status it’s easy to stay objective about the shortcomings of men you worship. Also, when meeting ex-Hammers I share very little common ground, unless they are alcoholics or in recovery, as my grandfather used to run a pub in Barking.

My first “encounter” with a player wasn’t even that. In 1974 Bobby Gould spoke to my Dad’s Round Table group and the old man snagged an autograph. I repaid his gesture by showing it off around school, saying I’d met Gould, and subsequently losing it.

Fast forward a couple of decades to a behind-the-scenes tour of Upton Park conducted by Peter Storrie. After a less than enthralling glimpse at the dressing-rooms and treatment area, we ended up having lunch with Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. As much as I craved for them to be waxing lyrical about 1966 or what Bobby Moore was like, the conversation stayed grimly pedestrian. I view it as one of my life’s great missed opportunities that I didn’t have the courage to spur them into lively reminiscence. In case you’re wondering, not going to Japan with Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros is another . . .

A couple of years back, a friend of a friend invited me to partake of a delightful pre-match lunch at the ground followed by a trivia quiz hosted by Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee. Just before pudding I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to find myself face to face with the beautifully attired, healthy and handsome Cottee. It was like looking in a Bizarro World mirror. “Phill, do you mind if I mention you’re here, mate,” he said.

My mouth snapped into brisk and blunt reflex action: “Sorry, Tone, I’d rather you didn’t, I’m just keeping my head down.” Which is quite surprising as inside my head I was screaming: “Tony Cottee is talking to me!”

After the Hull match on Wednesday I was fortunate enough to meet Kevin Keen. He chatted about how brilliant Gianfranco Zola’s training sessions are and how optimistic the team are feeling. As he spoke, I smiled like a little kid again. For him I’m sure it was just shop talk, but for me it was utterly magical.

Repaying the Faith

Less than 24 hours before the window slams shut and today's Sunday tabloid gossip round-up is one of the quieter ones in recent memory. I would like to think it is indicative of the clinical professionalism with which the club now conducts its transfer business. I would like to think that. In all probability, it is simply that a financially stable(ish), capably administered, well managed and chakra aligned West Ham United is of waning interest to the guttersnipes of the written press...

Bolton and West Ham have approached Henrik Larsson about a Premier League return, according to today's Independent. Larsson, 37, is a free agent and Bolton manager Gary Megson and West Ham's Gianfranco Zola have enquired about him. Larsson, who hit 173 goals in seven seasons at Celtic, has pencilled in contract talks with Helsingborg the Swedish league resumes in March but could still move to England on a short-term deal as he did when playing for Manchester United in 2007. Larsson's agent Rob Jansen confirmed: "Premier League clubs are interested in Henrik but we'll negotiate a contract with Helsingborg."

Elsewhere Rob Shepherd claims West Ham will sell Dean Ashton and Kieron Dyer at the end of the season because the Hammers hierarchy have become fed up with the injury records of both players. Writing in the News of the World, Shepherd states that the new direction of the club is to try and slash its massive wage bill and nurture home-grown talent as well as young stars with sell-on value. To that end, neither striker Ashton nor midfielder Dyer fit that bill and will be moved on.

The article insists that the high-earning England stars are seen as a symptom of the previous regime, which saw the Hammers brought to their knees financially by free-spending Eggert Magnusson. It is understood Newcastle will be at the front of the queue for Ashton, 25, who, despite a string of long-term injuries, would still command a fee in the region of £12million. He has failed to live up to the potential that once saw Spurs bid £20m for him - and many at the club believe his best days are now behind the former Norwich striker. United will accept £3million for Dyer, 30, who has broken down again after 17 months out of action since his £6million, £60,000-a-week move from Tyneside.

The same paper states Birmingham are in negotiations with West Ham over a loan move for centre-half Calum Davenport. The Hammers have been holding out for a £3million permanent deal but Brum want to take him until the end of the season with an option to buy him then. St Andrew’s boss Alex McLeish made Davenport, 26, his No 1 target and has been chasing him throughout the transfer window.

About half-way so time for a shamelessly gratuitous shot of Klara Medkova, prettier other half of new Czech signing Rado Kovac. This did not actually feature in any of the morning papers by the way, I just thought I would enter into the salacious spirit of things.

The Sunday Mirror has the club returning with an £8million bid for Cardiff City midfielder Joe Ledley after having an £5million offer rejected by the Welsh club. The 22-year-old, who has won 24 caps, was also the subject of a failed £6million bid by Stoke City earlier in the transfer window and James Collins reckons his Wales team-mate would be the perfect addition to the West Ham squad. Collins, who made the move from Ninian Park to Upton Park in 2005, said: "I'm not surprised by the hype surrounding Joe. He's a great player. He is so young and yet he's probably played more games than I have. It's a matter of time before he is playing Premier League football."

Meanwhile, Savio has vowed to repay the faith shown by West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola after the Italian smashed the club's transfer record to land the striker. Savio, 19, who completed his potential £9million move from Brescia last week, made a cameo appearance during the home win over Hull. But the Uganda-born striker, who has played for the Germany Under-20 side, is now raring to go and wants to prove Zola was right to sign him.

"Gianfranco Zola was a great player and I think he'll be a great manager," said Savio. "I'll improve a lot under him and try to do my best. Both he and Gianluca Nani explained what they want to do here at West Ham with all the young players. They want to improve me and I want to pay them back on the pitch. I'm proud to wear that shirt and I'll try to do my best to improve. The No.10 shirt is a big responsibility but I'll do my best every day. Every time I'm on the pitch I'll play with the heart and make the fans happy."

Finally Julien Faubert has confessed what we have all thought, namely, that he was the victim of a prank when Real Madrid came calling. The French winger signed out of Upton Park, possibly for the last time on Friday when he completed an unlikely switch to the Spanish giants where he will act as cover for a talented first team squad. Real have taken the 25-year-old on loan for the rest of the season with view to a permanent deal in the summer - although given Faubert's comments, it is unlikely that he will ever feature for the Irons again even if that particular deal was to fall through.

Talking to L'Equipe last night about his move, Faubert - who had also been in talks with two other clubs prior to accepting Real's offer - said: "I got a phone call from a representative of Real Madrid. I wasn't very polite to him as I thought I was being made fun of, that it was a joke. I had just found out that contacts with Lyon and Newcastle had fallen through. I wasn't feeling good. But it's up to me to fight, to show that I can get in the team."

Faubert, who has sadly failed to show very little of that 'fight' since joining the Hammers 18 months ago in a £6million switch from Bordeaux also claimed that he had been 'suffering mentally' since moving to London. "I couldn't see a way out," he added. "I thought I would be staying at West Ham, suffering." He's not the only one.