New Players, January 11, 2011

A couple of players have arrived West Ham's way in this transfer window, to be added to Wayne Bridge, who played a very decent game against Everton last Saturday, I thought. The first is Demba Ba ("Demba Ba ba ba ba ba ba" to the tune of the Muppets theme song, I think, is what we'll chant when he scores his first hat trick against City tonight) who comes from German club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, on loan until the end of the season. Of course, everyone says that at that time, they will look at him with the viewpoint of signing him permanently, but that doesn't mean anything in the modern game, because if he turns out to be brilliant, we might not be able to afford him anyway. He has some goals under his belt, including two for his country, Senegal. Senegalese players are very sane and never cause training-ground rumpuses. They're level-headed and never refuse to turn up for training camp because they want to, say, move to West Ham after first failing a medical for Stroke City. With Luis Boa Morte fitting effortless in with Ba, these two Black Sheep (sorry, and it's not as though this joke has not occurred to everyone anyway) almost guarantee the Hammers Champions League football next season. At least it means one partially injured player hailing from Germany or a German side will perform for us, as who knows when Thomas Hitzlsperger will ever appear?
The other is Middlesbrough player Gary O'Neil, who I remember as a decent midfielder, although he looks very distressingly like another Gary who played for the Hammers ("played" is perhaps the wrong word), Breen. Let's hope he's far better, and he comes in as replacement for Valon Behrami, who is off to Fiorentina imminently, although with Jonathan "Skinhead" Spector now scoring goals for fun, who knows if a place is open to O'Neil.
...and here's an odd quote. Mssrs. Gold and Sullivan are not going to the Birmingham game tonight. Says Sullivan, "I don't want to offend anyone by not going but I can't face doing that journey back if we lose." Thanks for the overriding support. That must make the lads feel you are really behind them. Then again, at least we do not have to look at him sulking in that ridiculous hat of his.

Everton 2 West Ham Utd. 2 (Premiership), Saturday, January 22, 2010.
I cannot remember the time before we have been up twice in the same game. The big brouhaha was when striker and goalscorer Frederic Piquionne was sent off, and he has to be the first player ever to get his marching orders for two yellow-card offences of "lip" and "hurdles." There is a rule about that, and he had to go, but before then everyone watching the game around me (or beside me, because it's not as though other West Ham fans create a protective circle around me; it was just a choice of phrase) remarked that he had been playing very well in defence, too. I did notice that West Ham smothered the opposition with five or six defenders whenever they threatened, and this is the kind of thing the good teams do. But one defending lapse after Piquionne was in the bath was when Everton player Osman just about kept the ball in play, nutmegged a Hammer and then crossed it to create their second equaliser. It did feel a little like three points lost, even if we'd have settled for a point before things started.
We managed to get a decent feed down at Lunasa's...computer feed, not egg n' chips twice--although we did miss Spector's goal that was quite an excellent conversion. Keiron looked after us very nicely down there.

Man of the Match—Luis Boa Morte. Boa Morte will always give 100 percent, and I thought he played very well during this match. One criticism is that he doesn't ever think of the possibility that when he has the ball, one of the opposition might think it a good idea to take it off him. Aren't we a different team when Scott Parker is playing and Mark Noble realises that.