Shirts, Glorious Shirts
6 HRS AGO - By John Bayfield
Got a favourite must have home shirt hanging in the wardrobe? Some impressive Expand
6 HRS AGO - By John Bayfield
Got a favourite must have home shirt hanging in the wardrobe? Some impressive away shirt that’s tucked away in the drawer from God knows when? Or you’ve got that ‘third’ shirt, one that seemed a great idea at the time when you bought it but you would only wear now for a bet? A recent article on the BBC website covered the England football shirt era with kit makers Admiral in the early 80’s. The England home shirt was derided by most around then as it took the shirt design and style away from the traditional look, as in not being the plain white shirt worn through the decades previously. That Admiral national shirt has of late become a collectors’ item apparently.
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One of the most notable changes to what were called generic or plain kits was that Admiral had put their emblem on shirts, down the side of the shorts and around the tops of socks. A clever form of advertising where previously only a few clubs had the makers’ logo opposite a club Collapse
Everton hopeful of staging Liverpool derby at Goodison Park
1 DAY AGO - Everton ask safety group to convene meetingMerseyside police have no objections to gameEverton are Expand
1 DAY AGO - Everton ask safety group to convene meetingMerseyside police have no objections to gameEverton are hopeful of staging the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park when the Premier League season restarts after requesting a meeting of the local safety advisory group.Liverpool’s visit to Goodison on 20 June, when Jürgen Klopp’s team could win the club’s first league title in 30 years, was among several “high-risk” matches that Mark Roberts, the UK’s national football police chief, wanted switched to neutral venues amid concerns over demands on police and fans gathering outside stadiums. Related: Jonjoe Kenny: 'I came to the Bundesliga to push my comfort zone' Continue reading... Collapse
Video: My All Time West Ham Eleven
2 DAYS AGO - This is a forty minute interview I did last week with Russ Budden, in which I chose my all time Expand
2 DAYS AGO - This is a forty minute interview I did last week with Russ Budden, in which I chose my all time West Ham Eleven – well, of players I have actually seen play live. Hope you enjoy it! Collapse
On This Day, 29th May: Happy Birthday Ian Bishop
5 DAYS AGO - Happy 55th Birthday Ian Bishop
Ian Bishop was born in Liverpool on 29th May 1965 and began his Expand
5 DAYS AGO - Happy 55th Birthday Ian Bishop
Ian Bishop was born in Liverpool on 29th May 1965 and began his career at Everton, joining straight from school and making one appearance for the Toffees. A loan spell with Crewe was followed by a permanent move to Carlisle, for whom he played for four years. Bishop was signed by manager Harry Redknapp for Second Division Bournemouth in 1988 for a fee of £35,000; after scoring two goals in 54 appearances in his one and only season for the Cherries, Bishop signed for First Division Manchester City in the summer of 1989. When manager Mel Machin was sacked by chairman Peter Swales, his replacement Howard Kendall (who had sold Bishop to Carlisle when he was Everton manager) saw no place in his side for the midfielder.
Bishop joined Lou Macari’s West Ham United in December 1989 in a deal that saw Trevor Morley also move to Upton Park, with Mark Ward signing for Manchester City in part-exchange. Bishop, now 24, was valued at £650,000 in the deal. He made his Collapse
Julien Faubert to Madrid: the surreal transfer tale inspiring a TV drama
7 DAYS AGO - Yvan Le Mée recalls how his client somehow switched West Ham for the Bernabéu, a move that landed Expand
7 DAYS AGO - Yvan Le Mée recalls how his client somehow switched West Ham for the Bernabéu, a move that landed the agent the nickname David CopperfieldThere were only two days of the 2009 January transfer window remaining when Yvan Le Mée answered his phone. At the other end of the line was a representative from Real Madrid inquiring whether it would be possible to take his client Julien Faubert on loan from West Ham for the rest of the season.Le Mée, already a veteran of what is known in Europe as the “mercato” having started as an agent representing Arsenal’s Gaël Clichy, could scarcely believe what he was hearing. Faubert, capped once by France in 2006, was an injury-prone winger who had made only eight appearances for West Ham since joining from Bordeaux in 2007 and was not the type of player who usually attracted the attention of one of Europe’s most famous clubs. Related: PSG's record £198m splurge on Neymar will stand for years as symbol of crisis | Jonathan Wilson Continue reading... Collapse
Should I stay or should I go?
25/05/2020 - Guest Post by Safehands
I’m caught between a rock and a hard place … do I renew my season ticket Expand
25/05/2020 - Guest Post by Safehands
I’m caught between a rock and a hard place … do I renew my season ticket for something for which I’m growing more and more disillusioned or do I stop my time and financial commitment to my football team, a team that I have supported since, well since forever?
Look, I love my football – perhaps I mean my West Ham football as I don’t sit and watch any football that’s on, I watch primarily West Ham … okay, except when we lose – I care too much. When I started going my friend and I were in the queue at 11.15 in the morning so we could get our spot on the wall – we were always second and never ever got in front of the other group (damn them). I’ve been in every section of Upton Park from where I’ve seen some memorable games although thinking about it, most of them weren’t but it didn’t dampen my ardour or the need to go for my Saturday afternoon fix. I just had to be there.
I rarely miss a game and if I do, it’s not because we’re playing badly Collapse
Remembering Andy Carroll’s hat-trick against Arsenal
23/05/2020 - A common trope in British sitcoms is the evocation of unfulfilled potential. Whether its Kurtan Expand
23/05/2020 - A common trope in British sitcoms is the evocation of unfulfilled potential. Whether its Kurtan Mucklowe longing to leave his village but not possessing the wherewithal in This Country, Dawn Tinsey’s desire to become an illustrator but settling into becoming David Brent’s receptionist in The Office or the underlying sadness in the lives of Mark and Jez in Peep Show, comedy writers make their characters relatable by hinting at their inner frustrations. After all, the workplaces of this country are littered with people who felt they could have been more. Nobody dreams of working in a call centre.
Footballers are not immune from this description. Upon his release by West Ham in 2019, scores of articles appeared lamenting the unfulfilled potential of Andy Carroll. Portrayed as an analog player in a digital age, Carroll was the ultimate example of a striker who was unplayable on his day. Possessing unrivalled heading ability and the energy of a one-man mosh pit, defending against Carroll Collapse
My West Ham Team of the 1990s
21/05/2020 - It’s just a bit of fun, but I thought I would spend an hour dreaming up my West Ham team of Expand
21/05/2020 - It’s just a bit of fun, but I thought I would spend an hour dreaming up my West Ham team of the 1990s. I first had a season ticket in 1992, so I saw most of the players we had in the 1990s. It’s funny how we all remember certain players who we thought could have really become big stars if only they had been given the chance or seized the opportunity when it came along. There were quite a few in the 1990s. Matthew Rush is one that immediately springs to mind. He had everything – an athletic build, loads of skill, the ability to score spectacular goals and speed. But he lacked application and mental will to drive himself on. He ended up spending a few seasons in the lower leagues before becoming a PE teacher. He won’t make my team of the 1990s, but he could have. So, here we go. To qualify for the team, a player must have played at least one game during the 1990s, starting the the 1990-91 season and finishing with the 1998-99 season.
Goalkeeper
Can we really Collapse
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Premier League: the 10 most in-form players before lockdown
9 HRS AGO - Harry Maguire, Mo Salah, Harvey Barnes and Sébastien Haller will be hoping to pick up where they Expand
9 HRS AGO - Harry Maguire, Mo Salah, Harvey Barnes and Sébastien Haller will be hoping to pick up where they left off By Martin Laurence for WhoScoredWith a return date now in place and anticipation building, it is easy to forget just how the season was left off. Bruno Fernandes had made a fine start to life in England after his arrival from Sporting in January, yet others had dipped. Having looked back at the last six rounds of fixtures, here are the 10 players who were enjoying the best form before the league was suspended in March. Related: The footballer who signed his first EFL contract a fortnight before lockdown Related: Football quiz: when Manchester United won the 2008 Champions League final Continue reading... Collapse
Food science has turned cooking into an art form for some footballers
1 DAY AGO - Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson and Mark Noble of West Ham have honed their culinary skills during Expand
1 DAY AGO - Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson and Mark Noble of West Ham have honed their culinary skills during lockdown while others have discovered a new interestLockdown has offered plenty of food for thought and for most people stuck indoors all day it’s not long before thoughts turn to food. But while many of us have spent the past weeks fine-tuning banana-bread recipes and pondering the earliest acceptable time to raid the alcohol cupboard – with waistlines widening across the country as a result – Premier League players have been entitled to no such indulgences.Instead they have had to maintain strictly regimented intake which, until a couple of months ago, was pretty much put on a plate for them. When lockdown came into effect, the remit of a Premier League nutritionist suddenly became a lot harder. To keep a squad of two dozen elite sportsmen on a fine-tuned high-performance diet is a tough enough task in itself, let alone doing so while Collapse
The Story of West Ham’s Maddest Season
7 DAYS AGO - One of the most stereotypically male traits, alongside leaving the toilet seat up and the Expand
7 DAYS AGO - One of the most stereotypically male traits, alongside leaving the toilet seat up and the inclination towards ‘banter’ as a means of demonstrating affection, is the desire to list things. This may explain the conspicuous lack of female train-spotters. While life is essentially many different shades of grey, rankings are often used by people attempting to order the subjective and have formed the basis of countless pub conversations. Scores of Top 10 lists, under the guise of provoking debate, proliferate the internet in a manner that screams content filler.
Many football outlets have resorted to this ubiquitous technique in order to compensate for the absence of any live action to discuss. For example, the BBC recently asked voters to select the most miraculous escape from relegation in the Premier League era. Options ranged from Portsmouth’s survival in 2006 under Harry Redknapp to Sunderland’s late surge in 2014 inspired by Connor Wickham’s heartbreakingly brief transformation into Collapse
What if a Gay Footballer Came Out?
24/05/2020 - This is an article I wrote for Attitude Magazine a few years ago. Given the storyline about a gay Expand
24/05/2020 - This is an article I wrote for Attitude Magazine a few years ago. Given the storyline about a gay footballer in Coronation Street I thought it was worth another outing. See what I did there?!
He hadn’t told anyone. Not even his agent. It was going to be done on his own terms. Adam Ranger hadn’t told his mother what he was about to do, and he especially hadn’t told his gossipy sister. They would all find out like the rest of the country. Had he told any one of them, he knew they would come out with all sorts of reasons why he shouldn’t go ahead with what he knew would affect him for the rest of his life. You see, Adam Ranger, star England central defender, was about to announce to the world he was gay.
He knew the risks. He was prepared for the media storm that would no doubt engulf him. People who do something ‘first’ always become renowned. Adam was prepared for that – what he didn’t want to become was ‘notorious. He calculated that if he did it, others would follow suit. And follow Collapse
Delve into Blowing Bubbles Magazine's digital archive
19/05/2020 - Blowing Bubbles Monthly Magazine have made their back issues available to read online, for free! Expand
19/05/2020 - Blowing Bubbles Monthly Magazine have made their back issues available to read online, for free! Their new digital archive contains more than 80 issues of the magazine for your enjoyment any time, on any device. You can delve into their digital archive here
If you’re new to Blowing Bubbles, you can expect big interviews, columns written by former Hammers and a plethora of opinions. All pieces are written by West Ham fans, for West Ham fans. Over the years, they’ve had some extraordinary interviews with the likes of Pele, David Gold and Mark Noble as well as former players such as John Hartson, Tony Cottee and Dean Ashton, to name but a few. They’re now all available to read in the digital archive.
There are also many timeless pieces to flick through. In previous issues they’ve counted down the best players in West Ham’s history, given their best XI in the Premier League years and ranked managers from worst to best. They love to get feedback from readers with similar or Collapse
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The footballer who signed his first EFL contract a fortnight before lockdown
1 DAY AGO - After years of waiting for his Football League debut, Paco Craig was finally getting his chance Expand
1 DAY AGO - After years of waiting for his Football League debut, Paco Craig was finally getting his chance aged 27. Then a pandemic arrivedBy Gavin Willacy for Playing in the ShadowsThe story of Jim Morris was so good Disney made a film about. In The Rookie, baseball pitcher Morris – played by Dennis Quaid – emerges from coaching a high school team to play in the major leagues for the first time at the age of 35. Paco Craig did not move into teaching after he left West Ham’s academy, but he has spent nine years outside British professional football. Just as he was on course to finally make his Football League debut with Wycombe Wanderers at the age of 27, coronavirus swept across the world and brought his dream to a shuddering halt.Unless he becomes a Premier League regular, Paco is unlikely to become as famous as his dad, Mikey Craig, who played bass in Culture Club. “I’m no musician but I get my athleticism from dad,” says Craig. “He was a good sprinter. My endurance is from Collapse
The Blackpool Incident
6 DAYS AGO - By Tony Hanna – From the Archives
One of the darkest moments for our club came back in 1971. Expand
6 DAYS AGO - By Tony Hanna – From the Archives
One of the darkest moments for our club came back in 1971. Ron Greenwood was at the helm and he was fierce in his views that West Ham were a club of pure principals; on and off the pitch. His captain was the “Golden Boy” of football and captain of England, Bobby Moore. West Ham’s style on the pitch was revered and Ron was adamant that there would be no stain left on the club during his tenure.
It was the 2nd January 1971 and West Ham had been drawn away to Blackpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Despite being only two places below West Ham in the League, Blackpool were considered very much the underdogs and it would have caused a shock if they could tumble the Hammers. However, the mist was hovering over an icy pitch and most Northerners considered the Hammers a soft touch in these types of conditions. Blackpool would be up for it on a freezing cold day and they had a new boss, Bob Stokoe, to impress. Stokoe had joined Blackpool just Collapse
A European Night to Remember at Upton Park
26/05/2020 - By Tony Hanna
One of the finest matches ever played at Upton Park was the 2nd leg of the European Expand
26/05/2020 - By Tony Hanna
One of the finest matches ever played at Upton Park was the 2nd leg of the European Cup Winners Cup semi final in 1976. The opposition was Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt and the Hammers trailed 2-1 from the first leg. The score line had set it up for one of those fabulous, noisy and stirring European nights at Upton Park that sadly we have all seen too little of in recent history. Our FA Cup final win against Fulham the season before had entitled us to be England’s representative for the 1975/6 tournament, which then was only second to the European Cup as the continents biggest club football prize. In the first leg on German soil, Graham Paddon had scored early on to give us great hope of following in the footsteps of our 1965 team that had won the trophy at Wembley. However, two German goals to Neuberger and Kraus had given Frankfurt the advantage heading back to Upton Park.
And so it was set up. Nearly 40,000 West Ham fans crammed into the Boleyn as torrential rain Collapse
Happy Hammers: revisiting West Ham's 1980 FA Cup triumph – in pictures
23/05/2020 - With the coronavirus pandemic putting paid to the plans of 90,000 fans packing out Wembley in this Expand
23/05/2020 - With the coronavirus pandemic putting paid to the plans of 90,000 fans packing out Wembley in this year’s FA Cup final, we’ve had a rummage through the archives to check out West Ham’s win over Arsenal 40 years ago Continue reading... Collapse
My West Ham Team of the 2000s
22/05/2020 - FROM THE ARCHIVES
When I first decided to start this series of West Ham teams of the last five Expand
22/05/2020 - FROM THE ARCHIVES
When I first decided to start this series of West Ham teams of the last five decades, I rather thought the team of the Noughties would be the most difficult to pick. And so it has proved. As you will see below, it is virtually impossible to choose between some players. It was a decade when more players played for the club than in any other decade. In some seasons in the 1970s or 1980s only 18-20 players appeared for the club. During this decade, it was sometimes well over 30. And of course in this decade, some of the best players only played for the club for a season or two. Or in Carlos Tevez’s case, only 26 games. But what a 26 games!
Goalkeeper
This is possibly the only position I found easy to pick a winner in. And that is Robert Green.David James might have had a claim, and indeed, he impressed us all during his three years wearing the green shirt in 91 games, and Shaka Hislop also has a claim with his two spells, totaling 121 appearances. But Collapse
Nearly Reach the Sky by Brian Williams: A Valediction to The Boleyn
20/05/2020 - FROM THE ARCHIVES: 12 February 2015
When Iain emailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would like to Expand
20/05/2020 - FROM THE ARCHIVES: 12 February 2015
When Iain emailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would like to review Brian Williams’ new book Nearly Reach the Sky: A Farewell to Upton Park I was both flattered and nervous. I haven’t been asked to write a book review since I was in my Headmistress’s Good Readers Club when I was 8. I said yes straight away as I’m already a fan of Brian’s writing and I anticipated a funny, clever and interesting read. I wasn’t disappointed, it was such a good read that I finished it in a day; my only hope now is that I can do it justice.
I suppose the first thing that a prospective reader might want to know is which literary genre this book falls under. To be honest it could easily be categorised as a tragicomedy, a memoir or even a history of sport. The one category I wasn’t expecting was romance.
Nearly Reach the Sky is more than just a collection of one West Ham fan’s musings on his life as a football supporter; it is a billet doux, a Collapse
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