West Ham Fans

We have plenty of english players e.g. Green, Upson, Ferdinand, Noble, Ashton, Cole, Mullins, Etherington, Bowyer, Dyer, Zamora and Wright, plus all the youngsters coming through. Thats a whole team, logic prevails, time to look abroad!

yes mate, but given this countrys lack of technical and natural ability and obviously the playstation culture of our youngsters, i just think that players from a less advantaged area such as brazil and argentina for example, play more as youngsters and try harder to realise their dreams as a life out of football in a south american ghetto is no life at all! thats why england are falling behind and that is why the best players in premier league are foreign, as sad as it is, its the truth and if it makes my west ham a stronger team then im all for recruiting some, coz lets face it, we need a couple of flare players to unlock the opposition, we never replaced benayoun with a like for like player, and against the lesser teams we are struggling because we are used to hitting better teams on the break.

Kitsons not right for us, we need to move up a level, not buy more average players, we need scouts in Italy, Spain and South America, another Tevez and Mascherano but this time hang on to them. Get rid of the dead wood!

from what ive seen of kitson he puts away the odd half chance and misses the absolute sitters!! but wouldnt suprise me if curbs did buy him, after all he wouldnt have to get off his arse to actually check him out! we need to take a gamble on some foreign talent and get rid of our fringe players and give youth a try

papabenno..just read the multitude of comments...most...agree with although cannot understand anyone thinking LBM should be a starter. Watched the Birmingham game in a fervent West Ham Bar in Spain and everyone to the letter could not understand why Alan Curbishly kept Ashton on and dispensed with Carlton Cole. We are all convinced that he was only left on because he thought it might damage Ashtons chances with England EVEN MORE if he took him off. Ashton needs some speed training (as has been done with Michael Ballack of Chelski)Until he gets some serious training under his belt, he will continually embarass himself and the WH faithful. I agree with many that Curbs is carrying on his Charlton game plan..we´re fed up with lame excuses re injuries and want him to be more adventurous and try out Sears/Collison etc...definitely in front of Camara...still wear my WH shirt every week in the Spanish Pub but hate the (TRUE) comments from the S***s lot in the next room...ever hopeful...West Ham till die

I am a season ticket holder and will never hand back my seat ever! but i can understand some of the upset that the supporters who spend a massive amount of money are feeling about the lack of Class being played under the Curb. Apart from the manure game i have been very disapointed by the class of play this season and i will say this. This season a place in europe is for the taking the standard of football below the top 3 or 4 sides are quite average this season and we could have pushed on but showed no ambition in the Jan market. We all knew that we were light up front. No players with speed, good skill and a rutherless mindset so why not go in and buy! Ashton i am afraid to say is looking rubbish (Hopefully will improve next season) Cole top class hold up player but can not score for crap crappy klint, Bells would be good but is always injured. and Z man is all hammer but lets face facts most of his shots end up in row z thats if he is not offside! We should have bought a striker! I hate to think that the spuds could overtake us but i can see it happening. What we need is technical director who knows the foriegn market and has some tactical skill! No one has rubbished Faubert when he stated that they have only had a couple of technical sessions! what is going on, we can all run around in small games and have a giggle every morning! do you think at the spuds Ramos is not giving them advantage of his technical understand of the game! Hope to god i am just a stupid hot headed supported with no idea about how the game should be played and we will now play great attacking football but i bet i will be sitting in my seat thinking again! Well Perhaps Next Season!

Ahh I love Faubert's expression on this picture.. "You f-cking what?" - http://img.skysports.com/08/02/218x298/LeeBowyer_643850.jpg .. It looks more like Bowyer is in shock because Faubert just slapped the bloke on the floor.

I agree its a bit sickening to beat Liverpool to be within a whisker of the euro places and then go on to lose to stinking Wigan and draw at home to Birmingham...but I guess we've got to look at the season overall really. from that point of view injuries considered I think we have to say we've got lots to be content with. no relegation battle so we've certainly improved on last season...and now we've got something to build on for next season. our 'star' signings of Dyer, Faubert, Bellamy and Parker have hardly been seen this season which means they will be like new signings for next season after getting in some games hopefully before the end of this one. overall the squad looks healthy. i cant see any weak points in it..the defence has been superb with Upson this season, great keeper in Green, in midfield we have an embarrassment of riches with Solano, Ljungberg, Parker, Faubert, Dyer not to mention the likes of Noble, Ethers, Boa Morte. Up front we've got Z man yet to be seen this season, Bellamy, Cole and of course the out of form Ashton. throw in the sqaud players like Collins, Gabbidon, Bowyer, Mullins and our squad looks fine to me. Dont know what the moaning is about. I think its far better to keep a good squad together even when players have a loss of form to let them gel as a team rather than to start chopping and changing...e.g 'sell ashton and buy Deofoe' calls. One player I would push Curbs to consider in the summer would be Dave Kitson who in a poor Reading side looks useful. strong in the air, good goalscorer and is english. he would be prepared to wait for his chance and wouldnt unsettle the players we already have...as would happen if we go and buy some Johnny Foreigner big name.

Fans, Season Tickets, Manager. After a couple of poor results, the exasperation among the fans is almost palpable. Never mind that Wigan and Birmingham are fighting for their lives, or that they've played better than their records indicate, or that, with the possible exception of Derby, there's not one team that can't beat another in the Prem on its day. There can be no excuses. We should have won both matches and we didn't. We should have played more attractive football than we did. OK, I agree with all that. I disagree with the fans who are rubbishing some of the players and the manager -- I believe constructive criticism is always more useful (especially if the people in question read this site!). But anyone who is still bothering to log on and post their views, I think, must still bleed claret and blue. If they had deserted, then why bother? As for sending back season tickets, I think that is a bit foolish, like cutting off the nose to spite the face. Isn't this the team you support??? I live in Australia. I would LOVE to go to just ONE match. I would do everything I could to motivate my team and my brothers in arms in the stands. As for the football not being exciting, I don't know what people expect. GEEZ, you've got the BLOODY PREMIER LEAGUE to watch, with the best players in the world!!! No offence but I would DIE to watch those matches in person. As for the manager, maybe he's not the one some people want. OK. There are clearly differences of opinion about this. My own opinion is that in the Birmingham match, Curbs didn't make the right choices. But I don't know what he knows. And in a lot of previous matches, he's done just the right thing at the right time. So I got nothin' against him. For me, I'd like to see what he can do with a full squad over a whole season. There's still a few games to go in this one, and you never know what still might happen. So we dropped some points. Let's get over it, beat Fullham and then let's stick it to Chelski just for good measure. I urge everybody to get behind the team and the manager, not blindly, not uncritically, but genuinely. We can still make Europe. COME ON YOU IRONS!!!!

And anyway - on a lighter note - JOHNNY PAINTSIL'S COMING HOME!

All this "I won't set foot at the Boleyn while Curbs is there".. and "I sent my season ticket back" .. that is f.ucking bollocks. It does not matter WHO is at my football club, they are MY football club and I will never be forced to lessen my support because of someone there. That is truly, TRULY moronic. What comes of this? You miss out on watching the football team you 'support'.. and really, THAT'S ABOUT IT.

...i also agree with jump jump,i sent my season ticket back last season after we got stuffed 6-0 and 4-0 by reading and charlton respectivley and vowed never to renew it whilst curbishley is in charge,and before everyone starts shouting,yes i know we stayed up and we are holding our own in the premeirship,but the "football" we are playing is dire,and its my opinion that we wont be playing in europe next season and AGAIN we are also out of both cup compatitions. Curbishley has done his bit by keeping us up but he won't be taking us up to the next level that we all crave.to his credit he has sorted out the defence and he has been unlucky with injuries but im sick of hearing the excuses,last week it was the pitch this week it was players being "jaded" from international duties. i saw the best game of football ever back in 1976 against eintracht frankfurt on a widswept rainy wedensday night on a quagmire of a pitch at upton park with brooking gliding across the mud majestically scoring one of the best goals ever,no one complained about the pitches in those days they just got on with it.I mention that night because sir trev was at the game yesterday with capello and the look on trevs face said it all,a mixture of frustration and embarrassment.The point of this post is that we are entitled to our opinions on our club that we all love and want to see playing good football and being successful,just because someone states something that you may not agree with it dos'nt give you the right to get abusive..

didnt see the game at the weekend so i cant comment but we should be pickin more than 1 point in are last two games!!! curbs needs to get a bit more flair about the team. were turnin into charlton when curbs was at them. curbs seems to me a manager that likes bein a middle table team.. he comes in sorts out our defence which is very strong, and seems happy to grind out results! why do we play well against bigger teams? cause the players all step it up and play with a bit more flair cause were the under dogs. when we play lower teams they seem happy to try and grind out a result??? come on u irons sort it out!!!!! the fu#kin spuds are on their way to wembley and are catchin us in the league!!!!!! coyi....

I was at the game. We started really brightly and got the goal delighted for freddie btw.However after the penalty we fell aslepp and didnt create anything however if we can start how we did yesterday we will sort it out we just have to carry on how we stat.One down side ashton sdidnt look great. Up the irons

Quite a few people have commented on the style of football we played this week, and last week too. The long ball, or 'hoofing up the field', is not what we want to see. But too many are blaming this on Curbs. He has impressed on the players time and again to "keep the ball" and "pass it", when the players choose not to do this, it is as frustrating for Curbs as it is for us. Also, the tempo, most of the time the team are told to keep the tempo as quick as possible so as not to let other teams settle into their own game and style of play.

For most of this season Ashton has either not started or, has been substituted. Every time he starts on the bench you can hear pundits and commentators saying things like, "You HAVE to start him, when you have a player with Ashtons quality you are missing a trick leaving him on the bench." or, if Deano comes off and CC is left on they say "Why has he left Cole on and not Ashton, (top scorer) for all Carltons hard work there is just no end product. "I am sure that Golfy has heard this criticism too, and it would not surprise me in the least if Golfy, or somebody else, has told Curbs to start with Deano and leave him on. After all, it was very out of character for him to have Ashton as the lone striker. Of course I could be wrong about the substitution but, the tactics are not what Curbs has been asking of the team so please try to give the players some of your criticism and not blame everything that goes wrong on the manager just because you don't like him.

COYI!!!

West Ham Till I Die

Who should partner Bellamy? Ashton - Lazy, unfit, uninterested, thinks he's better than he is, fat ego Cole - Works hard, fit, wants to play for the club No brainer really

Freddy Sears scored a hattrick!!!Ok lets put in this way..If Bellamy still injure against Fulham, I would like to see Cole and Zamora up front and Freddy could take his place on bench..Ashton should be dropped and work on himself harder and wait for his chance {IF!)..Midfield should be: LBM, Noble/Mullins, Ljundberg, Faubert..Defence the same..Freddy could come for last 20 - 15 min..Depend how the game will go on...COYBI

they kept pumping long high balls from the back and wasted free kicks by crossing too high and too near the keeper. i watched the match on tvants and closeups of curbs showed him telling them to keep it on the floor but they just ignored him.

How come we can raise our game against top four opposition, but not lower placed teams? Although we got done by a soft penalty yesterday, even allowing for poor referee decisions, we should expect to beat the likes of B'ham at home. Curbs blamed injuries yesterday, fair to a point but we were still able to put out a strong squad for the game. Whilst I am well pleased with the improvement this season and realistic with my expectations, I can't help thinking that with a bit more effort and better tactics we could be a few places higher up the table. COYI.....

Alan Curbishley has to get his team selection right otherwise we'll never get into europe this season or thereafter. Faubert should of started out on the right with Lunjgberg pushed inside-right with Mullins next to him. Cole never should of been substituted, he should of replaced Ashton and gone 433 with Etherington, Cole and Faubert up-front and Lunjgberg, Mullins, Bowyer in midfield. I don't want to be harsh on Curbs but his tactics are costing us points, what do you think?

ivr read all the comments on this thread and have to say that theres a bunch ov u out there that will never agree with each other.we all av opinions and i think that jumpjump has some good ones,so stop picking on him and face facts curbs has turned us into charlton.now im not saying that this is a disaster because he will keep us in this league . but we need to look forward and upward and start playing the old west ham way passing the ball and exciting the crowd because yesterdays performance was dire. if i wanted to watch people hoofing the ball to each other,i would travel to hackney marshes and not upton park.ps i travel from doncaster to watch my beloved irons and think the sooner we get the new technical director in the better as we are desperate for a creative midfielder.and well played matty upson again.deano sort yourself out .

Camara - Please Curbs do me a favour and send him back to Wigan, I would rather to see our youths - Sears or Stanislas.They can't be worse than him...

A lot of steam being let off following our failure to put Birmingham away and little wonder. This is not an anti Curbishley or Ashtonbagging post. I think Curbishley has done very well given the incredibly bad luck he has encountered. But it is a fact that the team played poorly again yesterday. There didn't seem to be a game plan. If there was a game plan, it didn't seem to change in accordance with what was happening on the pitch. Some players were again ineffectual. Etherington did little to trouble Birmingham down the left unless it was his mission to win a couple of corners from which we did nothing anyway. He wins few (if any) 50/50 balls and appears to have incorporated falling over into his repertoire. For a man of Dean Ashton's ability to be shuffling around as aimlessly as he does there has to be something not quite right for him psychologically. I believe he needs a couple of sessions with a sports psychologist who might just get him back to doing those simple things that were working really well prior to his injury (as well as working on his physical fitness of course). To be without both Noble and Parker, the really outstanding midfielders in our squad, created a void in this game. Work as they might, Bowyer and Mullins do not provide any particular spark or direction for the team. It is of concern that our only goal came from a throw- in so carelessly allowed to leak out to the unmarked Freddy L. This is because the passing game almost always appears to stop in the middle of the park from where the ball is launched somewhat hopefully behind the defence (or recently straight to a defender!). It isn't working. It hasn't worked all campaign. The one truely West Ham moment yesterday involved the clever one touch interchange of ball between three or four players leading to Bowyer's off target drive. We need more of that please. As for Europe on this form? No hope.