The Independent Liverpool FC Website, Red and White Kop


Title: Spyin' Kop - WEST HAM UNITED
Post by: Tarpaulin on January 30, 2007, 11:13:08 am


West Ham United V LIVERPOOL
Venue - The Boelyn Ground [Upton Park]
K.O - 8pm






As we travel South to the home of one of he leagues more "traditional" teams, we visit our FA Cup final opponents from last years at a tricky time in their season. Many changes behind the scenes, and troubles on it, have found "The 'Ammer's" in murky waters. A new manager failing to turn a falting start around, arguments about player contracts seeing players leave without any clear explaination, and no one seemingly willing to sign during the transfer window. Its not as happy a time for the Cockney boys as the previous season. That said, it should prevent us with a tough game, a lively stmosphere under the floodlghts, and a tough test as to whether Liverpool have the fight to push on further still in the league.

HONOURS

European

    * European Cup Winners' Cup Winners: 1964-65
    * European Cup Winners' Cup Runners Up: 1975-76
    * UEFA Intertoto Cup Winners: 1999-2000

Domestic

    * FA Cup Winners: 1964, 1975, 1980
    * FA Cup Runners Up: 1923, 2006
    * Division Two Champions: 1957-1958, 1980-81
    * Charity Shield: 1964 (shared)
    * Football League Championship Play-Off Winners: 2005
    * Football League Championship Play-Off Runners Up: 2004

RECORDS

    * Biggest Transfer fee paid: £7.5 million to Norwich City for Dean Ashton (January 2006)
    * Biggest Transfer fee received: £18 million from Leeds United A.F.C. for Rio Ferdinand (November 2002)
    * Highest league attendance: 42,322 v Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Division One 17/10/1970

Player records

Appearances


   1. 793 Billy Bonds 1967-88
   2. 674 Frank Lampard Sr. 1967-85
   3. 646 Bobby Moore 1958-74
   4. 635 Trevor Brooking 1967-84
   5. 600 Alvin Martin 1977-96
 

Goals

   1. 326 Vic Watson 1920-35
   2. 252 Geoff Hurst 1959-72
   3. 166 John Dick 1953-63
   4. 166 Jimmy Ruffell 1921-37
   5. 146 Tony Cottee 1983-88/1994-96
   
Official dream team

In the 2003 book The Official West Ham United Dream Team, 500 fans were quizzed for who would be in their all time Hammers Eleven. The voting was restricted to players from the modern era.

1    GK    Phil Parkes
2    DF    Ray Stewart
3    DF    Julian Dicks
4    MF    Billy Bonds
5    DF    Alvin Martin
6    DF    Bobby Moore
7    MF    Martin Peters
8    MF    Trevor Brooking
9    FW    Geoff Hurst
10     FW    Paolo Di Canio
11     MF    Alan Devonshire


Club crest and colours

The original club crest was, indeed, a crossed pair of riveting hammers, used in the shipbuilding process. A castle was added to the crest in around 1900 and represents the prominent local building, Green Street House, which was known as "Boleyn Castle" through an association with Anne Boleyn. "Boleyn Castle" is represented in the West Ham crest by the traditional turreted castle image, which is behind the crossed hammers. The castle may have also been added as a result of the contribution made to the club by players of Old Castle Swifts. The crest was redesigned and updated by London design agency Springett Associates in the late 1990s, featuring a wider yellow castle with fewer crucifix-style "windows" and differently shaped hammer heads.

The original colours of the team were dark blue due to Thames Iron Works chairman Arnold Hills being a former student of Oxford University, although the team used a variety of kits. This would include the claret and sky blue house colours of Thames Iron Works, as well as sky blue or white uniforms. The Irons permanently adopted claret and blue for home colours in the summer of 1899. Thames Ironworks right-half Charlie Dove received the kit from his father William Dove, who was a professional sprinter of national repute, as well as being involved with the coaching at Thames Ironworks. Bill Dove had been at a fair in Birmingham, close to Villa Park, the home ground of Aston Villa and was challenged to a race against four Villa players, who wagered money that one of them would win. Bill Dove defeated them, and when they were unable to pay the bet, one of the Villa players who was responsible for washing the team's kit offered a complete side's 'uniforms' to Dove in payment of the bet. The Aston Villa player subsequently reported to his club that the kit was 'missing'. Thames Ironworks, and later West Ham United, would retain the claret yoke/blue sleeves design, but would also continue to use their previously favoured colours for their away kits, and indeed, in recent years the club have committed to a dark blue-white-sky blue rotation for the away colours, each kit having a one season shelf life.

THE QUESTIONS...... Thanks to all at KUMB website. www.kumb.com


1 - Most Liverpool fans have a lot of respect for West Ham for a few reasons. Its a traditionally based club similar to our own, its always had a history of playing good football and the fans are as passionate and supportive as our own, but what do West Ham fans think of when they think of Liverpool fans and the Kop?

- Some respect but the mutual love in after the cup final got a bit much. I think it’s Liverpools a decent day out and haven’t had much bother up there recently.

- Never used to like the club as every know nothing twat in my school said they supported you, as you were winning everything at the time. I went to school in Middlesex....
Now: Possibly the least horrible of the "Big 4".
Good atmosphere and one of those grounds that no team looks forward to playing at. The least said about our record at your place the better.

- Well, there's obviously an entirely natural concern for the state of my hubcaps. Also I wonder if my eardrums can stand that high-pitched screeching sound that passes for speech on Meeerseyside. But I'll give you lot credit. You made a decent racket at the Millennium last may ... Almost as good as us!

- respect for them, got a set of genuinne football fans unlike chelsea's and man utd's prawn sandwich brigade. dont know if anyones told you but you lot realldy do talk funny.

- i have a great deal of time for the 'pool' great football, and some very talented players. although i still find i hard every time i see gerrard's face.... i think i can speak for most here when i say out of the top 4 i would love you to upet the cart and win then title.. although after dropping 3 pts tonight that may be impossible

2 - Money, managerial changes, uproar and underperforming at times -  It seems to have been a rocky road. What have you made of your season so far?

- Utter sh*t from beginning to end. The injury to Ashton, the obviously bogus takeover talk from that financial fantasist Kia Joorabchian, the bizarre collaps of morale and discipline within the team, Pardew's own fixation with his sex-life and sports cars, his sacking and then, to cap it all, the realisation that Curbishley was a hopeless little mediocrity who has no clue at all about what to do to get us out of this mess.

- Wierd. Ashton crocked for England, the argies, the takeover(failed), the losing streak and dire performances, the sucessful takeover, pards out, Curbs in, 6-0 defeat to Reading, no b*stard wanting to sign for us.... not so much a rollercoaster, more a steady slide into the bowells of hell punctuated with ephemeral rays of hope.

- Absolutely shambolic, the fact you said underperforming at TIMES has given me the biggest laugh of the day.

- Put it this way - last season seems like a distant and fond dream right now!

- 1 step foward and 2 steps back springs to mind, tragic!, the sooner this seasons over with the better! (as long as we stay up that is)

3 - With Curbishley in there, where do you expect to finish this season

- i always thought we would stay by the skin of our teeth, but with the bad luck we are having with injuries, ref's and transfers i really now dont know

- Relegated - 18th

- 19th, a point behind Charlton. We are obviously by far the best team in the bottom six, in terms of personnel. We are far and away the richest. But we have no spirit, no leadership and none of the all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit you can see in, say, Watford or Sheff Utd.

- 17th. It’s not his fault the team have been sh*t and didn’t look like getting out of it under Pardew and no progress seems to have been made under Curbishley.

4 - Who's been your best performer this season?

- Robert green (Curbishley dropped him)

- Honestly say none of them have stood out. Other posters will no doubt point to Green & Tevez but at the end of the day I don’t think they’ve contributed anything of note.

- Green.

- Robert Green. Which is why Curbs dropped him.

5 - And your worst/most disappointing?

- Gabbidon, Ferdinand, Collins, Spector, Yossi, Etherington, Harweood, Zamora, Sherringham, Nigel Reo Coker, Mullins, Carroll

- Mascherano

- how many answers do i get?

- Nigel Reo Cocker, not sure if he is worst but his attitude and that of his agent has really dissapointed me.

- Reo-Coker for his shocking attitude and believing his own (agents) hype.

6 - Mascherano to Anfield....all seems a bit odd to be honest. How come he hasnt had a decent run in the side, and what have you made of him?

- I think every Hammer would like to know and understand what the hell happened here...the latest rumour we heard was that Masch is on a different contract to Tevez, and that if Masch plays a certain number of games a 25m clause comes into play. Dissapointing because he did show some class - time to move on now I suppose.

- Looked the nutts against Palermo, has really struggled when called upon in the Premiership. You’ll need to play him in a run of games to have any idea if he can get up to speed.

- Back stabbing homo.

- has not been givin the chance he deserves by either pardew or curbishley. biggest mistake ever not using a world class player and opting for mullins/quashie

- we have all seen very little of him to be honest, not sure how many minutes he has played in total for us but even when he did, he was arguably not fit. the reason we have seen him, well im a conspiracy theorist and it stinks. im sure he has huge talent from the clips i have seen and im truely gutted to see him go wihout actually seeing what he can do. All i will say is that despite badly worded comments by benitez that have offended many of us, he may well suit your style more than ours a he holds up play, something we have never been used too. 

7 - What can we expect at The Boleyn Ground tonight?

- 3 points

- normally i would say a massive and overcoming atmosphere, especially with a game this important under the lights...

- I think you will win 3-1 - we will go at you until you score the first then fold.

- Ideally, 90 minutes of all out aggression and a wall of noise.
Probably, A couple of renditions of Bubbles and then a nervy silence for 80 minutes. Unless you're tonking us, in which case we may do the hokey cokey.

- An away win and booing.

8 - As was mentioned by many Liverpool fans at the time - your support in Cardiff was great and helped make it a superb atmosphere - but what are your overiding memories of that day?

- The commentator saying four minutes

- Being cheated out of a victory by unsporting behaviour from Hamann.

- No ticket, West Ham fans staying even after the dissapointment. My main memory will always be the class the club showed in not complaining about Liverpool players closing down Scaloni and forcing him to play the ball - imo that was cheating after Scaloni kicked out the ball to allow the treatment of one of your players and cost us the cup

- A great day out, a thrilling game, a deep sense of pride, an aching fury that we had ended up on the losing side and an entirely false optimism for the season ahead.

- getting a text from a long term old mucker 1hour before kick off saying 'meet me up at the players lounge i can get you in here......' great you may all think, except i was in a pub in sutton after failing to get a match ticket

9 - What Liverpool player do you fear most?

- Gerrard

- Gerrard

- tonight, crouch as we are rubbish in the air atm.

- Gerrard and tonight Crouch/Bellamy/Kuyt

10 - If you could take 3 Liverpool players for your squad, who would you take?

- Mascherano
Gerrard
Reina

- Gerrard, Alonso and Garcia. Then I'd leave Garcia in a locked room with Mullins so he could batter the diving cheating c*nt.

- Bellamy, Carragher & Gerrard.

- Guess

11 - Whats you favourite Hammer terrace anthem? and which will we hear most tonight?

- Bubbles

- Bubbles, OLAS (we all follow the West Ham, over land and sea etc.).

- You’ll hear bubbles & Over Land & Sea… I wouldn’t expect much of an atmosphere unless the team can raise its game though.

- Bubbles - the fast version and Ludo Miklosko

12 - Where do you expect the Hammers to realistically be in 5 years time?

- expect: mid table, hopes: top 7 every year, and a decent cup run every now and then would be all i would ever wanted

- Administration.

- struggling somewhere in between the Championship and the Premier league as we are now

- The richest team in the championship. No, hopefully 12th-6th in the premiership

13 - Who is going to win the league this year and where do you think LFC will finish?

- Man Utd, 3rd

- Man Utd, probably 4th.

- Chelsea, Liverpool will finish 4th

- ManU. Liverpool in a really tight three-way scrap for 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots with Chelsea and L'Arse. Hope you do well because I put a few bob on you at the start of the season, unaware that benitez was planning to throw away the forst three months with his daft rotation policy.

- Chelsea are the luckiest ******* around... otherwise top 4 will be the same as is now.

14 - Finally, a general question....Do you think there should be a cap on foreign players in the premiership and do you think anything else about our game should be changed?

- If you play any games with a whole team of foreign players a win would only be worth 2 points... instead of penalties - teams would have to play extra time losing a player each after every 5 minutes.
Free Balti Pies whenever West Ham lose.

- No, Uriah Rennie and Graham Poll should be euthanised

- If they did that they’d have to fundamentally change the way the whole games worked. At the moment we’ve got teams like Arsenal & yourselves buying foreign talent at 15/16 yr olds, would that count? I think a foreign player cap would go some way toward getting the local fan feeling more involved again and improving the national team but I’d rather have something that improves the competivness of the league. A team salary limit for instance, you could choose how much you paid your players and how many you had but you had to work in certain constraints..

- I think a cap would be good all round, but it will never happen because of the euro and equal righs etc etc. Think we should introduce video replays for Goals/penalties

- There should be a cap but it will never happen (and if it did you lot would appeal to uefa to get special dispensation..)
Personally, I am in favour of a 10 minute sin bin for yellow cards, like in egg chasing.

Thanks to all the Hammers on KUMB.

The thread can be seen HERE

Roper


Articles posted on this site are copyright of, and are the opinion of, the contributor where identified
Opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of other contributors, nor of the owners and technical operators of this website.
The Red & White Kop website has no formal connection to Liverpool Football Club & Athletic Grounds plc,
nor with any dodgy corporate entity trying to gain kudos by association with the Mighty Reds.
This site is run by fans for fans. All submissions are welcome.
Information on this site reflects the understanding of the contributor, and no responsibility is accepted for inaccuracy.