Posts filed under ‘English’
Two Cup Finals And A Triple Call For VAR
West Ham have ended a bad run of three defeats with a 2-2 draw against Leicester – that‘s what will be on record when someone looks up the last third of Manuel Pellegrini‘s first season at West Ham Stats in years to come. It’s just a pity though that there won’t be a footnote to this result stating that West Ham would have won the game if the assistant ref hadn’t got it wrong with Lucas Perez’s second goal! But never mind, now we’ve got two cup finals and a trip to London to look forward to!
With only minutes to go and West Ham 2-1 up against the Foxes, courtesy to goals by Michail Antonio and Lucas Perez, the latter one had latched on Pedro Obiang‘s pass and rounded Leicester’s keeper Kasper Schmeichel to kill the game off with what seemed to be the 3-1 for West Ham, only to be wrongly flagged offside by the linesman. And after that incorrect decision, fortune was hiding again from the Irons when Leicester substitute Barnes put his team level in injury time!
New carpet, old mistakes
Therefore that draw tasted like defeat to the West Ham faithful on a bright sunny Holy Saturday which had brought us a new claret carpet around the pitch of the London Stadium; a carpet which had got caressed by goal scorer Michail Antonio who put West Ham up with a brilliant header in the first half. But in the end the carpet didn’t play a main part and wasn’t so supportive to West Ham’s squad as we had thought it would be, following Slaven Bilic’s remarks about the difficulties the players had with assessing the size of the pitch with the former green carpet under his tenure at London Stadium.
Nevertheless I am already curious about what the ground will look like with its new dress when we are going to be back to London Stadium in two weeks time for the last game of the season against Southampton! And we’re also looking forward to the unveiling of the 2019 Hammer of the Year, who in my opinion will be Declan Rice quite certainly.
But much more certain is that last year’s HOTY will not play any role in this season’s contest: Marko Arnautovic hasn’t scored since his “China saga” in January, and he and the team have been inconsistent (to put it mildly) since Arnie’s premature waving good-bye when he was substituted throughout the second half in West Ham’s win over Arsenal. That was the last game I have watched in the London Stadium so far, and I think I haven’t missed very much during my absence before coming back to Stratford at the beginning of May. Apart from the Liverpool draw, a game which the Hammers would have won if a blatant offside goal for Liverpool had not counted, West Ham have more or less underachieved in most of the games since that famous 1-0 victory over the Gunners with Declan Rice’s first goal for West Ham just two days before his twentieth birthday.
Back in January we had thought that a good cup run was on the cards and that manager Manuel Pellegrini’s pledge to fight for 7th place in the Premiership could be successful. But a lot has gone wrong since, with West Ham tumbling out of the FA Cup against much lower opposition, and they never regained the winning mentality Manuel Pellegrini had seemed to have instilled into the squad back in autumn and December. Well, one of the reasons quite certainly were the usual series of injuries that have plagued the Hammers all season (short and long term), but maybe it was also the club’s handling of Arnie’s transfer request which had a detrimental effect on the squad. And we haven’t got an in-form natural born striker in the team with Andy Carroll injured (again), Chicharito inconsistent or injured too, and Arnie … well, he’s far from being our talisman, as he was last season when his goals kept us up. The “China saga” has turned his head, and no turnaround is in sight so far. West Ham thoroughly miss a forward to score the goals you need to win a game!
Can’t wait for VAR now
Having already spoken about the offside incorrectly given in last weekend’s game and the wrongly ignored offside in Liverpool’s opening goal in the aforementioned draw with the Reds, that leads us to the recently much repeated call for VAR. Being a traditionalist I wasn’t so sure if I was happy with the implementation of the video assistant in the Premier League next season, with all the interruptions of the game and the wait before we will know if a goal is going to stand or not. But in recent weeks, with Manuel Pellegrini rightly saying Manchester United’s penalties in West Ham’s 1-2 loss at Old Trafford a week ago would have been overturned with VAR, and having watched that blatant misjudgment this weekend on TV, also for me VAR now cannot come quick enough. It’s obvious that the referees need assistance and our beautiful game will become more fair with VAR. I think with VAR already implemented in the Champions League and in Germany it‘s overdue in the Premier League now!
So this season will not only be remembered for the beginning of a new area for West Ham United, dubbed the “Pellegrini Revolution“ by me in a former post (maybe a little too early taking into consideration the bumpy ride that followed towards the end of this season!). It will also be the last season without VAR. Well, I now hope and expect that the video assistant having the last word in tricky decisions will help the referees to get right what they have got wrong much too often this season.
An inconsistent campaign
And what has went wrong with West Ham and the “Pellegrini Revolution”, as we will in all likelihood not reach the target of finishing in the top ten of the Premier League? I know many say that we should be happy with mid table security and the fact that despite a really bad start (with 4 games lost in a row) West Ham never was in danger to be dragged into the fight against relegation. But with quite a lot of money spent last summer and a high calibre manager at the helm the Irons should have done better and been much more consistent throughout this campaign! Now I think the gap that has opened between 10th place and the Hammers’ points tally will be too big to be bridged with just three games to play!
I think we will need more steel in midfield next season as Declan Rice and Mark Noble haven’t got enough support in the middle of the park, and we will have to buy a proper striker in summer. Throughout the season I had hoped that the trio of Felipe Anderson, Arnie & Nasri could develop a real threat to our opponents, but due to various facts that never materialised. And also the defence needs improvement as opposition goals have gone in much too easy, not only in recent games! I like Zabaleta and Masuaku going forward and beating their opponents in wing positions, but their crosses frequently lead to nothing and they are beaten themselves much too often in counter attacks. And unfortunately Cresswell and Fredericks haven’t delivered much better either imo. Issa Diop has played very well as a central defender especially in the partnership with “General” Balbuena, but he’s still young and seems to be “overplayed” and out of form recently. Finally MP will have to be more open to develop some kind of “plan B” for certain matches if his “plan A” is not working. I hope he will get a decent transfer kitty, our long term injuries will come back in the summer, and West Ham will be able to offload some of the fringe players and buy wisely; then a new season and a fresh attempt to become a real force in our big claret carpet stadium can start!
Two Cup Finals and a conference ahead
As regards football here in Austria my favourite club Rapid Vienna has done much better in the domestic cup than West Ham have. Sorry, West Ham’s men’s team, I should have said! Because the „honorable ladies“ in claret&blue have sensationally reached the Women’s FA Cup final, West Ham women v Manchester City women in Wembley: only to be played the same day as West Ham’s final home game at the London Stadium! So it won’t be possible that we watch both of these games in London, much to my wife Eva’s pleasure though, as she can avoid a “football overkill” on our trip!
Back to the mighty SK Rapid Wien whose club pastor Christoph Pelczar I have been able to meet recently (in the pic with midfielder Dejan Ljubicic): After a disappointing Bundesliga campaign in which Rapid have not reached the “champions play-off” of the best six clubs in Austria’s new league format, they won a thrilling penalty shoot-out in the cup semis against LASK Linz, and now we’ve got a cup final ahead just days before we fly to London. Fortunately there isn’t a conflict of schedules with this final, so I will be able to watch Rapid on Wednesday and West Ham’s Premier League team on Saturday, and then participate in the LC19 leadership conference in Royal Albert Hall on Monday and Tuesday!
Rapid Vienna take on Red Bull Salzburg on the 1st of May in Klagenfurt, hoping to win their first silverware since 2008! Two years ago Rapid have lost the final against the same opponents at the same venue – now this is an other chance to beat the odds and defeat RBS, the club that have dominated Austrian football for years now. As Rapid is the only club which already has beaten Salzburg in Austria this season, why not do that in the Cup final again?
So I do hope to come to London in high spirits at the beginning of May, and then we’re going to cheer on the West Ham and help them finish the season in good mood, too. I’m sure the LC19 conference will inspire and motivate us then anyway, regardless of the outcome of the football games, though I have some doubts about how it will feel to know that this visit to the UK will be the last one before Brexit comes into effect. Albeit we’ve already thought that of our last stay, back in January !
But you never know with West Ham, and with Great Britain either nowadays …
Come on you Irons!
Hurry up if you want to see Arnie
Am Samstag sind wir wieder in London. Wie gut, dass wir Tickets für das Spiel gegen Arsenal um 12:30 bekommen haben und dass Marko Arnautovic wohl fit sein dürfte, nachdem er im FA Cup beim 2:0 gegen Birmingham nach 20 Minuten vorsichtshalber ausgetauscht worden ist. Es wird ob eines konkreten Angebotes aus China für den österreichischen Stürmer wahrscheinlicher, dass er West Ham verlassen könnte.
Natürlich hoffen die West Ham-Fans, dass die “£35m bid from China” abgelehnt wird, entspricht doch der aktuelle Transferwert von Arnie angesichts der Inflation auf dem Kickermarkt sicherlich eher dem Doppelten dieser Summe!
Aber Arnie’s Bruder Danijel, der den Österreicher managt, wird angesichts der hohen persönlichen Gage, die man in China bietet, sicher versuchen, einen Transfer durchzudrücken. Hoffentlich gibt es nicht dieselbe verfahrene Situation wie bei Dimitri Payet vor zwei Jahren, als sich dieser weigerte zu spielen, um den gewünschten Transfer zurück zu Marseille durchzubringen.
Aber würde Arnie wirklich mit 29 Jahren schon nach China gehen wollen, wo es zwar unanständig viel Geld zu verdienen gibt, man aber von der europäischen Bildfläche verschwindet und keine Europa- oder Champions League gespielt wird und von wo auch Einberufungen in das Nationalteam durchaus fraglich sein könnten? Das “next level”, von dem Familie Arnautovic träumt, ist das sportlich sicher nicht!
Und vielleicht kann auch Marko’s Trainer Mario Pellegrini ihm erzählen, warum er in China offenbar nicht glücklich geworden und wieder nach GB zurückgekehrt ist.
Jedenfalls gut, dass die Tickets für Samstag nun da sind und Arnie in diesem March wohl sicher für West Ham auflaufen wird. Wie oft wir ihn in “claret and blue” noch sehen werden, ist offen in Zeiten wie diesen…
A “Noble“ Gesture
“The Noble Collection” heißt der Shop in der Londoner Neal Street im “Seven Dials”-Viertel in der Nähe von Covent Garden, in dem man allerlei Zauberstäbe und andere Harry Potter-Utensilien kaufen kann. Aber eine ganz andere “Noble-Collection” wurde zuletzt durch eine noble Geste von West Ham‘s Mark Noble erweitert, was einen jungen Fan aus Schottland überglücklich gemacht hat.
Der West Ham-Skipper, diesmal Ersatzmann beim 2:2 gegen Brighton, wärmte in der 2. Hälfte vor der Tribüne auf. Stevie Whorlow (12) aus Glasgow, der mit seinem Vater das Match im London Stadium besuchte und in einer der untersten Reihen saß, traute sich, Mark Noble mit einem selbst gebastelten Plakat (aus der Verpackung der neuen Mikrowelle) um sein Matchshirt zu bitten. Noble gab ihm das Daumen Hoch-Zeichen, doch nicht im Traum hätte Stevie gedacht, dass sein “hero” Mark Noble tatsächlich nach dem Spiel zu ihm kommen würde.
Doch “Mr. West Ham” tat genau das, nachdem er nach seiner Einwechslung bei 0:2, unter anderem mit einem Pass auf Marko Arnautovic, das Spiel gedreht und entscheidend mitgeholfen hatte, dass die Hammers ohne Niederlage ins neue Jahr starteten: Er lief zur Tribüne, vor der er eine halbe Stunde vorher aufgewärmt hatte, und warf dem Buben das verschwitzte Leiberl mit der Nummer 16 über die Bande!
Das war wohl das größte Weihnachtsgeschenk für Stevie, der erklärte, dass er das Match Shirt nun sicher nicht waschen werde, sondern es einrahmen und seiner Mark Noble-Sammlung hinzufügen wird. Eine wahrhaft noble Geste von Mark Noble!
Link (WHUFC): https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/january/03-january/i-never-one-minute-thought-mark-noble-would-actually-bring-me
Das neue Jahr bringt einen Star
Selten so viel über West Ham in der österreichischen Presse wie in den letzten Tagen: zuerst wurde Marko Arnautovic zum Spieler des Jahres 2018 in Österreich gewählt, und mit der Verpflichtung des auch hierzulande wohlbekannten Samir Nasri gab es eine weitere Schlagzeile: Das neue Jahr bringt West Ham einen Star, schreibt der KURIER.
Nun ja, ob er tatsächlich eine solche Super-Verpflichtung sein wird, der seit einem Jahr wegen Dopings gesperrt gewesene Franzose, der einst bei Arsenal und Man City spielte, bleibt abzuwarten! Aber „in Pellegrini we trust“. Schließlich war er unter West Ham’s Manager Manuel Pellegrini der Spielmacher der Meistermannschaftbvon Manchester City.
Und nebenbei, die Schlagzeile des KURIER stimmt jedenfalls, denn Stars haben wir ohnehin schon einige bei West Ham, vor allem Österreichs Fußballer des Jahres 2018, Marko Arnautovic, letzten Sommer auch „Hammer of the Year“, also bringt uns das erste Spiel des neuen Jahres am Mittwoch auf alle Fälle den einen oder anderen Star auf dem Rasen des London Stadium – egal, ob Nasri schon involviert ist oder nicht.
Marko Arnautovic hat es sich jedenfalls verdient, heuer zu West Ham‘s erstem österreichischen Fußballer des Jahres gewählt zu werden. Im Interview sagte er auch, er fühle sich sehr wohl bei West Ham, es sei nicht geplant, demnächst dem Klub zu wechseln. Er wolle mit West Ham Titel gewinnen, der FA Cup sei das Ziel!
Zunächst muss Arnie aber erst mal wieder richtig in Form kommen nach seiner Muskelverletzung, aufgrund deren er bei West Ham‘s bestem PL-Monat, dem Dezember, gar nicht mit da wo war. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, ihn und Felipe Anderson wieder zusammen spielen zu sehen, wenn beide fit und nicht müde sind. Am vergangenen Sonntag war das gegen Burnley ja leider noch nicht der Fall.
Vielleicht nun gegen Brighton & Hove Albion am Mittwoch Abend! Come on you Irons!
Still West Ham’s best December
Instead of securing another win in an already extraordinary December of 2018, West Ham lost 0-2 to Burnley in the last PL game of the year. But this December was still the month in which West Ham have won more points than ever before in Premier League history, coming out as winners in 5 games out of 7, though up to 11 players have been out injured.
Felipe Anderson, who scored in almost every game this month, was not on fire this afternoon, and Marko Arnautovic‘s comeback after his hamstring injury showed that the Austrian will need some time until being back to form.
Burnleys Austrian striker Ashley Barnes, on the contrary, contributed an assist to a vital win after three defeats for the Clarets at Turf Moor.
It was a frustrating afternoon for West Ham. Burnley, having played their last game one day earlier than the Hammers, capitalised of an extra recovery day, and for West Ham’s injury-ravaged squad it was a step too far.
Now West Ham have to bounce back – again – in the next match, a home game against Brighton & Hove Albion. Also the Seagulls will have one more day to recover than West Ham, so it will be a tough game again for the Irons. I’m looking forward to a better performance though, may Arnie and Felipe show what the two of them are capable of when they are playing together!
West Ham have performed so well this December, now let’s see what the new year will bring with its first three games, all of them at home: on the Wednesday against Brighton, then, another three dass later, the FA Cup tie against Birmingham on Saturday, and finally a London derby the next Saturday with Arsenal being the opponents in the London Stadium. I will be there at this game!
Come on you Irons! Happy New Year!
The Pellegrini Revolution
If we believe the statistics, West Ham have never won more points in a single month of a season in Premier League history than this December. And that said, there is still one game to play, quite a winnable one against Burnley today! I saw the home game against the Clarets back in November (a 4-2 win), and that team can be beaten away too, and West Ham could add an other three points to their tally. Or will this match end in defeat because bottom teams often start winning again with West Ham being the opponent?
I don’t think so. West Ham have now developed a real winning mentality under Manuel Pellegrini and aren’t easy to beat anymore. Though the recent run of four wins was halted by a 0-2 defeat to the hands of Watford before Christmas, West Ham did exactly what the manager had asked them to do: to make up for the three points lost against the Hornets in their next game, and the squad responded perfectly with the 2-1 win away over Southampton! West Ham‘s attitude was perfect in that match, they played an attacking game as if they were at home for most of the time, and that is just what the gaffer wants: to play the same way at home and away. That‘s the “Pellegrini Revolution”, a transformation of our club whose bubbles have burst much too often in Hammers history.
Back in 2007 when I started to blog about West Ham, I described them as “one of the big clubs in England” in my first post, and rightly so, but it’s a matter of fact that within the last decades West Ham hardly was a force to reckon with in the Premier League or the cup competitions (apart from reaching the FA Cup final in 2006 and the last season at the Boleyn when West Ham qualified for the Europa League in 2016). West Ham fans often see themselves as “long-suffering“, e.g. Robert Banks’s new book (“An Irrational Hatred of Everything: My Continuing Odyssey as a West Ham Fan”), which spans almost the same time as my blogging history, is described as “recounting the life of a a long-suffering Hammers fan”. But I have a strong feeling that the suffering could be over this season and the move to the London Stadium might have paid off at last.
I was able to watch three games this season in the London Stadium so far, the first one the dire 0-1 against Wolves at the beginning of the season, when West Ham lost their first four games in a row. But Pellegrini remained calm then, knowing what he and his team were going to show as soon as the new players would gel and the squad had fully understood the new kind of tactics they were asked to play.
My next match was the home game against the Clarets back in November, a thrilling win with Burnley equalising twice, and Felipe Anderson scoring a brace in this 4-2! Actually it was this game in which Anderson started his fine run of scoring, now having netted almost in every game since.
Then I returned for the 3-2 win over Crystal Palace. Having been on my own in the London Stadium this time I had a WhatsApp conversation during the game with my old friend Alfred back home in Austria, who had not been able to make the trip. He was surprised by my optimism when the Hammers still had to trail 0-1 at half time, and when the Hammers had won he texted me how important it was that the Hammers were separated by 11 points from the relegation zone now. “Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, aber jetzt wollen wir vier”, I texted back (“modesty is a virtue quite respectable / but now of four wins West Ham are capable“).
And now the old year is going to end on a high note for West Ham and its supporters, as the 0-2 loss to Watford before Christmas has turned out to have been just a minor setback for a team which now has found a real winning mentality. In the difficult match against Southampton, a team on the up with two wins from their last two games under a successful new manager, Ralph Hasenhuttl from Austria, West Ham’s squad responded perfectly to Pellegrini’s demand to make up for the points lost against Watford and win this one. They had a game plan which Hasenhuttl’s Saints could not cope with, making the “Klopp from the Alps“ a more and more unhappy looking figure with a facial expression reminding me of an angry rabbit in his hutch (which is the meaning of his name Hasenhuttl), the longer the game lasted!
West Ham‘s attitude with which the Irons addressed the difficult task of playing the highly motivated Saints at their ground was perfect, the Irons played an offensive tactic for large parts of the game as if it was a home game, and they could already have scored in the first half. Then they responded very well when Southampton took the lead with an odd goal and were in front within 9 minutes after the 0-1. Felipe Anderson could not only have scored two, but a least three goals. Declan Rice was superb, a real midfield general, Michail Antonio’s powerful runs were great, and with Lukas Fabianski in goal we have a keeper that in my opinion will be named in line with the greatest West Ham shoot stoppers in history like e.g. a certain Phil Parkes, one of my all time favourite players. And, most important of all, the whole squad, though deploited by a lot of injuries and long-time absentees, remained strong in the final stages and never let the game slip out of their hands.
A day after this game we learned that Declan Rice has signed a new contract commiting himself to West Ham until 2024 – this is vey good news again! So the year really ends on a high note for us Hammers, almost regardless of a win in the last game.
15 or 18 points won in a single month? We will know on Sunday. But we already can be sure that the “Pellegrini Revolution“ will stay on track anyway! Well, I hope I haven’t got carried away by an overdose of optimism by writing this post, but I’m already looking very much forward to my next visit to the London Stadium in January when West Ham is going to take on Arsenal.
Hopefully Marko Arnautovic will have come back from his injury by then, I can’t wait to see him and Felipe Anderson play together again! That game will be a real test for the new winning mentality of our beloved Hammers.
Come on you Irons!!! And a happy new year everybody!
The impact of the Austrians
I started to write this on the plane back to my home town Vienna, just having spent an extended weekend in London and watching West Ham for the second time this season. The first game had been the defeat against Wolves at the end of August, and now I have been able to watch West Ham’s convincing 4-2 win over Burnley last Saturday. One bad game, one good game, and the revelation of what a so far underperforming player can do in the second match – that seems to be the pattern of my West Ham Story last season as well as this one.
Last season I also had been able to attend two live games in autumn, and interestingly, this year is following the same pattern as the last one: my first game was dreadful (last term losing to Liverpool 1-4) and this year’s first game was nothing better: it was the fourth league game of the season and turned out to be West Ham’s fourth consecutive defeat with the Hammers conceding in the dying minutes, losing out 0-1 to Wolves in the London Stadium.
But like last year, this game turned out to be the last one in a series of disappointments, and things started to get better afterwards. Last year I had witnessed Slaven Bilic’s last game in charge, and soon afterwards his successor David Moyes engineered Marko Arnautovic’s metamorphosis into West Ham’s most prolific striker for years and eventually secured West Ham’s Premier League survival.
Marko Arnautovic evolving into “Arnie”, Hammer of the Year
After the disappointment in the first game, the following journey to the British capital last year gave me the opportunity to come back to London Stadium for a second game of last season, against Chelsea. And much to my delight, the presence of his fellow Austrians in the West Stand must have inspired Marko Arnautovic who had had a disappointing start into his spell with the club. The Austrian not only scored his first goal for West Ham against Chelsea and jumped into the crowd like Carlos Tevez had done a decade earlier at Upton Park, but he went on to deliver, starting from that game, what West Ham had expected of him when he was signed for a record fee in the summer. And finally “Arnie” deservedly won the “Hammer of the Year” award.
Well, and this year? When date proposals were made for a law symposium in London that I was going to participate in, the 2nd of November turned out to be the day of the event – a date which luckily coincided with a West Ham home game on the Saturday afterwards. That made it possible to come over again to spur on an other “record signing” this year who had come under some criticism for failing to play up to his potential so far.
Playing like strangers
Back in August in the Wolves game, the West Ham players, and especially Felipe Anderson, had played as if they were strangers not understanding one another. They were somehow strolling around the pitch on a nice sunny Saturday afternoon, lacking any urgency which would have been necessary to beat a newly promoted team in one of the first games of the season. Our new Brazilian marquee player from Lazio Rome showed only rare glimpses of what he might be able to do, and almost all his passes and runs led to Nothing. In my opinion he played much too deep and was too slow in going forward wide left, with the other players not able to anticipate where he would pass the ball or want to get it from his teammates.
But also this year after a very disappointing start (which we had not expected after the appointment of a high profile manager and massive funds invested in the squad), something better was just around the corner: like last year, the deplorable outcome of my first visit to the London Stadium wasn’t followed by other poor performances and results, but instead the “Pellegrini revolution” finally broke clear at last, West Ham turned the corner and went on a run of three wins and a draw – before undeservedly losing away to Brighton, and (more deservedly) losing twice to London rivals Spurs in the Premier League and the League Cup.
Because of this setback the Burnley match had become another “must win game” and I was only cautiously optimistic that the Hammers would get back to winning ways.
Especially I did not expect that another part of my narrative of the last season was going to be repeated in 2018. As I said before, last year our record signing Marko Arnautovic had not performed well until my second visit to London, and also this year, though a first goal had been scored by Felipe Anderson in September against Manchester Utd, our current “record signing” still had failed to deliver, much like Arnie had done in his first games last year.
Felipe on the up at last
But as we had been able to watch Arnautovic’s first goal and the start of a very successful season for the Austrian last year, we now were very lucky to be able to 
witness Felipe Anderson’s best game by far since his arrival! So West Ham really was lucky – or must I say: I had been lucky – to be able to come to London for a second time earlier than last year! Hence we did not have to wait until December until West Ham’s £36 million signing started to justify the amount West Ham has paid for him to Lazio in the summer. Anderson scored twice and played a large part in the Irons’ so far best game of the season, an important and much deserved 4-2 win. He linked up very well in the process with promising youngster Grady Diangana (who still has to make a choice, if he would want to play for England or the Democratic Republic of Congo) and with “Arnie from Austria” (who is already irreplaceable in Austria’s national team, and of course at West Ham).
Well, that said – with tongue-in-cheek of course – I think West Ham should not underestimate the impact which two Austrians have on the run of the season: one of them on the pitch, Marko Arnautovic, and an other one in the West Stand whose mere presence in the crowd each year on his second visit to the London Stadium seems to inspire, unconsciously of course, a particular kind of player: the one that has been earmarked as West Ham’s new star player in the respective season, but has not been able to find his feet in the London Stadium so far. This year: Senhor Felipe Anderson.
Therefore never underestimate the (partly unknown) contribution of the Austrians!
Come on you Irons!
Arnie from Austria: A West Ham Legend In The Making
I have been to London twice this autumn and Christmas time. Fortunately I was able to watch West Ham on both occasions and to some extent I witnessed history: I was present at Slaven Bilic’s last game in charge back in November, and I watched my fellow Austrian Marko Arnautovic’s first goal for the Hammers.
Initially I thought of writing a post comparing these two games, entitled “A completely different story”. But I now have left it too late to write a column with this header: West Ham weren’t able to pull clear of the drop zone and still find itself in the relegation mire on New Year’s Eve.
Having watched the abject and dismal performance against Liverpool on my first visit this autumn, when the Irons were completely unable to string some passes together and trouble a Liverpool side which was far from its best, I couldn’t expect a win over last season’s champions on my next visit to the London Stadium. But the narrow loss a week ago to the one team that is playing a perfect season so far, Manchester City, had let us raise some hope, despite the results under new manager David Moyes had not been in West Ham’s favour so far, and the Irons still were chasing their first win under the new gaffer.
Also the player I am particularly interested this season, fellow Austrian Marko Arnautovic, had not lived up to the expectations before the Chelsea game. He is the best player in Austria’s current national team and on his day he can be brilliant, but far too often he has lacked commitment and his work rate on the pitch was poor. When I was asked what I thought about Arnautovic’s move from Stoke to West Ham in the summer, I used to reply: “Well, so far Marko has made me angry just some times a year – when I watched him play for Austria – but from now on I will be angered by him every weekend.”
And that exactly happened from the beginning of this season with Marko struggling under Slaven Bilic, being red-carded in his second league game, and unable to find the net or providing an assist in a league game until December. When new manager David Moyes came in, Marko Arnautovic’s name was the first one to be mentioned in the tabloids as a player the Scotsman would like to sell to generate funds for new signings in the January window.
But West Ham’s “number 7” started in three of Moyes’s first four games in charge prior to the Chelsea match. And Marko’s attitude seemed much improved, he responded well to the gaffer’s request to raise his work rate, to track back and defend when West Ham had lost possession, and to play in a more central position than under Bilic who had used him mostly on the wing.
I am not sure if Moyes has really threatened to wield the axe and sell Arnautovic in the January window if his instructions weren’t followed, but he surely must have found the right words for the Austrian. It was the 1-1 against Leicester (though still not the first win under the new manager) when things began to look brighter, and it was not only the loud home crowd that impressed the pundits in that match, but also Marko Arnautovic who made such an impression that he was named “man of the match”. He received a deserved standing ovation when he was replaced by Andre Ayew after 70 minutes.
This step forward was followed by a cruel setback though: West Ham lost 0-4 to Everton, allowing Wayne Rooney to score four goals, and the next three games were to be played against much stronger opposition: Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. Would my second live game in the London Stadium this season (against Chelsea) be one of four defeats in a row which were on the cards this December? Therefore when planning the trip to London I had scheduled a Christmas concert by candlelight for Saturday evening after the game in order to prevent my family from starting the pre-Christmas holiday on a low.
Albeit, the good news is that the start to our stay in London was quite the opposite! On a bright and cold Saturday we had a smooth journey to London Stansted and the claret seat belts in the plane showed all the right colours on our flight! Having landed perfectly in time we travelled from the airport to West Ham station where we met the wonderful Paul Turner who stored our luggage in the boot of his car and drove to London Stadium with us. We had time enough before the game to buy me a West Ham Christmas scarf which immediately replaced the blue one I had grabbed thoughtlessly early in the morning when we had left home for Vienna airport.
We were on our seats in time to join in to the singing of “Bubbles” and from the beginning of the game it was very clear that this was a West Ham side very different from the poor XI I had watched five weeks ago. David Moyes had instilled a different attitude into the team, there was commitment, good passing, regained confidence and a lot of skill (especially from Masuaku who was a revelation in his new role on the left wing). The crowd responded well to the pleasing procedures on the pitch and the West Ham supporters were of good voice throughout the game, really being “West Ham’s claret and blue army” and outsinging the Chelsea fans by far. I also cheered and sang so much this afternoon that my wife feared I was going to lose my voice and would be unable to sing along to the Christmas carols in the candlelight concert in the evening.
The sunny lunchtime at the London Stadium looked even brighter when just 6 minutes into the game a one-two with Manu Lanzini brought Marko Arnautovic in a good position in the box. Everyone rose to his feet and who wasn’t quick enough to jump up immediately, unfortunately missed the very well placed shot into the left bottom corner that put West Ham ahead. It was a beautifully taken first goal for “Arnie” and his jump into the crowd showed the big relief this goal meant to the Austrian! We were sitting in the same stand in which he was hugged by the crowd, but unfortunately our seats weren’t in the lower tier, so we couldn’t express our delight personally and say “Servus” from face to face. But this fact didn’t detract from our pleasure which grew bigger and bigger throughout the game when West Ham showed resilience and also the necessary composure to hold on and in the end beat last season’s champions 1-0.
With his goal and his celebration with the fans “Arnie” (as he is called now by the West Ham fans) evoked memories of Carlos Tevez who also jumped into the crowd when he had scored his first goal after a long and tough time back in the 2006-07 season. Well, and Marko Arnautovic’s nick name reminds me of someone else – another famous Austrian, the “terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially as Arnie’s goal helped to terminate a winless streak of 8 league games.
It feels as if the Austrian forward has not stopped scoring since the game against Chelsea! David Moyes was right to praise Arnautovic lately for responding well to his challenge to raise his work rate or face being dropped. Arnie hit the back of the net in the 3-0 win against his former club Stoke and in the annoying 2-3 defeat against Newcastle, and now he has scored his first brace in the dramatic 3-3 against Bournemouth on Boxing Day (a game which West Ham would have won if the ref had not given the Cherries’ controversial equalizer in stoppage time!). Although West Ham is back in the relegation zone on New Year’s Eve: the Cherries have beaten Everton on Saturday moving up from 18th to 13th in the table and the Irons have played one game less due to the postponement of their match against Tottenham.
Let’s hope the new year will bring a bright start with a win over West Brom on the 2nd of January in the London Stadium – maybe with some more exploits of our Arnie from Austria! I am very happy that last summer’s record signing finally has become a real asset of West Ham’s squad. When he continues to play (and score) like he has done since Moyes’s managerial takeover at West Ham he could be a West Ham legend in the making!
After the first game of the year West Ham have to play three games away vs. Spurs, Shrewsbury (FA Cup) and Huddersfield. Though I know that getting results in the Premier League is most important for the club, the weekend in January which is most important to me is the one we play Shrewsbury in the FA Cup: if the Irons win and the draw brings them a home game in the next round, this could be my third West Ham game this season, because we are going to be back in London by the end of January when the 4th round of the FA Cup is played.
So come on you Irons, let this January be a success for claret and blue – on the pitch and with a good transfer window, too! I hope David Moyes will not only have been able to find the right words to instill a new attitude into the squad, but also to find the right players to bolster this squad. Especially in midfield I think the team needs to be strengthened …
But one thing is for sure: West Ham player Marko Arnautovic is not for sale in this window, he’s one to watch on the pitch this January!
Happy New Year everybody! COYI!
The Liverpool Defeat: Will It Be Another Turning Point?
The Liverpool game was my first “live game” in London this season. Together with three friends we had planned to spend a weekend in London at the beginning of November and watch those boys in claret & blue under the lights on Saturday evening. And maybe, well maybe, we were going to be entertained by our Austrian “hero” Marko Arnautovic. However, as we now know, we witnessed another disappointing game – the last one of manager Slaven Bilic in charge of the Irons. Have we witnessed a turning point in West Ham’s fortune too?
The trip from Vienna could not have started better. British Airways had us sitting almost three hours in the plane on the runway before we were able to take off for London Heathrow. We were told about heavy fog in west London this morning, but I was sure: if it hadn’t been West Ham we would have been there in time …
The weekend was going to start with a concert of blues legend John Mayall on Friday. On the Sunday we wanted to join a service at Holy Trinity Brompton. And on Saturday we thought we were going to be entertained at the London Stadium by West Ham United. Well, John Mayall at Cadogan Hall in South Kensington really was an inspiration. The 84 year old radiated positive mood playing his rhythm’n‘blues and one really could feel the joy he takes from standing on stage in front of his audience and playing together with the musicians in his band.
What a contrast to this evening the atmosphere one day later in the London Stadium was! We had been slightly optimistic before the game, thought it would be “so West Ham” to beat the Reds against all odds to kick-start this Premier League season at last. We also tried not to let the sad impressions from the detour we had made on the way to Stratford stand in our way: having decided not to travel directly to the ground from central London, we got to Upton Park to catch a glimpse of the current state of the site that had been the Boleyn Ground. Afterwards we would take the bus 104 from the Boleyn to Stratford.
It was a very strange view when we walked down Green Street from Upton Park station, coming across just a huge heap of excavated earth where the West Stand had towered over the car park only a year ago. There still stands one post painted in claret where in former times the impressive landmark of the John Lyall Gates had been. The narrow Castle Street behind the former Bobby Moore Stand now looks like a wide but deserted avenue, and with Ken’s Café closed and the Boleyn Pub far from overcrowded it almost seemed as if there never had been that theatre where Bubbles were blown and dreams been dreamt to be fulfilled or shattered with the final whistle …
Nevertheless the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Compassion, the numerous barbershops and Queen’s Market are still there, and the World Cup sculpture is in its place at the junction of Barking Road and Green Street – where in my opinion it should remain, in commemoration of West Ham United’s history at the Boleyn Ground, and not be moved to Stratford. The Champions Place in front of the London Stadium deserves to get a new statue, as new Wembley has got a Bobby Moore sculpture of its own.
Well, at Stratford there was no church but a group of singers seeking to evangelize by performing songs in the street. And we couldn’t have a pint in an overcrowded pub like the Boleyn or the Queens where you can hardly understand a word talking to your fellow supporters about the upcoming game. Instead of this we got us a treat and a tea at the quiet Caffé Concerto, sitting table to table with Markus Weinzierl, the former Schalke 04 manager. Just some hours later we learned that he had not been the only manager sniffing around West Ham seeking a new job this evening. Then we managed to book a table at Jamie’s Italian for dinner after the game and then we headed for the ground.
The atmosphere was slightly optimistic, as I said before, and “Bubbles” rang out like always when the players graced the pitch (without Austrian Marko Arnautovic in the starting IX, as expected). Remembrance Day celebrations were impressive and created a festive atmosphere, but from the start of the game West Ham seemed to be very nervous and lacking confidence and the players hardly were able to string some passes together. Compared to John Mayall’s spirit the evening before, West Ham’s attitude seemed quite uninspired and everybody was wary of making mistakes. The Irons’ continual backward passing instead of making quick runs and troubling Liverpool’s defence left us and our fellow supporters at growing unease, and after the Irons’ first good chance had been spoilt, minutes later a West Ham corner resulted in a fast counter attack and Liverpool scored. That felt “so West Ham” in a negative way. Then Liverpool got a corner and scored again, just 3 minutes after their first goal.
“The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score,” the famous quote from “Fever Pitch” says. But in modern times it seems that being disappointed much too quickly leads to turn one’s back on the team. When Liverpool had scored, a lad in front of us in motorbike clothes seized his helmet and left his seat with immediate effect. He wasn’t seen on the terraces again.
During the interval we moaned about the “cheap goals” and the drama of two corners, and we wondered if Arnautovic would be given a chance to come on in the second half. But first it was Andy Carroll who Slaven Bilic chose to lead the line together with Chicharito. And things livened up from the start, the crowd got involved a little more, and with Manuel Lanzini’s goal the London Stadium became a noisy place and hope rose from the terraces. But only to get slammed in the face just a minute later with Liverpool’s next cheap goal!
With Liverpool having restored their two goal lead and the score 1-3, Mark Noble came off and Arnautovic got the nod. He showed some good moves immediately and seemed to try to bring West Ham back in the game, but it didn’t take long and he disappeared for the rest of the match. Finally bringing Sakho 20 minutes from time just seemed a last desperate act from the manager whose time was over for sure with this defeat. In the 75th minute Liverpool’s 4-1 rang the final signal for West Ham’s supporters to leave their seats and let poor Slaven and his squad almost walk alone for the rest of the game, much in contrary to Liverpool’s away support celebrating their win by singing a song with this title.
Usually I say that I like the English kind of support which is much more spontaneous and depending on the events on the pitch than the support from the European “Ultras” (as Rapid Vienna’s “Block West”) whose support is performed throughout the whole game almost no matter what the score. But this time there was almost no spontaneous cheering or singing, the atmosphere in the stadium was quite lifeless most of the time and it seemed the fans had come to the conclusion that this team was not worth being cheered on with “We’re West Ham’s claret and blue army”. They could have needed some permanent ultra-like support, but instead of this the white spots on the terraces got bigger and bigger with the supporters heading for the exits.
My thoughts went back to the old Boleyn Ground: there have been dire games and pathetic performances which I have witnessed at Upton Park too, but I hardly remember such a melancholic and sad atmosphere after a West Ham loss at Upton Park. With the current state of the site in mind which was West Ham’s former ground and the empty seats of the current stadium, this trip to London was quite a depressing one as far as football was concerned.
But as always I’m trying to take some positives from my memories and I told my friends at Jamie Oliver’s afterwards that I remember having witnessed another 1-4 defeat more than a decade ago which proved to be a turning point and the beginning of a very successful time for my home town club Rapid Vienna. I had been on the terraces together with my son that game, having taken him to his first game at our home ground. Rapid Vienna lost 1-4, and this also became the last game at home before their manager was sacked.
When I looked up that result on the internet it was quite baffling that the name of Bilic appeared alongside the score. Well, of course it wasn’t Slaven playing for Rapid but his fellow Croatian Mate Bilic, but the departure of the then manager shortly after this defeat lead to the appointment of Rapid’s most successful coach within the last decade. With Peter Pacult at the helm Rapid Vienna was able to win the Austrian Bundesliga and to qualify several times for the Europa League, twice eliminating Aston Villa in the process.
Therefore I think that this 1-4 will also be a turning point for West Ham, as it was for Rapid Vienna 11 years ago. Though David Moyes wouldn’t have been my choice as West Ham’s new manager things can only get better now, and when I will be back to London in four weeks time for the Chelsea game I will watch a different team, that’s for sure, I think!
Hopefully a team showing the commitment and spirit that makes them worth to be cheered on again by the brilliant support I know from former games! Let’s hope the new manager (and the future results) are going to instill some confidence and the players find a new way of playing together in a positive way instead of nervously passing backward again and again.
Going back to the example of John Mayall, whose inspiring concert we enjoyed so much more this weekend than the poor performance the trip had been planned around: Let’s hope there will be a radiation of positive mood around the London Stadium instead of the negativity that has been produced from the beginning of this season. Mayall’s first gold album in 1969 was called “The Turning Point”. Let’s hope the 1-4 against Liverpool will also have been a turning point with respect to West Ham – something this season is in desperate need of.
There is a German proverb which says, “Hope is the last to die.” This proverb goes with the “West Ham way”, always blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air. See you in December, reaching for the sky!
Come on you Irons!
Curse and Magic of a “Parallel Campaign”
The plot of one of the best known Austrian novels, Robert Musil’s “The Man Without Qualities” (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) is about a so-called “Parallel Campaign” (Parallelaktion) meant to celebrate the Austrian Emperor’s 70 years of reign in the same year 1918 in which the German Emperor would be ruler of his country for 30 years. In my case almost 100 years later another “parallel campaign” is taking place in Vienna and London, concerning football clubs Rapid Vienna and West Ham United – a “Parallelaktion” that most recently started with two goals, conceded by both clubs in the 94th minute of their respective games five weeks ago.
I live in Vienna and, of course wanting to watch football live more regularly than my travels to London allow, I also follow a team of my home town, SK Rapid Vienna, as most of you will know. Therefore any given weekend there is always a chance to overcome the disappointment of a West Ham defeat with a win of Rapid, and vice versa of course. But in recent weeks it’s like bewitched: there seem to be more parallelisms between the two clubs than ever, and unfortunately they have not been positive ones.
Well, from the very beginning until today there have been surprising similarites between these two clubs which I have followed for many, many years: at the end of the 19th century both of them were founded as “workers‘ clubs” (Thames Ironworks FC and First Vienna Workers FC). And at the beginning of the 2016-17 season both clubs started to play in a new home! But with the coincidences having increased within the last weeks, it looks as if this season is really going to be some kind of a “parallel campaign” for the two clubs I support.
The cruelty of the 94th minute
The latest parallel action started almost five weeks ago when West Ham played West Brom in the London Stadium and Rapid Vienna played Austria Vienna in the Vienna Stadium (aka Ernst Happel Stadium). Both clubs lead with a small margin of one goal until the beginning of injury time. Their fans were nervously awaiting the final whistle in a nail biting finish, but exactly in the 94th minute of the respective games of this very weekend late equalisers were scored: Gareth McAuley made it 2-2 in London, and an other defensive mistake in Vienna allowed Lukas Rotpuller to score the 1-1 for Austria Vienna, cruelly destroying Rapid’s hope of a win against their local rivals and a successful start into the spring campaign after the Austrian winter break.
The next weekend none of our clubs scored. West Ham was not able to kick a ball because they had already departed from the FA Cup with a heavy defeat in a match back in January we all want to forget. And Rapid Vienna was not able to hit the back of the net in their league game against Admira (0-0). A sad weekend with West Ham not able to play in the FA Cup anymore and Rapid again unable to win.
Well, one week later West Ham had to play Watford away achieving another draw (1-1). This time that would have been a result which I would have been happy with in Rapid’s away game in Carinthia against Wolfsberger AC. West Ham and Rapid had to trail a 0-1 in their respective games and really, both of them were able to equalise (through Andre Ayew and Mario Sonnleitner). But in the 80th minute the similarities unfortunately came to an end when Wolfsberg scored a late winner and the „Greens“ had to travel back to Vienna without any points, still rooted to a disappointing 5th place in the 10-clubs-Austrian Bundesliga.
Versus the leaders of the league
Next weekend saw West Ham and Rapid play the leader of the English Premier League as well as the leader of the Austrian Bundesliga at home. Rapid have a new manager in Damir Canadi since November who has made a lot of changes in the team’s system of playing, still waiting for his first win of 2017. But again on a cold Sunday afternoon in the Allianz Stadium we had to taste defeat, losing out 0-1 to Red Bull Salzburg.
And West Ham, as I had feared, didn’t do any better one day later, also being defeated on Monday evening in the London Stadium with a one-goal-margin by Chelsea with Manuel Lanzini scoring a late consolation in injury time (1-2).
Winless weeks to continue?
And the winless weeks still have not come to an end, neither in London nor in Vienna: last weekend saw West Ham lose to Bournemouth away on Saturday, and therefore I was almost sure that on the Sunday Rapid would be defeated in Graz by Sturm Graz. Again it was the same goal margin by which the clubs were seperated from their opponents, West Ham losing 2-3 and Rapid 1-2.
Now since this cruel 94th minute equalisers by mid February, West Ham and Rapid have been waiting for a win for five weeks now. The clubs have dropped back in the table to 6th and 11th respectively. Especially Rapid, still the record champions of Austria but their last title dating back to 2008, are very disappointed with this first season in their new Allianz Stadion aka Weststadion. And also West Ham should do better in their new home, aiming for eighth (as we were told by David Gold lately). Rapid are still hoping to qualify for Europe, though now this seems almost impossible via the league. Nevertheless Rapid is still playing in the Austrian cup, but their last win of this competition is ages away.
Will the “parallel campaign” continue next weekend, and to what end? West Ham will host Leicester in the London Stadium on Saturday 3 p.m. and Rapid are also playing at home at the same time against Mattersburg. Both opponents were already close to or in a relegation spot this season, but both of them have had a revival within the last weeks with new managers. And Mattersburg also has a new key player, veteran striker Stefan Maierhofer aka „The Major“ who played for Bayern, Rapid, Wolves, Bristol FC and Millwall in former years. He suffered a break of his cheek bone two weeks ago but has promised to come back against Rapid and play against his former club with a protective mask on his face. (Back in 2008 he also played with such a device and helped Rapid win their last Austrian Championship!)
Well, West Ham and Rapid cannot hide behind a mask next weekend. They have to come out and start some kind of revival themselves to make us happy again after five weeks without a win. „The natural state of the football fan is disappointment“, Nick Hornby says in his novel Fever Pitch, adding: „No matter what the score“. But if the score was in our favour on Saturday afternoon it would really help to improve our mood, that’s for sure!
Still a lot to play for
Robert Musil’s novel “Mann ohne Eigenschaften” has remained unfinished though it contains of more than 1000 pages, and also this season is far from being finished. There is still a lot to play for in the coming weeks. Relegation or winning the title are not up for dicussion, therefore playing well, scoring goals, making the supporters happy, climbing up the table, and ending the season on a positive note are what we are expecting from our clubs. This would really be a “parallel campaign” I’d like to see!
Then, later in the year, the transfer window in the summer must be used much better this time than it was last year. Another thing that went wrong with both our clubs last time! Well, and like every year there will be hope for the next campaign in London and in Vienna – to have a team with the quality and capability of playing the way we’d like to watch in our new grounds! Then the positive magic of a “parallel campaign” with two “teams of quality”, and not of “Männer ohne Eigenschaften”, will unfold again in autumn 2017 …
EXTRA TIME 
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