Nicht einmal 35 Mio Pfund!
“West Ham have been offered 35 million Euros by the unnamed Chinese club for striker Marko Arnautovic – not the £35m widely reported!”
Das ist unakzeptabel für West Ham, keine Chance! Marko muss bleiben, solange nicht das Doppelte geboten wird!
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!
Das ist Rapid!
Mit einem verdienten 2:1 (0:1)-Auswärtssieg gegen den russischen Rekordmeister Spartak Moskau hat der österreichische Rekordmeister vorübergehend den ersten Platz in der Europa League-Gruppe G erobert und hat nun am 13. Dezember ein Endspiel um den Aufstieg gegen die Glasgow Rangers.
In der Meisterschaft kommt der SK Rapid trotz des Trainerwechsels von Gogo Djuricin zu Rapid-Legende Didi Kühbauer noch nicht in Schwung. Aber nach zwei Auswärtsniederlagen in der EL hat Rapid in den letzten beiden Europa League-Partien wirklich überzeugt: vor drei Wochen haben die Grün-Weißen uns (meinen Sohn, meine ältere Tochter und mich) bei einem packenden Match, dem nur die Tote fehlten, begeistert. Das 0:0 gegen Villareal bedeutete zwar den vorläufig letzten Platz in der Gruppe, aber da alle vier Klubs so knapp beisammen liegen (mit einem Tor hätte Rapid die Tabellenführung übernommen!), war klar, dass Rapid mit einem nachfolgenden Unentschieden in Moskau im Rennen um den Aufstieg bleibt. Und dann nach 0:1-Rückstand der tolle Sieg in Moskau durch Tore von Müldür und dem endlich wieder gesunden Schobesberger! 1:2 bei -12 Grad!
Beide Tore in der Rapid-Viertelstunde, die Mannschaft hat trotz Rückstand nie aufgegeben und beherzt weiter angegriffen. Die Handschrift von Didi Kühbauer wird sichtbar.
Das ist Rapid!
Wie sagte Didi zuletzt im Klub der Freunde des S.C. Rapid:
„Rapid muss immer agieren, nicht reagieren!“
Und genau so spielten die Grün-Weißen in Moskau!
Ich sag’s mit großer Freude:
Das war Rapid, wie es sein soll! Und jetzt bitte weiter so auch in der Meisterschaft!
Rumor has it
Rumor has it, again, that „Arnie“ could be on his way away from West Ham. But he‘s also cited in the Austrian newspaper “Kurier“ to feel very well at West Ham. So, if they qualify for Europe, Marko Arnautovic could and should stay!
And though the Hammers are way off a European spot so far in the Premier League table, I think it still is possible to move up into the top ten with a run of good results, and then who knows? They just need to be a little more consistent and play like they did against Burnley, then this season can still become a success. Manuel Pellegrini is capable to get the best out of this squad, I’m sure he is!
I for once will do my best and watch the Hammers live on two more occasions in December and January next year (against Palace and the Gunners). The flights are booked already!
Will we see Arnie add more goals to his tally of 5 out of 10 games? Will Felipe Anderson continue to score, and will Academy products Grady Diangana and Declan Rice shine again in the forthcoming matches? I am optimistic and forever blowing bubbles …
But it’s a matter of fact that the “Pellegrini Revolution” must bring more positive results than it has brought so far. I think that this season is already key because if West Ham is still reeling near the relegation zone within the next weeks or will just be somewhere at mid table obscurity in summer, it will be difficult to attract and hold the players we need to be successful in the long term.
Come on you Irons!!
https://kurier.at/sport/fussball/marko-ist-bereit-fuer-den-naechsten-schritt/400322832
Huddersfield v West Ham 1-1
The Hammers remain 13th in the Premier League after drawing 1-1 at Huddersfield and missing the chance to gain back-to-back league wins for the first time since January 2017.
But that man Felipe Anderson who grabbed the headlines last week with a fine performance and a brace against Burnley, scored again (74’) and helped West Ham secure a point. That means that the Hammers stay 13th in the Premier League table ahead of the forthcoming international break.
Match report: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46081233
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!
EXTRA TIME 
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