Norwegian Air to honour Hammers legend
It has been announced in the last few days that Nordic airline Norwegian Air are to honour our greatest footballing son Bobby Moore OBE by having the England legend appear on the tail fin of their new airliner. The World Cup winning captain will follow in the footsteps of icons like veteran pilot Amy Johnson and legendary children’s author Rohl Dahl. The announcement came on the date of Cancer Research’s Football shirt Friday, an event which was set up to raise awareness for Bowel Cancer in honour of our former number six, who himself had his life tragically cut short by the disease over 20 years ago. Bobby Moore’s widow Stephanie Moore MBE had this to say about the announcement: “This is such a wonderful way to remember Bobby and mark Football shirt Friday”. The tail fin will be displayed on a Norwegian Air Boeing 737-800 jet and can be expected to be seen over the skies of Britain later this year.
Club respond to Payet allegations
On Sunday, just 4 days after a HMRC raid on the London Stadium the board was forced to deny allegations of a fraudulent payment made to Dimitri Payet back in September of last year. The Newspaper making the extravagant claims was The Daily Mail who on Sunday published an article outlining that the HMRC raid was in response to a £1million loyalty sum which was paid to Dimitri Payet in order to try to get the French winger to stay in the January transfer window. The Newspaper also claimed that Payet was able to claim tax breaks on image rights while playing under Slaven Bilic in his one and a half season stint with us. The board was forced to respond to the claim later that day testifying “Dimitri Payet had a £1m annual loyalty payment, which was detailed in his contract submitted to the Premier League and the FA. Payment was made via his normal monthly pay and subject to 45 percent income tax and National insurance, which was deducted at source and paid to his UK bank account along with his normal monthly wages. There is nothing to probe about this payment. In contrast to many Premier League clubs, not a single West Ham player has any part of his salary paid as image rights”. It is now coming up to a week since the HMRC raid on The London Stadium and the exact reason for the specific event is still not yet public knowledge.
Bono honoured by Football museum
It has been announced in the last few days by The National Football Museum that club legend Billy Bonds will be the latest Footballing icon to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. The London-born former centre-back was inducted last week along with names like the late Gary Speed and fellow former Hammer Frank Lampard junior. Bonds is our all-time leading appearance maker and lifted the FA Cup twice in 1975 and 1980 in Claret and Blue, he also enjoyed an up and down stint as our manager in the 1990’s, the period included a relegation and a promotion. The legend was speaking to WHUFC.com on receiving the accolade and said: “It’s a great honour and I am very grateful for it”. The Englishman remains a prominent figure around West Ham United at the ripe old age of 70 and there is certainly no denying that Bono will forever be one of the greatest players in Hammers history.
Fonte: “We have to maintain this defensive shape”
Our Portuguese defender Jose Fonte has praised the tactics of his manager Slaven Bilic and was pleased with the 0-0 draw at The Bet 365 Stadium on Saturday, a game in which our defence made its second consecutive clean sheet. The Euro 2016 winner was remaining positive and looking forward to our remaining fixtures in his post-match interview with WHUFC.com, saying: “It gives us a good base for the rest of the games that we have. We have to maintain this defensive shape and resilience, and hopefully we will have some people back to give more options up front”. Fonte was referring to the new defensive system of three centre backs that Slaven Bilic re-introduced last week; the change has resulted in two consecutive clean sheets which have also coincided with the return of our Spanish goalkeeper Adrian. However, despite our upturn in recent defensive form, the back four and Jose Fonte will have to be on their best game to cope with a Spurs attack that is currently on fire with Harry Kane at the helm, when we face our London rivals on Friday night at The London Stadium.
Transfer gossip: Hammers eye English League duo
It has been rumoured this week by The Mirror that we are readying a summer approach for Brighton goalkeeper David Stockdale. The 31-year-old has been instrumental in the Seagulls promotion to The Premier League, making The Championship Team of the Season. However, it is also being rumoured that the former Fulham man is set to snub a move a move to The London Stadium for a new two-year deal down on The South Coast. So we may have to act quickly if we are going to secure the services of The English shot stopper for the 2017/18 season. It has been reported this week by The Daily Star that we are eyeing up a summer loan move for Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi. The Belgian international reportedly turned down a move to The London Stadium last summer, for The Blues, but he has struggled for game time under Antonio Conte and is yet to make a Premier League start for The West London club. So could the former Marseille hitman be finally playing under Slaven Bilic next season after all?
OTD-2015
On this day in 2015 we overcame a relegation bound Burnley side 1-0 as Michael Duff was sent off for the visitors. Mark Noble’s 25th-minute penalty would prove to be the difference between us and Lancashire club. The win would turn out to be only our third victory in the second half of that season, as we would fall dramatically from being fourth at Christmas to a final twelfth placed League finish.