Bellamy is back!, fantastic news for West Ham & Wales.
West Ham will no doubt be including Bellamy in their game against his old club Liverpool on Weds 30th Jan at Upton Park.
Bellamy has been out for 3 months with an abdominal injury.
West Hams assistant manager Mervyn Day said,
“Players always target the earliest game possible, so we have got to look at it properly and see whether Craig is actually fit enough to play any part against Liverpool.
“Certainly he is training well, but Craig has only literally played 87 minutes in a reserve match since the injury first struck … so realistically it is going to be a big ask for him to be involved.
“However, who knows what the situation might be come Wednesday night.”
The news wasn’t so good for Collins, after being hurt 30 Mins into last weeks reserve match against Portsmouth,
“It wasn’t the best pitch in the world, but that had nothing to do with James’ injury,” said Day.
“Having seen it again on the video, it looks such an innocuous challenge. James has fallen awkwardly, the opponent has fallen on top of him and suddenly you are looking at some considerable time out of the picture.”
Collins had been back in the Hammers first-team reckoning, appearing as an unused substitute in the last three league outings.
This is why West Ham made no new signings this January, with quality players returning from injury, it wouldn’t have made sense to buy anybody else.
Architect plans for West Ham’s new Stadium will be handed over to the LDA early 2008, hopefully we will see some idea what the stadium will look like, amongst all the other developed area of Newham around the time of the opening of the London Olympics.
LDA quoted
The Hammers have been given extra time to work on proposals for a new stadium next to West Ham Tube station. The club were initially given until the end of 2007 by the London Development Agency (LDA) to come up with a feasible design for a 60,000-capacity ground on the former Parcel Force site.
The LDA confirmed it has granted the unspecified amount of time,
increasing speculation that a deal could be announced early in the new year.
Now nearly the end of January, but no plans have been submitted yet.
It would be interesting to know what name is going to be given to the new stadium.
Fabio Capello has dropped his first hint that David Beckham will be in his first England squad by asking his staff to contact Arsenal to find out about the player’s fitness levels. Beckham has been training with Arsène Wenger’s squad this month to get in shape during Los Angeles Galaxy’s close season.
The contact was made by Capello’s fitness coach Massimo Neri who also worked under Capello and with Beckham in the 32-year-old’s final season at Real Madrid last year. Neri has spoken to the Arsenal fitness coach Tony Colbert to get an idea of the state of Beckham’s fitness
ahead of Capello’s first England squad announcement which is expected to come next Friday.
The new England manager has given away little about what he plans to do for the first friendly against Switzerland on 6 February and has not spoken to any players on an individual basis – not even captain John Terry. While he has been able to watch most of them in action for their clubs, Beckham’s LA Galaxy team’s Major League Soccer season does not start until March. He has not played competitively since October.
For that reason, the player’s representatives asked Wenger, with whom Beckham has a good relationship, if the midfielder could train at Arsenal where he has now been working for more than three weeks on his own and with the squad. Beckham’s fitness programme has been tailored to his needs by Colbert who has been at Arsenal for almost 10 years.
Neri has been monitoring the fitness of all the potential players in Capello’s first squad and building connections with fitness coaches at all Premier League clubs. Fitness levels, and the monitoring of players, will play a significant part in the new Capello regime. So often a factor that is regarded beyond the control of international managers, it was attention to players’ individual fitness – on and off international duty – that was so integral to Jurgen Klinsmann’s Germany team reaching the World Cup semi-finals in 2006.
Capello is going to see Aston Villa play Blackburn today to cast his eye on Rovers midfielder David Bentley. Steve McClaren’s custom, as well as that of his predecessor Sven Goran Eriksson, was to name the England squad on the Friday before the weekend that preceded a midweek international. If that is still the case then there are six days to go before Capello’s next squad with the new England manager also expected to be at Old Trafford tomorrow to see Manchester United and Tottenham. He has still not yet given any indication whether Terry will continue as captain.
The Football Association announced yesterday that England will play a friendly against Germany in Berlin on 19 November. By then Capello will have played his first four World Cup qualifiers and will have overseen five friendly matches. It will be the first time England have played away against Germany since the 5-1 victory over them in Munich on 1 September 2001. Capello said: “This should be a great match. I’m delighted this fixture has been arranged.”
There have been some pretty bad transfers in recent history within the CCC and English football in general. Names like Ali Dia of Southampton stick out, among others, but what about bad loan spells for the players themselves, rather than the clubs?I think Calum Davenport can lay claim to quite possibly the worst loan spell EVER this past week, by turning out for Watford for a grand total of 40 minutes before breaking his neck.
Yes, you read correctly, BREAKING HIS NECK. The West Ham defender was drafted in to provide cover for Danny Shittu, currently on duty with Nigeria at the African Cup of Nations. After Hornets teammate Darius Henderson fell on top of him 40 minutes into the first half of Saturday’s match with Charlton, he went off with a fractured neck bone.
Watford skipped Aidy Boothroyd had this to say: “Calum heard a crack in his neck and he lost the sensation in his fingers.” YIKES.
From the BBC: “The injury has triggered an immediate end to the 25 year old’s loan spell and he will return to
Things are looking rosey for the Hammers, all but 3 players are virtually fit for 1st team games.
Bellamy could play a part in the Liverpool game, and so could Gabbidon, Solano is almost ready too.
After watching the Hammers play the way we did against City, it looks as though Liverpool may have a tough game.
Liverpool are struggling to catch up with Man U, Arsenal & Chelsea and are now
