Thoughts?
Mind are that I don’t see why a decision on who goes takes 10 seconds. Nominate in advance.
I also don’t see why 1 minute works. Make it 3 to 5 minutes. That will focus minds.
Any thing is worth a try. I’m fed up with the goal keeper having a near death experience once his side take a second half lead.
I agree. Teams will quickly work out how to make that one minute pass without impact.
New to me this week: to stat pad. Or stat padding.
Plain ugly. And I’m not only talking about the use of English.
Staveley sniffing around a stake in West Ham. Should we be worried @Andyblain?
I thought that you Hammers liked rich and powerful women.
I look forward to the response from @andyblain but would be genuinely surprised if it were negative. She knows what she’s doing, puts partnerships together really well, won’t be in for the long haul but will very much set “everything” going in the right direction. It makes sense as she spends half her time in London anyway, has debts of her own to clear and works like her life depends on it as she has Huntingtons.
Amanda Staveley was a very popular figure at Newcastle. She had a minority (10%) stake after the Saudi takeover. The impression I got was that she was very much a “bridge” between the Saudi owners and Eddie Howe.
She was also very much the public face of the owners, and was the one in front of the cameras on behalf of the wider ownership group. This communication from the owners has been sadly lacking since Staveley left. She appeared to become very emotionally attached to NUFC during her time here and there are a couple of excellent YouTube interview videos which are worth watching.
In my previous life I worked in Corporate Banking and closely know someone who had regular dealings with Amanda Staveley, when she was running PE funds. He viewed her as shrewd and decent and his opinion of her was overwhelmingly positive. I think you’d be getting a good operator.
Do you fear Middle Eastern investment? If yes, yes. If no, no.
We have been/are part owned by a dodgy porn baron who has lots of allegations against him (which he denies) so I guess we’re not scared of anything these days.
Whilst the majority of investment she brings in is from the Middle East, she’s always been careful to ensure there’s someone else in the mix.
At Newcastle the Reuben brothers are still in there and she’s plainly offering West Ham some US investment too. She’s never wanted to be seen as a broker for just one type of investor and she’s clearly stated the harm it would do to her reputation if she were to be viewed in so limited a manner. Her firm remains heavily backed by the Reuben’s and US private equity.
I’m sure her involvement will send quivers up the spine of many West Ham fans simply because she’s female and … Dame Brady…. but I think she’s a very different beast indeed.
For the vast majority of WHU fans the fact that she’s female is completely irrelevant. As long as she’s not another Brady nobody will care about her sex.
I fear you may have taken that a tad literally.
According to Gary Jacob at the Times, Amanda Staveley is in for the Gold family’s 25% stake, much to Kretinsky’s displeasure. If true that would mean the porn lord would remain West Ham’s largest shareholder.
The plot thickens…
Now it appears Staveley is after Sullivan’s shares too. 
Another preseason friendly another long term injury. Ahmed out long term with a knee injury. Survives the World Cup for this to happen. With Makama, Fisher, Mohovo already out long term our season is starting to look a bit desperate. Mattsson was also out today with a hip injury.
No wonder Clement ended with his head in his hands!
I kept an eye out for Ahmed at the World Cup as I rate him highly. Actually thought he was fairly low key compared to some of his colleagues, which goes to show what a decent team the Canadians have. Given the strong evidence that players who play in such tournaments are up to 144% more likely to sustain an injury in the aftermath I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Hopefully not out for too long.
According to a thread in the PinkUn, we now have 8 first team squad players injured.
My pre-season optimism is already starting to rapidly reduce.
Someone really seems to have it in for us long term.
I think we’re up to 6 but I’d only expect 2 of those to maybe start and 2 will be disposed of soon enough.
I’m quite chilled about it. Similar numbers this time last season when we’d brought 14 new players in too and that worked out just fine. In L2 and L1 we lost Mullin for the opening 1/3 of each season and yet still got promotion.
I know it’s boring but I still maintain the season doesn’t really start until November. No-one can get too far ahead or irretrievably behind and even 8 or more shouldn’t be an impediment to a successful season.
Let’s not forget that in August 2025 Hull City were 18th with 7 first team players out long term. By November that number had only dropped by 1 and yet they were up to 4th. By the time they were confirmed in the play offs and made it to Wembley they still had, a slightly different, 7 injured.