So here is the masterplan! These are all things that I would expect chairmen to do for a club, Appoint the right manager? Sign new players? Brilliant! This stuff is as basic as it gets, G & S are already a little off track with the whole “sign the right manager thing”, Grant, Holloway, Allardyce, Jones!! Really? Grant seems to be favorite and Pompey have already said there will be no need to pay compensation, that’s just the sort of deal G & S like. Holloway has a playoff to think about but has laughed off suggestions that he is in line for the Hammers hot seat. One of the points bellow, “Make it enjoyable to come to watch matches”, surely rules out Allardyce. That leaves Jones, he seems about as West Ham as Lou Macari did.

Anyway, here is the blueprint for the future.

Appoint the right manager

Sign new players

More investment in the Academy

Continue to clear the debt

Freeze season ticket prices for renewals

Build the status and image of the club

Make it enjoyable to come to watch matches

Get closer to the local community

Go for the Olympic Stadium

Listen to supporters

I woke up to find Franco Zola has been fired today, sad but probably the right decision, he is one of the good guys and I think he’ll be a great coach down the line for a club with money and a bunch of flair players. We played some really nice football under Zola but didn’t show up on too many occasions this season. It seems that Zola still had the backing of the players but clearly the board didn’t think he was the man to take us forward. Will be interesting to see which side of the fence the players fall when the new manager is announced. I know a couple of West Ham fans that go to Upton Park week in week out who had definitely lost faith. Right now the bookies have Avram Grant as 1/3 favorite, Billic at eights and Mark Hughes who appears to have priced himself out of the job at elevens.

In other news, Carlton Cole missed out on a World Cup place but spots in the provisional 30 go to Green, Upson and Scotty Parker.

I’m still tired.

So that’s brings to an end a really crap season that almost resulted in us playing Championship football next season, it’s also one that I’d rather just pretend never happened and look forward to the World Cup and next season.

I had to work so I never saw the game, I was told we looked like we were up for it, the flick from Diamanti and the cool finish from Boa Morte were possibly the final acts in their West Ham careers, certainly the latter is likely to be on his way after laying into the chairman in a post match interview.

Above are the highlights and interviews which includes an exchange between Zola and Mancini where they only just stop short of kissing.

This all seems real enough, a few we knew about plus a few shockers, Gabbidon on 50k a week while Stanislas is on £1500!?!

LOVE THE GOAL, LOVE THE CELEBRATION

Brilliant, gutsy display from West Ham, not vintage Hammers but we got the 3 points, Noble and Parker were excellent, Kovac and DaCosta also stood up to be counted, by the end I even forgave Spector for his own goal, geez it takes him a long time to take a throw in though. Great save from Green onto the bar to stop Wigan going 2-0 up, that would have been a long way back, lovely move for Ilan’s goal, great free kick from Noble for Kovac to nod in the rebound, the whole thing was topped off with a spanking Parker goal.

All that and Hull lose at home to Sunderland, I knew Ian Dowie would come good for us one day, as soon as Hull hired him I was rubbing my hands together, I thought Phil Brown stood more chance of getting them out of the mess they were in, it really was a day for the old West Ham boys as Bullard missed a vital penalty, he scored the previous four.

So, unless Hull can win all of their remaining games while we lose all of ours with an outrageous amount of goals going both ways, Hull are down. Burnley are now the only threat to our survival, if they lose to Liverpool tomorrow, it’s all over for them and we can kick back, enjoy the World Cup and think about next season. Hopefully we can keep Green, Parker, Noble, Cole and all the youngsters, cash in on Upson because he really has been pretty useless.

On the managerial front, I hope we stick with Zola and Clarke, I know it’s been the most awful season and we probably don’t deserve to stay up, there is no doubt the teams coming up next year are better than Hull, Burnley and Pompey, so the rebuild will have to be massive.

One final note, fat referee Alan Wiley really gets on my tits, was it me or was Wigan’s second a clean cut handball?

So Villa did their job against Hull and got a comfortable 2 nil win at the KC stadium, is a 2-0 loss at home  against Aston Villa more demorilizing that a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at away at Anfield? I think it probably is, we’re back at home on Saturday with Scott Parker well rested and ready to lead West ham out of the shit. Hull however just got beaten comfortably at home against an under par Villa and will not be feeling like the KC is exactly a fortress.

A win for us against Wigan and a Hull Loss against Sunderland at home will bring this whole sorry season to a close, I doubt it’ll shake out like that though. I’ve gotta try to be positive and think we have a chance of getting 3 points against a Wigan team who have nothing to play for, however, Sunderland have been awful away from home, like us, their only win was on the opening day of the season.

The unthinkable senario, a Hammers loss and a Hull win would leave us on level on points with us above them on goal difference, I hope it doesn’t come down to that, we’ll then have an away game against Fulham and Hull entertain Wigan after that it’s Tevez at Upton Park on the final day of the season with City needing the points for final Champions league spot….thats unthinkable.

Let’s start with the negatives so we have something to look forward to

The bad:

The defending. The passion. The refusal to accept that we are one place out of the drop zone with 4 (now 3) games to go. The ridiculous shocked expressions on the players faces when we concede a goal that everybody else saw coming. Cole’s first touch. Jonathan Spector…..jesus, everything, seriously.

The good:

Benni McCarthy is getting well fed and is unlikely to starve to death any time soon.

This cheers me up though

I was quite happy with the way all the results went over the weekend until I woke on Sunday morning, grabbed my phone and through bleary eyes saw that Arsenal had lost 3-2 to Wigan. I’ve always kind of hated Arsenal, there were a lot of Arsenal fans at my school when I was a kid, I don’t talk about how I feel about them now as I have a friend who is a lifelong Gooner and we have enough heated discussions as it is.

Anyway, we kind of need something from Liverpool now to make us feel a bit easier about things, we don’t have a great track record at Anfield but the Reds are without Torres. The Wigan win which we weren’t banking on has pretty much made them safe, so that leaves us, Wolves and Hull, I can see Wolves getting at least 3 more points from their remaining games against Blackburn, Pompey and Sunderland. That leaves us and Hull, There could be 6 gettable points there for Hull, at home to Sunderland who are awful away from the stadium of light, and away to Wigan, home games against Villa and Liverpool are also possibles. Where as the Hammers have two crunch games against Wigan at home and Fulham away, we haven’t got a result at Anfield since 1963 so I don’t expect one today then it’s the Man city  and Tevez game on the final day….I am not in the mood to go there.

…….AND HULL LOSE AT HOME TO BURNLEY, HAPPY DAYS

That was about as tense as it gets, a win today against a pretty good Sunderland was the minimum requirement, and that’s what we got. The 1-0 sends Pompey down, but back to us, we looked alright, even Spector wasn’t too bad, Green, Upson and Da Costa looked solid-ish at the back, Faubert is really coming into some nice form, Behrami, Noble an Kovac did Parker’s job pretty well, took all 3 of them though, can’t wait to have Scotty back well rested for Wigan at home. Stanislas looked a bit out of his depth against ex WHU trainee Richardson, Cole did all the heavy lifting and Ilan poked home the winner, Franco came on and made a nuisance of himself and his goal at the end should have stood, especially since I and everyone else in the pub had made the effort to get up and celebrate.

There was some bizarre Refereeing, especially involving Gordon, he could have gone off the handling the ball outside the area, then the ref avoided a difficult decision by awarding Sunderland a free kick against Cole instead of a Penalty and a sending off for a rugby tackle on Carlton, Spector was awarded a nice free kick when he fell over himself just outside the box, he went on a couple of nice runs as it happens, I still felt much better about everything when Zola brought on Daprela to sit in front of him for the last few minutes to shore things up. Also on the strange front, a bunch of crap just randomly fell off the wall in the boozer, framed pictures and general memorabilia, really was quite a lot of stuff, could have been nasty if the lady with her baby sitting under in minutes before hadn’t got up and moved, so the last 15 minutes was played out to the soundtrack of broken glass being swept away

Elsewhere, Burnley beating Hull at the KC 4-1 makes this Saturday all the sweeter, unbelievable, Burnley have looked worse than useless then they pull 4 goals out of their arse, everyone at Hull must be feeling like we felt after the Wolves game, just in a state of shock.

If we can somehow get something from the game at Anfield, we really could be on our way out of this mess

Here’s a really happy Zola

Zola having a right old smile up. Click for interview.