Kick Off Preview With a Hammers Fan
Posted by Thomas on 9th August , 2009We’re lucky enough this week to have a guest-blogger in the shape of West Ham fan Simon.
He’s a top bloke and runs his own West Ham Blog. I’ve written a similar piece for his site so if you want to read that, please feel free to check it out by clicking here.
Anyway, over to Simon:
When kindly asked by Wolves Blog to pen a few words on the upcoming curtain raiser against my beloved Hammers, I will admit to breaking out into a sweat. You see, apart from ensuring Sheffield United are losing, I’ve not paid as much attention to the Fizzy Pop League as I perhaps should.
Zola - Hoping for a good start
I was thinking about players from Wolves I could name and got stuck after a couple that I used to have when playing Championship Manager, namely Jody Craddock and of course Mr Ebanks-Blake (And the bloke who missed a sitter for Scotland). But I just don’t know too much about you and that could possibly be your greatest weapon.
West Ham could make the mistake of not taking you seriously enough. And having stormed a tough league with what looked like some nice, attacking football, we will have to make sure we are up for the challenge. Respect is the keyword here, the crowd will be baying for a good start to the season, the players up for it, possibly more so than at any other time, and the Hammers will need to be aware of that and put it into the game plan.
I think Wolves fans will be pleasantly surprised by some of the skill we have in the team, certainly look out for young Jack Collison, an excellent youngster who has great skill on the ball. Scott Parker is immense and Matty Upson will be marshaling the back. We will also be watching probable debutant Luis Ji menez from Inter Milan as keenly as you guys will, but he has shown some nice touches in pre-season.
Our biggest weakness as I write is up front, with Carlton Cole the only true striker we have. I desperately hope that Luca Toni and/or Gudjohnsen sign on the dotted line before kick off, otherwise we will struggle to score and I have the feeling with all your huffing and puffing, you may hit the back of the net at some point.
A prediction, very tough to call the first game of the season against newly promoted opposition. If we have not signed a striker, I’ll be happy with a 1-1 but if we add some bite up front, I’d hope our Premiership pedigree would shine through and we can nick a 2-1. Either way, hope it’s a good one and good luck to Wolves for the rest of the season, there are plenty of other teams we’d like to see relegated, so hope you do OK, just not at our expense…
Oh, is that right? I had not heard that………Good shout then, keep away.