the sun
BRUISED ... Abdoulaye Faye escaped serious injury
Faye’s in a daze
The Senegal defender collided with home striker Paul Taylor and was taken to hospital.
Boss Sam Allardyce feared Faye, 34, had fractured his skull. Scans showed only severe bruising but Faye is a doubt for Saturday's crunch with Reading.
Hammers striker Carlton Cole revealed he received racist abuse on his Twitter site soon after the London Road date.
It came hours after student Liam Stacey was jailed for posting offensive comments about Fabrice Muamba.
the telegraph
Sam Allardyce: a good but stubborn manager who must secure promotion for West Ham
When you have failed to win trophies for as long as Newcastle United and West Ham, there is perhaps an emphasis on style over substance.
Perhaps Sam Allardyce would seem less like a round peg in a square hole if he was not so keen to tell everyone that is stupid.
Allardyce is a manager who believes winning is all that counts; that there are no points awarded for artistic impression, flair or entertainment value.
He does not want plaudits for the way his teams play the game, he wants points and he is not afraid to tell people just that – repeatedly.
It is a mantra that has served him well at clubs like Bolton and Blackburn, the just glad to be among the elite sides that need to make the most of limited resources and do what they can.
The picture was rather different at Newcastle and it is a vista largely shared at West Ham.. These are clubs with a tradition of playing with panache - clubs where fans have pride in the manner in which their team go about their business as a substitute for their persistent failure to live up to other, grander expectations.
Allardyce claims he was never given a fair chance at Newcastle and, to an extent, he is right. He was Freddie Shepherd’s final managerial appointment just months before Mike Ashley booted the former chairman out in the summer of 2007.
Managers who are not appointed by the owner are always running up hill and Newcastle were mid-table in the Premier League when he was sacked just eight months after he had left Bolton to accept the “big job at a big club” he craved.
Newcastle had started well, enjoying their best start to a Premier League season in more than a decade, but when results dipped, Allardyce’s football philosophy became the issue.
Significantly, having worked for local paper The Journal during Allardyce’s brief Tyneside tenure, few moaned about his appointment, in fact he was largely welcomed.
Newcastle fans had grown tired of the constant near-misses and their flaky reputation. They had tried the Entertainers route under Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson and fallen short of the standards needed to actually put a silver pot in a dusty trophy cabinet.
Allardyce was perceived as a manager who would introduce a steely streak, a manager who would bring winning football and if that meant scrappy 1-0 victories, a new emphasis on defence and set-pieces, it was a price worth paying.
Allardyce, though, was too keen to hammer home the point, taking a slightly mocking tone whenever conversation moved towards reflecting on the club’s recent flirts with triumph and the Keegan era in particular.
A mistake in a part of the world where Keegan was still hero worshiped and the 1995/6 season run-in meltdown was still lauded, if only for the fact the ride had been an exhilarating experience for a generation of supporters who remembered the dark days.
Allardyce implied Newcastle had nothing to be proud of because they had actually failed to win the league. They were losers in the end.
True, but he failed to appreciate the context. Newcastle fans had never expected to win the league that season. Three years earlier they had believed they were going to be relegated to the third tier of English football, the culmination of decades of mis-management and failure.
Keegan had completely transformed the football landscape and helped give an entire city its self-esteem back in the process after the dire post-industrial eighties.
Allardyce did not stop there. Annoyed by what he perceived as negative reporting of his team’s performances, Allardyce told reporters they were “miserable” because they were stuck in the North-East and wanted to be where the real action was in London or Manchester.
Maybe some did, but most were, like the fans most of them used to be, loved the region they called home. North-East people do not have an inferiority complex when it comes to where they live, they are smug about it.
It all helped to create an atmosphere where people were waiting for Allardyce to fail and as soon as results dropped, the criticism focused on the manner in which they were achieved.
Allardyce responded with typical bullishness. He knew best, he understood the game and he had the success to back it up.
The bullet came at the start of January after four league games without a win and an ugly 0-0 draw at Championship side Stoke City in the FA Cup.
But it was a 4-1 home defeat to Portsmouth at the start of November, less than four months into his first season, that sowed the seeds of doubt and discontent. Newcastle were ripped to shreds despite all the talk of defence comes first.
The players were more interested on what they could do with the ball than worrying about stopping the opposition having it. Allardyce’s approach insisted that nullifying the opposition was always the first priority and it fuelled a negative approach.
Ashley, seeking a tonic to the drabness, added insult to Allardyce’s badly injured ego, he lured Keegan out of retirement to replace him.
Allardyce is a good manager, but he is stubborn and highly opinionated. At West Ham, he is suffering many of the same problems, but he is either unable or unwilling to change his philosophy just to pander to an increasingly restless crowd.
Ultimately, Allardyce was brought in to do a job - protect the business by making sure of promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
He may yet do that and it is premature to believe Allardyce is a busted flush. Go up and he will be vindicated in everything he has done. Fail and he’ll surely be swelling the ranks of the unemployed.
london 24
Vengeful West Ham star: Reading showed us no respect
West Ham midfielder is hoping for revenge on Saturday against Reading after a controversial clash at the Madejski earlier in the season
West Ham midfielder Julien Faubert has thrown down the gauntlet to Reading ahead of Saturday’s promotion showdown by saying the Royals have no respect for the Hammers.
The 28-year-old France international was part of the team that were thumped 3-0 at the Madejski Stadium back in December when both Joey O’Brien and Jack Collison were red-carded and he was not impressed by what he witnessed.
“It wasn’t a good day, but we will make a bad day for them when they come as they don’t respect us,” he said this week.
“They tried to do some crazy things on the pitch and they don’t respect us so we are waiting for them to come to give them bad things on Saturday.”
Faubert is hinting at the controversial moment during the first game when winger Jimmy Kebe taunted the Hammers by pulling up his socks mid-dribble, an action that resulted in Collison lashing out and being sent off.
“I am not the only one to think about this because we have been waiting for this for a long time, but now we are ready and we want to win this game definitely – that is what is going to happen,” he added.
As if the game wasn’t big enough already, those sorts of words are likely to fan the flames of rivalry between the two for a game where if the Hammers can win, they will leapfrog the Royals back into the automatic promotion positions.
West Ham midfielder Gary O’Neil is hoping that the team can find the home form that will pay Reading back for the earlier defeat.
“We haven’t lost to many sides this year so getting beat 3-0 at Reading is something that the lads will want to put right,” he insisted, after the 2-2 draw at Peterborough on Tuesday.
“There is only one real focus and that is to finish in the top two and we need to win on Saturday to give ourselves a chance.
“That is the only motivation that we need.”
If West Ham are to win their first home game since February 4, then they are likely to do it without Abdoulaye Faye and Joey O’Brien.
Both were replaced at half time at London Road with Faye suffering a head injury and O’Brien a thigh strain.
Faubert is likely to start, though Guy Demel is fit, while Jack Collison will come back into contention.
Saturday’s game is simply the biggest of the season so far and though it may not be decisive, whoever wins will have a huge psychological advantage.
official site
the big interview ricardo vaz te
http://www.whufc.com/javaImages/23/a9/0 ... 131,00.jpg
Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh is a £6m target for Paris Saint-Germain. Fiorentina and his former club Bordeaux are also interested.
Daily Mirror
QPR striker Bobby Zamora is not looking for a move to West Ham, according to the player's agent.
Metro
Chelsea and Tottenham will have to dig deep if they want to prise unsettled winger Milos Krasic away from Juventus, according to the player's agent.
talkSport
Alan Shearer has written off Newcastle's Champions League hopes - despite claiming they have overachieved this season. Alan Pardew's side are sixth in the Premier League table, but former Magpies striker Shearer does not believe they are ready for a place at European football's top table.
talkSPORT
Could Chelsea fans see Gianfranco Zola back soon?
Chelsea have reportedly made a fresh approach for Stamford Bridge hero Gianfranco Zola to join the club's backroom staff.
Daily Mail
Stuart Pearce is stepping up preparations to to lead England into Euro 2012 by sending letters to all the players who might be in contention for a place in the 23-man squad, which has to be named in two months' time
Daily Mirror
Salomon Kalou has said Chelsea can win the Champions League after he scored the only goal of the game in Lisbon to beat Benfica in their quarter-final first leg.
Daily Telegraph
Former Reds boss Gerard Houllier has warned Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish he must win the title to be considered a success at Anfield.
Daily Mirror
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has been urged to ignore Sir Alex Ferguson's attempts to get into his head, by the Manchester United manager's old foe Rafa Benitez.
Daily Mirror
Bolton midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker has admitted that he suffered flashbacks to Fabrice Muamba's sudden collapse when he returned to White Hart Lane for Tuesday night's FA Cup replay against Tottenham.
Daily Telegraph
Lionel Messi has signed for French second tier side Angers SCO.
The Sun
Manchester City's controversial striker Mario Balotelli was at the centre of a training ground row with manager Roberto Mancini. The Italians were pictured arguing, and the manager appeared to send Balotelli away to train by himself.
Fab's Euro boost for Toon
FABRICIO COLOCCINI has given Newcastle's Euro push a massive boost after delivering some welcome injury news for boss Alan Pardew.
Toon's inspirational skipper, 30, will be back to lead the side for their final five games — starting at home to Bolton on Easter Monday — after scans cleared him of any serious hamstring damage.
Premier League
TOTTENHAM want Ryan Nelsen to sign a one-year deal.
The defender, 34, has impressed boss Harry Redknapp since he quit
Blackburn to take up a short-term contract in January.
Championship
NICK MONTGOMERY'S loan spell at Millwall has ended — after NINE MINUTES of action.
The Sheffield United midfielder, 30, was a sub against Doncaster and Leeds and planned to stay until the summer but has torn a calf muscle.
It leaves Lions light in midfield with Liam Trotter and Tamika Mkandawire also long-term worries.
ROMAN BEDNAR could miss Blackpool's run-in with a knee injury.
The Czech striker sustained the damage just after scoring against Leicester eight days ago.
MATT LOWTON is a £3m target for Championship trio Cardiff, Ipswich and Burnley.
The Sheffield United defender has five goals in League One this season.
READING striker Jason Roberts hopes to return for the showdown with West Ham.
Roberts has been sidelined with a hamstring strain.
babe of the day
http://pbff.playboygirls.com/hyb0034/pi ... 0RM_10.jpg
journos really do need to get out more
