The Nation Newspaper

Tag: West Ham

  • McDonald allays West Ham injury fears

    West Ham assistant manager Neil McDonald has dismissed injury concerns surrounding Andy Carroll, Mauro Zarate and Carlton Cole.

    The trio did not feature as Sam Allardyce’s men kicked off their pre-season programme with a 2-2 draw against League Two side Stevenage on Saturday.

    However, McDonald insists their omission was merely a precaution and that he hoped they would be back in action later this week.

    “We’ve had them in pre-season and they’ve been training but they just had little knocks or tightness, so we didn’t want to take a chance and hopefully they’ll be involved at Ipswich on Wednesday,” he said.

    “We went to Ipswich two pre-seasons ago and we got a bit of a thumping and that put everything into perspective.

    “Hopefully, we will put in a good performance this time around ahead of our trip to New Zealand, where we’ll also have two really good games.”

    Zarate signed for West Ham from Velez Sarsfield in May, while Carroll was a club-record £15million acquisition from Liverpool in 2013.

    Cole, meanwhile, is enjoying a second stint with the club having been briefly released last year.

  • West Ham join race for Dnipro winger

    West Ham United have joined the race to sign Ukraine international Yehven Konoplyanka, according to the Daily Star.

    The 24 year old was on the verge of a move to Liverpool back in January, though the deal fell through at the eleventh hour, while Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have also been linked with a move to secure the winger’s services.

    The Hammers have tabled a £12m offer for the Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk man, which is enough to activate his release clause though a deal is far from being completed.

  • West Ham joins Odemwingie’s chase

    West Ham joins Odemwingie’s chase

    West Ham United is looking to capitalise on the failure of Crystal Palace and Fulham to secure the service of Osaze Odemwingie.

    The out of favour West Brom striker was rumoured to be on the verge of moves to Ian Holloway’s side and Martin Jol’s side, but both fell through, MTNFootball.com reports.

    That has left the door open for Sam Allardyce to add some panache alongside Andy Carroll, according to The Times.

    West Ham officials have turned their attentions to the Nigerian, having failed to agree terms with the former Chelsea striker Kalou – who reportedly wanted assurances of a starting role within the Hammers attack for next season.

    Al Nasr of Dubai is also considering increasing the initial offer for the former Lokomotiv Moscow striker.

    Al Nasr owners had asked WBA to inform them what they considered to be an acceptable fee by Tuesday, after their initial bid of £850,000 was rejected.

    But that deadline has now passed without further communication from ‘The Hawthorns,’ leaving ‘The Blue Wave’ to look elsewhere for summer recruits.