West Ham Transfer Rumours

West Ham, Spurs and Celtic are all reported to be interested in Chelski's striker Carlton Cole. Cole is likely to be allowed to leave the club for £2 million. Again rumours suggest there will be activity this week over the Addick's Luke Young and a number of rumours suggesting that West Ham are actively targetting two or three foreign players.

Ward Leaves West Ham

Not long after Spector signs for West Ham, Elliott Ward leaves for Coventry City in a £1 million deal. Presumably Ward has not been happy spending time out on loan and used only as back up for the first team.

Ward was an essential part of West Ham's Chapionship side team and played well towards the tail end of last season when he got his chance to play. I don't know much about Spector but at only 21 Ward was already begininng to look an established defender. Coventry have got a good player on the cheap and I hope West Ham have some quality players on the way in.

One rumour today links West Ham with 23-year-old Cameroon international Modeste M'Bami who plays for Paris St Germain. M'Bami was part of the gold winning Cameroon side at the 2000 Olympic games and according to UEFA.com he is "a powerful midfielder, strong in the tackle and likes to get forward."

West Ham Sign Spector

West Ham have signed Man Utd defender Jonathan Spector for an initial fee of £500,000. The 20-year-old American made just eight appearances after moving to Old Trafford in 2003 and spent all of last season at loan at Charlton.

"He has huge potential and we hope that bears fruition at West Ham," manager Alan Pardew told the club's website. He is a player we have been tracking for the past 18 months or so. He is definitely one for the future and, with the Uefa Cup campaign to look forward to, he will add to our defensive capacity.

Having developed as a young player at Manchester United, he arrives with a fantastic pedigree.

I was also very impressed by his character, which was a big factor in bringing him to the club."

England Highlights

Forget the goals, my highlights are all in the commentary:

"Crouch is too long with it, and in the wrong direction."

"Wayne Rooney is going to check in ... Lennon will also check in here."

"What are their odds of getting out of the groove?"

England Qualify for Second Round

England again looked far from convincing as they beat Trinidad and Tobago 2-0. The big problem for England seems to be the central pairing of Gerrard and Lampard in midfield, who despite having been the first choice for a couple of years have failed to strike up an understanding.

My preferred solution to this problem would be to drop Lampard and move either Beckham or Cole into central midfield and start with either Lennon or Downing on the wing. This would mean that Gerrard would have to play a more defensive role than he prefers and would leave us a little weaker in defence but Lampard already looks weak defensively.

The other big question facing Erikson is does he drop Owen or Crouch in the knockout round as Rooney returns. On form it seems an easy choice, as Owen has looked out of sorts and he might come on with a bit more fire as a substitute.

As an aside - Lampard must be worried about his position in the Chelsea squad as Ballack is looking more than twice the player than Lampard at the moment.

England goals to follow later tonight.

Katan Leaves West Ham on Loan

Yaniv Katan has returned to his former club Maccabi Haifa on a season-long loan, with a view to a permanent move back there. Katan joined West Ham January, but made only eight appearances whilst at the club.

Titi Camara has withdrawn his High Court claim against West Ham for breach of contract. The long-running dispute had been set to go to trial in July.

Duscher for West Ham

Deportivo La Coruna seem keen to sell midfielder Aldo Duscher. Depor have recently signed Sevilla midfielder Jordi Lopez and Duscher seems likely to now move to the premiership. Man Utd were once interested in Duscher but now seem to be intent on signing Carrick.

Duscher has declared he wants to move to England this summer. Duscher could be open to a move to West Ham, having been given a tour of Upton Park and the Hammers’ training facilities last season.

West Ham vs Olympiakos

Greek side Olympiakos will provide the opposition for West Ham's final pre-season friendly. The game will be at Upton Park on Saturday, August 12, at 3.00pm. This is just one week before the start of the league season, and will be the second time that the two sides have met at the Boleyn.

Mannure seem determined to sign Carrick and are rumoured to be now offering £15 million for the ex-West Ham player.

Not Another West Ham Blog

Sorry for the self-promotion but I've just completed the redesign of my other (non-football related) blog and would welcome comments/advice on the look/usability of the site.

The site is Virtual Tourism. On this site you can view satellite images of famous locations around the world and watch an accompanying video of the same place.

Have a look I promise you it is amazing.

I first experimented with Google Maps on this site (have a look at the Match Day Pub Guide)but the redesign of the Virtual Tourism blog is I think a big step forward.

Next I'll be working on redesigning this blog - so again any comments on how this blog could be improved will be welcome.

Saviola for West Ham

WestHamFans.org today report that West Ham are attempting to loan young Argentian forward Saviola. Saviola has failed to establish himself in the Barcelona squad and has spent the last two years on loan at Monaco and Sevilla.

I'm not sure how much truth there is in this rumour. I suspect that with Larson's departure Barcelona may think this is the year for Saviola to be given his chance.

More Luke Young Rumours

Fans FC today reports that Charlton have been showing interest in Toon defender Stephen Carr. So it seems the club is becoming reconciled to losing Luke Young. West Ham and Spurs seem to be favourites to sign the full-back, with West Ham reported to be making a firm bid in the next couple of days.

West Ham in Young Bid

According to Sporting Life West Ham are set to offer £3.8 million for Luke Young. However the Adiicks seem keen to hang on to their best player of last year, so this deal could all depend on how much Young wants to leave.

Deportivo La Courna defender Cesar has stated that he will be in London this week to secure a transfer to England. Could it be West Ham?

West Ham Transfer Fund to be Boosted

It is believed that West Ham included a sell on clause of between 10-25% when they sold Michael Carrick. With Carrick seemingly on the move for around £14 million it looks like West Ham's tranfer funds could be boosted.

Hopefully Defoe has a similar sell on clause. The player will also probably move this summer. Portsmouth are rumoured to have had a bid of £14 million turned down for the player. But the refusal may have more to do with Defoe himself, who would presumably want to boost his England chances by signing for a bigger club.

Oh, and well done Shaka for a superb performance against Sweden.