28 Games later

Here we have a look at what has been happening at Upton park since Nicky Thomson has been in charge of West Ham United or Divided.

Going back to last season West Ham announce there next manager with only 13 games to go and sitting bottom of division 3 and 6 points of 19th and 12 points from safety. After only amassing a grand total of 15 points in 28 games. So the West Ham board and some external help from Mr Frank Hirst, they come up with Nicky the saviour to try and get them out of relegation.



Life started brightly under the new regime and before long West Ham were slowly catching up with the pack, thanks to a couple of new signings mainly Andreas Bjelland, Herrera Michel and Steven Naismith. But the turning point was the home game against Ajax who at the time were 19th. A win for the Hammers would mean level with Ajax . A lose and that would be the final nail in the coffin and bring the hammer down on there season. Losing 2-0 which meant they were all but down. Ajax kicked on from here and stayed up. Mr Thomson had this to say "Would like to congratulate them on that jammy b*****ds".

So pre season saw something different with the weather in the UK be raining ( like that is new) most teams around the league went to warmer climates. Not what Nicky done he flew them to the Northern parts of Canada and had them training at -20 most days. For what reason nobody knows other than Mr Thomson. Pre season games had them clock up the miles games in Holland, Germany, Brazil and England. Everything looked promising as they were win 3, draw 2 and lost 0.

So the new season had arrived with a fresh start and new hope plus a new league. With two draws in the opening two games it was still undefeated. Not for much longer five back to back defeats put them at the foot of the table for a second time. It was in this three game stretch that a new training regime or punishment ( call it what you want) was introduced. There were complaints put in against West Ham for the floodlights still being on well into the night even after the fans had left. Footage of CCTV at Upton Park has been put on YouTube which shows the team training after the fans leave and doing laps round the pitch. When the clips started to appear on the internet Mr Thomson had this to say " We have an agreement between the players and I that for every goal they concede they do laps for an hour and for every goal they score its reduced by half an hour."
In this period some of the board members were not wanting to be relegated for a second season they started looking for a new manager and had identified one and were in advanced talks with the chairman, but the chairman wanted to give Mr Thomson a little more time to turn it around.(the source I have received this information had said that it was another manager in the league, but could not say which manager it was) This had some effect as the next game they win 2-0 meaning the win there first game and more importantly the players did have to do laps. Sadly at this point West Ham were out of shield cup and when the team was playing Malaga after the game Mr Thomson had a warning issued to him about his behaviour on the touchline after having an altercation with the fourth official. Then next to games brought draws followed by two wins and more importantly put them out of the relegation zone. So the team were only doing laps for an hour at most in this time. Then Thursday game against Levante UD saw them beating West Ham 2-0, in a game the chance just didn't go there way and to top it off Mr Thomson was sent to the stands after shouting abuse at the linesman for not wearing his glasses after not noticing that Clinton N'jie was the only person in the West Ham half when he received the ball. So Mr Thomson will have to wait till Tuesday to find out what sort of punishment will be issued to him by the FA.

It have been very eventful 28 games for West Ham with a lot of downs but with some ups and with Mr Thomson in charge this will be some rollercoaster the Hammer fans are on and they have a front row seat. We will have the next instalment of 'Under the Hammer' next week with game reviews and stories. So thanks for reading and see you next week from your host Timmy Mallet.