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BACK ISSUES (57-XX)
Back Issues
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Here's a summary of what appeared in previous issues of the West Ham retro magazine...
Issue 57 Winter 2010-11
MALCOLM ALLISON TRIBUTE West Ham United lost the ‘founding father' of their famous Academy of Football when former club captain Malcolm Allison passed away on Thursday, October 14 following a long decline in his health. He was 83. Rightly revered as a world class coach, acclaimed by his contemporaries as being way ahead of his time, it is sometimes overlooked that he made 255 league and cup appearances for Hammers and established the tactical blueprint which propelled his colleagues out of the second division wilderness in 1958.Here, Tony Hogg presents a personal tribute to one of the most important and influential figures in Hammers' history - the incomparable Big Mal. In a separate feature, we also look back on the Malcolm Allison testimonial game, the night West Ham faced an All-Star Select at the Boleyn in November 1958.
EASTLIFE THE WEST HAM-LEYTON ORIENT CONNECTION EX reflects on the various players, managers and personalities who have had connections with football's near neighbours in London's East End. From Dave Sexton to Phil Woosnam, Alan Sealey to Mal Musgrove, Peter Brabrook to Tommy Taylor, and Billy Jennings to Alvin Martin . . . we examine the relationship between the two clubs and their supporters, as well as printing the definitive list of all direct transfers between the Cockney clubs.
HOW THE CLUB LET DOWN JOHN LYALL AND HIS FAMILY EX is back on the case to preserve the honour of the club's greatest ever manager and our latest findings reveal a trail of incompetence that has brought shame on the club that has forgotten how to properly honour its greatest heroes.
JOE GALLAGHER We first featured Joe in Issue No. 6, back in summer 2003. And when we bumped into him before Hammers' 2-2 draw at Birmingham City in early November, we thought it would be a good idea to catch-up on the current state of play with the likeable Liverpudlian, who had a short stay at the Boleyn as a centre-half in the early 80s.
CULT HERO DANNY SHEA December 26 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of West Ham's first cult hero, Danny Shea. Between the years 1907-13 Shea made the No.8 shirt his own. He was Hammers' top scorer in each of the full seasons he spent at the club and his transfer to Blackburn Rovers in 1913 caused such an outpouring of public scorn, the board had to issue a statement clarifying its position. Even Danny himself took the unprecedented step of penning a farewell letter to the fans.
This mercurial talent courted success and controversy on the field while oft the story of Danny Shea is underpinned by tragedy, mystery and intrigue. Found out why.
BADGE OF HONOUR Isle of Wight-based supporter Alan Deadman explains his fascination with badge collecting and as well as highlighting some of the rarest badges issued by or associated with West Ham, he provides some useful pointers to collectors who share his hobby.
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Issue 58 (Spring 2010) BOLEYN GROUND OR THE OLYMPIC STADIUM? From Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, it's the highly controversial move every Hammers fan is talking about. EX poses some searching questions and we also ask a selection of our contributors readers what they think.
VIVA BOBBY MOORE! The concept of a roadshow celebrating the life and times of Bobby Moore is well overdue and the idea is now turning into reality. For the lucky 500 in attendance at the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch, the inaugural Viva Bobby Moore! was a night to savour. EX was invited backstage to meet and hear the anecdotes of Billy Bonds, Brian Dear, Mike Summerbee and Alan Mullery at the show hosted by Tony Gale.
CRICKETING HAMMERS With a resounding England Ashes victory still fresh in the memory, we reflect on a special group of West Ham players who had the unique distinction of excelling at both the summer and winter national sports, otherwise known as the ‘Cricketing Hammers'.
GOULD HEARTBREAK We've an edited extract from Bobby Gould's recently published autobiography 24 Carat Gould, in which he recalls the time of the miners' strike and three-day working week in November 1973, when he left Bristol City to join Hammers in an £80,000 deal that turned sour when he was only named as sub for the 1975 FA Cup final.
CLASS OF ‘59 Under Ted Fenton's stewardship West Ham commenced the development of home-grown talent and what today is labelled The Academy. This has become part of the club's heritage by producing some excellent youth teams and players over the last 50 years or so. Any debate on which season's youth team was the best will never be conclusive. Was it one of the FA Youth Cup-winning sides from 1963, 1980 or 1999? But we say a strong contender is the 1958-59 team, led by Bobby Moore, which oozed quality and is the focus of this feature.
WHEN MAN UNITED WERE HAMMERED West Ham's shock 4-0 League Cup victory over Manchester United on November 30, 2010 had the commentators scurrying for the record books to check if this was the club's biggest ever win over the Red Devils. The answer is that it equalled the winning margin but did not beat the number of goals scored on a similarly ecstatic occasion more than 80 years ago. Plus...
MEMORABILIA and many great pictures - including many that are previously unpublished - in this latest feast of West Ham nostalgia.
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Issue 59 (Summer 2011) CLASS OF 81 and BOYS OF 86 Comparing players and teams from different past eras can be a hazardous task and often impossible. Football has changed so much over the years pitches, balls, boots, playing systems, players' wages and the pace of the game have all had a big effect on how we perceive the game, although rarely have these changes enhanced the overall quality of the actual product.
But comparing the two most successful West Ham teams in recent Hammers¹ history is not such a problem. Only five years spanned the Class of 81 and the Boys of 86 and almost half a team Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, Alvin Martin, Alan Devonshire and Geoff Pike played regularly in both the 1980-81 second division championship side and the 1985-86 team.
On this, the 30th and 25th-year anniversaries of these two special seasons, we recall some of the highlights, while the editor picks his combined team from the players who featured.
JOHN HARTSON EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW John Hartson led West Ham's successful battle against relegation and fought cancer. Here he re-lives those experiences and also looks back on the rest of his turbulent Hammers career, including that incident with Eyal Berkovic.
PIKE v PARKER Current star Scott Parker has just won the coveted Footballer of the Year award and will also collect his third consecutive Hammer of the Year trophy. But is Parker really that good?
The editor is adamant that West Ham¹s midfield dynamo is not even in the class of Geoff Pike, another hard-working central midfielder who rarely received the recognition he deserved. Here, he explains why 'Pikey' was underrated and Parker is not all he is cracked up to be.
PENALTY KINGS We spotlight the ice cool penalty-takers from 1955 up to the modern day, including John Bond, Johnny Byrne, Geoff Hurst, Ray Stewart, Julian Dicks and Paolo Di Canio, along with a Top 10 table of Hammers' best from 12 yards.
EDDIE PRESLAND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW We caught up with former left-back Eddie Presland to discuss 50 years of football, cricket and scouting endeavour.
HITS and MISSES Reflecting on the good, the bad and the downright ugly of some of West Ham¹s big money signings . . . from Vic Keeble and Bryan ‘Pop' Robson, to Phil Parkes, Slaven Bilic and Dean Ashton.
Plus . . .
What three FA Cup heroes were doing just days after the Wembley triumph in 1964, why Mark Ward is the toast of Dublin, more Olympic Stadium reaction in your letters, and why players should be hammered for their tweets.
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Issue 60 (Autumn 2011)
JOHN BOND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW A long, lonely walk along the corridor deep in the bowels of the Boleyn Ground finally brought John Bond to his senses. The full-back had spent the best part of 18 months in the wilderness of the ‘A' team, a virtual outcast, after disrespecting new manager Ron Greenwood. Bond had been at West Ham almost a decade, he was one of Ted Fenton's first signings and was now the senior player at the club, but his career was going nowhere fast.
EX visited the Cheshire home of the Hammers legend who made 428 first team appearances and won an FA Cup medal in 1964 before going on to a successful career in management as one of the game's most charismatic bosses.
IAN PEARCE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW EX caught up with the boy from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk who spent six-and-a-half years at West Ham between 1997 and 2004 and formed part of the best ever Hammers side in terms of clean sheets in a single season. The 1998-99 campaign produced 16 clean sheets in the league which has not been bettered before or since in the history of the club. Ian Pearce played alongside 103 team-mates, four managers and his time at the Boleyn brought a top five finish and relegation, so there was plenty to talk about . . .
THE DAY THAT BOBBY MOORE WAS SENT OFF We turn the clock back half a century and reflect on a quite extraordinary event in West Ham's history. It happened at Manchester City's Maine Road in November 1961.
ALL-SEATER HISTORY-MAKERS When West Ham move from the Boleyn Ground to the new Olympic Stadium at Stratford, it won't be the first time the team will have played in an all-seater stadium that is also the home of British athletics.
Plus...
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - our guide to where ex-Hammers are playing in 2011-12; tributes to KEN BAINBRIDGE and ERIC PARSONS; book reviews; your letters and another feast of claret and blue nostalgia in words and pictures.
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Issue 61 (Winter 2011-12)
DAY IT TURNED UGLY EX turns the clock back 50 years and reflects on the West Ham v Chelsea game in 1961 - the day that the scourge of hooliganism first reared its ugly head at Upton Park.
ANTON OTULAKOWSKI - Exclusive interview He played 17 games between his arrival in October 1976 and departure to Southend but as EX discovered when we visited the Yorkshire Dales, there is much more to Anton Otulakowski than a winning score in Scrabble.
A couple of quotes from Anton: "I never felt worthy to play in West Ham's first team. That was my mind set and I needed some help with it. Help I never got. I would watch Brooking, Dev and Bonds and put unnecessary pressure on myself that I wasn't good enough."
"One of the senior pro's threatened to break my legs if I kept taking the ball past him so easily." JOHN CARTWRIGHT - Exclusive interview Despite playing just four league games for West Ham between 1957 and 1961, the experience and personalities John Cartwright met along the way were to shape the rest of his time in football, a career that continues to have the philosophy of coaching at its very core. We met up with the former inside-forward known to his West Ham team-mates as ‘Didi'.
A couple of quotes from John:
"Greed runs football nowadays and there is no team spirit anymore. Basically, a group of extremely well paid individuals turn up and sometimes play together. Television runs the Premier League and the Premier League runs the FA. Anything outside of that gets the crumbs.
"There is a lack of honesty and a lot of conning going on. People are only worried about how things look in the paper and are forever papering over the cracks for the sake of image."
FRANK O'FARRELL - book extract Frank O'Farrell, whose playing career began at West Ham in the early 50s, has just released his autobiography, All Change At Old Trafford. As the title suggests, there is a strong emphasis on his turbulent 18 months as Manchester United manager in the 70s, when he took over a club in decline and had to contend with a wayward George Best, a disgruntled Bobby Charlton and was undermined by his famous predecessor Matt Busby.
But there is still much in this softback's 184 pages to fascinate Hammers' supporters, including a lengthy chapter chronicling the Irishman's early days in East London, his battle for a place in West Ham's first team and an insight into his team-mates.
Here we present an edited extract from a book full of honest words from a religious man with strong Catholic beliefs.
SHOWTIME Viva Bobby Moore!,the show that celebrates the life and times of Bobby Moore and also boosts the cancer charity fund that bears his name, recently moved on to Southend and EX was there to record what the celebrity guests had to say about West Ham's ultimate icon. We also called in on Galey & Friends at the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch for some well delivered pre-Christmas crackers from the natural comedian and former centre-back.
VINTAGE CLARETS On Monday, August 26, 1968, West Ham met Burnley in Division One and achieved a classic 5-0 win. It was memorable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it kept Hammers at the top of the table. Secondly, a disputed goal was awarded by a substitute linesman recruited from the crowd!
ERNIE HONOURED To commemorate Ernie Gregory's recent 90th birthday on November 10, we look back at the testimonial in honour of the goalkeeping legend.
ANYONE FOR TURKEY? EX recalls a time when first team stars were overworked, underpaid and simply delighted to receive a free turkey from the club at Christmas.
THE GAME'S GONE Regular columnist and successful author Neil Humphreys is back with his latest observations on the modern game. This time he explains why winning doesn't need to be ugly.
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Issue 62 (Spring 2012)
ERNIE GREGORY: PROPER LEGEND The last remaining link to the turbulent pre-war days at Upton Park was severed by the sad passing of West Ham United goalkeeping legend Ernie Gregory on January 20, 2012. As well as our 8-page obit, we report on Ernie's funeral attended by a galaxy of past West Ham players spanning decades.
As Ernie's former protégé and fellow keeper Phil Parkes says: "He has to be the greatest servant West Ham ever had."
PETER BRABROOK INTERVIEW While England players fight for a place in the squad for Euro 2012, we caught up with a former winger who experienced the thrill of playing for his country against the world's best on the biggest stage. As well as playing for the Hammers from 1962 until 1968, Peter was also a coach at the fabled academy during the celebrated era that produced Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson.
Meet a West Ham servant and FA Cup winner whose involvement with the club continues to this day.
HARRY REDKNAPP FOR ENGLAND? The general public has already decided who should succeed Fabio Capello as England head coach, but should Spurs manager Harry Redknapp accept the position if the FA decide to offer it to him? We examine the pro's and con's of taking one of the toughest jobs in the world game and the conflicting scenarios the former Hammers' boss must weigh up carefully.
DEBUT SCORERS They represent a strange mixture. Some are famous names who will forever remain synonymous with the claret and blue. Others are virtually unknown even to the most ardent and statistically minded Hammers' fans. There are those who played just a handful of games for the club before disappearing almost as quickly as they had burst upon the scene - never to be heard of again.
So who are these individuals and what makes them such an exclusive group of players in terms of West Ham's post-war history? The answer, quite simply, is that they all scored a goal (or, in some cases, goals) when making their debut for West Ham United.
HAMMERS LOSE EURO SCORING RECORD Why mighty Barcelona are now officially better than West Ham United after 31 years.
THE GAME'S GONE Regular columnist Neil Humphreys is back with his latest take on the ills that plague the modern game. This time he turns his attention to the question of whether managers should receive bonuses on transfer dealings.
Plus...
Tributes to Derek Parker and Eddie Lewis, your letters and another feast of pure West Ham nostalgia.
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Issue 63 (Summer 2012)
KEVIN LOCK - THE FAN WHO WON THE FA CUP Kevin Lock is one of only 33 West Ham players in the club's history to have played in and won an FA Cup final. A fanatical supporter from a young boy, his career has always been overshadowed by Bobby Moore, whose number six shirt he wore after the great man left the club in 1974. Tim Crane caught up with the former central defender to discuss the sad fate of his FA Cup winner's shirt, a close encounter with an England cap and the bizarre case of his ECWC medal.
BILLY DARE Terry Roper turns the clock back more than half-a-century and reflects on the career of Hammers' pint-sized striker Billy Dare who created a small piece of football history by becoming the first player ever to sign for a club on live television, but who later became the ‘forgotten man' of Upton Park.
BILL ROBINSON The life of Bill Robinson, former striker at West Ham United between 1949-52, youth team coach from 1953 and assistant manager to Ted Fenton between 1957-59, has been beautifully preserved in original press photos by his son Robert, who took the time to drive from Hull to London to share memories of his father's 10 years at the club with EX.
CLASS OF '57 West Ham's famed academy began churning out talented young players off its production line in the late 50s. Roger Hillier pays tribute to the club's first successful group who reached the FA Youth Cup final for the first time in 1956-57, including a 16-year-old Bobby Moore. WHAT'S WRONG WITH MODERN ENGLISH FOOTBALL Our resident cynic Tony McDonald presents all the many things that irritate him about the game today. You may well find yourself nodding in agreement.
ROAD TO STARDOM Today we read as much about players' lucrative contracts, potential transfer activity, tweeting and their escapades off the pitch as their achievements on it. Even their successes will often be gained in a fleeting stay at a club before a more rewarding contract tempts the badge-kisser away to richer climes. It is very rare for a player to receive a long-lasting and possibly the ultimate accolade . . . of having a street named after him. But two Hammers legends did.
THE GAME'S GONE: TERRY 1 FERDINANDS 0 Upton Park greets the returning Rio with warm applause and rightly so. The grubbier side of the game, with its adultery, celebrity arrogance, occasional contempt for fans and super injunctions, is more commonly associated with the other chap; the one actually picked to play at centre-half. Author Neil Humphreys tackles the recent Anton Ferdinand-John Terry saga and its effect on England's Euro 2012 plans.
Plus...
Your letters, the 1975 FA Cup-winning squad in glossy full colour and another feast of pure West Ham nostalgia.
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Issue 64 (Autumn 2012)
JOHN BOND TRIBUTES West Ham United lost another legend when John Bond sadly died on Tuesday, September 27, aged 79, after a three-year battle against cancer. Here we present tributes to Bondy, who made 428 senior appearances for the Hammers between 1950 and 1966, from his former team-mates, including: Ken Brown, Ron Boyce, Peter Brabrook, Eddie Bovington, Brian Dear, Joe Kirkup, Jack Burkett, Eddie Presland, Frank O'Farrell, Lawrie Leslie, Harry Redknapp and Jim Barrett. Keith Robson, who played under John at Norwich City, also remembers one of the game's most charismatic characters.
STEWART ROBSON INTERVIEW It is a little known fact that since West Ham moved to The Boleyn in 1904 the club has never sold a player to Arsenal. Similarly, only John Radford had been transferred direct from Arsenal to West Ham in the post-war period until, in January 1987, John Lyall paid £700,000 for Stewart Robson, the highly regarded midfielder.
EX caught up with the former midfield workaholic whose time at West Ham coincided with the end of the Lyall era and exposed one or two question marks over the professional attitudes at the club.
Quote from Stewart: "Certain players were living off what had gone before and, unquestionably, not trying as hard as they should."
EMERGENCY GOALIES EX looks back over the years at an unusual event - the occasions when some of West Ham's most famous players were forced to take over ‘between the sticks' asemergency goalies.
Among the stand-ins whose performance in the green jersey we recall here (along with full line-ups and match details) include: Bobby Moore, Martin Peters, Joe Kirkup, John Lyall, Clyde Best, Ray Stewart, Julian Dicks and Henri Lansbury.
HAMMERS IN AFRICA, 1962 If you suggested to a top tier club that they embark on a three-week close season tour taking in 13,000 miles of travel including numerous flights, driving on rough roads and tolerating a hot, humid and often wet climate with no air conditioning, you would be considered a lion short of a full safari! But that is exactly what West Ham undertook 50 years ago when they toured Africa in the summer of 1962. EX recalls The Forgotten Tour.
TONY COTTEE - WEST HAM: THE INSIDE STORY It is six years since Tony Cottee's dream of owning West Ham was finally shattered but the day the Icelandics hijacked his takeover attempt has continued to eat away at him. Now the fifth greatest goalscorer in Hammers' history has revealed all in a new book, titled TONY COTTEE - West Ham: The Inside Story, that reveals the full inside story behind his quest to oust former chairman Terry Brown from the Upton Park boardroom.
From the moment of realisation, following West Ham's abject 2004 Play-off final defeat, that drastic changes were needed at the top if the club was to avoid falling deeper into the wilderness, to the day Eggert Magnusson and co. ‘nicked' the Cottee consortium's plans and left them out in the cold, Tony relives an emotional rollercoaster that left him feeling angry and bitter.
In this issue we present a four-page preview of a book as sharp and incisive as Tony Cottee's finishing in the six-yard box.
You can order it for £14.99 (post-free in UK) direct from the EX website or by phoning our hotline number on 01708 744 333.
TRIBUTES TO EX-HAMMERS In addition to John Bond, we regret that two other former West Ham players passed away in recent weeks. Here we pay tribute to Jimmy Andrews and Ron Tindall.
THE GAME'S GONE: ALLARDYCE'S INSULT TO HISTORY EX columnist and author Neil Humphreys with a forthright riposte to West Ham manager Sam Allardyce's recent Guardian newspaper interview in which he claimed West Ham supporters can become "bogged down" by history.
SIR GEOFF HURST - Exclusive interview (Part 1) Sir Geoff Hurst still holds the vast majority of post-war scoring records at West Ham and won medals with both club and country that are unlikely to be surpassed in our lifetime. With 252 league and cup goals to his credit, he was the most prolific number 10 the club has ever produced.
Tim Crane met up with the goal king at Rob Jenkins' surgery in Green Street, where Geoff and his team-mates received treatment back in the 1960s and early 70s. To stoke the nostalgia to white hot, the interview was conducted in the very cubicle used by Bobby Moore back in the day.
10 THINGS ABOUT WEST HAM To commemorate the 10th anniversary of EX, we decided asked our editorial team who have contributed to the mag since November 2002 to answer 10 questions that will tell you a little bit about them and their preferences. By indulging ourselves, we hope our various opinions will also stir fond memories for our readers, as well as provoke plenty of debate (and, in one or two instances, disbelieving roars of laughter!).
CUP HEROES The Football For Fans series of nostalgia events continued in fine fashion with a reunion of West Ham's great cup teams of 1975-76 and 1980-81 at the Cliff's Pavilion, Southend, on October 10. Hosted by the quick witted and irreverent Tony Gale, some 800 fans made the journey to the Essex seaside town for an evening of sharp wit, touching sentiment and first class memories from a cast of cup heroes that included Billy Bonds, Alan Devonshire, Geoff Pike, Keith Robson, Billy Jennings, Alan Taylor, and David Cross. We present the highlights from an evening which showcased some of the finest moments in the career of much lamented former manager John Lyall.
FORWARD-THINKING BONDY We paid full tribute to the late John Bond in the last issue, but here we record that the charismatic right-back was a forward-thinking player in more ways than one.
HAMMERS SEE THE LIGHTEX spotlights a piece of Hammers' history from the early 50s by recalling the first floodlit match played at Upton Park, against Spurs on Thursday, April 16, 1953.
JIM BARRETT - STILL ‘JUNIOR' AT 82! Barrett is one of the great family names to have been connected with West Ham United down the years. ‘Big' Jim Barrett was a household name during the inter-war period and his son, Jim Barrett Junior, played as an inside-forward for the Hammers in the early 50s. He also coached at the club a decade later and we caught up with one of the oldest surviving Hammers to enjoy a multitude of claret and blue reflections spanning more than 80 years.
THE GAME'S GONE Under the headline ‘Proud that Rio is one of our own', EX's Neil Humphreys examines Rio Ferdinand's prominent role in leading the fight against racism and explains why he fell in love with all over again . . .
Humphreys writes: "He is a black sportsman, on a soapbox, refusing to go quietly. He could just smile for the camera for the photo shoots and offer the usual asinine sound bites about ‘needing to do more' about racism before speeding off down the gravel drive of his gated mansion. But he is risking his popularity for a polarising cause. The bigmouth that comes free with fame is shouting loudly, demanding better race relations for black people and ethnic minorities.
"Ferdinand's dignified handling of the despicable behaviour of that man from Chelsea has been both heroic and humbling. The boy from the Academy might just see football as a means to an end, rather than a self-centred end in itself.
"When he defied Sir Alex Ferguson in not wearing the Kick It Out anti-racism T-shirt, he deliberately kicked open a pungent can of worms. There was a feeling among black players that Kick It Out had become too complacent. As the Ferdinand brothers said in their joint statement: ‘Times change and organisations need to change with them.'
"Rather than sit at home and fantasise over the next Ferrari, Ferdinand is making change happen. The footballer who was once never happier than when he had the ball at his feet at Chadwell Heath has evolved into a strident social activist."