1) Man United
2) Chelsea
3) Liverpool
4) Man City
5) Arsenal
6) West Ham
7) Everton
8) Spurs
9) Aston Villa
10) Fulham
11) Sunderland
12) Blackburn
13) Bolton
14) Wigan
15) Wolves
16) Burnley
17) Stoke
18) Birmingham
19) Portsmouth
20) Hull

Wow John, you're optimistic. I think we'll be battling for 10th... along with Fulham, Balckburn & Sunderland.

Agreed. Once again John has overstimated the potential of his preferred club and underestimated the potential of mine.

I would be amazed if we were not involved in a relegation battle. We have no firepower, a skeletal first team squad, an over reliance on young untested players, no owner, no investment and more and more look like a club barely surviving.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong, that Upson will stay, that we will get 2 good strikers, that we will become a club who doesn't have to sell their best players, that we will survive the latest crisis and the next one and that we will battle for Europe with conviction.

Since the formation of the PL West Ham are in profit on net transfer dealings. We are one of the few, if not the only club to show such stability. Why then have we perpetually been struggling in financial crisis. Answers on a postcard to the apologist for the crooks...Ken Dyer.

Top three.

1 Chelsea.

2 Manchester United.

3 Liverpool.

Ronaldo, whatever Fergie says, will leave a massive hole in our goalscoring power, And the loss of Alonso will be almost as huge for Liverpool. So I'll take Chelsea's aging squad for one final hurrah.
'

There is an interesting article about being a football supporters by Paul MacInnes in today's Guardian. It includes the following:

In an interesting article at OpenDemocracy.org, Chris Goodall discusses the reluctance of the majority to take seriously the threat of climate change. He suggests that one of the contributing factors might be something called optimism bias, a hardwired tendency to accord undue value to the most satisfactory possible outcome. Observed by neurologists, it is even familiar to the Department of Transport, who have their own "guidance document" for dealing with the "demonstrated, systematic, tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic" (fans of high-speed rail might wish to switch on their own optimism bias now).

On the one hand, it may be the case that without optimism bias, there could be no romance. Without it, however, the potential for finding oneself as sick as a parrot would also be significantly reduced. With that in mind, I think I owe my own club a round of thanks. On Saturday morning I was doing my best to subdue thoroughly improbable optimism. By 4pm, when I walked out at half-time during Norwich City's 7–1 home defeat to Colchester United, the biggest drubbing in our history, I found my emotional balance entirely restored. I think that's something of a record.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...all-season-fans

I am clearly expressing optimism bias. This is an important aspect of my personality. That is what makes me the person I am. I have watched West Ham play three pre-season matches. This includes Saturday's game against Napoli (I took my grandson to see West Ham play at Upton Park for the first time). West Ham have gradually got better over the three games. The defence has played pretty well, although they are clearly not making many chances.

I think Zola will have to readjust his plans. Luis Jimenez is an extremely talented player but I doubt if he has the pace to do well in the premiership. He needs to play two-up front. I would give Zavon Hines a run. He has looked very impressive in the short spells he has played pre-season. He reminds me of a young Ian Wright. Frank Nouble also looks an exciting prospect.

If he manages to sell Upson he will need to bring in a proven goalscorer who will compliment Carlton Cole (he was great on Saturday). We will still have five good central defenders at the club: Tomkins, Collins, Davenport, Gabbidon and N'Gala.

I also hope he reconsiders the idea that Faubert should be our right-back. (He made two schoolboy errors on Saturday and will give away plenty of goals if he continues with him). I would rather see Spector playing in this position. If this changes take place, I still think we can finish in the top six.

It is being suggested that West Ham will buy Marouane Chamakh of Bordeaux if they manage to sell Upson.

Optism bias is a built into all Government departments work via,normally financial elements, of Business Cases and is advised by the OGC Green Book. This is also partly because the Government believes all public works are net spends, never producing financial benefit (and because departments will always tend to underestimate cost in order to get the work, believing its easier to get more money once work has begun, leading of course to the massive overspends which are the net result of, amongst other things, poorly applied optism bias (phew)) - to the extent they ask for the NPC and not the NPV on financials.

I have a pessimism bias and this probably reflects my personality more, I prepare for disappointment or worst case scenario. This year I strongly believe West Ham will struggle. We are not going to buy players, we haven't bought a player in ages. As I've said here and on other forums if Savio cost more than £1 million, we were cheated and robbed. The only reason I can see for money changing hands in that transaction is that Nani's father-in-law is the owner/chairman of Brescia. I'll say again we were robbed.

I challenge your view that we have 5 'good' centre halves - Davenport, Gabbidon and N'Gala hardly fit that category and certainly there is little recent (12-18 months) empirical evidence for them being good. That's not fair on N'Gala, but then he and Tomkins would be too inexperienced to play together.

Of course Luis Jiminez will struggle...we took him. Nani/Duxbury haven't brought a good player to West Ham yet - sorry Ilunga looks decent.

I fear we're going to do a Roeder. 7th place, no investment in squad (whilst Brown consolidated his wealth) then relegation. The signs aren't good. If you can't learn from experience etc. I'm hoping there are at least 3 worse teams than us this year so we can survive almost by default.

More from the London Evening Standard where Ken Dyer runs a one man Operation Mockingbird when it comes to West Ham. Apparently the signing of 'defender' Kovac (a holding midfielder, very very occasional defender) will pave the way for Upson to leave. The frightening thing is that West Ham fans might actually believe Kovac is a replacement for Upson. Dyer is a disgrace to journalism and really ought to do more than take his lead from coffee mornings/press releases with Duxbury and his cronies.

I agree that the Savio signing looks strange. We have about ten young players at West Ham that look to have more potential than Savio. He tried hard on Saturday and the crowd did not get on his back but he looks completely out of his depth.

Carlton Cole gave another good performance last night. Could he become West Ham's Drogba? What we need is a Defoe to go with him for Cole will never score too many goals.

Not a bad start. That is the sort of game we need to win if we are to finish in the top six.

This is a story that appears in the Sunday Mirror. I expect it is Zola's way of applying pressure on the new owners.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Gianf...icle116675.html

Gianfranco Zola’s spectacular reign as West Ham boss could be about to end.

The Hammers manager will not sanction the sale of his key players before the transfer window closes at the end of this month.

Icelandic owners Straumur have demanded the immediate sale of key men like Carlton Cole, Mark Noble, Matthew Upson, Robert Green and Scott Parker to meet mounting debts.

Zola and chief executive Scott Duxbury are embroiled in a war with the board.

Duxbury is seen as a particular problem because he is so closely aligned to Zola and the project of mixing home-grown players with some big-name internationals.

The pair are pushing hard for new strikers and are totally opposed to the sale of star men.

Straumur, the financially stricken parent company, are happy to raise funds by selling key members of the playing staff before sanctioning a takeover of the Premier League club to generate much-needed funding for their business.

A Middle East consortium withdrew its interest in the club after discovering what Straumur intended to do. A spokesman for that consortium said last night: “The club are in a state of complete disarray.

“The key personnel at the club like Zola, Duxbury and coach Steve Clarke appear to be at war with the board.

“Our interest in the club came to an abrupt end when we discovered what Straumur were intending to do.”

Zola’s future, and that of his close ally Duxbury, remain in the melting pot.

Boardroom battles at Upton Park have reached breaking point and show no sign of subsiding.

Zola and Duxbury have maintained that they can generate enough cash by selling fringe players including midfielders Nigel Quashie, Luis Boa Morte and Julien Faubert, and even injured striker Dean Ashton.

But the asset management group, who bought the club in June, is in the middle of a restructuring process and has demands to meet from several creditors.

And they insist the sale of key players in the West Ham squad is non-negotiable and will go ahead regardless of the consequences.

The news will undoubtedly come as a stunning blow to Hammers fans just a day after they got their Premier League season under way with a 2-0 victory at Wolves.

The sale of key personnel could see West Ham fighting for survival this season and lead to fears about their immediate Premier League future.

Zola was seen as a high-risk appointment when he was handed the job last September.

He had no managerial experience, but the fact that he persuaded his old friend Steve Clarke to leave Chelsea and be his assistant was critical to the move.

Zola has won over the Hammers’ players with his deep knowledge of the game.

Clarke provides the experience, coaching and tactical nous.

As a unit, they have made an impressive start to their West Ham careers.

Their team has played in the attractive manner expected by Hammers’ supporters.

My revised league table based on the first couple of games (don't worry Andy, I still believe Liverpool will finish above Everton):

1) Man United
2) Chelsea
3) Spurs
4) Arsenal
5) Manchester City
6) West Ham
7) Liverpool
8) Everton
9) Aston Villa
10) Fulham
11) Sunderland
12) Blackburn
13) Bolton
14) Wigan
15) Wolves
16) Burnley
17) Stoke
18) Birmingham
19) Portsmouth
20) Hull