West Ham United on This Day


Book Description

West Ham United On This Day chronicles, in diary form, the major events in the club’s history. With individual entries for every day, and multiple listings for more historic and busier days, the book includes all the club's big matches, promotions, cup runs, significant events, and sensational signings.




The Claret and Blue Book of West Ham United


Book Description

The Claret and Blue Book of West Ham United is packed with fascinating facts, figures, trivia, stats, stories, and anecdotes all relating to the history of West Ham United. From memorable matches and favorite sons, the book follows no set order, chronological or otherwise, but has plenty to keep any fanatic coming back for more--and is fully endorsed by the club.




West Ham United Miscellany


Book Description

Packed with information and little-known facts about the club, the players, the managers and the fans, it cannot fail to please anyone whose obsession is all things claret and blue - and may even surprise a few who thought they knew it all! For many years, the terraces, the pubs and the living rooms of West Ham fans have buzzed with debate, speculation, opinions and laughter. Who was West Ham's best manager? who was their worst? Who should form the greatest-ever Upton Park XI? And who should be included in the worst? These kinds of questions and hundreds like them are answered within the pages of this informative, light-hearted book. From young to old, from die-hard, all-weather supporter to armchair fan, there is something in this collection for everyone. Author Brian Belton is one of the most prolific historians of West Ham United and has drawn on a lifetime of reserach to put this book together. With quotes from some of the greatest Hammers of all times (and their opponents!), Upton Park chants from through the years and much, much more, this unique book provides fans with a Hammers bible they wouldn't dare be without!




The West Ham United Quiz Book


Book Description

Now is the time to find out how much you West Ham United fans really know, but be warned – your brains are sure to take a hammering as you struggle to answer the 1,000 challenging questions in this quiz book, covering every aspect of the team's history, such as players, managers, opponents, scores, transfers, nationalities and every competition you can think of. You'll be arguing with the referee and pleading for extra time as the questions spark recollections and ardent discussions of the legendary greats and nail-biting matches that have shaped the club over the years. With a fitting foreword by Hammers legend Julian Dicks, and bulging with important facts and figures, this book will entertain as well as educate, but be prepared for a few fouls and yellow cards along the way.




Tony Cottee


Book Description

An honest, hard-hitting and thought-provoking read for any football supporter and a must for any West Ham fan who cares about the way their club is run.




Red or Dead


Book Description

A New York Times Editors' Choice "[T]he stuff of great literature." —The New York Times | "Red or Dead is a winner." —The Washington Post The place where the swinging sixties started – Liverpool, England, birthplace of the Beatles – wasn’t so swinging. Amid industrial blight and a bad economy, the port town’s shipping industry was going bust and there was widespread unemployment, with no assistance from a government tightening its belt. Even the Beatles moved to London. Into these hard times walked Bill Shankly, a former Scottish coal miner who took over the city’s perpetually last-place soccer team. He had a straightforward work ethic and a favorite song – a silly pop song done by a local band, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Soon he would have entire stadiums singing along, tens of thousands of people all dressed in the team color red . . . as Liverpool began to win . . . And soon, too, there was something else those thousands of people would chant as one: Shank-lee, Shank-lee . . . In Red or Dead, the acclaimed writer David Peace tells the stirring story of the real-life working-class hero who lifted the spirits of an entire city in turbulent times. But Red or Dead is more than a fictional biography of a real man, and more than a thrilling novel about sports. It is an epic novel that transcends those categories, until there’s nothing left to call it but – as many of the world’s leading newspapers already have – a masterpiece.




Boys of '86


Book Description

The highlights have been few and far between for West Ham United's long-suffering fans over the years: three FA Cup wins, a European Cup-Winners' Cup victory, various other cup runs that failed on the verge of success and, of course, the enjoyment of watching great players such as Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, and Trevor Brooking. Throughout the 47 seasons the East London club has spent in the top flight of English football, the prospect of challenging for the League Championship title has been little more than a pipe dream, with the exception of one season: 1985-86. Little did he know it at the time, but manager John Lyall's summer purchases of young unknown Scottish striker Frank McAvennie from St Mirren and diminutive winger Mark Ward from Oldham Athletic were the final pieces in a jigsaw that fell into place spectacularly to provide West Ham fans with a campaign they would never forget. On the final Saturday of the season, the Hammers faced West Bromwich Albion still holding genuine hopes of finishing as League Champions. With Liverpool playing at Chelsea that day, Lyall's men knew that if they beat the Baggies and the Blues triumphed at Stamford Bridge, they only needed a victory against Everton two days later to secure their first-ever league title. Despite victory at the Hawthorns, though, news filtered through that Liverpool player-manager Kenny Dalglish had hit a winner against Chelsea to ensure that the Reds couldn't be caught. Eighteen years on, this book reflects in detail on the one and only season in which the claret-and-blue army were really able to chant "We're gonna win the league." This volume includes exclusive interviews with the management and players who recount exclusive stories and anecdotes from this record-breaking season.




Good Afternoon, Gentlemen, the Name's Bill Gardner


Book Description

He arrived to rally the troops, the main man in the Inter City Firm and his greeting passed into football fan history. 'Afternoon, gentlemen, the name's Bill Gardner.' That introduction alone was often enough to provoke sheer terror in his opponents. He is a genuine legend to anyone who's ever stood proud on a football terrace. No serious book on the culture would be complete without at least one mention of him. And now at last, he's telling his own, long-awaited story. For the first time, Gardner himself reveals what made him the top man, including his innermost thoughts and his memories of the classic years for football fans. And many familiar faces have queued up to add their comments in this book which shows just what it is that makes Bill Gardner unique among the toughest and the greatest of them all.




Hammered - I Played Football for West Ham, Man City and Everton... Then the Police Came Calling and My Life Fell Apart


Book Description

On 11th May 2009, Ward left Kirkham prison in Lancashire, the one-time top-flight winger had spent four years at Her Majesty's pleasure for drugs offences. His crime was renting a property in which cocaine with a street value of ?645,000 was found during a police raid in May 2005. Ward never denied his involvement. Broke and with no permanent home at the time, he had accepted ?400 a week from an acquaintance to rent a house for an unspecified "stash". He was sent down for eight years. He has always acknowledged his "stupid, terrible mistake". A footballer who was once spoken of as England material, Ward was ever-present in the best league season West Ham ever had (1985-86), and a top-flight player with Manchester City and Everton. In the first ever week of the Premier League in 1992, he helped Everton win 3-0 at Old Trafford. Later he was player-coach at Birmingham in a promotion season that saw silverware at Wembley. He had a beautiful wife, now former wife, who Ward jokes was "the original WAG", and part of "the good life of a footballer" which included a big house, flash car, nice clothes, foreign holidays, and a ?2,000-a-week contract, which in the early 1990s still seemed a lot of money in the Premier League. But the playing days ended, and a desperate fight to stay in the game - at lower-league clubs, then in Hong Kong and Iceland- eventually had to be given up. The decline led to crime, and prison. Ward occupied himself by writing his life story, by hand, on prison paper. He says: "I'm proud of my book. It's just an honest account of my life, no bullshit." Ward is outspoken about current players who have achieved notoriety for the wrong reasons. He talks about the escapades and run-ins with numerous well-known names, inside and outside football. In one astonishing chapter, "Shooting the Pope", Ward reveals how, at a 1992 fancy dress Christmas party at Everton, he shot team-mate Barry Horne, dressed as the Pope, at close range, in the chest, with a real gun; this incident was never before made public, nor were many others, until now.




Founded on Iron


Book Description

This book discusses the origins of West Ham United, of players and fans who were the iron-men of the past, and how it has developed into fierce loyalty and a proud community.