West Ham United Discussion

[Honey Honey]

 

[Dave]

Surely a Premiership club will put a stop to that?

[Stan]

Andy Carroll in court after gunpoint robbery bid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41085258

Quote

 

West Ham striker Andy Carroll has told a court a gun-wielding motorbike rider tried to rob him of his £22,000 watch.

The footballer, who has nine England caps, told Basildon Crown Court he was returning home from training when he was chased by two motorcyclists.

He said one rider pulled alongside him at the traffic lights and demanded his watch. They followed him as he drove off, and one made gun signs at him.

Jack O'Brien, 22, denies attempting to rob the 28-year-old on 2 November 2016.

In a frantic 999 call played to the jury, the Premier League player said: "There's two motorbikes, one's behind me pulling out a gun, I don't know what to do."

As beeping is heard in the background, he swears and tells the operator: "I've hit loads of cars, I don't know what to do, he's just hit my car."

He eventually arrived at the West Ham training ground where he told the operator there were security staff there.

"I've probably just hit about 10 cars on the way here," he said in the call.

The court heard the bikers had approached Mr Carroll at traffic lights on Romford Road in Hainault, north-east London.

The player told the jury: "I just pulled up at the traffic lights, my window was open, a bike pulled up next to me and said 'Nice watch'."

He said he replied "thanks" and thought he recognised the man on the motorbike.

"He had his crash helmet on with his visor up," he said.

"I stared at him for about 10 seconds as I thought I recognised him and thought he was going to have a conversation."

He continued: "I went to drive away and he said 'Give me your watch'."

Mr Carroll said he was not sure if it was a joke, but when he did a U-turn, both riders turned and followed him.

The footballer added: "I was scared, I didn't know what to do. "I called my partner's dad, I just panicked.

"He told me to ring the police."

Prosecutor Simon Gladwell said the footballer was "beeping at other cars and driving on the wrong side of the road to get away".

Mr Gladwell said the motorbike rider "repeatedly pointed at him with a gun," or pretended to have a gun and demanded to have his client's watch.

Forensic scientist Luan Lunt told the court that DNA found on a crash helmet and Ducati motorbike jacket linked to the incident matched Mr O'Brien's.

The chances of that DNA originating from anyone else was "one-in-a-billion", she estimated.

During cross examination, she said she could not give a specific time or date as to when the DNA was left on the items.

Michael Edmonds, defending, said Mr O'Brien, of Navarre Gardens, Romford, east London, was not the motorbike rider.

He said the defendant had used the bike, jacket and helmet for crime before, but it was not him using the motorbike on this occasion.

The trial continues.

 

 

[Stan]

They're not the lowest of the low. Rapists and child sex offenders are along with murderers. Thieves are just massive cunts. I do agree that it must have been horrible to experience that though. 

[Large]

Who's he?

[Large]

Nah sorry. No idea who you're talking about. 

[Smiley Culture]

I'm pretty sure that quote is bollocks but the way West Ham fans reacted to a bloke wanting to return to his homeland was a massive overreaction. 

[Honey Honey]

It's in all the major newspapers. Would be funny if they all didn't realise the French magazine it was originally printed in was trying to be funny.

[Smiley Culture]

21 minutes ago, HoneyNUFC said:

It's in all the major newspapers. Would be funny if they all didn't realise the French magazine it was originally printed in was trying to be funny.

Sounds like something that George Weah's cousin nonce from Twitter would have come out with before he lost his arsehole. 

[Dave]

He will save his job next week up against a team with no forwards.

[Honey Honey]

1 hour ago, Aaroncpfc said:

He will save his job next week up against a team with no forwards.

Don't be too downhearted by today, we've got the best defence outside of the big club's 

[RandoEFC+]

 

[Honey Honey]

What a strange headline

[Dave]

He surely cannot be happy with the stress of being under pressure every weekend for a whole year. It's already destroyed his hairline. 

[Dan+]

If we're going to get Dyche, we're going to have to act quickly because I'd imagine both Everton and West Ham will be in competition soon.

[Dan+]

1 minute ago, Cannabis said:

If we go for Dyche we've accepted mediocrity. 

West Ham I agree with though.

I'm not sure West Ham would even go for him actually. Could see them going for a bigger name.

We're probably the ideal size for Dyche, really, can't see him getting a much bigger club yet and there's more potential with us than Burnley I'd say.

[Rafa Beneathus]

I like West Ham as a club, good working class fanbas and I enjoyed my visits to Upton Park. They're a fucking mess now though, that shocking excuse of a football stadium that they call home has stripped them of their identity and it is an embarrassment. Most of their fans despise the place. 

[Dave]

6 minutes ago, Any O'Brien said:

I like West Ham as a club, good working class fanbas and I enjoyed my visits to Upton Park. They're a fucking mess now though, that shocking excuse of a football stadium that they call home has stripped them of their identity and it is an embarrassment. Most of their fans despise the place. 

Completely agree. They'll always have the problem of smaller teams playing out their skin at that stadium too as Brighton showed. Look at my boy Murray's reaction when he scored his first goal. It was a deep breath, looking at his surroundings, and recognising it had happened. He was at Barrow Town when they were talking about who should get the stadium ffs. Any footballer that was a teenager when the Olympics happened will have a much bigger buzz to prove a point than the players who play there every week.

[Rafa Beneathus]

5 minutes ago, Aaroncpfc said:

Completely agree. They'll always have the problem of smaller teams playing out their skin at that stadium too as Brighton showed. Look at my boy Murray's reaction when he scored his first goal. It was a deep breath, looking at his surroundings, and recognising it had happened. He was at Barrow Town when they were talking about who should get the stadium ffs. Any footballer that was a teenager when the Olympics happened will have a much bigger buzz to prove a point than the players who play there every week.

Never even considered that but it is a very good point. It also feels as though Murray has been around much longer than that but saying that my first memory of him was when Brighton won League 1 in 2010 or 2011.

[Dan+]

West Ham often completely capitulate at 'home' too. They've been hammered there a few times already.

[RandoEFC+]

Moving to a new stadium is a big deal.

Home advantage is a massive thing in football which is still a bit strange as at the end of the day, home or away you're playing the same game with the same rules on the same sized pitch, just in a different place. However the evidence for home advantage being a real thing is evident in the fact that you almost never come across teams that get more points away than they do at home over the course of the season. Seriously it must be about 5% of the time? Less?

The atmosphere at the stadium and home comforts in general make a surprisingly huge difference to the way football teams perform and I think many people completely underestimate the impact it's likely to have on West Ham (and Tottenham this season) getting used to a new home ground and replicating the same home advantage they'd have enjoyed at their previous stadia.

[Honey Honey]

31 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Moving to a new stadium is a big deal.

Home advantage is a massive thing in football which is still a bit strange as at the end of the day, home or away you're playing the same game with the same rules on the same sized pitch, just in a different place. However the evidence for home advantage being a real thing is evident in the fact that you almost never come across teams that get more points away than they do at home over the course of the season. Seriously it must be about 5% of the time? Less?

The atmosphere at the stadium and home comforts in general make a surprisingly huge difference to the way football teams perform and I think many people completely underestimate the impact it's likely to have on West Ham (and Tottenham this season) getting used to a new home ground and replicating the same home advantage they'd have enjoyed at their previous stadia.

Makes me wonder what the away dressing room is like. A stadium like that they probably aren't allowed to make it shit as it's used for other sports that they have no control over.

At most grounds the away dressing room is deliberately designed to be a cramped unbearable sweatbox. I'm actually surprised it hasn't been outlawed in the game. When I went on the stadium tour at SJP the guide was mentioning all the tricks they do to make the away team suffer. It seemed ridiculous that this stuff goes on.

Just a tiny detail but could be a factor, also might have been a factor for Tottenham when they weren't doing so well at Wembley. 

 

[Dave]

34 minutes ago, HoneyNUFC said:

Makes me wonder what the away dressing room is like. A stadium like that they probably aren't allowed to make it shit as it's used for other sports that they have no control over.

At most grounds the away dressing room is deliberately designed to be a cramped unbearable sweatbox. I'm actually surprised it hasn't been outlawed in the game. When I went on the stadium tour at SJP the guide was mentioning all the tricks they do to make the away team suffer. It seemed ridiculous that this stuff goes on.

Just a tiny detail but could be a factor, also might have been a factor for Tottenham when they weren't doing so well at Wembley. 

 

Its madness what goes on. Stamford Bridge has a step going in to the away dressing room and the door covers the white board when opened. They were saying most away dressing rooms are designed to have slippery surfaces, no heating, dimmer lights etc anything to get an advantage. 

[Dave]

Just been announced on MOTD that Slaven may be replaced with David Moyes 

[Inverted]

Instead of sacking Bilic, maybe they should consider hiring an actual scouting department, as opposed to just booting up FM13 and seeing who's good every time they have some money to spend.