GRASS IS GREENER ... England keeper is being tempted by switch across the capital
QPR want to lure Robert Green
Rangers boss Mark Hughes is willing to match the England keeper’s £50,000-a-week demands, which are scuppering contract talks at West Ham.
Green, 32, will be a free agent after June 30 and talks with the Hammers hierarchy have stalled.
Sparky plans to strengthen his defence following Rangers’ fight with relegation.
Newcastle right-back Danny Simpson is another target while current Rangers keeper Paddy Kenny is wanted by ex-QPR boss Neil Warnock, now at Leeds.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce will go back to his old club Bolton to replace Green.
He plans to sign out-of-contract Finland veteran Jussi Jaaskelainen, 37.
the mail
Hammer blow: Dylan Tombides is keen to get his promising career back on track after almost a year battling cancer
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Making good progress: Tombides made his way in the West Ham youth team and then went on to make the first team squad
Early mementos: Tomnides kept his early West Ham and Australia shirts and has a signed shirt by cyclist Lance Armstrong
Family support: Tombides has had the support of his dad Jim, brother Taylor and mum Tracylee
Fighter: Tombides wants to get back on the pitch
I just said: Dad, could this kill me? Hammers kid Dylan relives his 10-month hell fighting cancer
Each morning around nine o’clock, Dylan Tombides crawls out of bed, walks to the bathroom in a sleepy fog and looks into the mirror.
Staring back at the young West Ham striker is a thick, 12-inch scar running from the centre of his chest to his belly button.
That’s when the flashbacks begin, taking this 18-year-old professional footballer back to the moment he wondered whether he would ever pull on the famous claret and blue again.
Already a regular goalscorer in the reserves, Tombides was looking forward to pre-season training with the Hammers’ first team after playing for Australia in the Under 17 World Cup in Mexico last summer.
He was in Cancun for a few days ‘chilling out with the old man’ when he took the telephone call that ripped his life apart.
A random drugs test, taken after his team were beaten 4-0 by Uzbekistan, had uncovered a tumour on one of his testicles.
Tombides was 17, tipped for the top by academy director Tony Carr and had already made the first-team bench for a Barclays Premier League game.
Trembling with fear and feeling faint, he turned to his father, Jimmy: ‘Dad, could this kill me?’ His face went white.
‘I was 17, a young man and I had never come across cancer,’ he admitted at the family home a short walk from West Ham’s training ground. ‘All I was thinking about was getting in the West Ham team and taking my driving test.’
Promising career: Tombides was making strides in West Ham youth team
Part of the team: Tombides made the first team squad at Upton Park
Making good progress: Tombides made his way in the West Ham youth team and then went on to make the first team squad
This is the story of surgery and endless courses of chemotherapy. But when we meet, Tombides bounces around the family home, putting wax in his hair for the photographs (and the girls) and squirming with embarrassment when mum Tracylee tries to give her son a kiss on the cheek.
‘I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time,’ he said. ‘All I ever wanted to be was a top professional footballer with West Ham. I copped one in my groin against Brazil at the World Cup and I knew that I had a problem, but I had no idea it was cancer.
‘It was only when I took the phone call in Cancun that I realised just how serious the condition was. I had the blood tests and CT scans when I got back to England and they told me I needed to have a testicle removed immediately.
‘I just accepted it. I mean, it was hurting me so much anyway it seemed sensible.’
All he could think about was getting back on to the football field, joining the Hammers in their promotion push and putting the ball in the back of the net again.
The club’s chief executive Karren Brady called his mum to offer her support and his team-mates stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him throughout the traumatic days ahead.
He had a 45-minute procedure, but that was just the start. Tombides spent weeks at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, falling in and out of consciousness while his mum, dad and younger brother Taylor, who is also at West Ham, sat by his bedside each night.
Tracylee said: ‘It was a period of helplessness. As a parent we wanted to protect our kids, but we had no control.
‘I often thought cancer would happen in the lives of our family at some point, but not my kids.’
Some days Tombides would be in hospital, hooked up to the chemotherapy lines for seven hours, with tubes connected to him so that he could barely move.
‘I’d wake up for 15 minutes and I would be exhausted. They would give me anti-sickness tablets and I would think I’d only been sick a couple of times in the night.
Then Mum would look at me and put me right — it was more like seven or eight.
‘There were times when I would just look at Mum and tell her, “I don’t want the chemo any more, I will live with the cancer”. That’s how I felt at times.
‘It took five to 10 days to bounce back from each chemo blast and there is no trick to dealing with it.
‘My team-mates wanted to visit me but I told them not to because I couldn’t stay awake for longer than 15 minutes and couldn’t always remember what was happening.’
When he was allowed out of hospital for a few days, there were times when he would make the short walk to the training ground, popping in to see the players for lunch before he went back to bed for the afternoon.
It lifted his spirits and the players responded, wearing T-shirts in his honour before West Ham’s home game with Nottingham Forest in January.
Then he had to have another operation after doctors discovered a four-inch blood clot on his abdomen and cancer cells on his lymph nodes.
‘I spent 11 days in hospital after that and it wasn’t pleasant. I woke up to a huge scar and couldn’t use my core muscles for weeks.
‘I had to work out how to roll in and out of bed because it was so painful and it was weeks before I was allowed to do any exercise.
‘I just wanted to play football again, but there was so much scar tissue I had to be careful. I spent a lot of time on the exercise bike or in the swimming pool, not rushing anything.’
He is full of enthusiasm now, enjoying his freedom and his football after returning to training this week. He will have another nine monthly blood tests before he can be given the all-clear, a date circled in the family diary as he focuses on the future.
West Ham’s physio Jon Urwin, who ran the London Marathon last month in aid of Children with Cancer, has been with him throughout, talking to him about his future and his plans for the summer, which he will spend training at Chadwell Heath as he targets a squad number under Sam Allardyce next season.
He added: ‘It has been a long process, but all I ever wanted to do was play football again.’
After 10 months out of action, he is determined to take his second chance
brilliant brilliant news :raver:
the mail
Hammer time: Jussi Jaaskelainen is wanted by West Ham
Big Sam eyes reunion with Jaaskelainen as Hammers struggle to agree Green deal
West Ham are pressing ahead with their bid to sign Jussi Jaaskelainen as rivals for his signature West Brom continue to search for a manager.
Albion were keen to take the free agent from Bolton as West Ham awaited their play-off fate but their failure to secure a manager quickly has opened the door again for Sam Allardyce.
Current number one Robert Green is struggling to reach an agreement over a new contract after wanting a minimum of £45,000-per-week. Allardyce last week completed the signing of Portsmouth keeper Stephen Henderson on a three-year-deal.
the mail
Clubless: Louis Saha is set to leave The Filth
West Ham interested in Saha with striker set for filth exit after just five months
Louis Saha is set to be released by The Filth after just five months at the club.
The 33-year-old signed for them from Everton on a free transfer in January, while Steven Pienaar went on loan in the other direction.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is on alert as he would like to add extra Premier League nous to his newly promoted side.
the express
West Ham and England keeper Rob Green
QPR LOOK TO PRISE ROBERT GREEN FROM UPTON PARK
QPR are ready to meet England goalkeeper Robert Green’s wage demands and lure him away from West Ham.
Talks on a new deal for Green at Upton Park have broken down and Hammers boss Sam Allardyce is now set to raid his old club Bolton to land Finland international Jussi Jaaskelainen, 37.
He is a free agent after 15 years at Wanderers.
talksport
Real Madrid striker set to spark Premier League transfer scramble
Real Madrid sensation Joselu could start a transfer battle this summer with SIX Premier League clubs desperate for his signature.
Spanish newspaper Marca claims the striker, who scored 22 goals this season for Real Madrid’s B team, was watched in his last game by scouts from West Ham, Southampton and Reading as well as three other unnamed top-flight English sides.
The frontman, who also scored for Jose Mourinho’s first-team in the Copa del Rey, is also attracting interest from a host of Spanish clubs, including Getafe, Deportivo de la Coruna and Celta de Vigo.
Madrid already have an abundance of attacking talent at their disposal and they would be willing to consider offers of £5m and upwards - a fee that could be comfortably met by all the Premier League clubs, sparking a potential bidding war.
They will need to bid soon, though, with Real also considering making Joselu an offer to remain in their reserve side and to allow them to see how he will develop over the course of next season.
forever west ham
What style will the Hammers play?
Plans to build upon the current squad are already underway, with six players set to leave the club in June and rumours arising about possible star players coming to the Boleyn. The Hammers have been set a tough task to stay in the Premier League and the board have already promised to invest in the rebuilding of the squad to insure that the club will be competitive come next season. One question brought up by Hammers fans has been how the team will play? And what philosophy will the side adopt?
Recently, we have seen Chelsea miraculously win the Champions League, fending off Bayern Munich in the final and Barcelona in the semis. They combined luck with skill, much like the tactics needed to do well on PartyBingo.com. Chelsea’s defensive approach was brought in under Roberto Di Matteo to great success for the Chelsea team, who completed the double with a win over Bayern in Munich. It is not the first time however, that we have seen success through defensive tactics this season. Real Madrid managed to get a vital win at the Nou Camp against arch rivals Barcelona, despite the home team dominating throughout, which led to the La Liga title. The combination of composed and disciplined defensive play with swift and clinical counter-attacks has been the key for Mourinho’s Los Blancos.
Next season will be an enormous step up for the Hammers, with the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, all boasting world-class players. Could we see a more defensive approach from the Hammers to try and combat the attacking prowess of these top sides? Moreover, the quality of mid-table teams in the Premier League must not be underestimated and it is no coincidence that there are so many twists and turns in the Premier League, it is due to the abundance of great players we have in the Premier League.
A counter attacking style has been very successful for Mourinho’s teams throughout his career. The combination of strict defensive organisation and rapid and focused attacks led the Portuguese
manager to the Champions League title in 2010 with Inter Milan. However to play counter attacking football successfully, you have to be strictly organised at the back and therefore you must have very intelligent defenders and midfielders whose concentration must be second to none. Moreover, it is essential to have very fast wide players to exploit the space and to create chances. To play in this way it would take full dedication from the whole team and also we would have to heavily invest in players who could fit this style. In addition to this, Mourinho’s style has not pleased the Real Madrid fans, who have been disappointed with the way in which his side have approached the most recent El Clasicos. Madrid’s fine history of attacking football does not relate to the new style and many of the Madrid fans have been vocal over their disapproval of the current philosophy. Whether the Hammers fans would enjoy “parking the bus” is debatable, seeing as the fans are very wary of the long ball style which we have seen this season under Sam Allardyce.
Big Sam may decide to adopt a more attacking and expansive philosophy. Both Swansea and Norwich have enjoyed successful seasons in the Premier League following promotion from the
Championship. Norwich scored 52 goals last season, more than Liverpool and Everton. Their attacking football excelled them to a mid-table position and there is plenty for the Canaries to build upon. Swansea showed the Premier League that there is no need to spend many millions on foreign talent to play good football. There passing game was likened to Barcelona at times and under
Brendan Rodgers they finished 11th in the Premier League, above Stoke, at the opposite end of the spectrum of footballing styles. The way that Swansea played last season epitomised the way that
football is evolving and if the Swans can build upon this season’s success, they could become a real force in the Premier League.
It would be very naive not to try to emulate parts of Barcelona’s style. The way that they retain possession and probe until the chance arises is almost unplayable and Swansea’s use of this style
has been very successful for them. Moreover, City have gone out to dominate possession against sides this season and it has led to the Premier League title. However, in cup competitions, as Chelsea have shown, sometimes this philosophy does not work as well as in the League. Chelsea’s defensive approach brought them success in the Champions League (albeit through a huge amount of luck) and also it helped Madrid beat Barça in the League (although this match was like a cup final).
Sam faces a big decision, will he stick with a long ball tactic although there is evidence that it is a dying style, or will he adopt one of these two tactics for success in the Premier League? Will he
mix and match to suit the opposition? Or are there any other styles that he may adopt? Tweet Me @TollyCoburn
westham till i die
Just How Long Should Sam's Shopping List Be?
We seem to be linked with any half decent player at the moment, and quite a few that aren't even half decent. Perhaps we should pause and consider the strength of our current squad and which positions we are deficient in. So here's my view, for what it's worth.
GOALKEEPER
Rob Green & Stephen Henderson
We all want Greeno to stay, but if he he does decide to leave then we need a top quality keeper as a replacement. Almunia is not good enough for the Premier League. He didn't let us down when he played for uus last season, but he's not a keeper to inspire confidence.
CENTRAL DEFENDERS
James Tomkins, Winston Reid,
We need at least two new central defenders, maybe three if there is no one ready from the youth team to step up to provide cover.
LEFT BACKS
George McCartney
Daniel Potts
Assuming we sign McCartney on a permanent deal, I'd say we're covered here.
RIGHT BACKS
Joey O'Brien
Guy Demel
The jury it out on Demel. He seemed to get better once he came into the team, but his playoff performance was a disaster. I'd like to see us buy a new top quality right back, who can also play right hand midfield.
CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS
Mark Noble
Kevin Nolan
Jack Collison
If we'e going to play 4-3-3 then we need one more central midfielder. Gary O'Neil can play here too, but you know my views on him.
LEFT SIDED MIDFIELDERS
Matthew Taylor
I like Taylor, especially as he can play at left back. Indeed, there is an argument for him and McCartney competing for that spot, so I would like us to buy a new zippy left winger.
RIGHT SIDED MIDFIELDERS
Ravel Morrison
Gary O'Neil
Morrison can play anywhere across the middle or up front but we don't know yet whether he is the full shilling. We need a new top quality right winger. Zaha?
STRIKERS
Ricardo Vaz Te
Carlton Cole
Sam Baldock
Nicky Maynard
Baldock and Maynard may need to be sacrificed if we are to get the 15-20 goal striker that we need. Cole is never going to be prolific but is valuable in other ways. Can Vaz Te step up to the plate? Das Borst might be the man, but I suspect we'll end up with Yakubu or Owen, or someone similar
CONCLUSION
We need 2 centre backs, a right back, a left winger, a right winder, a midfielder and a striker. And we won't get much change out of £20 million if we recruit the quality of player we need to. Even then, that leaves is with a squad of only 24 players - is that enough to do well in the Premier League?
Manchester City could be about to flex their financial muscle by making a bid for Inter Milan midfielder Wesley Sneijder, 27.
talkSPORT
Manchester United are reportedly close to agreeing a £12m deal for Borussia Dortmund's 23-year-old midfielder Shinji Kagawa.
Metro
Manchester United are keen on winger Adam Johnson
Manchester United have made initial enquiries about the availability of Manchester City's 24-year-old winger Adam Johnson.
Caught offside
Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill is also keen on Johnson and wants to give him the chance to rekindle his England career.
Daily Mirror
Manchester United and Manchester City both have their eye on Papiss Cisse, who scored 13 times in 14 games after joining Newcastle in January.
West Ham are pressing ahead with their bid to sign Jussi Jaaskelainen, 37, as rivals for his signature West Brom continue to search for a manager.
Daily Mail
Rennes have told both Arsenal and Inter Milan they can forget about signing 21-year-old Yann M'Vila until after Euro 2012, with the want-away midfielder likely to attract more offers whilst in the shop window.
: Metro
Real Madrid sensation Joselu, 22, could start a transfer battle this summer with six Premier League clubs desperate for his signature.
talkSPORT
Everton are looking to lure Benfica forward Oscar Cardozo, 29, to Goodison Park this summer.
Caught offside
Andy Johnson could be the next big name to swap the Premier League for the Pro League after the Fulham striker's agent confirmed there is interest in the player from the UAE.
Sport360
Liverpool will have to act fast in a battle with Galatasaray if they want to resurrect their interest in Real Madrid's 29-year-old midfielder Hamit Altintop.
talkSPORT
Ledley King becomes a free agent next month but is set to be offered as new 12-month contract at Tottenham when he sits down for crunch talks this week.
Daily Mail
Liverpool are hopeful of unveiling Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers as their new boss and Louis van Gaal as their director of football within days.
Daily Mirror
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez
Roberto Martinez to consider Aston Villa job
With Liverpool cooling towards Roberto Martinez, the Wigan boss has let it be known he'll consider the Aston Villa job.
Daily Mirror
Brian McDermott is set for a £15m transfer kitty after the takeover of Reading by Russian tycoon Anton Zingarevich was confirmed
Daily Mail
Phil Jones is likely to get another chance to establish himself as England's first-choice right-back going into Euro 2012, as Roy Hodgson rates Glen Johnson a considerable doubt for Saturday's friendly against Belgium.
the Guardian
Martin Jol is making sure his Fulham squad don't enjoy an easy summer by sending his coaching staff to check on their fitness.
Daily Mail
England fans will be hoping Andy Carroll is better suited to international football than he is schoolyard games, after the Liverpool striker failed to complete 60 seconds of 'the yes/no game'.
babe of the day
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~ A slam dunk NO from me
