Mad Brit Diary

West Ham relegation brings a sad day to a proud club.

(Friday, May 16, 2003) -- I know the Mad Brit is showing his age, but he has a very soft spot for West Ham United. The MB remembers the holy trinity of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters who, back in the sixties, all played for England.

As a youth, those guys were his heroes, along with the other lads who won the 1966 World Cup. Alas, that was the last time England won any silverware. The Mad Brit got to meet Hurst, who scored the hat trick that downed West Germany at Wembley Stadium, in Sutton Coldfield one summer day and he signed a soccer book for the MB.

The Mad Brit waited in the line for a long time to get Hurst's signature, but he was on a high for a week after that. Those were the days when West Ham had flair and grit. Moore, the first of the golden boys to die, was a gem. Pele admired him and told the Mad Brit so in an interview in 1993. So it was sad to see the Hammers slip down into the First Division last week after they could only tie Birmingham City 2-2 while their coach Glenn Roeder, 47, lay sick with a brain tumor awaiting surgery.

The tie allowed the foreign-legion at Bolton to stay in the Premier League for one more season. In going down, West Ham set the unfortunate record by finishing the season with 42 points, the most by a relegated club in a 38-game Premiership season. Forty points in the 20-team EPL was always the number of salvation, but not this time. Now the vultures are circling to snap up West Ham's players, many of whom will not want to play in First Division soccer, which is a pretty good league, but tough as nails to escape.

This Hammers team, which had the sixth highest wage bill in the Premiership, will now find itself with major financial problems. The sale signs will have to go up. West Ham has five England national-team players in David James, Joe Cole, Trevor Sinclair, Lee Bowyer and Michael Carrick who will all look to be put on the selling block.

Manchester United is already eyeing the talented Jermain Defoe, 20, but the Hammers are refusing to let him go at the moment. Italian Paolo di Canio, who was pulling in the ridiculous sum of nearly $60,000 a week at West Ham, will be on his way. The club has refused him a new deal. And the talented Freddie Kanoute will no doubt be sold. The question is, will Trevor Brooking, who guided the Hammers to two wins and a draw in his three games while he replaced the ailing Glenn Roeder, stay at the club as coach.

"I don't think we'll have the same squad at the start of next season," Brooking told the British media. "Relegation will cost us ($24.3 million) and you're supposed to halve your wage bill when you go down. . . We want to keep a nucleus of players so we can bounce back. We will see in the summer who we've managed to hold on to."

James, the Hammers erratic goalie, is a target for Manchester City now that Peter Schmeichel is retiring. And James wants to stay on the England national team. "Of course I want to go on being included in England squads, but Sven Goran Eriksson has said that players outside the Premiership are not necessarily excluded and that is good enough for me," said James who will no doubt ask for a transfer.

We can only hope that West Ham will be back with the big boys soon.

Prediction for the European Champions League final between Italian clubs A.C. Milan and Juventus: 0-0 with Milan winning on penalty kicks. 0-0 with Juventus winning on penalty kicks.

Liverpool's 2-1 setback at Chelsea last week probably cost the club a possible $35 million in Champions League participation.

"Mad Brit," Edward Lim writes, "While it's true (David) Beckham may not be recognized walking down the street in a major city, that doesn't mean he's a "unknown" here. If Beckham were to visit any of the ever-growing youth league games around any suburbia, he'd be mobbed the same as a Kobe Bryant would. . . I'd bet Roy Keane or even a John O'Shea would be plenty-recognized at a Major League Soccer stadium. Many in Europe would be surprised at the in-depth knowledge and passion many Americans have for the European game.

Juan Sabalones says: "With all the hype you'd think Arsenal had just been relegated. Manchester United was great, but also lucky. (Arsene) Wenger is a very unpleasant, sore loser, but he has a point about how good Arsenal are. . . If Man. United is going to get a new keeper, it could do a lot worse than Kasey Keller. (Brad) Friedel is probably untouchable and I have heard that Man U. is interested in Tim Howard, but Keller is better and vastly more experienced now."

Mark Futrell makes some good point concerning the MB's Bolton rant: "However, at the end of the day, Bolton is an ambitious club that wants to achieve a status that is beyond having to fight from relegation year after year. So how do you do that? A club has to move beyond the English attitude and tactics of the common player. . . The English are far behind their counterparts in technique and tactics. They have average athletic ability in power, speed and agility. Their strength lies in their spirit and physicality to the game -- no one doubts their desire and will to win. However, Brazil has the complete all around game. That is why it beat England with a man down.

Joe Schoonmaker comments on the MB's Dutch article: "I like your thoughts on the Dutch national squad. It hurts to see a team so good underachieve so much. I think the Dutch could have taken France '98 and Euro 2000. Another remarkable thing about them is the quality of some of the players who don't get much playing time. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Roy Makaay come to mind. Ruud Van Nistelrooy wasn't getting a ton of time either until recently (partly due to the injury, I suppose). Van Nistelrooy and Patrick Kluivert together at Man. U would be ridiculous."

Heard a rumor, have a gripe or a tip? Feeling lonely? E-mail the Mad Brit at themadbrit3@aol.com.