Mooro and Brooking signings at the Newham Bookshop

There's a couple of great signings coming up at the Newham Bookshop, the best independent book store in London. Matt Dickinson, the chief sports correspondent of The Times, will be signing copies of  Bobby Moore: The Man In Full, his biography of West Ham and England's World Cup winning captain, before the Liverpool match at 3pm on September 20. While the legendary Sir Trevor Brooking will be signing copies of his autobiography Trevor Brooking: My Life in Football before the QPR match at 2pm on Sunday October 5. Let's hope Sir Trev will pop into Ken's Cafe too. Click on the link for details.

Transfer window verdict in the Observer

My verdict on the transfer window is in the Observer today. Guess the key words are "on paper"… Click on the link to read. It got quoted on the West Ham website too…
On paper it seems like a good window. Apart from Diame, who never quite matched his potential, we’ve shifted out underachieving squad players, lowered the age of the team and finally got enough strikers in. Loaning Alex Song from Barcelona is quite a coup, while if Amalfitano can match his goal for WBA at Old Trafford it could be exciting. Zarate shows promise as a link player; £12 million striker Enner Valencia is unproven in the PL but has an international track record. Kouyate looks strong in midfield and Cresswell has settled in well at left-back. The big question is can Allardyce knit them into a team?

The Doctor goes up West Ham

Did you know that West Ham is the only football club ever mentioned in new Doctor Who? You can find this fact in my new e-book Whovian Dad: Doctor Who, Fandom, Fatherhood and Whovian Family Values. In Planet of the Ood there’s an incredible moment when David Tennant's Doctor asks Donna Noble (clearly related to Mark) where she learned to whistle like that and she answers, “up West Ham!” 

The only other footie mention that I've been able to find in Who is when Charlton get a namecheck in the 1988 Sylvester McCoy story Silver Nemesis. Ace is reading the Daily Mirror and says, "Charlton picked up three points." 

There are other Who and Hammers links. While in The Lodger  Matt Smith's Doctor lodges with Craig (played by real life West Ham fan James Corden) in Colchester and turns out for Craig’s pub side the Kings Arms. The Sunday League boys assume 'the Doctor' is just another laddish nickname. He soon earns respect on the pitch though, as he bamboozles The Rising Sun and scores eight goals in a dramatic 8-0 win. Which clearly indicates he could do a job up front for the Hammers. And while we're on cult mentions of the Irons, West Ham are also the only team mentioned in Harry Potter — Dean Thomas has a West Ham shoulder bag and scarf. If only we could use some of that regenerative energy on the pitch…

Are we missing the captaincy of Kevin Nolan?

After the win at Palace I thought the shoulder injury to Kevin Nolan, unfortunate as it was, might inadvertently help West Ham. We knew Allardyce wouldn't ever drop his talisman, but now it would give the more mobile Zarate a run in the position linking the main striker with midfield. After the dire performance against Southampton I'm not so sure.

The one thing we lacked in the second half against the Saints was leadership. Nolan might look like he's not worth his place if he isn't scoring, but the one thing everyone at the club says is that he is a good captain. You see him high-fiving players who make blocks and had he been on the pitch he might have been able to organise the players a bit, order more closing down, change some positions and rollick those who were underperforming. We needed more leadership from Mark Noble and Winston Reid on the day. We can all accept a home defeat, but not a capitulation where West Ham don't even threaten to make a comeback.

Kate Bush's Hammer Horror

My fellow season ticket holder Nigel went to see Kate Bush in Hammersmith last night and has been wondering if she is a closet Hammers supporter. After all she did write Hammer Horror, presumably after a dire home defeat, and Them Heavy People is surely a tribute to Benni McCarthy. Her album The Kick Inside is perhaps a tribute to the subtle passing of Trevor Brooking, while her "rolling the ball" lyric indicates she likes keepers to play it short. Babooshka was presumably one of Harry Redknapp's Foreign Legion. And on Saturday West Ham certainly looked like they were Running Up That Hill.

Good Morgan

West Ham managed to capture Morgan Amalfitano from Marseille late last night, who should improve WHU going forward and is a versatile right-sided player. He scored four goals for West Brom while on loan last season including some spectacular long-range efforts. We've certainly changed the team around this window, bringing in Valencia, Zarate, Sakho, Kouyate, Song, Poyet, Amalfitano, Jenkinson and Cresswell. These are surely upgrades on Matt Taylor, Joe Cole, Collison, Diame, Diarra and Maiga. Credit to the board for putting up the cash - now there's no excuse not to improve.

MoMo on the go go

Mohamed Diame is on his way to Hull City, the clubs having agreed a £3.5 million fee. So much for all those quotes that came out from Diame saying he wanted a big six club. It was always likely he'd leave WHU once we had Kouyate and Song. We'll always remember his superb performance and goal against Chelsea, but last season he went backwards (while frequently being played out of position). Sadly in the last year he's rarely looked like becoming the player he could have been. A decent PL performer, but it was probably time for a change for both Mo and West Ham.