2006–07 West Ham United F.C. season

Review

The team started the 2006-2007 campaign brightly, but slipped down the table due to off the field distractions. West Ham were knocked out from UEFA Cup by Italian Serie A side Palermo (0-1 and 0-3) and saw themselves dragged into the relegation zone.

Eventually an Icelandic consortium, led by Eggert Magnússon, bought the club on 26 November 2006.^[1] Following a poor run of form leaving the club in 17th position (despite the signing of big name players like Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tévez, who both failed to perform to expectation for much of the season), the new owners sacked Alan Pardew,^[2] replacing him with former West Ham player Alan Curbishley^[3] who had recently ended a 15-year spell in charge of Charlton. Curbishley's first game was at home against Manchester United that the team won 1-0. However, The Hammers then drew at Craven Cottage in their next game and continued to struggle, being subsequently trounced 6-0 by newly promoted side Reading, and knocked out of the FA cup by the rock bottom team Watford. An end-to-end thriller at home to Spurs ended with West Ham losing 4-3 in the last seconds of the game having been 3-2 in front with minutes to play, but the bright performance signified a change in form.

At the same time the signings of Mascherano and Tévez were being investigated by the Premier League, who were concerned that details regarding the transfers had been omitted from official records. Also, whether or not the influence of MSI (led by Kia Joorabchian) breached Premier League rules regarding third party ownership of players (rules U.18 and B.13^[4]) came into question. The media at this time touted the idea Tévez's contract could be terminated, possibly resulting in a deduction of points for playing an "ineligible" player (despite Premier League statements to the contrary).^[5] On April 27, 2007, West Ham pleaded guilty and were handed a record £5.5 million fine by the Premier League. The club did, however, avoid a points deduction. Liverpool's signing of Mascherano was investigated and he was cleared to play after a 2 week delay.

Following on from this event the Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan threatened legal action supported by other relegation threatened sides including Fulham and Sheffield Utd; "This is a very serious offence West Ham committed...They broke the law, told blatant lies and should have got a 10-point penalty. If we can sue West Ham or the Premier League, I am sure that will happen."^[6] whilst manager Paul Jewell suggested League officials had intimated they wished to see them relegated. West Ham defeated relegation rivals Wigan Athletic 3-0 at the JJB Stadium and in doing so drew equal to them on points. They subsequently went on to beat Bolton 3-1 and ultimately escaped relegation by winning seven of their last nine games including a 1-0 win over Arsenal, and on the last day of the season defeating newly crowned League Champions Manchester United 1-0 to finish outside the relegation zone in 15th.

Current squad

As of 13 May 2007.

Premier League

Matches

Notes