West Ham Want Warnock or Maybe Holloway

[Macmoish]

I bet he does go - because at QPR no reason to think he won't get axed in the Summer or the Fall.

The Sun Hammers go to War for Neil

By ANDREW DILLON


WEST HAM are ready to make an audacious move for Neil Warnock.

Boss Avram Grant is running out of time with the team bottom of the Premier League and only three games remaining.

Warnock has just taken QPR back into the big-time by clinching the Championship title but Hammers insiders still reckon a deal could be done to lure the controversial Yorkshireman from West to East London.

QPR's promotion is still undecided with the outcome of the FA disciplinary hearing into illegal third-party dealings over the signing of Alejandro Faurlin not expected until Friday.

Warnock is a hate figure among West Ham fans after he considered a personal lawsuit against the club in the wake of the Carlos Tevez affair.

But an Upton Park source said: "Even if QPR did make it into the Premier League, Warnock's still a target.

"He has a fabulous track record of getting teams promoted and the view is that he'd stand a better chance long-term of managing in the top flight with West Ham than with Rangers, because of the relative sizes of the clubs.

"The fans hate Warnock but if he won a few matches and knocked the team into shape would they still hate him or swallow it and back the team?"

Norwich boss Paul Lambert is also on the West Ham wishlist with Grant looking doomed after just one season.

An official move for Warnock would probably have to wait until the summer should West Ham go down.

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3561515/Hammers-go-for-Warnock.html

[neil]

total bollocks and if Neil moved on he goes with my best wishes

[cpr]

That paper has sources everywhere don't they, what a fantastic paper!

[cpr]

Just to add, it's called Autumn Mac.

[harlowranger]

What have the Sun got against us !
No way he would go to a Championship Club when he's with a Premiership one , pure drivel.

[Macmoish]

Not so sure...given that his own QPR prospects are perhaps a little cloudy...He's made several cracks about being unsure about his QPR future....

If West Ham offer his a great contract...There's far more of a core of good players than at QPR when he took over...
And he knows that this is what he's really good at...

[gibraltar]

i will always have a place in my heart for colin

[Macmoish]

Warnock Or Ian Holloway....


Neil Warnock and Ian Holloway on West Ham radar to replace Avram Grant
• Lambert, Mackay and Bilic also admired at Upton Park

• Grant could face sack even if Hammers stay in Premier League


Share Jamie Jackson guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 May 2011 21.25 BST Article history

West Ham have drawn up a shortlist of seven names to replace Avram Grant should they decide to dispense with the manager's services at the end of the season – Neil Warnock, Paul Lambert, Malky Mackay, Chris Hughton, Slaven Bilic, Ian Holloway and Martin O'Neill.

Who could succeed the Israeli will depend, in part, on whether the club are in the Championship or Premier League in August. As West Ham are currently bottom and three points from 17th place with three games left the most likely scenario is that they will be relegated. That would almost certainly result in Grant being sacked.

When appointed last summer Grant was given the remit of maintaining the club's Premier League status during his first term in charge while David Gold and David Sullivan, the co-owners, focused on reducing the £110m debt. That figure is now down to around £80m but during a troubled season West Ham have rarely been out of the relegation zone.

It is understood that Gold and Sullivan never envisaged such a struggle, with the owners hoping West Ham would be 15th or 16th for the majority of the campaign and that Premier League status would be secured in March.

Grant has said that seven points may be enough to avoid the drop but West Ham may need to defeat all of Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland to have any chance of survival. Even then he may not keep the job, as Gold and Sullivan may still decide he has not comprehensively fulfilled his remit.

Relegation would cause the "£40m hole" in the club's finances Sullivan spoke of last week, meaning the owners would have to recruit a manager capable of lifting the club back into the Premier League on reduced finances.

Warnock, who has won the Championship with Queens Park Rangers pending the ongoing FA hearing into the signing of Alejandro Faurlín, has also taken Notts County and Sheffield United into the top division during his career. He was wanted by West Ham to replace Gianfranco Zola when the Italian was in charge last season. The then Crystal Palace manager is thought to have rejected those advances as he had agreed to join QPR.

Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chairman, has a good relationship with him after her husband, Paul Peschisolido, played for Warnock during his eight years as Sheffield United's manager.

Lambert is an attractive candidate after taking Norwich City into the Premier League, his second consecutive promotion as their manager. He managed this with Norwich in a precarious financial position and Mackay, who played for West Ham in 2004-05, has also impressed this season for similar work in making Watford credible playoff contenders from December until early spring, when a minuscule budget that allowed him to spend only £500,000 on transfers finally caught up with the club.

Hughton, a lifelong West Ham fan, has been in the directors' box for the last three games at the Boleyn Ground and is a candidate after guiding Newcastle United into the Premier League last season. His stock is high after being dismissed from the Tyneside club in December despite the team being 11th.

Bilic has been offered the position previously but failed to become the manager after he asked for a sizable transfer kitty that was beyond the club's means. The Croatia coach was a Hammers defender in 1996-97 and is a fan favourite. His lack of experience of club management in England may count against him.

Holloway is arguably the most intriguing option. His success at winning Blackpool promotion via last season's playoffs, and the club's attractive style this season, both achieved on a limited budget, have won him admirers within the West Ham hierarchy.

O'Neill may appear the least likely candidate due to his reported refusal to take over from Grant in January had the latter been sacked. But if O'Neill were given assurances regarding team matters and budget, he could be tempted back into management.

Scott Parker, meanwhile, remains a serious doubt for West Ham's critical game against Blackburn on Saturday as the midfielder continues to require intensive treatment on a long-standing achilles complaint.

The 30-year-old has missed the last three matches and he is understood to be receiving a course of injections in an attempt to see him through the fixture and the campaign's two final games.

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/04/warnock-holloway-west-ham-grant

[eskey8]

Im pretty sure Neil would prefer to be watching his team in the premier league not Wet spam in the championship

[harlowranger]

Cant the papers stop having a go at us a minute , can just see tomorrow headlines
QPR try to sign McCarthy and Quashie for the Prem !

[RoryTheRanger]

Well you know what west spam (yet again back to spam ) , you can't bloody well have him!!!

[harlowranger]

West ham cant have him end of , Hes been absolutely Spamtastic for us this year and West Ham dont deserve him they have friittered points away far to often .

[RoryTheRanger]

ohhhhhhh I like what you did there Harlow

[Macmoish]

Holloway says staying at Blackpool * (subject to his chairman)

Independent

I will not leave Blackpool in the lurch, says Holloway

By Phil Medlicott

Ian Holloway insists he has no intention of walking out on Blackpool to manage another club. The Seasiders have been on a remarkable journey under Holloway, winning promotion to the Premier League for the first time last May and then doing enough this season to be above the relegation zone with three games left to play, albeit on goal difference alone.

It has earned the 48-year-old many admirers and reports have suggested he could be a potential summer target for West Ham United. Holloway has vowed never to repeat the mistake he made in leaving Plymouth Argyle in 2007 for an ill-fated spell at Leicester City, though, and today declared his commitment to Blackpool.

"I had a contract at Plymouth, I walked out on it and I will never do that again," Holloway said. "I've got a contract here for this year and next year and I'm delighted and very proud to be a very small part of a magnificent football club.

"I saw it again the other evening, the statue we have outside now of Jimmy Armfield – this is an amazing club with an amazing history, and I like to feel that I have added to that."

Holloway insists his future at Bloomfield Road will be determined by the Blackpool chairman, Karl Oyston. "I've got a great relationship with my chairman, who will choose when I'm not here anymore," Holloway said. "I wouldn't have signed my contract for the length that I did if I wasn't totally intent on seeing it through."

Asked what would happen if he were to be headhunted by another club, Holloway said: "It would be nothing to do with me – my chairman would have to say 'these people want you, I don't want you anymore and you can go.'

"Football isn't how it used to be, but this football club is and that is what I love about it."

www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/i-will-not-leave-blackpool-in-the-lurch-says-holloway-2279662.html