West Ham United

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West Ham United have endured a nightmare season when it comes to strikers.

Simone Zaza looks set to return to Juventus, having not scored a goal, per the Guardian, Andre Ayew's injury has ruined his move to the capital, and Jonathan Calleri has done nothing but miss sitters.

But Andy Carroll is finally returning to fitness. In the video above, Bleacher Report details just how important he can be to the team when fit and able to play.

West Ham United forward Andy Carroll was threatened at gunpoint after finishing training on Wednesday before returning to the team’s Rush Green base for safety.

That’s according to Sky Sports News HQ, which quoted a statement from the club noting one of its players had been involved in an incident. "West Ham United can confirm an incident targeting one of our players on Wednesday November 2," it read. "The matter is now being handled by the police."

Simon Jones of the Daily Mail added further details, suggesting that Carroll was halted by two pursuers on motorcycles, one of whom was holding a firearm. The 27-year-old is then said to have driven at speed back to the club's training complex; on arrival, it's stated he abandoned his vehicle and dashed inside.

According to a source referenced by Jones, the England international forward collided with other vehicles as he sought to escape the men in his Mercedes G-Wagon. His pursuers failed to keep pace with him, it’s reported, as Carroll went back to the training ground and assistance from the club’s security staff.

Another source quoted in the piece said Carroll was "shaken and stunned" by the affair. The former Newcastle United and Liverpool man was reportedly recovering from the ordeal at home on Wednesday evening.

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has praised the conduct of his player in the face of danger. "He was probably targeted," the Croatian said, per Paul Vinnell of Sky Sports. "I don't think it was a coincidence, and he was chased for a long time. He was very brave and came back to the training ground. Thankfully he is good and not in shock. He acted in a brave manner."

A statement from police on Wednesday night revealed they were investigating an incident of this nature. "The two men threatened the driver," it read (h/t Jones). "The motorcyclists attempted to block the car as the driver sought to get away. The suspects rode off prior to the arrival of police. There has been no arrest."

On the field, it’s been a frustrating time for Carroll. Injuries have limited him to a solitary Premier League appearance in 2016-17, and according to Jones, he will not be fit to play a part on Saturday as West Ham host Stoke City at London Stadium.

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has criticised the "unacceptable" behaviour of some fans during his side's EFL Cup match with Chelsea on Wednesday. 

The Hammers won the game at the London Stadium 2-1, but the victory was marred by violent scenes in the stands.

Bilic, per BBC Sport, said: "We are totally against it as a club, as a team. For those kind of things to happen, especially in England, is unacceptable."

Bilic's side defeated their much-changed opponents to reach the quarter-finals of the competition, where they will face Manchester United.

But events in the stands turned ugly towards the end of the game, despite a heavy police presence. Police made seven arrests.

As filmed by James Olley of the London Evening Standard, objects appeared to be thrown across at rival fans as tensions flared:

In the run-up to the match, extra police were drafted in and security measures were beefed up in a bid to combat potential flash points.

However, with the fourth-round encounter coming to its climax, those plans proved insufficient to prevent trouble flaring.

The disturbing scenes were described by BBC Radio 5 live commentator Jonathan Overend, who said:

This has been brewing all night.

It's been hard to watch the match because of the flash points developing. The stewards have got a tough job here. Fans are trying to burst at each other.

They've been hurling missiles at each other. It looks like plastic bottles and I've seen what looks like three or four plastic seats being thrown.

After the match, West Ham released a statement following the violence. As noted by Jack Pitt-Brooke for The Independent, the club said life bans would be handed out to those involved:

West Ham United and London Stadium partners unreservedly condemn the behaviour of individuals involved in incidents during this evening's fixture with Chelsea.

[...]

Once identified, those found to have acted improperly will be banned from attending any West Ham United fixtures for life and we will request the courts serve banning orders to prevent these individuals attending any other football.

The scenes overshadowed a promising display by the home side, who went through thanks to goals from Cheikhou Kouyate and Edimilson Fernandes.

Gary Cahill grabbed a consolation for Chelsea deep into injury time.

Victory continued a good week for Bilic's side, who have won their last two matches in the Premier League and are now unbeaten in four.

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West Ham United have the worst defensive record in the Premier League this season, and they're already looking to the January transfer window to try to put things right.

In the video above, Bleacher Report Insider Dean Jones reveals Sunderland's Lamine Kone is on the club's radar, while Hammers manager Slaven Bilic is also after Cardiff City's Sean Morrison, and a move could spell the end for academy star Reece Oxford.

There was a time not too long ago when only the anoraks and the insiders could claim to know much about the future stars of the game. But between the proliferation of TV coverage and the rise of social media, this has changed completely.

So even though he has yet to make an appearance in the Premier League, West Ham United winger Martin Samuelsen, currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers, already has a small but enthusiastic fanbase. Because while online showreels are notoriously unreliable indicators of talent, the 19-year-old undeniably has something—a kind of natural grace and swagger on the ball that all football fans love.

"When I was a kid, the most important thing for me was to win games," Samuelsen told Bleacher Report. "And I found that the easiest way for us to win games was for me to just get the ball and score goals myself. So I did that more and more, got better at it and started learning different kinds of dribbles."

It has become quite common in football parlance to describe players such as Samuelsen, those with polished technique and a range of skills, as having "natural ability" or "natural talent." The use of the word "natural" implies his qualities were somehow bestowed upon him by the universe—that he is simply the grateful winner of some kind of genetic lottery. But behind every swerve and each cutback lies innumerable hours of meticulous practice.

From the age of seven, Samuelsen practiced a number of skills and dribbles in a systematic, targeted way. Together with his father, he developed a system: His father would show him video clips of specific skills, and they would give each dribble a name and put them all into a spreadsheet. They then devised a scale from one to 10 on which to mark the youngster’s familiarity with that particular dribble.

Level 1 was simply knowing the dribble; Level 10 was mastering it to the point it could be used in matches with a success rate of 80 per cent or higher. The goal was to reach 10 with all the moves in the spreadsheet. "My father helped me," Samuelsen said. "It was nice to have a system, to see the progress. But it was my father who was the brains of the operation."

His father, Frode Samuelsen, told Bleacher Report he saw early on that his son had something: "First of all, he’s a quick learner. And he has a very competitive nature, so he is motivated by improvement. That motivation has always been strong, and he has always sought to learn things.

"He never stops until he has fully mastered the thing he’s trying to learn. He’s honest with himself. A lot of people convince themselves that they’ve mastered something and that they don’t need to practice any more, but Martin never stops. That mentality is important."

With his son eager to learn, Frode helped Martin devise the system so that he would get the greatest possible benefit from all the hours spent with the ball.

"I think what we got right was that we started working on technical drills at a very early stage, and we added enough of those so that they addressed all the various motor skills that are important at the age he was at," Frode explained.

"It’s a cliche, but there is such a thing as the golden age for motor-skill development. It starts early and it ends at around 12 years of age. So it’s important to spend a lot of time on these things at that age.

"Also, when we created the scale of one to 10 and used that both during training and during games, I think we got it right in the sense that we used the technical elements right up to the point where they become productive. We didn’t just work on technical details in isolation; the goal was always to utilize them in matches."

In addition to spending hours training on his own almost every day, Samuelsen spent his time between the ages of seven and 12 playing for more than one team; he’d train and play with his own age group, but he’d also train and play with the age group above him. He visited several clubs around Europe, including Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

In short, he played an extraordinary amount of football. And he remained passionate about improving and passionate about the type of player he wanted to be.

There’s no real tradition in Norway for developing great dribblers. For a country of just five million people, Norway has made a reasonable impact in global football over the years—but aside from a handful of notable centre-forwards, the Norwegians who leave the country and do well in bigger leagues tend to be rugged defenders, reliable full-backs or hardworking midfielders.

There is a reason for that. Generally speaking, young players in Norway who try something flashy in training are usually told, in no uncertain terms, to stop it. But according to his father, the young Samuelsen found a rather effective way around that problem.

"What Martin did was that he managed to make himself somewhat untouchable," Frode said. "You can’t really criticise a young player for his style of play when he is scoring 200 to 300 goals a year.

"A lot of kids will see a skill on YouTube, practice it a couple of times on their own and then try it in training or in a game—and then their coach will tell them to stop that nonsense.

"And maybe the coach will be right, maybe the coach can see they’re nowhere near good enough to actually do this skill. But with Martin, he’s always taken it step by step. He’s made sure he doesn’t use a skill in training or in games until he knows he can do it nine out of 10 times. So he didn’t give the coaches a chance to tell him to stop.

"This worked for him up to a certain point, but then you get to a level of football where there are fewer and fewer opportunities to try these skills during matches—and that’s when you have to be tough mentally."

Looking at modern football at the highest level, it can seem as if the art of dribbling is in decline. Academies around Europe are churning out a steady supply of nifty playmakers who excel at quick passing and play one- and two-touch football. The point of transition has increasingly become the main focus of modern football tactics. Counter-attacking teams want to find the quickest and most direct route forward, to which dribbling isn’t always conducive.

Possession-oriented teams fear losing the ball more than anything, so attempting to dribble past an opponent can end up being seen as an excessively risky pursuit. And most of all, with more money, more scrutiny and more pressure involved than ever before, there is an overwhelming fear of making mistakes running through football. This is not an easy time to be the kind of player Samuelsen has worked his entire life to become.

"My experience, having spent time at academies all around Europe, is that the higher the prestige of the academy, the lower the tolerance for mistakes," Frode said. "Players are effectively stripped of their skills in training. There’s no training on your own time because the clubs want to control everything and make sure players don’t train too much. So you deprive the players of the possibility of training alone, which is important in terms of developing certain skills."

Frode believes players are being stripped of the chance to develop, with too much focus on safe passes and not enough on being bold and creative: "Some clubs might be making progress, but I feel this is a culture that’s permeated most of the player-development communities today. There’s not enough risk. People forget that it’s meant to be about development."

Even the players who do attempt dribbles these days also try to play it safe.

Former England international Chris Waddle, a man who knows a thing or two about dribbling, bemoaned this development during his appearance on Graham Hunter’s Big Interview podcast last year:

The art of beating people is about how close you get to the man. I watch players today running with the ball, when they get within five yards of the full-back, or whoever they’re playing against, and they start doing stepovers.

But the guy is five yards away. You’re never going to beat a guy who's five yards away. The object of beating a man is getting as close as you can, within a yard, because that’s where either you’re going to go one way or the other, or he’s going to nick the ball off you.

It is safer, naturally, to keep your distance—because if the defender doesn’t fall for your feint, you will still have enough space to retain control of the ball or play a quick supporting pass. Samuelsen is trying to do it Waddle’s way.

One person who has noticed that is former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, who was deeply impressed with the teenager following his performance against West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup during his loan spell at Peterborough United last season.

"He’s confident on the ball, travels with it really [well] and could transfer from left to right foot with ease," Keown wrote in the Daily Mail. "He ran with real quality. ... Sometimes he looked like he was about to lose possession because often he shows the ball to his opponent, but he quickly transfers it and whips it away. I was very impressed."

But there is, of course, risk. And for a young player who is trying to make a name for himself at the top level, you only have to be dispossessed a handful of times before coaches and managers become anxious.

There is also the issue of being productive. "That’s the eternal battle for the type of player Martin is," Frode said. "If you dribble four guys but put your shot wide four times in a row, then you’re just a guy who dribbles too much. You have to be extremely effective."

The psychology of football can be strange. It is somehow worse to miss a shot following a successful dribbling raid than it is to just miss a chance. It is similarly worse to lose possession having attempted a dribble rather than lose possession after a bad touch. To many coaches, managers and pundits, this is the difference between a greedy player and one who simply missed a shot or had an unlucky touch.

But there are also great rewards to playing in this way. Football is, after all, not just about winning at all costs. It is those who are prepared to take on these risks who make football such a popular sport. And whether he succeeds at the highest level or not, Samuelsen is determined to be this type of player.

During his loan spell at Peterborough and following his brief debut for Norway in June, there has been an overwhelmingly positive reaction from football fans. "That’s been a huge motivation over the last year, when he’s been playing games," Frode said. "He’s had a great response from West Ham fans, from Peterborough fans and then from Norwegians.

"It just confirms to him that he’s done the right thing in staying true to himself and the type of player he is. Football, after all, is an entertainment business. So having that feeling that you’re entertaining the people watching is important."

Samuelsen himself is reasonably happy with how things went last season. "I knew that I could play well if I got a chance," he said. "I think I had a good season last year, and I hope to do even better this time around."

You get the sense Samuelsen won't be away from West Ham for too long. In spite of all the billions spent by clubs in the Premier League, there have been a number of unheralded youngsters who have taken their chance and established themselves as regulars in the English top flight over the last few years.

If he gets his chance, you wouldn’t want to bet against Samuelsen becoming the next one.

All quotes were gathered firsthand unless otherwise stated.

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West Ham United arrested their slump (to an extent) on Saturday with a creditable 1-1 draw vs. Middlesbrough in the Premier League. They earned a point thanks to a dizzying, stupefying solo goal from Dimitri Payet.

Should the Hammers' form continue in this manner, they've no hope of keeping their star man, so what are his options should he decide to leave?

In an extract from B/R's Sunday Premier League six-pointer on Facebook Live, Dean Jones and Rhys James debate where his next destination should be.

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West Ham have endured a horrendous start to the 2016-17 campaign, with poor results, bad defending and crowd fighting the hallmarks of their season so far.

In the video above, we turn to the statistics in order to work out whether the Hammers should be hitting the panic button at this early stage.

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The Premier League season is only a few matches old, but Slaven Bilic's West Ham future is already in question.

In the video above, Bleacher Report Insider Dean Jones reveals that the club's poor start has them worried about Dimitri Payet's future and that they wouldn't rule out parting company with Bilic if it means keeping the Frenchman at the club.

Simone Zaza's spell with Juventus didn't last long, as the powerful forward completed a move to West Ham United on Sunday just one season after joining the Bianconeri.

West Ham announced the details of the transfer: 

The 25-year-old forward joins the Hammers for an initial €5m loan fee, with a permanent fee of €20m automatically triggered after a certain number of Premier League appearances this season, plus a further €3m in contingent payments.

The latest arrival takes the Club's spending to more than £60m this summer, with Zaza becoming West Ham’s eleventh signing of a busy transfer window.

The Hammers also provided a statement from Zaza following the move:

I want to thank everyone for welcoming me including the fans and everyone at the Club. I wanted to start a new experience and I feel this is the right choice for me.

I have been fortunate enough to have already played at the new Stadium with a different shirt. It is a beautiful stadium and I felt the warmth of the fans and this was a big reason why I wanted to join the Club.

I want to become a better player and I know I can do that at West Ham. Unfortunately we could not qualify for the Europa League, but I am hoping I can help the Club do that next season.

Zaza joined Juventus from Sassuolo during the summer of 2015, having previously been owned by both clubs under Italy's co-ownership rules, but he was never expected to play a big role in Turin.

The Italian champions lost Carlos Tevez to Boca Juniors last year but restocked their attack with Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala. Alvaro Morata was also still with the club, creating quite the logjam up top, and while the Spaniard has returned to Real Madrid since then, Gonzalo Higuain was brought into the fold.

Zaza impressed in limited action, most notably when he scored a brace against rivals Torino and the winner against Napoli, but Mandzukic and Dybala enjoyed superior campaigns, and the addition of Higuain left the Italy international as the odd man out.

Here's a look at some of his highlights from last season:

The 25-year-old impressed with Sassuolo during the 2014-15 campaign, scoring 11 goals in 29 Serie A starts, per WhoScored.com. He notched five in the 2015-16 season.

Zaza will provide the Hammers with a powerful, physical forward who excels at playing with his back to goal, holding up the ball and creating space for others. He has always impressed with his work rate and his ability to put pressure on defenders, and he's surprisingly mobile for someone who's 6'1".

With the likes of Dimitri Payet, Sofiane Feghouli and Andre Ayew around him, Zaza will have plenty of ammunition in the final third.

He's a great striker who will improve his new team and could prove to be one of the steals of the summer transfer window.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat and, as West Ham United have shown, more than one route from the obscurity of the Championship to the cusp of heavyweight status.

If it’s true that there are no favours in Premier League football, then West Ham have pulled off one heck of a coup, landing a lush new home for a song just in time to start banking their share of the mega-millions flooding England’s way this season in television riches.

Those numbers, for clarity; the Hammers have already begun receiving their share of income from the Premier League’s £10.1 billion global media deal set to cover the next three seasons, while the newly renamed London Stadium—despite costing £701 million to erect—has set the club back no more than an upfront fee of £15 million and an annual £2.5 million rent.

To put that into context, the Emirates Stadium cost neighbours Arsenal £390 million, 100 per cent of which was funded by the club at a time when Premier League rights went for a piffling £1.7 billion.

Yes, West Ham have been shrewd about their business.

Arsenal were severely hamstrung by the process of paying off their vast investment in the Emirates project, but the club’s most recent published accounts are a clear indicator of how a few seasons of austerity have bolstered their spending power in the long term, even though the management have chosen to remain prudent about how to execute it.

The new ground upped Arsenal’s home capacity by more than 22,000, and 10 years later, the club have cash reserves of £250 million, the highest in world football, per the Swiss Ramble (h/t Metro).

West Ham, on the other hand, have seen their capacity increased by 25,000 from the cosy days of the Boleyn Ground. And with no debts to service or building work to finance, the rewards will be reaped not in five or 10 years, but now—beginning this season with what must surely be an ambition to reach the UEFA Champions League.

Add to the mix a daring, dashing young manager radiating charisma and everything is in place for West Ham to wrestle their way to superpower status, both at home and abroad.

The 2015/16 season was an enigma for the Hammers. The pre-amble and early weeks were accompanied by a nagging fear of the unthinkable, of how severe the consequences might be if the club were to be relegated at the worst possible moment on the eve of the move.

Thereafter, and once it became clear that manager Slaven Bilic had got his ducks in order and was building a team with some bite, a kind of nostalgic melancholy took over the campaign.

As the final games at the Boleyn Ground were ticked off one by one, the club sometimes felt like it had got itself stuck, not quite in the present and not quite in the past, and their limbo status between homes seemingly distracted from what the team’s good work should have made for a processional parade toward the old ground’s final few days.

West Ham had a chance to storm the Champions League places in the last few weeks of the season and, whether through distraction, inexperience or a combination of both, they blew it.

Between March 19 and April 17 they threw away eight points from winning positions in the final 20 minutes of games, conceding last-minute equalisers at Chelsea and Leicester City, and going six weeks without a win in the process.

Those points alone would have been enough to see them finish third. Even in the final days of the season they had a chance to make amends and claim fourth as Manchester United and Manchester City faltered, but in their penultimate game at Upton Park they were thrashed 4-1 by Swansea City and the chance was lost.

But the club mustn’t see what happened last season as an opportunity spurned, rather as a foundation laid. The squad was strong last term, and it is strong again this term.

Fleet-footed Sofiane Feghouli and Andre Ayew aren’t stellar signings, but they will offer more of the same skill and chic going forward, as well as that often elusive attribute for sides competing on the domestic and European front—strength in depth.

Dimitri Payet’s summer of love at Euro 2016 in France will hardly have made him any less of a world-beater, and Manuel Lanzini, despite some scintillating flashes last season, remains a coiled spring; there is more to come from the Argentinian.

Bilic too, for all his plaudits, feels like a manager still learning the ropes, albeit with unquestioned success so far.

This is a young man in managerial terms, still only 47, but a robust coach who has learned his trade through hard knocks as much as headline victories.

Bilic is the kind of manager who will have absorbed more from his Croatia side’s 5-1 defeat to England at Wembley in 2009 than from the stunning 3-2 win on the same ground two years before.

Remember as well the injury-time heartbreak as Croatia were knocked out of Euro 2008 by Turkey at the quarter-final stage; feel sure that Bilic has, and plenty more besides.

The challenge will be different next season. Playing in front of 35,000 spectators in an old-fashioned, four-sided English ground is not the same as running out to 60,000 at the Olympic London Stadium, but Bilic’s team can use this to their advantage.

All the talk when a club upgrades a stadium is usually of increased financial muscle, but West Ham have just invested in 25,000 extra voices on matchdays.

Elsewhere in the Premier League this has arguably had a countering effect, but crowds only multiply the mood inside them, which is why Arsenal—in decline since 2005—have ended up with a bear pit of a stadium where frustration and recriminations cloud the air. At buoyant West Ham, this shouldn’t be a problem.

In fact it’s the connection between players and fans, perhaps even more so than the new wealth, that could prove to be the ultimate ace up the sleeve for Bilic.

The Croatian’s predecessor, Sam Allardyce, talked more than once about the way Hammers fans’ expectations were discordant with the realities of the club’s potential. For the supporters, though, they had only ever wanted to see their team playing with ambition and wherever possible with the ball.

It was unfair for Allardyce to be dismissed by fans as the archpragmatist, but his style of play had led to a clear breakdown in communication between the terraces and the dugout.

Bilic’s slick brand of attacking football has brought about a fresh meeting of the minds between the players and the supporters that, once the London Stadium is packed out with 60,000 optimistic Hammers, will whip up a rare kind of intensity.

With 52,000 season tickets sold, West Ham have already gone a long way to ensuring the move won’t end up being the kind of white elephant that their new home nearly became.

It isn’t too broad a contention to say that everything is in place for the club to force their way into the uppermost bracket of English and European football.