West Ham’s Alan Curbishley has claimed that they have accepted an 8 Million Pound bid from Roy Keane’s Sunderland for the services of 23 year old Anton Ferdinand.

The 6 foot centerback has appeared over 135 times for the Hammers in the Premiership and with his refusal to sign a contract extension, West Ham is seemingly forced to make the move now before potentially losing him for free.

The board have accepted the bid - he’s not renegotiated his contract - and the decision was taken out of my hands.

‘I don’t know where Anton is in terms of signing for Sunderland - but once the club accept the bid it moves on.”image via Img 

He just retired from the International scene after Captaining Sweden at the 2008 Euros and Freddie Ljungberg is an even richer man today after accepting a 6 Million Pound payoff from Premiership side West Ham.

While he was due to make 8.84 Million Pound just in salary alone over the next two seasons, an extended settlement came about over conversations with West Ham Chief Executive Scott Duxbury after Head Coach Alan Curbishley informed the Swede he’d never play again for the Hammers.

image via Njmg

It’s been awhile since West Ham’s Carlton Cole has worn the Young Lion shirt, 2005 to be exact and that was where he scored 6 times in 19 matches.

Now Nigerian Head Coach Shaibu Amodu has called on Cole to join up with the Super Eagles ahead of their preparations for the last World Cup Qualifying phases in early 2009 with matches against South Africa September 6th and and against Sierra Leone on October 11th.

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Kosovo born - Switzerland representing Valon Behrami has made the move to the Premiership after Lazio accepted a 5 Million Pound move to West Ham for the 23 year old.

A player with an amazing engine that gets up and down the flank, Behrami was a consistent figure on the right side for Lazio either at right mid or as an overlapping right back and that’s exactly what Alan Curbishley forsees at Upton Park.

Behrami started and played every minute in Switzerland’s 2008 Euro campaign and has signed a 5 year deal with the East London based club.  And don’t forget, he’s got Champions League experience that can hopefully help a squad that finished 10th last season in the 2007/08 Premiership table.

image via Accel23

UPDATE - The Columbus Crew issued the following statement regarding an altercation that took place at Crew Stadium during halftime of Sunday’s exhibition between West Ham United and the Crew which has been exaggerated in at least one news report:

“While a skirmish among a very small group of West Ham and Crew supporters did occur on Sunday, media reports referring to it as a “brawl” or “fights” are gross mischaracterizations. The incident was initiated by the actions of three West Ham supporters who entered the Crew supporters section at halftime. Crew Stadium security intervened and immediately began to escort those West Ham supporters to the concourse, at which time several Crew supporters became involved. On the concourse, Columbus Police quickly assumed control of the situation and made one arrest. Three other attendees were ejected by stadium security at that time. Supporters of both clubs were gathered on the concourse during the altercation, but nearly all of them were bystanders or onlookers and not active participants. Order was restored within minutes, prior to the beginning of the second half of play. Although it was a minor incident, the reputation of our organization and our fans is extremely important to us and as soccer’s popularity continues to grow, we will continue to make every effort to ensure that our fans have a safe and enjoyable experience when they visit Crew Stadium.”

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Stevie Nicol’s starting XI has been set for MLS’ match-up against West Ham United on July 24th at BMO Field in Toronto.

The usual suspects have been named and a few surprises as well.

2008 MLS All-Star First XI

Goalkeeper: Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders: Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution)

Midfielders: David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago Fire), Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

Forwards: Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Nicol and his staff will still have the ability to add 5 more players to the game day roster, while the Commish has his 2 picks and all are expected to name names later this week (and trust me, they already know who they are).

image via Images

I have always wondered how in the world MLS was going to follow up Chelsea vs the MLS All-Star team back in 2006, but lasts years Glasgow Celtic was a good start.

The 2008 edition of the All-Star game is being held up in Toronto (deservedly so after the amazing support they’ve received - well done sons!), but by having West Ham come to play you have to wonder if this game will see similar results to what we saw when Carlos Bocanegra led Fulham FC played at Columbus Crew stadium.

I hate to ask the question, but does field turf have anything to do with top-tier teams not booking the biggest game of the year for Major League Soccer?

image via Rapnix