According to Carlton Cole, West Ham United have gone from diabolical to dynamite in four months. Regarded as relegation candidates for most of the season, they have confounded the experts recently by winning five of their past seven matches and are targeting a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
The striker’s first assessment, made after a 3-0 defeat away to Liverpool in November, landed him in hot water with Avram Grant, his manager. The reappraisal came after that seven-match run, in which the team have scored 20 goals and avenged their Anfield defeat with a 3-1 win over Liverpool.
The acquisitions of Demba Ba and Thomas Hitzlsperger have been hugely significant, but Cole believes that the players have also benefited from some old-fashioned team bonding. In preparation for tomorrow’s quarter-final away to Stoke City, the squad spent three days in Portugal last week, playing golf and table tennis. Last month, go-karting and clay-pigeon shooting were on the agenda.
“To get away for team bonding is very important and since our days out we had, we have turned up for our games,” Cole said. “You can’t deny that you can see the difference. The whole aura around the training ground is brilliant now. Even if you’re not selected you still have a part to play and have to recognise that.”
Cole disputes that he issued a direct challenge to the authority of Grant when he questioned the team’s tactics and ability to create chances after the defeat at Anfield.
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At the time, West Ham had scored 11 goals in 14 league games. They have plundered 25 in 15 league games since. “Our performance [at Anfield] was diabolical, but we have come a long way,” he said. “I was just stating the obvious, but I’ve never had any differences with the manager.”
West Ham have yet to taste defeat in three meetings with Stoke this season. They picked up an overdue first point of the campaign in their fifth match — a 1-1 draw at the Britannia Stadium in September. The next month they won 3-1 at Upton Park in the Carling Cup and last Saturday they were 3-0 winners in the return league fixture.
“They are very powerful with their height,” Cole said. “Some 65 per cent of their goals are from set-pieces, so we are really focusing on that. If we keep a clean sheet, we’ll score.
“This time around the manager knows what he’s doing. He’s got the team sussed. He knows certain players are best for certain games. Every player that gets taken out or put in will do the job for the manager.
“The boys are playing for the manager now and that’s the main thing. Whatever team he selects, we’ll push for the semi-final. Hopefully we’ll put in a good shift and come away with a result.”
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Stoke have not appeared in a leading final at Wembley since 1972, when they won the League Cup by beating Chelsea 2-1. Tony Pulis is adamant that securing top-flight status for two successive seasons is his proudest achievement, but the manager harbours hopes of taking the team to Wembley.
“It would mean a lot to the area and to the supporters,” he said. “The way the world is spun is that we have a lot of players who don’t understand the tradition, and that might be why they are so blasé about it.”
Pulis hopes that Kenwyne Jones rediscovers his form after just one goal in 17 appearances. “What people forget is that he has been through a bad experience off the pitch [a divorce] and that has affected him,” Pulis said. “I don’t care who scores, but we’d be delighted if Kenwyne did.”