Pretty much everyone is reporting that West Ham are very close to agreeing a deal, reported to be in the region of £7m, with Newcastle United to sign Scott Parker. Tottenham apparently stuck their noses in at the 11th hour, as they are wont to do when any talented English player is involved, but it seems that the Irons will get their man.

West Ham, captained by Bobby Moore, won a storming match 3-2 to lift the Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Their goals were scored by John Sissons, Geoff Hurst and Ron Boyce. At the time Preston’s Howard Kendall (yep, the one who went on to manage Everton) was the youngest player ever to play at an FA Cup Final, aged 17 years 345 days.

Pies begins the countdown to the 2007 FA Cup final with a look at Classic FA Cup Final Moments of yesteryear. We kick off with Steven Gerrard’s cramp-riddled scorcher from last year’s final.

So which team out of Wigan, West Ham and Sheffield Utd do you want to go down? I’d have to say Wigan – non-Latics fans, would you really miss them? They get feeble crowds, play pretty unattractive football (not all the time, I hasten to add) and generally don’t add that much to the Premiership – although I do have a lot of time for Paul Jewell. Wigan fans will obviously think I’m talking shit (they’d be wrong).

If, during a Premiership relegation battle, you look around the dressing room and see any of the following players, ask for a transfer immediately because you’re going down:

West Ham’s players touch their noses – as you do – during a training session yesterday, prior to today’s crucial Premiership clash with Bolton at Upton Park. [Photo: Getty Images]

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan says he may sue West Ham United in the wake of the Tevezcherano incident. The Hammers were fined £5.5m but not deducted points after being accused of acting improperly over the transfers.

Watching Javier Mascherano put in a man-of-the-match performance in a Liverpool shirt last night was a treat (I love Maschy, mostly because he’s so bloody good in Pro Evolution Soccer) but also made me very angry with English football.

Here’s how Pies sees the Premiership relegation battle panning out. Charlton fans, look away now…

Put simply, it was a shit weekend for goals in the Premiership, so I won’t post the top five. There were just two half-decent goals scored, both of which you can watch below…

The H List may not be as updated as regularly as some blogs, but in this case it’s about quality not quantity. West Ham fan ‘HeadHammer Shark’ is a lifelong season ticket-holder at the Boleyn and it shows in his posts, which bear all the hallmarks of a man who has supported an underperforming team for a long time. Anyway, The H List is very well-written indeed and a must-read for any genuine West Ham fan.

It looked like boys against men at Upton Park last night. West Ham’s defeat means they are virtual certs to be relegated, while Chelsea just won’t let Man U relax at the top. This was a very impressive, very powerful performance by the champions, who remind me of the German team in Escape to Victory – loads of power and athleticism, but not much in the way of charisma or personality.

This one’s pretty simple. If West Ham lose, they’re down (not mathematically, but there’s no way I can see them escaping); if Chelsea lose, Man Utd win the title (see above). In other words, it’s a crucial game, or, if you like cliches, a massive six-pointer.

1 Alan Mahon, Watford v Portsmouth Hit with his weaker left foot. Hate to see what he could do with his good foot. Unstoppable.

What a difference a club makes. A few months ago, Javier Mascherano couldn’t get selected for West Ham’s ailing first XI. He was rated behind the likes of Hayden Mullins and Nigel Medi-Ocre. Having watched Mascherano closely during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, this astonished me – the young Argentine was clearly one of [...]

West Ham defender Lucas Neill has complained about the ‘disgusting’ treatment he received on his return to Ewood Park: ‘Five-and-a-half years at the club, 100 per cent commitment, I’ve never gone to the papers, never complained about anything and then, when I want to further myself for my own personal benefit, whether it be backwards, [...]

West Ham United‘s season goes from bad to worse after it was revealed that the police are set to make investigations into the club. Before you start, it won’t be for criminal defending, but something rather more serious. From shambles to shameful, the Hammers season hit a new low on Sunday when large groups of [...]

Why didn’t Paul Konchesky commit a professional foul on Jermain Defoe and stop a likely winning goal for Spurs (see video)? Yes, he would have been sent off, but he would have probably earned a precious point for his club. Gary Neville sure as hell wouldn’t have let Defoe run that far and take a [...]

News reaches us that Premiership chairmen are going to be forced into cutting ‘obscene’ ticket prices because fans have just about had enough of being the victims of daylight robbery every weekend, and as a result, football has reached a tipping point. Two top-flight chairmen have expressed the same view, both of whom predict price [...]

Tomorrow, Charlton Athletic take on West Ham at the Valley. Normally pundits would be foaming about how it’s a ‘crucial six-pointer’ but since there’s a very good chance that both teams will go down whatever the result, that’s taken as read. Anyway, the question is: who do you think is the better manager? Alan Pardew [...]

Alan ‘Last of the Big Spenders’ Curbishley is the first Premiership manager to splash some decent cash on transfer deadline day. Curbs has taken Birmingham City defender Matthew Upson to West Ham for an initial £6 million. The 27-year-old has decided a five-month jaunt in the Premiership is just what he needs before returning to [...]

Lucas Neill has decided on the latter. Despite interest from Barcelona after his impressive World Cup and a contract on the table from Liverpool, Neill has made the distinctly sideways move from Blackburn Rovers to West Ham. The reason? If we are to believe the rumours the Hammers will be paying the Australian international £60,000 [...]

Fans who have experienced the thrill of an away match will know how addictive it is. The trip down, the pre-match pints in a strange pub, being in a strange ground. It’s like a holiday with a football match stuck in the middle of it! However, loads give it a wide berth because they can’t [...]

http://www.4thegame.com/media/00/02/85/benayoun_yossi_whfc_profile_2005.jpg Yossi Benayoun has hit out at West Ham’s performances, highlighting the 6-0 annihilation at Reading. Benayoun, who originally turned down a move to Bolton Wanderers, now 4th in the table said “I am ashamed. I am shocked at the way we played. We played like a bunch of drunks…

With Chelsea‘s Shaun Wright-Phillips the subject of much transfer spectulation (with the most noise coming from West Ham it has to be said), it’s worth watching SWP in action. Not on a football pitch, but in a restaraunt getting stitched up by football’s very own Snoop Dogg, Rio Ferdinand. Brrapp! [Mof Gimmers]