Effra can’t quite believe the performance of one of England’s forgotten starlets.
After his performances in the last few games, and his topping the Premier League assist table, I owe Carlton Cole a serious apology given my bad-mouthing him after the Sunderland game. A run in the side and a few goals has transformed […]

Effra isn’t going to get too excited about Dean Ashton just yet.
Writing about Dean Ashton makes me nervous. The last time I devoted a column to him, telling everybody that he and Rooney would be England’s strike-force by the summer of 2007, he broke his ankle ten days later and in retrospect the misery that […]

Effra isn’t sure we should all be laughing at Chelsea just yet.
So Roman has sent Jose packing and put an inexperienced crony in charge of a team supposed to win the Champions League twice within six years. Meanwhile Russian vultures are circling around some more London prey, West Ham’s Icelandic owner has flexed his muscles […]

Effra is a little unsure about West Ham’s start to the season.
One dire, one promising, and one frustrating performance has already, it seems, divided West Ham fans about what this season is supposed to be about.
Some seem to think that we should be travelling at mega-speed to Magnusson’s promised land. Even if they are not […]

Effra is glad West Ham picked up some points, but maybe more glad that tabloid vultures are circling Tottenham now.
Three well-earned points has averted what would have been a media-generated, full-scale crisis for West Ham. The smell of last season just won’t go away. The deluded Kevin McCabe seems determined to repeat his untruths […]

Effra does not feel refreshed and relaxed after a rather stressful West Ham summer.
When you feel like you’ve been living through another football season over the summer, the start of the actual season doesn’t feel quite the same. After a summer of listening to whining and lies, waiting for the decisions of arbitration hearings and […]

West Ham may have dodged further punishment, but Effra is not happy.
There’s been a story going on in English football for much of the past two months that has passed everybody but West Ham fans by. A club that got relegated because it did not amass enough points has been trying to get reinstated at […]

Effra is happy with how the midfield is shaping up, but as usual there is still a cloud of uncertainty around the West Ham squad.

Now we know that Parker is coming, Joey Barton mercifully belongs to Newcastle, and Reo-Coker will be inflicting his whining self-pity on Aston Villa or some other club no bigger than […]

Effra has a special message for the friendly Premiership rivals.
Dear West Ham haters,
I know that you would like us to apologise for avoiding relegation and depriving you of the opportunity to wheel out your clichéd sanctimony about justice having been done. Wouldn’t you all have loved it if we had gone down because Tevez missed […]

Effra is sick and tired of hearing the excuses.
Now retaining Premiership status is within touching distance belief has become more painful than ever. Half the history of our club over the past forty years has been about dreams shattered at the last possible moment. We sing about it every week, we have learned that […]