View from a Hammer
This morning we have the seventeenth installment in our series of interviews with opposition fans. This effort has West Ham fan Sean Whetstone, of ClaretAndHugh.info, WestHanTillIDie.com, Moorethanjustapodcast.co.uk & the EPL RoundTable podcast! He's a busy man is Sean...
1. Who are you and what do you do? How did you become attached to your club?
My name is Sean Whetstone and I come from a West Ham family, I watched the likes of child hood heroes Tony Cottee and Frank McAvenie from the south bank terraces in the eighties and have been a season ticket holder for more years then I care to mention. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk now in our fourth season. I am a blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com, a member of West Ham Supporters Advisory Board and the associate editor at a West Ham news site called ClaretandHugh.info among other things.
Q2. What is your favourite memory of a match involving your team and the Swans?
I remember a match in the eighties I went to when we beat the Swans 3-0 in the old Milk Cup at home. Both Tony Cottee and Frank McAvenie scored in the 1985 1st leg clash with Ray Stewart getting the third. We won the 2nd leg too at your place 3-2 with Cottee getting another and Ray Stewart getting two more. There were some of my favourite West Ham players in that team. [I wonder if he remembers Martin Thomas' famous goal versus the Hammers...- Ed].
Q3. Ahead of this season, what are your thoughts on the Swans? Do you think we'll be a better team than last season?
Hard to tell until kick off of the first weekend and the first few games, it is such a tough league with such big financial prizes. Both Swansea and West Ham could go down or could end up in the top ten. I have no problem with the Swans especially now Chico Flores has left the club. Our trip to Wales is like our mini European tour!
Q4. What do you make of our transfer activity thus far? Do you think we need to make any more signings?
I know a little about Bafetimbbi Gomis as he was a West Ham target and looked like he might have a chance in the Premier League, and whether Sigurdsson can re-capture his former glory remains to be seen, I know he was with the Swans before. I don't know a lot about the Arsenal keeper Fabianski you got but Vorm was excellent and will be hard to replace. As for Emnes and others lets see if they can make the step up to the Premier League. I think you have had eight players leave and five come in, so I would expect another two or three players for you to compete for a top ten spot this season.
Q5. Have you visited the Liberty Stadium before? If so, what did you think? Are you planning on visiting this year?
No but I plan to someday, in addition to all the West Ham home games I do the majority of southern away games plus one game north of Watford each season, last year that was Anfield, this year Old Trafford maybe the Liberty next season if you or we survive .
Q6. If you had to pick, who would be your favourite Swansea player? And your least favourite?
I was envious of what Wilfred Bony's scoring record did for you last season, we were offered him for £8m before but turned down the deal in favor of Andy Carroll at £15m [Ha! - Ed]. Least favourite was the cheating Chico Flores but I suppose he is no longer a Swans player any more.
Q7. Which Swansea manager (in the Premier League era - Rodgers, Laudrup or Monk) have you been most impressed with? What do you think of Garry Monk's chances with a full pre-season behind him?
Laudrup impressed me greatly and I once considered him as a future West Ham manager but I was told he has some baggage which I wont go into. Too early to say about Monk. Pre season means nothing. Avram Grant was unbeaten pre season and still got West Ham relegated so the jury is out.
Q8. Finally, at this moment in time how confident would you be if your "first eleven" went up against ours, and how do you think your team will do in general this season?
I like to think we would have a chance of doing the double over you but then again I am a born optimist! We managed a win and a goalless draw against you last season and I would gladly settle for the same again. We will have to see how our seven new signings work out. Overall we have won 25 games, drawn 13 and lost 17 since we first started playing each other in January 1922.
Massive thanks to Sean for taking the time to answer these questions - he'd only just got back from holidays so good effort to him! You can follow him on Twitter @WestHamFootball and make sure to check out the EPLRountable Podcast we both regularly feature on.