West Ham United have departed in good spirits for the Barclays Asia Trophy in China with the travelling party on a high after a successful pre-season training camp.
The club is sending a 23-man squad to Beijing, although the players will wear numbers 1-24 because there is no No6 after it was retired in honour of Bobby Moore. The players met up at the Boleyn Ground after a couple of days with their families following their return from Austria. Although he made good progress during the last two weeks, Valon Behrami will stay behind to work on his individual fitness programme along with Dean Ashton and Terry Dixon.
Luis Jimenez - known as Jimmy to his new team-mates - will be on the plane as will Jonathan Spector, James Tomkins and Mark Noble who are a week or so behind the rest of the squad in terms of fitness after returning later. Scott Parker is another who has only just returned to match action in recent days. Jordan Spence and Bondz 'Gala are the only two travelling without first-team experience for the club.
West Ham will train for the first time in Monday, and again on Tuesday before the match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Beijing Workers Stadium on Wednesday (kick-off: 11am London time). The winners of that fixture will play the victors of the meeting of Hull City and Beijng Guoan on Friday. In between, there will be a community day with the club playing a key role in the Premier League initiatives with local youngsters.
Luis Boa Morte summed up the positive mood in the camp before the high-profile trip. He said: "I am looking forward to China, it will be a good experience. I have never been before. It is something new and a different country. I like Chinese food a lot so it should be good!
"It will be good to meet a Premier League team like Tottenham this early. You like to play against strong opponents to improve as a player. Tottenham will be a derby and we know them well but this time it will be a few miles away from the UK. It will still be a game that will be pretty hard though. They won't want to get beat and we won't want to get beat."
The squad will wear the 2009/10 home shirt for the first time with the strip available in the club shops and the online Megastore from Thursday. Fans travelling should take note of the following advice available from the Premier League. For a travel guide, click here and for information about the Workers Stadium, click here
West Ham United squad
Goalkeepers: Green, Kurucz, Stech
Defenders: Spector, Faubert, Ilunga, Spence, 'Gala, Upson, Collins, Gabbidon, Tomkins
Midfielders: Stanislas, Noble, Parker, Dyer, Jimenez, Collison, Payne, Boa Morte
Forwards: Cole, Hines, Savio