Hello everyone,
I am extremely proud to announce and have to admit that I am blown away that tickets for my Testimonial has now sold out – that is something special.
When we first announced it I thought I would be lucky to get 20,000 with the amount of money that the fans have to spend during a season, but when I think about the support that our fans show, nothing surprises me.
I am grateful and humbled by it and I just want to make the day special for everybody.
I have got some great names playing and can announce that Gianfranco Zola wants to play some part! He called me and I was over the moon to speak with him. He asked about the Testimonial and I said I would love him to be there.
I have also spoken to Glen Johnson and Paul Konchesky recently and he wants to play which is great because they were in the Academy.
There are still some Corporate Hospitality packages available from £99 - don't forget we will be raising money for three great charities in the DT38 Foundation, Richard House Children's Hospice and Help for Heroes.
It has been an amazing few weeks for the Club, especially the feeling around the place after our FA Cup victory over Liverpool which was an amazing night for the players, staff and the fans.
We then went to Norwich and went two goals down which was undeserved, but we showed a great reaction to come back into the game and everyone, including the substitutes, played their part.
We then had the FA Cup win at Blackburn last weekend which was another special day for the 7,200 fans who made the long journey to Ewood Park. It felt like a home game for us. We don't want to stop there and want to keep progressing.
The players we have got now and the players who are coming back from injury shows the quality we have got in the squad.
We have now got four of our strikers fit which is phenomenal and everyone is pulling their weight and you are going to need that for the cup run that we are going on and the Premier League.
We need all the players and we have got some real quality here.
The intensity goes up in training because everyone is playing for places in the side. We have also got players coming back from injury who need to get fit and the standard of training this year has been really high – with the squad we have got now it is a little bit special.
We believe as a squad and as a team that we can score goals. We believe in our ability and in our players.
We have got some players who are playing at the top of their game and we just need to make sure they keep enjoying their game and we keep winning.
With the way it has gone this season we have been behind in some games and have come back. The Premier League is a rollercoaster and nothing is guaranteed at all.
We need to keep that belief going and as Julian Dicks has said about the boss, he makes his feelings known when he needs to, but he really believes in his players.
I am looking forward to seeing Big Sam back at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday. I spent four successful years playing under him and we got promoted under him, which was massive for the Club.
He was brought into the Club to get us promoted from the Championship back into the Premier League and he did that. He then stabilised us in the top flight.
I will look forward to seeing Sam, but hopefully only after we have beaten his Sunderland team.
Finally, we are honouring Bobby Moore and our heroes from the Sixties this weekend. As a West Ham fan, an Academy product and being from Canning Town, I always heard stories of what Bobby achieved and what sort of player and man he was.
It’s an honour for me to be following in his footsteps and captaining this great Club of ours.
Come on You Irons!
Nobes