By Michael Sinnerton

The shocking scenes at Upton Park last night will have served as a reminder, if one was needed, that the game still has troubles with hooligans and policing must still be a priority. The Sky Sports footage, mainly of West Ham fans is unpleasant viewing and true West Ham fans will have been dismayed and rightly condemn the action.

Nevertheless I think the club should be punished, perhaps with removal from the Carling Cup this year and next year. I know it's unfair to punish the players, the staff and the ‘true' fans of the club but perhaps a penalty on the club's playing fortunes would act as more of a deterrent to this idiotic minority.

There is a train of thought, quite probably an accurate one, that suggests that these ‘fans' would act in the same way if the clubs met again (in the FA Cup later in the year) and that any penalty on the club isn't really a deterrent. But something needs to be done. West Ham could be forced to play games behind closed doors, as has often happened in Italy following crowd trouble.

Until the investigation finished it's too early to condemn Millwall or West Ham completely and the players could be seen making efforts to get the fans off the pitch. Jack Collison, who decided to play despite the death of his father on Sunday, has my particular sympathy.

It's unfortunate for the Hammers that at a time when we should be talking about the progress they are making under Zola and Clarke, and the great football they've been playing with young players that for the next few weeks any pre-game build up will centre on fan behaviour. Let's hope the individuals are identified and banned from football grounds for life.

Geoff Horsfield is leading the Sheffield UTD player's claim for compensation against West Ham.

Geoff Horsfield did not play a single game for Sheffield UTD in the 2006/2007 season.

Geoff Horsfield can fuck off.

What a great week it’s been in the crazy world of football. We’ve had an almighty ruckus at the Emirates, we’ve heard Rory Delap claim that he can play on into his 40s and had everyone from Neil Warnock to Ken Bates wonder how they can get West Ham to pay for their summer holiday. (Yes, I’ll admit maybe scraping the barrel with the Delap story.)

After the out of court settlement reached by West Ham and Sheffield United for a reported £15 million, everybody who’s even seen Bramall Lane has contacted a lawyer to see how they can be part of football’s new, recession-proof gravy train.

Neil Warnock, commonly known as Colin (it’s an anagram, think about it), has claimed that he would still be a Premier League manager if it wasn’t for that nasty Mr. Tevez doing his job, and as such he is thinking of making a claim for loss of earnings. There are two things here, firstly, how somebody who is struggling to manage a Crystal Palace team who are so woefully inconsistent can be so deluded to think he belongs in the Premier League is beyond me, and secondly, my understanding on employment law is that an employee can only sue his former employer for loss of earnings.

There is also a group of around 20 former Sheffield United players who are thinking of suing on similar grounds. This list includes England’s Phil Jagielka. This is the same player who moved to Everton after Utd were relegated, doubling his wages in the process. Michael Tonge is in a similar position, earning Premier League wages with Stoke. I’m also looking forward to Paul Ifil and Claude Davis’ attempts to prove that they are still Premier League quality. Lest we forget poor Chris Morgan, who nearly killed Barnsley’s Iain Hume.

Ken Bates is another one. He believes that his Leeds side would have received add-ons from Sheffield United if Matthew Killgallon, Rob Hulse and Ian Bennet had kept them in the Premier League.  

It is hard to feel any sympathy for anybody in this sorry mess. People trying to make a quick buck seem opportunist, and West Ham get no sympathy because they broke the rules in the first place, even though Hammers fans get to watch Davide Di Michelle and Freddie Sears instead of Tevez.

This is set to rumble on and on, as everybody connected with Sheffield United believe they can make money off a decision which claimed that one player, a player who scored 7 goals all season, none of which came against Sheffield United, single-handedly sent the Yorkshire outfit down.

by Joe Walton

Sheffield United's self-styled 'Campaign for Fairness' has yielded a reported £10 million payout from West Ham, in an out-of-court settlement to finally end the Carlos Tevez affair.

Kevin McCabe, the Sheffield United chairman who's campaign has coincided with Sheffield United breaking the same 3rd party ownership rule as West Ham and seen them try to swindle out of paying compensation to the Barnsley striker Iain Hume after their captain, Chris Morgan, fractured his skull, has avoided a closer inspection of his claim by cashing in on West Ham's current money worries.

The West Ham chairman, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, is currently looking for a buyer for the East End club after losing a vast proportion of his wealth as a result of Iceland's financial crash. In an attempt to make the club a more saleable asset, Gudmundsson has taken the decision to end the long running saga which has haunted the club for over 2 years. The settlement means that a future arbitration date, which was to look carefully at Sheffield United's compensation claim, will not now go ahead. This is a massive boon for McCabe who's claim had been likened by a legal expert to "a dodgy holiday compensation claim."

West Ham were originally ordered to pay compensation to Sheffield United after it was ruled that the club broke 3rd party ownership rules in a contract which stipulated that Tevez would be sold in the January transfer window should a bid of £600,000 be made. Such a bid was never made and thus the clause was never enacted. This didn't stop Sheffield United claiming that Tevez should never have been allowed to play and that his performances kept West Ham up and sent United down. A Premier League arbitration panel ruled that Tevez "without doubt" kept West Ham up, a ruling which was based on Gary Linker's comments on MOTD, Henry Winter's match report of one game and Rick Parry's evidence.

While no 3rd party influence was ever enacted over West Ham, the same cannot be said of Sheffield United. After selling Steve Kabba to Watford, the club entered into a "gentleman's agreement" with the buying club which stopped Kabba playing against Watford in a crucial relegation 6-pointer. Something which Sheffield United have never been punished for.

Although this compensation has come about completely against the logic of the law, and is in my opinion a farce, it will at least save my sanity by finally putting and end to it all.

by Stuart Gillespie

Ever since I attended my first, and until yesterday only, Premier League game, I've been sceptical of the Sky-led 'Best League in the World' hype.

It was Wigan vs Portsmouth at the JJB. The fog was so thick you could barely see the fans in the opposite stand. Chris Kirkland was cheered every time he managed to avoid dropping the ball. Glen Johnson put in one of the worst individual displays I've seen at any level. Only a late Lee McCulloch goal broke the palpable depression at the ground.

Sure, I was unlucky on this occasion, and you do see the odd classic in the Premier League, but I've also seen plenty of crackers following St Johnstone in the Scottish First Division.

And while I admit that there are some sights you just don't get north of the border - Arsenal or Manchester United in full, breathtaking flow, for instance - more often than not Premier League games feature several of the elements said to blight Scottish and lower league football: 11 men behind the ball, route one football, profligacy in front of goal, inept defending, horror tackles and so on.

To borrow a metaphor from Jose Mourinho, the buses that many teams park in front of Big Four goals may be full of players who would walk my team's league, but they're unable to display these talents from their own six-yard box, throwing themselves in front of Cristiano Ronaldo shots.

And when the top teams are pitted together the saliva-inducing aesthetic feasts we are promised rarely occur - often the sides simply cancel each other out.

With all this in mind, I didn't have high expectations for my trip to Upton Park to watch West Ham vs Bolton. 

As it happened, yesterday's match wasn't too bad, though certainly not as good as you'd expect from 'The Best League in the World'.

The atmosphere was fairly decent and Gianfranco Zola has got his team attempting to play passing football. Trouble is, many of his players are simply not good enough to emulate their Arsenal and Manchester United counterparts, and the decidedly stodgy Bolton triumphed without contributing much in the way of attractive football.

The saving grace was a wicked bender of a free kick by Matthew Taylor - fitting, sardonic karma for the witless West Ham fans who had been riffing tritely on matters relating to sexual preference since his introduction as a substitute.

Oh, and Robert Green, like Kirkland, was cheered every time he managed to avoid dropping the ball.

I'll stick to St Johnstone, thanks.