Is that the sound of drumming? Must be the Victory coming.

Melbourne Victory will play its “away” Pre-Season Cup playoff match at Melbourne’s Olympic Park Stadium on Saturday night (7.30pm kickoff) at the request of Wellington Phoenix.

“Our previous two home games this season have been played in front of big crowds in Launceston and Geelong, and we’d expect another big crowd to attend our first competitive match in Melbourne this season. This is a great chance for all our supporters to acquaint themselves with our new recruits Leandro Love, Carlos Hernandez, Ljubo Milicevic, Joseph Keenan, Matthew Kemp and Kaz Patafta."

Is anyone else up for it?

I hate Yoda

This may be off the topic.

I hate Yoda

Let me get this straight, Yoda can detect the slightest change in a person’s character such as fear and anger. But he can’t detect a galaxy wide conspiracy spanning a whole legion of clone troopers, the better part of the republic senate and all of the cinema audience.

Yoda suck you do.

Freddie reveals delight at signing

Freddie Ljungberg admits that the ambition of Eggert Magnusson convinced him to join West Ham United after nine successful years at Arsenal.

The Swedish international captain completed his move from north to east London this afternoon and says that his new Chairman made a big impression during the negotiation stages.

"I am very happy and really looking forward to the challenge," he says. "West Ham United is a great club and the Chairman really wants to go for it.

"I spoke to him at length - he is very easy to talk to, and you can see that he has that fire in his eyes. He wants to take the Club to another level, and hopefully I can help him to do that.

"There are a lot of reasons for making this move and it is hard for me to talk about all of them, but the main thing is that I was convinced by the ambition at West Ham United.

"The Chairman wants me to help build success here in the future, and I am very excited by that challenge. The aim is to get the Club to the top of English football

"I haven't had a chance to train with my new team-mates yet, but I am looking forward to that. There are some fantastic players here and the squad is very strong.

"The Chairman has proved that he isn't scared to move in the transfer market, but West Ham also have a lot of good young players - the Youth Academy here is very famous - and I really can't wait to be a part of things here."

GSE to move on to Greener Pastures?

Club captain Desmond was sighted on Sunday evening in discussions with administrators of the Albert Park Indoor Sports Centre (APISC). Amid rumours of discontent with Action Association (AA) officials, it is believed GSE are considering a switch to the rival league.

The APISC offers a more professional competition structure with official FIFA ® © ™ Futsal rules. Played on a hardwood floor as opposed to the carpet compound of the AA, the most striking difference is the lack of nets. This means more stoppages as balls frequently will be deflected out of bounds. This will undoubtedly help, with GSE's weakness being their fitness. The playing field is also slightly bigger meaning that teams will require 5 players to field a full team. The goalkeeper is also a much more flexible position, with no restrictions on positioning allowing him freedom to roam up the field, Chilavert style. Games require more skill and are generally low scoring as the ability to deflect off nets is gone, and the addition of an extra defender rendering 'Rod-style' or 'Old-School Desmond-style' runs nigh impossible.

Within the team it is believed Ads and Freestyler have signed onto Desmond's ambitious plan, with Chook an unkown at this point in time. The position of Teuma and Jords, aka the "package deal", is also unknown.

Desmond was later spotted playing for the team Benny Hill Unathletic, as a short term loan - Damien Mori/Romario style. BHU won 4-3 with Desmond assisting the opening 2 goals. BHU had a nervy last 10 minutes as they clung to a one goal advantage. Desperate defending, inspired goalkeeping and the crossbar ensured a victory in an at times bitter encounter.

-AAP

Working on weekends

I'm at work and its saturday. Fuck.

Here's a little thing which appropriated off the boys at F365 about Tottscum fans.

Thinking of taking up this trendy new thing they call football-supporting, but not sure what team it would be best to pick?

Perhaps you're a politician anxious to appear in touch with your otherwise slightly-embarrassing grass-roots voters, or you're looking for a way to intimidate the rough crowd down your local squash club.

Whatever the reason, Football365 is here to help. Cast an eye over our handy checklist. If you answer "Vass me, innit guvnah," to five of the ten questions, read on for our cheat sheet, and off you go...

Checklist1. Do you sell 'knock-off' mobiles and nylon holdalls from a market stall, and like to wear gold sovereign rings along with so much hairgel you look like you spent last night on the receiving end of an endless succession of money-shots?
2. Are you looking for a club that, despite its lack of any measurable success, has the misplaced air of superiority usually only seen on shop assistants who work in designer clothing stores?
3. Could you find yourself drawn to a team whose famous fighting spirit leads to their being nicknamed The Lilywhites, after the colour of the flag they run up as soon as the other side score?
4. Would you enjoy smugly insisting that playing football 'the right way' is more important than winning trophies - except when you scrape a Milk Cup final win with a team of Wimbledon cast-offs, led by the dour former manager of your hated local rivals?
5. Are you charmed by a club so desperate to appear successful that it lists the Peace Cup, a pre-season tournament run by Moonies, among its official honours?
6. Do you like the idea of a club with a tradition of stylish football - even if it's based on a throw-away quote and a one-off season, 46 years ago, since which point they've been in a period of transition and rebuilding?
7. Similarly, could you fall in love with a club whose self-proclaimed tradition of free-flowing, stylish football has bequeathed to the world such celebrated names from the pantheon of all-time creative geniuses as Tim Sherwood, Steffen Freund, Stuart Nethercott and Justin Edinburgh?
8. Do you live next door to someone who's far more successful, attractive and popular than you, so that you wake up each morning consumed with bile?
9. Are you hoping for a life of constant fear, knowing that, even if you're 3-0 up with 20 minutes to go and the opposition down to nine men, you'll still be biting your nails because one goal conceded invariably means you'll lose 5-3?
10. Or how about a life based on laughable superstition, such as one that insists, despite ever mounting evidence to the contrary, that your new team always wins a trophy if the year ends in a one?

Hello...The Phone-In Phrases"Hi Alan, essentially I'm ringing to say whatever happened to the good old glory-glory style of the Spurs of old, eh? That up-and-at-'em spirit that swept all before it - I mean I know I wasn't alive to see it, after all I'm only 45, but I'm told by many of my fellow fans that we were really quite something and I jolly well think it's time we got back to that principle. I mean who cares if we lose, I'd rather watch a good game, wouldn't you, after all we're all at the heart of things basically football fans, that is, fans of football..."

"Look Jol's got it all wrong. AGAIN. We need more arty-farty, lightweight types who drift in and out of games and disappear entirely if anyone barges them about a bit. We don't want any of these tough-tackling, workmanlike midfielders because TACKLING'S NOT THE SPURS WAY, right?"

"Hello? I just wanted to say that I think basically this season we miss Carrick. Oh, and Hoddle and Pat Jennings and Danny Blanchflower. And we miss only having to play 15 matches all year. But we were still ROBBED last year, right? It was a conspiracy! We should be in the Champions LEAGUE! We were POISONED by those BASTARDS at the FA who want David Dein and his MATES at Arsenal to...Hello? You still there?"

Get The AccentJust think your way into the head of a Catherine Tate teenager - or one of the Beales out of Eastenders.

You Are The Pundit"Well it was a simple ball really wasn't it Gary, along the ground, right up the middle of the pitch and the Spurs midfield and defence just stood and watched and then Robinson hit the deck like a faulty Weeble and there it was, 4-3, what a comeback, but I mean you have to wonder whether they really care, these Spurs players."

Club HistoryTottenham Hostpur Football Club was formed by renegade artists and poets and philosophers, who thought that their former institutions lacked artistic and creative purity. It was named after Sir Harry Blanchflower Hotspur, a minor character in Shakespeare's Dixon of Dock Green.

How To Fit In With A Single Sentence"Look, if you ask me Jol's just got to go, 'e's taken the team as far as 'e can and 'e's tactically naïve...hang on, have we scored... I've changed my mind, alright - the guy's a genius man - oh WHAT whass 'appened now...oh, you are KIDDING me right JOL has GOT TO GO."

Shit shit shit

New Hammers star ruled out for six months

West Ham United have been rocked by the news that £6.1million signing Julien Faubert will be out of action for six months after rupturing his Achilles tendon.
The 23-year-old French midfielder suffered the injury during Tuesday night's pre-season match against Sigma Olomouc and has flown to Strasbourg to undergo surgery.

Sounds like the Irons have gotten off to the kind of start they did last year with Dean Ashton writing himself off.

Golden Boot Decided

With the somewhat premature end to the season the final results have come in for this seasons golden boot award. This coverted trophy has a long tradition hailing back to the glory days in year 12 of Dynamo Spurs United when cherry picking was a well respected profession. The trophy has essentially been dominated by two players Rod and Desmond. But with one being missing (presumed dead) for most of the season and the other struggling to adapt to the dual responsibility of captain/striker a first time winner of the trophy has been announced.

And the Golden Boot for 2007 Winter Season is:

Chook 25 (3 pen)
Ads 23 (5 freekicks)
Desmond 18 (3 pen)
Jords 14 ( 1 clean sheet)
Tuma 7 (1 pen)
Freestyler 4

Congratulations to Chook (who bares on uncanny resemblance to Mark Noble) on a brilliant season where a 7 goal haul in the penultimate game was enough to see him over the line. Although it must be noted for the record that if you were to exclude all the scummy penalties that Chook and Desmond took then Ads would be a clear winner of the trophy.

See you losers next season.

GSE Out of Finals Race

Gullentry have won the final game of the season 11-9 to allow them to squeeze past GSE by a solitary point.

There is only one man to blame for GSE missing out on finals (besides the Hated One), and that is that f*cking rabbit ref. I want to go to his house and give him an old Chelsea smile (razor blades to the cheeks and a kick to the face).

Once again the monolithic autocracy that is action indoor has thwarted the GSE from becoming champions.

Ditch this bullshit.

Nervous Wait for GSE After Controversial Loss:

Chook (centre) remonstrates fiercely with referee "Rabbit" in contrast to Jords' calmer, more methodical approach. Ads (far left) and Desmond (far right) add their two cents.

GSE has a nervous 24-hour wait ahead of them after crashing to a controversial 6-5 loss to top of the table Ammoss.

The silver lining in the result was the 5 goals scored, and a bonus point despite the loss, a lifeline when the ladder is so close. This means that Gullentry must win AND score 10 goals to qualify for the finals. However, as they say, in football nothing is certain, and readers of the blog will have to wait until approximately 10pm tomorrow night to know if their heroes have made it through.

The game itself was a hard fought and at times, nasty affair. Having beaten Ammoss 17-0 in their previous outing, GSE perhaps entered the game a little overconfident. GSE limped into the game with only 4 available players and no substitutes, whereas Ammoss had a full squad of 7 players, allowing them 3 substitutes. An ominous sign.

Ammoss raced to a 3-0 lead after some slack defending by GSE. However, by half's end GSE had clawed their way back into the match through 3 classic Ads' strikes, to leave it 3-3 at the break.

GSE's lack of fitness told in the second half, with all three outfield players 'hitting the wall', allowing Ammoss back into the game, swinging the momentum back in the league leader's favour. The skill of keeper Jords came to the fore as Ammoss ran rings around a tired GSE defence, stretching their lead to 6-4 with minutes remaining. Ads completed a great game with his and GSE's 5th goal late on - perhaps his most important goal for the team - to make Gullentry's task on Monday night all the more difficult, and keep GSE's dream of a maiden championship alive.

Refereeing, or rather the standard, was the talk of fans after the game. Ammoss employed a brutal brand of tackling across the pitch without punishment from the referee - a young looking chap who resembled a rabbit in the headlights when called upon to make a decision. Within minutes, when through on goals after a gorgeous Desmond through ball, Ads was hacked down by the last man. Any other ref would have brought out a card, red being the more deserving colour, but for "Rabbit", nothing. Chook, the form player in the GSE line-up, was engaged in a running kung-fu battle with the Ammoss player known only as "Hero". This culminated late on in a scene more at home in the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre", where Chook's legs were butchered whilst standing, as he fell to the ground, and then as he shot desperately after winning the ball back. One player remarked after winning a soft free kick after a Desmond tackle that he should "calm down and relax or he'd break his (Desmond's) legs." As if they weren't already trying to.

A certain penalty was denied late on as the referee again waved away the appeals of GSE as in an effort to time waste, the Ammoss keeper held onto the ball for around 15 seconds, more than the 5 allowed.

A formal complaint has been laid with the AA (Action Association) by GSE's lawyers.

Ammoss 6

GSE 5 (Ads 5 goals)

Ladder:

Team Played Pts
Ammoss 13 88
MEAT 12 72
Wrong Bet 12 69
GSE 13 66
----------------------
Gullentry 12 61
Shit Carnts - -

By Popular Request

West Ham are one step closer to becoming the most loathed team in the Premiership after they announced the signing of golfing/karoke (sometime footballer) champion Craig Bellamy.

Signed for 7.5 million quid and on a weekly salary of 70k he must now go down as one of the most expensive arseholes in footballing history.

Some career highlights include:

-sent off for kicking out at an Inter defender

-in March 2004, he threw a chair at then-first-team coach John Carver.

-on 31 January 2005 (transfer deadline day) Bellamy was sent on loan to Celtic of the Scottish Premier League for the remainder of the season. He shunned a move to Birmingham City, texting Souness and chairman Freddy Shepherd 'I am Craig Bellamy and I don't sign for shit football clubs.'

-Craig Bellamy made himself further unwelcome at St James' Park when some abusive text messages were sent from his phone to club captain Alan Shearer after Newcastle's FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester United.

-in February 2007 it was alleged that Bellamy attacked team mate John Arne Riise with a golf club during a team training session in Portugal

-Bellamy was alleged to have assault a 19-year-old girl in a Cardiff nightclub in March 2006, in which he grabbed the girl's throat

Sounds like a well adjusted individual.

Injury drama for Chook

Green Street Elite player Chook's playing position against upcoming match Ammoss is in serious doubt after the defender/striker gashed his left toe.

Chook went off with his toe bandaged after a painting accident in which his left toe (the big one) was cut in 1cm deep.

G.S.E.'s blogspot will later confirm if the injury will prevent him to play against Ammoss and said more details would be released in the following days.

The injury has certainly ruled Chook out of renevation work at his home and national duty for the Socceroos when they take on Iraq this Friday.

GTA IV Character a Ukrainian!?

First Voice Actor for GTA IV Announced

While we've seen some tremendous voice talent in past Grand Theft Auto games, this is still something Rockstar Games tend to not make an emphasis about, or even use it as a way to market their games, as similar game publishers tend to do.

Even so, we have news today about the first voice actor announced for Grand Theft Auto IV. As reported by Esctoday, on the website of the winner of the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, Ruslana, it is indicated that the female singer will be traveling to New York City to record the voice of a certain character in the game, which currently is to be remained secret. In addition to voicing, some of her older and newer songs will be featured on the soundtrack of the game.

While we can't say at this time which character she'll be voicing, it is worth noting that she is Ukrainian, thus giving an indication on what sort of character to possibly expect...

Sheffield Utd suffer their Downfall

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jg5HsG7AN1Y

Round 15: The Baron Von Sheuster Round

Round 15 Matches

1st Ammoss v 4th Green Street Elite Sunday 15 July 8.20pm WACA

3rd Wrong Bet v 6th Pain Train (Grading Team) Monday 16 July 8.20pm WACA

2nd M.E.A.T v 5th Gullentry Monday 16 July 9.30pm GABA


Last Time they met

Ammoss 0-17 Green Street Elite

Wrong Bet 11-5 Pain Train (Grading Team)

M.E.A.T. 12-9 Gullentry

Ladders
Recent Form (Past 5 matches)
G.S.E. 29 (WWWWW)
M.E.A.T. 21 (WLDWW)
Ammoss 18 (LWWWL)
Wrong Bet 17 (WLDLW)
Gullentry 8 (LWLLL)
Pain Train - (-)

Goals Scored
M.E.A.T. 128
Wrong Bet 126
Ammoss 124
G.S.E. 106
Gullentry 100
Pain Train -

Goals Conceeded
Ammoss 86
G.S.E. 86 (Hats off to Jords and Cola)
Wrong Bet 99
M.E.A.T. 105
Gullentry 121
Pain Train -

Current Ladder
Ammoss 83
M.E.A.T 72
Wrong Bet 69
Green Street Elite 65
---------------------------
Gullentry 61
Pain Train -


Post your predictions, starting line-ups, tactics or any other comments in the comments section

Butterscotch Schnapps anybody?

GSE are 3rd.

Having played their 14th game last night and prevailing 10-7 GSE are now sitting in 3rd on 65 points. This means that we are 2 points clear of Wrong Bet and 5 points clear of Gullentry. With Wrong Bet and Gullentry playing tonight this means that Gullentry need to win to stay in finals contention.

I'm going to pre-empt the fact that Desmond will not post an article on the game last night and just update the golden boot chart with Chook scoring 7, Desmond 2 and Ads 1:

Chook 25 (3 pen)
Ads 18 (5 freekicks)
Desmond 18 (3 pen)
Jordan 14 (1 clean sheet)
Tuma 7 (1 pen)
Freestyler 4

It's Chook's to lose now. The man has been on fire with 15 goals in his last 3 games. Maybe we should be drinking butterscotch Schnapps before every game?

Australia Sucked - GSE rocked

Could Australia have sucked anymore than they did last night?

A rudderless display against Oman with a full strength squad was completely embarrassing (I'm talking Saturday night Stephen Conroy is going to send a team of elite ninjas to kill me embarrassing and leaving drunken (yet witty?) messages on people's voice mails). Not because the Omani's were so good, but because Australia was so bad.

These ratings are taken in the form of Championship Manager 01/02 (the king of all manager games). Where even before the game has started a player would have a rating of 6-so if you get less than 6 you would have been better sitting this one out.

Schawrzer - 8
Was the only player who can hold his head high. Made a couple of vital saves to make sure that Oman didn't finish us off. Receeding hair line looked great. It's people like Mark and Arjen Robben who do wonders for the prematurely balding community's self esteem.

Emerton - 4
I hate you. He runs up and down the flank like a horse barging into anything and refusing to cross the ball with his left foot. He gives the ball away too easy and his step overs and cut backs are taken straight from the Desmond school (good enough for Action Indoor and Blackburn Rovers, not good enough for Australia). Caught constantly out of position defensivly and was accordingly punished.

Neill - 6
Servicable. Perhaps a modest rating considering Australia's defensive frailties but looked pretty solid in the centre of defense. He seems to be suffering from a bit of the Rio "Beckenbaur" Ferdinand syndrome where everyone expects him to be playing the ball out of the defensive half as a libero. It didn't work last night and most of his through balls and passes were mopped up by the Omani defense.

Kisnorbo - 6 (But he did go to St Bernard's so maybe 10)
Paddy is the logical first choice as a central defender. He's quick, strong in the air and has a "hold nothing back" mentality that could make him a star for the Aussies. But he just lacks the technical nouse and footballing brain. Caught out of position too often. Stood motionless as an Omani player ghosted in for an unmarked header which let to Schwarzer's best save of the evening.

Wilkshire - 3
If Luke Wilkshire can play for Australia then I'm going to say that it's not to late for me to throw away my calculator and tax books and pull on a green and gold jersey. Guus thinks he's a good player I think he's shit. Just tell me where did this myth that he is any good come from. The only memorable thing he did last summer was trying to decapitate Phillip Cocu and giving Australia a reputation as thugs. He was hopeless last night. Gave the ball away everytime he got it. Did not link up with anyone on the left hand side and hence made everyone who played there from Sterjovski, Bresciano and Kewell look isolated. Replace him with Carney.

Grella - 4
Worst game that I have seen Vince Grella play for Australia. Never one to miss an opportunity to hand possession to the other team he's night was characterised by the fact that he thought he was playing for Torino and that the people in the red shirts were his team mates. Looked like he shat himself everytime the Omani's hit Australia on the counter with a bit of pace. Fossie might say both technical and tactical, Ads says you're more like the hated one...Crap.

Culina - 6
As much as it pains me, I have to say that for someone with the face and head more regularily associated with driving tractors for a living he looked quite good tonight. Assured on the ball everytime he had possession, Australia seemed to have some purpose going forward. He did seem to drift in and out of the game but still one of the few half decent performances.

Sterjovski - 5
Completely annonymous. Not helped out by the bumble twins in the full back positions. Just didn't see enough action and was substituted at the start of the second half.

Bresciano -5
Cut and paste from Sterjovski.

Kewell - 6
See the thing is I know Harry didn't play well but I'm still going to give him a 6. Why? Because, despite his first touch consistently being too heavy and having the turning circle of David Unsworth he still looked like the most likely player to cause Oman any problems. He seemed to get a bit lost in the first half playing as a support striker but looked a lot better when he was peeling off to the left.

Viduka - 5
Now this is the Mark Viduka that everyone remembers. After those two goals against Singapore everyone thought that he had turned the corner after not having scored for Australia in the last 10 years. But no, fat Mark was back to his old self last night. Just because you do a couple of flick ons and back heels which leave Les Murray on the point of climax does not mean you had a good night. Never looked like scoring.

Subs

Cahill - 7
Good scrappy goal. Has to start the next game. He brings so much energy into the midfield. I'd rate the other subs but who really cares? Since neither Archie or Nicky Carle got subbed on I'm not going to do it.

Conclusion:

And now we get to see if all that time we spent blowing shit up in the Middle East with the good old US of A was worth it because we play Iraq next.

Peace out.

Wright move for Hammers

West Ham have confirmed the signing of goalkeeper Richard Wright on a free transfer.
The 29-year-old has moved to Upton Park after leaving Everton at the end of last season and becomes the Hammers' third summer signing.

With Roy Carroll seemingly on his way out of West Ham, Wright has been signed to provide competition for current first-choice keeper Robert Green.

Wright was a member of England's squad at Euro 2000 and has won two international caps.
He was capped while still at Ipswich and, after helping the Tractor Boys qualify for the UEFA Cup in 2001, earned a £6million move to Arsenal.

Wright earned a Premier League winner's medal during his one season at Highbury before moving on to Everton.

After a series of injuries, Wright was squeezed out of the picture at Goodison Park last season following the arrival of Tim Howard from Manchester United.

A club statement said: "Richard will be aiming to get his Premier League career back on track under Alan Curbishley."

I like this move. Wright is still young for a keeper. I reckon a better back up keeper than Roy Carrol or Jimmy Walker. Was decent at Everton for a season until he got injurred and replaced by Neil Sullivan.

Golden Boot-Chook is finger lickin' good

As Desmond cannot (will not) produce more than one post per month it is my duty to update the leader board for the Golden Boot.

The scorer's in GSE's 7-6 win were:

Chook 4
Ads 1
Desmond 1
Tuma 1

This leaves the season scoring charts looking something like this:

Chook 18 (1 pen)
Ads 17 (5 freekicks)
Desmond 16 (3 pen)
Jords 14 (1 clean sheet)
Tuma 7 (1 pen)
Freestyler 4

With 2 games left to go plus a possible finals series the race for Das Boot is wide open.

Desmond hurry up and write the match report

In breaking news Gullentry suffered a 17-3 loss to Ammoss last night. It seems that the Gullentry team have struggled to recover from the stinging 14-4 loss that they had suffered the previous week at the hands of the mighty GSE.

This leaves the GSE just 1 point out of the top 4 with two games to go.

Poland 1 - Brazil 0

Heroic Poles stun Brazil
A stunning long-range free kick from Grzegorz Krychowiak saw the finals in Canada get off to a thunderous start as European outsiders Poland beat four-time champions Brazil 1-0 on 30 June in the first match at Montreal's cavernous Olympic Stadium.

The Poles were forced to play most of the game with ten men after Krzysztof Krol was sent off in minute 27 for a second yellow card, but their corker of a goal in minute 23rd held up to the end as the red-clad dark horses slammed the door on the sumptuous South Americans with a spirited and lively display of direct, enterprising football.

After one match, the formbook in Group D can be thrown out the window as Poland lead the standings with three points, and Brazil - the champions of romantic football - sit stranded in the cellar with questions to ask.

Frenchman Faubert signs for the Irons

West Ham tonight announced the £6.1million signing of Julien Faubert from Bordeaux.
The 23-year-old France midfielder has penned a five-year contract at Upton Park, becoming manager Alan Curbishley's second summer capture following the arrival of Scott Parker from Newcastle.

The Hammers fought off competition from Rangers, who are thought to have offered in the region of £4.5million for the player.

Hammers chairman Eggert Magnusson told the club's official website: 'I am delighted to welcome Julien to Upton Park and feel sure that he will become a very successful signing for the club. '

'He is one of the most highly-rated young players in European football and many clubs were attempting to sign him, so we are very pleased that he has decided to join West Ham United.
'I have been very impressed by his desire and ambition and I think he will be very popular among our supporters.'

Bordeaux's new coach Laurent Blanc had wanted to keep the midfielder but president Jean-Louis Triaud earlier revealed he had accepted West Ham's bid.

Faubert's capture is something of a coup for the Hammers, with the player one of the hottest properties in French football.

It will help ease the pain on missing out on Darren Bent, who recently snubbed West Ham for Tottenham despite being offered better terms at Upton Park.

Faubert began his professional career at Cannes before joining Bordeaux three years ago.
He helped the club finish runners up in the French championship in 2006, qualifying them for last season's Champions League.

Faubert's France debut came against Bosnia in August, and he marked the occasion with the winner in a 2-1 victory.

He was the first player to wear Les Bleus' number 10 shirt since the retirement of the legendary Zinedine Zidane.

As well as West Ham and Rangers, Roma were believed to be interested in acquiring the player.
However, how much Faubert wanted to join West Ham is open to debate, with the player going on strike earlier this week in a bid to force Bordeaux to sell him to Rangers.

His agent Philippe Sol said: 'Julien was given an ultimatum by Bordeaux: West Ham or nowhere.'

'He wanted to go to Rangers and had given them his word. Everything he did last week was about moving to Rangers and he wasn't looking to line up a move anywhere else.

'But there is nothing he could do about the transfer fee and you can understand why Bordeaux wanted to accept the offer from West Ham.'