WEST HAM UNITED
theyflysohigh : Steve Marsh
FOOTBALL PROGRAMMES &
Collectables through the Decade
A Pictorial History
1996-97 FA Carling Premiership
The pre-season new signings brought expectancy of an exciting season. Central defender Richard Hall arrived for £1.9 million, a free transfer saw the Portuguese superstar Paulo Futre join from AC Milan and a club record fee of £2.4 million was paid for the Romanian international forward Florin Raducioiu. Unfortunately there were many injuries in the pre-season matches and the early league results were poor. Both Romanian forwards, Dumitrescu and Raducioiu, were finding it difficult to adjust to the demands of the Premier League.
The League Cup brought a 2–1 aggregate victory over Barnet and another signing was made with the acquisition of forward Hugo Porfirio on loan from Sporting Lisbon. Results improved, with league wins over Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers and a 4–1 home win in the League Cup against Nottingham Forest. Dicks and Bilic were superb at the heart of the defence but a striker was needed to convert the chances. Centre-forward Iain Dowie had a night to forget in the League Cup at Stockport County – he headed an own goal and then broke his ankle in a tie which saw the Hammers beaten 2–1. During December and January there was only one win and further misery came when Second Division Wrexham knocked the Hammers out of the FA Cup after winning 1–0 at Upton Park.
Now out of both cup competitions and eighteenth in the league, the fans were getting frustrated. Manager Harry Redknapp then signed two quality forwards in Paul Kitson and John Hartson, and there was an immediate effect as Tottenham were beaten 4–3, Kitson scored twice against Chelsea in a 3–2 win and two goals from Hartson at Coventry saw the Hammers win 3–1. The pair finally rescued West Ham from relegation when a hat-trick from Kitson and two goals from Hartson gave West Ham a 5–1 home victory against Sheffield Wednesday. The season ended with Slaven Bilic being sold to Everton for a decent fee of £4.5 million; waiting to replace him was young Rio Ferdinand – a star of the future.
Note:
Players in BOLD made their debuts for West Ham United
ARSENAL
Highbury
0 - 2
17 August 1996
Att: 38,056
Miklosko
Breacker
Rowland (Lazaridis)
Rieper
Bilic (Ferdinand)
Dicks
Lampard (Slater)
Dowie
Jones
Williamson
Hughes
Just 90 minutes into a season dripping with Eastern promise, the travelling Hammers were already rubbing their eyes in disbelief. What on earth was going on? Florin Răducioiu, the £2.4 million World Cup striker, was nursing a torn calf. Paulo Futre was named on the bench… then mysteriously withdrawn.
And so the burden of breaking down the meanest defence in the country fell on the shoulders of Steve Jones - the former Billericay and Bournemouth battler suddenly thrust into the Premier League spotlight. Under a blazing sun, Jonah ran himself ragged, but composure deserted him at the crucial moments. His big chance came inside four minutes, only for David Seaman to charge out and smother.
Arsenal, chaotic behind the scenes but ruthless on the pitch, made West Ham pay. On the half hour, it was the hungry Hartson who showed the way — sliding in ahead of Dicks to meet Dixon’s low cross, then gleefully smashing home the rebound after it cannoned off the post.
West Ham should have hit back almost immediately, but Rieper nodded a free header wide. Worse followed just before the break: as he rose with Hartson to meet another deep Dixon delivery, the Dane handled, and Bergkamp dispatched the penalty with icy calm.
The second half brought more frustration. Seaman’s sloppy clearance gifted Jones a sight of goal, but he curled wide of both the keeper and the post. Then came a trio of squandered openings - a hooked effort over the bar, a mis‑hit finish after beating the offside trap, and a dragged shot wide at the far post.
The Wizards of Oz - Slater and Lazaridis - were summoned from the bench to inject life into the attack, and late efforts from Dicks and Williamson finally forced Seaman into meaningful action. But by then, managerless Arsenal had already tucked away an opening‑day victory that felt all too avoidable.
COVENTRY CITY
Upton Park
1 - 1 (Rieper 74')
21 August 1996
Att: 21,580
Miklosko
Breacker (PAULO FUTRE)
Dicks
Rieper
Bilic
Lazaridis
Slater
Dowie
Jones (MARK BOWEN)
Williamson
Hughes
All the Highbury hullabaloo over Paulo Futre’s mysterious bench‑vanishing act evaporated the moment the fleet‑footed Portugeezer finally got on with the show. Harry Redknapp had already slapped down tabloid whispers that Futre had stormed off in a strop over the No.16 shirt. But four days later, there was no cloak‑and‑dagger subplot - West Ham’s new Numero 10 simply stepped off the bench and bewitched the East End.
Until his 53rd‑minute arrival, injury‑stricken West Ham had been utterly devoid of invention, huffing and puffing without purpose as they chased McAllister’s shock early opener. Coventry had stunned Upton Park inside 11 minutes: Ducros skipped past Lazaridis and hung up a cross that the soaring Scot buried with a thumping far‑post header.
That lit the fuse under Julian Dicks, who launched a one‑man crusade against Ogrizovic. Three times the Sky Blues keeper clawed away stinging 20‑yarders, fingertips stretched to their limit. Breacker and Slater squandered promising openings too, and the atmosphere tightened. West Ham needed a spark. They needed Futre.
And within seconds of his introduction, he delivered. A solo foxtrot from halfway left Upton Park roaring - only for Dowie’s touch to desert him at the decisive moment. Still, the mood had shifted. Only a fool would have backed Coventry to survive the storm now.
Sure enough, with 17 minutes left, City failed to clear Dicks’ wicked in‑swinging free‑kick. Rieper pounced, drilling a low 15‑yarder through a forest of legs and into Ogrizovic’s bottom corner.
The finale was frantic. Futre and Hughes both came agonisingly close to snatching victory, only for Ogrizovic to defy gravity and logic in equal measure. And as the whistle blew, one question echoed around the ground - louder than any conspiracy theory from Highbury: What on earth is Paulo Futre going to be like when he’s really fit?
SOUTHAMPTON
Upton Park
2 - 1 (Hughes 73', Dicks 81' [pen])
24 August 1996
Att: 21,227
Miklosko
Bowen
Dicks
Rieper (FLORIN RADUCIOIU)
Bilic
Williamson
Slater (Breacker)
Dowie
Lazaridis (Dumitrescu)
Futre
Hughes
Fabulous Futre turned on the style once more as West Ham finally chalked up a richly deserved first win of the season. The Portuguese maestro — joined by Romanian reinforcements Răducioiu and Dumitrescu - spent the final 20 minutes dancing Southampton dizzy, leaving the beleaguered Saints utterly tangoed by full‑time.
But, just as in midweek against Coventry, the Hammers made life needlessly difficult for themselves. Another sloppy early concession left them staring up a steep hill. This time it was Julian Dicks, miscontrolling a routine chest‑down, gifting Heaney the chance to race through and beat Ludo after just 17 minutes. Despite Futre’s constant probing and prompting, West Ham still lacked the imagination to trouble a subdued Le Tissier and his unadventurous teammates. And when Beasant produced a stunning double save from Lazaridis and Hughes on the half‑hour, frustration began to simmer.
Only when Rieper’s hamstring gave way did the game tilt. On came Răducioiu, and suddenly West Ham had an extra edge - a sharper angle, a quicker tempo. Twice early in the second half, Dowie somehow steered the Romanian’s pinpoint crosses wide, drawing groans from Upton Park’s growing culture club. But once Dumitrescu joined the party on the hour, it felt inevitable. Heaney’s opener was never going to be enough against a Hammers attack now brimming with invention.
The breakthrough arrived with 18 minutes left. Futre, chesting down with balletic ease, teed up Hughes, who guided an angled volley that looped over the helpless Beasant and into the far corner. And with the seconds ticking away, Dumitrescu - who had just gone close - was chopped down by Dodd in full flight. Up stepped Dicks, and with typical no‑nonsense venom, he drilled the low spot‑kick beyond Beasant.
There was still time for one final twist. Poor Benali, bedazzled and bamboozled by Futre all afternoon, finally snapped - and marched for crudely trying to send the fleet‑footed Portuguese star into the West Side faithful.
MIDDLESBROUGH
Riverside Stadium
1 - 4 (Hughes 57')
4 September 1996
Att: 30,061
Miklosko
Breacker
Dicks
Potts (Dowie)
Bilic
Bowen
Lazaridis (Dumitrescu)
Williamson
Raducioiu (Lampard)
Futre
Hughes
Middlesbrough finally ignited their Premiership campaign, claiming their first win of the season as Brian Deane and Allan Johnston punished a hesitant West Ham side at the Riverside.
The Hammers arrived with a safety‑first game plan and paid for it. Shaka Hislop’s misjudged punch from a Paul Ince cross gifted Deane the opener on 31 minutes, the striker nodding calmly into an unguarded net. Johnston doubled the lead soon after, seizing on another West Ham lapse. Rigobert Song’s loose header dropped invitingly, and the Scot lifted a clever lob over Hislop for his first Boro goal.
West Ham’s afternoon worsened when record signing Tomáš Repka marked his debut with a red card, dismissed for two bookable offences as frustration took hold. For Steve McClaren, the victory eased the pressure after four straight league defeats. For West Ham, it underlined a team short on belief. Both sides had scored just once all season, and the visitors’ timid first‑half approach only deepened their problems.
Boro dominated early possession. Deane teed up Robbie Mustoe for a half‑chance, while Ince – relishing the battle against his former club – skimmed the bar from 20 yards. The breakthrough felt inevitable, and Hislop’s error duly delivered it. Johnston’s second arrived before West Ham could regroup, and although Jermain Defoe was introduced to spark a response, Boro remained the more dangerous. Deane almost added a third before Repka’s desperate challenge intervened.
With Paolo Di Canio and Frédéric Kanouté absent, West Ham rarely troubled Mark Schwarzer. Reduced to ten men and chasing a game they had never truly entered, they slipped to another defeat and continued their search for a first league win of the season.
SUNDERLAND
Roker Park
0 - 0
8 September 1996
Att: 18,581
Miklosko
Breacker
Dicks
Rieper
Bilic
Bowen
Dumitrescu (Rowland)
Williamson
Raducioiu (Jones)
Futre (Ferdinand)
Hughes
It was dour, dismal and downright draining, but West Ham at least staggered away with their first away point of the season. “I like to see good games, but today it was ’orrible,” sighed Harry Redknapp - speaking for the terraces, the press box and the handful of masochists still glued to Sky Sports.
For the first time, Redknapp unleashed his much hyped attacking trio of Raducioiu, Dumitrescu and Futre. For the first time, too, it became painfully clear that reputations alone don’t win you a Roker Park scrap. None of the three showed the spark or steel needed for a North East ruck, and none survived to the final whistle as Harry dismantled his glamorous experiment piece by piece, tinkering again with the Chadwell Heath toolbox.
Going forward, the hesitant Hammers were all hesitation and no cohesion. Ord and Melville kept the so called “world class” trio firmly in their pockets, snuffing out any rhythm before it could form. Dumitrescu should have made more of the rare moments Futre carved out for him - first scooping wildly over after wriggling through a thicket of legs on 20 minutes, then heading his teammate’s inch perfect free kick over the bar midway through the second half.
Sunderland weren’t much more fluent, but they were certainly more threatening. Quinn twice tested Miklosko before the break - once denied by a sharp save, once by the keeper’s sliding tackle. And ten minutes into the second half, West Ham needed a heroic intervention from Williamson, who hooked Stewart’s goal bound effort off the line after Scott’s corner had been nodded on by both Ord and Quinn.
The Black Cats kept probing through the lively Gray, Ball and Scott, but the path to goal was just as clogged for them as it was for West Ham. With Bilic and Rieper standing firm, and neither side possessing the firepower or conviction to land the decisive blow, the match drifted to a goalless conclusion that suited no one but the statisticians.
WIMBLEDON
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15 January 1997
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19 February 1997
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