Thirty interesting things you may or may not know about West Ham

Like your trivia? Well here a load of interesting facts about the club you may or may not know…

• The new West Ham United manager writes his own lyrics and plays in a Croatian rock group called Rawbau.
• Slaven Bilic has a win percentage of 53.5 as a manager across more than 220 games at domestic and international levels.
• Slaven Bilic became only the second Croatian boss to manage in the Premier League following Velimir Zajec’s brief spell in charge of Portsmouth.
• Slaven Bilic is fluent in German, Italian and English and also has a degree in law.
• The Hammers boss reads American psychology books.
• As a manager, Slaven Bilic helped Croatia reach the quarter finals of UEFA Euro 2008.
• Slaven Bilic is one of four Croatians to have played for West Ham United. The other three are Igor Stimac, Davor Suker and Mladen Petric.
• Croatia lost just eight of the 65 international matches under Slaven Bilic’s management.
• Slaven Bilic owns two dogs – an akita and a sharpei.
• West Ham United are one of only eight clubs in existence never to have fallen below the second tier of English football, along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.
• West Ham United were the first ever winners of the Football League War Cup. The competition was in place of the FA Cup that was cancelled during the Second World War. The Hammers beat Blackburn Rovers in the final.
• Former striker Brian Dear holds the joint-record for the quickest time to score five goals in an English game. Dear scored all five in 20 minutes either side of half-time in a game against West Brom in 1965.
• West Ham United are the last team to have won the FA Cup from outside the top division. They beat Arsenal in the final in 1980.
• West Ham United are also the last side to win the FA Cup with an all-English side. They beat Fulham 2-0 in the 1975 final.
• The club was originally formed in 1895 as Thames Ironworks, but after disbanding in June 1900 they were almost immediately reformed as West Ham United in July 1900.
• The West Ham United team of 1965 won the ‘Team of the Year Award’ at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

Retired numbers
– Bobby Moore – (1958-1974) No.6
– Dylan Tombides – (2010 – 2014) No. 38

• Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking’s wins are notable in the amount of time between first and last “Hammer of the Year Award”. Bonds has sixteen years separating his wins whilst Brooking has twelve.
• The Hammers have scored 10 goals in a match on three occasions: Chelsea away 10-3 in a League South match in March 1940, Clapton Orient at home again 10-3 in the League South in January 1943 and finally Bury at home 10-0 in a League Cup tie in October 1983.
• A new badge was approved by supporters in July 2014 and will be introduced when the club move into the Olympic Stadium for the 2016–17 season. It removes the Boleyn Castle due to the club moving away, leaving just the crossed hammers, which the club says is inspired by the crest during the career of Bobby Moore. The word “London” will be introduced below to “establish the club firmly on the international stage”, and the more minimalist approach is to give a “strong statement that is instantly West Ham United”. The shape of the crest is that of the hull of the H.M.S. Warrior built by Thames Ironworks.
• Barcelona, by scoring in their 28th successive European match against BATE Borisov (Belarus) 4-0 in the 2011-12 Champions League, beat a 30-year-old record – set by West Ham United (from September 1964 to October 1980).
• The West Ham Supporters’ Club made history by taking their own programmes with them to European games in the ECWC campaign of 64-65. “We have always had so much trouble getting programmes aboard we thought we would have our own printed”, said secretary Syd Russell.
• Playing in the 1964 FA Cup Final side were seven players whose surname began with the letter “B” They were: Ken Brown, John Bond, Jack Burkett, Eddie Bovington, Peter Brabrook, Ronnie Boyce and Johnny Byrne. In fact around that era there were also Peter Bennett, Dave Bickles, Jimmy Bloomfield, Martin Britt and Dennis Burnett.
• There have been seven sets of brothers who have played first team football for West Ham.
• Many supporters will not be aware of our biggest victories as some were not recorded in the Football League. Our biggest win took place at Upton Park on the 6th April 1918. This was during the First World War and the Hammers played in the London Combination. On that day Crystal Palace were beaten 11-0. with centre forward Syd Puddefoot scoring 7 goals.
• 14 players have had a career at Upton Park for no more than 10 minutes.
• The 1st Hammer Of The Year was Andy Malcolm in 1958. Trevor Brooking won the award three times in a row (76/77 & 78). Brooking has won the award on most occasions (5 times) with Moore, Bonds and Dicks winning the award on four occasions.
• Our 1st ever Captain was a Scot – Bob Stevenson in 1895. In 1957, Noel Cantwell was the first captain not from the UK. In 2001, Paolo Di Canio was the first captain from outside of the British Isles and Lucas Neill was the first captain in 2007 who was born outside of Europe.
• Michail Antonio – While a semi-pro at Tooting & Mitcham, aged 17, Michail scored 33 goals in just one year.
• Nikica Jelavic – Makes considerable donations to his boyhood club – NK GOSK Gabela in Bosnia.
• Victor Moses – Lost his parents at the age of 11 in Nigeria and sought asylum in the UK, before Crystal Palace took an interest in him.

Got any other interesting facts about the club? Leave them in the comments section below.

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