It is 20 years since Samassi Abou left West Ham United yet no matter where he goes the greeting he receives from supporters is still the same “Some people would see me on the street and they would shout ‘Abooooouuuuuu’ and it’s so funny,” he tells The Athletic “The other day I was at a restaurant with my wife and these people came up to us and just randomly start shouting ‘Abooouuuuuuuu’ I was laughing so much because they almost kicked us out the restaurant.” When West Ham fans reflect on Abou’s three-year spell at the club they remember his determination to learn English his performance in the 6-0 win over Barnsley missing from close range against Manchester United and showing his fiery side against Ramon Vega Under Harry Redknapp he became a fan favourite The £250,000 signing from AS Cannes in 1997 scored six goals in 31 appearances for West Ham When the club tweeted a happy birthday message to Abou in 2016 the responses showed how much the east end took him to their hearts with replies along the lines of “Loved this fella” and “Legend” Wishing a very happy 43rd birthday to former Hammer Samassi Abou! 🎁🎂 #WHUFC pic.twitter.com/doPhI7eIk5 — West Ham United (@WestHam) April 4, 2016 The Ivory Coast-born forward’s integration was aided by an unlikely source — EastEnders “Nobody taught me English so I used to watch a lot of TV,” he says “EastEnders was my favourite show so I watched that a lot I used to talk about the show with my team-mates but they would look at me funny I think I was the only one who watched the show I also watched BBC News which helped me improve my English but EastEnders was the best Before that I had only played in France and to have the chance to play in the Premiership While the offer was too good to refuse there was one brief unnerving moment when West Ham’s new signing feared he had already lost the supporters “I thought they were booing me at first,” he says of that now famous chant “For me it was good because when I was at West Ham fans would shout ‘Aboooouuuuu’ and it felt great When I was at Cannes the fans would never sing my name “At the time it was a new experience for me because a lot of people were saying, ‘English football is the best in the world’. I’m the first Ivorian to play in the English Premier League So anytime I would go back to my country I felt like a celebrity because people would shout ‘Aboooouuuu you’re the first Ivorian to play in the Premier League.’” “I liked it because it was the first time a lot of people shouted my name in the stadium. It was a special feeling. To play against Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United was incredible.” It was the fulfilment of a dream to play against one of the game’s giants but it still be remembered for one of the more glaring misses in Premier League history With the match tied at 1-1 the ball is swung in from a corner on the right deceives Peter Schmeichel and drops for Abou who is no more than three yards out in the centre of an open goal He reacts quickly but succeeds only in lifting the ball over the bar “People in Ivory Coast still talk about my miss against United explains where he has been all these years Abou received a red card in a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in January 1998 for fouling the defender in an off-the-ball incident accusing Vega of feigning injury and saying that he “rolled around as if he had a broken leg — all he broke was a tie-up” “Redknapp left incensed by a Swiss roll” ran the headline in The Independent Now Abou wants to give his side of the story Well I’m a centre-forward and he’s a defender,” he says You cannot kick me all the time and expect me not to do anything “So we’re playing at Tottenham and the referee gave me a red card. I told the referee I didn’t do anything but he didn’t want to listen. Vega got me sent off in the game. It was the same thing at Arsenal I know you’re Martin Keown but I will still kick you back.’” Abou finally left West Ham in 2000 after holding out for a new three-year contract offer that never came His time was enough to earn cult-hero status and helped West Ham to finish fifth That season and those team-mates left him with some treasured memories and some more bizarre ones “I think our football was better than what fans see now,” he says I don’t understand why they didn’t keep that team together “At West Ham they used to say I was crazy but John Moncur is more crazy than me He used to take his clothes off and dance naked after games When I went back to Ivory Coast I told them I found someone that’s more crazy than me Sometimes he would talk to me before games He would visit sometimes and we would go out for lunch Before Marc Keller and Marc-Vivien Foe came to West Ham So Rio helping me out made things so much easier despite finishing his playing career in France a rumour took hold that he had returned to London “Somebody phoned and told me that they saw in the newspaper I’m a bus driver in London,” he says when asked about the strangest claim of what he’s been up to where he runs an academy — called the Red Academy — coaching kids between the ages of 11-17 He had been trying to set it up since 2010 but was finally granted a licence five months ago and now hopes to develop links with Europe “The academy is called Red because I’m a big Liverpool fan,” he adds “I love that club and the kids love the name We have a big problem in this country when it comes to developing young players so hopefully this academy can change that.” Abou plans on visiting London in April to spend time with his daughter. He wants to attend a home game at West Ham and David Moyes’s side face Chelsea on April 5, a day after Abou’s birthday, and Burnley 13 days later “Any time they are ready I will come back to support the team,” he says “I’ve been there three or four times since I left the club My daughter lives in London so if West Ham have a home game I always make sure I’m there The young fans don’t know who I am but the older supporters recognise me.” While West Ham fans are unlikely to spot Abou on a bus in Basildon he is sorry they have not heard much from him since leaving and wants them to know he still loves the club “I want to tell the West Ham fans: don’t let down your team because they need you right now,” he says “So many people say ‘Abooooouuuuuu’ and that’s thanks to you guys my time at the club was special and most importantly I love you guys.” (Photo: Neal Simpson/EMPICS via Getty Images) Roshane Thomas is a staff writer who covers West Ham United for The Athletic. Previously, he worked for the Sunday Times and talkSPORT. Follow Roshane on Twitter @RoshaneSport I wanted to share some of the month's highlights from my weekly email subscriber-only newsletter called The Good News with Brad Schmitt The newsletter is a wonderful collection of feel-good stories I find from the Nashville area you'll find a super-nice Metro Police officer a Nashville woman who reunited with her long-lost birth mom from Greece and a Nashville native NFL star who came back to hang with kids at his old high school.  You can even check out a fun video above about a Dickson woman who babysits her neighbor's pet pig and it's a nice break from the heavy stories we often see in our social media and online news feeds Metro Officer cuts elderly woman's grass in 93-degree heatHe got a call July 4 about a house alarm going off in the Green Hills area When Metro Police Officer Sekou Samassi arrived he discovered a 75-year-old widow sitting outside in a soaked shirt and there were no intruders or anything else wrong inside Samassi started to leave but stopped when he saw the lawnmower sitting on the grass sorry to bother you," he told Mary Catherine "but I'd really like to cut the rest of your yard for you Mary Catherine was so moved that she took a picture of him cutting the grass and sent a thank-you email to the police chief "I am writing to let you know about my encounter with a Metro police officer yesterday. It was delightful," she wrote "His visit and concern on an otherwise lonely and bleak holiday was the highlight of my week What a pleasant encounter with a Metro police officer this was. I thought you should know. He is a terrific ambassador for the police department." a five-year veteran on the police department "It kind of made me blush, actually," he said, laughing. "But I loved doing it. The pleasure was all mine." Hear directly from Samassi in this video The Tennessean posted Linda Carol Trotter knew she'd been adopted from Greece But Linda loved her adoptive parents so much she didn't think a lot about her bio parents and she never sought them out — until her adoptive parents died several years back she suddenly felt like an orphaned little girl. Even though she was married with an adult daughter Facebook and Greek professors, all documented in a giant binder Linda labeled "My Big Fat Greek Adoption." Linda found her family in Greece — and discovered her biological mom was still alive and very much wanting to meet her long-lost daughter They hugged and wept when the two reunited in June 2017 in a Greek airport Linda has been back to her home country dozens of times And Linda discovered there are thousands of Greek babies born in the 1950s and '60s who were flown to the United States for adoption under questionable circumstances She decided she would try to reunite other Greece-born Americans with their biological families Linda formed a nonprofit called The Eftychia Project — Eftychia is the name her bio mom gave her at birth — to help adoptees find their Greek families "I found that joy and that peace from getting closure getting that piece of my identity that was missing," Linda told me "I wanted everybody to feel that peace." Linda and members of her small nonprofit board have helped 15 people reunite with their Greek families Linda herself was there for two of those reunions crying right along with long-lost children and parents The Eftychia Project is hosting a weekend in Franklin for any and all U.S adoptees from Greece and their biological families Linda thinks at least 50 adoptees will be there in the first gathering of this kind in the world All to celebrate the feeling Linda had that first time she landed in Athens "Stepping on Greek soil and feeling an instant affinity for Greece and Greek people 5 worth the drive: The best restaurants about an hour away from Nashville Read this: Why this adoptive dad decided to go to law school NFL safety Ugo Amadi went back to his alma mater "My sons participated!" Franklin marketing consultant Juliana Stachurski "I watched them and over 100 local kids from all backgrounds work hard and play hard in the hot midday sun "They left camp star-struck that 'real NFL players' were coaching them through drills and they piled in the car exhausted and full of joy from the fun autographs and pictures with THE Ugo and his coaching staff of NFL and college football players." Be part of the Good News funTennessean subscribers, you can sign up for our weekly Good News with Brad Schmitt newsletter online at tennessean.com Someone in your neighborhood do something great Your kid's scout troop sell a billion cookies? I'll pack in so many of your feel-good stories that you'll smile your face off Site designed & built by Other Media, powered by Clubcast Former Hammer Samassi Abou is not a bus driver in Basildon A £250,000 signing by Harry Redknapp from French club Cannes in October 1997 A striker who had scored five goals in 37 appearances at his previous club and never received international recognition “Aboooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!” would become a familiar bellowed chant around the Boleyn Ground that season “He don’t speak the English too good,” the famously eloquent manager Harry Redknapp once remarked about his African striker This manifested itself most amusingly when Abou shocked viewers of Soccer AM by swearing live on air having been informed by a mischievous fellow Hammers player that it would be acceptable to say “f*** off” on the early morning TV show Abou scored a total of six goals in 26 appearances in his first season and Redknapp smelt a profit in the offing but a proposed £800,000 move to Bradford City which broke down when the player failed a medical He eventually moved French side AC Ajaccio in 2000 on a free transfer an Internet rumour took hold that he had returned to London Abou told the Athletic “Somebody phoned and told me that they saw in the newspaper I’m a bus driver in London where he runs a football academy called the Red Academy which coaching kids between the ages of 11-17 “The academy is called Red because I’m a big Liverpool fan,” he said Abou is planning on visiting London in April to spend time with his daughter and wants to attend a home game at the London Stadium when David Moyes’s side face Chelsea on April 5 The young fans don’t know who I am but the older supporters recognise me I want to tell the West Ham fans: don’t let down your team because they need you right now,” he says I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called Moore Than Just a Podcast A Blogger on West Ham Till I die a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB) Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh With contested rumours of Soccer AM's demise FourFourTwo revisits an age when it was the uncontested king of football television – and ask former host Helen Chamberlain why people loved it so much Soccer AM had become must-watch TV by the early noughties The show’s rise towards Saturday morning domination began when Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy joined forces on the sofa in 1996.  I’d just done a couple of things on Nickelodeon – I’d been feeding the sea lions at Chessington World of Adventures,” explains Chamberlain the first thing on his agenda was to get rid of me ‘She doesn’t do anything – she only links to the commercial breaks’ “But he was more used to being behind the camera – he did his first couple of shows and he was s**t and we laugh about it – he couldn’t say five words without tripping over the autocue I glossed over all of his mistakes and he suddenly realised I need this woman sitting next to me’ “Tim had brought in a producer called Andy Harris ‘We want every Saturday to be like cup final day; we want chaos we want to celebrate everything that’s good about football’.” Soccer AM became known for its frequent skits featuring crew members: among them Fenners as pint-swinging funny man Stan Hibbert; Sheephead presenting the topless weather outdoors in winter; Rocket as a trumpet-playing Sonia from EastEnders; and Tubes as… well Guests didn’t just include footballers but the era’s greatest indie bands and even film stars ask him if he wanted to come on and he’d say I’d love to’,” says Chamberlain “When we booked West Ham striker Samassi Abou we had Bez from the Happy Mondays on the show – but not Shaun Ryder ‘Don’t think you can just tone down ‘c**t’ and ‘f**k’ to ‘s**t’ and ‘piss’ – you can’t even say that “Abou didn’t have great English and I asked ‘Has anyone ever given you the wrong thing to say in an interview?’ Dennis Wise had told one of the Chelsea boys that the English word for offside was ‘combine harvester’ ‘He was definitely combine harvester’ On the show I asked Abou if anyone had tried to wind him up ‘One tells me that it’s OK to say ‘F**k off’ We had the Happy Mondays ready to come on – Tim said ‘This may be the show we come off air…’” The duo became celebrities – opportunities that soon came Chamberlain’s way included a bizarre promotional event in Hyde Park “I was sat in a motorised bath with oranges being driven around by Vic Reeves,” she says “People didn’t know me outside of football but I went to a game at Wembley and it took me an hour to walk round to pick my ticket up asked me to sign his head and I wrote ‘c**t’ on it didn’t tell him and off he went.” “We’d come off air for the summer ‘I’ve got something to tell you – I’m moving on’,” says Chamberlain “The thing I’d liken it to is having a boyfriend say ‘I’m breaking up with you’ and having to accept it “I hoped Sky would give it to Andy Goldstein But it wasn’t just losing Tim – it was Fenners Robbie Knox: a big chunk of the production team.” That noughties era is remembered fondly.  “I posted a picture of me and Tim a while ago ‘When Saturday mornings were great’,” says Chamberlain and we said that Soccer AM is now in that category like we used to be with Swap Shop or Tiswas – when you had no mortgage to worry about You just got up in your pants and sat in front of the telly.” Joe BrewinSocial Links NavigationJoe was the Deputy Editor at FourFourTwo until 2022 having risen through the FFT academy and been on the brand since 2013 in various capacities.  By weekend and frustrating midweek night he is a Leicester City fan and in 2020 co-wrote the autobiography of former Foxes winger Matt Piper – subsequently listed for both the Telegraph and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards It was on this day in 1998 that West Ham United achieved what remains the Club's record Premier League win Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest spent all his professional career in England following 12 years at Ipswich Town with a five-year stint in Claret and Blue he has frequently appeared as a broadcaster on Canadian TV analysing games for the Canada national team and MLS outfit Toronto FC the versatile defender went on to play 505 games for West Ham United between 1985-2002 he trained as a Black Cab driver before returning to the Hammers to coach in the Academy Potts' sons Dan and Freddie play for Luton Town and West Ham's U21s respectively Ian Pearce was part of Blackburn Rovers' Premier League title-winning squad in 1994/95 before moving to West Ham United in 1997 The centre-back totaled 155 appearances across six-and-a-half seasons before moving to Fulham in January 2004 he assisted former Blackburn teammate Chris Sutton at Lincoln City for a year scouted for Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion and has been West Bromwich Albion's Head of Recruitment since November 2018 Romford-born Academy of Football graduate Frank Lampard is the son of two-time FA Cup winner and West Ham United all-time great the younger Lampard won three Premier League titles the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League after departing the Hammers for Chelsea in 2001 The 2005 FWA Footballer of the Year also won 106 England caps scored 29 goals for his country and went to three FIFA World Cup finals After finishing his playing career with Manchester City and New York City FC Big Welshman John Hartson signed for Harry Redknapp's West Ham United from Arsenal in February 1997 and made an immediate impact at the Club combining with fellow new boy Paul Kitson in attack to help the Hammers away from Premier League relegation danger including 15 in the Premier League. He continued to score regularly at Wimbledon following a £7.5million transfer in January 1999 The Swansea-born striker overcome brain cancer in 2009 and has become a popular pundit on BT Sport who spent eight-and-a-half years with the Hammers between 1994-2003 Moncur is a director of a company which recruits staff for the oil and gas industry His son George came through the Academy of Football and now plays for EFL League Two side Leyton Orient Portuguese loanee Paulo Alves was enjoying a loan spell in east London from Sporting Lisbon when he replaced Eyal Berkovic with 13 minutes to play the Portugal international forward went on to play in France and his home country before embarking on a nomadic managerial career that has included stops in Portugal He is currently in charge at Portuguese second-tier club Moreirense Student work focuses on reinventing Swansea’s dock area with plenty of enthusiastic ideas but perhaps not enough critical appraisal The five students graduating from the fledgling architecture school at the University of Wales Trinity St David have is based in the university’s flagship IQ building on Swansea’s Prince of Wales Dock The third-year brief challenged the students to design a new neighbourhood for this vast brownfield site Swansea is in the process of reinventing its docks as a place for leisure Faced with the total wipeout of all of the historic dock structures students have approached the gravelly emptiness with enthusiasm There are plenty of engaging spatial ideas in the site plans and aerial renders that describe the proposals The Beaux-Arts inflected gardens proposed by Saihaan (Mikael) Islam-Ahmed are characterful and unexpected and Samassi Henderson-Crowther’s dense woodland verges on rewilding a satisfying foil to his epic pier-like student centre I would like to see a more critical appraisal of the dockside-development formula explored through a wider variety of drawings and inventive optimistic ideas about the activities and structures which would encourage diverse work and play on the post-industrial seafront Naomi Pocknell’s vibrant painted sequence of landscape proposals hint at the potential here Model of Beaux-Arts inflected gardens proposed by Saihaan (Mikael) Islam-Ahmed Head of school Paul Harries explains that the course is structured with reference to Wales’s unique Wellbeing of Future Generations Act which considers ‘the long-term impact of decisions .. to prevent persistent problems such as poverty While it’s heartening to see students designing at the scale of the city a site with existing communities and buildings to respond to would have offered more for the designers to get their teeth into in this regard practically the only structure on the site provides scant inspiration; the timeless tastes of the university’s patron the great architectural meddler Prince Charles are evident in the fussy arches and lumpen proportions of the façade As the profession finally begins to wake up to the climate emergency the choice of site feels like a missed opportunity for students to engage with reuse and retrofit learning from Lacaton Vassal in Dunkirk or PUP in Rotherhithe the students spend the rest of the year developing a brief and designing a cultural building for a site within their masterplan Although the galleries and archives are familiar territory the plans are thoughtfully considered and the elevations well composed celebrating Pembrokeshire-born painters Augustus and Gwen John with austere brick elevations giving way to a cool and calm section of top-lit moving away from the transformative dockside landmark Harries explains that the university's ‘mission is to produce confident graduates with strong technical knowledge’ and there is an impressive resolution to technical drawings included in the exhibition Naomi Pocknell’s Centre for Welsh Architecture is a celebration of timber construction presented in a series of precisely drawn detail sections exploring the potential for exposed finishes to give character and order to the interior of his archive building Tags The two students selected for the AJ Student Prize by the Liverpool… The student selected for the AJ Student Prize by the School of… The two students selected for the AJ Student Prize by Edinburgh School… The two students selected for the AJ Student Prize by the School… Do not sell or share my personal information News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media Harry Redknapp pulled no punches in his frank post-match analysis of QPR's 2-0 defeat at Everton which leaves the Super Hoops ten points from safety with just five games remaining "You say they're talented players," Redknapp moaned referring to his own team: "I don't know really." Clearly frustrated with the team's application he continued: "I hear that all the time that if they get relegated they want to go because they don't want to play in the Championship then they would not be in the Championship so that's a load of cobblers." no-nonsense attitude that has made Redknapp's interviews and press-conferences some of the funniest and most eagerly anticipated in English football we take a look at seven of his funniest moments: Redknapp had no problem admitting that he found West Ham's former Portuguese loanee Even I don't know whether to play him or f**k him." 'Arry found an effective remedy for a Kenwyne Jones injury: “He took a knock on his ankle but we played him some Bob Marley reggae music and he was fine.” When faced with a choice between discussing football formations or something a little saucier in the bedroom there is only ever one winner in 'Arry's household: "I sorted out the team formation last night lying in bed with the wife After Spurs concede a late equaliser to Leeds in the FA Cup Redknapp responded just a little sarcastically when questioned about the replay: Redknapp failed to acknowledge the irony in this classic quote about Samassi Abou the former Ivory Coast and West Ham striker: “Samassi Abou don’t speak the English too good.” When asked about West Ham's UEFA Cup hopes: "Where are we in relation to Europe we end with this wonderful anecdote from earlier on in Redknapp's managerial career: "Before I signed Luther Blissett for Bournemouth 'He'll score goals.' In his first game he scored four against Hull 'We haven't seen the best of him yet.' I said Did we miss out your favourite Harry Redknapp quote Do not sell or share my personal information