Say cheese! Or spaghetti! Or we’re soaking wet!
West Ham United’s hosts for the majority of their stay in Germany are amateur club TuS Bothel 1920, whose three-pitch facility is situated just a short bus ride from the team hotel in nearby Rotenburg.
“Our club is 100 years old in 2020, and you can be sure that when we celebrate our centenary this moment will be remembered as one of the biggest in our history!” one TuS Bothel official proudly told us.
On Tuesday evening, Bothel held their own training session straight after the Hammers had completed a two-hour session, so it made perfect sense for the two squads to come together for a historic joint team photo.
Our hosts suggested we should ‘Say cheese! Or spaghetti! Or whatever you say in England!’, resulting in plenty of smiles from both sets of players, along with a witty refrain of ‘Say we’re soaking wet!’ from James Collins.
Claret and Blue Bothel
West Ham United's visit to the village of Bothel is big news, with signs hanging from lampposts and erected all around welcoming the Hammers.
With 2,500 inhabitants, Bothel is a farming settlement dominated by Low Saxon architecture which, if the loud Moos and strong smell of livestock are anything to go by, is focused on cows!
The local football club TuS Bothel's training ground, which is being used by the Hammers, has also been adorned with specially-designed banners in honour of Slaven Bilic and his squad.
Home of the Soca Warriors
According to the official website of West Ham United’s team hotel in the town of Rotenburg, its guests will ‘experience days filled with joy and relaxation, a world full of culinary pleasures, enchanting scents and a fabulous castle’.
For former Hammer Shaka Hislop, it would conjure memories of Trinidad & Tobago’s appearance at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted by Germany.
The Soca Warriors qualified for their first finals eleven years ago by defeating Bahrain 2-1 in a play-off, before starting their Group B challenge by holding Sweden to a goalless draw in Dortmund – with Hislop being drafted in moments before kick-off after regular No1 Kelvin Jack was injured in the warm-up.
Hislop and his teammates returned to Rotenburg in the early hours of the morning as heroes, as they did following 2-0 defeats by England and Paraguay – leaving a lasting impression on the West Ham shot-stopper.
“It was a special, special time for Trinidad & Tobago,” he recalled fondly. “We had to leave Rotenburg to play our three group-stage matches, but every time we returned afterwards the whole town was out in the streets to welcome us at two o’clock in the morning.”
A fruity welcome
Staff at West Ham United’s team hotel have pulled out all the stops for the squad since their arrival on Monday, but nothing they will do throughout our two weeks in Rotenburg will outdo the fruity welcome awaiting them in the restaurant!
There, dotted around a large bowl of fruit were large, juicy apples emblazoned with the Hammers crest and the message #WelcomeHAMMERS.
It seemed such a shame to ruin the work – the design was etched onto the apple using a mini laser – that nobody was actually willing to taste any of the eye-catching produce.
Wet weather challenge
The relentless rain which has fallen on Rotenburg since West Ham United’s arrival has presented an extra challenge for kit manager James ‘Jamo’ Saban and his assistant Andy ‘Megabus’ Tyson.
The wet weather not only means every piece of kit needs to be thoroughly washed after each training session, but that each player and member of the backroom team requests extra jackets and jumpers to keep them (semi) dry.
On both Monday and Tuesday afternoons, the group got through more than 300 pieces of the smart new 2017/18 Umbro trainingwear and accessories – rain jackets, jumpers, shirts, shorts, socks, underpants, bibs, boots, trainers, flip flops and a woolly hat for manager Slaven Bilic – all of which needs to be washed and dried for the following day.
“When it rains, the boys always ask for rain jackets and jumpers to keep them as dry as possible, but the funny thing is that after they’ve done a lap or two of the warm-up, they normally take them straight off!” laughed Jamo.