Former Hammer Paolo Di Canio is believed to have personally recommended Bournemouth’s Matt Ritchie to Slaven Bilic.
A source close to the club told us: “Paolo knows the player well having managed him at Swindon and recommended him strongly to the boss.”
Ritchie signed for Bournemouth at the beginning of 2013 on a three-and-a-half year deal for a reported £400,000 fee.
After leaving Swindon Ritchie said he was “heavy hearted” at moving on with Di Canio insisting the club sold him behind his back.
Less a month after the sale Paolo Di Canio had resigned as manager of League One side Swindon and cited the sale of Ritchie as one of the factors in his decision.
The same source also claimed Slaven became a big admirer of Callum Wilson when he scored a hat trick over West Ham in Bournemouth’s 4-3 win over the Hammers last August.
The Hammers admitted today they had made a bid for the pair following Cherries boss Eddie Howe’s angry outburst that the we had been out of order in doing so during his post match press conference after the defeat at Old Trafford last night (Tues).
I cannot believe we bid 20m for 2 championship players, firstly look at where Bournement finished, secondly who in the club actually believes Wilson is better worth this – what has he done to warrant such a fee. Absolutely furious with the suggestion we are spending or should I say wasting this amount of money on these players. And I thought I read we were looking for value for money, what a joke.
Bid 20m for two championship players,who are they then Johnham?.I must have missed that 😉
So Ritchie is good enough for Di Canio but not for you haha.Stay furious through the summer transfer market,its how we like you & are used to you John.Sack Tony Henry let’s get you in his job 🙂
Radai Lama – top man, love your attitude – I would say I get a little carried away at times lol lol. I would love to see us have a go at signing Sissoka at Newcastle, a better option any day..
I know John,im just pulling your leg mate.Not sure about Sissoko, I have a few Newcastle mates who would pay for his flight out of toon.They don’t rate him at all,they say he is a bit of a show pony much of the time & goes missing for matches on end.Only their opinion of course 😉
Who is there to take from the relegated clubs,i would say not many guys..
Villa-Jordan Ayew
Norwich-Redmond,Ollson
The Toon-Janmaat,Winaljdum,Sissoko,Perez,Townsend,Shelvey
Are any of these better than we have?
I ain’t sure myself.
I don’t take a blind bit of notice of any ‘news’ until it says ‘West Ham have signed ……..’ the rest is media hype bollox
I’m confident West Ham will make a decent and responsible signing , or two .
There is always speculation and media rubbish flying about during the summer , so I don’t read anything into it . We will know when , and only when a transfer is officially confirmed by the club . My main concern is how the players will react to playing in the OS with more seats ( almost double ) and less atmosphere .
Well though it could be true there could be less atmosphere we dont know that yet for sure to say that factually Kevin.As for playing in a 60k full stadium if a professional footballer can’t or doesn’t enjoy playing in front of that many fans then he shouldn’t be a pro.Our players have played in front of those type of crowds before,i see no reason their ar*eholes should twitch because of it 😉
Take your point , RL about professional players and all that . But the atmosphere at Upton Park got us through some pretty tough matches . The OS won’t be as intimidating . But the move is necessary if we are to become a bigger club . A few signings from big clubs with big stadiums would help no end . They would be more accustomed to the big time .
Onwards and upwards .
Dont get me wrong kev I agree,i don’t expect it to be the same,actually if I’m honest I know it won’t be the same.We will just have to do our best to try & make the atmosphere top quality.
We know we can’t replicate the Boleyn,it was a one off but we can try I guess 😉