I’m a fan of Tomas Soucek and delighted he has signed a new four year deal at the club.
Beyond anything else he is a gentleman as well as being a very fine footballer indeed on his day who sadly has taken far too much knocking from fans over the last season.
Yes, his form wasn’t as good as it had been when he joined us but during that first season he was quite outstanding alongside Declan Rice.
And he wasn’t alone in suffering a big slump in form last season after all was he – you don’t get outstanding performances from players when they suffer as many defeats as we did at league level.
You don’t become captain of your nation unless you are a very good footballer but at club level it doesn’t help if you are switched from a defensive to attacking midfielder and back again over the course of the Premier League season.
I’m hoping this campaign he will be given a free role in midfield alongside new out and out defensive midfielder Edson Alvaraz.
It should also be said that to see a Hammer signing a new four year deal at a time when there is so much alleged trouble behind the scenes is encouraging and offers some assurance that things are not as bad as we are led to believe.
It may well be that Daniel Kretinsky had something to do with Tomas’ decision to stay – whether he did or not I for one am very pleased indeed.
Amazing how we can see things so differently.
I agree that he seems like a gentleman. That’s where our agreement ends. We don’t need a gentleman in the engine room of our team – we need a warrior. We’re keeping a guy who slows us down, goes missing and is awful at passing, and losing a magician.
How this is ‘great news’ is beyond me.
last season he was played in a more defensive role, to let rice bomb forward, this season if hes allowed to venture forward, he might score a few more goals, as he did 2 seasons ago. he needs to improve his passing stats, but west ham play better on the break, we all want pretty football but we win on breakaways and set pieces, i think this style suits him.
if im honest, he was on my list to sell, replaced by, ironically, mc tominay, or iwobi.
Great news, even better that it seems the press rumours he wouldn’t sign have been proved wrong.
Good on his day, yes. Shame he hasn’t had one of those for 2 years
Sorry I can’t agree with you on Soucek being a very fine player.
At least the last two seasons he has been bang average.
Gets caught in possession,positional play is poor,can’t tackle.Half the time he looks lost in the game.
Be honest I used to groan every time I saw his name on the starting eleven.
As you can see Hugh I’m not a big fan.
Everyone to their own opinion though.
I’m in total agreement with you, Hugh.
I think that Soucek was asked to play a withdrawn midfield role at the time when Rice was allowed to leave his defensive role and become a more attacking central midfielder. Perhaps we’ll see Soucek score a few more goals this season if he’s able to link up with the attack more often.
Couldn’t agree more Hugh. I think Soucek has had over the top criticism last season. With the arrival of Alvaraz this should free up Soucek to get back to his attacking best.
What a dreadful decision to give him a contract extension. Terrible amorger 4 years looking at thus excuse for a midfielder.