Slaven Bilic remains cautiously hopeful that Diafra Sakho will return to training fit and ready for pre-season after “encouraging” reports on his progress.
Nobody is getting over excited as there have been so many false starts following surgery on his back injury.
But there is optimism that he will be ready for the start of the season under the care of the club’s new top medic Gary Lewin.
Sake was given a strict fitness regime to follow during the summer break and reports the club have received since he left have according to one insider been “encouraging.”
A source said: “As we understand it things are going well with him and that is encouraging.”
Andy Carroll too is reported as pain free but neither of those situations will affect the relentless hunt for one or two strikers.
We were told: “Obviously the situation we have found ourselves in demands that we bring in new front men.
But were both Diafra and Andy to come back and remain at full fitness, hopefully – with the new boys – we would have a great crop of strikers to choose from.”
Heard it all before. Not falling for it again this time either.
Is it groundhog day ? Hahaha who honestly cares about these 2 anymore. If you do you need your head testing.
Sounds a bit like a prelude to ” they are like New signings ” right after we underwhelm on actual new signings.
Its a joke now. Sakho needs to be gone, and id like to keep Carroll and see how he reacts to being someones backup. Never know, might be the kick up the backside he needs so he realises he cant just whip out a doctors note every other weekend.
Clearly preparing us for the inevitable failure to bring in new strikers of the quality we need, we will be told these two are raring to go blah blah blah, Deja vu all over again. Even if Sakho was fit he had only 4 months when he showed he could do a job and of course Carroll is Carroll even when gif it takes him a series of matches to actually get match fit and about 4 of those before it starts all over again. But in the eyes of the owners we are just accepting idiots to be fed the usual bull. Remember the Maiga crap from Sulli junior …
Believe it when I see it.
Giroud AC Sakho and Martinez would be fine. We need reality here. AC and Sakho won’t be sold because of their injury record. Lewin getting them fit and keeping them fit is crucial as they will definitely form part of our 4 man striker pool. I’d suggest that it’s the 4th berth we do not know about and that all depends on whether Sullivan is going to bring in one or two strikers. I know this is tempting fate but I just don’t see Giroud getting injured and that’s why I’d be happy with the above 4.
John you do have low expections hey.
Martinez is totally untested at this level so shouldn’t be relied on at all. To even think relying on Andy Carroll and sakho as 2 and 3 tells me you are either hopelessly optimistic or suffer severe memory loss!
The only thing we can hope from this pair are a few sub appearances to try and get them some kind of form to sell them on before they break down yet again.
We need TWO new quality strikers to push on.
I spoke about reality Chedylan. If AC and Saks went tomorrow I’d be very happy and then we would be looking at 3 or 4 new strikers. But no one is going to buy them are they? No one will pay AC £85K a week and he won’t leave us on a pay when play deal so frankly he will stay for the remaining 2 years of his deal. Sak is the same. He is a fine player but his record over the past 12/18 months is appalling. So who would take him? Surely we can agree that these 2 aren’t going nowhere?
Buying Giroud would be top business.
So it’s just a question of that 4th spot. I’m all for Nacho or Bats but come on the 4th berth isn’t normally of that quality even at Manure lol. I hope you are right to be fair. I hope we bring 2 top strikers. In the unlikely event of AC and Sak staying fit we would have some bloody fire power there.
Lots can still happy, perhaps I’m wrong perhaps AC or Sak will be sold on or just released I dunno.
Reality is we need 2 quality strikers not one because those chumps cannot be relied on at all. To even think otherwise is fantasy.
Yes no one is likely to take either off our hands because of the above but if they stumble upon any period of fitness and any desperate sides enquire get shot asap.
I am not cautiously optimistic about either of them but if Lewin does manage to get them both fit and staying fit, it would be amazing perhaps even a miracle 😀
I start every season over flowing with confidence that they’ll stay fit and we will finish top 4 and win a cup and then reality hits 😂
😀
I think it was a great move to get in Gary Lewin as our top physio.
On the basis of my professional background (medicine), I was really hoping that West Ham would allow Lewin a good chance of trying to rehab Andy and Diafra. Stijn was very good but not in the same class as Gary. All my working life, I have worked with a variety of physio’s and have seen them perform some truly miraculous feats. For Andy and Diafra, they must have a stronger muscular support for their spinal columns, something I’m sure that Lewin would be well aware o.
What a bonus it would be if Carroll and Sakho could find their former fitness and maintain it!
Very young players often get injury issues that they grow out of.e.g. gerrard. I am not a medic but my theory is that if they are still missing a lot of games at 22/23 that is not going to change. I am happy to keep AC as backup because he seems an amiable bloke who won’t upset anybody. Sakho will be trouble if he does get back to some sort of fitness but is not the ‘main man’. Would prefer to see him gone unless they are sure they have sorted him out. But of course the big question is are we gonna get at least one top class ‘main man’?
We need to bring in at least two new faces, AC & Sakho will not stay fit. Surely the club wont just hope these two will some how stay fit all season? I don’t even think of them being at the club any more
You have to be kidding me, they cannot seriously think that their previous record would indicate anything but cameo appearances; enough is enough, they need to be largely discounted and our policy based on currently having no 1st team strikers at the club. Two is an absolute minimum. As Einstein said doing the same thing time and time again and expecting a different outcome is the height of lunacy. I trust they have learnt from last year and will not make the same mistakes again, otherwise we will not be so lucky this time. You will need to spend big to get decent strikers, that is a given, I hope they understand that as well and we are prepared to do so, otherwise forget players stepping up we will have owners who show themselves incapable of doing so!
Fact of the matter is no decent striker seems to want to join West Ham for love or money.
We have serious problem so far trying to recruit just one, let alone four new strikers. AC and Sakho are more than half decent in my book and their combined fitness issue surely can’t get any worse than last season. Why get rid of them when you haven’t got quality replacements in place?
Carroll will be going nowhere.1) who will buy him 2) Im sure he is more than happy to see out his contract and £26 million in wages for that period.Who wouldnt.
What other choice do we have ; we need AC & Sakho . With nobody looking willing to move heaven and earth to sign for us they are probably going to be our only options .
Fully fit , you can’t deny they are good strikers . It’s just the uncertainty of it all that keeps getting in the way .
The only thing I am certain about is that I would definitely keep them both .