ClaretandHugh’s ExWHUemployee Column
I thought it was a very poor performance and there are some things that we really need to eradicate if we are to continue with our European adventure.
The first thing that the players don’t seem to have adjusted to are the niggling tackles and off the ball tactics of European opposition. We have had two players sent off for straight reds in both of our away games and that is a result of reacting to provocation for the opposition. We really need to learn to ignore it and rise above it otherwise we will continue to get penalised.
It was also very clear yesterday (as it has been for a while) that we cannot have a central midfield of Mark Noble and Kevin Nolan. It doesn’t provide enough pace, movement or creativity.
I would rather Poyet played in there than one of them. He provides energy and is determined to prove his worth to Bilic to make himself selected for the premier league squad. Each time he has been on I felt we have played better.
We are also crying out for at least another winger and forward. In each of the games both Zarate and Maiga have struggled to make much impact and with Andy Carroll’s ongoing fitness issues, Valencia’s inconsistency and Sakho being prone to the odd injury I think it is too much of a risk to not strengthen in this area.
The Hernandez situation has not progressed any further because of Manchester United only having one forward, Rooney. They are in the market to strengthen in this area but until they do I cannot see anything happening as mentioned hre over recent days.
Whilst there is some interest still in Austin, with his club saying he will go, word I have is that we face very strong competition for his signature. There has been talk that we will look abroad now for a forward if there is no further progression with these two.
We may bring in Marko Livaja who has been on trial and Bilic knows well from the Croatian national teams. Other Croatians that we are looking at are Alen Halilovic who would be a loan signing from Barcelona and Milan Badelj who plays for Fiorentina and is a midfielder.
Dennis Praet who plays for Anderlect is another who has been brought to our attention but whether we will follow up on this interest I am not sure. He is a Belgium international and it has been well documented that we are after another in Kevin Mirralas. We have already had at least one bid rejected but it seems like we will continue to follow up this interest with another bid being prepared.
It seems today from reports in the French media that we have lost out on the signing of Diarra. Marseille have offered him a four year deal which is a lot longer than we were prepared to offer so you can understand the player’s decision.
This is still however very frustrating as he had trained with the club for a number of months whilst he was in contract limbo. Diarra was seen as a good short term alternative to signing Song, who is still suffering from his injury and no closer to being able to complete his move. The saga seems to have dragged on a while meaning we have looked at other options.
The club do want to sign a big name forward and have been working actively to secure a big name. If there is no further movement the club may be tempted to consider moves for Moussa Sow of Fenerbache, who Bilic admires from his time in Turkey and is an international team mate of Sakho and Kouyate or other lower down the list targets.
One thing that is for sure, is that the chairmen wish to sign as many quality players for the club as they realistically can. They are as keen for success as we all are and it is great to know this. The chairmen want to have more players coming through the academy as well and we have a number of players on trial from other clubs, the latest being Devante Cole, Andy Cole’s son, who is also a forward. We have already signed more than most clubs in this window and it is important to remember this.
A few players who could still leave are Maiga, Nolan, Jarvis and a few youngsters out on loan. I think Jarvis has looked a lot better in the Europa leagues than I expected but he is still isn’t performing to the standard that we all expected, time and time again he delivers poor crossing, which really surprises me as he was meant to be brilliant at this whilst at Wolves.
Photos have emerged on mine and others twitter feeds with images from the Olympic stadium in recent weeks. Today I had a picture of the retractable seats sent to me.
The band 2 season ticket holders have started snapping up their tickets now and the club are well on track to sell their target amount of season tickets which is a real indication of the bright future that the club has.
I go on holiday for a couple of weeks now but will try my best to update my twitter regularly, Claret and Hugh will continue to provide excellent daily Hammers updates too so you won’t miss any news as it happens! Come on you Irons